Okay. All right. Welcome to the month of May, City of River Board of Health Public Meeting. Will you please rise for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the stands one nation under God indivisible with
liberty and justice for all. Thank you. And um I will introduce myself. I am Dr. Drew Bunker, chairperson of the board of health. To my left is Kathleen Savage, board member. And to my right is Vivana Katano, board member as well. Invited M
municipal staff is Lauren Buck, director of public health. Michael Wells, health agent, director of inspectional services, and Paula Supervida, board of health clerk. We also have U. Bonnie Carroll here, director of city tobacco initiative.
First topic is going to be review and approval of the minutes from the April meeting 2025. I'm going to ask the other board members if they approve the minutes. I approve the minutes. I approve of the minutes. Excellent. He as well. Next is going to be the public health
communicable monthly report with Lauren. Thanks Dr. Bunker. Uh so the communicable report for May 2025 um our communicable disease burden is low again. We've had 16 confirmed cases of influenza, 15 confirmed and two probable cases of corona virus. One case of
measles, it's actually not an um uh it's a close contact case from an international flight. Um so not a direct case in in this sit in this situation. Um for updates from the state and national public health um from the CDC, the National Center for Injury
Prevention and Control on May 14th um shows a remarkable 27% decrease in predicted drug drug overdose deaths in 2004 compared to 2003 on average. Despite these overall improvements, overdose remains the leading cause of deaths for Americans aed 18 to 44,
underscoring the need for ongoing efforts to maintain this progress. Uh Massachusetts has yet to release their overdose data for 2024. Once it is released, I will give you an update for how Revier stands. They do release community and city um level data for overdose deaths. Um and so we can
compare year year after year. Um and so I'll let you know about that. From the city of Rivier Health and Human Services, um the second lifesavers league class will be held on Thursday, June 26th from 6:00 to 7:30 at River High School's Learning Commons. Please visit the public health website on
rivier.org if you are interested in signing up. This class will focus on home fire safety and handsonly CPR. It will be held in English and Spanish and child care will be offered. That's it. Thank you. Great. Thank you, Lauren. Next is going to be the inspectional services monthly
report with Michael Wells. Thanks, Dr. Bunker. Um, inspectional services monthly report for the month of May. Um on the interior housing division, we issued 96 certificates of fitness, eight reinspections on certificate of fitness, six interior
complaints received, one interior complaint uh in process, and one interior complaint reinspection. We issued um 12 new licenses for pool and spar inspections and five reinspections on pools and spars. On the food inspection division,
we conducted 34 routine inspections, five reinspections, five complaint inspections, two temporary food inspections. And on the exterior sanitation division, we issued 55 violations for accumulation of litter,
garbage, trash, and debris. Uh one violation for carts outed in improper times. Uh one violation for commercials in residential uh commercial vehicles in residential neighborhoods. 52 violations for overflowing dumpsters. 328 violations for improper
placement of garbage, trash, and bulky items. One violation for improper sign on public property. 10 violations for improper storage of garbage and trash. 13 violations for uh junk heaps, which is uh dumps in automobile graveyards. Improper storage of vehicles. And one
violation for multiple unregistered vehicles on residential property. three violations for rodent harage and 101 violations for unclean unsanitary land which includes overgrowth and vegetation. Um three violations for unpermitted dumpsters and compactors and
one violation for unsafe structure. We also issued one violation for working without a permit. Just want to remind residents and um businesses that we are in overgrowth season. Uh so please ensure that your lawns are are maintained um moving through the
remainder of the summer. Thank you. Great. Thank you, Michael. Next is going to be the presentation from Bonnie Carroll, who's director of the six city tobacco initiative. Okay, thank you all for having me. Um, so, uh, I would just
start out by saying that, um, so far we're a little bit behind this year for a number of reasons. So, um, we're in the process of catching up, but there's a contractor helping with inspections with me and we have just hiring two more
youth so that we can speed up some compliance checks. But at this point, 23 compliance checks have been done in Reier. All of them passed the compliance check. So, that's very good. And uh we're about halfway through with inspections and inspections are going
pretty well too. But the reason I'm here is that I understand you would like to hear about some of the emerging products that we see out in the field as we um do these inspections and what we hear from youth about mostly anecdotal just
because we don't have the data yet for some of these products. But anecdotally, we hear that a very big seller is these things called nicotine pouches. And I'm going to pass them around so that you can look at them. But first, I want to tell you a little bit about them. So
these are nicotine salts rather than tobacco. There's no tobacco in here, but as we know, it's the nicotine that is the addictive product of the part of these, not the tobacco. So these are are quite dangerous. Just to give you some context, in a package of Malbero
cigarettes, an entire package, there's 127 milligrams of nicotine. I hope I have my figures right. It's close, if not totally right. In one of these pouches, there is eight milligrams of nicotine. And there are 20 of these in a
tin that cost approximately $5. Sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. There are some of these that are called snooze, which are in a little skinny one package that looks like a tic tac package that has um uh
that you can get for $1.99 or so. So, the fact that we, you know, we we tag very big taxes onto these products to keep them out of the hands of youth because they can't afford them, these are kind of flying under the radar right now. So, I'm going to pass them around.
