okay this is the Board of Health meeting Thursday February 6th 2025 6 PM president at the meeting is subasa Terry putam oh sorry that's all right Terry putam Samantha Gren Ken Ken Simons okay um Trisha too Trisha's here too Trish sedlo Trisha sedlo you're here too sorry I was muted Trisha said okay and um Dr Linc will not
be able to join us tonight so um we have no public comment and review of the minutes Terry did you get to review the minutes from January 9th I did and there they're I I have no Corrections very good I just had some minor little little grammatical things um so do you want to make a motion to accept the January 9th minutes I move that we
accept the January 9th minutes with the additional uh grammatical changes um I second that all in favor Terry putam yes dubraska yes okay Tom um renewal renewal um a lot of handholding chasing everyone down um everyone and all one um did everything
they needed to do so I got all the permits issued on Monday our only straggler is the uh white sand sunspa down in by the I can't remember what Plaza that's called by the McDonald's um they did yeah newi is um they did their application they submitted everything it's just the payment um I was last
week I haven't actually been able to talk to the owner so I always go in and um it's one of the employees but last week they they told me the the owner told them the check was in the mail so I've been checking the mail I know the mail can be slow um so I sent him a notice today saying get it to me today or we have to start enforcement um and I looked up I've never had to do um tanning enfor ment
before so I actually I went in and read the RS for tanning um and it says to send them a letter um and give them seven days to correct so um I will do that tomorrow if they don't pay if you know if they have a check in the morning then I'm not going to go through the extra headache but um but I'll send them a certified letter saying that they're in violation give them seven days to pay the permit fee and then from
that we would be able to yeah have them come into a hearing we could refuse to renew their license or I mean that would be the worst thing that we could do so um or at least just make them come in and explain themselves and you know it's unfortunate because it's something so simple as just paying a paying a fee and maybe maybe they did put it in the mail and it got lost in
the mail you know that happens but um a little more communication would be nice so so that's the plan for that so hopefully that one we won't have to go through the extra steps but um if we do we do all right you want to go through the Terry did you receive the master plan I did not um uh I have't edited the
the spreadsheet yet to put in my priorities but yep I did okay cool now did Terry receed the same spreadsheet that I have right here y it has yours and Tom's um yeah but Tom's Tom's is wrong he yeah M mines are messed up his is real messed up okay but Tom and I had the same yeah yeah we sat down together so ours ours are the same we have the same priorities oh okay even though how he has it here it's all messed up you got to fix it
okay I copy pasted it I filled out hers first and copy pasted it and then the it removed all the blank lines so mine are all wrong but so how does Terry can Terry online how um she can you can either edit that PDF and send it back to me or I think I sent it as a or edit the Excel and send it back to me or I sent it as a PDF if you just want to print it write them on paper and I can type them in whatever's yeah probably rather have
something electronic that I can do I think what I've got open is a PDF I that's what I had okay two sides to it I'll if I'll double check if I didn't send the Excel too I'll I'll resend that okay so they're just two pages right y okay and you I I thought figured something was wrong because you have Tom you have a three in a in a in a line item that doesn't have any description so I think was some I think there was some uh uh formatting or something going
on yep um and Trish you said I already handed hers in I have to double check I thought she did but I I looked in my email beforehand and um Trisha said did hers but I don't know if Trish will let's um jump forward and let um Trisha do her Nursery report so that you don't have to hang around cool thank you yes um yeah you done it right after the
minutes but go ahead so the nursing students started last week at the senior center in Southwick um I don't know how it's going to go they don't get the same amount of people in the Southwick Senior Center anymore so we'll see um they'll be there for the semester but they may not come back um next year why do you think that I don't know I don't know if it's I mean if it's just like this month I can see it because there's been so
much sickness with between flu noro you know covid but it's been going on for a little bit of time and I don't know if they know I don't know if it's a change or you know Lisa's made some changes where people aren't necessarily coming into the center if they do exercise they just go right to the auditorium now so they're just and and then for some reason they don't get the same amount of people that they used to at lunches anymore I mean they used to fill like at least a table along um like six foot long tables two of them now they
probably have four people so I don't know I I don't think they know either I think they're trying to figure it out but it just it's a problem for nursing you know us to have this program because the idea is the contact with the seniors so we'll see maybe it'll get better and improve but that's just something I have to monitor for um Elms but otherwise they are there and I am taking them to the pantry 3 days so um that'll get them out of the Center if the numbers stay low and they you know
get a different um View and understanding of how the food pantry works and meet different clients so and that went over good they like doing that last year what days do they come on Wednesdays okay they're usually there from 10:00 a.m to 1 all right so they won't be there next week because they something to do with Elms um and then the following week they'll be there so but yeah so so I have two students this year and they're
traditional students last year we had um second bachelor's they were really good that was and my my first group was great so they've been all good I have we've been very lucky to get them and they've been great students so um so other than that they don't go the other towns do they the other hilltowns no yep and other than that it's been mostly a lot of influenza going around
Southwick um in January I didn't see a lot of covid this month a few cases but influenza like crazy and it I mean it's still continuing into February but that's the trend I I looked it up and it's a lot of nationally people are reporting high levels of influenza again so it's like a second round another question count Jim and me in in that because we both had the flu
probably three weeks ago yeah it's been rough for a lot of people yeah when you get these numbers for the flu do you know how many people had been vaccinated no I don't know that okay yeah so I actually reached out to the school to see if they were see seeing High numbers of the flu and the kids and they said no more of everything else like the noro and the respiratory and Co but really no confirmed flu and I've
seen a few like maybe I saw like a 12-year-old the other day and then a 9-year-old so maybe it's starting I don't you know who knows and I'm assuming they go to South bck schools of course they go elsewhere but they they weren't getting those numbers at the schools which is good but they get everything else um noro is starting to calm down thank god um and then I I really didn't see a lot of crazy respiratory this year either it was like Co or the flu over the winter
