Board of Health: November 24, 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.

0:02 7 31 on the 24th of fourth November. Oh. So you wanna just move, mute yourself on your computer here.

0:21 Open the board, board of health meeting.

0:31 I just mean turn all your volume in. Down down.

0:35 Okay. Open the Board of Health meeting. Um, I don’t think there are any changes to the agenda. Uh, proceed to, we have minutes to approve from previous meetings.

1:01 We have copies of them. I, I mailed, I emailed them out. Yep. I did not bring a copy tonight. Okay. Meeting of the 29th. Any corrections or additions to the No, no. Uh, meeting of the fifth 15th of October. And that looks very convenient. Yep. Okay. If there’s a motion to approve both of these minutes. Motion to approves the second. All those in favors. Aye. Any proposition? None moving forward. Um, okay. Two reports. Report of the chair, as I indicated mine should be pretty brief, uh, tonight, but incredibly positive. From one perspective.

1:48 The, um, calm Wellness Initiative has really opened well, um, even, um, the conservative partner from UMass Boston is indicating we have been doing pretty well. And if you remember, um,

2:14 the, where we are, the purpose of this initiative, the, the big initiative creating a healthier marble head is to understand the wellness opportunities, the promotion opportunities that exist in our town. And the SAMHSA approach to wellness suggests that there are eight different levels. And we work together as a team of seven of us to work with UMass Boston develop to develop a survey of 42 questions as of today, and the numbers are still being worked on. But as of today, um, we, uh,

3:03 remember, we, we mailed the postcards hopefully for anticipated arrival on October 1st. They really didn’t get there until much later in that week. Um, we had 1,340 by the second week of October, so we had about 8% of the total population of the postcards at that point. It really dropped off toward the end of October. It was actually one week before Halloween where we really, really were getting only a few responses a day. But we, we met that leadership group met and really tried to do a full court press. We had 2003 by five postcards.

3:49 I personally folded 420 little triangles for restaurants. Uh, Jack Ridge, I think did 50 different videos for video. Tommy put different, uh, uh, mo mentions of the comm survey on the website. And I, I have, I have to admit, I was really, as I was around walking around to people that I had never met, stores I had never been to, restaurants I had never eaten at, everyone was positive, happy to help, happy to have the displays and overall in general, supportive. So we discontinued the survey after we, well, the, probably, maybe the biggest, um, single issue was the code red, uh,

4:37 that you did on the ninth or something like that. And pull finally told people, Hey, this is gonna end if you wanna be involved, if you wanna be counted, get involved. So, um, as of today, now, uh, we had, as on the 18th, we had 2,640 total responses. But interestingly of that group, when the UMass Boston partners started looking at it, 117 were blank. And whether someone just wanted to fill a blank, send in a blank because they felt obliged to do something, we don’t understand that. Caitlyn said that’s a little higher than

5:23 what she would’ve expected. So as of this morning, we have twenty five hundred and twenty three, what we think are valid responses. Now this is subject to ongoing review. There. You mailed what, nine or 10? 10? Well, yeah. Okay. Even she’s told me nine. So 10. We’re still counting as we go along, but hard copy on the way to her. Um, but nonetheless, even if we stay where we are, twenty five hundred and twenty five divided by the total number of postcards, which is the total number of 18 years of age or older voters in the town, uh, we met a, uh,

6:09 response of over 15%, which is a lot better than we were told we should expect. So, um, it’s, it’s really quite positive. And so far it’s been fun. And, uh, we’ve, we’ve learned a lot. The next steps we’re, we’re going to have what should be a really very interesting meeting on December 3rd. Caitlin’s team is working over the Thanksgiving holiday and next week to try to under at least get a handle on the initial answers to each of the, well, the 40 odd questions that actually have to do with the wellness. There’s a few demographic ones. Um, and then she’s gonna bring that to our group,

6:58 and we’re going to hear, gee, 78% of question 42 thought this. She won’t have the time to do cross-referencing across different questions or across different age groups or across different, anything by December 3rd. But we believe we should have the first real signaling about the communication from the town. And, and that, that, I, I really think that will be interesting. So then we’ll meet again after the first of the year, and we hopefully will have a much more detailed data review at that time. We will at that. Also, once we know a little bit more about

7:48 what the initial re the responses tell us, we’re gonna establish, um, and begin to implement at least four, maybe five focus groups. Um, that’ll occur in the first quarter. Focus groups will be, um, uh, very interesting. Um, then sometime by the end of the first quarter, hopefully we’ll have the draft of a written report and then have an open meeting, open forum of somehow, um, to, to bring to the, to the community. So from my perspective, and I hope from the board and, uh, all, all of us, enormous gratitude

8:35 to the people who sponsored, this was a study that did not cost the taxpayers in the town and nickel, uh, it was done as far as we can tell everyone in the government, different phases of town government, were pleased that they will get access to a new level of detail about, um, thoughtfulness within the town. So this should be a positive. The restaurants, the businesses, all the ones I talked to, uh, were really, really, really very supportive. Happy that, that, I think they’re happy that the, that the board is getting along better at the minimum, and that we’re actually doing things in a positive way.

9:22 Uh, and, and we also, I think, uh, have a great deal of, uh, thankfulness gratitude for a group of people who have come together with really nothing to gain other than supporting the town to, we went through, we spent six hours together going over those 42 questions. We’ve met twice since that time to go over what are the next steps. And the Leadership council is just a, a group of, of citizens with Andrew and me and Kristen, who have been sort of the coordinating group. Um, but it’s worked together well. Um, and, uh, we’ve learned a great deal. So the first big step from Comm is,

10:11 is on its way to being completed. The second and the third steps, the focus groups and the ultimate written report will build on the success that we have. Okay. Um, are there any comments or questions? Yes, please. So will there be a meeting on December 3rd, like a board, a health meeting to go over the results? Well, it’ll, it’ll be the guy, the leadership council. Okay. On, it’ll probably be in this room, uh, at three in the afternoon. Okay. And we booked 90 minutes. We can make that open. Is there any reason not to have it open? You need to talk to Kelyn about that. Okay. Yeah.

