##VIDEO ID:njsa9NDk7b8## e okay well one of why don't we get started I we have a quorum so we can do that is connecting here um so let's call a meeing to order and um we'll do a roll call if you could just you know state your name um your full name U we'll go through that so an alphabetical order sell alanti here Jerry uh Jerry you muted okay move on selfie phy Hansen Kevin Kevin seon here Joan Joan Wetzel here and Rick Lopez okay oh and Carrie I'm here sorry okay here I come um and I think GC is Jerry but yeah Jerry if you're on you're muted time okay so um let me just review tonight's agenda um we don't have the minutes yet from September hopefully we'll have those at whenever our next meeting is um ad day is going to introduce our new health inspector we'll we have some time for public comment if there is any we'll talk a little bit about uh rodent management um and a follow up on the Pineville um Street complaint and then um there's some proposed new regulations uh for Section 10 on human habitation and uh the usual monthly report and final comments and then we'll adjourn so that's the plan for tonight um I think uh Carrie you had a couple announcements you wanted to do so why don't we start with that um okay okay thank you Rick thank you I appreciate that um yeah I I just I there were a couple things I wanted to say um first off um I I had the opportunity to attend the mass health Officers Association conf annual conference that was held last week in Springfield as part of my work and um I um and it was a great conference a day was unfortunately unable to join us and I really hope a day that you are that we are getting you out of those streets so that you will be able to attend um in the future and promise that I took good notes um and yeah it was it was a it was a great conference um and I had the opportunity to spend time with our public health nurse which was uh wonderful um was a great opportunity and um I think uh we are really fortunate to have Liv joining us um I'm really excited about what she's going to be able to um bring to the town and what she you know her ability to work with a day and her knowledge I just think it's a it's a great thing so um and one of the um topics actually the closing the closing the closing event was a double session um on Friday morning entitled rats rats rats or was it rats rats and more rats um and it was Illuminating and eye opening and I was glad I attended even before I knew kind of where we were on our agenda um so um I mean there were there were any number of sessions I think would be hard to to to to highlight but but there's a lot happening in public health and um I'm really proud to be part of the public health Workforce and the um a Public Health Board um we do important work so um so that was mhaa and then um today Governor Healey signed um she signed the econom development bill um which included within it what it's oh here we go um Mass leads act so she just signed it um today the mass leads Act is an economic development bill that includes all sorts of things um for life sciences and and opportunity for Rural um and business development and it includes the provisions of um SA 2.0 which is about um the uh funding for public health uh funding for local Health departments um and uh codifying some Workforce requirements codifying the relationship um and the need for collaboration um and funding um in order to meet the uh Public Health requirements that exist um both the existing statutory requirements and um um the foundational public health services so um it's really exciting time um to to be in public health and um I just wanted to make sure and highlight that the effort to get safe 2.0 passed was an enormous one and anyone who works in public health owes a Deb of gratitude to Mass Public Health Association and any number of folks all around the Commonwealth from local Health departments big and small that have been working tirelessly to educate the legislature about the important what the public health does so really nice to see a uh a um supportive measure um acknowledging all of that that's great thank you we'll try to get um I'm not familiar with this but we'll maybe we can try to get some information about that out to the board members um in terms of the detail of of is it safe or saf safe safe is well some people say safy and it's sa 2.0 that was the original bill yeah and that was what it was filed as safe 2.0 and then as it went through review and in different committee assessment you know it was it was um it it was deemed that it was appropriately included with the econ Economic Development um larger bill or I don't know maybe they put them all together into that but um so yeah so so Mass sorry what did I say it was um Mass leads Act is the act that was signed and it includes the provisions of safe I am actually trying to get the the one pager from Mass Public Health Association that would be great when I get it I'll pass it along yeah I need it for my own stuff so I I'll pass it along and um yeah just good times good nice to have some all right thanks Carrie um on that note I would like to introduce our Neo health inspector Amilia Cito Amelia previously worked as the health inspector for the town of Welsley and the City of Medford she has prior experience conducting environmental health inspections including but not limited to food inspections swimming pool inspections Bard inspections and housing inspections she received her master's degree in public health at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in Boston um Amelia is going to do great things for our community she hit the ground running from day one with a record number of inspections conducted during the month of October please join me in welcoming Amelia to our health department welcome welcome welcome great to have you it's good um okay moving on um public comment uh there's a couple um see Jennifer colen um Jennifer did you want to make a a comment or a statement today uh I would I appreciate that sure um so I am a homeowner on Pineville Avenue I know it's on your agenda tonight um and I had attended the meeting back in September um I just wanted to join because I know the issue continues to persist and I just wanted to really recap some of the things that I shared a few months ago first of which is that you know members of our neighborhood have been expressing concerns about dumpster management and rodent activity um to town officials in this body for um well documented back uh as long as five years ago speaking for myself um I personally submitted my first public nuisance complaint back in January and here we are 11 months later and I have not received any updates on how the town intends to kind of manage this issue um the situation remains exactly the same just just this weekend the dumpster behind dominoes was the covers left off Saturday Sunday Monday um just wide open um animals have free access to food and they scatter trash all over the place and this is a daily occurrence while I understand that all communities are grappling with rodent issues I mean there's just really no justification for um ignoring public complaints failing to enforce basic sanitation standards and allowing unsanitary conditions to persist as long as this has um specifically this problem is extremely straightforward I mean there is a dumpster filled with accessible food unsecured directly next to a brook um it doesn't seem like we need to reinvent the wheel to address this problem it's just really requires enforcement um Jane reached out to me I'm encouraged to hear that there are some arpa funds being allocated for rodent mitigation however I'm deeply concerned that if this plan does not include robust measures to hold businesses and landlords accountable for proper um dumpster management it's will fail to address the root cause to begin with the town's own dumpster Management program posted on the website explicitly states that dumpsters must have sufficient capacity remain closed when not in use and um are maintained to prevent odors rodents and Scattered debris and that violations are subject to fines up to $50 a day yet there's been absolutely no enforcement in this particular situation at all based on those regulations or the dumpster program dominoes alone could be found over $8,000 just for this past year due to non-compliance but instead this problem just persists completely unchecked so at the last meeting I know this body committed to Pres pres ing a comprehensive plan to address this issue and I really just want to urge you all to ensure that that plan includes actionable strategies to enforce existing regulations and hold businesses and landlords accountable and prevent this from becoming a reoccurring issue as the cpdc approves denser developments in our area and across the town um without these types of measures any effort to address rodent activity is is just going to be shortlived so I'm happy to be part of the solution and will continue to be engaged in the process thank you thank you I appreciate you taking the time to kind of underline the the problem here and um anxious to hear more about a more comprehensive program as well as specifically addressing the Pineville issue which came to our attention in in the fall although you've been bringing it for some time um although I think the board first heard about it um in September so um appreciate your coming emphasizing what the concerns and issues are very legitimate and um you know I'm not sure if you're going to stay for the meeting or not but we'll we'll be talking about um this issue uh at some length tonight um and actually with that I'm going to turn it over to a day talk more about um a comprehensive roaden uh management U program thank you I am trying to share my [Music] screen can you all see it yes y all right so um for a while now we've been receiving calls related to rat sightings uh within the town of Rin the town currently does not have a townwide radent management plan and we the health department are looking to uh Implement one in order to uh figure out how to address this situation uh we had to assess the problem first and then determine how our town is being impacted we have to figure out what areas are being