um and as far as the bird flu I was on a webinar the other day and they said that um and this was with the state dph 67 people nationally have tested for it so I mean the numbers are not large At All by any means but they said most of them are like from probably workers with the dairy cattle CU 40 of those cases were from dairy cattle 23 from commercial poultry one from a backyard flock and three they have no idea how they came in
contact with it um they're just advising people public no direct contact with sick or dead animals keep household pets away from them especially cats they're seeing more of a transmission to cats for this um than any other domestic animal e however foxes foxes if they scavenge on the birds the dead birds they will become infected so I'm sure we might see foxes that maybe succumb into this um and then they recommended if
workers are responding to large die offs they should be wearing PPE mask coveralls gloves headwear Etc so the question how is it spread then contact aerial both ways I think so they don't that's the part we don't 100% know what's the how the spread but yeah I'm think it's respiratory droplets and now if a bird has it it's going to kill the bird right it doesn't the bird doesn't recover does it no no and
they're seeing it mostly in Canada geese and swans um the information that you send is really helpful good yeah I really um because we the 4 has their poultry oh yeah shows so it's helpful to have that information so thank you great yeah it was interesting um learning about it and I mean we'll keep learning about it and they'll keep figuring out more stuff as
we go hopefully you know and um I'll report as every time I hear something because it's important and I share the information with our Animal control officer as well oh good so there's a reporting form that she has to do and I think it's three or more if they find three or more dead birds there's a form they're supposed to fill out too or we have to do it whoever does at the health department but um it it's three or greater dead animals not just one
so but yeah other than that it's just been you know trying to come up with new things to do for presentations um we're going to do nutrition where we're going to work on that presentation Maryann and I and um right now the numbers are low at all our senior centers and I think it's you know people go away in the winter and then just illness so to Florida um any thought of doing a health clinic again a health fair again this year we are in Southwick in May okay I
want to say it's May 16th it's a Friday in May May 16 anything going on with the parenting the parenting program no we have we sent out at least 25 to 30 invitations but no one has responded yet depressing it is it's like really with Dr Wong yeah you schedule that we met
with him I don't what happened kayen I we were gonna we were gonna um we thought we were going to cancel again and then and then last minute he was like no let's do this day so we didn't have enough time to let you know yeah sorry about that yeah I'm not sure what I feel like we had three dates and then it was last minute that it became that Friday hey what um what did you talk about with him
I did not attend that one but um Ken and Tom did and Mar so we we just updated our standing orders for the district and we also talked with him a lot about mistrust in public health so he kind of gave us a good insight as a physician to how he manages that so that was very helpful um we also talked about I'm blanking Maryann had a few questions um
about vaccines vaccination rates how to kind of talk to Residents about that he had a lot of good ideas so it was pretty it was helpful yeah was a good meeting chish do we give out vaccination information sheets when when um we do vaccine clinics and how's that going to be affected with the recent changes in the CDC I know um so the only Clinic that
happens in Southwick is at the Southwick Senior Center and they've always scheduled that but um I know they give out the vaccination sheets this the pharmacist so I don't actually schedule any vaccine clinics so the I did attend the one in Granville and that was CVS no stop and shop and um they they they leave them there because I think by law they're supposed to have the vaccine
information sheet available um so they are there for people to take okay but halftime they don't take them so okay anything else Trisha no any more questions uh Terry or Tom or ala thank you all right good night thank you next mon thank you yeah I meant to have her come right up
under minutes so we should have to wait okay propos well regulations do we want to finish up with the district stuff and uh oh yeah sorry and then if Ken wants to bounce she can yes sure so our general update is we primarily have been focusing this month on the foundational Public Health Service review that the state has us working on um we're also still reaching out to new parents in Southwick and all the other Five Towns sending out our invitations for those at
home visits like Trisha said we haven't had any respondents yet but we're still hopeful and then we did have our pH monthly meeting and they did talk about the what's happening with the CDC and the NIH and the federal freeze um and we're kind of at a standstill a little bit but dph wants our towns to know that they're still very committed to Public Health and the efforts so we're hopeful we'll see how this goes um but that's kind of the general
what's been happening this month um the next part of the district was the pooling of the opioid funds so part of our work plan this year is to pool the opioid funds for all six towns so we met actually on Wednesday with staff from massare and mhoa to discuss the process of pooling the funds and Tom and I are also meeting with the Town Administrator fire and police chief next week to kind of get a better understanding of what
the towns need or specifically Southwick to start with um when it comes to harm reduction and what they think we should use the funds for um so we have to get approval from all six select boards in all in order to pull the funds but we wanted to start here with the informal uh approval of the board the Board of Health just before moving forward so that's kind of what Tom and I had talked about um just to make sure that the process is supported and that we think that pooling the funds is our best opportunity to do
harm reduction practices so okay first if you pull the funds where will they be the currently there the funds that Southwick has received directly um are in a special Revenue fund special Revenue fund um designated for Board of designated for um opioid um harm use so it's technically it is the
um ultimately it's the chief executive officer so the select board um it's their decision how the money is spent um but when most in most towns um they're going with police fire and health of what they want to spend it on so um and dph is encouraging towns especially um we got a decent chunk and Granville got a decent
chunk um and there's some there will be some recurring funds as well um so I think we got about we have two years worth now in the amount of about 15,000 and then I think the next few years we'll get like about four four or 5,000 for each year um how many years I think was a five years total FY 28 is
when our Excel sheet stops but I'm not sure if it continues after that or this did this money come from state is the state giving us this money from the opioid companies or is yeah this is the money from the the lawsuits it's from the from the state from the state yeah okay um so there's certain rules and you know you have to spend it on certain things um and so we got more than most of the towns except Granville actually
got more than us um and most of the other towns U Montgomery I think was like less than 100 um and the other three were you know 500 to a th000 a year I think all of them were um so when you add it all up it's a you know probably 30 40 Grand somewhere in there right so once we get all the money pulled if we get it all pulled yeah
