Board of Health: September 9, 2025

Transcript captured from MHTV’s Vimeo auto-captioning. No speaker labels; proper names and dollar figures occasionally misheard. Click any timecode to jump to that moment in the source video.

0:00 Yes.

0:03 Okay. Well then it’s 6 37 37 at, um, Mary Alley. And, um, this is the 9th of September, and this is the Board of Health meeting, um, open meeting. And, um, this is the first meeting in several times if we haven’t talked about the strike first. So it gives the, the relatively new chair the opportunity to talk about some things that have gone in the town and about the Board of Health in general. We, uh, tragedy occurred in the town, um, actually on this slightly at the wrong date,

0:49 but, um, it deserves, I think, some broad, meaningful introspection. And, um, the, can I, can you do the slides and Andrew? Yep. Next slide then. Okay.

1:07 My view of the role of the Board of Health is, um, this, this tragedy was at its root, an issue of mental health and substance use, and mental health and substance use are major parts of the Board of Health portfolio. And so, one way or the other, we really, uh, are committed to play as much of a role as possible in the town’s response. Some of, you know, I worked in the pediatric ICU for many years. Um, kids die in the pediatric ICU at a fair, unfortunately, at a fair, fairly regular basis.

1:54 Even the best ones these days have about a 3% mortality. So I was medical director for about 20 years, and given the volumes, I saw about 10,000 kids in our unit. 3% of those would be 300 people, 300 families that I was involved with their grieving grieving. And so, um, most people who go into ICU or, um, surgical A DHD types, not the most sensitive people. So we had to learn an awful lot how to help people grieve, because we saw it all the time. And I was lucky. I was lucky

2:41 to have some very, very amazing mentors

2:47 in grieving in particular. But my sense is that go, one of the things that I’ve learned is we have to allow families to grieve. People wanna be tough and not to show emotion and not to allow the grieving process to begin. And a good ICU doc had to give permission to families to verbalize how badly they feel, how angry they are, and who, who they want to assault as a result. I’ve never helped a pound grieve, but I figure if it works for ICU docs, let’s try it.

3:33 So I think what I think we ought to do as a board of health is do what we did in the ICU, share our humanity. I feel your pain, and that’s where we ought to start, I believe. Next slide, please. And this, I would like to have considered for, um, a public

4:02 declaration from the Board of Health. It is with great sadness that the Board of Health acknowledges the tragic events of August 19th, which led to the death of 13 year olds, Savannah Gacho. And if I’m mispronounced mispronouncing that, I’m sorry. We extend our deepest sympathies and condolences to savanna’s family and friends at this time of great pain and suffering for them. We also recognize the desire and many Marblehead residents for a meaningful response that will reduce the likelihood of similar events, similar tragedies from occurring here in the future.

4:50 So as a board, the one thing we can do is to commit, to strengthen our efforts to support mental health in the town and to promote awareness of the consequences of substance abuse in our community, especially for young people. And if we can have emotion, maybe we could, uh, approve that or to discuss it. So moved as a second. All right. Anything that we ought to change about the wording or anything? Um, if not, um, shall we approve this as the Board of health,

5:37 the board of health statement of sympathy to the family? Mm-hmm. Yep. In favor That it unanimous vote. Okay. So we, we have tried to reach out. What do we do about the town that wants to, to try to find mechanisms to prevent this from happening again?

6:05 Um, I, I’ve got a proposal, just a, a schematic proposal of the kind of things that I believe need to be done. Um, I think that three parts, uh, that we need to understand the problem at the deepest level possible. It can’t be just to you, this is what we’ve sort of always done here. Let’s talk about it and it’ll be different. Um, we, we need to understand the basics, and I think that should probably be done in a small group. Small group that, of people that are data and science driven. I, I’m certainly willing able to, to help with, with that.

6:51 I think it should done be done in a relatively rapid timeframe. And then we move to have a much broader audience that the rest, you know, other, other stakeholders that really have to explore the options that might be made available. If the study group finds a half a dozen towns like ours somewhere in the country that have done things like we might do, then we say, gee, let’s compare Boulder, Colorado, for example, with, um, San Jose, California too bigger. But to, to explore what’s known out there. The SAMHSA has had for decades, a,

7:40 a program to help communities become drug free. We should look at that group and we should try to understand what that group of of communities have has done. Um, and then the, the broad stakeholder group should then explore the options, make the recommendations, and then ultimately seek to get community endorsement. I mean, it’s, it’s pretty straightforward. And I think at least the Board of Health certainly should be able to, if not lead help as a, as a partner, very much in the study group planning. Any, the planning group would have multiple stakeholders. Stakeholders, and we could certainly help to try

8:29 to sell it in the community.

8:34 Next slide, please. Oh, as I was thinking about how the board should respond to August 19th, it, it, let me think a little bit more about the board in general and how we should try to serve this community in today’s crazy world. And it’s crazy. It’s not only crazy, it’s changing pretty rapidly at all levels and almost all ages. And what was robust positive service that the Board of Health and the Health Department and the waste department may have done five or 10 years ago, may, may be different.

9:20 And, and I, I believe that at least one of the differences is to emphasize the importance of information. This is no longer, and I don’t wanna say wanna say the word simply, simply, a, a world of preventing and managing disease processes with all of the misinformation, with all of the confusion out there, real, honest, accurate data, real honest, accurate information becomes pretty important. And we have, at least the three of us have a, an instinct, I think, to try to find, but the four of us, I didn’t mean it that way,

10:08 the four of the, the, the team, all of the team to, to try to be as open and honest as possible, most as accurate and balanced for the kind of information that the town will need to, to do, make the right decisions for their own health and for the health of the community. I mean, I, I love the term information curator. Um, I had a neighbor who made a very good living as an information curator for a financial firm. She flew around the world talking to people about where various markets were gonna go based on all of the, the things she read. Well, we probably won’t be flying around the world,

10:55 but we, I think, have a responsibility to deal with today’s information and misinformation. One of the breakthroughs I see that’s taking place, I think maybe this week or very soon as that for the first time, the, the, the, the Board of Health will have the opportunity, opportunity to have a regular column in both of our local newspaper. We’re, we’re amazingly fortunate to have a newspaper at all. We have two of them. Um, if you, if you wanna read a book, uh, uh, the a a guy who can tangentially canonize journalists in small towns

11:44 read Timothy Snyder’s book on Freedom. And he talks about how important it is to have journalists s speaking to local problems. It’s the only way people can deal honestly and share the commun share the community knowledge. So we are very fortunate. The two, the two newspapers have agreed to take articles that we work with them on around public health topics, public health in the broadest sense, they, the, the news. We will put different articles in both of the papers. It won’t be that if you read, if you read the,

12:30 the current on Wednesday, you don’t want to pick up the weekly news on Friday. We will try to maintain diff differences. In my ideal world, the readers of the, uh, newspapers will be writing into the newspapers or into addresses that we have in the, on the Board of Health, asking questions. Gee, could you, could you clarify vaccines for us? Could, could you talk about that? What’s it like to run a 5K, $5,000 a year family money on the line?

13:08 Um, and so the two newspapers will cover these topics and, and allow us to, to help, uh, have the, the community understand the changing dynamics of public health in the environ. And, um, I feel, uh, certainly I feel very strongly that because we’re going to be talking about public health science, public health science requires, um, a documentation of literature. You have to say, gee, I believe this because I read it. I saw the experiments that this group of people did, this group of people did that.

13:54 And this is what I am coordinating the information, what I believe. And I think the reader should know that I have read both this and that, and made some attempt to bring it together. But if they really wanted to, they know they could go and say, gee, at least they’re reading important, reasonable inf information. So there is a logic to the approach, but the neither newspaper wants to put that in the paper waste space and time. So we’re gonna have a space on the Board of Health website, whether, whatever matures, so that pe when people read an article about vaccines,

14:41 they will look at the latest, uh, number that, uh, maybe they’re about the measles, that the, these problems that have occurred this year and where they are these days, that that will be the kind of thing that the Board of Health will have. The Board of Health will hopefully get questions to drive the articles, but it will also, um, be the repository of the articles and resources that, that were used to make the articles legitimate. Okay. So this is, this is one new information step out there that we didn’t have before. Um, the second one is calm, uh,

15:30 creating a Healthier Marblehead. Okay. Um, we’ve talked about that here fairly regularly. On September 29th, 8,000 postcards will be mailed, presumably two? No, it has to be more than that. Yeah. 16,000 postcards ha uh, mailed the 8,000 residents. Yep. 16,000 people say. So 16,000 postcards will be mailed on Monday, September 29th to every person, um, in Marblehead, who’s over 18 years of age, that postcard will invite the, the receiver to participate in a health assessment survey.

