All right. Thank you. Uh good evening everyone. Tonight is uh Thursday, July 10th, 2025. Um and this is the East Long Meadow Board of Health uh calling to order. Um the board of health is recording. Is
anyone else recording? Great. Thank you. And we are meeting tonight uh via Zoom webinar pursuant to um the original um or executive order that suspended uh certain provisions of the open meeting law way back in March
of 2020. Uh that has been um uh added to um and accepted by uh the former governor and the current governor multiple times. Um so with that said um meeting is in order and the first thing
on our agenda is to approve the minutes of the prior meeting. Um ladies, did you get a chance to look at the minutes from the last meeting and this would not be the public hearing. This would be the meeting prior to that. Yes. Um motion approve as written.
Okay. So Katie is Rebecca second. Thank you so much. Um and we will do a roll call vote. So, Christine Johnston, I Dr. Katie Jins, hi Rebecca to hi. Fantastic. Um, Renee, is anyone here for
public comment? Um, we do have some participants. Um, is anybody anybody here for public comment? No, ma'am. All right, folks. This is your opportunity if you have anything that you would like to say to please
raise your hand. Otherwise, um that is you're just here to listen. Okay. Nothing. All right. Moving forward then. Um so the first order of business tonight um is the Deer Park recycling facility site
assignment. Um so as you all know we met in um late June or mid June um for the public hearing for the Deer Park recycling facility. Um and our thanks to everyone who participated in that
process um as well as honorable Mark Mason who presided over that. So I just want to say thank you to all the community members who were um at that and uh shared your voices um as well as all the participants. So Tammy turn it to you.
Well, um I don't know how we would how you want to do it. I would assume that what we would do what you would do first is to um kind of agree on whether or not uh each criteria is met or not met. If
you want to do it as a whole or if you want to do each one individually, um I guess it's up to you. After, you know, talking to D, it's kind of This this part is up to us to figure out how we would like to best go about it. I
mean, I can if you want um pull up each area and what it means or Well, I think I we all read them. So, I think if we have concerns, maybe we just bring up each item as a concern that we could talk about. But if not, if there's no concerns, then I think we can vote it
as a whole, right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And if anybody is questioning, this is also referenced. Each criterion is referenced in the initial DEP report um that we reviewed um
prior to the the open hearing. Um so if anybody needs a copy of that um or needs a moment to pull it up on their computer um feel free to take that moment. So basically you would be using um the information that we've gathered from the
original application um from the May 20th um D document and the exhibits and uh testimony from the hearing and deciding on that. Thank you team. Um, so ladies, do you
want to go through criterion by criterion or, uh, Katie, I like your suggestion to just raise any concerns? Um, in my review of it, um, I thought that pretty much anything here,
um, was, you know, had been addressed in the D document as well as the initial, um, application. Katie, what are your thoughts? And then Rebecc, we'll go to you. That was mine as well. all the questions that I had were answered when we did the initial inerson meeting and that there weren't any additional ones after
reading this as well. Rebecca thoughts? Yeah. No, I it's very thorough and I felt the same way. I think it really buttoned it up nicely, you know, and addressed everything. Okay. There's quite a bit to it, but it it
does answer everything. So, um just for anybody who is out there who is watching, um there are 19 criterion which the board of health is using um to evaluate this site. Um and I'm just going to read the title so that
folks out there know what they are um in just for transparency. Criterion one is um zone one areas which is public water supply. Criterion two is interim wellhead protection areas. Criterion three is uh zone A surface drinking
water supply. Number four, proximity to private wells. Um five, sorry that was on the bottom of the page. Uh proximity to residents of schools care facilities. Six uh riverfront area.
Seven, um depth to groundwater. Eight, agricultural lands. Nine, traffic. 10, wildlife habitat. 11. Um, areas of critical environmental concern. 12, open space. 13, air quality. 14, potential
for nuisance. 15, size of facility. 16, areas previously used for solid waste disposal. 17, proximity to existing facilities. 18, other sources of contamination or pollution, and 19, regional participation. So just for folks who are watching or may not have
that documentation right in front of them, those are the um criterion which the U board of health as well as D, the department of environmental protection use to evaluate um
this uh site assignment. Okay. Um so at this point if the board um has any further deliberation, any questions, um what we will be doing is we will um
be voting on whether we find the site suitable for a solid waste handling facility um for construction and demolition waste and bulky waste material based upon uh the criterion that we have laid out in front of us. Um
so that would be the first thing that we would be voting on. The second thing that we would be voting on um is the um there's a d a draft conditions imposed by the board. Um so the first one is the
actual assign assignment and then the second one is those draft conditions. Tammy, do I have that correct? Um I think the second vote could be that on approval of those draft conditions um to be part of the site assignment
document that has to be issued by okay July 28th. Yes. And we can vote to make um we can make changes and vote to accept any conditions with changes that we make tonight.
