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good afternoon and welcome to the Board of Health meeting of January 27th 2025 please note this meeting is being recorded and will be available shortly Hereafter for scheduled an on demand viewing on any smartphone or tablet if anyone else is recording this meeting
please notify the chairman pursuant to Governor Healey's March 29th 2023 signing of the acts of 2023 extending covid-19 measures adopted during the state emergency suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law until March 31st 2025 this meeting of the
chadam Board of Health is being conducted in person and via remote particip IP ation every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings as provided for in the order a reminder that persons who would like to listen to this meeting while in progress may do so
by calling the phone number 8945 4410 the ID number is 497-7369 pound they may join the meeting online via Microsoft teams through the link in the posted agenda while this is a live
broadcast and simal cast on channel on chadam TV channel 8 and 1072 despite our best efforts we may not be able to provide real-time access we will post a Rec record of this meeting on the town's website as soon as possible I'll turn this over to our chairman Noble Hanson
thank you thank you it shall be the policy of this board to conduct its meetings under the open meetings law so as to encourage public participation whenever time permits and is part of agenda item discussions so we have two uh things on the agenda for today but
first we'll establish a quorum and when I call your name please pray say please say present Carol Boyce here John Beckley present Ron Roman here dick Edwards present Ron Weiser present and
Joanne kale here okay so first on the uh agenda is uh continuance of a variance hearing for Patrick Brogan 346 moris Island Road Speakman construction and we have Mr Speakman here to present
the case Dan yeah you can go up to the yeah good afternoon so this variance request is a result of uh a failed septic inspection so the variances we're seeking are mostly uh uh setbacks from
property lines um setback from the Wetland and a variance from the uh groundwater separation of 5T to 4T um mostly As a result of we're limited with the location of the septic system trying to get the greatest distance away
from everything um there isn't that much more to it if you have any questions I'd be glad to answer them um just a couple things uh why did the system fail because of uh transfer
well it was uh too low to the groundwater and it was kind of located underneath the garage and and how did it come to be inspected is it real estate transfer is it a real estate transfer transfer yeah okay
and the uh in the this is a proposed or this is an existing ex house yeah an existing house it's not new construction existing yeah okay all right uh questions or comments from the
board well uh on one one of the plans it shows a living room on the first floor but uh that's really a bedroom that's the fourth bedroom that's the fourth bedroom yeah so there's not going to be any increase in the number of bedroom right I went through the building department records and um that's the way
it was approved originally so uh yeah yeah let me ask so um it's a 38294 foot lot in the bedrooms were approved by the Board of Health chair in a memo in 1996 so that's just why its
grandfather did you mean that's you know at the time it was looked at and it was considered a four bedroom so that TV room uh in the middle on the top floor um that was considered a TV room at the time so I just sometimes I have to do a
little little extra research to make sure that you know the history of the project is documented and um I just thought I'd let you know so that it is a four-bedroom not a five-bedroom okay
um other questions or comments now that that TV room are the steps open coming up there they they um the pictures I saw they do yeah they they open up as you step into it so sure not wal is not no
not at that point no not that I and the door between that and the bedroom there was a door yeah it's a door yeah so the reason TV room is in a bed is said a bedroom is because of the open staircase open staircase right
yeah um now usually we we ask for an architectural plan that shows the doorway width in the Arches and all that sort of thing but you've actually inspected this place um I looked at the building department file um
and there is a separate sheet for the floor plan right yeah yes I do have another one that has a little bit more detail on it but I didn't want to confuse the situation too much all right see it seems pretty straightforward the
the septic system is way up in the north western corner of the lot about as far away as it can be from the water so um the big thing on this one was the variance to groundwater so they're giving 4 feet instead of 5 feet which is
allowable under a local upgrade approval under Title 5 for basically for repair so alternatively it would have to be raised it would have to be raised higher yeah and that you know that would be difficult um on this
property okay it's very tight right and the previous septic system is in approximately the same location as the new system yeah it's kind of been dotted lines underneath there yeah partially under the garage right front corner of