10:56 Um, but it won’t be a formal, the, the, the, the only down, from my perspective, the only downside of this whole thing has been open meeting restrictions. Right. ‘cause the leadership should be this table. Mm-hmm. And we, I, I didn’t even go to the school committee meeting the other night because I knew Tom was gonna be there. Technically, I can sit in the other end of the room, but, you know, it’s just really a tragedy that we couldn’t draw more on each other for this. Right. But in the next phases, and, and certainly when we get to B five next year, um, things will be good. So yes, that is the plan. Um, and we, we will certainly,

11:43 if if Caitlyn wants to make it working group, we will certainly have results to you. Yeah. Um, uh, as quickly as possible. Yeah. Just let me know either way. ‘cause we we’re asking the town, we wanna give the town the feedback to what it has told us to make sure that we’re interpreting it correctly. Um, so, um, that’s the positive. The negative is at the, at the last meeting I talked about doing, um, what I would call a MiniMed school or a micro MPH and apply for a Department of Mental Health grant for that. And I just didn’t have the time,

12:29 or I had had personal time to be able to write it, but I didn’t have the time to be able to develop the collaborative partners that would be necessary to justify that. One of the things that was very clear from the Department of Mental Health w Marblehead was gonna be at a disadvantage no matter what, because we are a well-resourced town. We have a, a number of things that, that don’t have to be done in an equitable way, way, and all of that. But they also made it very clear that this was, uh, reinforcement to build partnerships. So we’ll just have to work very hard at building those partnerships to be ready for the next time around.

13:14 Um, and probably some of the things that we want to, certainly the mini med school, um, approach doesn’t require a lot of money unless the schools are partnering with that. And, and that would take a lot of effort to make, make happen. Right? So, I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to deliver, but I, I still am committed to trying to, um, use that as a focal point for improving the literacy, health literacy of the town. Im improving what pe how people understand, um, the issues of public health, public health science, and in effect applied clinical medicine. Yeah. Um, in the town. And we’ll see some example of that, even,

14:01 even maybe two examples at least today. Um, yes, who will be in the focus groups?

14:13 What Caitlyn has told us is that we will try to scour as much as possible our contacts within the town to find people who might be interested in certain topics. Okay. And then we will want, we will want certain personality types that are gonna be open to suggestion. We, we don’t, it’s not what we want, but focus groups only work when people come to the group with an open mind and are willing to listen to their partners in, in that effort. So, um, now again, we haven’t made any decisions, but I can tell you the initial drafts of the data

15:00 that we saw, not the data, but if you remember, we broke the, the data into age des ops. And it was quite clear that 18, we, we were the first town ever to, to go to 18 years of age. And that group really was very difficult to get very many responses from it all. I had ex everyone had expected that that would be a challenge because 18 through 30, many of those kids used this mailing address in Marblehead, but are probably away at college. They really might not be interested. But we had, uh, parent teacher groups try to get the kids out and everything. We got very little, but I was quite surprised at the 30

15:48 to 40 group, the young parents in town were not, not as, um, reluctant, um, as the 18 to 30, but that, that, that was the second lowest percentage of the number of people in town. And I think it would be a great focus group. Certainly if I were in the select board or if I were running town meeting, I would certainly wanna know what you can possibly do to get a broader response pattern from young people in town. These are the people that are gonna be living with the decisions that the town meeting is making, and the, the, the town elected people are, are, are considering. Um, so that would then be,

16:35 because those people have not responded to the res to the survey, how do we identify those and how do we, if it’s a matter of time, how do we make this as efficient as possible? Um, and Caitlyn’s got Caitlyn’s done. This, uh, Dr. Coral’s done a lot of this new mass Boston. So that is gonna be one of the, one of the many issues that we have to deal with. But the hope will be that we will have four or five, um, uh, four or five focus groups that’ll go into much more detail than, um, the 42 questions of the survey. It’s a great question. I wish I had a better answer. Okay. Alright. Well, that’s the chair’s report. Congrats.

17:21 Thank you, Rodney. I really felt good. You, this is amazing about being, being in Marblehead. This is a great town, and we sh we should feel confident that we can do things that maybe people don’t think we can. Um, there’s talent here. Uh, there’s a commitment to the, to the, to the ethics and the values of the town, and let’s hope it’s captured in the survey, and let’s hope we can figure out how to, how to do it with the focus groups and, and continue to move forward.

18:01 Okay. Um, the next, uh, the, the associate chair for, uh, waste management and other topics. Yeah, Basically. All right. I, I’m just gonna read off the bills real quick. There’s a cheating amount on this time. So, um, a one exterminators for rack control to transfer station $875, um, agri Source, which, uh, covers the grinding and compost removal of 12,960. Amazon Capital Services for other disposal, $4 99 cents, black earth compost for residential food, composting, pickup, and replacement bags. That’s $19,527 and 36 cents. Bob’s Tire for Tire Disposal, $719 25 cents. Boston Green Fuel Company recycles our waste oil.

18:48 $893 39 cents. Edward J. Collins, that’s the UMass Comp survey. That’s 20,000 again, not paid for by tax dollars. So let’s just get that out there. Um, electric light, hopefully That’s, no, that might be the charter. What? Oh, well, we’re paying, I guess, yeah, yeah. Goes to, These are all, everything on here is always just out none of the n So It’s, I think it’s just the Edward j you know, that was the what? The nut the name comes up for the billing. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Um, Boston Green, uh oh. Whoops, sorry. Um, equipment Depot for parts for the Ottawa. What, what is it? Oh, Ottawa. So that’s the yard tractor. So, okay. That moves the large trailers on site. Gotcha. We call it a Ottawa.

19:34 That’s the name of the truck. A donkey A mule. Yeah. There’s a whole bunch of names for that. Okay. Um, $1,964 72 cents. Uh, for Grainger, for the electrical control box, for the license plate. Rear cameras, uh, $2,080 13 cents Hawk, um, which is, uh, Marblehead Annual Contribution, uh, $4,000 Home Depot for disposal area maintenance supplies, $1,767 47 cents. Uh, Ken Romero, he’s our new employee, correct. Um, hoisting info, I don’t know if that’s just Hoisting license. That’s his last $23, um, 45 cents. Marblehead Counseling Center for Psychological Counseling, $15,390 27 cents. Meet teleman for legal.

20:20 $1,508 50 cents Meridian Association for the, uh, survey Benchmark. $1,400 NAPA Auto Parts for antifreeze, $93 74 cents. Printer Pro Solutions for Ink Toner for the employees. $1,275 81 cents recolor, that’s a recycled latex paint for hazardous waste aid. $2,008 25 cents. Republic Services for Trash Collections, 84,775 RMG Enterprises. Um, they recycle the TVs, monitors, laptops $625 66 cents, Steven Moody for internal service training. Uh, $10 48 cents T-Mobile for telephone, $33 6 cents utech, which does the mattress recycling, $4,380.

21:08 Um, Verizon for internet access, $168 99 cents. Walnut printing spec for printing forms, $4,438. Um, waste Management for trash disposal, $82,733 99 cents. WB Mason for miscellaneous office supplies, printing forms $85 45 cents. William Scottsman, Inc. For, uh, paid for the rented trailer, $770 49 cents.