And we also are voting to have Tammy actually prepare that uh document as the um health department on our behalf. Does that make sense to everyone? Okay. So I just So we have to motion to vote first for the criterion to approve the criterion that it meets and then
afterwards we then motion again to vote on the draft and then incorporating it into our site assignment. I believe that is correct Tammy. Yes. Um, let's do one at a time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, one one. Yeah.
Katie, you you were correct there. Okay. Yeah. Motion to Sorry, Katie. You have a little something. I just You got Yeah. Okay. You got it. I'm sorry. I just have to probably a piece of lettuce. No, I just want to help. I don't want you having that. Thank you. I appreciate it. I got it. Of course. Of course.
Yeah. For posterity. All right. So, then I motion for the board of health to vote on meeting all 19 criteria for the site assignment as written. So Katie, be
can I can I have you clarify that a little bit that we would be voting that um to approve the site assignment based upon uh the review of those criteria? 19 criteria. Yes. Okay. Can you restate the Sure. My motion that we vote that the
site assignment has met all 19 criteria and that we would approve it as written. Is that better? Yes, I like that better. Um and I am happy to second that motion.
Okay. Um so the motion at hand is uh the um Deer Park um recycling facility um has met the criteria to be approved. Um and we will do a roll call vote.
Christine Johnston I. Dr. Katie Jins I. Rebecca Torscha. Hi. All right. Um so we have approved the site assignment. Um and now we can enter into discussion about any draft conditions um that we would like to
discuss um for that. So um I appreciate that we have started with a draft um and so we have our opportunity now to look through this draft um and make edits or changes um add remove whatever we so
choose to do. So I um I have read through a variety of u site assignment documents from facilities in western Massachusetts.
Wilberham wear whole. Um nothing on these draft conditions except for the last one because we do have one extra regulation here in East Lo. Um nothing on here isn't in everybody else's um
dropped uh in conditions imposed by the board in their site assignment document. They're all most of the site assignment documents are very similar, very straightforward. They go through um a little description of the site. Then they go through the description of the
application and hearing process. They go through the criterion. Um and then they go through the um draft condition or the conditions imposed by the board of health. Um they're all pretty uh pretty straightforward and nothing I
haven't sort of seen with dealing with some of the facilities. Like obviously we we um we've gone we we utilize we we utilize the um disposal facilities in well right now well we were doing Hoyoko and now we're um using the facilities in
Awam. So these are very similar to some of the things that they do at those facilities as well. So, I mean, if you want, we can go through them or if there ones that you're like, "What does this mean?" or "Why did you think of sticking this on here?"
I also am a big fan of kind of cutting back on things that I don't think are super necessary. So, a lot of these are probably a little more cleaned up from some of the other uh the other site assignment documents. I don't have any questions about it.
I had one question and this might just be a language. It's under number one where the operator may also seek to reduce its capacity of phase. Um is that something that is where and that talks about the number of tonnage uh per day
that the facility could process given that the language is up to is that even necessary because um you know anything at anything at or like below that would technically fall under the guidelines. I'm just trying to make this as as clean
as possible. Absolutely. This is this is one that pretty much it seems almost every um one of these facilities uses the phased in approach approach to it. Um
and a lot of them require and I just I'm I'm not sure that it's really completely necessary. A lot of them require uh approval of board of health to move from each phase to the next phase. Um, which
I mean if I know when it's coming up I I can't imagine why we would need to like approve every single phase. I think knowing like in this period we might expect so many cars coming in and out and as we go. I think that's um good for
the town to know, but you have to go through like an approval process unless they're trying unless they want to either speed it up. But I don't I I don't see I don't see the necessary need to let us know if they're not making 250 tons in
the first eight weeks. It just doesn't doesn't Yeah, I can kind of clean that up and put it out there, but this is mostly language from all three of the other facilities that I was looking at in Western Mass. So, just to clarify, Christine, you mean
the last paragraph of section one? Is that paragraph necessary? But it sounds like what you're saying, Tammy, all the other site assignments for the draft have that language in there. So, we should likely include it if that's what other people are using in their towns. That's why I put it there. But that was
the one I probably was going to ask you guys to take a look at the closest. Yeah, it just seemed to me that given the language is up to a certain number of tons, um it doesn't mean in phase 4 that the um they'll be processing up to
two I mean up to that they'll be processing, you know, I think in the original application it said 15,500 to 2,000 tons per day. If there was a day where they only processed 250 tons, it's not like they're going to be out of compliance, right? It's um so for me it
just seems superfluous but if there's a reason that we think we should have it in there. I also you know don't think that we need board of health approval like between the first eight weeks and the six months for sure like to advance from
phase one to phase two. Um I think some of the differences in the facilities are that all the rest of them do take municipal solid waste too. So it's a little different and I know there will be some futurecent waste with the
bulky waste that they take in. But it it for the most I I'm assuming that that's not going to be the larger part of what they're getting. They're probably the larger part is probably going to be the construction and demolition debris. Um, so yeah, I'd like to I'd like to
simplify that a little bit more for the final if if that's good with you guys. Yeah. So my suggestion would be to clarify this maybe potentially even removing that last paragraph and under number one.
