Board of Health: June 16, 2026

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 Can get that.

0:02 I- All right. So good evening, everybody. It’s 7:07, I’ll call the meeting to order. I’m Andrew Petty. I’m the director of public health. So first up, we have reorganization. So at first, the board will choose a chair, and then once the chair has been chosen, I will hand the meeting off to the chair. Do I– Does somebody have a motion? I’ll make a motion that Tom Massaro continue as chair. Second. Do you guys have a discussion about it? Do you want to have a discussion? Happy? Okay. All in favor? Aye. Unanimous. Great. That was easy. Yes. Four-0 in- Well, it’s all right. I took the chair last year thinking my primary goal was to elevate public health to be equivalent to the transfer station and trash and everything in town.

0:51 And so here I am to celebrate the first time I get to chair the five-person board, and the whole audience is only carrying four. What is this public health stuff again? Just remember, sanitation is a huge portion of public health. Well, I’m going to argue with that. I’ll try to

1:16 Well… Because we have an audience, and I think it’s absolutely fantastic that we have an audience. We have an audience both directly and by Zoom. Clearly, the questions are about the new contract, the fact that it remains within the tax structure of the town, and how do we move forward and make the best of this new initiative. And so like we did last time, I think it makes an awful lot of sense to hand this over to Andrew and the historic vice chair for waste, because they’ve done most of the work. Sure. So we

2:02 currently have Republic as our contractor. We will be staying with Republic for our next contract. Because we were moving into these two different options, one option was going to be a fee-based, the other option was going to be override. We had to make a lot of decisions to get us to July 1, and that’s when everything starts. We will be moving to automated collection. All the big companies are no longer offering hand collection due to safety reasons. But everything is moving over to automated collection. Of course, Marblehead is unique, where we have a downtown district that makes that really hard. So in the downtown district, there will still be what we call manual collection. Collection just like today. And

2:49 Republic will decide what the route is. Most likely, that will probably be a Monday route, and it’ll define what that area’s going to be and stuff like that. The other four days will all be automated collection trucks. You’ll have a trash truck and a recycling truck operating separately, just like we do today. So recently, because we have to get to July 1st, we have barrel rollout, so we will be moving to– Because of the automation, you have to use carts. So the truck reaches the arm out, grabs the barrel, and puts the barrel and the trash into the truck. Because of that, you are using an arm that’s going to grab the barrel, squeeze the barrel. All the carts are owned by the town of Marblehead. We didn’t want to have this debate of, “You broke my barrel.

3:36 You threw my barrel.” Those are our carts, and we will maintain those carts for the life of those toters and stuff like that. We are expected to get at least 10 years out of those carts. So it’s a heavy upfront investment, but a long time payout. Again, because we are dealing with both a fee-based and the potential override, we needed to make everything as equal as possible. And with that, we had several other questions that came up. The first one that came up was recycling. Are we going to be doing this every week or every other week? We had numbers when we put out the RFP. We got numbers for doing it both weekly and every other week. There is a substantial cost savings for every other week. But at this time, we have chosen to do weekly.

4:23 And that really came about because of the strike last July, and even though we have a transfer station and everybody used the transfer station, at the end of that, people still felt they would like weekly collection of recycling. A lot of people were burdened by getting up to the transfer station, and if you had a lot of people only able to access there on Saturday, they felt that there was going to be an issue. So we’ve chosen weekly collection at this point. But in five years’ time when we go back out to do an RFP and contract, it’s a very good possibility that we’ll be going to every other week collection for recycling. So that’s a big part of it. Again, we have regulations on how much trash you can be putting curbside. Since 2015, we’ve had regulations that you’re allowed two 35-gallon barrels

5:11 or one 70-gallon toter. They only really make a 65-gallon toter, so that was kind of the equal. And recycling was unlimited at that time. In this past contract, we did not have to pay for the processing or the disposal or really the processing of any of the recycled material. With that, we were very generous to the community. We allowed businesses to put all their cardboard, all their recyclables curbside, thinking that was an opportunity for us to make some money. Again, this last contract, the contractor owned all of it, but it was still at no cost to us. When we move to this new contract, we are paying the processing fee, and it’s a cost share for the recyclables themselves. So again, we needed to try to control our costs, try

5:58 to understand and be open and transparent about what we’re doing. But de- Budget was really the driving factor. So by having limited carts or having trash limited to one 65-gallon cart and a 95-gallon recycling, we are controlling the volume of material. This was all known in the RFP, so they were able to say, “This is why the cost is this,” is because we’re telling them it’s going to be a 65 and a 95, and we got contracts based on that. And obviously they have those questions. The other piece, obviously, that is probably going to be talked about tonight is the eligible units. So we service single family, two

6:46 family, three family, and four family. This hasn’t been in the contract for a very long time. We just wanted to make sure that when we wrote the new regulations, that it was mirroring the contract. Again, the contract is dictating pricing. The eligibility also dictates pricing because that’s the number of stops that you have to make and stuff like that. So that’s where we came to that. Is there a question there, Dan? No. Of- I- Yeah, then I don’t know. One– I have two questions, really. One is that I don’t think it’s any surprise that the language of the override for trash was incredibly difficult to understand. My husband, who’s a lawyer, read it and he didn’t even under- he didn’t– He voted yes, and he meant to vote no.

7:34 There are so many people, and so I’m wondering who wrote- Select board The select board wrote the question? Yep. Okay. They kicked it out of the budget. It’s their override. Okay. So I was very disappointed in the non– Because I don’t think anybody knew what they were voting on. So that felt a little misleading. But the second thing, if in Old Town they are not using the automated arm, why are we getting, in a place where many, many people don’t have room for anything, much less a 90- They are using automation. It’s on the back of the truck. It’s on the back. I know. Yeah. I saw it today. So you’re not being able to lift. Could do, could be automated. I just, if- Some could.

8:20 Yeah. Some could, but plenty of them couldn’t. So for every 10th house that could, you have to deal with the other not. So- I think that he had, Beth yesterday got from you two 35 gallon things. Why are we not able to get 35 gallon? Wait, what? Because he gives the option of moving to every other week for recycling in the future. Right now, it’s every week. Because we did test, we held a public forum to see if there was an appetite for every other week. Okay. There wasn’t. I would say if you ask people in Old Town- We– Everyone was allowed to come to the forum. Okay. But they didn’t, and this is part of the problem I have, is everyone’s complaining after the fact. I mean, I just don’t see how anybody that knows this town, and you guys

9:07 know the town- Look, I mean, Betty, you’re my neighbor. I’ve known Old Town for 43 years. Yeah, I know. All I’ve done is talk about the historic district here and how– I mean, I’ve lived in the historic district longer than anyone in the room probably. Yeah. But all I’ve done here for the past couple of months is be like, “This is going to be a problem for the historic district.” Now we got- Let’s talk about how we’re going to. Yeah. Okay. We can’t change history. Yeah. We can’t change the reasoning. You can change. You can go to 35 gallons and- We can. Then Andrew, do you want to address that? Yes. I would happily pay if I had to go to the two-week recycling. We anticipated some questions. Yes. So the issue– So again, in the Old Town district- Interesting … we do understand that there’s properties that cannot place a 65 gallon and a 95.

9:54 Mm-hmm. We do have a 35 and a 65 for those households. Yes, I know. We cannot do the two 35s and the two 35s for every household. You’re doubling the number of stops, and that’s not what our contract had said. Why? Why are you doubling? No, you’re not doubling the number of stops. So if I go from– So if you– I can give you a 35 and a 35. Right. But I can’t give you two 35s for recycling and two 35s for trash. I don’t want two 35s. Okay. I want– Can I get, this is a straight– Can I get one 35 for trash and another 35 for recycling? Yes. Okay. Okay. And again- I wasn’t aware of that, so that’s- Okay.

10:39 It’s going to take some time. Okay. Okay. But yes. All right. Let me finish. Okay. So I want that, just to clarify, we’ve put in an email. I’m at 25 Lee Street. Yep. We’ve requested two 35s via email, and we actually came and spoke to you- Yep … my husband and I personally. And you said, “Yes, two 35s are available.” And you said you didn’t know when. So what is a rough timeline? Six weeks. Okay. Six, so- Yep. Okay. And again, you need to remember that everything has to be in the cart. Yes. Nothing can be left to the side. Yeah. The other reason why for downtown it’s really important, is that we do deal with sanitation issues down there. Yeah. There are quite a few rats, and we’re trying to control that.

11:26 Nobody likes that. But put all over the place. They’ll look over the edge of the landing. They were in every neighborhood. Yeah. Not just in the historic neighborhood. We are a coastal community, and we do have rodents. And yes, we need to be vigilant about that. We need to control where we keep our trash. We need to pick up after our pets. We need to make sure that we don’t feed bird seed out. There’s a whole bunch of things that we try to remind everybody about. So making sure everything’s in the trash- Yeah … and in carts- Yes … that’s a huge piece. Okay. Yeah. I just want to, so I can pass it along to- So I have limited numbers. So we’ve ordered 500-

12:12 35s and 35s. Again, there’s a chance that we’re moving to every other week recycling in five years. This is what you’re going to have for the next- I may be dead in five years, so I’m just- Well, that’s actually… So this is the- It’s possible she’ll be dead. So, okay. But that’s- She could absolutely be. Okay … so again, that adds into the issue. So the cart is assigned to the address. Got it. Yeah. So yes, somebody could change and stuff like that. In five years, if I change to every other week, the town can’t afford to go out and buy new recycling carts for a huge portion of the community. Right. Okay. But you’re going to have a lot of those recycling carts available because all the people in Old Town who are going to be returning- No … their oversized carts.