Um, so this 10 at 20 I mean at 8 milligrams a pouch, 20 pouches in here. Compare that to 127 milligrams in an entire pack of Marros and you'll see how dangerous these are. And when I go into
stores, um, there are two stores in the collaborative now that don't allow these products to be sold in regular convenience stores. They have restricted them to adult retail stores. But when I go into a convenience store where these are allowed, they are flooding the shelves.
And so when you go into convenience stores now, take a look, you know, behind, we call it the power wall, which is the wall behind the cash register that shows you what the products are. And the primarily it's cigarettes and cigars. But if you look closely, you'll
see these tins. And we see cases upon cases of these in stores. and the retailers tell us we can't keep up with them sometimes because that's how many are being sold. Uh so the addictive nature of those is extremely concerning
because young people who are using them uh get addicted very quickly without realizing it and there because they have such a high concentration of nicotine. Anecdotally, we have even heard that for some uh young sports um you know
athletes that they make a little cut between their toes and put one of these packets on there so that they can get nicotine into their drugs drugs I mean into their bloodstream very quickly to keep the level of nicotine up. So very
concerning. Um, so I'll answer any questions about those first and then I'll go on to a couple of other things if you have any questions. Anybody? Bonnie, I do. I'm sorry. Can you share again? So, this versus a pack of cigarettes. A pack of
cigarettes has how much? 127 milligrams in the entire pack. 127 for a pack of cigarettes. And one of these, one of those is 8 milligrams. That one is an 8 milligram one. They go up to 18 milligrams per pouch. Per pouch. There's
20. So, there's 20 in there. Mhm. Thank you. Okay. And like I said, they're very uh low price compared to a pack of cigarettes, which we have added big taxes on to keep them out of the hands of young people. So, that What
is this cause, Bonnie? This that one is called Zult, but the most common one is called Zen. Z YN. That's the one that's most popular about among young people. The other one that looks like a tic tac pack is called Own O N. And if you go
into stores, you'll see them advertised. You'll see them on the shelves. And these are all now unflavored products. I'm sorry. Say them again. These are all unflavored. They're unflavored. They do come in some flavors in menthol, but we haven't seen any of those around here. So, they're
unflavored. Just high concentrations of nicotine. Okay. All right. Now, I'm going to show you these are ask question. I'm gonna pass these around as well. Quick question. Sorry. Now, are these regulated the same way as cigarettes or what is the regulation? Oh, at at the
moment they're regulated. So, 12y olds or whatever can walk in the store. Oh, no. They're regulated in that way. Okay. 21 to buy them. Okay. What I meant by unregulated is they're unregulated by the FDA and the people who who we would
wish were regulating them. Yeah. Okay. Anybody else? Okay. All right. So, now uh and we can pass we can pass those in around when you're done, Viviana, and everybody can. Yeah. And I wouldn't
recommend handling them too much because they've got a lot of nicotine in them. You're going to get them on your fingers. Did they go this way? Yeah, everyone saw them. Okay. So, now I'm going to pass around um this is called a crave. This is a a nicotine. We call
these an electronic nicotine delivery system. So, it's a vape essentially. That's the the name that most people would call it. Um this is clear. So, the here's let me just say one other thing. I was at a statewide meeting today of all the boards of health people doing
what I do. And the purpose of the meeting was to look at some of these products that are labeled as nonflavored and to sniff them. And sometimes some people blew them into the air just so we could get a little whiff
of it. To most of us, they're clearly flavored even though they say they're not flavored. And the state law at this point requires manufact I mean um retailers to have manufacturers letters on file so that when we go in we do