Sounds good. Um, other thoughts? Anything else as folks read through this um that they had questions about, concerns about the only question I had was we had a very long discussion at the open hearing
about number of truck um trips per today and I didn't know if that needed to be in here. Um, I'm just throwing that out there since we spent so long discussing it. We can absolutely put that in there. I didn't see another
um another set of conditions where they utilized it. Katie or Rebecca, what are your thoughts on that? I know that the there was a negotiation between I think it's already in the site assignment.
Okay. So, I think we don't need to add it here as well. Perfect. It's already been addressed. All right. If you want to put it in, it's it's easy to do. I don't think we need to.
No, I think there's language in here about trucks backing up like you know where they are allowed to like they would block traffic and um things like that that really you know addressed pretty much all those concerns and those were all in their initial
application as well. So a lot of that information was already put into um Deer Park's application like where their where the queue would be as they're waiting. Yeah. Yeah. There's yeah there's talk of that here. operator follow regulations
site residential impacts. Mhm. Uh my only other thing is Tammy, can we just read through this for typos and things like that before Oh, well yeah. So typos I'm probably going to reorder this.
Okay. A little bit. Um, I'm I'm going to send everything to Jesse to look at just legally. Um, those are my plans. Great. Okay. So, and the last um
condition that Timmy put on here, which you said, I just want to make sure everybody's aware that is um sort of unique that wasn't just copied from other municipalities, was the one about the waste disposal facility permit and an annual waste permit with the East
Line Meadow Board of Health. Um so, just so folks know that this will be a permitted um yeah, we are unique in our hog. We we have distinct hollow regulations in Eong Meadow which is fantastic. Um and that we have those two actual applications
for permits in town. Nothing new. Well, I'm sorry. The waste disposal facility permit is new. I think we voted on that last year so that we could kind of go through this process. Excellent. Good. Okay. I guess I got to make an application.
Yeah. Rebecca or Katie, anything else to add to this document or other considerations um discussion around any of these draft conditions? Not that I can think of. Just looking
over it quickly here. Backup wars. Pretty much from what I've gathered from, you know, talking to D and the other towns, it's pretty much basically saying that these are the things that you said in you're
going to do in your application and we hold you to them. And that's pretty much what this part is. Okay. So, if nobody has any other concerns, I would like to make a motion um that
um we grant authority to the East Long Meadow Health Department um to write up the site assignment document with the approved considerations um with our notes for tonight um or from tonight,
sorry. Um and that and uh for review by town council um with the deadline of that to be done by July 28th. Okay. Um is someone willing to second? I second. I thought I didn't realize. Yes. I second
that second. And yeah, I had to actually make the motion. We have to vote on um on that part on that part. Um so that uh Tammy and as agents of the um the health department as agents of the board of health would
be um doing the final draft of the draft conditions. Um and so we are granting them that authority that we have reviewed this and um with our edits from tonight that then go to town council. Um so that is the motion at hand that has
been seconded. Um Tammy, we're good. Did I did I phrase that one okay? I think so. Great. Um, so again, we'll do a roll call vote. Christine Johnston, I. Dr. Katie Dobins, I. Rebecca Torscha, I.
All right. So, that motion has passed. Um, so with that, we are going to move on to recycling and trash program updates uh from Tammy. So, I'm gonna turn this over to you, Tammy.