affected the most and why and that way we would be able to like come up with a comprehensive strategy to deal with the issue and as a result we um put together a rodent map with the help of a genius named Matt Dean who is the town's uh GIS expert and basically what the map does is uh show us the level of rodent activity in different sections of the town over a given period of time as you can see the map is searchable you can plug in any address um and get you know results I would go ahead and plug in town hall 16 low Street right so uh this is town hall right here and um you know based on the search you can see that there is a little to no rodent activity in this area within the past year all right um let me get out of that all right so to get this map up and running uh what we did was input addresses and areas where rad and sightings have been reported within the pasture and then we did a map overlay with areas undergoing housing construction areas where anal dumpsters are located areas where Street opening and drain Lane activities are occurring and areas where sewer and Stor water networks exist so if you look at the Legend um so the black diamonds at the you know they the rodent sidings um the orange um what's this octagon those are the street opening uh permits the turas Octagon those are the drain Lane permits um the blue dumpsters those are the anal dumpsters that are mostly um restaurant dumpsters and then we have the temporary dumpsters which are associated with the building construction and then we have um you know the P which is the SE Pump Station the green lines at the SE networks and the blue lines are the stor water networks so if you look look at this map you can see that a lot of the um the rodent sidings are in uh areas where there is uh a concentration of anal dumpsters the blue dumpsters associated with um restaurants they are also in areas um with um high road construction and drain Lan activities um and they also in areas with housing construction so let us so if you look at this map in its entirety right you can see that anywhere the ground gets Disturbed so for example the orange you know Street opening the blue uh the turquoise uh Lane so anywhere the ground gets dist the rodents you know they run towards the blue dumpsters you know and we can conclude that you know when the ground gets Disturbed this rodents go towards the blue dumpsters to get food and water that's that's what this map shows us right here so with that being said um anded with this information we can now begin to strategize how to address the right issue um again we had to do this so we could have a great strategy to address the issue um you know if we don't know the extent of what's going on then we won't have a comprehensive strategy to deal with the issue so we've been paying attention we've been gathering information with the information we gathered we were able to create this map so it's not like we're not doing anything we are doing something we are listening to the residents and we going to come up with a plan very soon all right um da can I ask you a real quick question yes um so one of the things that we really need to look into is why is it that there is a larger concentration um down by Jennifer Street on Pineville and not behind the restaurants in downtown there you know is it a difference of um procedure is it a difference of the type of dumpster they use um you know why is that so wildly different between those two segments of restaurants it it depends on where the construction is going on so anytime the ground is Disturbed right those we've been doing a ton of construction downtown I mean that's the that's the most construction we've been doing anywhere the concentration should be massive over there so there has to be a difference of the way these businesses are handling it in downtown as opposed to the ones down on South B Street well um that's part of it um yeah and I will get to that point once I um finish the presentation but yeah okay um there are a few factors that affect um what we're saying at the moment okay Carrie I I was going to contribute some of the stuff I learned on Friday but I can wait until you finish your presentation today I just I I I learned some key points that I think it would might be helpful if if um you know we want to hear from you but I I I think you know if I can share some info to help support your um your work I'd like to be able to do that that's all absolutely so um based on this um you know readin specific rat map um we know that we need to address four items so the first item will be the uh the rat population and habes around town those definitely need to be addressed uh we need to address the road construction and drain Lane activities going on around town two three we need to address the building construction and renovation going going on around town and four we need to address the ano dumpsters that are associated mostly with um restaurants all right so to further uh dissect that um in terms of rat population and hes around town uh we at the health department understand that rudant control is a concern we also understand that the method of control and prevention we use is critical to the survival of other animals Studies have shown that second generation anti-coagulant Ren toyes biomagnify across the food chain and adversely affect Wildlife including birds of pray and other predatory species these toxic substances used in rooden control are causing secondary po poisoning in our Wildlife thereby undermining ecological balance and unintentionally worsening the very rent problem they are intended to solve so in other words each bed each bird of prey lost due to ventide consumption leads to to more rodents left checked as a result we are limited in terms of what Pest management companies to partner with for our rodent mitigation plan a lot of Pest management companies out there to use rodenticides um our goal is to solicit bids to select a company that is willing and able to help provide and Implement a safe human and environmental friendly Road and control program for our town I know that uh in the packets that I sent to the board I included a price proposal but um um please disregard the proposal that I sent to you um we have to uh solicit bids and then um go from there so just disregard um the proposal and um refrain from if you could asking questions about the The Proposal because it's not relevant uh at this point in terms of uh road construction and drain Lane activities uh at this point the health department has no idea when drain Lane activities um and Street openings occur we have no idea when the permits are issued um you know we just drive and see road work going on um in the coming weeks I plan to meet with the DPW leadership to determine the process required to obtain these permits you know the drin Lane and the street opening permits and then pretty much um talk to them about how the health department can play a role in uh the rodent mitigation process due to um you know the street opening activities and the drain laning activities it could be you know something as simple as baiting the man Hol prior to road work and um dren linging activities you never know so um I will have a chat with DPW leadership and uh figure out a path forward in terms of building construction and renovation we already require baing prior to any building construction activities but the issue we have is that we don't have the capacity to monitor bait levels as the constructions proceed so I plan to meet with the Building Commissioner to figure out how we can put this responsibility and the contractors to help ensure accurate monitoring throughout the entire building construction process so in the coming weeks I will be meeting with um The Building Commissioner to figure it out and um in terms of the ano dumpsters Associated mostly with restaurants um the plan is to revamp our dumpster regulation to hold restaurant owners and landlords accountable our current dumpster regulation is essentially ineffective I will use this opportunity to uh transition into the Pineville Street complaint and the do uh Domino's Pizza dumpster but uh if you have any questions regarding uh the rodent plan please go ahead Carrie Carrie you got your hand up yes thank you thank you Rick and thank you ad day thanks for that um so I mean I don't know I'm a I'm a newly newly minted you know rat afficianado I I don't know what quite the term is but but it was a very informative session I was really glad to be able to attend and and AD day I thank you for the um databased approach that you've taken um I agree wholeheartedly that it that making decisions absent data is um is is a um is sort of a it's a best guest circumstance and you know thank you for ACC getting access to that g GIS person so that we could map out and understand the what it is that we're dealing with um I think I'll say so there were four things that I learned that I took away from the the session um and they aligned pretty nicely with what ad day was saying um so one is um we'll start with construction and and it's just sort of a common misconception that construction somehow creates creates rats it doesn't create them it distributes rats right we don't see them but once as a day said the ground gets Disturbed then the population distributes and they they go elsewhere so that's um I think it's always helpful to kind of repeat and and clarify um I know that's not what you were saying a day I know you know it's that the ground gets Disturbed and the Rats that we have are Disturbed and they distribute out into other places um um I learned to kind of obvious but you know we talked about the the birth control um that that we had been working on in um you we did a little attempt of that in in reading and you know they said that that's a a not a bad thing but that it it's a continual thing and it's expensive so um and you it has to be continually present in the in the system in order for it to work and it has to get all of all of the rats so you know it's it's not necess it's it it doesn't solve anything by itself certainly um let's see I learned um uh let's see so I'd say you know one of the things that that the speaker and the speakers were um