21:39 Okay, now I need to Republic. Was that after the strike was over? Yes. Yeah. Alright. So there’s a, the next topic, um, would be used substance abuse. I wanna make it clear. This is me talking. This is, um, I don’t know if everyone agrees with me or not. I’m gonna put information out there, um, and we can decide whether we you want to or not, or how you feel about it. Okay. Um, some of this will be repetitive from stuff I’ve said before, but, uh, the need to address the underage drinking in town is top of mind for many. It’s always been a problem, but it seems to have exploded in more recent years compared to when I was at Marble at High.

22:25 One of the catalysts of this problem’s escalation has been with the parents, allowing their kids and their friends to have underage drinking parties at their homes. Also known as social hosting. Non hosting parents are concerned for the safety of their kids. Neighbors are sick of the constant parties at the same houses. It’s a problem. And we’ve experienced tragedy as a result. We created a leadership committee made up of representatives from the Board of Health, the park and Rec, the school committee, and the select board. My feeling is that some of these members were committed to making a change and addressing the situation, but not all, or at least not to the degree that they should. This led me to address the problem through a social media post where I pointed fingers

23:12 specifically at the police chief in town, and the lack of enforcement of underage drinking laws, and especially social hosting laws. I couldn’t have anticipated how much support that post would get. It was overwhelming 21,000 views, messages of support that I had a hard time keeping up with, et cetera. The support from my stance was incredible. I’m not feeling the support from the select board members though, and their role in addressing this issue is more critical than any other boards in town. They are in charge of oversight of law enforcement for the community that would include holding law enforcement accountable for the lack of action. This lack of action comes from a style of the police chief. It is not from the patrol officers, sergeants, et cetera.

23:59 The orders come from the top to deal with these situations with communication, rather than actually applying the laws we’ve adopted as a town or state. The problem has escalated in its repeat offenders, um, as far as hosting homes. So that style is counterproductive and ignorant. It needs to stop. I got criticism from a member of the select board saying, I don’t understand the law. So let’s take a look at Marblehead laws related to this MGL nine dash four persons in control of residential premises. Whoever having control of any residential premises fails to keep a person under the age of 18 from using or possessing any alcohol or alcohol Beverages on set premises shall be punished by a fine of $150. These were written in 1995. Keep that in mind.

24:49 So there’s your social hosting law. Seems pretty straightforward to me. Um, let’s see how the money received from these fines is handled. Now, it’s also worth noting there are other fines related to underage drinking, but I’m just highlighting the social hosting ones. MGL nine dash eight records. Disposition of funds. The town clerk shall keep a record of persons who have violated this bylaw, which records shall be open for public inspection. All monies collected as fines shall be reported to the select board. The select board, after having allocated funds for the enforcement of this ordinance, shall distribute the balance of funds for the purpose of prevention of alcohol use by minors. Good use of the money. So then I reached out to the town clerk to see how many

25:35 of these fines had been issued. No fines have been issued it related to these laws since 2017.

25:46 Let that sink in 2017, not one.

25:52 So we have the tools to address this issue and we aren’t using them. You might ask, well, maybe the police aren’t catching. These people buy a police scanner. Yes, they are. They are breaking up these parties all the time at the same damn houses. Again, though the officers are taking their orders from the top, it is not their call to just let it go quietly. This approach couldn’t be more counterproductive. There is zero fear of consequence for these parents that are breaking the law and endangering the youth. Here’s a good example. One of the streets I listed previously hosted a party the week before Halloween, where a girl got her stomach pumped. As a result, the party was broken up. They had a party the very next weekend for Halloween.

26:41 Let’s continue with the law, with, uh, with the law to see how it relates to the state MGL nine dash nine effect on state law. The provisions of this law are intended to supplement and not supersede applicable, applicable provisions of the state criminal law. Okay, so these are just added onto the state law that we should be enforcing. What’s the state law? MGL 1 38 dash 34. Whoever knowingly or intentionally supplies, gives, provides, or allows alcohol to a person under 21 years of age on premises or property owned or controlled by the person charged shall shall receive a fine of up to $2,000 or imprisonment for up to a year or both.

27:28 And they added a nice little q and a on, uh, that page where one, one in particular stood out to me, the question, can I be sued if my child or underage guest at my home drinks alcohol and injures someone? The answer, yes, you may be financially responsible if your child or underage guest injures another person or themselves after having consumed alcohol. If you controlled the supply of the alcohol, made it available or served it. Civil judgments can be for millions of dollars, if we’re being honest on the roles of our board. Our boards have towards making a meaningful change in this area. The Park and Rec and the Board of Health have more minor supportive roles. The second most important is the school committee who showed an enthusiasm at their last meeting to step up

28:16 by keeping the conversation going, enforcing the underage drinking laws on athletes. And even being open to the idea of having parents sit through talks on social hosting, underage and underage drinking in order for their kids to attend prom. I thank them for stepping up. If we don’t have law enforcement enforcing the laws on the books, both marblehead as well as the state, then we’re never going to improve this situation. We need the chief to reverse the position on handling this issue, which has proven to be a failure and only cause the problem to escalate. We also need the select board to make sure he does. So, this shouldn’t be a debate. I shouldn’t have to do what a select board member suggested and sit down and have a conversation with the chief about enforcing these laws.

29:02 That’s ridiculous. This is his job. And not doing that job, or picking and choosing which laws to enforce is putting all our kids at risk. I have a three-year-old and a one-year-old. I have all the motivation in the world to make sure they aren’t subject to the next round of parents who want to host underage drinking parties because a precedent was set that they won’t get in trouble. I won’t allow that to happen. I see the enthusia enthusiasm with the Board of Health, the park and rec, and the school committee to address this problem. I’m grateful for that. I ran for Board of Health because of a simple line, a previous chair said to residents, we are not required to allow the public to speak.

29:49 That was an unacceptable thing to say to Marblehead residents. And I stepped up to make sure it never happened again. I committed to run for two terms max with my first, currently in its final year, I have unfinished business with the Board of Health. And I’d like to see those things through by running for reelection this coming year. That said, if major changes aren’t made with regards to underage social hosting and actually enforcing the laws to put it to an end, I’ll have no hesitation to pull papers for select board C to make sure this problem is addressed and ensure that all boards are on the same page to achieve our goal of protecting the youth. That’s what I got.