12:58 Right. So over the next five years, we will be maintaining carts, and I’ll take those carts to do the maintenance. So those carts will be used up. Maybe. It’s hard to say, but those are the numbers that we’ve been told. Okay. Yeah. This is something I would not make a knee-jerk reaction on decision. I would think hard about it. Look at your recycling, look at your Amazon boxes, and think in five, six years. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Stop ordering Amazon. I’m just saying, like, we all drive around and we all see it. That is the hardest thing, and that was a driving force. The amount of cardboard that we’re seeing curbside now is astronomical compared to a couple of years ago. And so yeah, that was a huge driving force. And again, since everything has to be in that cart, unless you’re vigilant about

13:47 breaking down your boxes and making sure you pack your cart, you’re going to have a hard time with it. But again, I understand in downtown districts, there are homes that you have no place to put a cart or it’s very, very challenging. And if you drive around now and you drive through Old Town, you see these big honking bins in front of everybody’s house, and it is so ugly. Yeah. And you’ve got the Old and Historic Commission breaking everybody’s chops about- Yeah … “You can’t put this window in unless it’s a wood frame.” So- Do you want to give them more power? Well, but what I’m saying is that you’ve just then given us these bins that- Yeah … are atrocious. Well, keep in mind that they just rolled out, so when I look at your neighbors,

14:33 they’re never there, so their bins are sitting in front of their house, right? Well, one neighbor isn’t there, and their bins are sitting up on their stoop because- Exactly. No, they look atrocious because that neighbor isn’t there. But my other neighbors have got– There are three condos- Yeah … and they’ve got six bins- Yeah. Nice … that they have taken up one of their designated parking spaces to store their bins in front of their houses. Yeah. And you drive all through Old Town, Tom- It- … and there are bins. Yeah. No, none of this, and what I said, over and over again, nonstop, this is not ideal. This is not a perfect scenario. It’s not going to be. No matter what we do, we got to figure out a way to make it work, though. And so I think Andrew giving you the option of a 35 and a 35, that’s a hell of a good

15:20 compromise. That- But it’s not going to be perfect, and we can’t micromanage everyone and be like, “You have to put your bin here because it’s unsightly for someone.” People are going to put them where their- It’s a lot of- … best location is. 35 is- Let’s also work to make this meeting manageable- Yeah … in addition to the carts. So let’s try to get the questions from everyone. Yep. We’ll go around after you’ve spoken once or after you’ve got your hand raised. Let’s try to make it as much of a community conversation as we can. Lee, you’ve got your question? I do. So are the 35, 35 options new, or were those in the regulations? No, the 35 and 35 is not in the regulations. So how do people find out about it? So again- In Old Town … this is really for the Downtown District.

16:06 Yeah. We have limited numbers. Okay. Bring it- Downtown District only. But we will try– Again, the hardest thing for us is it’s impossible for us to take custom orders. Oh, even if you’re in the Downtown District? So again, I have limited number of carts. So I’m going to have 500 of each of those. Right. And that’s it. That’s as good as it gets. So what do you want people who live in Old Town and the Old and Historic- To really consider- What do you want them to know? To really consider your options. Yeah. So we want to remind everybody that you really need to look at a small 35-gallon cart and be like, “I’m not going to be able to put a lot of recycling in there.” Gotcha. Okay. A couple boxes is going to fill that up. If people do want to, or they want to have a conversation about it, they call you?

16:51 How do they- They have to send us an email- Send you an email … and we’ll review it. Okay, cool. And so we’re trying to take care of the Downtown District first. Okay. And then after that, we’re trying to take care of the elderly- Okay … and people that are- Okay … that have issues and stuff. Okay. Mobility issues and stuff like that, or special circumstances. Okay, cool. Follow-up on the regulations. The regulations specifically said eligible properties include some businesses, and now can you explain what that means? That’s another topic. Let’s get to the business topic. Are there other questions about Old Town tubs and that sort of thing? Not Old Town. Not Old Town, just outside of Old Town, and elderly, and yes. So okay, I’m on 8 Jersey.

17:40 Okay. So I’m just in the lower end of Jersey. I don’t have a lot of space, and once again, it’s also- You’re lower Jersey. Lower Jersey. Okay. So on 8, I’m four houses up, no sewer. All right? Don’t have a lot of space. I don’t like the sight of them. My bins right now fit in my little tiny garage with my little tiny car. And for me, it’s because I’m 77 years old. I have three shoulder replacements, replacement knees. Lugging the big things, particularly in the wintertime, where are you going to put them? I have to dig out the snow if they’re outside. This, for me, is a health issue, is my personal health of dealing with this. So I would like ones that are small that can fit in my garage, like I have now.

18:26 So yeah, you would send me an email, and I would’ve- I’ve already sent two. So again, we always respond to them, and it says- No, nobody’s responding. Don’t forget, keep in mind, there’s basically two people managing an email- I- … for 20,000 people. I understand. I gave it a week. I sent one, I called twice. I sent one, I waited a week, then I sent another one, so I didn’t expect… I was very nice, was very pleasant. I understand people are busy, which is what I said, but I don’t understand that we couldn’t have done… Beverly did custom. Beverly, you can go on their website and order what size bins you want. We did not have that option.

19:08 Well, they’re rolling out July 1st as well. I don’t think- Because they began this process way before us. We were forced into this process- Yeah … during the budget season. I want to know that, okay, you take care of Old Town, and I get Old Town is special, but some of us live just on the edge of it, and we don’t have space problems, and we have health issues. No, so you would be a high priority for that. So you live close to the downtown. So when I get the email, I pull up the address, I look at your situation, I evaluate all those things. You’re four houses up from the bottom. Yeah, you’re going to qualify because you’re in that small, tight area. Yeah. Thank you. Yep. Deep in the back. So I live on 7 Mill Pond.

19:56 It’s a different situation.

19:59 First of all, I can’t fit whatever size bins you deliver to me, do not fit in my barn, and I have an SUV.

20:11 So I’m 73, and to get from my house down to the road is about 100 yards. I am not going to truck two 95-gallon bins down Mill Pond to Beacon Street, where there is no place on Beacon Street to put them because there is a stone wall that maybe is about two feet in from the road. In the winter when there’s snow, there’s a berm of about three or four feet, so I would heft. Now, I’m pretty fit, trying if I can be able to heft the 95-gallon bin onto the three-foot snow berm.

20:58 So. And I know lots of other people who live on streets that are off Beacon, and the trash truck does not go off Beacon, it goes down Beacon. And most of them are elderly. They’re in their 70s and 80s. So how are they going to get these 95-gallon bins down to the road? They’re not. Just one other thing I want to say on the side is, so they did this, maybe you’re going to say we were forced into doing this quickly. They did this in Arlington, where my son lives. And they sent a letter to everyone and said, “Here’s what we’re going to be doing. We’re going to be doing this automatic pick-up. And what size bin do you want?”

21:43 And then you wouldn’t have this problem. I would’ve said 35. I would not have said 95. And everything could’ve gone much more smoothly. So because of the financial situation in this town, there are two people, it’s actually not even two, that run the waste department. So you have to imagine how stretched thin they are on an everyday basis dealing with missed calls. Where is this? Where is that? This is an ongoing thing, so to ask us to add that in- Correct … unfortunately, we don’t have the- That might’ve really made it easier for you. We don’t even have, so the co- I don’t even know the people that- Do you mean notifying people or what? Notifying people, this is what the town’s going to do. We’ve had multiple- Here are the options for your bins. Please let us know what you need.

22:30 I don’t think those big trucks can do the… Can they, even? What? The big ones from the side, do the- The 95s? Oh, yeah. No, they can do the 95s. Yeah. Can they do the 35? Well- Also do the small ones. They can do the small ones. Yeah. Yeah, they just have to be able to get them those bars. That’s all. That’s all you need is the metal blue bars. We’re all designed for that. Yeah. The sides, yeah. I think- But yeah, so- An underestimate of how many small bins there are … I want to say the cost for me to send one letter to 8,000 homes is about 5,000. Ah, it’s over $8,000. You do it online, like Beverly did. Only if I had everybody’s address. Yeah. And again, we’ve done multiple newspapers. We have two newspapers here, all the time. People don’t- We’ve been trying to- People do not pay attention … get attention. Well, they don’t read it. Yeah. Well, they don’t. So it’s-

23:15 A lot of us pay attention, but it was not, as Betty said, this process has not been explained very clearly to the townspeople. Well- There was con- What? Oh, sorry. Yeah. There was confusion about question four. A lot of people didn’t realize it was a progressive tax, which I got to tell you, I’m a little upset about having, just because my house is worth more, that I’m subsidizing this. But it’s over, it voted. A lot of people were looking at the opt-in and opt-out option because of the question about the size of the bins, but that’s off the table now. No, that’s not off the table. If you opt out. You can opt out. You can opt out. Yeah, but- You’ll still be- Anyone can opt out. If you opt out, then- You have to pay the old price … you’re still paying. Yeah. And then you have to pay a facility sticker.

24:02 Yeah. So, that’s looking out the back window. So looking out the front window, a suggestion is, it seems to be the big concern is recycling, the volume of recycling. So if people want a 35 bin, it’s on them to deal with their recycling. Your rule is that it has to fit in the bin, the lid has to be closed. If you have more recycling, hey, folks- Buy a facility sticker, and then you’re making money on it. So that’s a revenue stream that you can suggest to people if they want the 35 bins. It’s their responsibility to deal if they have too much recycling. The other question I have is, if we’re talking about money, you and I discussed, we spent over $900,000 on

24:50 these new bins. I don’t think $8,000 on a letter that would’ve clarified all this and gone to every household would have been out of proportion with that. You kind of did. You had newspapers going to households, but people weren’t reading them. If they’re not going to read- People are out of state. A lot of people don’t read the newspapers. The population in this town, the demographics are- I see … at least you senior. This is not all new. We can beat it to death, but I do not agree with people playing naive to this because it’s been spoken to death. I’ve written novels about it online saying, “Talk to your neighbors,” and I know lots of people read it. I get- I talk to a lot of people … I get 20,000 views. How many people live in this

25:37 town? But there’s a- And so- I think- And then it– All right, so it’s online- Mark, it’s- It’s in- … 3,000 people … community resources- Sorry … town meeting. Let’s- It also look out the front window Yeah. Yeah Let’s go forward. Let’s look out the front window. Suggestion for people to buy a facility sticker if they want the 35 bin and you’re concerned about the recycling. I think people who want the 35 bin, it’s on them to take responsibility for their trash and their recycling, not on the town if they choose a 35 bin. Yeah. Okay? So, I think that’s reasonable. So, we’ve already spent over 900,000 on these new bins. We’re going to be spending more money to get the 35 and 35 for people who request it. And then,

26:25 I just lost my train. You’re good. Oh, yeah. How much is it going to cost to discard, trash all of the bins that are being dropped off at the transfer station? It’s $116 a ton. $116- A ton … a ton? Yep. Transporting, everything. Okay. So, guesstimate? I don’t know how much they- 45 to 90 tons Okay. Times 116? Yep. Okay. And as more barrels come in or is that the- That’s probably the total. Okay. All right. And that’s a cost to the town then as well? Yep. Okay. Just a quick follow-up. Still- But yeah. And so you have to understand, though, there are costs that we had to spend to get to this point.

