Okay. So, for the sake of the recording, this is the board of health meeting of June 9th, having been rescheduled from last week, whenever that was, June 2nd, I guess. Um, and four of us are here.
Myself, Katherine Hilton, Garrett Simson, Arlene Reed, and Norian Peas. Uh, Whim is unable to join us. that it was rescheduled from the 4th, which was a Wednesday. From the 4th, right, good point. Okay. Um,
so first order of business, the minutes from the previous meeting, whatever that was. Any any suggestions or objections to adopting those minutes? Nope. I I'll move to approve.
I I did not attend that meeting. That was the 21st, right? Yes, I believe so. I was absent from that meeting, but Okay. No objections anyway. You can still second Garrett's motion. Second. Okay.
Anyone? You were absent, too. Mhm. Uhhuh. Well, um, you don't have to abstain from voting. because you weren't at the meeting.
And um if you do both abstain from meeting, we won't be able to pass these minutes without majority. Okay. So, all in favor of Garrett's motion? Any objections to Garrett's motion to
accept the minutes? No. All right. I'm going to consider the minutes accepted. Now, the reason that I really wanted to have this meeting tonight is that 54 Baker Road has been waiting a long time to get their disposal works construction
permit. There were there were um communication problems between the designer Tom Loya and Claudia and then we and so that got it put off and then we had our problems with the the
meeting. Um so this is a repair. It's a serious community property. Claudia recommends approval. Um, I would like your approval to go ahead and issue the permit.
So moved. Second. Any objections? All right, let's let's let's go with that. I would also like and let's have a roll call vote on this. Even though whim isn't here, I would like the board to
authorize me to issue permits in cases like this where it has become a matter of some urgency. Usually I I I don't want to usurp the you the authority of the full board, but there are moments when it would be really expedient to do
that. Sure. So, um I would I would ask you to um authorize me to use my judgment on when I when it's appropriate to go ahead and issue a permit um and
not wait for a board meeting. I'll make that as a motion. Will someone second it? Second. Okay. All in favor? Arlene. Yes, Norin. Yes, Garrett. Yes. And me,
of course. Yes. So, that uh I promise not to abuse that privilege, but it should help some of our customers a lot. So, that was the main thing. But while we're here, we ought to talk a little bit about what's going on in the
district, which is I don't know. Um, uh, Claudia's last day will be Wednesday. Um, and we can get some of these of the services
we need from the collaborative. Um, the district has yet to meet. We had scheduled a meeting and it had to be postponed. So, I don't have any input from there. I think that we need to consider the
fact that this may be the death nail for the the district if we can't get um if the district can't find somebody to hire for this position. So I am planning to talk to the select board soon because as you know we went
ahead and town meeting um authorized our payments to the district. We might not get the opportunity to make those payments unless we find somebody to replace Claudia. On the other hand, we may need some cash. Probably not that much, but we may need money to um to buy
services all a cart, right? What What are the other towns thinking that they will do? The other towns in the district? I'll be damned if I know because we haven't been able to have a meeting. I see.
Um, but I I'm guessing that the other towns in the meeting, as far as I know, have a relationship with FKCOG, with um Phoebe's group there. And so it's possible that they can get services from
from there. They they kind of already have some services that they receive. Um, which would leave us with the collaborative. Megan has so far been really helpful. She has agreed to go out
and and witness a perk test um next week and asked Oh, that's that's another thing I want to talk to to you about. She asked, you know, to make sure that Morse Hill had been inspected. Morse Hill has been inspected.
Ladia found two minor problems and they've had to do with posting certain uh documents. One of them they didn't have well one of them was from the fire department and they had only just had that inspection so the document wasn't
yet available and there is another document that they have to that they have to show and Claudia has recommended that somebody go back there and and make sure they're there. And Arlene, I was wondering if um if I could push that off
on you because I know you've you've been there expecting before. as long as I know what is required and uh you Yes, I will I'll send you the email from Claudia that details what okay what what
we're looking for. Sure. And and then you can you can follow up with a phone call to make sure they're ready to have you come and look and then you can go and look. And is there a date by which this must happen? Uh, I don't think there is. I can
I can see what Claudia said. Um, but I don't recall that there was a date. Okay. And then You know what? Assuming I find everything in order, what I am meant to
do after that is there something some way that I need to document that or um get well I do not know and I will find out sorry that bit. Okay. No, no, go ahead.
I don't know and I'll find out from Claudia if she has issued um an actual paper uh permit. If she hasn't, I'll prepare one for you and you can take it there and when you see that they have
met the requirements, then you can hand over the paper. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Um Norin, you said you had some things to say about the collaborative.