inspectional Services folks from the city of Cambridge the city of Boston and um C Cambridge City of Boston and I I forget Maybe live if there was another Community there but super knowledgeable people tons of experience um and um you know take away we cannot kill our way out of this right there is that that certainly part of it is trying to use the redenti sdes but that's not the sole solution um and that you really need to interrupt the cycle for the rats it's about harb there's a three little thing right about harborage it's about access to food and it's about access to water so if you can interrupt and I'm so excited because our environmental health person is nodding her head so I that means I'm doing it right um but so it's it's harborage is where where do they live right um access to food I think that's kind of goes to what you were talking about Kevin of well how come that's down here at Pineville versus not at the restaurants my 30,000 foot assessment based on what I've learned is that it sounds like the restaurants that that the restaurants the dumpsters in the downtown area are wellmaintained and the covers are on and um the little weat Poes where they let water out are plugged so that rats can't climb in um and it you know the pictures that we have in our packet about the dumpsters closer to Pineville do not show that so um that's that's my so you know we can you you know I don't know how you interrupt carbridge exactly you try and prevent but there are things too about dumpster placement and making sure that people aren't putting them you know people like want it on the edge of the property far away and that's not really a good thing you want it on the pavement um there are there are ways to to interrupt this and um and then I think the last thing that I the thing that I thought was kind of great was the speaker um kept kind of reminding us that rats are kind of everywhere and that it's a human problem right it's about human behavior it's about making sure that the dumpsters are closed and the harborage opportunities are limited and you know making sure that water isn't available and that goes to all sorts of other things that we're doing in public health um so um I was so glad that I that I was in that session um and um thank you a day because you're you know I think I'm doing layman's terms kind of of of of the work that you have been describing for us and um I'm excited to get to share it all um I don't know if anybody has any questions or what I said or who knew I'd be excited about the rest I have okay S I just want to say I've been in this you know the food seafood processing industry forever I've done dealt with this problem firsthand since I was a kid the the biggest thing is you know keeping the dumpsters closed keeping the rats out of the dumpsters the you could see where the um a few of the pictures you could see like the plastic Lids closed but the rats will chew right through that I almost I almost want to suggest like metal con that we have to have metal containers with the sliding doors are the best on the side you know those those uh just the covers that that fold down if a bag gets in there it just holds it open where the sliding metal covers and like krie said the drains have to be plugged they drain the because that's the easiest way for a rat to get in you know but it's invitation says come in and eat our exactly right you might as well just put infrance on top of the hole right so um yeah I mean I just Carri that was awesome what you said yeah it's an ongoing problem it's just you know it's so hard to battle them but I I was looking at that map a day and I was wondering um so there's a lot of sightings up on the the South Main Street who actually puts the sightings in because there's less I I don't know if there's less homes directly in back of the the um restaurants in like the center of town so I don't know if people are just seeing them more because they're there more I don't I don't know how it's actually reported you know so I'm not saying it's you know it's a bad job or anything I'm just saying like like where is the data coming from I guess in my mind so um thanks for asking that question the data is coming from um residents and you know phone calls we receive on a daily basis um and that brings me to the limitation of the the map um one very important thing to note uh about this map is that it may be the same person reporting the same rat sidence multiple times or it may be an organized group of people reporting the same rat sightings multiple times so that's one of the limitations of the the Mac of course yeah but it also I mean it shows that there's concentrations of people seeing it it can't be the same rat there's not only one rat in that area you know so maybe the people in the center of town are not there late enough or uh I don't know maybe coming out of a restaurant and don't really see them I'm not sure like you know but if if I'm if I'm in my house and I you know if I see a rat around my house I'm more likely to report it than if I see it around a restaurant I think well if you have an organized group that is um you know ready to make sure things get done they will sidence multiple times you know a day yeah gotcha understand I make a couple comments um one is for for the folks who weren't part of our discussions six to nine months ago around Washington Park and the use of our you know poisons which as a day points out can poison you know predatory Birds uh like owls and so forth we we did have someone come in um and I guess the product is called contrapest and then basically it's u a birth control so so that when the rats eat it um they become less fertile and so given that they can reproduce every six to eight weeks um it it's over a period of time that it it reduces the uh the rat population and it's harmless to predators birds as well as dogs or cats that might you know get their way into the bait um the bait boxes there uh just that's just sort of informational um but it's it's a it's a slow process um so my other my other two questions one are one is around the dumpsters and um I have to say that back in September after we we heard about the Pineville complaint um I did take a casual walk I think rats feed mostly at night but clearly there is an issue there in that area with the restaurants there um and we've uh you know to be to be honest we've had some turnover in the department we've haven't had an inspector for a few months um I think resources were stretched um but I do think that um whereas we we do have to have a comprehensive plan I I do think we can address something very direct and obvious um in that area uh like the open dumpsters uh now that we're better staff and um you know and we we should be you know doing that as we develop a more comprehensive plan now that we're fully Stout would you agree a day I agree with that assessment and I would also like to point out that um we have uh a lot of ideas um but again ideas with no funding you're not getting anywhere um so so actually that's my that's my last point was was in terms of what what is it um you you talk about a comprehensive plan um you know a do we need a consultant uh do we have to go through a process to get a consultant to support the health department in doing this and putting together a broader plan and you know um where might the funds for for that come from um in terms of a a comprehensive plan okay so um two things need to happen first of all um we need to implement a dumpster Management program and I will get to it under item five I believe item six but before we do that before we can Implement a dumpster Management program uh dumpster regulations have to align and make it possible for us to be able to implement a program now we can't Implement a program if the the regulation is saying something something else we have no leg to stand on so our goal right now is to um revamp our dumpster regulation bring it before the board um and hopefully get it voted on at the next meeting and then that paves way for us to put together a comprehensive dumpster Management program but the regulation as it is uh written uh doesn't allow us to be able to do that at this point um we can't do much with the way the regulation is written so um in terms of funding um from what I understand this is going to require a lot of money and um you know last night the select board approved the reallocation of the remaining APPA funds in the amount of $2,359 91 to go towards uh radent mitigation efforts and uh again this will allow us to begin initiating a framework for a proposed rent control program um there's another funding source that I'm I'm eyeing which is about $116,000 so if you combine 16,000 um with 21,000 we right at you know $38,000 and um the rest of the funding we can go I'll talk to the town manager and you know we can go to to meeting to see if we can um get the rest of the funding but again you know um we need to revamp the dumpster regulation we need to put together a dumpster Management program and then continue to um solicit funds uh with all these meetings that I'm having um you know I might have a a department that wants to chime in so for example um we have uh the schools U writing Public Schools um you know it it appears that they are still uh using rodenticides and uh the goal is to meet with them as well if we can all be on the same page and um you know use safe and Humane methods maybe we can combine funds and have a you know townwide um you know plan so we looking at all possibilities um and you know we'll see what happens so um so what you're saying is that a comprehensive plan can't be put together adequately with just some coordination across the schools and and the building commission so forth it we really need additional resources boots on the ground people doing stuff um that's gonna that's gonna cost more money in order to address the problem and that requires getting another comp a company to come in and support us in this effort and that's what the funds would be for is that correct correct so we need to start from somewhere and this um funding that we just received would allow us to initiate the process right so um yeah we need to get the program up and running it's