27:11 Mm-hmm. No company was going to bid on collection. We did not receive any bids except for they’re a lot more money unless it was automated collection. We had no choice. This is the industry driving us due to safety reasons and everything. So the 35 and 35s are picked up by automated trucks also? Yep. Same truck? Same truck. So why- So again, so you’re trying to- Why can’t- You’re going to go to- … you give people the option if- Yeah … if it’s the same truck. Again, two people are running that department. We had a very short period of time to get these carts ordered and get them to the people before the contract starts. Okay. July 1st, if we had gone fee-based, we were going to be charging everyone $290 per household. We wanted to try to make

27:59 it even across the board. You’re trying to say, “65, 95. This is the most you can do. We think this is equitable.” Have you lifted one of those 95s? I’m serious. So I- Answer. I’m serious. I know. But you got to realize, you’re looking from your perspective. I’m talking- Yeah … from a family of four. Yeah. We’re going to fill it. No. Okay. No question. Right. Imagine someone who- Yeah. … live up the hill 100 yards and- I know Mill Pond. Yeah … you’re a family of two and you- It was never ever going to be perfect for everybody. Yeah. It just wasn’t. And you know. All of us old people who live in that neck of the woods get to go to the 35s and I’m fine with that. And again, we will try to work with everybody- Mm-hmm … but I have a limited number coming in at a period of time.

28:45 But yes, we understand that. We understand it’s hard. Okay. So there’s a wait list? Yeah, there will be a wait list once we get through those 500. Okay. Will you be reordering them? We don’t know at this point. No. See the- So it’s 250 residences because there’s two per residence? No. So 500 to 500. So I’ll be ordering- I see … 500 trash and 500 recycling.

29:09 Is there anyone online that is interested in asking a question in this context? Yeah. Becky.

29:23 You’re allowed to talk and ask your question. Okay.

29:29 Can you hear me? Am I unmuted? Yes, we can hear you. Okay. I was at the Y with someone today, and they are not in the downtown neighborhood, but they are, I believe, in their 80s. They’ve had, just like the lady that was speaking earlier, they’ve had multiple various replacements. Their driveway is a hill. It’s impossible. The

30:00 35 is probably going to be too much for her. But if she’s trying to push the barrel down the hill or walk down the hill with it behind her, there’s no doubt that she’ll end up on her a*s with the barrel going over. And to say that she might be out of luck because she doesn’t live in the right neighborhood, or she doesn’t provide you with her medicals or something to show that she can’t do that. So she’s going to be paying the taxes She’s going to be maybe buying a sticker, or she’s going to be paying somebody to pick up her trash for her. So how equitable is that? And I get that there are just two people doing something, but that’s unfortunate. But that shouldn’t be

30:47 penalizing the people in this town that can’t be adults and pick up their own trash, or bring things back to their house when it’s left out.

31:00 That’s my thought. Thank you. It’s just you can’t- Thank you, Barbara … you can’t say, “Well, it’s

31:06 just too bad.” It just can’t.

31:11 And that’s what I had to say.

31:16 Barbara Roy?

31:21 Just checking. Can you hear me? Yep. Excellent. Thank you. Thanks for this meeting, and I appreciate everybody’s job in this, the work. Yes, I’ve been at the dump for five out of the last week, five days, and heard from a lot of people. I know you guys are busy working and you can’t have your ears to the ground, but I’ve gotten a lot of feedback from people. And,

31:46 I appreciate, Andrew, you helping me opt out of two of the three sets of barrels, and they are hard. I’m fortunate enough that I have space in my driveway. They’re unsightly, but I’ll make space. I’ll get along with it. But I heard from a lot of old people. One guy came in and you could fit two of him in one of the barrels. And, he’s just a small man. And, so I heard from some people down in Old Town, they don’t have room for the barrels, and they don’t produce that much trash. They produce maybe a grocery bag full of trash each week. And I know people like that, so I know they’re not kidding. My brother does it. It’s like a game to him. How little trash can I produce? Now, they don’t have an option of putting that bag on the sidewalk anymore. They don’t have that.

32:34 They have to either have a trash barrel, which they have no real estate for, or they have to get a dump sticker and bring it to the dump. Now, all they- You’re talking about an industry-driven issue. They’re not willing to pick it up with bags off the ground. Okay, so we can provide a separate solution. I understand that you’re limited by the industry-driven problem. Now, let’s look through the windshield and find some solutions. Would a solution consider being maybe a few households get together and, or there could be a couple barrels put out the night before for the community to put their trash in. Or think outside the box. Because Tom, I’ve heard you and I’ve read you on Facebook, and you have

33:20 said very clearly, there is not a demand for these used barrels. You’ve said it very clearly in writing. There is a- Yeah … huge demand for these used barrels. I know. And let me finish- I know, Barbara … and let me finish my comment. Yeah. Please? With all due respect, I have been giving… We are up to almost 500 barrels. The people in Peabody are taking them, they want them, and they want more of them. And we are helping save the town money in the waste part of it. And we’re doing a very good job. Andrew, I’m sorry I didn’t get back to you with the long email about consistent what days and what times and what trucks can be there and what’s… It’s not like that. It’s supply and demand.

34:06 It’s unprecedented, and we are doing the best we can. I am a citizen, I sit down there and I call other citizens in, and I ask them to haul these barrels out. Now, we are doing a very nice job. We’ve kept the dump clean. We’ve made it easier for your workers. This sort of thing is something you can still ask for. It is not too late. You say you only have two people. In Beverly, they are using volunteers, and some of the workers are actually donating their time, working overtime, to make sure people get what they need. So there are solutions. Ask the people in town who care if they’re willing to help on this committee. My last point at the time being is some people in Old Town are opting out for the barrels because they don’t have real estate to put them on. So they’re opting out of those

34:54 small barrels that you’re allowing for certain people living in certain red areas of the town. So now that means those barrels, those smaller barrels, should be available for other people to obtain. Is that true? What do you mean? Somebody living in Old Town told me they’re going to opt out. You have assigned them a small barrel because they have a residence- No. No. No. No, it’s not correct. It’s not correct. So help me to understand it correctly. They’re opting out of the big one. So yeah, they’re opting out of the large bins. They’re not opting out of the small- No. The large ones- They are opting out of any bin … are standard for everyone, so they’re opting out of that. They’re opting out of any bin. They don’t have- Yeah … a place to put it. Correct. So now that bin, so the people in Old Town get a smaller bin- Yeah, but you’re assuming that’s a small bin, and what I’m saying is it’s not.

35:41 Oh, so everybody in Old Town got a bigger bin? Every person in Marblehead got a bigger set. And you only have a limited number of smaller ones? Yes. And the people in Old Town have to request that? Correct. They have the priority. Okay. And if there are extras, can other people request those? Yes. Thank you. I’m sorry if I missed that point earlier. No, Barbara. Just- And Barbara. Yeah. We appreciate all the hard work down there. No, you guys are doing great. We love to partner with Sustainable Marblehead. You guys are great partners. I’m not part of Sustainable Marblehead. I’m just a citizen who saw a need. I asked Sustainable Marblehead to come on board. I’m just a citizen, Andrew. I’m just a citizen. Yeah, Barbara, I have to ask you, though, and I do applaud you for doing what

36:28 you’ve done. But how many months have I been telling people- Can you try to reach out to anyone you can in other towns in this? How much– You said you read my stuff, so I’ve been saying that for months, right? Yeah, but I don’t read it all the time- No, but hold on, though- But I know- Because not one per- I will give you an example No. So- No, I let you talk. Now you let me talk. Yep, go ahead. Thank you. Not one person from Peabody ever reached out to me to say, “We have huge demand in Peabody.” So you’re putting that on me as if I knew. No, nobody- I only know what I know. Nobody’s placing blame. Yeah, no. We’re defining- So I think it’s great what you’re doing … the problem today But I did put effort in, and I’ve reached out to construction companies, demo companies, telling people which barrels to put aside, who to reach out to. I have absolutely put in effort, as you have.

37:15 Who did you call at Peabody?

37:19 Who? I didn’t call anyone at Peabody. I actually work with a guy at Peabody from Peabody, and I asked him, I’m like, “Where’d this huge demand come from?” He goes, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” How did I find out, a citizen who’s not even in the industry? How did I- I don’t know. I applaud you for finding out, though. But no one ever reached out to me, and as you pointed out, you read my Facebook stuff. 10,000 people do. Not one person- I barely read it. I only read it recently. Is there a way that she can try and get the message out as loudly as possible that they need volunteers? Yeah. I encourage her to. To help. That’s what- The best way to do it is online. That really is. Are the newspapers printing anything? That’s it. And it’s only- We’re not going to do a code red emergency being like, “We need volunteers to do this.”