the garage so so this leeching area is actually an improvement over what was there previously this is going to be a bigger area cement yes so garage is a slab but it is further away
from okay yeah it it definitely is an improvement I would say and then and the previous system failed because of the inspection at transfer yes yeah so and this is an improvement so
um the the reason it failed was because of the the leeching system was uh too close to the groundwater was like 3 feet it was too close to and and in order to correct that problem what has been done with the new correct what's existing
yeah no no um that in in in combination with the fact that it's some part of it is underneath the garage that's not so they raised it the new the new leeching area that they're putting in and they raised it up a foot right so that so instead of three ft to groundwater it's
fouret we we've gained on that at least right okay okay um are there any comments from the public on this uh 346 Mar Island Road I don't see any
none uh just another comment just yeah that they are also replacing the septic tank which was 1250 gallons and replacing it with a 1500 gallon you can so it's slightly bigger that the septic tank so you get a little bit more
retention time in there okay I can I move it we approve this uh variance request uh with the uh conditions listed in Judy's yeah second and then Judy can read the
uh conditions yep um the applicant should restrict the property to a maximum of four bedrooms and record the restriction on the deed at barnville County registry of deeds and submit a copy of the executed deed restriction to the board the engineer shall submit an engineered ASV plan including ad built
elevations with a written certification that the system has been installed in accordance with the approved plan and no alteration of the FL plan of the dwelling is allowed without further view review by the board or its agent that's it okay again any input from the
public hearing none we can take a Voice vote I think uh all in favor of the variance for 346 Mars Allen Road say I I I and all opposed say no okay so that variance is granted Mr Speakman thank you very much appreciate it thank
you okay next on the um agenda is a variance hearing for Jonathan seam 600 Fox Hill Road JC engineering LLC and we have someone from JC
engineering uh yes we do uh can you folks hear me you can't hear you Mike do you have your it's it's not on mute there you go you can hear you now you can okay great um yeah so for the record my name is Mike pental and I'm with JC engineering and
uh we're working on this project for our septic system upgrade over at 600 Fox Hill Road it's uh currently a three-bedroom home and it has an existing thg tank to a single leeching trench that's located right in front of
the the home and there are a couple of resource areas on the property one of which is a salt marsh that's located behind the property uh I mean behind the house and also a Coastal Bank the existing septic system is currently
within 100 ft of the Coastal Bank in salt marsh uh what we're proposing to do is uh utilize the existing tank that's there now and put in a new title 5 system with more capacity than the
existing uh leeching trench that's there uh the new leeching system would be two 500 gallon Chambers with crushed stone surrounding it we put the new leeching system basically in the same vicinity as the existing because there really isn't that much room on this property to
shoehorn a new septic system and get it farther away from the resource areas so because of that we are seeking uh two local upgrade approvals for the leeching system and a local variance to the Coastal Bank uh the local upgrade
approvals uh include the setback from the SCS to the house foundation uh we're required to have 20 ft we're providing 15.2 feet so we're asking for a 4.8 foot waiver on that variance and then there's
also the setback from the SCS to the Coastal Bank which title fire requires 50 and we're providing 40.4 ft and lastly we have a local variance to your um to the chatam regulations uh there's 100 foot minimum
that's required for setback from the SCS to the Coastal Bank we're providing again 40.4 feet and that's a 59.6 foot barrance that we're requesting there um as you'll see on the property there really isn't that much space to put in
the new leing system so we Tred to make the best of what's there now um one thing that we had to propose as part of this leeching system is a liner that is going to be situated between the house and the leeching system reason for that
is because we don't comply with the 20 foot uh setback uh minimum setback for title five and we are providing um let's see we're providing 15.2 ft there uh we do meet the separation to groundwater
we're providing greater than 5 Fe of Separation uh we are providing erosion control measures to protect the resource areas during construction and uh we don't plan to take down any trees as part of this
property however there is a 20-in tree that's located between the garage and the leeching system um that may have to be taken down just because of the liner location uh where it is it's approximately a a couple of feet away
from the tree but the contractor will try to see if he can keep that tree in place if he can but if he cannot then that one tree will have to be removed um so I think it's a good project we tried to maximize the distance to the Coastal