16:17 That, and the postcard will tell the, the recipient how to get access to that survey. Okay. We’ve had a group of six people that met for six or seven hours total, and we now have the, the penultimate, uh, form of that. There’ll be 42 questions, um, covering the, the sort of eight levels of, of, of wellness that I I is in the, in the literature. And w whereas most of, you know, probably know UMass Boston is our partner in this, and they will be able to take the data and be able to cross reference, uh, to say, gee, uh,

17:06 people over 65 who, um, have worked in such and such an area or have this, this medical challenge feel this way or believe this. So we’ll be able to get multi re mul multi-level analyses down to, um, uh, uh, fairly high detail. It’s been fascinating, and I’ve participated in the development of the, that survey and it’s really been amazing. So, we’ll, we’ll take the survey, hopefully for three weeks in October. Um, then the new Mass Boston will process the, the information they’ll give us the, the, the, the signals

17:54 that they think the community that’s answering Will will give us. And then by the, uh, by the, uh, beginning of the new year, we, we will begin to make, put, establish some focus groups to, to drill down more deeply into questions of how, how we make, how we solve the problem. I mean, we have to wait to see what the survey shows, but if we, I think, given what we just talked about, it would be very surprised, surprising to all of us if one of those focus groups wouldn’t be about substance use in the town or what it’s like to raise a child. And Marble had in 2026. So that’s, so once we have the survey,

18:39 if we get a robust response with the assessment, we get four to six say, um, survey groups. We’ll, we, the contracts are four, but we may figure out how to get more information. Uh, in any event, we, we will have two levels of new information about ourselves as marble leaders. And then during the pho, during, once we, uh, put all that together into a formal report, early mid-quarter, mid, mid first, second quarter in 2026, we will have some sort of an open meeting forum to explain the results to people. Okay. So that’s a, the second step, um, to, um,

19:25 our, our raising information as being part of the, the, the public health toolbox. Okay. And the third one was put in place, uh, during the, the pandemic, but is maturing now. It’s gone from being a, a subdivision of the Board of Health. Now it’s going to Marblehead Mental Health Task Force. Marblehead Cares is now really gonna serve as a bridge between the, the, uh, the Board of Health and primarily the, the Marblehead, uh, counseling center. The, the Counseling Center gives the Marblehead Mental Health Task force an opportunity to, to really reach out, deal much more with the provider community,

20:12 and to begin to provide service where service might be needed. So, um, Dr. Labone, uh, the, the chair of, of that committee really has some, some really superb ideas on how as, as that group gets back going, they’ll be able to, to the extent that the schools ask for help, will be able to provide, they’ll be able to provide that kind of help to the extent that families need a certain kind of sport. The Marblehead Mental Health Task force with the Counseling Center really will be able to help us. Okay. And then, so this is my map. This is the way I see the, the, the new architecture of

20:58 how the, the Board of Health and Public Health in Marblehead is going to be information based. Um, we, we, oh, the little, the, the little one on the left hand side, we have two little best practice grants where, um, professor Abeta and I from Professor Ata is from, um, the, the, uh, Salem State. Um, we’ve been going to providers communities in the, in the town, and we’re, we’re trying to develop a landscape to understand, um, the issues of child and maternal health in, in the community. So that’s more information that we’re trying to create. We we’re gonna, we’re gonna have more

21:45 and more discussion in our meetings. We’ve got the newspaper columns, we’ve got com and Marblehead, head Marblehead, uh, um, mental health task force. So we are, I think, evolving, um, to the, to meet the need that’s out there now, to, to try to get, to get the community to at least understand what’s going on in, in, in the health space in, in the community.

22:20 So thank you for your patience. Um, it’s probably more sensible unless there are clarification seat that are needed to, to, to go through the menu and the, the, the agenda and then come back toward for comments and questions, if that’s okay. The, the next item on the agenda is to ask Andrew to try to get the three of us, um, email addresses in the new, um, uh, website that, what is it? At marblehead ma.gov. And I’ve noticed that Select board has it, school committee has it. And so I think it would be good if we’re able to do that too.

23:06 And, um, we, we talked in, in, uh, he can, he can help make that up. Um, and then finally from my last item is to, uh, open the floor to questions about, uh, the charter committee. I’ve sat on the charter committee, um, for the, the entirety of the committee. And it gets been a fantastic learning process for me. For those of you who, who, who aren’t familiar with it. There, 11 of us started, there are not nine of us. Uh, one of us jumped to select board and can’t be on the committee and one, uh, and left. But there are nine people who meet every other week.

23:52 And what we’re trying to do is provide an organized structure to how Marblehead works. This is not a change vehicle. What it is, is a clarification and an order, an orderly structure that, that defines how Marblehead does business on a day-to-day and long-term basis. Um, there is a town charter committee website, well, a, a town charter committee file on the, on the Marblehead website. And on there, if you’re at all interested, there is a draft B of the charter.

24:41 We spent almost a year, well, I guess it was a year developing draft a by, by that year, we spent, we interviewed somewhere in the order of 60 or so different departments, committees, or groups in the town that are all part of the normal day-to-day function of, of, of Marblehead. And I know, you know, I’m, I’m relatively new, but I think even the people who live here realize it’s a pretty unique place. And so this, this is gonna be a fantastic document to allow us to see how things work. Where does the finance committee fit?

25:28 What, what, what authority does the select board really have? What authority does the Board of Health have those sorts of things. Um, and, and it, it, it’s, we have have on the committee, um, a person who, who, who does this kind of cataloging for a living and ha he has, has done an Sean Casey, who’s just done absolutely amazing, uh, amazing things. So I would, uh, anyone who’s interested at all in a clear, well documented, and we easy to read, um, uh, description of how the town works. Um, draft B on the town charter committee, uh, website.

26:16 Okay. Are there any, the, the, the one question, uh, whether the, the questions, uh, that there are eight, I think it’s eight pages or eight or nine pages, um, about the board of health. And so, so this draft B has between three and maybe eight or nine pages for each major committee in the town. And it’s, it’s all, it’s all done logically. What’s the composition of the committee? What are the powers, duties and responsibilities? Um, what are the challenges? What is, what are, what are the appointing powers? What’s the policy rule It goes through and it lists all of these things. So the, the, we’re we meet on Thursday, again, we’re trying

27:05 to get through the, the B draft so that the, the C draft will probably be semi close to being, uh, if not final, it’ll be much more polished, certainly than a was. And, and so it, it, it, it is really a worthwhile half an hour, 20 minutes to go on the website. Um, and are there, are, are there questions that we should be asking since I’m the board of Health representative to it? Should the Board of Health be reporting to the, the charter committee about the draft B document? I’m gonna take another look at it, but I’m, I’m pr I read it once and I was pretty sure that everything

27:51 that I was concerned about was totally fine. Okay. So did you feel the same way? I gotta Read it again. All, yeah. I just wanna double check. So now I got an acknowledgement thing in email, so I wanna make sure that, When will this be finalized? Well, I mean, thera Beam draft as soon as possible. Well, ‘cause it says five members, so if it’s we’re Oh, oh, okay. It won’t go into, it won’t go into effect yet. It will be a whole, unfortunately. Okay. What has to happen? It’ll, it’ll have to be approved by the town meeting. Mm-hmm. And then just like we were supposed to go to five, it goes to the legislature, and then it comes back, and then it has to be approved one more time. So it, the, the best, the best timeframe for us

28:40 for, for the charter committee will be, um, probably in 20, early 20, 25th. April 27th. Yeah. Okay. So good. So I can report that the Board of Health has read it. Mm-hmm. Um, we Haven’t fully read It yet, but no major, no major, um, glare points. But, um, I, I, I brought an executive summary for a couple of, if you’d like to see it, it’s really here. I, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll find it somewhere in my pile here. Do you Have until Monday, October 6th for the email to give our feedback? Okay. I, yeah. Yeah. Well Then I, I’ll I’ll, I I can say that we’re okay. I think we have till sure. We’ll have till

29:26 sixth to change it. And, um, it’s really been one of the, the most pleasant committees I’ve ever worked on. Um, a magnificent chair, and the, the, the, it’s just collegial that there’s, it, it’s, it’s just been great fun. Um, Andrew, could you send some of those? I think they’re all, are they all, um, check the bottom to make sure I move an article? Uh, yeah. Yeah. Here’s the, I, okay. So I think Before we go too far, can I jump in on the tragedy? Me, I, I, I think the chair is finished talking.

