e e e e e e e good afternoon welcome to the Board of Health meeting of February 3rd 2025 please note this meeting is being
recorded and will be available shortly Hereafter for scheduled in 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
certain covid-19 measures adopted during the state of 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 participation 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 1508 945 4410 and the conference ID is
16996 533 pound or they may join the meeting online via Microsoft teams through the link in the posted agenda while this is a live broadcast and simoc cast on chadam TV channel 8 and 1072 despite our best effort we may be we may
not be able to provide realtime access we will post a record of this meeting on the town's website as soon as possible now I'll turn the meeting over to our chairman Dr Noble Hansen 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 as part of agenda item discussions so we have two things on the agenda for today but first we'll establish a quorum and when I call your name please say present Carol Boyce here John Beckley present
dick Edwards present uh myself noble Hanson present and then today Ron Weiser will be a full member Ron present and then uh our alternate member is Joanna kale okay um Al righty so first we have
a uh variance hearing and approval of IIA technology for James and Kristen saely 44 scattery Road east Southeast LLC and we have Thad Eldridge here and just that is
fine th ELD G Southeast um here with the sve Le property uh they would like to add a detached garage with the bedroom above they have a 31,000 and change square foot lot so we'd be looking at a four bedroom total this would be removal
of the septic tank installation of a denitrifying I a septic system and then increasing the capacity of the leech field to make up for the difference I think it's pretty straightforward so I'll just ask if there are any
questions uh thank you um questions or comments from the board um I had one question so the old septic system is being partly removed and partly reused the Legion Field reused but explain that so the old
septic system it's a chamber system uh there are currently three chambers and the proposal would be to add a fourth chamber and then the additional Stone to expand it to a four bedroomroom leeching that's for the leeching field yes and then and then the tank itself it's out
of here and then a new tank would go in because a standard septic tank does not isn't configured correctly for the Innovative alternative technology to go into the tank is being replaced with the m with the fast system right in the same in the same location same general
location we won't make them put it exactly in the same spot and then there's no other variances other than the extra bedroom for switching to IIA that would be it yeah questions or comments from the board seems pretty straightforward the
the uh I don't have any problems with the layout of the house y it's a four-bedroom house I a three-bedroom house and one bedroom above the garage it's a three car garage a three car garage or two and a half cuz
that last a long way from the house yeah it is it is that's what stri really yeah pretty far away there's a lot going on up by the house and we'd have to fully replace the septic if they put something closer and it' really take away from
that rest of that property now the flow from the garage to the tank is is it pumped up there or is that downhill no this would be gravity there is a hill there now but the idea would be to fill in the
property a bit so that the everything pitches downhill you'll note that we have proposed sleeving the sewer service or the the soil pipe as it does cross two water lines okay it looks uh pretty straightforward other
questions or comments so it's a 31291 ft lot currently three-bedroom adding one bedroom going to IA technology from Title 5 so be a
four bedroom without any other variances Thad what does ohu mean overhead utilities overhead utilities okay oh and those are just out in the street everything here is underground once you get on to the
property okay if there aren't or any other comments from the board or any uh comments from the public on this uh 44 scattery Road I see none okay maybe can uh get a motion I'll
move that we approve this variance with the conditions listed in the uh memo uh of 12925 by J and a second second okay and then uh we can get Judy to read the uh conditions for the record so the
standard conditions the applicant should restrict the property to a maximum of four bedrooms and record this restriction on the de conal County registry of deeds and submit a copy to the health division the applicant shall sign a covenant with the board agreeing to comply at such time as the town of
chadam through its Board of Health and or Board of Water and Sewer Commissioners directs the connection of this property to the municipal sewer when it becomes available throughout its life the system shall be under an onm agreement the onm agreement shall be for at least one Year and may be with any Mass certified operator of the
appropriate grade that has received training by the company on the operation of the system Sy effluent from the system shall be monitored twice per year for the first two years preferably in May and October the effluent shall be filled tested in accordance with mass D
standard conditions for secondary treatment unit certified for General use revised March 20th 2015 in addition a lab test for of the eement for total nitrogen is to to meet this performance standard of 19 mg per liter shall be
collected and analyzed by a certified lab water met readings are to be provided with the semiannual report if any of the field tests or lab tests fail followup tests shall be conducted by certified lab and an evaluation by the operator within 30 days after the
required two years testing application can be made to the board or their agent for review and possible modification of the monitoring requirements the applicant agrees to apply a minimum of 6 Ines of compacted top soil to all Disturbed areas of the property the
engineer shall submit an engineered as built plan including asilt elevations with a written certification that the system has been installed in accordance with the approved plan no alteration to the FL plans of the dwellings or the site plan will be allowed without further review by the Board of Health or