then do fire police and select board and Board of Health of all the towns meet together how do you what are you going to do well the the idea from what dph is suggesting if if the select boards are okay with it it would be we already have this we already have our shared Service District which is a great way of spending the funds um and and regulating making sure it's spent appropriately and monitoring it and all
that so um I think the idea from dph is that the Western yes what's dph Department of Public State Department of Public Health oh okay thank you no problem Massachusetts yeah um Department of Public Health thank you the we already have this group together so the Western Hamp County Public Health District would be in charge of those funds for our six towns and spending them for on behalf of our six towns but we would check with fire and
police in those towns too okay work with them yeah so um because there are there is some some of the requirements are uh you could probably explain it better Ken but it's related to like community members with lived experience yeah um so you need to meaning like so it's like if you or your family has been affected by the opio epidemic they kind of give you I think
they really want to push for the funds to be spent to either help those community members or gain their knowledge because I I want to say that the thinking is we ourselves probably don't know everything there is to know about harm reduction practices but somebody who maybe has a lived experience will be able to kind of give us better Insight so that these funds are really helping our community members in the best way possible um I think that was the main
thing pay this pay the speaker no like um you know in bigger cities they would go to go to churches that have support groups um and things like that and where you could you could somehow either get a survey out or um get get to groups of of populations that that have dealt with with opioid um harm use and have had that experience that could
say oh you know if there was more Sharps disposal or uh medication disposal or you know whatever they're suggest those are kind of the the lwh hanging fruit are um the sharps kiosks and the med kiosks um but you know there certain every T every Community has different challenges and one of the things they said in the meeting the other day that some like rural towns might want to do would be um
offer offer Transportation or reimbursement for transportation for so people if they were on um had to go to a clinic for like methodone or whatever um you know there's there's nothing in our six towns that there's no clinics um so if we could somehow help people make it easier for them to get to the clinics isn't there one in Westfield still yeah I think so um on El Street yeah yeah but
um but you know offer ways to help you know people way up in tall and still get there or whatever so um so that's why they want us to to try and at least try to reach out to people in our community who are who are dealing with this to do something that will actually help them instead of us just saying oh we have this great idea we're going to do it and then it doesn't actually help anyone so um but there's no that we're aware of there's no support
groups or you know any anything that's very easily accessible um that we could that we know of at this time that we could reach out to and try to get that um so that might be be a bit of a challenge um they had suggested reaching out to some of the like the clinic in Westfield or the support groups nearby and see if they know of anyone from Southwick um that might be willing to
you know talk to us so um so that will be part of the thing for the district to do is you know to make sure we're we're doing everything correctly so um so I guess my question Tom is is it the state's requirement that the select boards be in charge of this in charge of this it see that that seems like really within the purview of the board of health and so I'm just it it was that
our decision or or that that was the state okay um I don't know if it was something directly to do with the lawsuit um they did pass they did pass a law to make it a lot simpler um because initially initially the towns had to appropriate the funds so they would get these checks and then they'd have to wait until town meeting to put it into the budget um so they the state passed
an additional law to allow all the towns to create that special revenue account um so the money just goes in there and right now it's just sitting there but that's what that's what we can we can use and Southwick already has that set up so um the process for sharing if if everyone's on board um we would we would amend our IMA the agreement for the district um or I just
add an addendum I guess we wouldn't change the actual IMA itself um and then the select board the chief executive officer whoever that is would sign it for each town and then we would we would invoice the towns they would cut us the checks of whatever they have and then it would all go into the existing Southwick special Revenue fund so it's year marked for this for this
project it can't be spent no has be spent on opioid okay abatement funds yeah okay okay anything else from Ken nope it's just getting getting the okay from you guys that you support this and then Tom and I will go to the select board after this talk with the Town Administrator and the fire Poli Poli Chief so it's good to have the Board of
Health saying we agree with this we think this is a good idea if you do they we agree with the cooling of the opioid of the opio um is that a okay with you Terry sure okay so make we should make a motion that um we agree with the pooling of the opiod funds for the what's the western Mass what's our the uh Western Hampton County public health district okay the Western public county but okay whatever
District um do you want to Second it yep sure I didn't know I thought you were making the I was gonna correct myself um all in favor uh the ter putam I subasa I okay so you have our all right great blessing thank you thank you all right um now the actually welled
so so yeah this is I think it needs to be done to update our well RS but I'm it's a little overwhelming there's a lot uh at play here so our I'll just kind of give some background our well RGS have not been updated since I want to say it was 1999 um So currently we just require a permit
for um private drinking Wells um and there are other types of irrigation Wells uh monitoring Wells um the the well geothermal Wells for U people that have like the ground Source heat pumps um none of those are required to get a permit it's still by state law required to be done by a licensed well driller um the state issues those licenses and they are still required to um submit a well completion report so
there's a record of it but we don't find out about those wells until afterwards um so and then also our what we in our older regs what we suggest for um the water quality testing is not um no longer consistent with what the state um suggests so [Music]
so there's also in the so that's kind of our background and then in the in the state regulations they've also added a requirement for well the state model regulations this is just a model it's not um specific to Southwick it's not specific to Southwick it's not a state law it's just they say if if Boards of Health want to use this here you can you can take this from us um so they've they've added similar to with septic systems um this model well regulation
has a requirement for testing a well before the time of sale um before the time of sale so just like just of a um of an existing house so just like a Title 5 inspection so you're going to put your your um and testing what just for eoli or testing for for a whole I don't remember everything ay of things in that list to test far different chemicals and and