30:13 Thank you for your patience. And, um, I, I, uh,

30:24 offered the chair to, uh, my colleague who, uh, has a perspective on the long term marblehead, not a new marble head to, to provide for, for, uh, our discussion about the tragedy. Okay. So I got a couple things, but first I did write a statement on kind of my thoughts on everything. So just read that. It said, um, Marvel had a drinking town with a sailing problem. Many of us, including me, have found this phrase, humorous. We even sell t-shirts and stickers depicting it. Over the past decade or so, though, I stopped finding the phrase amusing. In fact, I see it as us celebrating a part of our town that has caused lasting damage to many and sends the wrong message to our youths.

31:11 To be clear, I lived this phrase for much of my young adult life, including while I was in marble at high school. I look back though and realize how lucky I was to make it through that phase in my life, unharmed, drinking to excess with everyone else, driving both a car and a boat, while under the influence, again, with everyone else. I did it all with everyone else. When tragedy hits, it’s often followed with the stigma where the person responsible was being reckless and making poor decisions. And I don’t think that’s wrong. However, in a town with a drinking culture like ours, the stigma is really just luck. I was lucky to not be a victim of tragedy. I certainly had plenty of opportunities to be a victim.

31:57 I’d say the same for virtually every single person I know in town. I also know some that weren’t lucky. Um, none of the ones I know were bad people or did anything that me and my friends or many others in town didn’t do. They just weren’t lucky that day. That’s the difference between them and the rest of us. In my late thirties, I stopped feeling the drinking culture we have within the past couple of years. It wouldn’t be odd for me to go a month or two without a single drink. Did I have less fun as I weed off? No. If anything, I was way more productive. I had toyed with the idea for a while of just stopping altogether. Why? My kids, I have a 3-year-old and a nine month old.

32:45 I thought maybe if they never saw their dad drink ever while still having a good time, maybe they wouldn’t fall into the same culture that I did. I decided my friend’s wedding this past Memorial Day weekend was going to be, uh, the last day. Friends of mine slowly found out. And then you’d hear the little comments. Hey, Tom, when you come by this weekend, are you gonna be lame? By lame? What they meant was, are you not going to drink? Now, granted, these are my friends just giving me a hard time, but my kids were right there when they said it. It just made me really think, what message are we sending our kids? If you don’t drink, then you’re lame. I stopped because I knew my audience, my daughter, and my son. I think we all need to take a step back

33:31 and realize that we all have an audience actively watching us, and it’s our youth. They see us have a few drinks when we’re out to dinner, then drive everyone home. They know when we’ve been out drinking and came home in our own car. They see the drinking on the boats and at yacht clubs. They see it when we’re with our friends at parties, they’re watching and forming opinions on what’s acceptable and what’s not when it comes to drinking activities. I have a friend with kids older than mine that made an interesting point. The last time a kid died drinking and Dr and driving in town, he was celebrated as a great youth sports athlete, and not a single person said he died. Drinking and driving moments of silence, banners, golf tournaments, youth basketball tournaments,

34:18 bumper stickers, opening day speeches. Not a single time was I there, and anyone said, this is because of drinking and driving in my eyes. The community handled the situation all wrong. It was a cautionary tale that was swept under the rug end quote. I think he’s right. And to that, I’d ask why, why are we whitewashing the truth of the story of our youth? It’s not helping them make better decisions, and telling the truth doesn’t make the victim a bad person or show they accomplished less. Again, they were unlucky. I’ve often heard, even from school administration, that we have to be worried about triggering the kids. I can’t stand the word triggered. Is this why we don’t tell the truth?

35:04 Because I can tell you as a student who walked the MHS falls as a senior with Steve’s son and Cynthia’s husband, um, when one of these tragedies took place, nothing is more triggering than when it happens. And I don’t think hiding reality from students helps. In fact, I think it only acts as an enabler for it to happen. Again, I commend the school committee and Jen Schaffner stepping up to try and address the drinking problem we have with our youth in town. I love that the chair of my board, who is still new to town and learning our ways, hasn’t hesitated to want to be a part of the solution. And I agree wholeheartedly with his letter to the editor. I also want to explore all options we can to help as elected town leadership.

35:49 I’ve received fantastic suggestions from residents in town for good governance to address these concerns. And I hope those suggestions keep coming. Right now, there’s a lot of fear, anger, and questions from the community and town leadership should step up. And some are, they can create helpful strategy and policy, but they can’t solve the problem. If we don’t take a look at ourselves in the culture we’ve created and celebrated and made some serious changes in our own lives, then we’ll just keep facing periodic tragedies, thoughts and prayers. Put the sticker on your car. Rinse and repeat. I’m not suggesting any prohibition like changes. All I’m saying is that we understand that we’re being watched and ask ourselves how we’d like to be perceived.

36:34 We have a full-time audience in our youth, and we want them to make responsible decisions as they get older. That starts with all of us leading by example. And as I mentioned, great suggestions have come in. I think most of us were on the email from Bronwyn Roberts, correct? Andrew? Yeah. Uh, I don’t know if I was Oh, okay. Um, she’s actually my childhood neighbor. She, she, uh, her family still lives in town. Um, she’s a very accomplished lawyer in Boston. She comes to town all the time. And she just marked all these like, um, all the towns and their actual cited their laws, um, revolving, uh, curfews for people under 18. It’s definitely something to look at. Um, it is illegal in Massachusetts for anyone under 18

37:21 to drive, um, a car, uh, after 12:30 PM from my understanding. So, um, why there shouldn’t be a curfew along with that. Maybe even at that same time. You know, I think you, you give every everywhere in Marble Lake closes at 1145, so it’s, you don’t need, there’s no need to be out that late if you’re under 18, really. But, so that’s something to think about. And then we have Cynthia here who made these, um, fantastic, uh, fly. I guess it’s a flyer. And then one is Instagram, which I’m not cool enough to have. Um, so I don’t know how that works. Do you wanna talk about what you made? Yes. So I’m Cynthia. I’m also new to Marblehead, but my husband, um, grew up here and he was born here.

38:09 I’m a mom of three. And the night of the tragedy, honestly, I could not sleep. I, it was devastating and I felt like I needed to do something. So I started researching and I discovered two laws. I think they’re kind of new. They came out in 2018 because Massachusetts did not have that before. Um, one of ‘em is the, uh, Samaritan Law, which basically is for, um, kids under age 21 if they were, uh, doing drugs or someone they know they’re doing drugs, they can call 9 1 1 1 and um, they won’t go to jail. They won’t be charged because they’re basically saving a life. And there is another one that is called medical amnesty, Ty Law.

38:54 And it’s the same thing but for alcohol. So, um, and the third thing is that, uh, I discovered is I went to the police station over the weekend. I just wanted to understand the process of reporting and how that happens. Because I know a lot of people know these things are happening in town, but they’re nervous reporting because they’re either their neighbors or, uh, people they know they don’t want any conflict. And these people are nice people. So, um, so the police said people can, if they see, if they know of someone who’s unsafe or they think someone is unsafe and a party, or there is alcohol party happening, people can report that anonymously. So I took this on me and, um, other moms

39:40 and we’ve been trying to distribute these flyers and, uh, some other moms are doing this on Instagram ‘cause I don’t like either. Um, so yeah. And I think it would be really great if, uh, you guys can help us get these everywhere. Like one idea was to see how we can get them into every household, because most people don’t know about these laws. And I think this just to start with, if kids can understand that, you know, my friend is under influence, I’m gonna, I can do something and I won’t be in trouble. It could save a life. Yeah. I can definitely reach out to the school committee to try to get, see what they can push on their email blasts, whatever they do. Um, and we’ll have, our website is still under construction,

40:27 kind of, but it’s something I think we could add there. Um, did you say you needed permission to put it somewhere from us at The beach? At the beach? They needed a motion from us And, um, I think I was looking it up and, uh, online and that’s what it says from Board of Health. But you mentioned the parking rec and I have not had time to check with them. Okay. Um, the, the other thing that, um, if it’s okay for me to bring up, I know there are many groups being formed in town, uh, trying to solve this issue. And I think it would be really great if we can find a way to consolidate all of ‘em so we can all work together under one umbrella and then report to you and we just work with you directly. Yeah. Um, we, if we don’t know the groups, we can’t reach out to them, so that’d be the problem. We

41:14 Have the information. Yeah, I can all The information. Yeah. Um, and so when you were looking into hanging, I believe it was this one, right? Yes. In the bathrooms? Yeah. I, so, uh, I know somebody else, one of the moms, she was planning to distribute them outside of Marblehead High School. Mm-hmm. Not in property. Um, I think we were waiting on someone to approve this. I’m not 100% sure about that. But we also emailed the superintendent and we gave him the social media one and we requested that he would put it on the boards, uh, or the screens that they have at the Marblehead High School. Okay. So that kids can see it. And he said he’s reviewing it, but we have not heard back yet. Okay. I can follow up with the screen.