not going to be perfect at the beginning but it gives us a framework uh to build upon so if we so for example if we start the program we you know other departments might jump in to help us out um that's what uh you know what I anticipate um we can get funding from other sources the main thing is to get people interested departments interested you know stakeholders interested and um once we can get those things to happened I believe the the funding source would come from somewhere I had a question for a day so um when the inspectors go to the the restaurants I mean at an industry I've always seen people move the the best when their reputations are on the line so like establishments I know you said you did we did a record number of um inspections in the past month or so um was there any writeups about dumpsters and what's the reaction or like um I guess corrective actions from restaurants because I feel like if it's a small restaurant you might not get the biggest reaction but if it's like a Domino's and corporate finds out they have a bad report about something they really take that very seriously so I just wondering what the reports like the um inspection reports so uh what I have done in other municipalities was to um post inspection Reports online great yeah once you do that um you know yeah the restaurant owners know that their inspection reports can be accessed by anyone right exactly they know that the bottom line is going to hit get hit if they have bad reports so that alone holds them accountable but the the situation with dominoes is very unique and U I would explain why once we get to item six because you know we we always do retraining I don't know if there's you know if we're requiring retraining of employees to you know it's always a first second offense if an inspector comes in a second time and the same thing's happening yes so so uh I want um the the Outlook that I I have for the health department is not to punish people I want to educate people to do the right thing again the main issue one of the main issues uh we need to revamp our dumpster regulation it is ineffective yeah and we cannot have a dumpster Management program based on the regulation is written so that's the first thing that needs to be done yeah and then yeah I just feel like we have a responsibility to people like you know Jennifer who's a neighbor of Domino's I think she said she was and um you know if we keep going in the same thing I agree with not punishment punishing an establishment right away but it seems like there's a history of not not complying to the rules okay so why don't we just get into uh itm six and um what do you guys think should we proceed to item sure let's let's go ahead with that let me see if I can share them out again let's plug in 274 Main Street so this right here is Pineville Street and you can see why they have um rodents um why they um they're making complaints to the health department yes we recorded a bunch of roed siding um around Main Street and Pineville Street y if you trace it back again you can see that we have restaurant dumpsters around again rats go towards where they can find food and water now let's see this is 274 Main Street right this entire building holds 10 businesses out of the 10 businesses there's only one food establishment which is Domino's Pizza the property owner was not mandated to provide a dumpster or the 10 businesses occupying the building and as a result um you know each business is left to fend for itself when you know in terms of refuse Disposal trash disposal individually so if you look over here each business has um two trash barrels right and we've come a long way with Domino's because at the beginning they used to have two trash barrels as well a whole food establishment with two trash barrels it's un that's crazy yes so um um we mandated them to get a dumpster with pest control services around the dumpster now the property owner has refused to provide a dumpster for 10 businesses Domino's because it was a it's a food establishment we we made them get a dumpster so this dumpster you're looking at right now belongs to Domino's Pizza can you put it up a little bit I can't see it there can you see it now yeah thank you okay so based on the conversations we had with um dominoes you know according to them the other businesses in the building are illegally accessing their dump to dump trash and other items right um the locks on the dumpster have been damaged and broken so many times so again think about it you have a huge building with 10 businesses and because we don't have anything in our regulation that says you the the building owner has to provide a dumpster for your businesses the building owner can choose not to have a dumpster and you know put the responsibility on each business um so again according to Dominoes they cannot effectively manage the dumpster because so so many unauthorized users have access to their dumpsters to their dumpster um you know it's been broken into so many times U people have dumped things illegally in the dumpster even when they are closed people go into the dumpster and dump things in there um again if we had an effective dumpster regulation this would have never happened in the first place a building that contains 10 businesses should be mandated to provide a dumpster with enough capacity to accommodate trash from all 10 businesses period so um again we need to go back to our regulation we need to revamp our regulation once we revamp the regulation we are not short of ideas to fix the problem but again we cannot enforce things that don't that are not written in the regulation we have no leg to stand up so that's that's the issue with dominoes um we plan to uh meet with the uh the landlord matter of fact our recommendation would be to uh add if possible you know we don't know how this is going to go but we believe um the dumpster that you're seeing right now is not doesn't have enough capacity for um all the businesses uh you know in that building so we will be meeting with um Dominos again I mean they went from having two barrels to having a dumpster that's secured so we're going to be meeting with the property owner as well and hopefully we would have a resolution very soon but again we're going to work on this dumpstar regulation and we're going to make sure we get it to the board for a potential a potential vote at the next meeting because without revamping the regulation we have no leg to stand up we cannot have a dumpster management program it's as simple as that one thing I was looking at too is the screen enclosement around the dumpsters it those aren't going to keep out rats there's no way it's not even I mean it's not even I saw squirrels in one of the videos too at the top of the fence I don't know if any of you watched the videos on the but there was a squirrel running along the top with trash one of the pine the Pineville um videos I think S I think those that's um um just reading regulations that's more for aesthetic okay yeah that's that's just kind of hide dumpster itself for for the uh res and whatnot yeah it's about all it does yeah exactly um okay that's some interesting information today um that people are I i' find it hard to believe that it's the businesses breaking into the dumpster but maybe it's it's others that are coming by with their their load of trash and breaking into it and throwing it in there um be pretty Brazen to be in the same building and uh break continue to break into a dumpster I'm surprised the um that dominoes of the building has hasn't put up any surveillance of any kind if it's if it was that much of a problem for them they you know if I'm looking at our Dum our current dumpster uh regulation and 4.4 uh paragraph 4.4 says the dumpster must be of sufficient size and capacity to eliminate overflowing must be closed the property owner and authorized agent of the business utilizing the service is responsible for ensuring the dumpsters kept free from oders rodents and all other nuisances um I mean the the fine for a citation is pretty minimal it's $50 for a citation and and I guess for every day but this would seem to suggest to me that you know Domino's is responsible for this dumpster and you know they may have a lot of SB stories about people breaking in and all this stuff but ultimately they're responsible according to our current regulations and a liable for you know citations um and I'm looking at that dumpster and it looks like the left side of it has a cover but the right side doesn't um so so well well I would agree that we should toughen up the regulations I'm also not convinced that we can't right now based on our current reg regulations um site dominoes um on a daily basis for you know um for not having the dumpster covered I mean it it I'm not sure why we can't do that yeah rich I I agree I mean in businesses I've owned and and been a part of the inspector doesn't doesn't segregate who owns the dumpster it's who has the permit and they're responsible so you would have to go to your landlord you'd have to fix the problem basically who has the permit for this dumpster is it Domino or the landlord Domino's Domino's say do they have the they respons y I would agree with that and uh also I mean if we're looking for some you know money to help us with mitigation that's an another byproduct of it but I'm also thinking about just using penalty as a policy tool it'll help them pay attention and maybe if that's what's going on is other people are going into their dumpster then it's going to be a a motivation for them to to try to curve it themselves but also as I think Richard you pointed out it's you know it's a small fine I mean it adds up per day but I agree I mean the regulation the way it's written I don't see why we can't site theme it gets attention right Sophie totally does right think about anytime you get a parking ticket 100% you think twice about doing it again yeah yeah yeah I I day I kind of agree with them as well too I'm I'm definitely in your Camp of um penalties are are not the the way to go it's it's um you know um working with the businesses and I think that's a great approach um this seems to be continually going on I think if you're going to if you're going to meet