elements and all of that stuff yeah now who's going to enforce that this guy so that's you're gonna go through the in the newspaper who's been who sold their house and no there wouldn't be time to do that so it kind of have to be the honor System if we could however adopt the regs and take that section out if it's if we think it's not practical to enforce um and principle I think it's a great idea um I think a lot of times it
happens anyway um whether it's the realtor or the buyer um through the home inspection process they want to test the wells um so it it I wouldn't say 100% of the time it happens but it I'm I'm sure a good a chunk of the time it is already happening anyway um but just the you know the the recordkeeping the enforcement um would be definitely an added um added
workload um but I I do think the you know it would protect Public Health um because a lot of a lot of people just don't know that oh there's a well oh that's good and they don't you know you should test it every every few years and um you know I I people have had Wells for 20 years they've never tested once so um but it's a private well so they're they're responsible for it so um at
least at time of sale you know there's some regularity to to to it happening um well now you just have a regulation unless you have a way to enforce it right right so um and Tom is it is it the same thing for so so this is only the current time of sale um like if the if a property changes hands or
um let's see when they're building what so so you know I didn't I didn't gather the you know the logistics of when it would be done but I can tell you you know when When I Survey dialysis units the water testing is a big big piece because they're trying to filter all of that stuff out um and they do it at least on
an annual basis and sometimes more frequently than that because of public you know Public Health right so um prior to selling conveying or transferring title to real property so that's pretty straight four there's no exe exceptions um whereas Title Five for title five inspections in in the state codee there's a whole there's a whole
slew of exceptions um so this would be any any transfer um which that that could be a problem too is you know if it's uh you know it's when people add it's a couple and they you know it's only in one person's name if they add the other person to the deed is that going to require them to to do this um so I have some concerns about
that and the practicality of it um I I've reached out to the state to see if they these model regulations were only released um just about a year ago um so I've reached out to see if the state is aware of anyone any towns who have who have put this in place um and then the the last thing that's comes into play um is there has for a couple years um
every year it's more uh intense in my opinion um has been some talk of a Statewide well regulation um passed by the legislature so I think one legislator just introduced a bill last week um last year a bill was passed for DP to do a study on what that would look like um if they
were to do a Statewide regulation um I don't know if they've even started the study yet um but there's I I even saw it on the news uh a week or two ago um they were talking about the the recent push for for Statewide well private well regulation so that complicates things too I one would assume the state already has these model Reg written if they were to pass a Statewide
regulation it would look a lot like what they've already done um but who knows if maybe they would go back to the drawing board and it would be completely different um so I don't I'm I'm also leery of you know we update our regs to this and then in two years or whatever the state could you know step in and pass a Statewide regulation which would um probably take precedence over our
regulation and um and then and we don't you want to keep some consistency you don't want to tell all the well drillers oh do it this way and then have it keep changing so um but on on the other hand we could we could pass this put it in place and then the state could in a few years the state could pass a regul and it might look exactly the same as
what we already have and we say great we're already doing this so no no change is necessary um or the other option is given that you know it's just legislature and talk right now it might be 10 years before it happens or it might never happen so um but that that kind of complicates it too cuz there's you know it's a little bit attempting to just say oh let's let's wait and see um what's going
to happen so um I don't think we need to make any decisions tonight I just wanted to kind of start the discussion um I'd like to read this and read our current rigs okay and put them together and I I did find one town uh I can't remember off the top of my head who it was but it was someone like Northshore area um and
they they just did their well RS this this year a few month only a few months ago I think and they had a requirement that all well owners test their well I I don't remember if it was an annual or a by annual basis um regardless of if there's a sale or not which either that town maybe has a big Health
Department or maybe they're primarily served by Town water and there's like two wells in town um but that that would be impossible to make everyone do it and submit it to us and enforce it would be impossible here um we have just too many Wells but um so that I definitely wouldn't want to do that and I'm I'd be nervous to take on requiring it at time of sale as well
so well it sounds like that it would lend itself you know again pending regulations to do a sample of the wells you know if you that would be more reasonable than than requiring you know trying to sample every single well uh right if it came down to us having to decide how to do that um right uh just to to to do maybe a sample of wells in each area of town
or or whatever but yeah I agree that's that would be that would be astronomical to have to do that now how how does this compare and and I know we're we're looking at apples and oranges how does this compare to how often the town the town water is tested um the town water is tested like constantly there they're on they're diff it's I don't know all the um different
parameters but um because we get our water from I think Westfield no we get it from Spring we have some that's our own from um from town and some that's from Springfield um and they depending on different parameters it's different frequencies but um certain things are monthly I want to say certain things are weekly um so they're they're definitely private Wells get tested far far less
than than the town water and I mean I could see the value in it when when I I owned a house in South Carolina and there was some concern that uh service station a gas station that had been closed the the gasoline was leeching into the water so I I must have had eight test Wells dug you know on my property so I could see the value to it but it's it's also you know I I'm I'm like you I'm not sure we
jump and we implement this right without a little history right right then another option too is we could you know think about it more find out what other towns have done and then we could kind of go through this section by section and and carve out things we we don't think we could do um like I I do see the value in requiring a well permit for the
irrigation Wells and the um monitoring Wells and we do that already don't we in other no just just for um we only require a permit for drinking Wells yeah no I so so I think that that would be a good a good addition and definitely updating what we require people to test for would be a good addition um um and our current Rags do we have backf flow preventors I don't remember I have to
double check or is that part of just the plumbing code now it might be might be just the plumbing code um I mean I was intrigued by the number of uh of gallons per whatever per bedroom per bathroom you know that reminded me of old problems old math problems we used have to do I'm thinking uh I it's going to take a better brain than mine right now to be able to figure