42:00 Yes. That would be amazing. Mm-hmm. Do you need any permission from us though, that you know of? Just for the beach, I guess, but I don’t know if there is nothing as far Like, I mean, I think it might be the park and rec. Yeah. It would probably be Park and Rec in, um, select board. And Select board. Yeah. Yeah. Is that for your green boards that you have? No, it’s not more notes. It’s not for the green boards. Those are purely for, um, the wires. Yeah. For over there. Yeah. Whether you, um, but there are obviously the idea is to put ‘em in the bathrooms. Yes. I mean, the other place, you know, the other town bathroom is down by the town pier. Yes. Those are. So you’re trying to rec at Park and Rec, you know, crocker Park. Right. I would think if you’re trying to put this across down, those are the locations

42:47 that you’d wanna try to consider. So yeah, I would definitely talk to Park and Rec and have them approve it for all their locations and talk to the site board as Well. And is there any way that we can mail them, uh, directly to households? Is there any room on the flyer? For the CAM survey? Yeah. No. To also put, yeah. Um, yeah, that, I don’t know. ‘cause that comes with a cost. Yeah. So I would gonna have to see if I can do it myself. Yeah. But you know, I would think you could. Right. You could, when they get elected, they, you know, I think it’s 1500. It’s what, it’s About $1,500 I think, unless you To do it through the newspaper. Lots of times they put those flyers in there. I think that’s a good idea. Think might be more Reasonable. You gotta lead blander and, uh, probably it.

43:33 And, and that looks like Sophie. Yeah. So you got two newspaper people on on right now? Um, I can pass Em. Hi. Yeah. Yeah. Um, if you wanna send it to me, the, a copy of a flyer, I can get it in the paper for tomorrow as well. Oh, I don’t have your info. I can, um, I know board of health members have it if they want. Um, they have my pen permission to share it with you and everything. Okay. Yep. I can do that. Um, yeah, I’ve Seen it. I’ve seen it on social, so I have it. Thank you. Okay. Um,

44:12 yeah, what’s this? Anyone? I guess maybe, you know, if anyone’s watching or if anyone in the paper wants to write it, like, Cynthia reached out to me, Bronwyn reached out to us. It came to the table. I think the best ideas are all, like, generally really good ideas come from people in the community. So if you have ‘em, send them. ‘cause it’s, ‘cause I’m listening, so just keep keep bringing them. Can I ask, um, mm-hmm. One more question. So in regards to the newspapers, uh, you suggested that we have two newspapers and it’s great. I’m wondering if we can dedicate one newspaper, um, just for use. Uh, well, we don’t have any control. The, the newspapers are independent. Oh, okay. Um, that would be a Yeah. Really good thing. Yeah. So, um,

45:02 I’ll say if, if it’s appropriate, sorry. Um, that the Marblehead High School has its own newspaper, does happen to run in the current also, but it’s called the Marblehead headlight. So you could reach out to students there. Okay.

45:28 Well, I think the momentum is building. Mm-hmm. And we have to do everything, everything we possibly can in the moment. Um, it takes a long time to change a historical pattern.

45:53 I worked in Botswana very early in the HIV pandemic and the changes that had to occur there were monumental. And it took patience, it took consistency, and in the end it took a long many, but it, the people were committed. But that’s one at the time was second highest incidents of HIV in the world. People were dying on a, on a regular basis, and so they took it very seriously. But it was only when the community itself began to realize we have to change and what you’re doing, what we’re trying to encourage

46:42 as a board, we’ll talk about it as often as there’s things to talk about and, um, help to help. We will use the articles that we have in the, uh, in the newspapers to, to try to, uh, let people know the reality of the world out there now. And, uh, I I think it’s, it’s, uh, superb. Thank you very much. Thank you. Do. Mm-hmm. Um, I do you have, uh, a report from your regular assignments? Um, well, well,

47:23 so it, see, you know, we’re still on strike it kind of great everything. I, I mean, Andrew probably knows more everything I read, it’s not really moving much. No, it’s not moving at all at This point. Yeah. Um, seems to be going pretty well at the transfer station. Yeah. Kinda ebbs and flows. Yeah. Um, so the way that the strike is working is that obviously they have temporary employees, Republican, Republican temporary employees that come in to fulfill the duties of the Teamsters. Um, so, you know, we could have a, we had a great crew that was working at the beginning of the strike that lasted for a while. Um, they actually ended up moving on to a different location, so we have a change of driver. Um, and so we had small changes. We’ll see small changes in, in delivery of services.

48:09 Um, and then with the adding in of the recycling, we also see some challenges with that. So, um, for the trash, the trash comes to the transfer station. Um, so that’s just down the street and they can get rid of that material really quickly and then go back out to work for the recycling. They have to head outta town and essentially back to, um, Danvers to get rid of that material. So it takes a much longer time. So the routes are taking those people, um, a longer time as well as if there’s a, a change of, uh, players. They do not know the area. And what happens in Marblehead is that very often that you’re driving down these streets, they’re very small. You think these roads are driveless and you’re like, oh, that’s not for me. And there’s a whole section of town down there, or they’re unable to finish.

48:54 And so it cascades to the next day and just ca cascades to the week. Um, so this past week, um, we had some difficulties picking up. Now we are one day delayed because of the holidays, so that bumps trash from recycling collection into Saturday. Um, so that gives us no opportunity to pick up, you know, if we miss some stuff, we don’t have an extra day. Um, so we are able to work with Republic this week and try to get most of that cleaned up today. Um, but so I mean, for the most part we’re doing pretty well. Um, but there’s unfortunately, there’s gonna be some bumps in the road at time When we didn’t have the recycling pickup, we had additional canisters, the big trailers Yep. From Waste Management. Yep. But Republic can’t drop it in waste management containers.

49:40 No. We can’t put a whole truck into a 30 yard container. So yeah, that’s the problem. Oh, okay. Yeah. So yeah, they go back to the yard and stuff like that.

49:51 Has the recycling considerably like reduced that flow? Yeah, so the flow, I mean, obviously we see these ebbs and flows at the transfer station, um, weeks that we’re, you know, it, the volume is definitely down because people know it’s every other week. Mm-hmm. Um, so that’s definitely helping up there. Um, the weeks that it’s off, we’re definitely seeing an increase in traffic for people doing drop off at the transfer station. Um, and again, we’re continuing to use Waste Management to, uh, you know, get rid of that additional recycling the us. So we have, you know, trucks constantly running, um, quite a bit at this point still.

50:29 Okay, great. Um, associate chair for Community health? Yes, please. Sure. Um, so for vaccine policy, so after our last meeting, I was fortunate to connect with, um, Megan Calkin, who’s the lead nurse for the Marblehead Public Schools, um, as well as the school nurse at, uh, marble Hedge Baths. Um, she provided lots of good information. All the, um, answers to my questions. Um, she clarified that Glover typically reports vaccination rates every year. The recent absences of data was due to, uh, to a website usability error, um, rather than a problem with the, with data collection. Um, she reassured, um, Neil about the MMR vaccination rates from the 2024 school

51:16 year, which was, um, whoever reported a hundred percent, uh, vaccination rate round was 90, village was a hundred vets with 98, and the high school was a hundred. So, um, certainly have herd immunity, um, in all of our public schools. Um, and she also, uh, told me that the nursing team reviews every single student’s vaccination record and maintains, um, ongoing communications with families who, um, have inconsistencies. And mostly it’s because they just don’t have the dates. Right. Um, but Megan’s not encountered any cases that required escalation, um, to the administration for any student exclusion since she’s been in her role. Um, so, um, you know, Marblehead is doing very well with vaccinations, and we’re fortunate to have such a team

52:01 of dedicated nurses who are proactively ensuring our children’s health in schools. That’s great. Yeah. A great report too. It it’s good that we’re hearing that Yes. You Got vaccinated right Away. Your, your making the, the contacts with the school, the health group in the schools really does, does add a lot of value, I think, to the way we can, we can help. Yeah. And I, and I think we should report on these, um, percentages every year at the start of the school season, just to keep, keep an eye on it.

52:36 Um, so that’s all I have on the vaccines unless anyone has any questions. Um, so for resolution of the Riverhead, so, um, I’m glad we had the discussion last time about the possible thing of the waters at Riverhead Beach. And, um, I just want our community to know that, um, the board will always take time to discuss any concerns that are brought up to us that are concerns of the public. Um, and following last meeting, um, Andrew met with or spoke with Parks and Rec who agreed to implement additional signage at Riverhead Beach, along with, um, a waiver to parents. And since then, we’ve received many emails from community members expressing strong support for the standup paddleboard program and, um, voicing opposition designating Riverhead as a swimming beach.