38:04 I was going to say that, so. It’ll be at Marblehead PBTV tomorrow. We ought to make sure everyone pays attention. Yeah, great. Because that’s a great story that they’re- No, it is great, but it- It’s a great story With all due respect, Tom, I really find that your laughter and your shrugging it off, like you tried, nobody reached out to you- I’m not laughing or shrugging anything off. I’m giving you a genuine response. Yeah, but it was with laughter and a shrug, like, “I tried. Nobody heard me.” I smile all the time. I don’t know how I- But yes, I have been speaking about it for months … as a regular person- For months … how I, as a regular person, was able to get hundreds of people in my driveway to come and pick them up. I put them in my driveway the first three nights because Andrew wasn’t well. Yeah, I applaud you for that. I think that’s great. We weren’t able to get together. I think that’s great you did that. I personally am not going to put 100 barrels

38:53 in my driveway, but if you do and you get them out there to other people, that’s great. I think that’s awesome. I just think that you say you did everything you can, but I beg to differ. No, I didn’t say I did everything I could. I said I’d put the word out there. But let me be clear. I work five days a week in Boston. I’m a property manager on the side. I have a four-year-old, a one-and-a-half-year-old, and I’m on the Board of Health. My time is nonexistent. So if you want me to go driving to Peabody and stuff to drop off barrels, that is not going to happen with my time. No one asked you. I think it’s fantastic if you find volunteers that can- We’re- But I do not have that time. No one asked you. I wanted you to do the job- You just did … and lead. Tom, pull it back. We’re looking- Pull it back … for a list of possible solutions.

39:39 Yes. Yeah. So let’s go forward. So, mm-hmm. Okay. Thank you. So Peabody issue and how to get volunteers and what to do with the tubs is a bundle- Mm … that we have to deal with. Yes. Okay. Is there anyone else on the- No, not this time. Okay. I- I got a couple questions. Okay. Tom, I just found out about this June 9th. I’ve been going to these meetings. June 9th, we made the decision what way we were going to go. I was going to turn my barrels in June 10th if I had to pay for it. So I didn’t know what was going on. And every meeting I went to, I went to a meeting with you on Sunday. Mm-hmm. I’ve come to a lot of meetings here. Every time I’m at a meeting, I hear conflicting things that are

40:27 going on. I was told if someone had a big family Sunday, that they could get more barrels for free. Is that true? Because I’ve never- No … I’ve never heard. Sarah Fox was telling that at a meeting. Yeah. No, she asked. She said she had asked about it because- She told me personally that she can get more barrels Previously, she was able to. Okay. Yeah. Ah. The other thing, I am no interest in picking up any businesses, so I’ve been telling businesses that we are not picking them up. That we’re only going to pick up 170 if it was going to be a fee. But now that it’s not a fee, you’re not going to pick up any businesses because I- well, I don’t know if it’s true or not. That’s what you said. No. So that- So again, we can discuss tonight if we want to include businesses under the current fee.

41:13 Okay. Yeah. I want to tell you why I’m opposed of it. I think in the beginning, we should take care of the trash in town, and I think there’s other people, like the old story school that has trash, and I held a sign to vote no for 12 or 13 hours in front of the guy that got eight barrels on the corner of Bassett Street. And he only has one tenant in each thing, and he only needs four barrels. So I think it’s ludicrous that the town is just dumping these things off- But just- … without seeing how– No, just listen to me. I’m paying for these barrels, so if a customer only needs eight, I don’t think I should be subsidizing an apartment building. Condos, I don’t mind. But apartment buildings, as far as I’m

41:58 concerned, are private. So I don’t think they should be allowed to get eight, and I’m paying for those eight because they’re charging tenants and making money. I live alone in a- That’s not necessarily- I’m living alone in a house … I’m a landlord, but that’s not necessarily how that works. I’m paying- Steve will tell you that’s not how that works … I’m paying my full tax on my house, and I checked some of the assessments on some of these buildings of multifamily under four, and they’re paying less than regular houses in Marblehead per unit, I’m saying. Let’s be clear. Renters pay property tax. There’s no confusion about that. They do. I keep hearing people say they don’t. They 100% pay property tax. It’s in their rent. It’s kind of included. Exactly. Yeah. So renters are just, you know- No, but they need eight barrels if there’s one person in each

42:47 unit. It depends. And in the beginning, you said you couldn’t share barrels. So now, I assume- Yes … that it’s tax fee, that we could share some barrels. Yeah. Because some older people can’t even take the barrels they have now out- Right … on my street. Yeah. So you have to understand that when we had to deliver the carts- Yeah, I’m not blaming you … the vote had not even come through yet. Right. So yes, we had this two-prong approach. So we were delivering barrels to eligible units. If it went fee, every eligible unit was paying the same fee across the board. But now it’s under tax base, yeah, people could share. But I couldn’t have people sharing under fee base

43:34 because- Were you going to update the regulations, Andrew, so people- I don’t need to update the regulations. No, but the business has got to know they’re not being picked up. Would they reach out first? Sunday, Dave Weber was told they’re going to pick his business up. That’s not what- Okay … no, that’s not what I told him. Yeah. No, I- Well, that’s what he thinks. I know him. He thinks that he could pay a fee. What is the deal with- Oh yeah, he can– No, that’s what we’re going to talk about next. We’re going to talk about businesses. Yeah. Thank you. Businesses are part of the town. Yeah. Part of the reason that Elise Stacher talked about how we had problems is because we don’t have enough, a strong enough commercial. When somebody said we shouldn’t be using Amazon. Well, we have to use the local hardware if we’re not going to use Amazon. That sort of thing. So businesses, at least from my bias, I shouldn’t be speaking as chair. I apologize.

44:19 But I think- Well, I just hope businesses- A robust commercial community is important for the town. I’m into the recycling, but I think businesses should pay, if it’s $92 a ton or whatever it is. It is. And that’s- I think they should go up and get weighed like I have to if I get rid of- Nothing private … stuff privately. No. Just explain what the rule is for the businesses please. So if the board allowed, the businesses could get a 65-gallon trash and a 95-gallon recycling and pay $160 monthly. When did that happen? That was part of the regulations. The original ones? Yes. Because in the original regulations it says all, some businesses are eligible. Right. Okay. The fee schedule. Under the fee schedule, businesses

45:07 curbside collection. Right, but we’re- Trash and monthly, recycling monthly. But we’re not doing the fee schedule. They are. They are. So they pay the property taxes, but they don’t get the benefit of the trash pickup? Correct. Right. That’s common for property taxes everywhere. So why- I mean, you get plenty of services you don’t use when you pay property taxes. Plenty of people that don’t have kids pay for schools, nice. So how do businesses let you know that they want to opt in? So again, if the boards wants to go in that direction, it’s a great revenue stream for the town. I would receive emails from the business. You cannot be a food establishment. We have all the regulations of different businesses that we can lend to. There’s approximately 165

45:52 businesses in the downtown area- That are eligible? That would be a limitation. And Andrew, can they elect to do only trash or recycling? No, you have to do both. You understand, you have to. And again, everything has to be in the carts, nothing outside. Yes, please. So the 4th of July weekend is coming up, guys, in like 10 days or something. Mm-hmm. So how are those businesses going to figure all of that out before- It’s the hustle. We’re not going to have– We’re not going to get– We have to deal with the residents first before we get to the businesses. Okay. So the businesses have to, before the 4th of July, find a trash company? The board needs to decide first if this is the direction that they want to go in. Okay. They have the regulations set, they can do that. But these- Again- They have, these businesses are going to have to- That’s correct. Okay. That’s tough. We heard from a bunch of businesses, and they’re-

46:39 Yeah, it’s not going to be ideal. So what- It’s not. Timing has been terrible. Let’s just say Marblehead Housing Authority is budgeting $30,000 a year. For the pickup? For the pickup. That’s what it will cost. Wow. Because we are considered a business. Yep. And that’s out– Were you expecting that or is that a surprise? No, it’s a surprise. Okay. We’ve been having conversations with them for the last six months about this. You said 30K? That’s our best guess. They have quite a few numbers. Yeah. And how much? I should know off the top of my head. I’m going to say 300, but- Yeah. I want to say it’s a little- Little less than that … less. Yeah, I think 280 something. Okay. Yeah. Andrew, what were we offering to businesses before? How much were we picking up? So again, businesses weren’t really supposed to be part of it, but they were

47:26 putting their recycling curbside. Unlimited. Because it, yeah, it was unlimited because it wasn’t costing us anything. Mm-hmm. Just the collection side. Are you picking up their trash as well? No, generally not. But we know businesses were sneaking it out there. Okay. And again, with the carts, this is how we control volume. Yeah. This is a known cart that we’re picking up. So the 35, sorry, but can those businesses in Old Town, like- No. No. I had to ask the question. And do they get the small carts or the big carts? They would get the big carts. They can’t get the small- Again, I said the 65 and the 95. Okay. Okay. What about Marblehead Museum, nonprofit? They have to be paying the same thing. Just like churches. So again, Marblehead Museum’s in Avonall? No, it’s in the museum, the museum, Lee Mansion, and the new brick kitchen, and-

48:12 Yeah. See? There are a lot of nonprofits out there, and it would be a burden to take them all on. Is there anyone with a good idea, what we have an idea about volunteers in Peabody to deal with some of these issues. What about getting the recycling and trash picking up for the businesses, for the art show- Festival … festival. What can we do to help the commercial people who may be surprised about this? Maybe we don’t have an answer right this minute, but let’s be thinking Creative and forwardly, what might we do to those valuable partners in our towns?

48:57 And again, we’re very fortunate. We have a transfer station in town that is open to commercial. It’s weigh and pay. We do not allow commercial into the recycling side, but we do take their trash. I just want to say- Just one question. If we do vote to allow businesses in, could they get carts before July 4th? It would be a struggle, but yes. It’s potential. Yes. Yep. I don’t have the carts available. I don’t think this should be rammed down, but we’re not responsible for businesses. It shouldn’t happen before July 1st. Beverly, for example, picks up no businesses. So I just ask you to look at other towns. I went over to three of them and talked to them. Beverly, I specifically know. What would be the harm?