with them I would just say listen my board wants to start firing you I don't think you have to do it at that meeting but listen my board they've already directed me to to start finding you I'm just giving you the heads up next time our inspector's out here you should probably have this thing taken care of and let's see how they respond to that yep that's part of the plan all right can I can I ask the can I ask a question kind of building on what everybody else is saying do do we have the ability to um to assess back fines um because of non-compliance no I've written that way well that's lucky for dominoes then it' be tough to too to say which days they were and weren't in compliance right I mean I think we could build a uh well you have you have to document time and it seems like our our friends on Pineville probably have some records but but I but I agree I don't I mean it's not worth kind of you know if we had the ability then then you'd push on it but well I'll just say lucky for Domino's but yeah no I I'm in agreement with others that um I'm definitely the board would like Domino's to to figure out how to address the issues that are being um sorry I'm not speaking for the board I and it sounds like others on the board would like Domino's to to figure out how to Yes um address what seem to be continuing issues and you know that zero patience um Domino if Domino starts seeing a line item on their P know for fines they're going to figure out a way to fix it I I'll guarantee it y I've seen it a I've seen it a million times in business in a day just while you're kicking around this um new dumpster regulation I mean you could go in a lot of different directions with this I'm sure you've thought you know every which way to look at it there's some there's almost something you said for yes you put the fine on the person who pulls the permit um but I wonder if there's a if there's an opportunity where you say that ultimately the owner of the building will be be responsible um held responsible for it because rather than having Health Department continually going after Domino it's as simple as if you don't start getting this in shape I'm you're you're not going to be leasing from from me anymore right so make the building owner go after the The Establishment to keep in compliance I'm saying you don't have I'm not saying you have to do that I want you to put that in there just think about it um there's there's a billion ways that can go wrong too so make sure you think about both sides well Kevin at least you can go after one person for 10 or 11 uh businesses not 10 or 11 you're right yeah makes our lift a little bit a little bit easier and maybe get better some thought yeah good suggestion sounds good so we will be um you know revamping the regulation we would send it through um you know to Town Council to make sure that um we can legally do all the things you guys have suggested and then bring it to the board for a vote and um hopefully you know the board can vote on it at the next meeting okay um can I ask oh sorry Rick go ahead but at the same I mean I think there's I think what we're talking about is sort of three parallel tracks one is to revise you know the dumpster regulations to make them more stringent um and effective um second is to currently citate dominoes um until they fix this problem and third is you know developing a more comprehensive program which is a much longer process so um there's there's immediate fix there's uh fix the regulations over the next month or two whenever we can get that done and then there's a longer fix which is a comprehensive roading program okay so the citation fee that you see on the regulation is not what the town um approved recently oh so it's a different set of fees okay the fees need to be updated in the regulation before we start finding again to just go after them and say we're going to start finding not actually do it I so again it starts with you know I don't want I'm not trying to disagree with the board or anything but you know it starts with making sure that our regulation supports our actions so the most at this point we we need to fix and update our regulation so that when we actually act we have paperwork to point to we're acting based on this so is it written like is it written like that right now Rich you said it was but me that's that's my reading you know at yeah 4.4 I think everybody got the the materials and yeah we did you know I think I agree with a day that there could be stricter you know um uh wording here in terms of landl responsibility but it seems on the face of it that the current um regul would allow for a citation sorry go ahead to day sorry okay also if we issue fines that are not consistent with our regulations they can just go to court and the fines can be tossed you know it's as simple as that doesn't 4.9 that ability sorry I say that again doesn't 4.9 giv us that ability it says right in there violation of any of these is a finable offense of $50 a day right and then every day that it continues is another $50 so you saying that's what you sent out is that is that the regulation or is there another something I'm missing here that's not the the this is the old regulation okay this is the old regulation so we need to revamp this regulation to reflect the current fees the current fees are not on here all right so now a day you've done can't we just site them with the current Fe very tough yeah but but he's saying that because the regulation is not written doesn't conform it sounds like we we can't but so I'm going to ask a question that I'm not sure I want to but I'm gonna um H how how does it happen that that that fees that we might be assessing get updated without us knowing it's right it's a day you're saying that there are new fees that were issued by the town but they don't doesn't conform with what the existing reg is and I I guess I'm confused as to how what is our fee got updated without us knowing it is a 21d and the select board has jurisdiction over over 21d and they can uh raise the fees so apparently um the fees got raised I'm not sure exactly when but those fees don't align with what is on our regulation at this moment oh so somebody got caught in The Silo not telling us what's going on right okay that's a problem on onto itself that doesn't that doesn't help us that makes more sense now what what what's being said so okay I still say all our regulations are like this so we would in the next you know coming meetings we're going to be updating a lot of our regulations you know thanks to Amelia I'm glad she's here with us um you know matter of fact tonight we have uh the housing code um that we would like to uh revamp um she did uh ailia did a great work uh you know updating the regulation and uh if you guys don't mind uh we can jump into uh agenda item seven what Just One Last Question um uh Amelia great to have you on board uh um did and any of the inspections that you've done over the past month was it down in that area by chance um down where dominoes is I've been to Starbucks down there I have been to Burger King McDonald's I've been to a couple of establishments on Main Street and kind of to track back onto Sal's question um I do check dumpsters when I am out there inspecting um this is my obviously my first time working for the town my first time meeting the businesses the managers so I've um and I'm more than happy to share inspection reports as well well if that's something the board is interested in seeing as well so um walking into establishments I've obviously you know go over the five foodborn illness risk and I hold that always at a precedent to make sure that establishments are complying and you know working correctly with food safety um obviously active M managerial control is huge when it comes to dumpster compliance um a few establishments are really good with their dumpster Lids being closed and if they are contained in a fence keeping that fence closed some establishments um a little bit on the other end keep their Lids open and I've had discussions with them about maintaining their dumpster Lids keeping them closed and you know the effects of having those dumpster Lids open I haven't started finding anyone for their dumpsters um obviously it's my first go around with the restaurants so I'm trying to build that rapport with them um for the most part our businesses I will say are good um they have that active manal managerial control in place um they do try and I appreciate that so you know moving forward and the further I get along in the inspections and obviously being here you know I I do want to take that leap that you guys are suggesting and you know Finding and also you know having the businesses understand both educationally and to you know environmental safety and public health safety that the roles that they play are important and the regulations that we have and the compliances that they need to be in are for the safety of everyone um the environment the town the the public in general so I hope that answered the question and if I miss anything I'm happy to add anymore that's great looks like we got to get those findes revamped so you can actually do that yeah might be worth asking Town Council about the discrepancy and what we are able to do or not able to do around the actual amount yes we will do we will do all that Amil I I just want to say you know I know your job I deal with a lot of inspectors in my in my line of work and you're totally right you have to build that relationship you know first and then you can't come in with the hammer because no nobody will you know you know the stories about the inspectors after that exactly and to be honest I've seen inspectors like that I've seen people go in um not building that Rapport yet and being off the Jump just you know really aggressive and you know really throwing that authoritative role that we have to the establishments and I've seen the repercussions of building that relationship like that I've seen the repercussions of not building a proper relationship with establishments because my goal is to help establishments my goal is to go in and catch what that active maral control that surf safe certified person is not catching and educating them