I do. The collaborative met this morning and um we went over the budget for um the the public health grant for FY26. And uh part of that discussion was
talking about um health inspector services for the collaborative. Uh I'm happy to announce that the collaborative does have its backup health inspector on board. He's a young man whose name is Corey Hartman. Uh he seems to be doing
extremely well. He has uh finished his tier one food certification. He's gotten his pool certification. He's well on his way to, you know, making his way through the various certification processes. He probably
will be available um to or not probably, he will be available. I think Megan's planning to come up next week was a request for an inspection or something. They mentioned coming up here next week, Cath. Yes, it's um she's going to witness a perk test on Pharaoh Road.
Okay. And she's going to bring um Corey with her. So, that's the good news. Um, the bad news is that we are not the only town who is uh struggling with uh finding a health
agent. Uh, Sunderland does not have one at the moment. Becky shared that with me at the uh at the town meeting. So, they're searching for someone. Uh, Leverard's person is a gentleman who is looking at retirement. He's taking the
summer off. He's doing some work for lever at the time, but from from a distance, he's approving, you know, septic um systems that he can see from afar and that sort of thing. So, um there's several entities in the same um
in the same boat as we are, so to speak, right now. It's pretty much the whole state in the because there's just nobody coming up through the ranks. Exactly. Right. So, what we did talk about um you know I I I've worked with Cat before on
the district and um I sort of surmised like she did that this might be the end of the district. So we did have a bit of a discussion today with the collaborative in terms of how the collaborative might be able to work uh together in the future to maybe function
in a way similar to how the district has um you know functioned on our behalf previously. And what we talked about was essentially setting up in the future, not this fiscal year, but a a separate arm of the collaborative that could
potentially um hold the funds from the various towns that have allocated dollars for health inspectors. And I believe every town in the collaborative has done that as committed money over the years. and that
jointly we seem to think we might have a better luck finding someone who, you know, could have a full-time job with benefits uh through the collaborative and that type of thing. So, there's going to be further discussion. There was a lot of interest in doing that.
Um, but we're, you know, we're really not not certain what the shortterm solution might be. So, um, those discussions are, you know, ongoing and, uh, I think we're all optimistic
that that makes a lot of sense for us down the road, but, you know, probably not until a year from now. Um the other question that came up is this
is the last year of the initial funding of the grant that we're working under uh for the collaborative. So uh we expect to be fully funded for this fiscal year and the following year we would be be
dependent on continuation funds that would come through the state through the safe program. Um now K maybe you can you can help me here. other communities in the state
have used their initial grant funding already and are receiving funding for their programs uh through the state now. And there was a generally positive feeling um from the two collaborative members who are public health directors that's
Monagu and uh Greenfield that there are many prominent legislators. I'm certain ours are um sure Joe is um are supporting this legislation and they're not the only ones in the state. There are many that are really in favor of
this legislation. So they're cautiously optimistic that the funding will be continued beyond this fiscal year um for the program. Um what else? We had a little extra money
uh this year in the budget and one of the suggestions to utilize the money was to buy a uh a camera that can be used in septic uh inspections. And it's like a video cam camera that can actually go
down in the hole and help um you know really you know take a look at what's going on um from you know a little bit more of an inside view rather than just eyeballing the situation. So um
Megan was going to apply for the state to see if they would uh you know support the purchase of that camera. we have a month to spend the rest of our our funding for this fiscal year. Um,
the other thing that came up and it was really me initiating it. It wasn't um it wasn't Sarah Fisk initiating it at all on her behalf, but I think we should all be proud of the fact that Sarah has been
invited by the American Public Health Association to make a presentation to them at their November annual meeting. And um Megan was in was hopeful that the
collaborative would be able to use money from its budget to pay for the $1,000 um fee that it cost any member of the uh American Public Health Association to attend the national convention. Uh but
Sarah um you know would have to pay for her plane fight out of pocket and apparently um Megan is also going and she offered to let Sarah you know stay with her in her room. Apparently her um her trip will be funded through the
town of Greenfield. So, um, I asked Lebert if they would be willing with us to consider sharing in the, you know, the funding of probably Sarah's plane ticket, um, from Bradley down to
Washington DC. Um, we'll know, you know, shortly within a day or two how much that would be. We're probably looking at splitting $300. So, I'm going to guess it'll be between $150 and $200 that um
you know, we would consider um helping Sarah out so that she can go and and and make this uh presentation in November. The conference is in November. Um John Hillman, who's now chair of the
lever board, has already approached his um town administrator about this idea. apparently they have money in their budget and um she said there wouldn't be any problem making that kind of payment for Sarah and John was taking it to to
his board. So I wanted to um just throw that out there as an idea and I'm not sure Cat maybe you can help me. I'm not sure if we have funds left in this year fiscal budget or if we would need to consider um the possibility of doing
