toon Board of Health today is February 25th 2025 uh 6 almost 559 uh PM uh let's start with a roll call um Charles Serene Vice chair
Christian Roman Ramirez chairman any additions deletions there are no septic permits under 1.3 so you may delete that as well as no minutes for December
2024 because they're already been completed so you can delete that as well okay perfect so we have on our agenda 1.4 public hearing for the styrofoam B in
Townsen so what you must do Mr chairman is have a motion from the only other member here um to open the meeting then you can second you can officially open the public meeting I I I submit a I I submit a motion to open
the meeting you I second it all in favor say I so we have the me meeting is open at 6m okay so what you have before you is
in 2009 Andrew Shepard was actively looking for a styrofoam reduction in pound and he gave a beautiful narrative starting in August of 2019 what do you have proposed an executive
Cemetery summary uh the affected businesses in his one-on-one meetings we have not conducted for five years now if the board would like to go forward with this Rick and I both agree that it would probably be a good idea for us to visit those establishments again and get their
feedback where it's 5 years old I think that could be a good that that is a good idea to get the feedback from the current businesses probably there businesses that that are not here anymore but but or get their updated feedback regarding the
styrofoam um reduction in towns and so uh I don't have any issues with that what about you Vice chair that makes total sense it's 5 years old okay would you like to offer a time
for public comment talk yes we're going to have we're going to open for the public to talk about the the cofam reduction in towns in who wants to have any question have any questions
comments com um I think Andrew Shephard again I agree with you five years so it' be nice to go visit all the establishments I think a good portion of them after they spoke with him even before it you know would to buy and a
lot of people have stitched over there are few that's still using styrofoam not necessarily boxes but like they remain are still stable but I think a lot has Sil already so I don't think
you're going to get that many you know complaints or issues about it and you know we're paying for trash nowadays and the stof really know can't recycle it we have to it up just to fit into the trash
barrels nowadays so it'd be a great thing to have just reusable containers um but you know see what see what everybody says and hopefully it goes that way because we can't recycle St all right I'm Irene Ken um with have two
hats on the the resident here in town and and also with mass DP just um just a couple months ago the um C which is part of recycling works just put out a reusable container
best practices document for all Board of Health throughout all Massachusetts so I I think I it was passed to Carla before but I think I I'm planning to have it in a new newsletter coming out shortly that would be a good thing to include if this happens on our annual
flyer that goes out changes that stof is that's really for the businesses of how to understand what's out there and for the board of healths to being on regulatory I think you should know that for the Board of Health I think you were part of that
discussion with C I don't I wasn't I didn't see anything about it but yeah I'll ask round the office okay I can email well when we go out and do the survey to have it with you give me that would be a good idea yeah
there's all new kind of things that are more supportive of reusables that before that the regulatory on the state level was either contradiction or um not straight out so this is a fact document
that and best practices um data as well as resources to say kind of Say Yes people can have refillables yes people can take bring refillables there and take it out but but you want to make sure for a health perspective of the
handling who's handling you know if it's being handed to a customer it has to then be theirs I mean it has to be the establishments so there there is a ways to keep people safe we don't want but if somebody is in their own at a restaurant
doesn't want to take a styrofoam they don't have to some places would say I have to put it in the styrofoam give it to you and then you can put it into your reusable contain container it's like no I take my plate and put it into my container and take it home you know so we just need to make sure that we're
agreeing on the language and so the state has now made an document so that makes things a little more easier okay okay good just came out just for this year of 2025 okay good timing Karen so
when um can we propose when we be starting going to the to these establish to the establishments that we have have to um oh we'll start um if Irene if we can work tomorrow and I can make sure that I have that
document um Rick do you want to take some do you want me to take some if you want me to yeah I mean I would assume that two weeks might be a little quick and so if you push it off two meetings to continue the hearing that might make that's exactly what I have on the agenda
um for it's the March 25th so not two weeks from now so if it pleases the board to make a motion to continue this public hearing until March 25th is that correct yeah we makes a motion
for um for moving uh to follow up the the styrofoam um reduction in towns and I make a motion to follow up uh four weeks out I believe it's the 25th the 25th of
March I second it all in favor I I excellent thank you okay um any other comments so that we can continue on with the agenda okay um let's go with
1.5 um JW sha and Son's contract proposal um so today we have response from legal council regarding
the contract that the board had um had um approved presenting um and they reply us back that they need to have it formatted on a certain way that we have it here um the contract and can you tell us a little
bit more what did they also said about um that the numbers we need just to change the the numbers that that are on the format that we have yes yes um previous uh this contract was approved last year
and legal had reviewed it so I feel that it's a very solid contract but obviously the numbers and the years need to be changed so we acquired the word document um a very short time ago and I will be
working on that to submit to Legal so they can review it but there still is the question on which proposal you want to go with because Christian met with I met with Lori as as a lean of the Board of