30:36 Well, let me as certainly by far, the senior person in the room, my experience is that you can sort of move things along by trying to have reasonable conversations. And I understand the intensity of your feeling, but I I do believe we owe it to, we have, we have to assume, I, I feel obliged to assume that, that we all have the same

31:16 positive goals for the town. And so when we are interpreting both data and experience, it doesn’t seem consistent. We at least try to go, try to go. So I’m, I’m not, I’m probably supportive of what the select board person told you to sit and talk to, to the police chief, or invite the police chief to come here to talk or invite the police chief to, um, uh, to talk to the select board or explain why, uh, what what you’ve shown from, uh, the town clerk. There were multiple citations through 19 20 17 when there haven’t been today.

32:05 We, we need to understand the situation for both sides. And, um, I, I, I think people do make change. Um, they learn, they see people they respect, uh, with intensity of belief. And, um, I, I think the community is better off if we do try to talk this out some in some way, not in any way disagreeing with mm-hmm. Where you are. But in terms of process, the board,

32:46 I think someone told me very early on in my time in, in Marblehead, uh, individuals don’t matter. Only the board collectively matters. And, and I think that we ought to work to see collectively what we can do. Although I, I think the idea of having a multi-disciplined group that the school committee did endorse the other night, um, I had been told that they wouldn’t weren’t gonna do that, and they certainly did. Mm-hmm. Um, um, but I, I guess I’m getting too old to think

33:32 that I can prevail by attack, that I have to listen to the other person and make sure that I’ve understood as much as possible where that person is coming from. Mm-hmm. I had to leave things a little big, uh, because of, you know, text messages with maybe a select board member meetings with them just to not, um, you know, but I don’t say that when I got the response, I was furious. And that’s why my post came out the way it did. And, um, like I said, apparently I’m not the only one.

34:21 ‘cause I have had people reach out to me nonstop, and none of them, except for a few fake accounts made by high school kids or anything, but, you know, supportive. And, you know, I, I definitely am a more, um,

34:42 I don’t know, um, cut to the chase kind of guy and, uh, yeah. That and that, this one, I, I had reason to do it that I don’t go into detail here, but, you know, tried to show where it came from.

35:02 Um, no, but I, I, I agree. I think it always makes sense to kinda go to the person directly and hear both sides. Okay. Is it text with, The thing I see about both sides in this one is we have laws. We know this is a problem. It’s no secret. So why aren’t we enforcing those laws? And that’s not something that I feel like I should have to ask anyone. You know, be like, Hey, you know, we have laws here. Like, that’s who’s in charge of the laws en enforcing the laws. And we write these laws and we expect them to be enforced. So why would, would they not be? There’s, there’s no excuse in my mind that could say why it wouldn’t be. And the fact that it has led to tragedy

35:50 directly resulted in one death, and we learned nothing, no changes were made.

36:00 So, you know, it’s, they can come. I, I welcome, I welcome the chief to come and tell me what his reasoning could be. Select board member to say what the support would be. I, I’d have, I think they’d have a hard time defending it. No, not one citation, not one in eight years when we all, and it’s the same house,

36:27 So what are we doing?

36:36 Yeah. It’d be interesting to hear. I don’t know if it’s, but they need proof and what kind of proof or, um,

36:44 I’m sure there’s set methods of how they go in. And so it’s all just conjecture. We, we need to hear it from them, I think, to, to see their, their perspective. Mm-hmm.

37:03 Yep. Did she give you any sort of figure on what happened the first, uh, 20 years or so? So the laws came into place in 1995, and they were supported, um, by the chief at the time. He’s right. He was a big supporter of them, and they were enforced. Um, and, uh, you know, he wasn’t, um, chief for that entire period up to the, yeah. The recent one there was, um, chief Figuera was in between, I can recall several cases where people paid huge fines for some of these things. Yep. The fines do seem kind of low. Well, they’re 1995 standards, you know, inflation put it in, but also, like, you know, that’s in addition to the state. So these are just the local ones, um,

37:49 To be Thrown on top of that. These Could be updated at any time Just to Exactly. Um, but if they’re not enforced, then what’s the point? You know, it’s, uh, Was there something that happened in 17 that, uh, there’s Three parties? Um, No, it made ‘em not go forward. I mean, that’s eight years ago. Yeah, exactly.

38:11 I don’t know. I Mean, and it sounds like that money would’ve gone to the police department for a lot of it. They, I mean, it could have come to us. We some money Pension we’re down. Yeah. Uh, I took that police academy. They’re down 11 officers from what they used to have. Mm-hmm. And they’re letting all this revenue Yeah. Were the fingers.

38:34 No, it was, um, yeah. From what I understand of, you know, and I’m not just saying like, this is the style without knowing that that’s the style, you know?

38:49 So, yeah.

38:55 Like I said, my, my statement reflects me method,

39:02 But I think we share the goal. Yes. We do share the goal. We share the goal. Yeah. Marblehead should be safe for children. Mm-hmm. But it’s not just for kids, No forever. Right. These Kids are out driving around drunk or something. Anybody could get hurt. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Right. Exactly. So it’s something That lasts forever. Mm-hmm. There’s no,

39:27 Well, is there a thought of inviting the police to you? Happy to, what do you think? I think it would be great. Okay.

39:44 I can send out that invitation unless you want to, The, the concern, I believe will be that, and, and this is where I, because I’ve heard some of this as well, that the police chief, i is an enforcer at this point, and there are cases that he’s gotta deal with that he feels uncomfortable about talking about. But I, I, I think an invitation or a conversation is a required courtesy to a person who by,

40:28 by office, by background, and by certainly reputation amongst most people, until this has come up, um, to be a very exemplary, um, town leader. So I, I think we owe him that responsibility. I mean, I remember when I, before I got on the, this is trivial and I, this, this issue’s not trivial, but people said to me, why would you wanna run on the Board of Health? All they do is run the transfer station. And the transfer station’s $25 million over the town must be totally incompetence, uh, there, they can’t build a transfer station. Well, being on the board, I’ve spent a lot of time,

41:14 and I understand that I, I listened to Andrew’s slides 172 of them in one hour. Um, that there was no incompetence. Um, this was a, a, an incredibly complicated, uh, or renewal of what was a town dump for many, many, many years. And whether decisions were made that in retrospect, uh, they were not, they, they wished they hadn’t been made. I mean, certainly as, as someone who had leadership responsibilities in another state, but had leadership responsibilities during, during COVID, I know that there are very many of us that had those responsibilities that wish we had done some things at the margin a little bit

42:00 differently here and there. And there are an awful lot of books out there now talking about that. And so I, I just think that our first premise should be to assume that, uh, our colleagues are well intentioned, and let’s find out at least a little more about why, why we are, how, how can we explain the data? Even if it’s difficult for, um,

42:36 as chair, I’m happy to move to, to talk to, to, to offer an invitation to the chief. Or if it’s impossible, he believes it’s impossible for him to speak about things like this in public. Um, we Don’t need any specifics. Yeah. It can be gen generalities. Yeah. I mean, just telling me how it’s not being enforced. Yeah. I don’t need any specifics.