inspections we check permits and we check manufacturers letters and the manufacturers letters are supposed to verify that these products are not flavored. And we're finding that they do say that but they're signed by bogus
people. They're they just lump them all together and say they're all not flavored and we don't buy it. We think most of them are flavored with some kind of menthol or some fruity thing. You know, I don't recommend it. We'll blow the smoke in here and everybody sniff,
but I'll pass it around just so you can see what it looks like. It easily fits in a pocket. Um some of them here, I'll I'll give you this one too, Paula. This is um shows you the colors. you know, these most adults you wouldn't think are
really into these neon colors or so on, but we'll get to the more concerning ones in a minute. But just so you can see those. So then when we get done with that, I'll show you
Okay, any questions about those? Okay. Um so the next part I wanted to talk about for a minute thank you Paula was that um you know part of the um the reason as you all know that we do this is to keep these products out of the
hands of young people because if we can keep them from getting addicted to these products before what before their brains are fully developed we have a much better chance of keeping them from becoming lifelong addicted. So now
research shows maybe the the age of brain development to have a fully developed adult brain that can differentiate better um and less likely to get addicted is around 26. Right? So even at that at 21 we're still a little
bit behind you know with with what the research shows. But what why we do this job and why you do what you do is to do our best to keep these out of their hands while they develop enough strength to get through this. Well, we hear from
um from uh manufacturers and and um people like that, you know, that are doing producing these products that the reasoning is to keep adults, you know, help adults get off nicotine, so to speak, stop smoking cigarettes and so on. But I'm going to pass around three
products right now that are electronic nicotine delivery systems. Thank you. Electronic nicotine delivery systems. And I would ask you, how many adults do you think would take this to smoke their
stuff with? I mean, maybe some, but I mean, that's pretty dramatic, right? It's a picture of a little bear. You'll see it in a minute. I'm going to give you all copies of pictures of these as well, so that you have them. It looks
like a little bear. And they come in multiple colors. This one happens to be green. They come in pink and blue and fancy colors. So, we're laughing. that obviously this is extremely concerning. Here is one where you can vape while you
listen to your music. It's a mini little CD player. We have one I don't have a product with me tonight, but we have one that is uh a video game. So, you can
video game while you vape. Here's a little guitar. These so look like Oh, the side. They look like they're so geared for kids. Sorry, say it again. They look like they're geared for children, not for adults. Yes. And so, you know, we hold
suspect when we're told that these are just for adults. We're not, you know, we're not trying to entice kids. Well, one would say that's debatable. There's also one, as I said, I don't have the one that's a video game
here tonight. Um, there's also another one who those of you who are familiar with um when you uh have asthma as I I do. I have an inhaler that will tell me how many puffs are left. You can get vapes now that tell you how many puffs
are left so that you never run out. Let me give these a um Paula too. People can just have them. Here's one with an orange bear. Bonnie, are these reusable? Sorry. Are these reusable? Reusable meaning like do
you buy refillable cartilagages or are these I don't know. I don't know about that, but I'll certainly research it and get back to you with the answer. Thank you. And how how much do these cost? I don't know that either. Unfortunately, I did not buy these. Um I got them from another uh worker today who's doing this