its agent and the variance is granted pursu to the town of shadam nitrogen loading regulations and is valid for one year from the date of the Board of Health approval a per a permit must be issued and work commence during the one-year period of the variance shall
expire okay thank you uh I think we can probably take a Voice vote for this um all in favor of the variance for 44 scattery Road say I I I opposed all right that variance is granted thank you so much have a great afternoon thank you
Judy Judy have a question um in general when these uh systems are tested mhm they do well on the sample I mean has it been our experience that these um
they don't do what do you mean by testing no they they do they they do twice annual water quality testing of the effort to make sure that the that the system is actually delivering I mean sometimes they it will vary slightly
they'll go above 19 um but usually they're somewhere in that 20 to you know sometimes much less I was just looking at one today that was like an eight parts per mill eight milligrams per liter which is quite low um that's the testing that they do routinely right but
the Board of Health the the County Health Board tested all the Ia systems in chadam a couple of years ago they did and they didn't meet well standards the manufacturer said in terms of nitrogen
at the affluent okay the nitrogen coming out of it was sub greater than the manufacturer specifications and they postulated well maybe they're not being installed properly or there something but but you know the testing that we're ordering is different the testing that
the Board of Health did was actually testing the nitrogen coming out of the of the effluent and it the fast system which is almost all of our systems okay failed are you talking about the the raw effluent one the the the the the chart
that the County Board of Health showed us on our yeah I mean it's our systems and they said that like 75% of them didn't meet the manufactures standard of 19 milligrams per liter or below whatever it was it was the f one and the ones that did were the expensive ones
and the fast virtually all of them did not meet what they were supposed to be doing they're they're they tend to fluctuate around that 19 above and below some are much higher some are much lower and we do have you know 20 years of of data we're not testing the effluent are
we are we are we going down and digging down and and testing that's what they're testing the outflow pipe they're testing outflow pipe right they the treated effluent from before it goes into the ground they're treating they're that's what we're doing twice a year yes so why
is the Board of Health saying that they all all the fast systems failed to meet that standard Barnstable County County yeah the woman that came here and gave the talk and she gave us the hand out she did studying and she said that that out of like 30 units we had in chadam
only like six met the standard and the fast system virtually all of them failed in their testing yeah I don't I I think that's a misinterpretation of what she was saying I mean well that's that's what she said I mean I can revisit the data and and
provide it for you but definitely they they were all over the place we asked her the problem is is that you know these things are supposed to get a 50% reduction in total nitrogen but you don't know where what number they're starting with because we're not testing influence so you could have
nitrogen that's I mean they're assuming um they're assuming 45 um oh if I may uh the assumption that we've had is 35 with all the they're starting with 45 they're doing that now I I think that's what it well our
nitrogen loading regulations say 35 I all of our nitrogen loading calulations have always started with 35 okay with all technology you're going to have 70 parts per million going into that tank so getting from 70 to 19 is difficult
for a lot of the systems 70 would be the typical affluent if there was no treat we we don't know and it's going to vary um the people who take the people who take longer showers are going to have less concentration if you use all the water
you're supposed to when you cook pasta you're going to have more water in there you're going to have a lower concentration there so many variables that's the problem um some of them do quite well some of them don't do well it depends on how often they're being used whether they're seasonal or not this
says a sampling time of year impact that yeah well that's why we say you know we want them to do it in the in the spring and then again in the fall um because if they're empty half the year then they they have a startup time period that they need to
start working to their full one that I reviewy what happens if on one of the tests it comes back high they're supposed to retest what is that retest what do they do do they you know I mean they're they're supposed to try and the
operator the operator of Sy operat they're supposed to try and figure out why certain things are why it's still High um retest 30 days later I don't know that that always happens but let me ask that have you ever had as an Eng engineer ever had to go back and
redesign or figure out why levels are high because of testing no and and it's no The Operators so I I was reviewing one with Mike Maro of J&R who resells the the micras systems uh the monster
system we did down at the chatam tides oh sorry there was one report that was skyrocketed and it was in the fall and it was why did this happen it was right after they had cleaned all of the the cleaning agents that had gone down the drain killed all the bugs and then the
nitrogen skyrocketed upset the process so there's things like that that can happen so chemistry is a messy science and then natural chemistry even even more unpredictable absolutely okay well
maybe we should ask the woman from the Barnes County Health Department to come back and revisit that because those data were disturbing and it may and maybe it's because the septic systems in a in a place like
chadam are being used entirely differently than across the country and there's a lot of people coming and and the houses are overloaded with people and there's a lot more stuff going into these septic tanks actually if you have more people in a house I would expect