43:08 Well, I, I think since you’ve put yourself into a, a stronger position, maybe it’s one or other. Now Andrew knows him per well. We, we’ve worked with him for several years, but I do think this is a board of health issue, not a director issue. And so are you okay with my extending Yeah. Uh, a request of the, of the chief to help us understand how this data

43:41 is different than the way we’re interpreting it Yeah. The way it’s been in being interpreted. Absolutely.

43:49 I’ll put you on the spot, Andrew, but do you have Anything to add? No, and I, you know, I think you wanna reach out to ‘em. I think, you know, obviously meeting probably in private first to kind of understand that. Um, but then obviously you’re gonna need to bring the information back so the board can understand that. Um, but again, you know, once you have that understanding, you know, then after that, your job is really education for the, the public, working with the school department to further that education, um, and trying to, you know, better the community that way. Well, we certainly accept the education responsibility. Yep. Mm-hmm. Without question. Um, and in fact, I would, uh, a little bit, take a little bit different than Tom, that I actually think we have a bigger responsibility than schools. Schools actually only have the responsibility from seven 50

44:38 to two 50 in the afternoon. Whereas we have the responsibility when their kids are at home and we have the responsibility to educate their parents. And, and, uh, and I don’t mean educated in a pedantic way, um, but if there’s a cultural moray out there that is inconsistent with the best interest of the town, and people are interpreting things differently, we have a responsibility to clarify, we, to try to clarify those things. But, um, it, it, it, um,

45:19 I’d say a little more for the schools, though. It’s not just during school hours, because they do have Yes. Yeah. Yeah. But actually we, we, we have made Great, John was on Yep. The comm committee. He is been really great about talking about things like that. I think, uh, ju Julia, the associate superintendent for curriculum is, is an incredible person. And the way she’s handled, uh, educational issues most recently, the one on, uh, AI in the schools is, is, is remarkable. So I, I, I think one of the best things about your little group is it’s, at least from my experience, the first time

46:06 that different departments have come together to talk. Mm-hmm. It does seem to me that for 375 odd years, um, Marblehead has functioned pretty much in silos. And this is breaking down the silos. And so that’s a real positive. Mm-hmm. So I think we ought to do everything we can to build on the good side of mar build on the good things about Marblehead and see if we can make that work, um, in a, in a more open way.

46:41 I don’t know that we need, can, Can I just add, add something here? Have, have, have you reached out to say the, a more affluent, uh, neighboring, uh, community Swamp, Scott, do they have similar problems and what have they done? And perhaps the le the lesser affluent like Salem, although have they had similar problems and what’s have they done? I’m just curious. Do you know what I mean? If there’s, is this just, you know, we’re thinking of Marblehead, but there’s a larger community, you know, larger North Shore community, so you wonder, this must be problem elsewhere too. Part of the conversation we have at that leadership, that was something that select board member was gonna take back, was that see what they have on the books.

47:28 That’s different than what we have on the books. But again, I get back to that point of like, well, if we’re not even enforcing what we have on the books No, no, I understand that. Yeah. You know, I know, I know, I know. So this Back along with Dr. S Rick Bro’s idea of trying to understand the larger dynamic of it. Mm-hmm. That’s what I’m, that’s the only reason I’m saying that. Yeah. And I’d say, you know, from what I’ve, um, gathered, you know, it’s just there’s zero consequence for the parents. I mean, some of these, if I was to name the names, these are career ending decisions by these people. It is. It couldn’t be stupider for some of them. If, if it got out who they were, it, their, their c it’s over like businesses, you know, their profession in their professional career, like done,

48:16 if anyone finds out they’re hosting these parties, there’s no consequence. So that’s, um, why they keep doing.

48:25 But again, I think our goal is to improve the health

48:32 of the town in every way we can. And, um, to try to be a, a fair and effective mediator mm-hmm. In, in this situation. Um, um, maybe we can do it together. Um, um,

48:53 Not that long since 21. I think analogy would be something similar to the, um, lack of confidence a lot of the people in town have for the board of health in the $25 million fiasco. And you guys have done a lot to put people’s faith back into, well, there’s more to the story than we know. Perhaps there’s more to the story here than we know. It just seems strange that for 20 some years they didn’t have all these issues and they enforced them if they did have an issue with the loss. But, uh, they can’t spend all day, every day enforcing, look how many people drive talking on a cell phone. Yeah. I never do it ‘cause I personally choose not to use.

49:41 So I see it all the time. It’s a similar type of thing that there’s gotta be something that, that happened back in 17 or whatever. They said, well, we’re not gonna do that anymore. As, uh, as you mentioned a career ending thing, once these fines get issued, it becomes public record. Mm-hmm. And not for the juveniles, but for the adults. Mm-hmm. And it would get out there, but it, uh, something had to have happened to say, no, let’s not do this anymore. I mean, I applaud you for taking a stand. It’s, I’m sure you’re gonna get a lot of positive feedback, but you’re getting a lot of people that are, I’m definitely burning some bridges, but the positive has, um, been overwhelming.

50:26 I’m getting stopped everywhere and I can’t keep up with the messages. Right. So, and not one of those interactions has been negative. I applaud you for being willing to take this on. Yeah. It’s so important for our kids, for grandkids, Whatever. Mm-hmm.

50:46 We can all learn something like the best trial we can.

50:53 Mm-hmm. I guess you and I, if we did it together, we’d be violating an open meeting. Maybe we both maybe won’t, we would independently. Well, anyway, let’s, let’s, I will communicate with the chief that this conversation occurred. And the board of health, I think u unanimously agrees that rather than accuse people, we want to talk about the differences and, and how, how do we best do that under whatever constraints the chief may have and what constraints we, that sound okay? That’s Fine. Okay. I

51:42 talk about something like that.