in another community. I again I'll find out how much that is too. And the reason I felt comfortable bringing ones from another community is because we're seeing them everywhere. So it's not going to be any different in reer. Yeah. Thank
you. Great. Thanks. Partly I didn't buy them because I don't have it in my budget to be buying them for show and tell. Um if I confiscate them then I would have them. But so happy to answer any other
questions you might have. And um yeah, I guess that's all I have to say unless you you have questions. I just have a comment. Bonnie, thank you so much. So when I was doing uh substance use disorder prevention at Reier High School, we definitely were
seeing really high rates of vaping at the high school. So I would love to be able to review like the youth health risk behavior survey data once it comes out so we can see how those numbers have changed. I know it used to be a very serious problem at the high school when
the students would were vaping uh with jewels and they would put the vape pods in the grids in the bathroom or they would throw them into the toilet. And so unfortunately, this is a really big issue because we fought against um
flavors because the industry was using flavors at that point to attract young people. Strawberry, blueberry, lemon, and then people very young kids. My sister who's a nurse at the at one of the schools told me that you see fifth graders, you know, being cut with vapes
and things like that and they're not using it because they think they're using a tobacco product. They're using it because somebody offer them to them and and it tasted nice. So, I just want to say thank you, Bonnie, because the work that you do is incredibly important. So, thank you so much for,
you know, keeping tabs on this and making sure people are following the regulations. Thank you. My pleasure. I just wanted to add something, too. Um, so you can see by these products when you mentioned jewel jewels, Viviana, I was thinking, I mean, we've come so far from jewels and we remember how scared
we all were about jewels, right? And what we wanted to see happen because we were so panicked about this. Well, we did well. I mean, jewels, you know, was taken to court and sued and and and uh the government won the settlement and so on. But those of us doing this work are
always 10 steps behind the next industry new thing. You know, like we went from jewels to Zin and nicotine pouches and now we're going from that to you know, CD players that play your vape. So, it's just
um you know, the more we can keep up with what's happening and uh and and try our best to keep ahead of it, the better because they they have billions of dollars to do these kinds of things to market. And it's not a mistake. They
know that they're marketing to young people. There's been um data that's come out that shows that they the the big big companies will say, you know, if we can't we have a lot of people quitting, adults are quitting. If we can't get a
new younger generation hooked on this, we're out of business. So, it's not it's not an accident and they're way ahead of us. So, just want to leave you with that if there's anything. Bonnie, I have a question for you. this probably not because these products are so new. But
is there any data yet to show where if someone was using um like the nicotine pouches like Zen is the name that I hear the most um that they would be more likely to to transition over to like smoking traditional cigarettes? I don't
know, but I I will find the answer out. Yes. As I said, the data is kind of a little bit behind at this point because it's relatively new. Although it's sort of like the playbook looked exactly like jewels. You know Jules, no one heard of jewels and suddenly we've got it everywhere and
kids are addicted. So it's very similar but I will I will find out there are people who are more versed in that than I am. So I'll get that answered for you. Bonnie, I also have a question. Sorry. Um, are you finding more of an incidence of like teenagers, whatever, being
hospitalized with respiratory issues from using these products, similar to what happened with Juel when it first came out? Yeah, I I haven't heard of of that yet, but um, again, the data is not there yet. That's what we we keep being told by the people who feed us the data.