53:21 Um, and the feedback has been consistent with the decision we reached last time to move forward with enhanced signage and a parental waiver, kinda which strikes the balance between, um, supporting this valued program in the community and addressing, um, public health concerns. Yeah. So this is the language that was proposed by, uh, park and Rec, um, and they’re hoping that would have a formal vote to endorse it. Uh, so welcome to Riverhead Beach. Please note swimming is not designated at this location. The water is not tested under Massachusetts Department of Public Health, bathing Beach regulations. Riverhead Beach is a great spot for low immersion activities like paddle boarding and kayaking, the calm protected waters make it an enjoyable place for recreation and community programs.

54:10 So you would like a motion to approve that wording? What is the protected waters protected against Storms? Like, so I guess like, uh, the harbor as like, in protected waters from the storm, like as far as like, you know, wave action and stuff like that. Ah, yeah. Uh, I mean, I like the first sentence, Right? The, the please note the swimming is not designated.

54:39 I mean, obviously you can stop it right then and there. I would just stop it, stop it right then and there. Yeah. Yeah. Do you have a reading of Oh,

54:48 we, this, uh, no, I got, I think I, well I wanted this, I think I pin down soft gas, but maybe not. Okay. Oh, well wait. Better? Yeah, you’re speeding. Thanks.

55:20 So you just want the word protected, move removed? Well, I think she just wants, no, I Would just say just, or The whole sentence. First sentence. Yeah. So please note SUM is not designated at this location and the water is not tested under Massachusetts Department of Public Health Bathing Beach regulations. Okay. Is there, is there a better word than designated in, in that use? I know they mean that it’s not a designated swimming beach. Yeah,

55:54 I mean, you don’t wanna say swimming isn’t permitted, I guess. Um, but designated if I’m the only one That sounds funny, that’s fine. Um, if I, if I were having to sign this, I wouldn’t know what it would mean. Especially, are There areas of town where swimming is not permitted? No, we don’t have any, we don’t post any signs where no swimming. Well, you know, there’s, I think we might post a sign No, no. Jumping off the pier. Um, but nothing where we’re like, no swimming is permitted. Um,

56:35 has a lawyer looked it over? No, I mean, we could go back to the state and see if there’s other state language we will, um, to make sure we’re co protected under the, you know, the Bathing Beach regulations. Yeah. Could you just say this is not a traditional or designated swimming area and the water is not tested under Massachusetts Department of Health?

57:11 Yeah.

57:17 So you could just, you could just say, you know, um, welcome. Come to Riverhead Beach. Please note this water is not tested under Massachusetts Department of Health, uh, public Health Bathing Beach regulations.

57:34 Sure. That’s a cleaner sentence.

57:41 Well, we’ve got a little time right now, right? Think are over. We have little time. So the rain, the beach season ends, uh, at the end of this week. Um, so yeah, we definitely have some time and so we don’t have to force one kicking it around. So yeah, we, we can come back with some, you know, I can, I can reach out to the Bathing Beach program at the state and see if they have some language that we, they would suggest.

58:10 Okay. And now we have our health and fitness runner, um, on the, Oh Lord, I’m, I’m far from a runner, but, um, so on November 2nd is the Mental Health 5K, which is, um, run by the Marblehead Rotary Club. And it, it supports, um, this program called the Inner Explorer Program in schools, which supports mental health and wellbeing for the youth. Um, it’s, this will be the fourth year of it. I found out about it the second year. I’m glad that they announced it earlier this now, ‘cause previously they’ve only been like a couple weeks before. And, um, so it, it is gotten just around a hundred.

58:56 I think we can do a lot better at that. Um, it’s a great horse. It starts and ends at the Boston Yacht Club. So you’re just running through the historic district, you know, up by the, uh, police station turning around, coming right back. And I’ve also thrown the challenge down. I want all the smoke. Um, I think I can, I Wish I were younger.

59:22 I did it the second year and I came in fourth. I am not a runner. Uh, but you’ve got 12 Boston marathons with you. Well, so, but, so I’ve run three, five Ks in my life. I do not know how to run a 5K. Um, but um, I’m fast but I’m beatable and uh, so yeah, I’m gonna give 25 bucks to any donated an additional $25 up to a thousand for anyone that can beat me. Um, I’m calling out the Marblehead cross country team. I want the track team. I want all of them to see if they can beat a 43-year-old over the hill guy. Um, buckle up. I mean, their coach has beat me in a 5K, so it’s, uh, but um, yeah, no, I thought that would add a little, uh,

1:00:09 maybe get a little more participation. Maybe someone wants to, uh, take me down, um, working off an injury, but I’m gonna make no excuses that day. I’m gonna lay it, I’m gonna empty the tank and, um, yeah, we’ll see what I got and if Seth Moulton wants some, um, 500 bucks, if Seth Moulton can beat me, addition donated. So yeah, that’s Brian beat you. That’s Brian beat you. Brian beat me. Yeah, I came, he runs all the time. We, yeah, he’s, he is something else. He is fast. He’s on my softball team and uh, yeah, the first five KI ever ran, he came in first, then I came in third. So he’s, he’s, he’s very, very fast. No, No. And he did it very easily for him. Right. So, well, good luck. Well, we’ll have another meeting

1:00:58 Before. Yeah, no people can sign if you’re not a five p runner. They do have like, spirit runners for this, so it’s cool. Yeah. You just, you know, it’s basically a donation. Awesome. So, I mean, that’s what I did last year ‘cause I was, I was out of town. Um, but they, you know, you go down if, you know, if you’re a spear runner, they have like clam chowder and stuff like that at the Austin Yacht Club. So it’s a cool little event. Yeah. So, uh, yeah. So November 3rd, You say November 2nd, Sunday, November 2nd it’s at 11. So plenty of time to finish before the Patriot. The Patriots play, I think the Falcons that won. So, um, plenty of time to get home and just sit on the couch and, you know, relax after running. So yeah, see, see who’s got me.

1:01:45 Okay. Alright. To Bills. Bills. Yeah man, this new system, Andrew’s messing with all my spreadsheets, messing with all of us. Yeah, so I think it’s nice and quick right now, unless I missed anything. There’s a lot of Agri source. Um, 31,200 that’s covers the grinding and compost removal at and t for internet access $160. Uh, the counseling center for, uh, psychological counseling, $6,774 47 cents. The Life department for Electricity, 8 46 24. Um, me Tellerman for legal, um, $1,827 50 cents. Shea Concrete products for, uh, Jersey Barriers, I’m guessing at the transfer station.

1:02:31 Yep. Uh, $3,060, uh, Verizon Internet access, um, $337 98 cents. And William Scotsman for, uh, paid for the renter rented trailer. 6 670 $1 and 80 cents. And I know a lot of people ask, I did not say anything here about Republic Services, so just in case anyone was wondering. Um, yeah,

1:03:03 Okay. We can move from bills to the directors up update. Sounds good. Uh, just a quick, quick update on the meeting minutes. Um, I just put my computer,

1:03:17 um, I have finished July 10th, um, but not, did not have time to get them out to you. Um, but I will get those out to you. And I also get out, uh, July 22nd and then the August date and then we can vote all on that and make sure, you know, if there’s any edits we can make those and put those situated and post it online as well. Um, as far as, you know, updating, talking a little bit about Bills with the Republic, um, obviously we are in discussions with the Republic about what we owe them. Obviously we have a curbside contract for collection of trash and recycling. Obviously they have fulfilling their curbside collection of trash collection. Um, it’s really the debate is over the, what the cost is or the nonpayment is gonna be for the recycling.

1:04:02 Um, so we’re taking a look at that. The attorneys are taking a look at that. Um, and we’ll come to an agreement with the Republic. Um, most likely it’s gonna be at least half mm-hmm. Um, that we’re gonna be paying them per month and stuff like that. Um, so that’s kind of the update with that. But yeah, unfortunately, um, the team, Susan Republic did meet last week. Um, they didn’t get any further. There’s a chance that they met again today. I haven’t heard anything. Um, you know, we’re always encouraging both parties to get to the table, uh, to try to reach an agreement in what week we’re on, I think right into week 12. Yeah. So obviously the state started in July 1st. Um, but yeah, it’s been, it’s been long.

1:04:49 Um, and so we’ll, you know, hopefully there can be a resolution. We, we will move past this.