51:49 Um, so, um, I had two, um, different topics I wanted to talk about. Um, the first one was the recent change to the CEC website regarding, um, vaccines and autism, um, is double negative, so bear with me. Um, but the updated wording, um, says that the statement vaccines do not cause autism is not evidence-based, because studies have not definitively ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism. Um, so it’s, I think it’s really important to note that there’s been no new data or research that went into this change. Um, that the, the sole change was the viewpoint of one individual, um, the health, the health secretary,

52:35 RFK Junior, um, his viewpoint, rather than any, um, emerging scientific, uh, evidence. Um, and just to explain, the, the gold standard for causation is a randomized clinical trial where you have the, uh, treatment arm and the control or the, and the placebo arm. Um, in this context, you can’t do that by withholding a life-saving preventable vaccine, uh, to some children is incredibly unethical. So for this reason, the gold standard in this situation is using observational studies, which goes back in time, looks at kids who did receive the MMR and kids that didn’t, and see, look at those kids that who did not receive it. Um, do they have less autism

53:20 than the ones that did receive it? And millions of children have been studied across the world. Um, and the conclusion has been consistent every time that there is no increased risk of autism in vaccinated children. They, I think they looked at different vaccines, but particularly the MM MR vaccine. Um, so the RFK juniors motivations are unclear, but, um, every reputable scientific and medical organization refutes this claim. Um, and sowing this doubt in the minds of parents is very dangerous. And we know from history that it can lead to tragic, preventable illness and death. Um, there is an excellent statement by, uh, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Commissioner, uh, Robbie Goldstein. I think we can post on the website if we can.

54:07 He has, um, excellent viewpoint on it. Um, so, um, any questions about that? Yes. Um, and in Your opinion, or the board’s opinion, because of this recent language change on the CDC D’S website, would you still trust the CDC with any information they’re going to be putting out because of this? It’s a really good question. Um, I think it, it, it, no, and that’s the such sad thing. It’s been our, it’s been a trusted source for so many things. And now, because it could just be changed on a whim of, of one man who was, who was not in the healthcare industry, a lawyer. Mm-hmm. Um, it definitely sows mistrust in the agency as a whole. Yeah. So who should, who should we look to?

54:54 Um, so I would say like the American Academy of Pediatrics, actually, they issued their own. So when the vaccine guidance changed, they issued their own vaccine schedule. Okay. Um, so did the American Academy of Family Physicians, um, which is very similar to the A A P, um, ‘cause with the A CIP, uh, changes as well. Um, they’re also losing trust as well. Um, and I think look to, um, so I, I also brought a statement by Paul Offit, who’s a fantastic infectious disease doctor out of chop, um, children’s hospital in Philadelphia. I think we kind of have to look at the statements of trusted doctors who review the data, um, and also the studies themselves.

55:41 Um, but it’s, it’s, it’s sad to see the slow death of such a respected organization. And I hope someday I can come back. Unfortunately, It’s been a fast death I know with the Yes. Also other countries. I mean, just because we’re in the United States doesn’t mean we know the best or are the best and know everybody else are dummies and don’t know anything. Look to them too. Mm-hmm. I like that. ‘cause I always look at, um, countries with socialized medicine because they have no profit incentive. And so checking what they do, I always find they’re, they’re not as corrupted as some of ours have been. Germany is a good Example. Japan. Mm-hmm. Right.

56:27 That’s a class you’re gonna have in the many med, med school thing. Um, having lived and worked in many of these countries, um,

56:39 Switzerland is probably one we should talk because Switzerland and the Netherlands are the two European countries that actually do depend on private health insurance. Um, and that there’s virtually no debt, me medical debt in the Netherlands. The Swiss, uh, have a little more flexibility in the way the different cantons write their, or allow their health insurance firms to work. And so they can ask for copays and deductible, which are higher than certainly are in most of the rest of Europe. But we, we can have that conversation in the end.

57:24 There’s no question that the problem exists in the United States because corporate structures are unrestricted. And that’s true beyond healthcare. It’s true in everything. Um, um, but it is, that’s, that’s our reality at, uh, at at this stage. But, but I, I hope as we move forward that, uh, it, it’ll tolerate my doing a half an hour on it. Just exactly what we, we were talking about. What are the differences? It’s, Taiwan is a superb healthcare system. Singapore is, is amazing in, in its uniqueness. Um, the Scandinavian countries are all national health

58:13 services, um, which are, are are very different than, uh, than say Germany or Austria than Netherlands, those sorts of places. So we should have that conversation. I think it, it, it, it, it, it changes it, it changes our perspective on, on what goes with, and I’ll, I’ll try to have something like that ready. Certainly by the first of the year. Um,

58:46 Hey, you had a second? You had a second. I’m getting a message from Sustainable Marble saying that it, it’s not working the link they have. So there is, I have three attendees, LeadLander, Miguel Will’s n taker, so I know it’s working. Okay. I told her I started the recording. Yeah, of course. That’s, that’s super easy. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Um, so the second topic is the, um, mismatch sub cla, uh, k flu strain. So earlier this month, the group of Canadian researchers published early influenza data showing that there was an observing, um, observed emerging dominant flu strain, um, that’s not in this season’s flu vaccine.

59:32 Uh, H three N two sub CLA k. We were kind of looking to Canadian researchers ‘cause we weren’t having the data during the government shutdown, um, about flu surveillance and what was emerging. But now that we’re back up and running, we see that the major strain in the US is this subtype. Um, k which is not in the vaccine. So, um, it is the class, the H three N two, and, um, this, this class generally causes more severe illness than the H one N one subtypes. They tend to be more mild. Um, but it seems like the K subtype is not more virulent than the other H three N two subtypes. So it’s very unlikely that this is gonna cause a pandemic. Um, these H three N two subtypes have been circulating since the sixties. We’ve seen them before with just the slight variations.

1:00:18 That’s why we think it’s unlikely to cause a pandemic. Um, the, the mismatch is a concern that it’s not in the vaccine because that can lead to more hospitalizations and severe illness. Um, but it’s still very crucial that everyone receive, um, the flu vaccine this season. ‘cause even past data when there was previous mismatched seasons, the flu vaccines still significantly reduced hospitalizations, um, and severe disease and death in both children and adults. Um, so I’ll keep, uh, I’ll, I’ll keep kind of reporting on this, but current flu rates are low, um, lower than average flu rates throughout the year, but they’ve been rising and we’re gonna see them continue to rise each week. Um, the other point is that this kind of, this mismatch highlights the need for a different way to,

1:01:07 uh, manufacture flu vaccines. Right now. We use, um, egg-based flu vaccines that take a while to grow. And so you’re making a predict prediction of what dominant subtype you’re going to see. Thought it was J and now it’s k as opposed to mRNA based vaccines that you can produce far more quickly. And if we had something like this, they could say, okay, it’s K and then mass produce the mRNA vaccines. Um, fortunately the federal government has withdrawn funding, but there’s still further research being done on mRNA vaccines through private resources. Um, so we’ll see what comes out in the future for those, but still very important for everyone to get their flu shot. Um, and just to lots of good hand washing, um, mask wearing when coughing and fever.