49:43 I believe– Because I don’t want to be subsidizing- You’re not. You’re not. That’s the thing, you’re not. They’re subscription. You wouldn’t be. Yeah. So what’s the harm? I still think we should worry about the residents first. Residents. And then a few months later, after you get this thing going and you get the bumps out of it, there’s no rush to start with business. Residents are the priority, but I see no harm in- Well, I don’t like it that you’re promising something before we’re looking at the whole– It’s like right now a lot of people are confused about the trash. I think we should get it rolling residential, and then you might want to look, if someone had five or six units but could only use three or four barrels, to save them a little money. Because you said they’re all paying property taxes. Yeah. Like the Story School. I see that they didn’t have that much recycling out of their

50:32 four eight units. Story School I don’t think qualifies. No, it doesn’t now, but right now it does. I walked by there this morning. They had two recycle barrels. That’s because everyone did. Right. But what I’m saying is I would rather concentrate on the household stuff and then look at businesses after. Make it fair to the residents of Marblehead first. We’ll make it fair, but I mean- Did we hear everybody? Thank you. We have at least one person who hasn’t spoken before. Thank you, Steve. As someone who’s attended dozens of board of health meetings, this is something that’s been discussed for a number of years loosely, and then for the last year it’s gotten heavier and heavier. The way the barrels have been distributed, you went and took the assessor’s records. Oh, that’s a two-family, they get four. That’s a one family, they get two, type of thing.

51:17 And when you’re doing 16,000 barrels, you can’t screw around a lot. The guys that are doing it, the hot weather and stuff, I thought they did a wonderful job. Thank you. Not everybody’s going to be happy- Yeah … no matter what you do. And all along, a good deal of the blame for this confusion, in my personal opinion, falls on the board of selectmen. They screwed around with everybody’s budget till you had very little time, and you guys are saying, “Geez, July 1st. We got to be doing something with the rubbish. We can’t have it piling up in the streets.” So you negotiated, in my opinion, an excellent contract for the town. A lot of people will never really understand it. A lot of people won’t pay attention, or they only hear what they want to hear. All along, I’ve said, in the past, we’ve not enforced

52:05 our rules and regulations, partially because the recycling was basically a free thing for the town. We did not get any benefit for the sale of the plastics and cardboard or whatever, and that was only good for the first couple of years. People don’t realize that the contract’s 10 years old. Things have changed quite a bit. I’m impressed with it. You also said that you were going to try, not that you were going to do it, but you were going to try to, at some point, offer to businesses that were non-food establishments the ability to do the recycle and the ability to do trash, a limited amount, for a fee. And it says that, if you take the time to really read all the regulations, everything is in there. And unfortunately, the way it worked,

52:53 after town meeting and town election, you guys couldn’t make your final decision on what was going to happen until after the results of June 9th. So June 10th- Yeah … you were pretty well aware that, okay, the trash fee is going to be going back where it always had been, until somebody played games with the budget and took it and tried to dump it onto you guys and make you look like the bad guys. All of a sudden, you start charging for rubbish. Times change. You’re just doing the best you can, and a lot of people don’t realize the four of you are volunteers. You get headaches out of this. That’s about it. And I really appreciate a lot of what you did. And you, Tom, until you got involved with this, I didn’t realize how

53:39 much more the board of health really did. I’m very familiar with the rubbish and the trash and things like that because I use them. You educated me. You’ve educated a lot of other people. I don’t think anybody on the board or anybody at the board of health, guys that work up there, women that work there, are doing any of this to make life miserable for people. Everybody’s going to have to get together and do the best they can. And something that did come up before June 9th was that we have to have these barrels go to everybody. You can’t take and get together with your neighbor because that wouldn’t be fair if it’s a fee-based thing. Now that it’s built in the taxes, sure. The people that came here a while ago from Frost Lane and Colonial Court and a couple places like that, if they want to get together on their own and

54:25 say, “We don’t need all these barrels, we’ll turn them back in,” then they’re responsible for doing it. But the barrels do not belong to me. They belong to the town, and they go with my address. It’s a tough thing. It’s going to be a big adjustment for a lot of people. I mean, I recall when I used to go to my backyard and take garbage out of the pit in the ground and dump it. Those days are gone. Right. Now we’ve got to go forward to the best we can, and I applaud you for the job you’ve done.

54:55 Actually, I know about a lot of this because I go to the meetings, but I see it in not just Lee’s paper, but all the other papers. There’s tons of stuff online about it. It’s just- Uh … do the best we can. I don’t want to be a beaten dead horse, I think we’ve talked about this. I just want to clarify so that I understand and everybody understands that an email goes to the Board of Health to request smaller barrels. Health2@marbleheadma.gov. Okay. We got that. And that is the barrels that, the smaller barrels, the 235s are currently designated primarily for residents of Old Town? No, right now it’s a 35 and a 65-gallon

55:42 recycling bin. So you need to tell us exactly what you would like. Okay. So we need- Because we feel that that 35 is really too small of a recycling bin for anybody. Right. But if the onus- Because the size- No … the onus is then on the person requesting the whatever barrel size they say. For instance, if they request 235s, the onus is on them to put all of their trash and all of their recycling within those bins with the lid closed. Yep. And they’re primarily designated for Old Town? Yep. Currently? Yep. So for all of the older people, of which I am one, uh, and, uh, if they don’t live in Old Town, but they wish to receive these smaller barrels, what should they say to you to s- to

56:29 make their case? Because they’re out of your geographic designation, but pushing a 95 barrel 100 yards is

56:40 not feasible or for this lady. So what should senior citizens, people with disabilities, whatever- Okay … how should, what should they say to you? So you want to provide that information. You want to provide, “I live in this area. I only have this much space.” I’m going to look on the map to see where you are and try to geographically try to make it as equal as possible. “I live on a hill. It’s really hard for me to walk this 95 or a 65.” Tell me your issues and I will add that into it. Okay. And if we go through the 500 barrels, and say you’ve got another 200 requests, what happens then? We’ll try to accommodate those as quickly as possible. Okay. Thank you. So I just-

57:26 And I, I believe it’s, I don’t think you have to say your medical diagnoses. Yeah, exactly. I think you have to say- Right … “This is difficult for me. I am requesting this.” Yeah, it’s against- That’s sufficient. And if there is enough, then that will be a factor. Yeah. Okay. But again, we’re trying to get away from the custom orders from every resident- Yeah … because there’s over 8,000. Yeah. We understand, but yeah. But- Yeah, I just wanted, because there’s been so much confusion, um, and everybody can take a piece of that. Uh, I’m just trying, I’d just like to get things very specific, clarified, in writing so that everybody’s on the same page with the understanding of what the expectations are, uh, as far as availability, language that needs to be used, and cost.

58:12 Mm. And I would also put in a plug to tell people, buy a facility sticker. We use it- Correct … all the time. Yeah. I can imagine not having a facilities sticker. Yeah. I can’t imagine not calling Swap Shop. And if people switch to the smaller ones, if they find it’s too small, they can’t switch back, right? Correct. Yeah. Yeah. That’s another to put in a- Yeah. Try it out, see how it goes. And if you like it- Deep in the corner. Paul, um, do you have any sense of how long it might be if you have to order more? Six weeks? Yeah. It’s a minimum six weeks. Okay. Yeah. Did you say you could switch back, or you- You cannot. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. For a fee, I’m sure you could switch back. Again, we’re reasonable people. If I try this, it doesn’t work for me…

58:57 I mean, it’s hard to know how big a, I don’t know how big a 35 gallon- So we have them upstairs so people can come and take a look at them- Okay … and stuff like that. Um, I will actually measure them and put the measurements on them. Okay. Um, I just hadn’t had time to. Okay. That’s okay. Yeah, but I, I don’t, I don’t know what I have now. I don’t know. Right. Yeah. That’s why I’d say also like think, think hard about the 35 because in five years if we do switch to every other week for cycling- And again- … it might not be- Understand Yeah. And like this lady said, I could be dead in five years. Yeah. You all look spry to me. We’re working with national companies. They’re, they’re the ones that are m- making these recommendations. And so generally they say let people try them out for a minimum of six weeks. 75% of those people will shape, change

59:43 their mind and say, “No, this actually works.” Okay. I’m good. That’s it. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Do we have any other- Yes … major problem issues? Uh, we’ve, we’ve, we’ve, we’ve talked about the commercial some, but do we have, is there a way to feed them? They’re getting- No. No? No. Can we figure out- No. What- We, we will work through the process to try to get them their bins as quickly as possible. And then also realize too, not that it’s much, but the, all the highest tier paths, which means park and rec trash, is back in play. So the town barrels w- are available. Oh, yeah. They have to figure that out. Yeah. I don’t know exactly-

1:00:29 They have to figure that out before the 4th. I’m not so sure about that. You don’t think? Yeah. I mean, I haven’t talked to them ex- ex- exactly about that. I’m not, I don’t know what they need for vehicles. I don’t know if they have employees. Again, like, it’s not our department- Yeah, yeah. So I haven’t really talked about that. Um, but, uh, we will try to get the, the switch-out barrels to people as quickly as possible. Okay. But we’re still dealing with the initial rollout to all the homes. Yeah. So sorry, Andy, did you say the board has to approve that? Yeah, they just have to agree that we’re, we have that regulation in place. Again, we’re trying to do this initial rollout for all the residents. We would have a conversation about the business. Yeah, they want us, they need to say, “Yes, we want to move in that direction. Let’s do that.” Again, you’re adding additional level of work for our office.

1:01:16 Okay. You don’t need to hire someone- No … to manage the account. No. Yeah. There’s a lot. So the way it’d work is that for the businesses, they would have to email in. We will set up an account for them, similar to having an account at the transfer station. We will be building these accounts on a monthly basis. At some point, we’re going to have to come back and talk about delinquent accounts, both at the transfer station and under this program. And generally, with that comes late fees, the standards. Mm-hmm. But we have never had to really do that in the past. What’s a delinquent account at the transfer station? Somebody that hasn’t paid their bill in months. And they’re dumping trash- Yeah … and pay for- Yep. It’s called weigh and pay, but you have an account, so you can put it on your

1:02:02 account. Oh, that sounds- Because you have all these in place You can, Tom. You can pay on the spot or- Yeah, that’s what I- But sometimes for the frequent users, like me, I have an account, but it’s you just hop on the scale, hop off, and drive away, and it’s just nice and quick, and you get- Because I have establishments from town that use our facility on a daily basis. If they’re delinquent, do they start to get a red X that’s coming? We cut them off, so they can’t dispose of any material. Excuse me. We used to have, when there was a- Oh, yeah. Barbara. I just wanted to add something. So you’re looking for ideas, I appreciate that, progressive ideas. There are some people, I think Tom mentioned he has a lot of people viewing his comments on Facebook.