So, we're waiting to hear, but I would say yes. I mean the there's so much nicotine in there that I can't imagine that they're not, you know, being poisoned by it. Actually, if they get really addicted, we are hearing stories that just like jewels, they can't get
through the night or they can't get through class without having to run out as quick as they can to get another pouch. That led me to reminding me to tell you about one other thing. Another thing that's so dangerous about these we feel is that even with jewels, although
jewels was a big big uh step away from smoking in terms of there's no billow of smoke when you're smoking, you know, a jewels, but they still had some smoke and a little bit of smell. So even though kids are in school and they're blowing it into their hoodies, there was
some indication that it was there. These Zins or or pouches like this, there's literally no smell, no um no smell. They don't have to spit out the juice. So there's no indication really of what they're doing. You know, they're they're able to do it very quietly and
indiscreetly. So yeah, I I actually was going to I have one more comment, but I think what you just said maybe answered it. I was wondering why are young people transitioning to these nicotine pouches? But I think we understood that when the jewel epidemic started and young people
started experimenting with flavors again. It started out as curiosity. Here's this thing that smells like bubble gum. A fifth grader, a sixth grader, seventh grader passes to each other and before you know it, they're consuming high quantities of nicotine and becoming incredibly addictive to this product. So I was asking myself,
why have they moved to nicotine pouches? But I I think your answer makes sense that at this point they're probably addictive. they have a disorder and they now have this dependency on nicotine. They cannot function without it. So it probably is easier to, you know, manage
the the disorder of of the nicotine by using these pouches that you can better hide. Interesting. And what is this thing you were talking about cutting of the pouch and putting it to the again there's no research that the data has come out. This is it just anecdotally,
but that the nicotine will get directly into their bloodstreams very quickly if they put a little cut in between their toes and put the pouch there so that then they can go do sports and so on and and they're having nicotine continuously in their bloodstream. Yeah. You raised
another issue, Vivian, if I might. So you said um that you know that that the young people were interested in these because they were flavors and they were being you know they were being um promoted as taste and yummy. You know they taste like bubble gum. They taste like this uh happy things that children
love. Well the big piece in that too was that they were being lied to about the fact that these were nicotine and addictive that I heard many stories of young people who said I thought it was water with some flavoring in it. You know, no one mentioned the nicotine and
the pouches are the same thing on a different level, albeit, but still because I hear um people say, "Well, they're not tobacco, so they're not really a problem." You know, I've even had retailers or clerks, not so much retailers, but clerks who sold it to
young people and say, "Well, I didn't think I couldn't sell those to them, even though they've been trained, but because that's not tobacco, but it's the nicotine that is the issue." And just so you know, like right now this program is called the um six city tobacco
initiative and the funders of this program is the mass tobacco cessation program. But we're moving slowly but we're moving towards calling it the nicotine programs because tobacco is a misnomer at this point. It's way beyond
tobacco. Bonnie, thank you for that comment. I also just want to say that when I used to work in substance use disorder prevention and I was at a conference, they were showing us the graph of different substances and like their level of addiction. And what always stuck with me is that according to the
research that that were showing us, nicotine was if not as much more highly addictive than cocaine. So I think most people tend to understand cocaine is a very addictive substance but they might not know how addictive nicotine is and that's why it matters and that that's
why it really matters in a developing brain. The younger they are the more likely they are to develop these you know very strong disorders to whatever substance they're using. So, I it's really good to emphasize that the nicotine is highly addictive, just as
addictive as some of the other substances that parents may be terrified if they knew that their kids were using. Um, so I really appreciate the work that you're doing. Again, Bonnie, thank you. My pleasure. I just just another anecdote is that I have a family member
who um was getting off cigarettes and turned to nicarette gum. Now, I don't know what the the research or anything shows about nicarette gum, but I will say this. This person has a lot of problems with arthritis, right? And nicotine is extremely
uh fl um what's the word? You know how we we don't want inflammation in our bodies. That's very dangerous. Nicotine is very inflammatory. So this person is now even though they're getting two mgram nicotine nicarette packages,
they're so addicted to nicotine that they're eating these constantly. So the, you know, the inflammation is there, the addiction is there. Even with some of the um the products that are made to help, these are not products made to
help. I made that clear already. But even the ones that are, sometimes it's a problem. So, yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Bonnie. Yeah, I'll just reiterate that the long-term effects of nicotine um not only like we said on um
causing addiction, um the effects that that would have on um someone's ability to someone's mental health. Um definitely the effects of long-term nicotine on cardiovascular disease. I know that there's studies to show that.
So um fertility also as well nicotine um can affect it fertility. So nicotine in itself is is can is dangerous long-term use of it. So um you know we think about just cigarettes and all the harmful chemicals but nicotine itself
unfortunately is also harmful for the brain development causing addiction and dependence and um altering the uh reward system in the brain which can affect affect other parts of people's um yeah life and very difficult. So all right
thank you Bonnie. Hey my pleasure. Thank you. Byebye. All right. Next, we will do the review and approval of the updated North Suffach Public Health Collaborative Intermunicable Agreement with Lauren. Thanks, Dr. Vunker. I'll probably fumble
over my words, too, because this is a very long legal document that I'm going to try to explain as much as I can to you all. So, today we're going to ask you to the board to vote on the new North SuffK Public Health Collaborative Intermunicipal Agreement. Uh, and Dr.