you would have a better rate if you have one person living in a home there's too little flow that that's going to drop that con more the better they are because they're really there's not much nitrogen going into the system if there's only one person but is there
as much water going into Sy it's concentrated in um H well it maybe it' be interesting to let me let me look at the data you know we can put this on a future table and the
microfast looked really bad in that and yeah well it'd be it'd be nice to know whether this is all just to make us feel good or whether there's a there's a there's a genuine but again if you're getting 50% if you're starting at 70 or
90 you're still getting better than a conventional system okay you know what I'm saying there may be the big picture benefit of doing these systems regardless of whether you whether we're actually getting that number they're also um you know we can talk about this
on a future agenda but they're also um recommended Technologies um that the state is trying to work up a list and once we get that solid list we can start talking about requiring those instead of these other systems that maybe aren't on
that list okay um so and we reviewed quick I mean I don't know about anybody else but I mean I'm no expert on these systems and we seem to be getting these systems at every meeting would it be worthwhile having somebody from the manufacturer
come and meet with us and just ask some answer some of these questions would be but that's going to be a sales presentation you know that's that's not going to be a scientific presentation I I agree but I think I think you've got some pretty good questions and pretty direct way ask
there are the Consultants who are on contract system that they must be pretty well known if an engineer could come in and address some of these questions from your perspective who who is it at works for the for the county health department that overseas all we have all these test
systems down there right Emily uh she's the one that came and presented that review that and see exactly what that study was and what the data was again and bring it up and be able to answer questions and we can definitely have a revisit of that somebody else can get in that would bring some more expertise y
um I I the exact scope of that study that she did but I do remember that the fascism didn't perform as well as the others and nor did the in that study and but it is less expensive I guess so it is it how much price is there in these systems between these systems are going
to be $1 to $15,000 on top of a septic and then as you go up through the systems it's going to increase significantly so significantly you could have a 30 to significantly less than the other ones okay so we 30 to $40,000 system which is the Nitro or
the nitrex okay and that's what's being proposed well Fleet is pushing for all Nitro and nitrex exclusively and everyone's going to put in a very expensive system okay so what we probably should do is let's say we need
to put this make this an agenda item future future agenda item and let Judy put together uh some kind of a a panel and if you have suggestions about who might talk or whatever get that information into Judy and we can maybe try to get a few different people who who would would talk from different
perspectives and weeview that study say she didn't talk about the whole thing as I recall she she she reviewed one study she had done but probably needs to be an agenda item yes because I think this board ought to understand the principal and if it's supposed to be
19 and the fast is 30 then no matter even if they are putting 70 into it they're not meeting the standard and stop using put as an agenda item I think okay and the other other thing is
um The Original Point there was someone who would come in and talk a little bit about the science of of the septic system and the bacteriology and the chemistry and exactly what's happening because would be good to get that out she tried to keep it simple Last Time by so all right so we we're going to we're
make an agenda item we're supposed to do two factors that we use I mean everybody looks at it and says how can I get through how can I get my additional bedroom the microfast the singular they're not the best performers but they are on the approved list yeah and then
as far as I know the microfast is the only one that can go under a driveway and has a H20 wheel loading capacity the others all have plastic Chambers to grade or or other items that you can't drive
over interesting okay all right great thank you very much hey thank you thank you okay so now we have the next on the agenda this is actually our agenda short-term rental update this will be a general update of the short-term rental
regulation and then there's an issue of fee changes coming up and Judy is going to uh address those two aspects and she's given us uh some notes Here Judy okay so
um we I got I gave you out just before the meeting uh a report from Karen our housing inspector um just for an update for our new members um you probably know this but the short-term rental uh program started up
last Mar uh God now I forget we started registering people last March um we hired an inspector the regulation for passed last year we had an inspector and she started um this fall and um she's
been really great one of those is this car I didn't get one started in April April she started in April ail yeah okay seems like it was just yesterday because she she started shortly before the summer um so long story short she so far
um we this past year we we um licensed or we gave out 964 rental certificates um and she's had issues with about 42 properties where she's um had to discuss with them how they were advertising them
what rooms they were using those types of things and for the most part she's been able to um get everybody where they need to be um I believe we haven't had any hearings or anything like that she's just worked with people um what what again made them
non-compliant bedroom numbers basements bedrooms or more bedrooms than we had them listed for so they had to change their their advertising and their um lay out of their rooms and such so so does she have a chance to look online at
their actual um advertisement for bedrooms she she able to do that yeah yeah that's what she does okay great yeah because we asked them for a um we asked them for U you know a web listing and she basically looks at them all you