1:01:56 Sorry for all the Question. Please, Ms. Marvin. Do any sort of like flu clinics or anything like that? So, very minor. Um, so we only purchase a small amount of flu vaccine. Um, so we offer vaccine to employees. Um, and then we buy a high dose for elders, but again, limited numbers. Okay. That makes sense. Thank you. They ask people to get it through their, their doctor’s office or the pharmacies are so easy to schedule with now. Uh, then my second question is, are you seeing any difference in symptoms with this k Rather than it’s a, we haven’t been seeing much yet, so they’ll ask me next month. Okay. Um, but yeah, not, not really yet. There’s some bee coming out, there’s COVID, um, but that’s still low too.

1:02:42 So not that, not that we’ve seen so far, but several. It’s just the beginning. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

1:02:50 Just to add a a little bit more to this, we do, we do make the vaccine in, in classical grown and eggs sort of thing, but the data comes from the southern hemisphere six months in advance and things change with the traffic with the world, the way people travel and everything else. That identity of the different strains, the different types, uh, different years cannot be very close to what we’re seeing in, in the Northern Hemisphere. So again, from my perspective, the, the mRNA vaccine, it did get its Nobel Prize winners. And, uh, the, the researchers that persevered with that,

1:03:37 um, get the reputation, got the reputation bump that they deserve. But it’s just absolutely crazy that the US paid for this money, paid for this research, it came to fruition and now we’re undercutting it. Uh, it, it makes absolute no sense, uh, to the rest, to the rest of the world. We, um, Because there could be further research on a universal flu vaccine. Yeah. It’s just one shot covers all the strains. It, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s, it makes cutting your nose off to spite your face. Yeah. Seems, um, trivial. Um, but it is where we are and I think our responsibility as a board is to try to get as many people in town to understand the details

1:04:24 because, um, it, it clearly clinical medicine and infectious disease are complicated. And so it’s our responsibility to try to simplify them. I think it’s our, I think we’re lucky when people come to this meeting and ask good questions because it challenges us to explain it in, in ways that it, it’s not our own little vocabulary. So, um, I I think that to, to an audience here makes a great deal of difference to us.

1:05:04 Any, oh, the, um, I was just gonna, uh, briefly touch on, um, your was unfortunately a case of, um, a and flu H five N five. Um, uh, it was concerned that it was an H five N one that was, that’s the main, there’s many types of birth flu, but that was the main type we were watching. But, um, uh, there was a case of H five N five in some, in someone who passed. Um, but the risk to the public still remains low because there hasn’t been human to human transmission of this virus. And to keep it a clo, the wa and this is, this was in Washington state and they’re keeping a very close eye on this person’s contacts. And this person had a lot of, um, contact with, uh, with birds in their Yard, believe backyard flock

1:05:51 of domestic poultry at home and expo. And they had exposure to wild birds,

1:05:59 but not a, not a concern for the public.

1:06:03 Okay. Well I certainly learned a lot and thank you very much for keeping us all up to date. It’s, it’s, uh, so forces Me to keep up to date too. So that’s something. Go ahead. Um, today was the first day that I was at the transfer station in a couple of weeks. My son, uh, hecked a whole lot of leaf bags over the weekend. And, um, we really have, I look forward to hearing all the, the, the construction reports because you really have place torn up. Oh yeah. Um, so first, uh, curbside collection RFP contract is on the street, so that’s been re released. Um, so that’s curbside collection of trash recycling, that’s disposable of all the trash. That’s the processing of the recycling, um,

1:06:51 and everything that goes into that as well. Um, the big dates for that is that bid dates are, are due January 14th. Um, we will have a meeting open to the public really for the potential contractors with any questions regarding the RFP on December 18th. Um, so that is out. We’ll make sure that gets, everybody’s kind of picking it up quickly, but we’ll make sure it gets to the big five or to the companies that we really wanna make sure we get bids from about that. Um, as far as construction, yes, we are fully in con into construction. Um, so we’ve done some site excavation. We’ve excavated for the scale pit, for the scale house, the beginning on the lower side. Um, with that always comes some, you know,

1:07:37 findings and stuff like that. We did run into some what we call urban fill. So this is an old site from the early 1937 started to be developed. Um, so urban fill generally from outside areas could be potentially contaminated. Um, we will take a look at that. The idea is to use as much fill on site as possible. Um, but all those areas, so that scale pit itself, um, is a little bit over a hundred cubic yards. Um, so if we’re unable to reuse all that material on site, we may have to ship some of that out. Um, there will be a cost for that. We do have to use an LSP to categorize all the soil. Um, and there is some testing that has to take place for that. What’s ls? Uh, licensed site professional?

1:08:22 Um, it’s very common to use. We use one, um, during the process for the landfill closure, um, in and around, um, the Stonybrook Road area, Tioga way. Uh, you always have an LSP when it’s kind of offsite property and stuff like that. Um, that’s, you know, they’re kind of dealing with your 21 es, your oil spills. Um, but yeah, they’re, they’re the go-to expert, um, that you hire from an engineering firm to, to give you guidance. What does they do? Come in with the shovel? Yeah, they take a look at the site. Yeah, they take a look at the site, um, look at the soil makeup. They take samples, identify what’s, you know, obviously a lot use A VOC uh, test, volatile organic compounds. Um, so you’re looking for petroleum-based products, anything like that? Again, the idea is to use

1:09:07 and keep as much soil on site as possible, which is allowed into the regulations. Um, but we, we do have an excess amount and we need, might need to ship some out. Um, so we need to be prepared for some of that. So urban fill and soil, it’s not past trash. That’s correct, yes. Um, but again, when we have long term history of the East coast, everything’s, soil’s been moved around as we did. Construction stuff moves from one side to the other. Um, you know, I’m doing a construction project, I need to get rid of that. Oh, I’m doing a construction project. I need some fill. We’ll take that over here. Today. The regulations are a little bit higher. Um, so we need to understand what’s in the soil before we can start, start shipping stuff around.

1:09:52 Um, we are looking to, we need to purchase a steel plate that’s gonna be bolted to the bottom side of the pit where the trash trailers connects. Um, so we’re in the process of pricing that out. Um, that’s a four foot by 18 foot, um, one inch steel plate. Uh, we’re hoping to reuse some of the steel that came off the compactor floor, um, that tipping floor. Um, but unfortunately this is a very pci, you know, unique piece of steel. Um, and so we’re gonna be buying the straight out, um, the steel itself’s about $3,300. Um, we’re also gonna need to install a sewage manhole. We’re looking at that right now. That’s at the beginning of the site. Um, there’s some large elevation changes, so we just need

1:10:37 to make sure that we follow all the directions properly. Um, making sure, is that the, um, what the water and sewer department wants. Um, the big change that I’m coming to tonight is that originally we had specked out concrete curbing, um, for around the scale house and around that area, as in your commercial area. Um, we’d like to change it over to granite. Um, the issue with the concrete is that it can be affected by salt. Um, so when we’re salting the road and stuff like that, you can have some shortness of life for concrete curbing. As you’ll notice, most around town, it’s all granite curbing. So we’d like to switch over to use granite curbing rather than concrete. Again, when we put this project out on the street, we want

1:11:23 to come up with a project that we could actually build. Um, so this is an area where we believe that it makes sense to upgrade from the concrete curbing over to the granite. Um, so the change for this, um, is $5,016. So if the board would like, I would need a motion to approve the change order, um, from going from concrete curbing to granite. I’ll make a motion From, uh, Concrete to granite. Yep. Kirby, I’ll second.