Health and she mentioned to to me to us that the $100 annual fee for for the trash um is not going to move forward um however we got numbers of the
revenue about the about the the purple bags which which was U what was the number um 360,000 we've raised I think you s that document out today the document that I
had was 212 212 I read the wrong line the B was 36 that was the original B 360 for the nine months it was that was the original yeah okay all right so right now I think we
get I have to look at it this see there's a lot of columns here let can you help me out read read so what you have right now is you have a $337,000 credit which I'm not sure what that is for but your base
number right now is ending with $212,700 okay that's a good number generated so which means that giving that information to Lori she mentioned that and I assume that she brought it up
as the chair of the board of Selectmen um she brought up that with this number um the board of selectman is inclining to the allinclusive contract um however um she had mentioned
that she's open as as the board of Selectmen to sit down with both boards uh to sit down and talk about um the contract but I mentioned to her that there's very little time left to to meet and come up with some something in
agreement with and she mentioned that there's a summit on on on March the 1st at at 9 a.m. but um um I feel that um
that the Summit is not a is not a good place to talk about both boards about um about what we can negotiate on the trash contract so um I
mean at this point I don't know what what would be the board's thought about either changing our position or or or meeting with the board of Selectmen um
because I mean I as long as the people don't have to pay more money that is my my personal opinion as long as the people don't have to pay more money or put on extra more money on
uh getting out of their out of their Pockets I mean and and and if what we're seeing here that the purple bags are going up and there could be a chance that the purple bags could balance uh the trash
contract um I could change a thought on probably approving the the all inclusive but I don't know what will be your thoughts no well my thought was on the uh contract
where it's pick up only and then we pay the tonnage as we lose people the town is going to save money if we go with the all-inclusive the only one who's going to make more money is Shaws and we'll be locked in for three years on the all-inclusive I
think we can estimate the tonnage based on our numbers we have six months in numbers now and they're a little high because we went over the holidays but we could estimate the numbers budget for it and uh adding 250,000
for uh the tonnage and then the four 67 I think it was and then we save or we have to re-budget the next year we went over $12,000 oops uh we're still ahead of the curve so that's my opinion but I'm open
to if the town really wants to go with the all-inclusive because accountants need numbers uh I I fine with that you have public comment type yes I I definitely agree Paul you just
said it that right being that we have a waste Reduction Program the more people are used to the bad program the more they're going to reduce and people will might come back might go away but it'll still reduce the trash I typically see a 50% waste reduction and Community
residents don't even still come back it is unbelievable 50% waste reduction we haven't even hit that yet I think we're close but we're not all the way down yet we're not we're very close but we're going to see that and it will be straight so you don't want to have Shaw's number he has to estimate if
everybody's in and they do the hyp to cover all of his costs yeah so he has to give you a higher number for that let's get at the benefits and we can say if you want to budget you can budget with that high number on paper but we signed for the lower contract we talked about
that last night yeah so you can have that budget line so you feel okay that's the max he gave it to us on paper that's the max number for budgeting but our contract moves with the tonnage yes yeah and we'll lose some people they'll hire
the Shaws direct and it'll come out of their pocket and we'll save on the tonnage right if we lose people right now we lock ourselves in for three years anybody who jump ship and goes and gets their own dumpster we lose paying for
their pickup paying for um tonnage that's not going to exist so um so sounds like the I mean sounds like we should stay with what we voted on on our last meeting then correct I I want to
support the the um the estimated tonnage I don't you want award the the contract it's the services only and then we pay for the t Okay so okay
okay okay well I can certainly um communicate that and work on the contract as a collection only with the format that they want and send it out to Town Council because they are ready to review it
okay okay okay so um thank you for the public for bringing up um your your opinions and um and if that is the case then what well we're going to move forward with with what we voted our our
last meeting with the contract [Music] um in that case we um since we are short of time um we need a motion um proposing that I
as chair as chair of the Board of Health can represent the board at this Thursday's um meeting with um with the board of Selectmen if they can get you on the agenda right now the finance committee and the board of Selectmen are
meeting on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6 o'clock okay Christian and I had already met when the Board of Health did their presentation but Lori year Le asan was open to meeting with future meetings with the Board of Health and the board
of selectman your schedule is very hard Jims is very hard it it pleases the board to authorize Christian as the chairman to act on behalf of the Board of Health then that alleviates having to find a quorum to go to a future meeting with the selectman or the finance
committee all right and I I present a motion to allow Christen to represent Board of Health in these meetings in this meeting I second the motion and who votes all in
favor favor I I perfect okay so this motion is for this meeting for for this meeting only um and I would not word it as this meeting only I would say for the contract
negotiations any joint meetings that need to be held that Christian the chairman has the authority to act solely for the Board of Health does that sound good brick yeah yeah yeah because it might stretch out a little bit further