1:02:52 I found this Town of Marblehead Board of Health Facebook page, but it shows that the last time anything was posted was in 2022. It seems that- Oh, wow … if 10,000 people are following Tom McMaster on Facebook, that you might put out a request there for some input from the community. Also, there might be some people willing to help populate that Facebook page. Again, there are plenty of committees that really care and really want the recycling to happen and want this program to work. And I understand people are up in arms, but this is how you get people to respond. When somebody has got a cut on their ankle, nobody pays attention. But when their carotid artery starts bleeding out- …

1:03:37 everybody runs around and tries to save them. This is an urgent situation, unprecedented, and yes, the community is rattled. Change is hard. I understand it. But let’s ask for the community. Don’t look back and say, “Well, I didn’t hear from anybody.” Just let’s think forward and reach out to other communities. What is Beverly doing that’s so successful? Beverly is, they’re going to this same thing, but they don’t have their new barrels yet, but they have to pay the contract July 1st. Let’s find out. How did I find all those people from Peabody? I put it on Facebook, for heaven’s sakes. You guys can use your page a little bit better, in my opinion.

1:04:21 That’s not an active page. Are we just- It’s not an active- Just mentioning or- No. No. Why isn’t it? It became inactive after COVID. Make it active again. Well, during the strike, we used- We used the police department website, Facebook page. Okay. And we also used a recording Friday, Sunday nights. I don’t think you should do that for non-emergencies. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Then people won’t listen to you. So yeah, under the strike, that was what we considered an emergency. Again, we are dealing with another issue with Code Red. So Code Red was hacked. We are in the process of, we have a new group. I forget what the name of it is.

1:05:08 But so we only have 700 subscribers at this point for that. We need to reinitiate that. There will be a program to try to get people to sign up for that. Yeah, so we use the Marblehead Police Department Facebook page to push out information. Okay. There’s somebody that attends to that 24 hours a day, will control comments and everything. But if you want people to respond to this need and get ideas- You need to raise your hand. We’re trying to conduct a meeting.

1:05:42 Can I? Mm-hmm. It seems like a bunch of our issues are lack of understanding and sort of misinformation getting out there, and I’m wondering how we can use sort of the Barbara model, for lack of a better term, partner with people who could help us with providing the data to the police- Sure … to post for us. Have the…

1:06:10 In California, when I moved there, the garbage cans were so tiny, and they had this great video online that showed you, you fold your orange juice containers in half, and this is how you manage the system. And they all thought I was an idiot because I would just go out as my New England self after everyone else put their garbage out and stuff all the extra crap in my neighbor’s garbage can. But how can we, with good spirit and good humor, maybe we use Instagram, maybe use the police page, get the info out to people? We got eight million kids who don’t have anything to do because they’re just sitting on my beach. A huge budget issue. Yeah. That is the biggest thing that’s driving this.

1:06:56 Because of the budget, you only have two people in the office to run the whole program. That’s your biggest issue. You need to grow your budget, get employees, and then you can do, the sky’s the limit. But until you have those pieces in play, it’s hard to do everything that everybody wants. But in the short term, there may not be carotid artery bleeding, but we are bleeding. So let’s do what we can to try to find some short-term solutions that accommodate as much as we can. So I don’t have the answers, but I think we ought to respectfully want to listen to people who want to think differently. So you have two people in the office right now working from 7:00 in the morning

1:07:43 to usually 7:00 at night at least, and they’re not getting overtime. Mm-hmm.

1:07:51 No, in a perfect world, Andrew’s right. In a perfect world, this could’ve been done a lot better. We are far from a perfect world- Yeah … in Marblehead. And so- It would’ve been wonderful to get custom orders for everybody. That would’ve been the perfect scenario. But unfortunately, we didn’t have the time, we don’t have the resources, and so we are trying to make it equal for as many people as possible. And those big barrels, they work for the majority of town. Yeah. They really do. But obviously, the historic district is a problem, and I’ve said it since day one. It’s going to be a problem for my mom, it’s going to be a problem for my tenants, and would’ve been a problem at my house, but Salem dealt with it, too. In a similar way. Anyone else who un-unmuted?

1:08:38 Yeah. Christine?

1:08:45 Yes. Hi. Thanks. God, I forgot what I was going to say. I’ve had my hand up for so long. Oh, yes. Someone had said something about neighbors sharing. I live- So it would’ve been complicated, unless Andrew- So yeah. Neighbors are more than welcome to share barrels at this time. If we were under a fee base, that was not allowed. Exactly. Okay, because I just heard this, and a lot of other people don’t know, because I was talking to all my female neighbors who are in their 70s, saying, “I’m 411,” not even, “and that the barrel is way too big for me,” but that’s fine. And we were talking about– And they had said, “Why can’t we share?”

1:09:32 And I said, “You can’t.” Because that’s the last news that I heard. The timing kind of screwed everything up- Right. So- … because we didn’t know whether it was going in the budget- Right … or if it was going to fee. Sure. So you’re delivering the barrels or getting unloaded to get everyone- Right … settled by July. Right. So it was going to be every single person had it. And you don’t want to jump out and start saying, because of fee- Yes, that’s- Yeah. Yeah. So we- I didn’t realize that. And that’s fine. My only thing is, is that I think what Barbara was saying was– I get all my information on Facebook or Instagram. I don’t read the papers. They go right into the, unfortunately, right into the recycling. The-

1:10:17 I will be taking this up. But I did see this earlier on Facebook this morning, and I thought I remembered what page it was, but I had to keep typing in “Marblehead trash barrels,” “Marblehead Board of Health,” and I guess I finally found it. But just so more people can get to these Zoom meetings if they can’t make it to the- That’d be wonderful … in person. But I agree, it’s really hard to find the information. I know Tom, his page, I would go to his page all the time and try to find it, but I know you’re really busy, so you can’t do that. So it’s just this information, like, yes, you can share with your neighbor if they agree with the big giant- Yeah … recycling thing. So that’s just all. That’s all I have to say about it.

1:11:05 Christine, I just suggest something. So this is something my mother’s going to be doing with her neighbor, is they’re going to be sharing a barrel. But my mother’s going to be storing hers, and some people don’t have that space. But she’s going to not be opting out and giving it back. She’s going to be storing it on her property, which I think is the best way to do it for potential future changes. So that’s a- Yes, I understand that. And I will be- Well, she said the property that’s on the property. Exactly. It– You have to have the room. So it gives the future person an option. Right. But she does have the luxury of having a storage space on the side of her house that it’ll fit in. Yeah, I know. Some people don’t. But I’d recommend trying to do something along those lines for

1:11:53 whatever changes in the future. Right. Okay. All right. Great. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Can we somehow put a summary of what we are agreeing on the town website, then? Do you think we- So again, we are buried in the office at this point, so it’s going to take us a while to put a summary on the website. If you tell me, we will put it in the paper. The two of us. You just have to talk to us. You just have to answer our emails or our phone calls, and then we’re happy. Yeah. We can’t help the people who throw the paper in the recycling bin, but- Without reading it … without reading it, but… I would be happy to sit down with both of them and hear their questions. Yep. And then give you what I think the answers are, to just do a quick read through, and then we could send it back to them.

1:12:40 Sure. Okay. I’ll also look for money for you guys to get just a social marketing person to help push it to the police department. Get in a high school intern or something. Do you have a Board of Health email? Again, one of our issues is that we have two people, and all the information kind of flows through me, so… Do you have a Board of Health email, you think? So what none of us have Board of Health emails. Oh, I’m sorry. Okay. I will send it to your regular email. And we will get you all Board of Health emails.

1:13:11 Yeah, we have had to put other public health column, other issues Aside because all of us have been really working very hard on this rollout. The reality of, let’s see, today’s the 15th, 16th? 16th. Seven days since we have gone from being a fee service to a tax-based service with new technology. It is kind of a big challenge. But I hear what you’re saying, and I would ask, the barrel issue has nothing to do with whether you were fee or you weren’t fee. The barrel issue was, and for the folks who have left

1:13:59 who were upset that they weren’t given more options, that wasn’t a timing thing. That could’ve been dealt with earlier, it just was a manpower thing. Which unless I’m misunderstanding. Well, so again, we had a very short period of time when they actually made the decision to take this out of the budget and go to… So if this had been done regularly, the contract change, we would’ve rolled out barrels end of September, so we would’ve had a longer period of time to roll everything out. Yeah. But if… Okay, it doesn’t matter. Like you said, forward. That is what happened. When I went to that meeting, when all of a sudden we switched from changing the contract in September to July 1st. Right. I- That’s what drove the barrels.

1:14:44 Yeah. Okay, so this fact change. Yeah. Okay. I also, you know, I had a architect when I was in, you know, you go through the historic district stuff, and he brought up something that kind of stuck with me. I was like, “Well, this is my house. Why can’t I do what I want?” And he goes, “You’re the temporary custodian.” Right. And I was like, “It’s kind of a good point.” You know? So, the next person might have totally different needs. When I bought a condo in Salem, I inherited their trash barrels. You know? Okay. So, like, when I sell my house, they’re going to inherit my town trash barrels. So… Gotcha. So, are you guys going to take a vote on the business thing tonight or not? That’s who we’re hearing from. Sure. Whatever. Either way. Are there any other Zoom

1:15:30 hands? Elaine Lahey. Good to see you. Thank you for joining. Hello. Can everyone hear me? Yep. Yep. Hi. Thanks for taking my comment.