know unless it's a pretty simple two-bedroom C Wonder tool for us so you can really see what everybody is doing and if there's any questions or concerns she can she can talk to them and get them to change things and how
many are listed at the state for Chatum um she didn't give me that number but it's somewhere around 1,00 when you take out all the um places that aren't we don't cover
like lodging houses and so there's still hotels Cottages all of that okay so there is still a a a separation between the number of registrations that homeowners have
filed with the state yeah and the number that and then some of those may have discontinued renting for one reason or another um and then she has gone through and sent I think everybody that she could find a letter and she's been following up with those people trying to
close that Gap tring to close that Gap yeah it's not as awful as I thought it could be no 's done a really great job I mean it was very timec consuming for her to get in touch with everybody and send out letters and and this is sort through the stage list compared it compared it
to our list and um and the heaviest lifting is the first year or so I would think on this until you kind of yeah begin to repeat has she been able to compare the
listing with the number of bedrooms Allowed by the building the the the building certificate or the or the deed or the assessment as she looked at yeah that's not always so clear but yes we do we go through the building files we go through the assessor records the
assessor records don't aren't really it's kind of like comparing apples and oranges because they have a different um they if you know we would might call it a bedroom and they wouldn't and vice versa so but like that one next to the Chad and lighthouse
that was advertising six bedrooms including a pool house with a bedroom that clearly didn't have yeah a building permit out L that that would have been picked up if somebody hadn't complained um I forget how we somebody
complained yeah I don't know I don't know I don't remember whether we I think there are a lot of these in Chad we in after going through that particular house um they took a room out of the it was a it was a tough house because was a very historic house so there was room
one room they were using as a bedroom and um they had the pool house with a bedroom and a bathroom and the pool house was being used as a bedroom we went in with the building inspector they agreed to take one of the bedrooms out of the main house and they got permission from the building inspector
to put it in the pool swap it out for the pool house so they it it all worked we worked with the owner and that's kind of what we're trying to do is work with people and get them in compliance so the the con concerns that we're having the issues are
um is like basement rooms that they might not list as a bedroom but you go in there and they have beds in them they have bunk beds in them or or they might be calling in a bedroom and we tell them you can't use it as a bedroom but how do you you
know tell they're not advertising as AED they're not advertising it as a bedroom but it's got bunk beds in it how do you enforce the occupancy limit what you're getting at and how do do we tell people to remove beds and so that's something we we need to work through like four
bedrooms but they sleeps 28 well they can't post them that way anymore because that's something we really look at so if it's four bedrooms it's can only have 10 people right but you know if they have a pull out couch and they put that other two people on that that's fine but if
it's in a basement where there's no legal egress you know it's not a safe condition we don't want them having beds down there but we also kind of aren't telling people what they can do with Furniture so um so we have to figure out a a kind of a standard operating
procedure for stuff like that we can readdress the issue of parking you know if somebody's advertising three bedrooms and they have six cars parked on the front lawn right you know that's a problem and if we H if we did have a
parking limit for the number of bedrooms we could control that cuz it's easy to drive by at midnight and see how many cars are parked on the lawn uh yeah I mean that really yeah that hasn't been I know you know the house next to us
that's that's you know it's uh three bedrooms and sometimes they have six cars parked in have you gone out with your night goggles on no I don't need night goggles done done one of these things you know but you know what it is it's you know it's like that house at
the corner of Wal Harbor and and uh whatever bar Cliff bar Cliff that was advertising six bedroom sleeps 20 you know and uh uh it wasn't 20 a family of
20 it was 10 couples and cars yeah well that's those are issues that are are kind of hard to deal with but we're doing the best we can and trying to figure it out as we go along you can't inspect a property when there
renters in there we would rather not I don't think you could you could do it at like change overtime noon on Saturday yeah and if we have complaints and we had to go to the realtor and say we need to get it you know we would work it out they would work it out for us you have there been any of the rental agencies
that have been more of a problem than others or have they all been Cooperative in police I think for the most part everybody's been fairly Cooperative with um and what's the ultimate goal in terms of inspection that every one of these short-term rentals would get inspect Ed
so and she's done so far she's done 44 um what we're trying to do is about 300 a year right now so in three years we'll get them all inspected at least once okay that's good so do just help with that or is that just caring she's been doing it she's been doing it um
Lucas is f so what she did was she sent out letters to randomly chosen um people and and so far she said good people have been calling back to reschedule and so they accept no problem yeah and a lot of times it's been it's been Realtors or
property management companies not even owners yeah that have been setting those up so y um so that's worked out well um she she did mention here the the things that she's looking for um functioning smoking carbon monoxide alarms on every