and ensuring that we're staying in compliance we're staying in food safety we're staying in those um those roles that are important and you know they're important for the public so yeah so that's that is where I currently at very smart very smart very smart approach thank you Rick before we move on I know it's a little unconventional but I have a feeling this is a you know it's within your purview as the chair to allow for public to ask questions um that are directly in relation to what's going on in there um and their immediate life so I'm assuming Debbie with her hand up is probably a Pineville resident um but you don't have to but again I just I just raise it because it is within your purview even though it's outside the norm it's it's a little it's a little different right when it's when you're when it hits home so to speak right right I mean we can certainly have Debbie take a minute um for any comments she might have we did have the public comment section and we do have to we have other agenda items but Debbie do you wanna take a minute yes than thank thank you so much for for allowing me to do so um I I joined the meeting a little bit late so I wasn't sure if I miss public comment or or whatever so I apologize for logging on late um I Heard most of the LA 20 minutes or so of the conversation and um I I really just want to say I my backyard is immediately on the other side of the dumpster immediately um I hear and I appreciate all of the sentiment of you know playing nice and building a rapport I totally understand that I'm corporate business myself and have been an inspector this has been going on for too long and we're talking about oh well the fees and the registra and the policies whatever the case may be myself and my neighbors are the ones that are digging the dead rats out of our backyard and not being able to have cookouts in our backyard and not being able to Garden in my backyard which is my passion without finding rats and it is very upsetting to me that the town that I have lived in my entire life the the amount of support in this uh instance is is quite upsetting um my neighbors you know we've invested in Pest Control um the only thing that's within the fence around that dumpster is one black box which hasn't been touched I look out my back window over the dumpster once a week the dumpster gets emptied it used to be when they flipped the dumpster upside down and then back the cover would one the covers would close the past two months I see it every time that dumpster is emptied the cover does not close that used to be once a week the dumpster cover was closed for the past six months those dumpster covers are never closed I can take a picture of it every single day and so what I'm hearing you folks saying is Well the dumpster's not big enough for the the 10 businesses that are in the building it's got nothing to do with that okay it's not that the dumpsters are overflowing um dominoes is the only business there that produces food food in water is what is attracting the rats unless that is secured and controlled and managed nothing else is going to take care of these rats and how frequently they populate I mean you you you guys all know this you know this and I don't mean to get upset and thank you for the moment to allow me to say something but I I hear us going around and around and around about the policies and I'm the one picking up dead rats in my backyard I don't think that's fair thank you for listening okay thank you thank you Debbie appreciate that we hear you yeah I would agree with you know Debbie I've been um on the board for a while now and at the start of all this um um as Jennifer mentioned some five years ago I think what you're hearing tonight is a very different um approach and a very more tactical approach I think you will start to um see some changes one of the parts of the day just educate us on is that we have to change our regulations first before we can be super aggressive uh with businesses in the way of fines uh which we're going to do um so as fast as we can uh so we can allow our new inspector to be able to do just that that's definitely step one and and the dumpsters are are going to be a big part of moving forward from what a day is described to us earlier in the meeting um with changing the dumpster regulations and all of these things will get looked at and addressed and it's going to be you know made very well known to all the businesses what the new um regulations will look like and how they're going to have to adhere to it so we hear you and I know how long regulations take to get implemented going to take less than a month on this one okay well in the meantime some you know I I offered to take pictures every single day and I was told well it it didn't count unless the the town inspector took the pictures but I look at it every day I take pictures of it every day those covers are never closed I mean while the regulations are being revamped perhaps someone could have a conversation with them I mean they drag their barrels across the parking lot at 12 o'clock one o'clock at night wakes us up okay we put up with that but nobody closes the covers and and there's holes in the dumpster covers even if they are closed they are not managed but and and I I appreciate that it it's going to improve going forward I I'm truly hopeful thank you thank you okay um with that should we move on to the next agenda item all right so um uh we also looking at revamping our housing code to be in line with um you know uh rent control um and um I'll have ailia talk about that hello everyone I'm going to share my screen so give me one second here I made a slideshow just to make this a little easier um so we've adopted some updates to section 10 uh human habitation regulation for the town of reading um it is in reference to the old 105 CMR 410 minimum standard fit of Fitness for human habitation State sanitary code the state sanitary code was updated in June of 2023 I believe um so we want to get in line with the state regulation for uh minimum standard of Fitness for human habitation on our end as the town um regarding the regulation um I highlighted what I felt through the complaints I also have only been here a month just to preface that um the complaints that we have gotten and what we felt looked the best with what we were working with in the town um the housing code itself is very long so I obviously didn't want to include all parts of the housing code I just wanted to pick out some um aspects to it that ptain to the town and the complaints that we receive so I'm going to actually pull up the updated version for you so we can kind of look through it together um so the first two sections didn't really change they are the same as the original um regulation what you see highlighted here um is these new findes that a day has been talking about that select board has approved and implemented for the town so when it comes to offenses there's obviously L three offenses and then subsequent additional offenses so the first fine would consist of $50 a second fine 100 and 50 for additional offenses and this would be implemented into all of our regulations moving forward that we amend uh for the first one I know this topic is very sensitive tonight so I want to preface that 550 elimination of pests is for problematic properties that actually harbage rodents and are not doing something about that issue so residents um or units dwellings you know properties that have an issue with harboring rodents with what Carrie spoke about earlier you know if there's food water you know uh leaf piles attract them loose debris attract them they love to dig they love to hide any of those outstanding issues would correlate with 41050 that we could put back on Resident and remind them that they're actually supposed to be maintaining their property to eliminate any Haring that rodents could cause so again just because that is a sensitive topic tonight I did want to outline that this specific section would be for problematic cases um obviously we wouldn't go to Pineville AV and you know tell you guys that this is something you'd have to control yourselves because we know that this is an issue coming from the Domino's dumpster so I just wanted to preference that um moving forward 560 is in regard to Refuge so this is the storage collection and disposal of trash Recycling yard waste food waste um you know uh homeowners Property Owners landlords are all responsible for their own trash collection some complaints we received have been trash Lefton properties and um not maintained so this would just allow us to reinforce that trash is something that residents landlords and bu uh um homeowners or property managers um must maintain and keep situated uh moving along 410 570 is the maintenance of an area so that kind of correlates both to the above sections uh regarding Refuge which is trash pest activity any hazards this also allows us to relay back to homeowners uh landlords that any accumulating water is actually a breeding ground for mosquitoes which is detrimental in the summertime as mosquitoes can carry diseases as we saw this summer um and also any health and safety that affects the general public um that would also include overgrowth as that is a Harbridge for rodents they do love Long Grass leaf piles again stick um piles they love to tunnel under those um types of environments um and then 410 9 sorry 410 910 920 and 930 is our ability to I don't want to say penalize because that's pretty harsh but penalize unfortunately um people that are not complying with this regulation um and ways we do that is through a ticketing system it's also through an order to correct letter that is written out and it actually will pull we pull out housing code um specifics that refer to what is in violation on that property and the owner or the landlord are given an certain amount of time to fix that issue if that issue is not fixed within that time frame we do ticketing um s um we ticket and then in some situations which this is never you know the goal that we want is we do take people to Housing Court um again housing court is very last resort we want to work with everyone and we want to ensure that neighbors are in a way protecting