Bank as much as possible and um all the septic system work just so you folks know is all going to be within a lawn area a walkway and a portion of the pave d dve way um so we didn't want to put it
in any um undisturbed areas on the property so with that I would take any uh questions that the board members might have uh just a couple points so it's an existing dwelling that's going to remain that's correct an existing
three-bedroom dwelling the new septic system is sized for three bedrooms and then uh why did this system fail is it house transfer or just no no transfer I was just told that it's in failure or or and uh perhaps the the
frequency of the pumping of the tank so there the homeowner is being ret is being proactive and uh replacing the system before it gets to worse that that's what the homeowner told me he started he came in and spoke to me about this um I don't know four or five months
ago I guess and he was be being proactive okay can you tell me what the purpose of the liner is well it it's just to prevent the uh sewage from navigating its way to the full basement so as as as a a mitigating
fact a mitigating measure would be to add a liner it's pretty typical practice um Judy would tell you uh what you want to do is because we don't want that sewage to make its way to the basement we put a liner that's 5T wide 5T tall
that is and we set the top of the line at the same elevation as the uh breakout of the leeching system and so um it it just prevents any sewage from potentially getting to the to the basement it just drives the affluent further
down yeah so before can laterally move right it's realistically in soils like this you're not going to get a lot of lateral movement anyways especially that far away from the leeching field but that's you know off Cape where you have more clay or um other types of materials
that the water Finds Its way whichever and that could be laterally but in this type of soil it's usually more down it's going down any yeah so this is just a precaution as Mike said to keep it away from the foundation okay thank you Judy you looked at this house and
you said the study wasn't wouldn't be acceptable as a bedroom is that is that a cased opening between the the study and the and the hall I don't why isn't it acceptable you know I walked through it it's got built-in bookshelves and it's got a fireplace like kitty corner
it's very small and it it's kind of between the hallway and the kitchen it's like a walkway to go into the kitchen um it's I mean if you saw it you wouldn't count it as a bedroom I can't imagine anybody using it as a bedroom
um because of the way it's laid out it's really from the hallway and the stairs it's the you know the only way into the kitchen besides walking all the way around the living room and into the dining room so yeah and and we believe it just it just doesn't provide the um
the Privacy that a bedroom would typically require so that's another reason why we believe that study would not be considered a bedroom mean I don't even know where you would put a bed in here I mean it even though it is greater than 70 square feet
it's it's just the way it's laid out with the fireplace and the well you could remove the bookcases well even I mean even if you put them up against the bookcase you'd be sticking out into the middle of the the room I wouldn't is that a cased
opening uh I believe the one into the hallway is the one in there looks like they're showing a door on the other one a door into the kitchen but you don't know the size that's correct you don't know the size of the CED opening uh no I don't it looks like it's
probably four feet Maybe I can't I can't read this but like I said I went through the house with the engineer and the owner and I I was just like I you know it's not really it's not
a bedroom it wouldn't in so many limiting ways it wouldn't be used as a bedroom and one of the conditions is they cannot have more than three bedrooms yes the house yeah they could rent it as a for bed right right exactly
uh but technically by our rules the case opening has to be I think six feet now to provide lack of privacy by our current rules I mean just the technical for existing it's five I think five y um but it also says in our rules that you
have you know you can look at something and make a judgment call as well and if you call if you count the total number of rooms here and divide by two you you really just come up with three anyway so um right that's what I asked is this the kind of room you wouldn't count as a
bedroom by prior precedent um yeah I mean again it's usually something that I walk through and I make a determination on paper it you know it kind of does look like it could be but other questions comments um I had
just one uh question uh so moving the whole septic system farther up the Coastal Bank is not done because of the trees or the grade which it it gets very elevated then all three of the
above yeah there's a property line oh yeah I got theong looking at the wrong thing yeah and the property line we we set the leeching system if you look at the plan under our swing ties and dimensions insert there you'll see we're 10.2 feet
away from that property line and it and there is a nice little stone wall that runs across there and then there'd be more vegetation that we'd have to take down as well um and then You' have more than 3 fet of cover over it so it just didn't make sense to to to move it up