level of the home within 10 ft of every bedroom um uh fire extinguishers confirmation of hot water label Electric V functioning doors windows and locks basically it's just putting an eyeball on the dwell
she'll get better and better at this too yeah and she just completed the in the last part of her her report she just completed um tier 2 housing training with the state um it's required for um pretty much all Health agents now to do
these trainings in food and housing Etc and she just completed that um so I think that was a a a good thing for her um so the other thing I wanted to bring up is the we we touched on it last week
was that going through the budget Pro process one other followup so um just perspective so as of January 30th 2025 964 rental certificate application submitted so she started in April of
2024 well after the actual the deadline and had to catch up for the summer so to me this is a dramatic Improvement in the in the system compared to a year ago this is this is this is this is really good this is coming coming through and
then the next step would be as dick said parking addressing complaints uh what we could do to tweak the rules to make compliance better or make it work better um I think we were really lucky to hire somebody with experience she did she had had
experience was a great a great hire she's working full-time at it so she full time she's fulltime yep and she's dedicated to this topic yep she's the house housing her her official title is housing inspector
but I call her housing inspector SL administrator because she basically administrates the program now I'll ask you that now you may be getting to this and if you are just tell me to be patient if you throw a number around her
her salary her Fringe her uh travel whatever and you come up with a number and then you divide that number by how many uh registrations we
have in other words you try and figure out what is she costing the town of chadam yeah and then and then you look at what's the revenue stream from the 900 let me do the do let me do the math
in other words how are we doing in terms of costs relating to are we are we we need more money on on the are we deficit F financing you know where are we
on yeah I mean we haven't made enough to cover her right we need to that is the next topic so any more any more question questions on the the basic review of short-term rental update any other I think this is pretty good news though yeah yeah I think she's doing a great
job I have one question does Lucas is he totally busy doing other inspections or is he available to help her if needed he is available um if he's needed he also handles like housing complaints like outside like long you know not shortterm but people that are renting units and he
covers nuisances um but he doesn't do the the day to-day but if there was something that I you know they could he certainly would go out with her and I'd actually like her to start going out with him on some of the other things to see some of the
other issues that we do where we do have real issues which most of these places are gorgeous you know okay good she's always like all right are we close to covering her or are we I mean with a modest increase okay all that's a next topic so short upate we're we're barely
covering her no we're not covering her salary we're maybe half or maybe three qus of it yeah so now we can move on to the fees the short-term rental fee that Judy's going to explain and that gets into the whole thing of uh what her cost is and what we originally did and what
might be happening well right now so right now it's $50 for a registration and the idea was to keep it low and then we they last two years ago whenever they put the money in the budget to hire her um and then we they still wanted to was
wasn't really quite enough to cover her her salary but um but what you probably saw for the next fiscal year is a position um through Community Development the building department for
a housing uh inspector so the uh Massachusetts building code that is just went into effect or is go I think they might have pushed it out a month or two but it's going into effect is um now
states that every short-term rental has to be inspected once a year by a building inspector oh boy so and that's different Karen can't qualify as a building inspector she that's a a state
certification you need to be a builder a contractor with certain you know number of hours and who has who has mandated this the state the state that every short-term rental must be inspected by a building inspector right so that's whole
new thing I'm not you know it's a it's an unfunded mandate basically so so the the state's not given a nickel no so um Katie and Greg and and I and Karen are hous we all sat down and talked about
which you know how we could do this and so they've put in in the budget to hire someone the building department the Community Development and um they're also as you know part of asking for the
money in the budget they're saying that they're going to we're going to increase the rental fee registration fee and they said $100 um increase it 100 or up to 100 I I believe it was increase it $100 um I don't obviously I mean at this
point we have to have it in the budget for the discussion so the finance committee and the selectman and all of that can review it and agree or not agree whether we're going to move move forward with it um but the um the fees can't be changed that's a that's a
a bu a regulation by the Board of Health which we have to um have a hearing and and discuss any changes to the to the regulation so so if the town increases the fee for the short-term rental well they're not going to increase it they're going to either say yes or no that they're going to move forward with
funding for this position and with the understanding that we would move forward with a you know increasing fees to help cover it that increasing fee would have to be would have to come through the Board of Health and be approved by us it yeah because it's in our regulation okay and or the
or the town could fund it you know the town the select board could come up with money the bottom line is if they don't fund the housing inspector then we have to shut down all the short-term rentals in chatam and I don't think the select board is going to go for that I don't know if the state is