this in our next year's budget. Well, we would have to do it in the next year's budget because anything in this year's budget has to be spent by June 30, right? Okay. Norin, do we do you know whether or not Sarah's presentation is
about the collaborative? No, her pre presentation is on menstrual equity. Apparently, she has done the presentation before. someone at the American Public Health Association saw it, liked it, and she was invited. I
believe it's a a poster um session. And um what the project does apparently is it helps ensure that um you know products are available to anybody who
has need for um menstrual you know, products during, you know, any type of incident or, you know, monthly uh menstrual uh
cycles. So, um that's what it's about. And I, you know, I I don't know if anybody's seen it. Apparently, she's made the presentation locally. I I haven't seen that one advertised in any of our um notices that we get from Sarah, but it
might be one that we'd like to learn more about ourselves, too. All right. Thanks for that information, Arlene. Do you would it is it problematic for you for us to to help fund Sarah's travel if it's not
specifically about the collaborative? Not at all. Um, I just wanted to know whether or not she was um presenting anything that had to do with her experience um working with the CL,
but I it does not um feelings about supporting her. I'm I am in favor of that. Yeah. Yeah. It is a project that I think she's she initiated and other towns in the collaborative are now picking up on what she's done and apparently other places throughout the
state have shown interest. So, and this is her opportunity to kind of highlight what she's doing nationally as well. Just so long we don't lose her. I don't want to lose her. Right. Good. You know, I Good question, Garrett. I I asked that
question because one of the things that came up during the discussion of the budget was how much how how significantly less money our public health nurses are making than the typical nurse in Franklin County and they're getting there's only a 3% raise
in the budget. So I said, Megan, how is it that we're able to retain these wonderful people? I said, "Is it because there's flex job flexibility in terms of their hours and they enjoy being part of the team?" And and that was in fact the answer. Um, you know, one of the women
is retired and she just loves public health and um Megan said she would probably work for nothing, but Megan, you know, refused to not pay her anything. So, I think we're just extremely lucky. Um
Sarah is working part-time for UMass to Garrett, but um you know, so far she's staying with us. I'm not hearing any noises, nor is lever from what I can tell about um you know, Sarah wanted to leave us. Yeah, I think that's why I
proposed it. I think anything we can do to support um Sarah and her create creativity and her dedication to these towns, we should do. When you describe this as a poster presentation at at scientific
conferences, as far as I know, a poster presentation tends to be just a poster display. There's a, you know, a big hall given over to to the poster uh uh projects. And so she doesn't make an oral for presentation if it's if that's
the kind of thing it is. It's she just sets it up. I I I made that up just from I used to attend these conferences myself when I was in public health in Maryland and Oh yeah, I know they do have just simply poster presentations.
That was completely my you know I don't know if that's the case or she's making okay and I think we should probably ask her I' I'd love to hear you know what she's doing and more about it anyway. So yeah. Yeah, maybe she'll come to one of our meetings or Yeah. Well, I don't I
don't know if you're um if you're planning to come on or to zoom in on Wednesday night because she is basically hosting I mean, I'll set it up, but she's basically hosting this um uh mosquito control district talk by John
Briggs on Wednesday night at 6. Yes, I plan to do, you know, I'm going to do my best to make that. Yeah, that sounds great. Glad you um do we want to wait or should we go ahead now and vote to to support Sarah
maybe up to you no you know no more than $200 or should we wait until we know more about the amount that's needed? Any thoughts out there? I I think I'm okay with um saying that.
And should there need to be anything more than 200, she would need to uh that would need to be revoted. How's that? Again, Sarah did not approach anyone. This was my initiative. I see. Sarah was
not asking for this money. She, you know, wants to go. I think she's excited that she's been invited to do it and she was, you know, she did not ask us to pay for her trans, right? But we could think of it
as a a professional development grant, I think, for for sure. All right. Well, I'm going to move that we um that we plan to to subsidize Sarah's travel to the
conference in November um with cash up to no no greater than $200. Do I hear a second? Second. Discussion
hearing. None. Arlene, yes. Norin, yes. Garrett, yes. And Cat, yes. Okay. Very good. I'm sure she'll be pleased. Good. Um, was there something else I wanted to say
about Sarah? I guess not. I did want to I did want to mention the um the mosquito control thing. Um sort of on another topic, not even an actual board of health topic. Norine, you look like you're in East Hampton. Is
that right? Yes. And are you going to be staying there for the duration of Sam's um recuperation? Um Sam is going to be um she cannot be weightbearing for six to eight weeks. So
right um we right now we're planning to be here through August and then perhaps come up to the camp September, October, November. Okay. All right. I just kind of wanted to keep
tab tabs on you now. I'll be I'll be back and forth. We're back and forth, you know. Yeah. Are you in need of any help from your friends like us? Yes, I would love at some point. I we we
we have a wide group of friends, so this won't be a big ask, but um I'm going to need to get out. I know Arlene understands this. And go for a bike ride or walk up Mount Tom or things like that. So, Okay. Yeah. All right. you're maybe come down your support. Yeah.