just to gain a few few extra feet okay other questions or comments the Lots guess 46,4 Square ft um and any uh questions from the
public uh on 600 funio Road see none no no one yeah uh so can I get uh I can make I can uh make a motion that we approve this
variance with the conditions in Judy's memo a second and Carol a second okay and Judy can you read the conditions for us so pretty much the same as the last one the app should restrict this property to a maximum of three bedrooms
and record the restriction on the deed at barnville County registry of deeds the applicant should submit a copy of the executed de restriction to the board the engineer shall submit an engineered asil plan including asil elevations with the written certification that the system has been installed in accordance
with the approved plan no alteration to the floor plan of the dwelling will be allowed without further review by the board or the agent okay thank you uh we can probably take a Voice vote um all in favor of the uh variance for
600 Fox Hill Road say I I I all opposed okay so that variance is is granted great thank you so much appreciate it thanks Mike welcome all right byebye okay
um next uh any uh further public comments uh or future agenda items requests from the board on an issue we we we do have we are going to have a review of mil Hill after
um probably the second meeting in February will be on the agenda um I've got scheduled to have um um the airport uh not for the next meeting I need to contact them and see when they
can come and and give us an update and also the transfer station we we discussed those the last time to put on the agenda um and then um I guess the other thing that we were just talking about was um having the short-term
rental um put on again to discuss the possible increase of the uh registration fee that's being um put into the budget I believe for um Community Development so I'll have to get more details on that
and bring that up to you so we can discuss that further yeah that sounds good and then uh we can get a general uh further followup from uh Karen Karen Shima uh if there are questions so so we have a meeting scheduled in one week and then there
three weeks before the following meeting yeah why are we doing that for for what why because last week was a last week was a holiday so we usually meet on the 1 and third so because we had a holiday we have to make
up we do them we schedule them back we have things for for the agenda for one week from now we only have one thing on the agenda wouldn't it have been better to have it I mean we could cancel it and push it up to the next meeting but I don't we'll have a meeting on the 10th
variance well then you'd have two back-to-back meetings on the 10th and the and the 24th that'd be two weeks apart we have a meeting the 3D and the 24th we have a holiday the one of Mondays in February oh yeah
right the 10th is President's Day I think is that right no 17th is President that's what I'm saying isn't it Monday 17th the 17th so if we had a meeting on the 10th and the 24th we'd have a meeting every two weeks right but the problem is is the planning the planning
board meets that's the first and the third so we have the only reason why we meet at three today on the third Monday is because of um them meeting at 4:00 so they meet on the 1 and the third yes so
the 10th is the second that would be ideal well no they're the second and the minute I'm so confused now we're the first and the third we're the first and the third we're the first and the third they're the second and the fourth so it's whether we meet at four
on the third or three on the right we've already posted this we have a variance on for the third so I mean they'd have to re notify buts yeah so that's the only problem I me we could we could meet on the 10th
but then you're going to have back toback meetings again we're going to have one third and the 10th and not no we're going to cancel the third if we cancel the third we have the 10 an A A they have a variance they've already notified a Butters yeah okay so but so it's going to be a very short meeting
the next time we keep the schedule we'll keep the schedule as is sorry it's confusing 20 minutes so it'll be a short meeting I thought we were going to put on for the next agenda to add to it um um the short-term rental thing anyway so that's going to be a discussion so we
would have the short-term rental and one hearing oh all right so between the two of us we have so the future meetings on the agenda we'll have mil Hill the airport the transfer station and short-term rental regulation
all four things will be like forums but they're not on the same meeeting they're not all in the same meeting no not all in the same meeting they're spread out right okay okay and right other questions or comments comments from the public requests from the public I don't
see any today and uh then we have minutes from January 6th does anybody have a question or comment or a change to the minutes of January 6th and that's where we approved the
fuel storage system regulation uh revision okay if not um can I get uh we can probably take a voice uh vote on approving the minutes of January 6 all in favor say I I I oppose say no okay so we approve those minutes of January
6th and um I think that's all we have to do today yep that's all so we can um take a a motion move to to adjuring Second
meeting okay all in favor say I I opposed all right so we are adjourned 27 minutes that's an indoor