Neighbors when it comes to environmental safety factors um in just maintaining your property and oh I apologize that is um some updates that we've made to section 10 human habitation right so you all have um the updated regulations in your packet that we sent out um you know you guys can take the time to review the updates and um have a potential vote at the next meeting if that sounds okay um we don't have uh on on this agenda we don't have anything that you know would allow the board to take a vote on that but the goal was to you know send it to the board have the Board review it um and then at the next meeting they can ask questions or they can take a vote to adopt it can I ask a quick question go ahead Kevin um a day I'm just uh yeah I'm looking at over right now obviously I'm assuming all the yellow highlighted in what you sent over is the new um is this in is this in its entirety so that's section 10 so we eliminated um what was there before and replaced it with all the highlighted correct just so I have a c yes okay thanks I asked one question toe so I I did read through all the regulations so I saw like a search warrant in one thing so how would obviously be a milia doing the inspections on the properties correct and how would she be directed to would it be a neighbor telling on a neighbor or be uh like how how would you you know how would you be directed to a house to inspect I guess um I can answer that a day if you'd like right so housing inspections um can be based on complaints or complaints from Neighbors complaints from occupants complaints from landlords um they can really come from anyone so if you know a neighbor which we get complaints for overgrowth situations trash debris on lawns coming from we use C click fix uh neighbors um anonymous calls you know all of that constitutes um an inspection any complaint we receive not just housing constitutes an inspection on my end so anything that comes in and someone is complaining about that we have um the ability to have jurisdiction over uh would be uh inspection based so or if you just drove by a house and you saw something egregious you you could go in so need a warrant you need a warrant so when it comes to entering houses we actually have to be allowed in so in in in one instance for well-being checks when police Fire EMS and Health are called let's say it's a hoarding situation just just to preface um once the occupant is removed from the house and we don't have the ability to speak to the occupant and the allowed entrance into the home we're not allowed in the home um Police and Fire EMS it's much different but when it comes to the health department we have to be allowed entrance to enter someone's property even like land property um everything we see is from a sidewalk public public view um we cannot go on property we can go as much to a door to ring a doorbell but we cannot go in yards we cannot go on side properties so when it comes to like a search warrant is very ex very extreme um case that typically involves police um that wouldn't just be a sole like Health Department I just wondering if it would be a little dangerous for you to just live offend somebody oh absolutely yes yes um yes and yeah yeah people's property private property we don't enter private property unless we're allowed to enter private property okay great thanks yes yes can I ask um so so what's highlighted in yellow here is actually sort of cut and pasted from the state the current state regulations right absolutely yep okay and therefore we would not necessarily have to or we don't have to have a hearing about this new set of regulations because they're already adopted by the state is that correct correct okay but the board still needs to take a vote on it and adopt it right and lastly um it's it's sort of human habitation but this would apply to vacant properties um as well right so it it's not the properties don't have to be habitated right um this could apply to a vacant property that has overgrown grass harboring rats or other is that correct partially correct um as we build the the framework for our road and mitigation program we would actually introduce a vacant and abundant property U regulation that we can um enforce um so you know we just have to have the framework first and then we start adding things and start building so that's the goal I think does this regulation actually just include vacant lots of land I think to your point rck I think it goes a lot further than just vacant um homes oh yeah no it's it it's not just vacant But it includes vac yeah so any vacant home out there is owned by somebody you know it can be a person it can be the bank you know so whoever is responsible for that home if we have a um vacant and abundant property regulation we would be able to uh enforce um that regulation and hold people accountable we can even hold Banks accountable as well any other comments or questions we bring this back um at our next meeting we good um a day Health Department monthly report yes so um since we have a you know a great team we're going to start doing things differently now um you know Amilia has volunteered to um pretty much share updates regarding uh you know foood inspections and things she works on and uh leave is going to be sharing um uh updates on you know uh surveillance and things like that and I will pretty much just share information about the direction of the department um what we you know where we're going what we intend to do um in the next uh in the future so um I'll go ahead and pass it to Amelia hello I'm G to share my screen again because PowerPoints are something I enjoy um okay so since I started I started September 23rd so it has been a little bit over a month now almost two months now now that I'm looking at the date um since I started I have done a total of 91 routine food inspections um and in the month of October I have conducted a total of 67 routine inspections that consisted of four to five inspections a day um was a lot of work but it was gratifying to see how our establishments are run um they're well-run they have great active managerial control obviously ly we have some establishments that we're going to work on and we're going to work on them we're going to work on them together um and I'm really excited I from doing 91 food inspections I'm very impressed from what I've seen with our restaurants so I'm hoping with the addition of myself um we can stretch that even further so I'm really excited um when it comes to complaints since I've started we've had a total of nine complaint inspections in these ranged from overgrowth rodent sightings trash complaints um a total of seven of those I was able to close out and I was able to get situ situated which was awesome and um out of the two complaints that remain they are in regard to overgrowth which kind of correlates to an abandoned property that ad day had mentioned there are owners involved and I did some digging with our assessor's office and it seems that a lot of the family has passed so it's a little tricky on where we're going to take it from there regarding how we're going to get this property to get in compliance um but we are working on that and the rodent one that I have correlates to the housing habitation that we've amended we have a property that is overgrown and has actual burrow holes of some Wildlife I don't want to say that it's rodent uh rodents because I'm not 100% sure um but I did observe some borrowing of some Wildlife on the property and that's where the human habitation section 10 would correlate to that complaints in getting the property owner to hire services to eradicate any if it is rodent activity on the property as it's causing a nuisance to that neighborhood um so that's what I've been working on and I thank you for letting me share my what I've been working on and I I'm glad to answer any questions from anyone on the board or anyone in the meeting thanks for all the work Amelia thank you very much Amelia you're doing a terrific job great start yeah a great addition to our department leave okay I will take over hi everyone um I'm just going to give a little nursing update so in the month of October oh actually a day do you have the graph um the I can try to share my screen [Music] okay is everyone able to see the reading disease report yes okay wonderful so in the month of October you can see that we had 17 cases of covid um and that is coming to a decrease from September I actually did a a dive into sorry to interrupt Could you um make do full screen could you maximize yeah yes maximize better okay better okay um 17 cases and we are coming down from October which is great but we're probably going to see a rise as the colder months get in and we start hunkering down a little bit more I just did a dive into how many uh covid cases we had last October and we actually had 32 so that's like almost 100% decrease um from our Co cases so that's it's awesome so vaccines are great um we have had well that's kind of it for the disease reports we have not had any food born illnesses or vector born illnesses um in Reading in the month of October that's why you don't see any information there um so that's going great thank you Amelia for keeping us on track with that I will stop sharing now um in the last in this fall we've done 17 successful flu clinics and we had a public flu clinic tonight at the library and I have one tomorrow night as well at the library and then we have a another public one during the day at the coolage middle school on Friday and you can get covid flu pacle shingles RSV petus and pressus so your Rainbow of vaccines come and get them if you need them um we've been doing homebound flu shots this winter if you know of anybody it doesn't have to be senior just anybody in general that is looking for a um flu shot in their home I'm happy to come to the home and do that um that's been really great for our residents that are not able to get out I've done roughly 40 of those so that's been really rewarding just to like see the residents um we are holding monthly blood pressure clinics we them every month at the Pleasant Street Senior Center on the first Wednesday of the month at Cedar Glenn at on the second Thursday of the month and