Spend some time hanging out with Sammy, which is not Yeah. You know, not a It's usually a pleasure to hang out with, right? Absolutely. Okay. And as far as more material things, you don't need meals cooked or house cleaned or cars driven.
I'll let you know. I'm going to be the main chef and uh caregiver. So, Okay. Yeah. I might put put the word out. So, so far we have other friends who are lined up and have volunteered to do that. So, I'll I'll let you know when I'm totally exhausted in July and it's
been a month already. I might go, "Help, please." Right. Right. Right. Come up and have a swim or something. Yeah. As you know, the problem is going to be keeping Sammy quiet. She really is not supposed to move this at all. It's got
to um repair and and heal. And yeah, she's not going to be running up and down anything for a while, unfortunately. Right. Yeah, that's not going to be easy. Yeah. No. And it's different from the knee where you're, you know, you're on your knee what, an
hour after you come come out of anesthesia. Thank you for asking. Sure. Um, back to board of health matters. Is there anything else that ought to be talked about? Garrett, do you have anything? Anything we should know?
So, the Mathco annual meeting is tomorrow. So, right. I'll cover that for us. Um, that's not something that they need like numbers for. No, not necessarily. Okay. You're welcome to
come. It's virtual or at um in Greenfield at uh for Cog. Um, but I can cover it for us. Okay, great. Thank you. Oh, who's your friend? This is Quigley.
Quigley. Oh, wow. That's a big animal. He is a big boy. Sweet. And other than the uh other than the meeting, there's nothing uh we need to
know. I'm you know just the uncertainty about what's going to take place and you know how the funding is going to work and if it's going to work and if it's going to be there and right right and any word on your
personal situation there I mean what what they're saying right now is that for you know on the public health emergency preparedness grant you know then at least the next year should be okay. Mhm. Um but past that, who
knows? The the unknown part of this whole thing is that the federal fiscal year ends at the end of September. Oh, right. But the grant period is July 1. Mhm. So
there could be a situation where you start off the grant period and you get to through the first quarter and they pull the rug out, right? So um
who knows? Who knows, right? Um, are there things that we should be doing with respect to the legislature, either state or federal? I mean, should we be should we be, you know, lobbying?
We're we're in such an enviable position with our legislators. I I don't know what else we could ask them to do. Well, that's a good point, right? It always it doesn't hurt to for them to hear from us, but we know they're going to do what we want. Right. Well, and we and I think
there have been some calls for for those of us to um write letters and support the legislation when it does come up. I know there have been several emails, you know, requesting that too from Massachusetts Public Health Association,
right? But but I think I think the the major part of the uh session is over for the time being. Am I correct? I know that hearings are still going on because we got a list of them from the Democratic Town Committee. Okay.
Then then I'm wrong. So yeah, I'm not I'm not really sure what the what the situation there is. Yeah, I should. All right. Is there anything else we need to talk about tonight?
Nothing from me. Are we going to meet again this month, Cat? We're meant to be having a meeting on the 18th. Okay. Um, so I'll schedule it and if we don't have business, we'll postpone it and uh
possibly possibly have it um the following week since we've just met now. And if it is the 18th, I can't do that one. Right. You mentioned that. Are you guys going to get away? We're we're just doing stuff local.
Yep. Good idea. That's so much more restful really than leaving town. It really is. Okay. So, I'll keep you posted on that. Um I keep thinking there was one more minor thing I wanted to tell,
but I can't think what it is and I won't keep you any longer. So, this worked great. Thanks Garrett for uh becoming the host. And uh um
all you have to do to to end is just end meeting for all and you don't have to do anything with the recording that that's automatic. And then um not for the next meeting but moving forward I'll I'll connect with you to get the login and all of that so that okay I can start it
for you. That'd be great. Yes, that'd be great. Also, after I've seen this guy, oh, did I mention that I've I've got I'm working on getting an appointment with this guy who um who does computer things, computer services for the town of Shootsberry. And so, um he's going to
troubleshoot the laptop. So, maybe we can get it sorted out at my end also. Good. Good. Okay. Okay. If there's nothing else to say, let us adjourn. Thank you. Thank you all for coming on the special night and uh good luck to Sam on Friday.
Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Good night everyone. Bye everyone. Bye.