All right. Um, I kept the updates a little thin just in case this took was going to take a lot longer than it did. Um, but we do have a lot of stuff going on in uh this summer. Actually, it's only about a weekend away. On July 19th,
the fire station from 9 to 12, we're doing the um household hazardous waste event. Um, it you do need to sign up for it. If you don't have access to the internet, you can or email, you can always call up the office. Um, but it's pretty simple to sign up. You'll just
need a ID or proof that you live in town. You'll drive right in. You won't even get out of your car. You will just pop your trunk and they will take out your um take out your hazardous waste. Um, and let's see, August 22nd, we have
another fix it clinic at the Council on Aging to bringing broken lamps, vacuums, shredders, you name it, our fixers can try to fix it. Usually, they're pretty good though. I will tell you. Um, let's see. On the 6th, there will be a
shredding event at the high school. Well, I don't know if it's at the high school. To be determined, I think. And then on September 13th, um, at Birchland Park, I believe, we will be doing another one of the green team events,
which has the, um, bulk bulk furniture. you could bring electronics and the rebate for the dehumidifiers. They'll be doing that again. It was pretty busy last year when we did it. And let's see, the new
calendars are out. Um 5,690 something of them went out um to through the town. If you accidentally threw yours out, we have plenty of them left in the town hall. And you can always um find the calendar online. Um, let's see. We're still waiting to
hear back about a grant that we applied for on behalf of the food service department um to purchase um cooling refrigerators, silverware, and reusable condiment stations so we can eliminate the waste from um the schools.
And Liz uh every year she participates our Liz our recycling coordinator in a tools for teachers program where um she puts donation boxes at the schools and if there are uh gently used um school uh
stationery books, pens, you name it. Um it goes to a nonprofit in Springfield that supplies um uh teachers and students um inner city Springfield schools uh supplies. And
um we are our our contract with Cassella for uh waste disposal ended on June 30th and for the next uh two years we will be uh uh going to the FNG recycling facility in Awam to dispose of waste.
So, that just happened started last week. And that is the recycling and trash program update courtesy of Lisbone and Tammy. That's the that's the disposal with Cassella, not what folks would expect to see driving around their neighborhoods picking up the trash.
Yeah. Um, originally that was the original location that we were going and that was before I think it was Cene when it was they went bankrupt and then we started uh using the facility in Hoyoke.
Um, and now we're back to that location. Let's see. And that is that. Any questions, comments, concerns? And as always, if there are questions about what can I
recycle and what can I not recycle, give us a call. Liz will always help you out. Uh, cardboard pizza boxes can be recycled. I don't This has come up so much lately. I don't know why Amazon wants your cardboard. After you finish that pizza, put it in
the recycling box. Let's see. um uh from the desk of the town health nurse, Chris Buffington. Um she her little update for the last for the summer. Um she gave a um presentation on
dementia friends awareness in June and she has been doing a blood pressure clinic um on Mondays with a nurse practitioner who um answers any questions about um blood pressure along with her. Um and she's going to be doing that once a month.
uh can also continuing to sit on um we have a town senior watch. Alex is also on that too um mostly because I think it's great to have somebody who goes into people's houses when we do get complaints of issues about wellness and health and sanitation.
And um the big thing that we're working to do working looking to do right now is to participate in a regional vaccination hub. It's not going to get any easier to get vaccinated in the future, but there's a program that will allow free
vaccinations um to children. Um and we've been trying to partner up with our um the regional public health nurses and regional collaborative there and with the school department to see if we can put together a program so that we can get the kids vaccinated. And this would
be I think uh not just your regular flu or COVID but to be able to do other vaccines like roto virus um and the whatnot. So actually tomorrow we're going to be meeting with um a local physician
to um see if we can get things going which is kind of cool. Who are you meeting with? Um actually it's the medical director for the schools. Um I I don't know her name.
Chris has been arranging it. So um because we'll we'll need we need some we'll need oversight if we're going to be doing that because you know if you're giving vaccines we'll need standing orders, medical ground measures and everything. So that's kind of neat and that'll be
really good. But also we um it's it's always seems so early to do this, but we every June we put put forth the days for all of our flu and CO clinics with Big Y. Like they they start early. They book up, but they're great.
So, we're going to try to do besides the two drive-throughs that we normally do in October, I want to do one more at one side at the um senior center and another one at the library just to kind of cover
sides of town and all bases um and all ages. So, that'll be good. And that is town health nurse updates. She's also been uh you know like right now it's a very it's a very busy time of
year from uh Memorial Day to right after July 4th. Um and so we have you know camps are kind of phasing in right now. Some started as soon as school got out. Others start late July go into August.