at tannerville on the third Thursday of the month so if you need your blood pressure check come on down um in January the middle sex X6 Regional shared services is going to be holding a Narcan train the trainer training that I will be going to and I am hoping to um bring that information here to reading and I know that our police and fire services are already doing that and implementing that in our schools but um I would love to kind of hold more public discussions in regards to that as well as possibly bring in some opioid action kits into the town something that Carrie and I learned about at the um well I learned about it at the conference I'm sure Carrie already knew um but the Sam the Good Samaritan boxes if anyone's heard of them it's uh Naran and um breathing masks for indiv indviduals who have had an opioid crisis an overdose crisis um some other things that we're working on is we're working with the reading children's cabinet to bring more resources to our youth in need so we're going to be starting a clothing resource area where people can make donations and then families can shop for free um for their their families and we're hoping to implement that in March of next year and will be starting to hold um nutrition and diabetes support groups at the library as well as parenting support groups um for our new expecting and seasoned parents and I just want to make uh one last remark just remember that the grimmway Farms carrots are on a recall for eoli right now so check where your carrots are from because there is a recall and even Trader Joe's is affected so who knows where just maybe stay away from carrots for a little while while and that's allk yeah go ahead um just on the um thank you for that and and and a day congratulations on on um rebounding from um your hiring things and and thank you for bringing us these great folks where it's really exciting to see uh it and I know you must be thrilled to have um such qualified and um professional and eager folks to be collaborating with Absolut I did not know about the children's cabinet until I got to talk with you last week um and I don't know if I'm the only one but I'm wondering if it might be worth another minute to just explain what that is and who the participants are yes I would love to do that um let me quickly pull up my information so the children's cabinet was started through the reading schools um and it was started by if you know these individuals um Barbara best and oh my goodness I'm blanking on her name Barbara best I will come to her name but there two wonderful women um have started this organization and it is to bring different individuals in reading that work with the schools together um so we've got Mary Giuliani who is our our um head of nursing for the schools um I'm I myself have joined Albert plus is there um who is our Dei um implementer and we also have uh one of our superintendent that goes as well as um one of our um members of the the select board uh and they are basically working to together to figure out what needs the schools and um parents and families have in this area of of individuals that we are not serving underserved individuals in our community and just trying to figure out what we can do for them um two of the main topics being resource accessing um how and where are the resources and how do we find them and then the other being um oh excuse me resource accessing and implementation and addressing means and behavior for relational aggression so those are our two big topics um just trying to figure out how to improve connectedness and belonging for kids in schools um as well as trying to find resources for families and kids to better and help them um so that is kind of what we're coming together to collaborate on and we meet um every couple months I'm brand new um so I I I've just been to one meeting and I've just been um overwhelmed by how amazing they are so if you haven't heard of the children's cabinet definitely um definitely uh see if you can reach out um I would be happy to provide oh Teresa Wiggins um they're Barbara best and Teresa Wiggins they are the co-founders um of the readings children's cabinet and they are truly amazing is there an age is there an age um oh sorry you had your hand up ter I didn't even see that um is there an age um for the kids in there to go to go um oh so it's a there are specific um students that have been invited to sit on the cabinet um they are three three high school students um I don't know their names off the top of my head but they are very impressive um I I don't believe there is representation from the younger um children in the community uh but there are parent representations I was just wondering if they get getting input from all age ranges they yeah there are um parents of younger individuals that are there and then there are three high schoolers great thank you sorry you're fine you're AB I just I like to not make Rick's life miserable because I ask yeah right not try and not to be a pain um Liv um so these these these people were uh community members who saw a need and reached out to different folks in different departments um exactly was kind of um recognized that it was it was cross cutting right it wasn't something that could be solved in schools but that had implications for all sorts of departments and I think for me what was interesting I mean I love this this is consistent with what we know about um from our friends in the substance use coalition and the protective factors for kids um as you know and protecting them from potentially engaging in um what do we say you you know substance harmful Behavior substance misuse any harmful behaviors um you know the the presence of um just one other adult out in their in their family so and know somebody else seeks them so this is kind of a a way of of taking action on clearly some folks were seeing them and then it it in with our work in public health which is rooted in the and this is my stupid right it's the conditions in which we live laugh work in place right that's what public health is and and if there are folks in our community that are not able to access resources um you know it's sort of the schools are seeing it and it's figuring out how we support them how does the community support them is that right exactly yep yes and this was built from the ground up by parents so this is really coming from from the people from the residents of reading that's great yeah thank you and the only other thing I would like to point out is that uh we would be coordinating with the reading coalition to bring those sand boxes to our town hopefully we can tap into some of the uh op settlement funds to bring bills here good great all right thanks leave and I will go ahead and give um quick updates regarding um the health of the health department all right so um last night the uh select board approved the reallocation of the remaining Opa funds in the amount of $ ation efforts um another exciting news is that we have hired a new health admin her name is Haley morphy her start date is SE December 2nd and uh she is very excited to join our team and we're excited for her as well that's great also coming up December 4th we have a budget presentation before the select board uh you all are welcome to attend the meeting and lastly um at the next bville meeting we will present updates to uh dubster regulation and also our reading specific food code all right I'll pass it on to Dr Lopez sorry again just so it's December 4th is the presentation and and is so that's a Tuesday and and that's at 7 o'clock elect board meeting yes or different time okay okay thank you thank you so talking about meetings can I interrupt one minute Rich sorry December 4th is a Wednesday is that that are you sure of that um I was just going to put in my calendar December Wednesday December 4th we have fire police Health Public public services and then December 10 we have Library facilities technology finance and okay that was my mistake I said Tuesday because I was thinking it was a Tuesday select board meeting but clearly that's yeah made made sense yep fourth Wednesday to 4th seon and and they're going to review the budgets for fiscal year 2026 correct is that yes that that's effective July 1 yes okay thank you so talking about meetings um if some of you recall U about a year ago we as we planned the meetings for this year we said that we um we wouldn't schedule meetings in July and December um unless there was a need or emergency and uh so uh if we were to have a meeting in December it would be uh December 12th um which is the second Thursday and um you know as a day point out we have a couple things that we could vote on and um and we did miss our October meeting because of miscommunication and a snafu there so I'm thinking we should we should have the meeting on the 12th if if everybody's agreeable to that agree that's did I give you enough time to do the dumpster regulations over yes we're actually working on it and it's almost ready excellent thanks to Amilia yeah let's definitely have that meeting yeah okay we'll go with it yeah any other comments or questions before we adjourn not seeing any uh make a motion to adjourn do I have a second second very second okay roll call real quick sorry I have just one just one update um both s and I were were town meeting members town meeting and the regulation for the right fines with the at the Town Forest with the dogs was a unanimous decision by Tomy to put put through those new regulations so just wanted to real quickly give you that thank you for covering that Kevin I I I was I was planning to be there but then I was I was ill and I couldn't I I was I was going to drive out to Springfield after town meeting Tuesday night but I was sick and I had to reive thank you and any agenda items you would like to talk about at the next meeting please um send them to me we can get it on the agenda great um roll call on the motion to adjourn s yes Carrie yes Kevin yes Joan yes and Rick yes thank you all uh for your time service and uh we see you next month thanks every and Happy Thanksgiving Happy oh yeah happy thanksgiv no carrots no carrots no carrots no carrots have a good right thanks everyone thank you e e e e e e e e