all that but I I could see the usefulness of that I mean it kind of corresponds with what you do with septic to make sure that you know you've got enough enough capacity for the number of bathrooms um so and I mean what requires whether we decide to do the regulations or not I I think you could ALS we could also set who is responsible for testing you know is that something that's going to fall on you or is the homeowner
responsible for providing that to us yeah home it's always on the homeowner yeah so so it would basically well I don't want to say basically but be a paperwork thing for for us okay right got it right because even well with well drillers and I've never heard of a Board of Health that goes out and when there's a new well drilled does an inspection it's it's for us it's it's purely paperwork and you know the well driller
is State licensed they do their thing um you know generally I know when it's happening I guess I guess if I wanted to I could go out and say oh there's that's a well rig um but you know the the important thing is you know that they test it and um there's a state form called The Well completion report that they send to us um so it's it's even as it is now it's
it's purely paperwork but if we if we increase the testing requirement to not just new wells to existing Wells at time of sale that would just be a lot more yeah lot more paperwork okay it um so we just want to review those yeah compare them yeah and if I if I hear anything from any other towns uh that have done this or or maybe they all looked at us and
they said oh there's no way we can do that yeah and the same thing we're thinking um we'll we'll see and then and the thing is do you understand this do you understand all the stuff in here because we're not well drillers right right I haven't I I even haven't gone through word for like just straight up Reddit yet I've I've skimmed it i' I've
learned some over the years but I'm definitely not a the biggest expert on Wells more than we do but I know I know our rigs have to be and the another another big change too is in the um the testing is the requirement for the um P um which is which is good but that that definitely would increase the the
cost of homeowners to get the testing if they if they include all those but but it's a good thing to know if is in your well or not so all right um skipping over to the annual report I some edits is it gonna be too late probably not yeah I can update that and um you can
need my writing yeah yeah like this is a period and then going forward enforcement procedures for okay and then just cap some capital letters and instead of think referring to Trisha is Trisha I rather have be have okay we can do that and then [Music]
um it was only the other day they were doing I know some departments haven't even done them yet I can do that tomorrow see you can that first that's paragraph there that's highlighted can can you follow it yeah I have like going forward well yeah will enforce using that code no all okay so that's the um Tom and Trisha and Samantha worked on
the town report that goes into the town book every year and it was due last week or this past week Monday yeah this Monday so I just made a few little comments because the planning board still has that's how I am yeah in yet I think they uh I think they make the due date a little early to make sure they have enough time to do what they need to do so okay fog
regulations I got nothing to add on that because they're working on our own yeah right so Tom your report all right so um we have [Music] two um request to use expired perk tests um one of them they they're using one old perk and one new perk so I I don't know if that one technically needs to be voted on but I figured I'm asking for the other one anyway so I might as well include it um they are both on
Silver Grass uh which is the section of the greens that is off of Tannery um the perks were in 2018 uh nothing's changed it's just the last couple houses on the street that they haven't built yet so um what is it soils sand sand sand sand um so nothing nothing to be concerned about um ground
water I don't remember off time my had but I think it was fairly low fairly deep um so nothing no reason not to uh extend the perks I have the plans already I reviewed them already and um they're if you guys uh vote to allow the older perks they will be approved tomorrow and do you have any problem with that Terry no I think we already
did that a couple of meetings ago on on one other residence right yeah all right so make the motion to accept the perc the 2018 perk test for 14 silver grass lane and 17 silver grass lane and a second all in favor Terry putam subasa yes all right okay um did one perk test this month at uh 393 College Highway
repair repair um I think they're gon to think they're planning to knock the house down and build a new house um what about this 393 it is right after 395 uh no it's it's on a corner um let me I'm not going to think of the name but it's right after bugby on the same side as
bugby um so I think they're going to be building a new house or either that or doing like a major major renovation I can't remember what the plan was but um still technically considered a repair because it's a there's already a house there it's only going to be three bedrooms so um as far as we're concerned it's a repair even if it is a new house um
housing 21 North longard Road so this one um we talked about it last that's last year that's how long it's been going on so this um this gentleman uh Raymond benetti owns a two it's actually two lots uh 19 North Long yard and 21 North Long yard uh 21 has a house on it uh which is rented
out to a tenant um and 19 is vacant land it goes I think it was like 13 or 14 acres or something like that um and I think it's uh agricultural um so he has an RV U that was parked on the 19 lot and it was um 19 21 19 so the house is on 21 it was parked on 19 fairly close to the lot
line and um to the house um but it was also like very close to the neighboring house um and he had run basically extension cords and a garden hose to have water and power um and and made a little uh little septic system too so we got a complaint about it Kyle and I went out and said nuh-uh no way this is this is not not okay so he did
comply um we said first off this is never going to work if you're right behind your neighbor and your neighbor doesn't want you there like just you need to move it it's that's not a good neighborly thing to do so he moved it um and so did you see where he moved it to yeah okay yeah um as far as I know um
which could very easily he could be using it anyway but um as far as I know he hasn't used the RV since um since last year when we told him to to disconnect everything um so then I told them the housing code does have a provision for temporary housing which is what this would be um CU his the way he uses it is um he lives in eastern M and comes out I think primarily during
you know spring summer and fall uh for a weekend here or there um he's not living there he's not you know I don't think he's trying to turn it into a like an accessory dwelling unit or anything he just wants to place to stay while he works on his land y yeah so um so I told him that if you know he can apply for uh um to do temporary housing and the Board
of Health can grant it um but if he has a illegal septic connection uh unpermitted water or electrical connection there's no way we would we would Grant it so um what is he going to do for that he has been working with um he's called a few times and asking Kyle for advice so I don't know where he is
at with it but um he's trying to get the electrical and and water connections done by a plumber and electrician and permitted um I don't think he's actually applied for those permits yet um and for the septic you know for the weight the way doesn't he yeah the just the built-in holding tank on the RV so I the way he's using it I I wouldn't um expect him