you well if that's the Mandate if it has to be inspected and it can't be inspected so they need an inspector and our thought is that the inspector and Karen will work together because they're going to be looking at different things there you know and it would be teamwork
and it wouldn't make sense more sense to consolidate the program into one Department I.E the health department we're not building inspectors and she's not a bill so you know that's official title building inspector as a as a I
guess a certified position so they let me ask you one question the building inspector's rules about what is a bedroom the short-term rental is predicated on what is a bedroom and the Health Department's criteria for what is a bedroom my understanding is they're not the same
they don't really have a rule I mean they're not going to be looking at number of bedrooms they're going to be looking at structural fire safety um those types of things the inspections being done by a building inspector aren't going to help you with your inspections of the short-term rental
silos this into different places well that's why we want them them to work together so um you know if we it would have to be done as a team would would they consolidate their criteria do you think that would happen or no who who
the the the uh the criteria for Bedroom by build by the building department and the health department they don't look at bedrooms they don't look at bedrooms point is they look at egress they're going to look at well if this is being used as a bedroom you have to have it if the health department has a need
to validate the bedrooms and we've got an inspector from the town in a different department going through every one of these every year then there ought to be a mechanism for us to have that
building inspector look at that as part of their other checklist yeah I mean help us that and I'm not saying that won't happen but they don't you know we we're going to have to come up up with a protocol on how this is going to work this is all in the very early stages now
is the is the building department going to expect that the cost of their inspector be defrayed by revenue from our program or the idea but the money all
goes into the general fund so we don't want to have them have to pay two fees one for the building and one for the health that seems silly so it would make more sense to have one fee that would cover the whole program so but if but if
you've already got one person and they're charging a fee of $50 right and now you're having a building inspector and let's say he's paid $100,000 just doing the math that comes out to about $100 per rental unit just for them for
rental units so are we now going to charge the rentals 150 they said increase $100 one I mean I I don't think this is set in stone yet I don't maybe Greg has been in on some of these discussions he's on the line um maybe he can answer some of these questions
better Greg you want to help me out here yeah sure happy to um so with what's been going on so far uh the conversation has been that you know it is an unfunded mandate from the state
and every short-term rental has to be in expected on an annual basis so that is you know a a ballpark a th000 inspections per year um it's going to be very difficult for even one person to do that I think excuse me so the state's
mandating this building inspector inspect the short-term rental every year yes every rental every year every okay now is that is that so set in stone now that's been passed that's done that's a done deal that state
mandate as far as you know yes yeah as far as I know that is the the state mandate um that has already been passed not saying that it won't get repealed called back for some other reason but that's what we're going with right now
all right thanks sorry to interrupt sure not a problem so the um the building inspectors uh the potential new hire would be pretty much all out doing a
a year um and they would be doing the things required in the building code whereas our health inspector one would be providing a lot of the scheduling and assistance looking at the bedrooms keep making sure the program was working but
it not necessarily going out to every single uh property every single year I think she had already planned on attending maybe a third of them every year and um I I think the ballparks that have been talked about so far are uh
potentially raising it from a $50 fee to $150 fee um I did run a few numbers while you folks were talking it looks like I think Judy's pretty close maybe about 75% of our current employee salary is covered by the fee of the permits so
150 May cover most of both of them hopefully um depending on health insurance and a variety of other aspects and I I'm trying to think what some of the other questions were one was you know why does it have to be in Community Development why not keep it in one um
they have the building inspectors over there uh they oversee the building inspectors they have that experience really it should be placed in that uh portion to be able to coordinate with the other building inspectors that said you know we have um in our health
division a very you know uh clear regulatory uh requirements to look at number of bedrooms and a variety of other things and that there are inspections going on right now and it it's not just you know caring it's not
just Health but they're inspected for fire they're inspected for a variety of other things so we we do try to coordinate and I think that's a lot of what our health division is going to be doing trying to do the scheduling coordinating and making sure that you
know one it's the most cost effective for the town and for the applicant and two not that you know a a homeowner would have to require uh you know three separate inspections hopefully we'll try to coordinate that right if you've got a
member of the you've got a a town employee physically traveling in a car to a place to get out of the car and do an inspection they should be doing a comprehensive inspection at that time time not a silo inspection that just is
you know responsive to the to the one issue that they're so when I look at at this memo summarizing what Karen is focusing in on as part of her inspections it would seem to me that a