1:15:45 So I just want to say first to commend, again, Barbara and Eileen. They have just done such an amazing grassroots effort just getting this whole re-homing bins off the ground. Sustainable Marblehead, we’ve been promoting repurposing, reusing your own bins, and then this grassroots group popped up, and they really found this really great solution with Peabody. Finding that there are a lot of folks in need because they still have the non-automated trash collection. So it seems like perhaps other towns that don’t have that still, I think someone else said Saugus maybe could be another market for the

1:16:34 bins. But it’s great because we’re saving the bins from being disposed, and it sounds like we’re going to save the town some money, which of course is always a good thing. So I just wanted to give them a shout-out. I also thought, I agreed with what Kristen was trying to say that I understand there’s not a lot of budget, so maybe partnering with other groups. Like Sustainable, we’re always willing to help get the word out, which we’re trying to do now. So if you have any announcements about it, Andrew knows this, we have a good relationship, and he could just let me know. We’re always a willing partner to help get the word out on things. So definitely,

1:17:21 Andrew and I will stay in touch, but just keep that in mind. And I had one other idea I wanted to put out there. So since with people who are opting out, and they’re going to be bringing their trash to the transfer station, it sounds like there’s going to be an increase in those folks. I feel like that could be a really good opportunity to get more people composting because they have the access to the free compost at the transfer station. So if they’re going to go anyway, maybe we could try to have them compost. So, I don’t know if Andrew and I can talk offline, but maybe we can do an outreach together or an educational event together because that’ll only save the town money from hauling

1:18:08 away excess food. And the landfills are almost full, so I think that could be a really good opportunity to come out of this situation. So, maybe we could work on that together. And I just want to encourage folks to, if you go to The Marblehead Current, Lee just wrote a really great article with a lot of summary in how people can get involved and how people can help. So please go to Marblehead Current to read that and also go to the, I have it up here. The Facebook group is the Marblehead MA Trash Recycling Barrel Swap. So if you post your own barrels, a lot of people will just come to your house and collect them.

1:18:55 This is your previous barrels, not your new town ones. Those are yours. But your old ones, people could perhaps come and pick up for you, so you don’t even have to bring them to the transfer station. But, so that’s it. Thanks for listening, and thanks for all of your hard work. I know you’re all volunteers, and Andrew has a very thin staff, which I think is another reason that it’s good that we have this override to hopefully get some more help going on over there. So thank you. Unfortunately, it doesn’t change anything for our office. Oh, come on. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Talk to a slog board.

1:19:36 But to pass that, I really appreciate the partnership with Sustainable Marblehead. It’s been a great relationship. It was great sitting down with you the other day, putting together the repurpose, your bin guide. So I really appreciate that, and we will obviously continue to do that. Yep. But that’s on our town website now. It’s a handout at our office. So thank you.

1:20:04 All right. Let’s move to… Did anyone else? No, that’s it. Okay. Do you guys make motions and do firsts and seconds? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

1:20:16 What is the form of the motion that we need to be able to allow the com- So I would just make a motion to allow the businesses to do curbside collection under the fee for trash and recycling monthly at the $160 that is established. But again, it’s part of the regulations. It’s a 65-gallon trash, 95-gallon recycling. And if you needed more than that, the price just continues to go up per unit. And they don’t own the barrels. They do not own the barrels. Yep, we own the barrels. Again, with this, for all residents- But if you own food- Yeah, it’s not- Food and establishment … no establishment, no liquor stores, no chemicals.

1:21:04 It’s very basic business essentially. We’re looking for the trash and recycling bin to be put out for their small store and stuff like that. Yeah. I don’t know how big the demand will be for it, but- Right … because I think there’s a lot of property management or ownership that- Yeah … handles a lot of the- Yep … and they kind of do their thing. Yep. And this is market rate for what businesses generally- Yeah, this is the market rate. Again, this would allow– They can always compare market rates and stuff like that. You might be able to beat this price, but this is what we’re able to offer to them as part of our collection. And again, with this, we would potentially go to town meeting in the springtime, and establish a waste revolving

1:21:51 account to hold this money, to set aside this money just for these resources.

1:22:00 Can I make a friendly amendment to your motion? You can, as soon as I write the motion. If you want to start and write the motion, go ahead. Folks, we’re- Excuse me. I would- Sorry. I had to have my hand raised for a while, but I had one other question.

1:22:21 Yep. Oh, sorry. Go ahead, Christine. Sorry for that. Someone had brought up something about the Sustainable Marblehead. I’m wondering, are you still going to be in the town? You might not have figured this out yet, but will you still be doing the leaf collecting a few times a year or is that something you need to figure out? Thank you. Nope. We’ll be doing it eight times a year, so we bumped it up another week. But will we be using the barrels? No, paper bags only. And the Republic place will pick that up? Yep, and they will bring them to the Marblehead Transfer Station for processing. Okay, great. Thank you. Yep.

1:23:04 That’s part of the contract- That is … and if people opt out, they can still use that. Yes.

1:23:13 Tom, I just have one question. I heard Andrew or someone mention that you were going to bill them monthly. I’m just wondering, you couldn’t bill for the– If you’re going to go along with the private collection, which I’m opposed to, I think you should study it a little bit. But if you are going to implement it tonight, I’m just wondering why you can’t bill them three months in advance. Because I get a water bill, it’s for three months. I don’t want another– You’re going to have to hire more people here. If 170 people go in here, that’s 170 more bills, stamps, envelopes every month. I don’t know why you can’t do it quarterly. That’s how anyone that charges- It’s a steady state. Yeah. We’re going to evolve. We’re going to have to change on a regular basis. But I think what we want to do tonight is to give the commercial people time to be

1:24:01 prepared for the Art Festival. Yeah, if you’re going to do it. What I’m saying to you is, everyone else that pay as you go now in other towns, they’re billing every three months. So he’s talking about doing businesses every month. I’m just saying, if you do it three months, the bill is not thousands of dollars. It’s not like a tax bill. And I’m just trying to save envelopes and the environment and the stamps and the mailman, and I think it would be a lot easier. He doesn’t have to chase down 170 people every month. It’s just an idea. That’s what most other cities and towns are doing it by. Thank you.

1:24:38 So is the basic motion to allow town businesses to participate in the trash and recycling pickup program using town barrels? Under the fee. Under the f- Under the- Under the monthly fee … under the monthly fee. So you’re making the motion, Tom? Well, I’m trying to write it down. Oh, okay. Okay. You want to make it? Sure, I’ll make the motion. Oh, yeah. Motion to go into the fee for $160 per month for business. This is 150, 180. 160. 60. Okay. And it’s for a 65-gallon trash and a 95-gallon recycling cart. Second. Or unless you wanted to make- Can I make a friendly amendment? I’d move that we empower you to do it when you’re

1:25:27 ready. Yeah, so the idea is that- That doesn’t mean you’re going to have to turn it on tomorrow and forever. No. So the idea is that it couldn’t start before July 1st, but we would try to accommodate businesses that are trying to continue to use the service for July 1st. But I appreciate that. The other thing I would just– I was after. All done. Yeah. The other thing I’d just ask is that it might make sense, and I don’t know if we can due to the statute, but to encourage people to do pay it annually. So yeah. So the concern I get with the paying annually is the bill gets so large, it becomes- It becomes scary for people- Yes. -to do it twice a year? Well, I would say quarterly. I would just be worried, businesses here-

1:26:13 Pretty much … their margins are so small. So it’s like if you hit them too hard, it’s- Okay. So I’d see what they’re comfortable with, but there’s always the email. Like, you email the- Yeah. Yeah. So it doesn’t necessarily need to be a stamp and all that. Yeah. So with the accounts, so we have roughly 400 accounts at the transfer station, and we email the bill out to them. So when they establish their account, it’s going to be an email out to them. Could we do a discount for paying in advance? No. That’s maybe a- Don’t go anymore. Yeah, just stop. No, I appreciate the trickle. Simple is better. Simple is better when…

1:26:55 I like your thinking, but- Yeah. Can you do that on my tax bill? Give me a discount. We have to- You can ask for it … we have to look at each other as community partners. Yes. There are no bad guys. There are people that may have made some mistakes along the way. I have a list of mistakes that I’ve made. I’m learning. But it doesn’t do us any good to sort of ruminate about how we could’ve done it better. We are where we are. What can we do to help the community as a whole and not penalize anyone as we go forward? I mean, this is– I’m relatively new. This is a great town. Let’s make it greater.

1:27:47 Go ahead. No, no. I– So, um- Did we pass that? You have to move an amendment. Yeah. We’re probably not supposed to. Second. So yeah, you need a second. Second. So with the amendment. Yeah. Second with amendment. But is that–

1:28:03 So I first, you’re second. All in favor? Yeah. Well, but I want to make sure we have the wording that we voted. We are moving to allow town businesses to participate in the trash and recycling program using town barrels under the monthly fee of $160 per month. Any other? Yeah, you can receive a 65-gallon trash and a 95-gallon recycling. Okay. Should’ve had non-food. Yeah, no. Yeah. It’s in the regulations. Yeah. Yeah. And you have to approve that. Yeah. Does that cover your printing? Mm-hmm. I just want to say that

1:28:49 no pressure- … is what I’m trying to build them to. I understand. He’s not in a no-pressure world right now. I really appreciate, but, you know, I mean- And we’re not saying that it has to be done by July 1st. Yeah. We’re saying- Yes … this is what you’re going to try to do. Yep.

1:29:08 I put the pressure on myself, but that’s okay. They have to contact him to get it approved to begin with. So I don’t think it– If 170 people, like, I think he’s going to be working the 4th of July if they’re all chasing him. I mean, I’m getting a couple hundred emails a day right now, so.

1:29:27 And is there a form for businesses, or they email you? No, they’ll email us. We’ll create a form. Okay. It’s going to be the standard input form that we have probably for the transfer station. Okay. So you have, you know. There’s a motion on the floor. It has been moved and seconded. Is there further discussion? No. All in favor, raise your hand. I. I. So it passes unanimously four to zero.

1:30:00 Is there any other re– Oh, the director has additional…

1:30:09 Under your agenda item. Oh. You guys, I didn’t know if you wanted to go back to raising agenda, or do you want me to talk about the transfer station construction update? So we have finished the transfer station construction, essentially. We have some minor things that we need to complete. We need to complete the gate. The gate was picked up today and is on site. The company will come in and erect the gate and put that all up. The striping will be done in the next two days. That will occur at the end of the day, so 3:30 and on. The other day, they did some infrared work to try to resolve the puddle that’s in the commercial area by the scale. We’re trying to get rid of that. But no, it’s been a great project. Again, we have things that we want to continue.

1:30:56 It was a great partnership with Dulis. We appreciate them. And so yeah, we will process the final bills and everything, and you guys will see those for a signature.