to put in a septic system for that it's it's uh if it's as infrequently as he says that would be I think that would be Overkill so um so I would be okay with him using the holding tank on the RV um and then whether he has a pump truck come when he to just take it off site when he when he wants to drain the gray and black water tank um or
if I I can't imagine he would want to load it load up the trailer and tow it over to um Westfield Neck Road every time he wants to get rid of the bring it to the SE his treatment plant so I think he would rather probably have a pump truck come but um as long as he kept records of disposal of the the waste um and he's not hiding a you know an illegal system there um then I I would
be okay with with that um just that he keeps he keeps records of it and if I'm ever inclined I can say oh give me your give me your pumping or your your disposal records for your your black water and gray water and as long as he has them I think I would be okay with that um and then so the the I on the top of the application I kind of modified an older one because the the
regs have changed um so the definition of temporary housing is uh any structure used for human habitation um and then there's two categories the first one is a mobile structure including a tent that is attached to your ground to another structure or to any utility system on the same premise for less than 30 calendar days and two would be a mobile or permanent structure that provides
basic shelter contains at least one habitable room for living sleeping eating cooking or sanitation that is intended to be occupied by a single family or household for intermittent periods of time not to exceed 90 consecutive days so I think he would technically fall into that second Camp uh because an RV would just have one room um there is a means of cooking uh
there's a bathroom so um and what does he do after the 90 days app for another one well that says 90 90 consecutive days um does that mean 90 times he has to be there I just what does that mean that confuses me because the for the first one it's 30 days um and it's I don't think it's necessarily consecutive it's just 30
days throughout the year and then but this one would be 90 consecutive days um so I think we could limit that further if we wanted to um and kind of maybe get an idea of how often he's actually gonna be there um and maybe say 30 days or 45 days throughout throughout the year um and then he'd have to reapply every year and then that way if
anything changed if he wanted to be there more um I would say 90 days throughout the year 90 days throughout the year we figure it becomes on weekends 52 times two so and I'm confused is he he's got he's got a primary residence somewhere else they just come here to enjoy the ambiance or is he property that's his property his his father his father and
mother left in that piece of property and he always loved the land and and working on it and and that you know I can understand that but it does I if this looks like a longtime thing that he's going to go you know that he's doing and I certainly don't blame him but he does need to follow either the temporary housing or you know right a small little house or something um right yeah because we want
him if he if he kind of expands and spends too much time there then it would fall into something that he would have to go um I mean the state actually did pass a law for to allow additional dwelling units I don't know if an RV would qualify um I don't know the spefic tiny houses and all of that stuff and I know that's something that we were were talking about at some point in uh um right you know tiny houses are probably
just as cheap as an RV that might the the and we certainly can't solve that for him but but I you know I think he's go a he's got a guide by the regulations and if I'm not mistaken something about this you know you know I have vague memories of something being aired on the Southwick Town page about the the unfairness of and it seemed to be just exactly this you know this scenario so you know I
think we we need we do need to follow whatever rigs we have and and to to to make sure this is done consistently with what we might do to someone else yeah I think we should go with number two yeah or does he decide or does it matter I I mean does he have to differentiate whether he's going with one or too no I I think that um that's just the definition in the
code so I I think an RV um I would say meets that second part of the definition um it's got room for living sleeping eating cooking or sanitation um I think he has to demonstrate to us what he's got and and and then we decide if it fits you know yeah what that we decide if it fits into either one or two yeah does the RV have its own power source does it have like a
battery to run off to run electricity off of uh probably probably maybe has a generator oh that's what I mean okay but um but he's he's running a connection so anything we we don't have to necessarily vote tonight because I I won't and I think when we discussed it last year I think um cuz at that time it seemed like he was going to move a little quicker but then I think he ended up just not coming back for the rest of rest of the year um I think the board at
the time and I don't I don't remember if that was EI before or after Terry was on the board um when we talked about it but I think the board at the time had said uh you know it can be up to my discretion to whether to issue the permit or not but um if I was going to issue it I would want to you know even if I make the final call I would want to run the conditions
by by you first so um so on this application here he does say uh there is portable water to the town water um so I would need he hooked up to town water I don't think he is yet but I think he is saying he will be um but I I would still an RV has their own water right yeah they you can have a tank yeah tank um but he he wants to have the
water and um electrical connection so I I wouldn't sign off on anything until I've seen a a in a permit an inspected by the electrical and plumbing inspector and that's acceptable for a housing a temporary housing to have water hookup and Electric hookup I think so okay I think that's as long if it's if it's compliant with the plumbing in um I think I'd be interested too in
making sure he's got some arrangement for for the the the the gray and the whatever other color water we want to describe that you know getting rid of his his sewage stuff yeah we could um we could make that a condition if he had like a uh either if he sent us a written plan or or say say he I I honestly think the easiest thing would be to call a pump truck to come um rather than tow the thing out of there so if he W wanted to go that route
uh maybe a contract with a with a pumping company to say that yes we will we will come out and and pump you know whenever I guess from a Board of Health perspective that's probably the most worrisome thing is right what what's going to happen with that right um so you see how it's situated now you've seen where it is it's not it's not a I don't think so it's it's more directly behind the his house the
house that he owns it's not behind the neighbor so it's it's a little more a little you can see it when you drive by um but it's a little more better location for the Neighbors not looking at it okay y yep um so so and and the the sewage that's why I kind of think 90 90 consecutive day or 90 days uh throughout the year would be a
lot um and 90 cons 90 consecutive days would be a lot too um because you know if he's going for weekends with I don't know the exact size of the um holding tanks in the RV but um you know Assuming he's somewhat conservative with his water use you know he could maybe go two or three times before he needs to empty the water uh if
it was 90 consecutive days then you know what are you going to have someone out two times a week to to empty it um so it's not going to be there 90 consecutive but but we could we could include that in our in our um permit yeah I think we have to we right now not doing it but there's nothing to say that he might decide I'm going to spend all