1:04:56 Um, as far as other transfer station projects, um, we do have our project out to bid. Um, we have received file sub bids, I have forwarded those on to Tom. Um, it was actually good to see that we got, um, filed sub bids for all our trades. Um, so the trades are roofing, uh, metal windows. Just to clarify, this is for both the pit And uh, this is just for the site work and for the scale house. Okay. Yep. Um, metal windows Plumbing,

1:05:30 HVAC and electrical. Um, so we, we received, uh, for each category, um, two for the roofing, multiple for the metal windows, multiple for H-H-V-A-C, multiple for plumbing and multiple for electrical. Um, so what the general contractor does is that he takes these numbers and he adds ‘em into his, um, general bid that is gonna be due September 17th. So that’s the next bid date for us. Um, once we take a look at all those bid documents, make sure that everything’s complete, we will award the project. Um, and then we’ll be talking with the contractor about the appropriate time to implement this project. Um, in a perfect situation. We’re done with the con with done with the strike, with the Republic. Um, but all these things come into effect

1:06:16 and we’ll have to figure that out. And obviously we would want the foundations to be installed before winter and then potential construction to occur. The majority of it to occur during the wintertime. Mm-hmm. That’s temporary scale house. Um, it’s purposely put where it is. It’s outta the way of construction at this point. Um, and so that should not have to be moved at all. Um, is our understanding when we place it there with the a architect’s guidance. Um, any questions on construction or other publican kinda activities and stuff like that? No, But just so you guys know, if you’ve never done, if you’ve never looked at the numbers And like doing, obviously we’re looking at prevailing wage rates and all that stuff, so people have to remember that, that is like the biggest difference, um,

1:07:01 when you’re comparing homeowner costs. Yeah, municipality costs. Yeah. So that is quite a difference. Yeah, that’s an important piece. Um, another piece about the transfer station. Um, we do have our long-term contract for environmental, um, monitoring with Hailey Ward. Um, so Hailey Ward is now our engineering company out there on a regular basis. Um, we do have an inspection with Mass DEP tomorrow to take a look at both the landfill, uh, in the transfer station itself. We do not anticipate any issues. Again, um, DEPS concerns, especially during the tri strike times about making sure that we’re falling all the pro procedures protocols and regulations. Um, obviously the biggest concern is that placing material on the ground, placing material in areas that could cause issues.

1:07:48 Um, and obviously at this we’re always putting material into containers and trying to move that, those containers as quickly as possible. Um, so we do follow all regulations. Um, unfortunately we did have an encroachment on the, on the landfill itself, um, from one of the neighbors down in Stony Brook Road. Um, so we are working with the, um, Haley Ward engineering firm to put that back to together. Um, what happened was that the neighbor was doing some beautification on town property, um, wanted to beautify the landfill and started to plant perennials. Unfortunately, that’s against mass regulations. It’s against our permit. Um, so we’ll need to remove all that. We’ll re need to reestablish, um, the grass in those areas. Um, so we just noticed these in the last couple of weeks.

1:08:36 Um, the engineer was out last week. They’ve put that together a plan. Um, we’ll have to get estimates and figure out the cost of this. Uh, depending on the price, it might have to go out to bid. Um, but we need to try to get this done as quickly as possible. Um, so now that I have his report, um, I’ll be speaking with a couple of customer, uh, companies, um, to get estimates and then decide on what we need to do to move forward. Um, but again, right now is a great growing time. Um, so we need to evaluate the cover soil that we have. Um, it looks like they removed anywhere between several to, um, five inches of vegetative cover, which is required to have on the landfill.

1:09:16 Is it the removal? That’s the issue and also the Plantings? Uh, yes. So it’s, so when you get your permit for your landfill, it’s designated of, we tell them exactly what we’re gonna have. So we say we are gonna have grass and it’s gonna have, um, so much so you’re gonna have your liner, then you’re gonna have your sand, and then you’re gonna have your cover material. And we say we’re gonna have five to eight inches of vegetated cover material, and we have to have that. And so if it gets removed and there’s nothing there, if we had enlarged storm and you had erosion, then there’s potential for issues that can occur to the liner. Um, and so yeah, we have to make sure that this is a huge asset for us, um, and we need to do everything we can do to protect it.

1:10:01 Um, and so that’s, that’s the whole reason. That’s again, the state requires us to have inspections. We have to hire a company to complete those inspections. The state can come out and take a look at these. Um, and just making sure that we’re doing everything possible to protect this asset, essentially. Has the, has the sort floor of feasibility study started at all? Yeah, it’s started. Okay. It’s, it’s quite a ways through. Um, and I can look to them too to see where they are and get an update. Yeah. Um, but yes, that is continuing to move. Okay. Um, and, and hopefully we’ll have the results of that in, in New York time. Okay. Yep. Um, one of the things that we have been very lucky with, with during the strike is that we have received some additional help. Um, we’ve received some additional help with answering the phones, answering emails.

1:10:48 Um, so we’ve been using a special clerk, um, from the COA who’s been with us since July 1st. Um, it’s going really well. We really appreciate our, all our hard work. Um, we actually need to create a position in our department to continue this on, uh, and continue to help us with the sale of the stickers for this year and going forward. Um, so I’m asking that the board allow us, um, to add another, um, special clerk for our department. Um, it’s a, it’s actually called a temporary special clerk. It would be 20 hours a week. Um, it’s the price tags up potentially, um, $26,000. Um, but that would be from the beginning of July 1st.

1:11:35 The town is willing to cover some costs because it was during strike. Um, but I need a motion from the board to move forward with this. Again, this person will continue to answer the phone, um, to help dealing with all trash, um, all transfer station questions and, and facility stickers, and then go out and actually help people get silly stickers that they need to, or make calls to tell people they’re ready. All that stuff that it’s been a huge help and a huge alleviation for our department. Yeah. I think the stickers alone justify it. Yeah. The stickers alone justify it. Mm-hmm. Um, the sale, the stickers have been huge. Um, and so yeah, the stickers alone, the way we used to do the stickers is that the stickers were sold at three different locations, uh, at the transfer station, at the tax office, and at the, the health department itself.

1:12:22 And now they’re just being sold at the health department. And so we’ve had push taken on that, all that work. Um, but the number of sticker sales has increased dramatically over the last couple years. Um, so yeah, this will easily be covered by the, the sale of stickers. Even Though we have the license plate readers, we still need the stickers ‘cause of the beach. Yeah. And so eventually, if the, if the beach has the license plate readers, we don’t need the stickers, but people still need to get Yeah. To sign up to have it for their pa plates to be read at These problems. Yeah. There’s always the, yeah, there’s always the word stickers, but it might not necessarily be you. Correct. Yeah. Um, it’s sitting there and making sure people can get through the, the computer program, um, understanding

1:13:08 that they get a slot, you know, scan documents in answer questions. Um, you know, we want to make sure that we have really good customer service for this, and therefore, yeah, we, we do dedicate quick, considerable amount of time to making sure people can come to the office and we can help them with the stickers. Can this temporary person come to our meetings and take minutes? Um, so we have another solution for that as well. Um, so yeah, we’re gonna have a temporary person, um, that comes to the meetings just for the minutes. Um, we had to ask the union if there’s anybody interested in that beforehand, but we’re allowed to go outside now, and I do have a person that’s gonna be able to do that. Okay. Yeah. So we will be paying a stipends, um, I believe it’s either a thousand or $1,200 per meeting

1:13:53 or per month to do all the, um, minutes and all that stuff. And that’s through the union contract and stuff like that. Just much. It sounds like a lot. Yeah. It might be $400 a month, you know, I think I said 1200. I think it’s about $400 a month, um, to do all the, um, all of our meetings, meeting minutes and all that. Okay. Yeah. Um, so yes, I need a motion, um, for the creation of a, um, temporary special clerk for, um, I guess it would be for the waste department technically. Sure. Question. I’ll second Move and second. Mm-hmm. Any dis any further discussion? No. All those in favor, uh, unanimous approval.

1:14:41 Just outta curiosity, does that come out of the revolving fund or does that come out of the town? So that’ll come out some from the town, um, some from the revolving, and then since we’ve had some missing, uh, employment, it will come from our general, um Okay. Employee operations budget. Okay. Um, as far as employees go, yes, we will have a new person that will be taking meeting minutes in the near future. Um, we’ve also found a replacement for Jason Young, who was, uh, we had a great, uh, employee that started during the strike. Um, and we have a new replacement that will be starting either at the end of this week or the very beginning of this week. Um, so we look forward. Um, he’s heavy Equipment guy. Yep. It’s a heavy equipment person. Um, he is, he is A-C-D-L-A license, um, which is hard to get, um, just like Jason had.

1:15:28 So, um, he’s coming with us fully licensed. Um, and so yes, he’s a, he, he’s a new employee and so we look forward to working with him. What’s his name? Uh, Ken. Ken. Yep. Yep.