we don't in between be part of that okay thank you okay so I have revised that motion okay um now we go to 1.6 Massachusetts leaders against Le litter correspondence
and discussion Rick I don't think you need to be here anymore all right how good night hey if you run into Jim tell them we said hi so you have before you a a brochure on support Massachusetts leaders against
litter they are basically looking for a letter to the states um letting them know that you you appreciate this and you're in support of this which leads us into Earth Day in the townwide cleanup
which is also very important okay so it would be my opinion for the board to absolutely support this and to have the Board of Health send a letter of support on
letterhead and yep who um motion who who propos a motion to send a letter to I propose a motion to send out a letter I second in all in favor I okay okay and then that brings us to
while we're talking about litter Earth data discussion I don't know I think Irene you I should probably talk about this I was not at the last meeting so I don't really have sent you I sent you the minutes well you did but I think that it's better for you to talk about
it okay so I'm IR Kon this is Karen Clem we're both active on the earth day planning and so it's already set for April 26 at the high school we already have 50 booths already paid up so the money I think is already in the
account and uh we're coming and uh we already have other organizations the theme is save our owls and that is actually another thing we're going to be um residents and others will be discussing here with the board of
health and especially with nooba Board of Health is some of the bait that is required under the Board of Health that we have at restaurants and stuff like that the mice eat it they die the owls eat them and they die is that what we
have on the agenda for the 11th uh that's forent as side but it's the same thing same thing okay yes it's on our agenda for our next meeting on March 11 yes and so that is so that we brought in this theme it was brought up as a a community product um informational thing
last year and there are signs around town there was a couple info meetings and so now this is the recap of that and so you guys will talk about that the next meeting and hopefully move forward to help our because when we do something put toxics in the environment it comes
back to us so we don't want um to cycle yeah so that's that's the theme of it and but we have all different crafts we're collecting lots of things we already have set for bottles and can collection paper shredding textiles
eyeglasses my um K CS K cups from Subaru um so we just have some of those things are already going on the um so we met we already approved but I think we really also need the board of Health's approval
on it for um police detail and um the handicap accessible um P bodies we talked about that last night as well and it would be nice if you have a motion for Irene that you approve those details for her so we give the money it comes
through we'll be we pay the bill and give you more money you have to say yes you're going to pay those two bills that we already paid all right I have submit a motion to approve the details and the port of bodies and I second the motion
all in favor say I I I thank you and then the other thing is we didn't really get to at the last meeting but we try to meet a couple more times is about cleanup the street cleanup so we don't have and car does a great job we get a map we work with the library and get it
out there that people can get the past is bag so we're still in this discussion now with the new contract of what we well no sha is still honoring right now the green bags they will be picking up so and this is our seventh annual
seventh um the town white cleanup it is the townwide cleanup so it runs between April 15th to April 25th which is the Tuesday when the trash starts to the Friday when the trash ends being Earth Earth Day week and the vacation week of
the children so the mothership of the things that we disperse such as the trash Grabbers and this year we're looking at safety bests versus T-shirts because they're all one size yes and have a nice little logo on the back for
them um we just want to borrow some I have like now the question is do I have them I'm 99% sure I have like 40 in my well if you have 40 that would be great because we're looking at approximately it was $7.95 for the best
but then if you put a little logo on I think it's going to be about $10 a best or or you can just put a sticker on there's there's things that we could do but we were we were normally doing the t-shirts and and because of the size differentials it just became a problem
and and this vest you can use for other events but I also think it's important that when they're wearing it that it says something about the fact that they got it from town and that they're there as a volunteer cleaning the streets and then they can go out whenever they want and they can wear it which was the hope of for safety
yeah and it was the hope of the t-shirts but I think that the vests make a lot more sense and they're very economical um the Grabbers are a little more expensive this year I found them at Harbor trace for $2 I think it's really important we we
to have 25 of them it's $75 you have the money I could even use grant money for it can I yes and also my money you have I think there's $3,900 in there right now so there's there's money
there and I think that's also important for the people for them worried about getting into poison ivy or glass or things to be able to have these Grabbers to help assist them okay and I was proposing also that we board members
after we found out which streets around here um which areas are are Des are um needing more help that that need help after if there's some if there's any areas that
need help that we as board members we can select an area and and do some cleaning too as part of as part of Earth day as well another the suggestion I mean I haven't brought this up because it's normally a very crazy week to
organize the event that we have and moving around and I normally have girl SCS that do the cleanup there is and I think we had it one year where we did have people from Correctional come and health there are a few roads like I won't do 133 like I say I'll do a little
bit and it just depends on timing but it goes too fast that I won't have kids on there you know so um there's just a few areas that really need adults to do it or you need a few and I normally never have it like we get in different areas