summer out here not I'm not going to go back so I think you you do have to include the what you know what is just in case he decides to to stay for longer right um because if if he if he told us his plan was to stay for 90 consecutive days I don't I wouldn't be okay with the the pumping I'd say sorry you have to put in a septic system that's that's unreasonable to
be doing that um so okay so maybe yeah this is confusing because this is less than 30 calendar days what does that mean less than 30 does that mean consecutive right I I don't think so I I think I talked to the state about that and I was under the impression that that went meant like 30 days 30 days throughout the year that would make sense see to me the
other should be 90 days right should be worded the same day right it should be 90 calendar days regardless of if it's consecutive or not um but in our but it's it the so that's just the definition and then the the code itself says um no person may allow temporary housing to be occupied without the written permission of the Board of Health yeah um and then all
temporary housings shall be subject to the requirements of 105 CMR 410 except as the Board of Health May otherwise provide in its written permission so whatever letter we write um we can add we can make accommodations we can add conditions um to a 90 consecutive dat okay so what if he stays a 100 days but they're not
consecutive yeah kept a tight this is this is right and then how do you know how do like we're not gonna We're not gonna go not should be not to exceed 90 days for that year or something get rid of the consecutive because that's too um yeah you could I'm saying 200 days or right but they're not consecutive okay well 200 days out of 365 that's almost
that that's not really temporary I mean that that's that's a lot of days out of 300 the way it's worded it says not to exceed 90 consecutive days so therefore right I could so if you do 90 consecutive days and you take you stay in a hotel for one then you start another 90 consecutive days that that I I to me it should just be 90 90 days Days 90 days throughout the year yeah then
and I I would I would even maybe say not to exceed three consecutive days give them a holiday weekend give them a three-day weekend but um no that's I don't you think that's too much yeah or maybe no more than a week or whatever we estimate whatever you would estimate that you know how long it takes to fill the reservoir thing but you know I think that's up to him how long he wants to stay there if he's got the
permit if he's got a if he's got a suage thing yeah he's got a sewage thing yeah yeah and on on his application he put what is the time period which you request the permit um and he said not not quite sure so you figured probably be there more in the spring in the summer in the fall and they would in the winter I think so um so I think let me know you guys think of this plan so um so we're we're not exactly sure
uh but we would want to we would want to sh up somehow the the the time is staying there it's it's almost here um the we would want to require the electrical and plumbing permits um and and a maybe a more detailed plan of how he's going to handle his um sewage sewage um
and so I'll get in touch with him um and based on based on what I can get out of him and whatever he sends me for his plan um I will write up a the letter that would be the Board of Health granting him permission to use temporary housing um and then if if he I'll send him the
draft of it and you know what what seems reasonable um and we'll can give him the if he wants we can give him the opportunity to come to the Board of Health meeting next month um and then you guys can vote on it um next month or or whenever he's whenever he's ready or you can just get information from them yeah yeah instead of having them come out yeah and do we need to I
mean are are we looking at allowing an ongoing temporary relationship or do we say okay you could do this for X number of years or X number of months but you know if we begin to to say all you got to do is come and renew this and you can keep your RV and you can do whatever I mean what what do the regs say anything about that not that I'm aware of um yeah I would I would think we would
want to make him make him Renew on a on an annual basis that would be my feeling yeah and then that that way like there's not much in the code about temporary housing and the the housing code is only two years old um since they update made a big change to it so this this is one of the sections that change so um it's possible the state could be working on guidance um because you know
this this section I copied up here is uh one two three four five like 10 lines and that's all there is in the entire code about temporary housing so it's not like there's a lot for us to work with it makes a difference if you're in temporary housing while you're waiting for something happen to your house a disaster and yeah may not be ready for a year may not be ready for a year and a half right right um so so maybe you know
if we we Grant it this year maybe the state comes out with some guidance in the in the meantime and makes us re-evaluate what we're comfortable with or or maybe he maybe he doesn't really comply with what we've asked him to do and you know staying there more than more than is allowed or dumping the sewage in which case we would e either pull pull it or depending on you know what time of
year we would just the next year we'd say no you can't you can't use that anymore if you didn't apply for temporary housing okay so you could go and pinch a pinch a tent and come every weekend and Camp right so honestly that that's honestly one of my hello you guys still meeting yes I know sor we were allowed you just have to leave it open because it's public meeting oh okay it's quiet now all right
thanks um I didn't know that you had to leave the door open oh yeah you have to leave the door open H sorry okay I didn't even realize it was closed um anyway where was I yeah you could be you could have a tent and you could come camping every weekend right that that's one of the problems I have with this the way this is written I'm I'm camping right if it says including a tent it's my property and
you get it in my own water and I'm right whatever anything less anything less than 30 days it doesn't say you know five to 30 days so you know technically pitching a tent in your yard is temporary housing I so all right you're gonna get more information yeah so we'll keep working on that and luckily I don't think he's uh planning to to do this until the summer but I'll get more information and hopefully we can work on that at our
next our next uh meeting all right so the air Inc snow in the back on the walkway so I had um we talked about this at the last meeting and I had tried to nip it in the bud uh the property manager who I had emailed my the information to uh was no longer uh working for them or moved into a different position um so that message was never received so the uh the tenant
who had initially called um called again when it had snowed I don't remember the dates but uh that last snowstorm we got that was a good six in or whatever um and they hadn't cleared anything behind the um behind the units so um so I went out I took a picture I sent them a letter um with a kind of violation notice made sure they were aware of what the um what the rules were and they they um got
their contractor to shovel behind the whole units and hopefully they did this storm yes I think they they did um I'll I'll go out and check tomorrow um but uh so they first just did a path behind all the units and they didn't do a path to each door so when I went out to inspect I said you got to go to each door cuz it's this is about the egress so does it say in the code how soon after a storm stops they