1:11:55 Um, is there any other comment? No, uh, above all in favor, unanimous. Three, three to zero. Thank you. Yeah. So as far as construction, uh, it’s a very, very tight schedule. Um, it’s essentially 90 days that the contract allows. Um, so everyday counts, little things can kind of set us back. Um, so we feel like we’re, you know, trying to stay on schedule as much as possible. Um, so we’re looking to install that scale. So obviously the ex the pet has been excavated. You can see all the rebar in that scale pit. We do not have concrete in that scale pit yet. Um, we were hoping to pour that tomorrow, but it looks like it’s not gonna be poured until Friday.

1:12:42 Um, so that’s a couple days there. Obviously we have a holiday in there. Um, so we’re looking to install that scale back in the week of December 19th. Um, so there’s gonna be a couple of days that we’re gonna push. Um, but again, we’ll try to make sure the public is aware of all this. Again, our priority is to the residential area, making sure residents continue to have access to the transfer station. Um, but we will have, we might have some additional down days for the commercial side.

1:13:10 That’s it.

1:13:13 Couple of things. Are you doing test scorings at all For, for the soil Sampling? I, I know I’ve had that done. So yeah, they had to do pricing. Yeah. So for the urban fill, we are not doing test varis. Yeah, no, we were just not Test, Correct. Yeah, we’re just doing excavations or tests, test pits, using a backup. It seems like the contracts you have, they are very respectful of all the traffic going by from out back. They’re doing a real good job of That. I mean, obviously like, you know, they understand that our priority is to making sure that traffic flows, trying to protect that. Um, but we’re trying to minimize down days and blocking that exit. Um, we’re even gonna look at, so originally the power was gonna come in and go down that one big pole that has, um,

1:14:02 the main units on it, but we’re looking about bringing that across the other pole and coming down that pole so we don’t have to do as much concrete, uh, work in that area as well. I’ve noticed that I’ve been there probably seven or eight times and they, uh, they’re very respectful and careful. Watch out for people coming by. Yep. It’s, it’s nice to know that No, we have a good relationship with them and so we’re working well together. Where is, uh, reliable taking our trash. Um, so Republic and Republic ourselves, um, are going to rescue currently. Okay. Yep. So that makes their day a little longer. It does. They can’t just go up to Beacon Street and Drop it. That’s correct. So in the contracts we always call out two different locations. We say your main dumping point is the Marblehead transfer station and the second is the location of our choosing.

1:14:50 Um, and so yeah, That must be why I see ‘em out so late. Correct. Usually four-ish o’clock, they’re long gone. Yep. Okay. Yep. Um, and it is like, you know, as you move into the holiday period, there is a little bit more trash out than normal. So some days do you take a little bit longer? Is that where you’re taking your compactor to dump? That is where we’re taking our compactor dump, So that adds a lot of extra time for everybody. Yep. So we’re going there generally twice a day as well. Well, it’s working out nice. They’re doing a good job up there. Thank You. They put a lot of really hard work and I really appreciate the teamwork up there. Work Is a team. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. That’s everything I have. Oh, I just have a question. Yeah. Um, so I just had a, a couple questions about some of the,

1:15:35 um, financial items that were read off earlier. Yeah. Um, so for Black or that was $19,000, what exactly does that cover? So Black Earth does both. They do all our schools for food waste, so we pay for all that. Um, we also have bins up at the transfer station and Black Earth Colton in twice a week for that. So it covers all those. And that’s for the year? No, I’d have to take a look at the bill to see the period of time. And then, um, for Republic and Waste Management is the waste management charge, is that, what is that What was operating when Republic was on Strike? So, yeah, so a lot of that Waste Management bill is for recycling. Um, that waste management is.

1:16:20 So generally our contract with Waste Management is for what we call salt waste disposal. So the trash disposal. Um, but during, they’re also helping out with us doing some of the recycling for us. So they have a truck coming in three times a week pulling recycling for us. Um, and then just to kind of help us out ‘cause we’re seeing so much, um, they also really helped us out during the strike and we’re in a couple times a day pulling, recycling. Very nice. And for the Republic charge, um, that was paid after the strike, but what, for what period of, So that’s for a month, it’s $84,000 roughly a month. Okay. So during the strike what we did was that we took the bill because, so that bill was for curbside collection of both trash and recycling.

1:17:07 Okay. If they were just picking up trash, we were cutting the bill in half. Mm-hmm. So you go from 84 down to 42. I see. If it was a week of recycling, then you could add a week in or whatever. So yeah, we essentially broke it all the way down into days or weeks and paid the bill according to That. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah, no problem. Lot of numbers. Yep. Helpful to understand. I’m impressed that you can follow pretty fast. Uh, is there any public comment available online?

1:17:42 I see no hands raised at this time.

1:17:47 Uh, on,

1:17:51 All right, go ahead Eileen. Hello, this is, um, Elaine Lahey and Ida Road. Hi everyone. Um, I just wanted to say, I know it’s, it’s going to be I’m sure a purely financial decision, but I’ve spoken with Anthony before so he knows my feelings. I just hope that we are able to get recycling weekly, um, you know, remain with our current schedule. But, uh, at the same time as I said, I know it’s probably gonna come down to finances, so I do understand. But just wanted to, um, put that out there and say thanks for your time.

1:18:30 Thank you. Thank you for making a comment. A lot of people have reiterated that same feeling, Elaine, so, Okay. Great.

1:18:45 That’s it. Okay. Is then it’s appropriate to, uh, accept the motion. Adjourn. Motion to adjourn there a second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. No opposition. When is our next meetings?

1:19:07 Ninth. 9th of December. Yeah. Chucky. Oh are, yeah. Super nice guy.

1:19:15 The 22nd start off. I tried to work when isn’t ready to take something and I’ll, I’ll be away the 22nd.

1:19:26 I might not be, but I believe I am. Do you that second press me, I’m away. That whole Week was emergency. How quick we get that to you for stitches or whatever, but one of our kids in particular, Thank you very much Cheryl. Current story. Yeah. Bena Sheriff.