1:15:50 Anything further from your report? What’s the says grant updates? Yeah, so grant updates, so a couple different thing with grants. Um, so we have an emergency preparedness grant that we work on with the state. That’s a federal grant that comes from the CDC. Um, in July we had been given, awarded 75% of the grant. Um, we had been waiting for the additional 25% of the grant. Um, we do understand from the federal government that, um, some of these grants will probably go down in the near next couple of years. Um, but we have been promised the remaining 25% of our grant award. Um, and we’ll receive that by the end of September. Um, so public health emergency preparedness, um, covers a whole blanket of different issues. Everything from pandemic to hurricane response

1:16:38 to vaccine management, um, to outbreaks. It can be a, it can be food board illness, it can be a variety of different things. Um, and this gives us training staff, um, a lot of training, um, a lot of planning, um, to make sure that our department is ready. Um, obviously it, it suggests that board members have certain levels of training for ICS, which is incident command structure. Um, so we can give you the links and stuff like that to get some of that stuff going. Um, but we have a coalition of 13, uh, 15 communities on the North Shore that we work with, um, and are always able to help out, um, during these different times vaccine clinics. Um, so it’s a great resource where we all work together, but that’s just kind of an update with that. Um, one of the other, um, grants that we have is through VS.

1:17:27 A s, um, vs. A S is a bureau of substance abuse. That’s how we do our YRBS. We also be working with this group, um, to come together to, to work on substance abuse, um, with younger kids or, you know, high school, um, elementary school or, you know, junior high elementary school. Um, and so we continue to work on that. One of the programs that can came out of that is it was called I Can Help. Um, so we got many people trained in the high school and we have a coalition, um, and this is Lynn Swamp. Scott Marvel headed in sale. Um, so we were able to get people, uh, to get trained in this program called I Can Help, um, it make what makes a difference in the life of a child. So it’s essentially finding people, it can be coaches,

1:18:13 it can be, um, dance coaches, um, people in the community that they can recognize kids that are struggling and approach them to offer their help, making sure they’re okay. Um, so we’re always different doing different programs. We’re also gonna be working with RCA, which is a recovery coach program. Um, so getting some people in our community trained on recovery coaching. Uh, so if you have people in the community that are struggling with substance abuse, these people can reach out and check out ‘em on a regular basis. Um, they can also, uh, have group meetings and promote some of the practice best practices. Um, so that’s some of the other stuff. Um, one of the bigger pieces, so we had a meeting recently with the city of Peabody, um, and Peabody had unfortunately a, uh,

1:18:59 a young death in the, in the town, in the community. Um, and they have signed on to a program, uh, to help them with their mental health services. And this is an app-based program. Um, so they are now members of a organization called Bloom. Um, again, this is an app that they buy into, um, and, and Bloom works on a whole level across the community. Um, so the idea is that puberty bought this app with a community. Every citizen in Peabody has access to it, all employees have access to it. Um, so you can work on personal wellbeing, mental and behavioral health, parenting, elder care, financial care. It also allows every individual access to

1:19:46 therapy sessions. So obviously it’s web-based, uh, but you can have access to a counselor. So there’s four free counseling sessions after the fourth one, they will help you use your insurance to get a, a primary care counselor. Um, the cost for Marblehead is $15,000. Um, it’s something that we could offer to, obviously all of our residents, all of our employees, there’s many different aspects to this that could just have a huge benefit. Um, the other great thing about it is that it’s already been approved by the state to use opioid funds to spend on. Um, so again, there’s many pieces to it. Um, there’s parent classes talking to your kids about different situ difficult situations,

1:20:33 talking to your parents about difficult situations as they’re aging in place or trying to look for long care solutions for them, dealing with financial situations. They have all these different things that are available to you on the web through the app. Uh, one of the great things about this program is that they’re connected to McLean’s and Boston Children’s Hospital. I like that. I like that the opioid funds can be used for that. Yeah. So I think the big thing would be making people aware Of Correct. That that is gonna be the biggest push and making sure that they come out with monthly newsletters to try to get, making sure. But again, that is gonna be the biggest push to get this to every citizen in, in Marblehead so they can have access to that. Okay. Yeah.

1:21:18 Question about though. Yeah, I think this is amazing. Uh, but one thing I didn’t understand, is this something you are gonna implement or is this something you’re thinking about? No, this would be something that we would implement That that would be amazing. Especially with what’s going on right now. Correct. Yep. Thank you so much. Yeah, It, it looks really incredible. It offers self-guided video therapy sessions, journaling. It was designed by a clinical psychologist and yeah. And, and it could be available for all residents. It could Be available for all residents, all employees. So we have about 1200 employees along with the 20,000 residents. Yeah. So Do we need a motion to go? We Don’t need a motion, obviously. I, you know, I, I think, you know, the board can definitely make a motion and, you know, I think the board wants to be the ones pushing this out there.

1:22:04 Tom and I talked about it today. I think we want to be the ones that’s kind of in control of this. Um, so yeah, you know, I’ve set up the meeting to go to, um, to the opioid task force to ask for the funding. Um, so yeah, I, I think it’s totally appropriate for the board to make a motion, uh, and stand behind this and really put the, push this out. Um, and I think this is, goes really well with our, uh, Marblehead mental health counseling center. Um, but again, we always talk about the people with the counseling center that are on the waiting list and, you know, the last thing we wants to have happen is somebody waiting to get services. And this can help a little bit and it’s, or help a tremendous Yeah. And it’s confidential. It’s right on your phone. Oh yeah. It’s right on your phone. It’s on demand. It’s, Yeah. Yeah. 24 hours a day, you know, there’s, there’s a lot

1:22:49 to it, which is really good. Yeah. Is this also for Youth? Yeah. So you have, there’s a whole bunch of different pieces to it. Um, but yes. What’s what’s your timeframe? What brief, how long would it I haven’t, so I met with the company last week. Um, obviously they have to create the QR codes that we can push out into our community. That’s how people have gain access to it. They have to set up their accounts. It’s pretty quick.

1:23:21 We’ve, I mean, you used the term control. I don’t think it’s control, but we, we have to market this. Yeah. We have to market this. Yeah. Yeah. That, that’s the biggest piece. We wanna make sure that everybody knows it. Yep. And you know, you, you’re right, this is absolutely the, the parallel to what’s the grieving process going on with the town is, is really ideal. So yeah, I, you know, if you, you know, obviously I gotta approach the opioid task force about getting the money. I don’t think there’s any problems with that. Again, it’s approved by the state. Um, for opioid use, um, I just have to speak with Bloom to see how long it, you know, I assume creating the Q QR code, um, you know, some of the press release information is gonna be the bigger piece, but again, I think it’s all just print and and play.

1:24:09 So a motion to encourage you to Yep. Move as, uh, expeditiously as possible to evaluate and implement this program. Something like that. Yeah. Second. Yep.

1:24:25 And can we try it out? Yeah. So I will send you a QR code, um, so you guys can log in right away, um, and start getting familiar with it. Um, and then if you have questions, obviously, um, one of the, one of the founders is local in Gloucester. Um, and so when I was, I actually was able to have a meeting with her. Um, and so we can get feedback back to her pretty quickly. Um, so if we have suggestions or any of that stuff would be, I think helpful. Um, but it is a very robust, um, system.

1:24:59 Um, it is terrific. I think that’s everything that I have.

1:25:13 No, I think that’s everything that I have.

1:25:16 Business. Business. The quick thing on the, on the bloom, so saying a team was identified as having kind of suicidal thoughts or ideations and they’re under 18, would a message go to the parents? Yeah. So we can talk to them about that, how that works. Obviously there has to be safeguards in place. Yeah. Um, and that’s, you know, that was one of the big things why Peabody invested in this was because they were dealing with a, a teen suicide issue.