have to do this it does not and I I actually got a call from that same tenant today well I got multiple calls um and first it was that you know they hadn't done anything yet and this was at like two um and then the storm stopped at what time one okay so and then she called again at like about 4:30 and at that point they had they had come out okay um and she she actually asked me as
well and I was like well it only stopped a few hours ago um the town bylaw regarding clearing sidewalks um which the public sidewalk which this property doesn't technically really have um but is 24 hours so so if they were out there at 4:30 I think that I think that was doing pretty good actually um but um but I'll check and make sure they still did the path
and everything behind um and 59 College Highway um just did that inspection um I wrote on here the fifth but that was actually today which is the sixth I believe u so that was a typo um that is the apartment um building pretty far down College Highway up on the hill up on the hill there um and the the tenant had some
kind of mold and moisture problems um so some leaks and stuff in the bathroom and then um around the one of the doors so I don't I don't couldn't tell exactly where the moisture is coming from but it was definitely there so um I'll finish that letter up and get that sent out tomorrow and lastly the 80 bungalow um heat and hot water are good which uh which is great some of the mold is gone
some of the mold is gone the the worst section there's still more um the worst section is gone but I know they're they're working on a on a plan and uh getting some quotes So that um I feel I feel a lot better about the status of that one but um unfortunately uh there's still some remaining remaining issues but I'll stay on top of it um and Food Service uh because I was a
little premature putting these on here cousins Bane Lobster um they applied for a permit and I think they're going to be in town on Valentine's Day at the brewery and uh Sweet Treats by Bella is a um Cottage food a residential kitchen um that I'm inspecting tomorrow um she renewed her annual permit where's that located uh one of the streets off of College
Highway down that way um and maybe it's bugby or the next one after that I don't remember okay um and body art um so we we lost our um Beauty and brow Beauty and the brow the the permanent makeup um but now if if you I don't remember how far back it was but if you recall um there was someone who wanted to move into the
Sage Salon and there was no there was no hand sync um so they they actually kind of worked with the owner of the salon and there was another room that did have a hand snc um so I met her out there uh two days ago yesterday recently um um and took a look at the space um she did her she submitted her online
applications um she has all the right certifications and I don't foresee any issues with um with the space that had electricity it had definitely enough lighting it had a hand sync um so she still has to she's planning open in March um she still has to get in her Sharps container and her um her bench and all her equipment and everything but um but I I don't foresee any any issues
with that um she's been licensed for a while as a doing body art um so she got the impression she's knowledgeable and knows what she's doing so um so I think that should be good uh as far as meeting I forgot to include the meeting with um Dr Wong on here uh but kayen already talked about that and um um last week I went to a staff meeting at the police department and um just to kind of give them a
little rundown of of what I do um and when we kind of overlap of you know sometimes if I'm have a certain housing inspection where you know the conditions might not be great I might ask them to come along with me um or sometimes they're in a house um with problems and you know kind of letting them know when they should um should give me a call that that I might need to get out there so um so that was good and uh met some
of the the sergeants that I hadn't met yet so that was um that was a good meeting um we had our department head meeting on um on this week Tuesday um and I meant I'll I'll forward it to you guys um but we at the department head meetings um Nicole asks that all the department heads write up kind of a little monthly um monthly
report and so we all kind of go around and say what we've been what we've been doing um and then the the written report she shares with the select board so I will um and we we kind of cover all it's our Board of Health meeting and that meeting is the same week so we kind of cover a lot of the same topics anyway but I will start um forwarding you guys those my reports that I said send in okay you have to do that monthly you have the monthly department head meeting yes
okay and um the hamon county health Coalition meeting this morning was um cancelled can um and I did hear from about the ham County Health Coalition though they've switched over the phones and um it's looking like because we switched from Piner Valley Planning Commission to the furog
um it's looking like the phone the phone from the health Coalition might go away come next fiscal year um but we do pay for phones through the grant for the nurses and Ken um and if we had to pay for myot phone out of the health budget it wouldn't be it it wouldn't break the bank so I I I don't think that would be the end of the world um but I just found that out kind
of confirm today so I already turned the budget in but I'll I'll talk to Nicole and see if or Laura and see if that's something we should accommodate for in in the budget but um gonna go under yeah I don't know if we would need to create a new line or or what but um put it in the catch all line yeah yeah so if we have enough money in there yeah it's it's only uh I think their phones are only $40 a month a month um so
480 for the year so um so or I could maybe does the town have do all the department heads have their own phone or do they have a some use their own phone and get a stien and some have a a town phone so I wonder how much a town phone costs that's what the um the nurses and Ken are through the town plan we just pay it
out of our grant budget and $40 yeah so all right um so I mean our budget isn't huge but if we had to spend 500 a year on a phone wouldn't be the end of the world um so so that's just something that I just thought of when I saw hchc and um nothing unanticipated happened our next meeting is May March 6th um I do I'll I guess I'll send out
an email um to Terry and Trish um our June meeting I will be out of town that week um and sue you won't be on the board anymore anymore so you don't care what we do um but uh but I'll send an email and see kind
of what week we would want to reschedule that too um and I'll see what works for you guys and um we can maybe vote on that at the next meeting um just so it's on the schedule and that way um looks like we have the one person who we know is planning to run um so then they would be aware of when we're meeting and not kind of last minute last been checking this because ER might have been texting me telling me she
on I've been on the whole time oh you have been yeah I came on it like four minutes after but I'm here my glasses on so I didn't see okay good all right I thought you maybe texting me tell me you couldn't get on nope oh and kayleen's still here I thought you left I'm still here he's still there too okay um Terry you have anything you want to add or Ken you got any questions
Erica I'm good you're good I don't have anything to add okay can I just clarify you met with Dr Wong w a n g and where is he from he is our um Public Health our physician Board of Health Physician so he signs off on the standing orders for the nurses
perfect thank you all right a motion to adjourn the meeting I can make it go ahead you make it I second it okay so I make a motion to J the meeting at say 7:30 pm I second all in favor Terry putam yes subasa yes thank you everybody for joining and I'll see you next month