building code inspector would look for every one of these items except the number of bedrooms except the number of bedrooms exactly so if there is is a a need to tweak the scope of
the of the building code inspectors uh uh inspections and it may require one additional thing for him or her to look at it's a hell of a lot more efficient
having that be done as part of their inspection than having one of a Health Inspectors worrying about it you know what I'm saying in other words just yeah it yeah
I think what happens is when we go out and if we see issues in any of these areas and you know because we're not the experts we would refer them to other inspector was like okay you know I don't think you have the right type of uh carbon monoxide inspect uh detectors um
you're supposed to have them on every level you know we'll refer you to our our fire inspector um and those types of things so I think for like Greg said for the the 300 or so we try and get in every year we certainly would work with the building department and and do team inspections
and we do that now with them so for why would we even have to go into 300 units a year if the if they're going in every unit every year and doing all of these inspections I mean they're looking at carbon monoxide they're looking at fire
they're looking at egress well maybe that will be our inspector needs to do is assess the number of bedrooms but they might have to go in to see the layout well that's why yeah I might have to go in and spend five minutes to comp bedrooms yeah but you
know maybe she could do more than 300 if all she has to his comp bedrooms cuz he's doing everything else well this this good there certainly good opportunity here to work this out in a way and that's what we're not quite
there yet it Greg Greg yep thank you I just wanted to add you know I I think every town in the state I guess I can't speak for them but we were certainly a bit surprised that
this was going to be a you know required level of inspection um I think it might be hitting ourtown and some of the uh you know cape and Island towns a little harder than other parts of the state that don't have as many short-term rentals um but this is going to be a
very new program in a new program that we already had in health so some of this is going to be you know M uh seeing how the sausage is made yeah once we finally get a person in here at bare minimum you know the staff we have are not going to be able to do an extra thousand
inspections a year exactly uh the question of who's doing what and you know if I'm doing this you're doing this some of that is going to be you know hashed out once we finally get people on the ground hopefully be able to do it the most efficiently possible yeah let
me ask you greig uh but the this new building inspector in the building department could be funded through other Town funds not with a short-term rental fee increase is that correct if they if it
possible it it is possible I mean it's theoretically anybody could be funded from various sources uh I think part of the analysis was this was you know not an immediate surprise but certainly not something that's been budgeted by the
town and it's a you know mandate by the state very specifically for short-term rentals so the town could fund it through various other methods but this is very specifically for uh people who own and
use short-term renters uh rentals so it seemed most appropriate kind of for that fee and I think Judy said too you really don't want to have two different fees from two different departments for the relatively same thing right right but it wouldn't have to be technically wouldn't have to be done with a fee it could be
done other ways but let me ask Judy um can you envision being comfortable taking information from a building inspector in the building department it goes over to the health department and you use to run your short-term rental
regulation that seems maybe un no I I I would certainly be comfortable with that I mean we do that we work very closely with themuse your here for a bedroom you could teach them what it is cuz there's this difference yeah and if they like I said if we see something that we think is not right and we we will ask them to
to you know come and assess the situation and vice versa so well that happens still me like there it this could be worked out through and that's the plan this is very early stages we we haven't quite got there they're just like now just trying to set it up so it
can go through the budget process and but I remember when we had the working group and we were put putting together the short-term rental regulation and John was a part of that uh initially there was I would say majority opposition to it and then we talked and made compromises and worked things out
and eventually came to the short-term rental regulation and it passed 11 to1 but one of the issues that we dealt with and the rental fee was specifically lowered to get all these people on board because there was opposition to it and
people would say well you'll $50 but you're just going to raise it next year and all this and that so I would say if the short-term rental fee jumps way up we're going to be held responsible for it that all the nuances of what you're talking about don't necessarily this is a this is a Massachusetts state mandate it's not the
bo of Heth if they don't like it if they don't like it they don't want to pay it then they won't be able to do short-term rentals I I take your point it is a mandate but the push back will be well then it has to be done as efficiently as possible I think that's the point that
you were getting at is there a way to combine both of these things so instead of it being $150 which is a 200% jump maybe it's only $100 which might be a little bit more palatable and the other thing is I just I find it hard to believe that one
inspector can inspect a thousand homes a year that's like four four homes a day yes that just seems remarkable Greg can you have a comment on that can one building inspector inspect 1000 th000 homes in a
year so theoretically you know for a day is possible but the logistics involved would be extremely difficult um there's sick regulations the Mandate from the state came out recently I don't think
they necessarily understood the level of inspections that were going to be required especially by a certified building inspectors and and just to you know maybe strengthen or Echo a point it it's not just chadam it's not just Chatham's Board of Health this is a