Um but keeping very busy with that. This is the um it's kind of a fun sort of exciting time of year. Uh you know, licensing coming in, inspections, we got pools, we have camps, we've we
have carnivals, we have farmers markets, we have everything. But then like this tiny little window usually like right after Fourth of July when all those people who just been busting themselves silly like take a little bit of break and then start back up in August. So,
it's hopefully we'll have a little bit of a little bit of quiet time to clean everything up and get some like extra paperwork done and everything. Um, and then, you know, everything starts all over again. Come September, we start all the other wonderful permits that we
have to go through that process. Um, let's see. Um, and like the last biggest thing that we've been kind of working on, um, is kind of being in the, you know, a good position to deal with, um, any Westnile
virus or triple E that may or may not come our way. I was able to kind of do a little um ride along with our Pioneer Valley Mosquito Control District director and take some take look at some other areas in town that I think are
areas of interest because like currently we um we only do mitigation um as an uh well on a need-by- need basis throughout town, but our regular our regular mitigation strategies are
really only around the schools and and Heritage Park um and the catch basin treatment for that. And I feel like there's some other spots that we could take a look at and kind of spread um kind of our our lens throughout town.
And so what we did, we went by Pineol because we have all the kids camping there all summer and we're putting some traps there for this year to see what we see and see what kind of mosquitoes they find over there. Um, and that'll determine like if next year if we start
treating any of the um catch basins or any of the wetland area, which is kind of neat um because it's I think Massachusetts had I believe its earliest positive Westnau
virus mosquito on record in Worcester was about two weeks ago, I think. So, it's only a matter of time before one of the traps here in Hampton County comes out positive for that. every year their positive uh mosquitoes are earlier and earlier. Um
very very fun. So empty all standing water. Make sure your screens are um fixed and uh no holes. Um and use EPA approved bug spray. Um
can't tell you enough that stuff works. I have been we've just heard of two people not in town but um two people were telling me the diagnoses of Westnau virus. So it is it's there and it's out there. Um so taking precautions I think
is this the best way when you're outside and being cautious. Ticks, mosquitoes, all the little things that want to eat us alive. Um, that's my list of
everything. Not everything, but I kept it kind of I kept it a little trim just in case it took too long. But any questions, comments, concerns? I'm good. And ladies, do you have
anything questions for Tammy? No. Well, thank you for those updates. Um, I know it's been a while since we've done some updates. We've had some longer meetings about other things, so we appreciate that. Um, any other events in the summer? Usually the National Night Out is the only other
one I can think of. I didn't know if that was happening or not this year. Um, car shows, concert series. We have like um food truck Fridays at the Maple Road facility. senior living. Get that
little things peppered in here or there. Okay. And we put this off for a really really long time. We probably need we probably should maybe set up a meeting for or a public hearing
for approving the draft tobacco regulations. Uh, while I'm so happy to have gone through with recycling, next we move to updating the tobacco regulations. Um, but maybe we want to take a break for August and
not do something that Yeah, I'm on a two week vacation off, so I'm trying not to schedule anything on my vacation. Okay, good. Um like maybe we can have a meeting in September and then we'll plan on like an October
hearing. Yeah, it would be great to refresh ourselves on those and any updates from the state or our partners at the state or the other agencies. Um you know, make sure we pull out those documents
comparing the potential um draft regulations to the what we have now. Um, and so I think yes, I think fall is a good timeline for that. Good. So then should we pick our September
date then? Okay with that. I didn't do my best to know what I'm doing in September. I know. We want to do like the third week of September, so it's after school, after Labor Day, and we're kind of settled in a little bit.
Yeah, I think last year we did it too early and there was like school events and stuff going on. I don't want to run into that situation um as well. So, yeah, that works for me. Okay. Like the 25th? No, I'm okay with that.
I have another meeting at 5:00 PM already that day. Um, but I could do the 18th. Oh, you're right. Wow, there's a lot of Thursday. I can do the 18th. Yep. Six o'clock.
Sure. Okay. And obviously, Tammy, if anything comes up in the meantime, let us know. I will. And I will get you the draft site assignment document as soon as I
possibly can. Awesome. Perfect. All right. Anything else for tonight? All right. If there's nothing else, I'm going to make a motion to adjourn our meeting. I second.
All right. Um, and the roll call vote. Christine Johnston, I. Katie Jins, I. Rebecca Torcha. Hi. All right. So, meeting adjourned. Thank you so much. Uh, thanks for everyone who joined us tonight. Have a great summer, everybody. Thank you. You, too. All right.
Take care.