Dr. Bunker will sign on behalf of the board as the chair. If you all remember, um Barry Keepard from MAPC, the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, came before you several months ago to talk about some changes that are happening to the governance structure of the North
Suffach Public Health Collaborative. And this is the results of those changes. And it's kind of the formal document that would codify or uh you know solidify those changes. Um so in addition to being presented today at the River Board of Health, the Chelsea Board of Health and the Winther Board of
Health are also presenting this um on you know to ensure that their boards of health can can vote on this document as well. So I'm going to maybe explain a little bit of the backstory and then talk a little bit about the important parts of the document. Um so the North
Public sorry the North Suffach Public Health Collaborative currently exists. It's existed for many years. It is a representative of the River Board of Health, the Chelsea Board of Health, and the Winther Board of Health. Um, we have a contract that we've signed for many
years. We have an existing contract for fiscal year 25 that represents somewhat of a a different governance structure than this agreement would reflect. Um, in fiscal year 26, which starts in July uh 1st, 2026, we are going to be
governed under this document. And why are we doing that? Um so several years ago during COVID 2020 the state um has since that time the state has encouraged public health departments to
move towards more regional collaboration. Um and the way that they do that is by giving regions grants. The grants are called public health excellence. The North Suffach Public Health Collaborative has been a part of the
public health excellence grant since 2020. That public health excellence grant funds several things. A regional epidemiologist who's presented here several times. We've gone through there. There was a previous epidemiologist who then left and we have a new epidemiologist who has also presented to
you all. She does work on behalf of the region in for lots of fancy epidemiological things that are important um for for many different reasons. We also have a regional public health nurse. She sits in River two days a week. She sits in Chelsea one day a week. She sits in Winthther one day a
week. Her name is Lori. She runs our childhood immunization program and many other things. um an invaluable member to all of our public health departments and she is funded through the public health excellence grant because we have so many intricral components of our public
health departments tied to the public health excellence grants and because the state wants all of these shared service areas to be governed by the rules of the public health excellence grant and all those things. We have to go we have to have a new agreement that creates a new
government governance structure because of all those reasons. Am I are you are you all following me up until this point? Okay. Okay. So this agreement is very long and has a lot of technical legal jargon but some of the most important things are
things that I will talk about now. One is that this agreement creates an advisory board. The advisor the advisory board according to the state has to consist of board of health members. Previously the advisory board consisted
of the govern like the leaders of each community i.e. the mayor the town thank you town manager and the city manager for Chelsea and Winthrop. So this agreement the bo in this agreement the
advisory board has to be made up of board of health members one board of health member from each community with a alternative in case there's a you know sickness or anything like that. This agreement does not specify who on each board of health that member has to be. I think we've talked a little
bit about this to each individual member and there's you know we can always potentially change this as as things come up but it has to be a board of health member. So that's one important component and one change what that board of health member would be taking on as part of the advisory um board is regular
meetings. I don't think necessarily monthly meetings but regular meetings that would be updating you on what the public health excellence grant is accomplishing, what the three communities are working on together, that type of thing. And also importantly deciding and voting on the
budget every year for the grants. Currently the budget is decided by all of us agreeing on on um strategies that we all agree on you know salaries etc etc that have to be paid through the grant um I don't
anticipate that the decision-m will not be informed by all of us like continue to be informed by all of us but you but the advisory board would have the final say under this governant agreement. Um and then finally,
uh the payment structure currently, so let me just back up. The North Suffach Public Health Collaborative is um run by municipal by MAPC, meaning they facilitate all of our monthly meetings, our weekly meetings. They host the
epidemiologist. So they are the ones who yeah host the hosts the some of the positions currently. Every year, each city appropriates money from the general fund to pay the fee for MAPC to run the North Suffach Public
Health Collaborative every year. Under this agreement, the funds for the fees for MAPC will now come out of the public health excellence grant. So, each city and town does not have to appropriate funding out of a general fund. we can pull it right out of the
public health excellence grant which is great because it frees up some of the general fund funding for other things that all of our communities want to do. And also there's the the public health excellence grant is as much as any grant is guaranteed. It's an initiative that
the state really wants to make happen and and wants to um make successful. And so I think we're all pretty confident that the public health excellence grant will be around for many years. So the funding for MAPC and the north and the regional
nurse and the epidemiologist is pretty um stable. I would say there's a lot of other things in this agreement but I think those are the most important components. Um if you have any questions I will do my absolute best to answer them. I hopefully we'll be able to answer them but also tonight
is just making sure that we give you the space to vote and have Dr. Bunker as a chair sign. It will then go to the mayor who has to sign and then to our city solicitor who also has to sign who have both been briefed on this and and the city city solicitor has also read through a draft of this and given doc
and given um edits to MAPC who wrote the document. I think that's it. Any questions for me? Okay, go ahead Viviana. I'll try to answer. No, you're you're good. Thank you Lauren. I'm familiar with this process and everything you said was clear to me.