state mandate that went out to every town on Cape Cod every town in Massachusetts um while people might you know blame Board of Health the town the department uh if if they just do it a simple search I mean all hands are going
to be pointing to uh this this new regulation that's not from the town well it sounds like this regulation will be delayed or changed with be because of the push back as it right now the town can't possibly do it even if they hire one more inspector practically speaking
mean that's the fact and our Town's probably better funded than other towns and and any future referencing of fees a year yeah it would seem to me that in the future it would have to be an itemized
fee in other words it would be the board of Health's fee may be 150 and then under that it would reflect you know $75 re for local and 75 for State
mandate in other words you would have to reflect in the fee postings and the annual what what really was driving the fee the synthesis itemize what the fee where it's going exactly and why right so so I think yeah we're going to have
to have hearings on it anyway so well yeah that what was my next question what is the next step great for this this this is going to town meeting for approval or or to us to approve for approval no the fee so really the the
next step is the hiring would go to town meeting yeah so so Community Development is going to bring these uh uh proposed new position to both the finance committee and the select board to get their review and potential uh approval
uh to put on the town warrant to be part of our operating budget at the next to meeting and you know based on that I think if it were to go to to meeting we could start talking about potentially updating regulations and then post toown
meeting that's when that would start happening okay uh other questions comments so Gregor's heard everything from the Board of Health you can communicate all of this to the people you're talking to you don't have to answer that absolutely Katie and I be chatting tomorrow I'm
just okay all right dick did you have another comment no it just it just seems excessive to do it every year yes you know once you've inspected a place to say you have to go in I mean this whole thing is kind of ridiculous but that that that's that's and that may change
stat who knows you know have these ideas you're absolutely right somebody came up with well let's do annual inspections well if it would would be a lot more palatable and coste effective to do every other year
inspections there's not a lot lost you know I mean you could they could do that simple adjustment on this mandate and and and all of a sudden make it much less onerous on municipalities okay so Greg and Judy
will keep us updated and um we come back and let the board know about what's happening because it's obviously we have a high level of interest thank you very much Greg thank you Greg okay um then we have
um any public comments on what we've been talking about or anything on the prior agenda okay and then if not um agenda items request um we have um
what well we were talking about the um the testing the performance a future agenda item for uh U information and update on the separate performance standards and what all that means and and the data Maybe reviewing
what the person from the county said yep and I think that back at that time we were also looking for someone that could give us a brief sort of a science behind the septic system which bacteriology do that okay maybe we can
review that I need it um other and we we've already talked about other agenda item requests we have 32 mil Hill which is coming what is the what is the uh the announcement on that what is the date
and the location for that next legal step for Hill tomorrow it's tomorrow y and it's at what time it's at 2 p.m. at Barnstable Superior Court barnable and it it is open to the
public actually yep yep I I will be going as a member of the board and and what do we what are we expected to do what is the action the judge will make a determination um if he's if he's in I
don't know the legal terms but he hasn't done he's in compliance with prior order right which and that'll be and that'll be as it as reported to the judge by whom By Us by us yeah supp to make an appearance isn't he yep and he could ask
for for postponement he could say I'm working are you and I haven't been it yet you know again this isn't yeah we we we we're going to put this on the agenda to discuss it the the court thing tomorrow then we'll we'll have the results of that and we'll have it on the agenda we can have a complete discussion
but Judy am I assuming that you're going to go into to that court with photographs and video and what have you and share that with the judge to say your honor here are the current conditions on this property as of today
or yesterday or what have you yeah and then based upon his reaction to that he'll then decide what he wants to do next and then coupled with with with Mr uh
McGrath McGrath's testimony about you know why or why not so the next meeting that'll be on the agenda tomorrow no tomorrow's the results of Tomorrow will be on the it'll be on the agenda y okay on our agenda but tomorrow we we will
know yeah what happens in court Y and I can I can let you know that as well it's all public it'll be public knowledge any other topics for any any other separate agenda items I have one um we talked about the airport follow up on our
discussion of lead in aviation fuel yep still on our you know and there were certain things said there we can follow up on that and the other is the uh transfer station tipping building floor condition with odor complaints in the
summer what's the followup on that okay and that there'll be dates to come okay other agenda items okay so we have me uh minutes of January
27th uh for review any changes and they were just two variances there if not uh can I get a a motion to approve the minutes of January 27th I will so move okay all in favor uh say I I
opposed okay so the minutes of January 27th are approved and then uh can I get a motion to adjourn the meeting so move second and we can take a Voice vote all uh in favor of Aging the adjourning the meeting say I I
I opposed okay the meeting is adjourned we'll shut off our mics