1:31:10 But overall, it looks really good from the street. It was a great project. It’s a great separation between the residents in the back coming forward and the commercial up front. They’re no longer going in a circle. Again, it’s a great opportunity for us

1:31:30 That’s it. I can’t think of anything other. This is weird. We’re going to have to copy. All right. Yeah. So we use Siron Bosch.

1:31:39 Do you want to do bills or pass on the- I can do those. They’re really short. Okay. So

1:31:48 okay, AT&T for internet access, $65.98. Fisher Auto Parts for parts and maintenance, $389.40. Gamblers for uniforms, $12.19. Home Depot for disposal area maintenance supplies, $230.09. Marblehead Light Department for electricity, $740.77. Marblehead Water and Sewer for water and sewer, $145.28. Mead Tellerman for legal, $43. And Walnut Printing Spec for 16,200, in case anyone wanted to know how expensive it is to do this for– It ain’t cheap. That’s for, I’m assuming all the- Packets … packets that go in the… Yeah.

1:32:33 Yeah. Not cheap. And that was a considerable amount of time- Yeah … because we had to put the two, like everything together. So we had to take the packet and put it in the sleeve so that they could hang them on every barrel. Mm-hmm. It’s like flashbacks from being a paperboy, right? That’s exactly right. Yeah. All right. So bathing beach season. So we’re in bathing beach season. Again, the beaches are tested on a weekly basis. We tend to have good results. If there is a closure, we will post right at the beach. Most of our beaches are, they get to have a retest before we actually fail them. For our Gas House and Grace Oliver’s, if I have one failing test, I will be closing

1:33:18 the beach. I will send out an email to the board to notify of the closure as quickly as possible. We’ll post it on the town website. We’ll put it on the Marblehead Police Department website, Facebook page as well. But yes, there is a sign right at the beach as quickly as possible saying that the beach is closed. We will try to resample the beach as quickly as possible. Once I have a passing test, I can open it back up. Okay. All right. Move to community health. Mm-hmm. So, I’ll make it quick. But I have a TikTok. Not to be confused with TikTok, which I know nothing about, but ticks I do. So I just wanted to give a brief overview about ticks in general and some of the diseases we see here in Massachusetts.

1:34:06 So we’re currently in the middle of tick season. Tick populations have expanded significantly over the years due to human development encroaching more on wooded habitats, and our more mild winters are not killing off as many ticks as our previous harsher winters have. And ticks can transmit about 20 diseases that we know of in the US. A few factors come into play. If a person becomes ill, it has to be the right species, if the tick carries the pathogen, how long it’s attached, and depending on an individual’s immune response. So Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne illness that we have in Massachusetts, caused by Borrelia burgdorferi, transmitted by the blacklegged tick, Ixodes scapularis, known as the deer tick.

1:34:52 Symptoms have that classic erythema migrans bullseye rash that sometimes has a band-like look to it, which that sometimes precedes the symptom. Sometimes the symptoms precede the rash. But the symptoms generally are fever, feeling fatigued, headache, muscle aches, and joint aches as well. And then untreated infection down the line can lead to serious neurologic, cardiac, and joint complications. There’s approximately 30,000 to 50,000 Lyme cases every year in the US, and anywhere from Virginia north is considered a high-risk state, and that’s where we are. Just to speak of some other, in addition to Lyme, you have Rocky Mountain

1:35:37 spotted fever, which is severe. It’s the most serious tick-borne infection. Luckily, we don’t see too many cases. But because mortality rates are about 20% to 30%. And then the one that’s kind of gaining more press is alpha-gal syndrome, which is, it’s an acquired allergy. It’s not an infection. It’s triggered by certain tick bites, and it causes an allergy to a sugar molecule that’s found in mammalian meat and other animal products. And symptoms can range from hive to diarrhea, nausea, but then also anaphylaxis, so it can be severe. It’s approximately 0.15% of the US population has it, which is about 500,000 people. It’s mainly in the southeast, but it seems to be increasing north. And it is something where the

1:36:25 allergy has to be treated, and generally avoidance of mammal products kind of cures it in with time. And just some important facts to note. So most, the vast majority of tick bites do not result in Lyme disease. And the risk of infection decreases dramatically when the tick is removed quickly. And it’s important to avoid any homemade or natural repellents that are out there. They’re not shown to be safer or more effective and can be dangerous to pets and small children. So I’ll talk a little bit about prevention. So as we enjoy this beautiful weather, we don’t want to avoid any outdoor activity. But if you do, you want to avoid tall grass and brush. And if you are doing some serious hiking, you can pre-treat your clothes with 0.5% permethrin,

1:37:12 and that is very effective for up to six hours. And you can also use EPA-approved repellents. These have been around a long time and have great safety data, DEET and picaridin. You want to wear light-colored clothing so you can easily see ticks, and pants tucked into socks. And then you want to do thorough tick checks on you and kids and pets after being outside, and that includes all of the areas that’s not just the surface areas. But the ticks like warm, moist places. So the scalp, the hairline, behind the ears, armpits, groin, between the toes, behind the knees. So you really want to kind of look everywhere And showering can also significantly reduce ticks right after, as long as it’s a few hours

1:37:57 after coming inside. And if you do see a tick, and if they are adherent, the best thing to do is use a fine-tipped tweezer, grasp as close to the skin as possible, and pull upward with even pressure, and then clean the area with soap and water. That’s it. You’ll see a lot of things online of Vaseline and oil and matches, and none of that is safe and should not be used. Just simple, quick removal. And then when to seek medical care. So, it’s very effective to treat with a single dose of doxycycline, an antibiotic for prophylaxis, but you have to meet certain criteria. The tick, it needs to be a deer tick, it needs to be attached for 36 hours or longer. So if you’re mostly inside, happen to hike in the morning, found an attached tick, you’re safe. But if you do find it days later from when you were outside,

1:38:46 then you would want to treat. And you want to also start the prophylaxis within 72 hours of removal of the tick. And you should be in a Lyme-prevalent area, which we are here. And then certainly see your doctor, your healthcare provider if you see that classic erythema migrans rash. Or if you have any concerning features of Lyme disease, you can always undergo testing or just start treatment. And then there’s some other more serious things like anaplasmosis and babesiosis. That’s when you have recurrent fevers despite treatment with Lyme, and it has some kind of blood disorders that we look for. But cases are still pretty rare, so just knowing what to look for and knowing how to

1:39:32 prevent it. And looking in the future, there is a Lyme disease vaccine in development by Pfizer. And this will be important as tick populations continue to expand. But

1:39:47 that’s all I got. Anyone has any questions? That was very thorough. Thank you. Good. No, that was all- Educational … you covered everything … for like- You covered the pets, you covered everything. Yeah. Excellent part of the meeting to end. Some of the- It’s a tough part of summer. But like you said, everybody still has to enjoy the outdoors. It’s so important. But just do the tick checks. Exactly. Touch grass, as the kids say. Yeah.

1:40:14 So we have to decide on our next meeting. Right. Given the intensity of this meeting, we probably don’t want to wait too long.

1:40:29 So previously we were alternating. We were doing first Monday. So you would do the second Tuesday and the fourth Monday, I think, right? Okay. So Chris, does that work for you? What’s your schedule? Yeah. Usually, Housatonic is the third Tuesday. Okay. It was just weird this month because we had the 9th that- Right. Yeah. Yeah. Why don’t we just make them on Mondays? Could we just do that? I think it’s scheduling easier for me. I don’t have a problem with it.

1:41:02 It’s fine with me. I can’t open my calendar right now. That’s fine. The definite… So our next would be the 29th.

1:41:12 Let’s see.

1:41:16 Yes. Okay. Let’s schedule the 29th. Julie will be here. And 7:00 PM? 7:00 PM.

1:41:37 I’ve got a few items, but I really don’t think… We really have a lot of interesting stuff on the CALM project, but we’ll take the time at the peaceful meeting to go through. We have been approached by a group called the National Fitness Council to see if we wanted to apply for support for building an outdoor exercise facility in the town.

1:42:10 Marlborough was identified by this national group, as a wellness advocate community. I think that came from CALM and the wellness fair that we put together for the past two years. So it has some grant money associated with it, and actually more importantly, the driver of the program in Massachusetts is Blue Cross Blue Shield. And they have a lot of money, and they want to help the towns raise the money to pay for the facility beyond what the grant will provide. So it’s useful, and the hope is that we can put together a community-wide conversation about where this might fit,

1:42:58 how it would fit into what we have. And,

1:43:04 we’ll bring that up with some intensity at the next- Yeah. If anyone wants to get a better idea, if you’re familiar with town, it’s like if you go behind Seaside, there’s a fitness trail. You know that one? You know what I mean? Oh, yeah. It’s very well hidden there. I know where that is. So- Yeah … that was done in the ’70s by these people. Oh. So that was like that- So this is the 2026 version of that. Okay. But they don’t do it on a trail now. It’s like one big mat-type area. It’s actually pretty cool. So it’s one of those outdoor workout areas. And- She didn’t send me the three-minute video. I think… Yeah. So we’ll send out the three-minute video. I suggested next to Hoff’s, but they actually found a better area. Okay. Well, they’re still working on it, so it’s very early, but we’ve communicated with

1:43:50 the Park and Rec, and they were- But in the past, those have been extremely popular. Yeah. Most communities had them. A lot of times, they surrounded athletic fields- Exactly … so people could work out as their kids are playing, stuff like that. Clearly, our current one is very hidden, since no one knows about it. Well, it’s just- I know you know about it, and I’m sure Al knows about it, but- No, where some of it is, but it is extremely hidden. Yeah. It’s kind of. Yeah. Watch your step. Yeah. It’s very dated. Yes. And I called this morning to see if we had any news on our CHIP grant, and what I was told was they have made their decisions, but the decisions are not going to be announced individually. They’re all going to be announced at one time, rejections and acceptances, and it’ll be sometime in June and July.

1:44:37 That’s the $100,000 for two years of planning, and then $375,000 for building a plan. But we’ll talk more next time. I think it’s been a tense but productive meeting. Thank you for all of the participation, and I think a move to adjourn is appropriate. Second. All in favor? Mm. Thank you.