Just more out of curiosity, um, do you know why the advisory board has changed from city leaders to, um, board members? I'm just curious why the change. I believe it's because in the state's eyes, public health departments
are an extension of the board of health, not necessarily an extension of although we're always an extension of the city and the mayor. The legal the the guidance of our work should be guided by
a board of health over potentially a city or town executive. I believe that's why. Thank you. And so I I think if you don't have any other questions, you can each vote on if you approve Dr. Bunker to sign the
agreement. So I'll be signing the agreement for on behalf of the board of health. Okay. The mayor will sign on behalf of himself and the city solicitor will also sign on behalf of and just to clarify this is to approve the way we're going to the
interpunicipal agreement. Yep. Of which this big document I I highlighted I think the most important components of what it actually means in reality for you all. It means that one of you will have to be a part of the advisory board. I don't think it necessarily needs to be
the same person every time. It can be a rotating person. that component is still to be worked out of who who that would be, but that is part of it. I I don't know if you remember when Barry was here last time, he talked about that and Yeah. Yeah, I remember.
Yep. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, I think it makes sense for us to sign it. Um, so I agree it makes sense. Yeah. Yeah, I think it makes sense and I and I think it's great that uh the funds are now coming from the grant and not from the city funds. So I think during
this times of financial difficulties for everybody that's really good news. Great. All right. So yeah. So vote from each member. Yes. I vote yes. I vote yes as well.
Approve. And that's me as well as so three for three approval. Great. All right. Last um topic of this meeting will be the vote to ratify the decisions to remove the condemnations of 71 Pitkarn Street and 56 Ambrose Street.
Michael, thanks Dr. Bunker. Um as you may recall over the past year, we had uh had several properties before us um under recommendation for condemnation. Uh these two properties uh were also um condemned by by the board um under the
recommendation of myself and um our legal services. With that being said, um we have two properties before us tonight, 71 Pitcon and 56 Ambrose Street. Uh both of which have been um addressed. Permits
were pulled to um overhaul those properties. Uh 71 PCON Street has been sold. There is a new owner. Certificate of occupancy has been issued. 56 Ambrose is nearing completion. Um that was sold at auction and um the contractor is
currently in there. Um and they're just about um coming to home plate um in within the next couple weeks. So that will uh be on the market uh very shortly. And um so good work with the you know getting these uh properties
back into the condition um to make them habitable once again. Um and also they're not blight to the neighborhoods. Um so you know thank you and kudos to um they're tough decisions at the time when we when we have to make them but they're
necessary decisions at those times as well. Um so this is the result of of those decisions. So, it's nice to to see that, you know, things do work out and um you know, the the neighborhoods are
are happy and um the homes are are back to a habitable state. Great. Thanks, Michael. All right, that will conclude this month's meeting. We will just need a vote. No. Yeah, we will vote first remove the condemnation, then we will conclude the meeting. So, I just
get a vote from the other board members. Okay. I agree to um ratify the decision to remove the condemnation of the two meetings. I agree as well. Excellent. I agree. Three for three again. Thank you. All right. That will now conclude
this month's meeting. Thank you.