1:25:49 Okay. Well thank you very much. Several of great

1:25:54 Two things. What new business. Yeah. One that Andrew kind of mentioned about the, um, backlog at the counseling center. Did you hear back from them? I know I connected you with, um, We’re gonna meet Thursday, Thursday, Thursday And find out. So they were waiting to meet as like a board or something like that. They said it wasn’t gonna happen till September to get a number together. Okay. So you’re looking for the number of people on, you know, no, I’m looking for the financial number that they think it would take. I kind of, I described it to them. Yep. What we had made a motion for in the past, um, being like, you know, three year, you know, whatever it is. Yep. And, you know, I’ll, we can submit the article and town meeting and see if we can get Yeah. I think, you know, talking about that a little bit more,

1:26:40 I mean, so at the very end of last budget season, the finance committee was all set to endorse the double number. So going from 60,000 to $120,000 for us mm-hmm. To use at the Marble Lake Counseling center. Mm-hmm. Obviously in other areas, the town had some financial issues and that had to be cut back to the $60,000. Yeah. My understanding that, you know, talking to them during that process is that they’re ready to, to put it back up to the one 20 mm-hmm. Um, and keep it there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Great. Um, and so then it’s gonna be a matter of, right, what do we think it’s gonna really take? The big piece with this is that we need to make sure is that we wanna make sure it’s essentially forever,

1:27:26 we want this to continue on. We don’t wanna have to say, oh, unfortunately we don’t have the money to continue with this. You’re gonna have to go find some other counseling services. Right. Um, but No, and that’s why I think getting the backlogged down Yep. Then you, so if they, if they know what number that is, you know, we can pitch it Yep. And see what, see if we get Yeah. But if in the steady state we could actually have counseling in the schools, think it would reduce the wait list. Because as I understand it, the biggest wait list is for the afternoons post school. Yeah. Times. So, um,

1:28:05 I know that that’s not uncommon in Massachusetts to have, um, professionals in the schools helping the students. Yeah. And again, through talking to Peabody, they have that model. Yeah. So they have counseling right. In the school. Um, I, I can talk to Sharon, who’s the director over there about the different ages that they are able to serve right at school. Um, but that does a huge, tremendous amount of reduction for those weight periods outta school. Yeah. My understanding is Marvel had one of the few towns that doesn’t, like most of them Do. Yes. So, um, the other new business, uh,

1:28:46 the, um, need, Tellman said they would get a statement. Did they ever Yeah. There’s, I’ll, I’ll go back and check with them where they are with the statement for the landfill closure. And then the one last thing I had was we got the email from Jen Schaffner, um, about how she wanted to get a representative from each board. I know that we’re on board. I think the park and rec has responded to her. Uh, I know the select board is sitting this one out, which I think is insane. But, um,

1:29:19 do we wanna send, can I do it? I’m happy to do it. Volunteer. Okay. Alright. I’ll tell Jen that, that it’s me. Do you need that vote or No? I just wanted to make sure I checked with everyone first. I mean, as long as the board is involved. Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah. I think we have some things to, to add. Yeah. Okay. That’s, that’s all I had.

1:29:47 Um, public comment. Anyone on, uh, okay. Uh, a few things. Uh, Tom, the survey that’s coming out needs for people 18 or how are you gonna reach out to people that don’t bother to register to vote or fill out the census? You required him for that and now when you get your license, it’s automatic. I think that changed what, like four years ago? Something like that. Andrew, you can help with that answer. Uh, so, so the, it’s gonna be multifold trying to reach all these people. Um, obviously, you know, we are putting out, we’re doing this mailer, right. Um, it’s gonna be placed in the newspaper. Um, but then it’s certain areas in town, um,

1:30:34 we’ve talked about the COA, making sure that there’s getting people there to help people answer the survey. Um, so again, this is about trying to make sure that the public is aware that we’re trying to do this public health assessment. Um, we’re putting, pushing out the survey, we’re gonna be doing weekly newspaper articles, talking about the survey. Um, again, we want everybody in the community to be talking about it, encouraging their friends to fill out the form, encouraging all the household members, um, to be filling out their own individual surveys. So in my house, you know, it’s gonna be my wife, myself, in your house. You might have an 18-year-old, whatever you have. We wanna make sure that all those people are captured and we can gather that data. So we have a good database for all that. Right? Yeah.

1:31:20 For the town clerk, right? Yep. So we use the town. I call The number of people that don’t vote ‘cause they don’t bother to register. I’m just shocked at that. Yep. So we use, we use the town clerk as our, our registration base. Um, but we’re also using QR codes in the, in, in the newspaper, um, and other areas. I’m sure you’ve been thinking it through, but it was just a concern. Um, And obviously if we, we could have somebody maybe even stand up at the transportation station, um, to, to talk to people and make sure they’re aware of it. Uh, we Get people, it’s a great concern because the absolutely getting response you wanna get as much as possible, We want as many people to fill that out as possible. The, the more response, the more legitimate Yeah. The numbers will Be. Exactly. That’s my concern. Right.

1:32:07 Believe It. Your own little world and don’t think about it. I don’t know if you can use the town’s rolling bulletin boards they have out there. Yeah. So we can definitely use the rolling bulletin boards. We can use the reverse 9 1 1 as a, as a general call. Uh, but we will be using all that. And so if you think of anything where you think over here’s another area that we can try to capture people, please let us know. Well, I don’t have cable tv. Marble has a cable station. Yep. Maybe something on that would be good. Yep. We’ll definitely be using the MHCV to, to try to broadcast this. Um, a lot of times there’s different programs on there. I’m sure they’ll want to have, do some interviews with Tom or other board members on that, um, to promote it and try to get that going As well. The rolling sign boards would be good for the recycles. It’s amazing how many people still don’t get it.

1:32:55 It’s every other week or Right.

1:32:59 It did make some mess. That was one thing. Uh, have you looked into, I know I’ve mentioned a few times before the senior real estate tax program to maybe get some help at the office to answer the phone. I don’t know how complicated it is, but Yeah. So I know some departments use It. Yeah. So we did have an individual in there for a period of time helping us out with, but on the tax refund, we tried to get her to do with some additional work and it, it was a little complicated, so she didn’t really do That. And, uh, on the charter committee,

1:33:35 can you let people know how they can easily find the draft? I couldn’t find it easily on the Marblehead website, which is, can you not really working for you? Gimme an email. I’ll send it To you. Oh, no, I, I’m not concerned about me, but other people in general, I’ve heard so many different comments from people around town that have no clue what it really is. All those jerks are trying to change and that’s not really it. Mm-hmm. They’re trying to centralize it, is what my opinion is. So catalog. Yeah. Yeah. 2D two different avenues I would suggest to try, obviously going down to the town website and using the search button to try to get to the draft. I, I, it’s not Your problem. I understand That. No, I have been struggling with it, so I totally understand. Um, I think also if you go to Google and just in the Google

1:34:23 Search Yeah. If you use Marblehead Charter Draft B, it should be able to pull it Up. Well, easier it is for people to do it, the more likely they’re gonna do it. Right. That’s my thought. And I think, well, the only last thing I was wanted to be sure is that we’re staying on top of the five member board.

1:34:42 We’ve got an email. Keep bringing that up.

1:34:49 Thank you. Uh, Lee, you have your hand up? Yeah. Just a couple quick questions about the grants. Can you spell, because it’s hard to hear over the Zoom. What’s the name of the mental health app? How do you spell it? Blue or BLOO? Yeah, B-L-O-O-M. Okay, cool. And It’s a, and if you go, if you look it up, it’s called Bloom for All, is the easiest way to find it. Bloom for all. Okay. Yep. Cool. And did you say that it would be only, it’s $15,000 from the opioid Account? Yeah, for the year. For the year. Wow. For all residents and employees. And they all get four free counseling sessions? That’s correct. Wow. Okay. Cool. Um, and so when do you hope to have that like, sort of buttoned up for folks? Like by the holidays maybe? Oh, yeah. Ideally in the next couple of weeks we have it,

1:35:36 but then obviously it’s gonna be, the big piece would be promoting it, um, giving, getting everybody access to it through the QR codes and stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Excellent. Um, and then my other one with the other, the preparedness grant. How much, I know you said you got 75% and you’re expecting the other 25% by the end of the month. What’s the total? So the total for our region, which is region 3D is $134,000. And that includes what, north Shore? Yeah, the 15 communities in the North Shore. Okay, cool. Uh, but it’s a, it’s a very, very large federal grant that obviously is in jeopardy. Yeah. But the 134 is split amongst the 15 communities.

1:36:22 Uh, yeah. It’s all pulled together. So we have some employees to pull the resources. Okay. All right. Cool. All right. Excellent. Thank you. Yep.

1:36:35 Ready? I think that’s it.

1:36:41 We go in, we adjo to Make a motion Executive. Yeah. You need to make a motion to go into executive session Before We adjourn. Before you adjourn. And you just have to state during the, the motion that we are not returning to open session. Right. Uh, persuade pursuant to Massachusetts General Law Chapter 30 a, uh, paragraphs 21, A two to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiation with non-union personnel, or to conduct collective bargaining sessions or contract negotiations with non-union personnel, specifically the health director employment contract. Um, we a move

1:37:28 that we go into executive session and motion second.

1:37:35 And is there discussion? No. Mm-hmm. Um, uh, I think we have the, uh, poll. The poll it. Yeah. Yeah. So Amanda, yeah. Oh, sorry. Yes, John. Oh, yes. Yeah. Okay. Um, and then we’ll have a motion for adjourn.

1:38:00 Um, so moved. Um, second. All in favor. Okay. At, uh, nine 15.