that we need to have three people one watching the road one cleaning up and one holding the bag you know so you need to have three people and um the Board of Health could ask Correctional if they want to have a crew coming up as well so
there are a few rows that really don't get touched and we can look at the back like Route 13 in certain areas R 13 is and there a you know that just needs a little more that's you know you can look at for my girl SKS my my I have we have first graders and we have a couple
eighth graders and there's just three of them it's not much and for Boy Scouts we only have 15 in the entire ashpan towns in that's really sad we don't have cup Scouts that's all we have is 15 of them wow and uh you know we used to have like 70 I remember now we're down to 15 so
but we do have the Peppo cup Scouts coming which is great for Earth Day they're going to be doing the botes of P Drive good so we have in then to call the Department of Corrections to see if they if they can participate with us and
we continue this in our next talk talk about it in our next meeting this will this will stay on the agenda for your 311 it will be continued to then all right until actually birthday I'd like you to continue you'll you'll meet again on the 25th and then I think that
there's a meeting in April 11th is it April 15th and Earth Day is on the 19th right official Earth Day is the 22nd just so you know well I know but where it's at the high school 26 26 okay so you've got you've got another meeting on
the 8th where if there's in April so you you'll meet you'll meet two more times on this we we can talk more about the planning and and and and where we are and I don't know if we able to from now on to put it
on on the towns and website to promote the street the the the streets um oh yes oh yes yes if we can have oh absolutely absolutely it goes out on social media on all the Facebook sites it goes out on
the website although there was a note saying that our website contract we've exceeded it so nothing can be posted again until the 11th of March but that's still okay because if there's enough time and um this will go out we'll also
use the solar signs in town to promote it as well as it gets closer to the town you don't want to start advertising too soon because people will forget about It's also two feet of snow out there so right yeah we go to wait until you can see the ground when you started thinking about
it uh just one quick question not question just a comment you said Department of Correction but middle middle sex County House of Correction sends out I don't know if Department of Correction is still doing clean up Crews but middle sex County I think still does
okay that's something we'll look into hey um any other comments questions about town white teup no okay let's move on with the next
1.7 invoices invoices so Carla was a little um aggressive with her schedule today and thought that she was going to get down to Harbor Freight and pick up the Grabbers um but I wasn't able to do that so there is one item on your list
of invoices that we're going to hold off on so rather than to sign this which we were going to do I'm going to ask that you sign the the invoices one by one because this will not total this if we this out so the first one is January and
February travel for Carla um um little snow and our facility director helping um I haven't had to travel to the recycling center as much as I usually do so it's um cut in half um this is coming out of the grant
because we've been doing a lot of these flyers looking for um Rec information um toner is very expensive so we're going to ask the grant to pay for that um our skid steer the battery is a little funky
um so we borrowed the charger from the highway department but we needed to purchase an extension cord to get the skid steer so we could charge it in the garage this comes from landfill maintenance for $30 Western and Samson is your
engineering contractors that do the the monitoring of the gases and the bleach8 fields so we have three invoices totaling $658 a.3 but our contract is 22,000 so
this is just a contract driven and I think that the board the the Comm finance committee talk about raising I don't know if it was this there was a a line that they wanted to raise up regarding the the leech F gas I don't know if you
remember rebuilding the well is that your I I think it's probably the well and thank you for reminded me because that got off the agenda and I don't have it put placed back on um repairing the well I think they call well it it is there's there's a well that needs to be
repaired and I think that that's what they were speaking of that doesn't have anything to do with this particular contract and this contract is up this year so you will be receiving next year another threeyear contract and there's really not anything that you can do it's
G mandates what testing needs to be done you to have to test annually ground companies that are going to bid the contract or is it um you don't have to go out contract you're exempt from 31b with with trash and the landfill but
they have theyve been there since they closed the landfill okay so I just can't imagine anyone having any more knowledge the people who actually closed it that's fine okay Sean Pearson has asked for his boot allowance every 18 months we
allocate $125 for Steel Toad boots for the recycling employees he's only asking for 115 because that's how he found his boots wow thank you for saving us um GW
Shaw because the contract we don't have any credits anymore um we used to have a $6,000 credit to get rid of the bulky which is the furniture we no longer have that but it does come out of the grant money that you have so they're looking for
$1,393 for bulky removal if you get confused by this its last page there's they they don't have that this part was taken out of this whole invoice so when you see the
amount it's only 24375 that was due and then the 1010 was already paid and this is when we approved to be an email do you remember that so there's a there's a little bit of confusion going
on so I'm just trying to dot my eyes and cross my te's and make sure that we put backup information for all of it okay okay and then we have another bulky removal for Shaws which was just one yard on January 9th and that was
$288 you have an AT&T invoice for my cell phone which is $43 a month but they're charging us 90 and again it goes back to that bill that we signed that for some reason and I think it's just because they're passing the accountant
by the time that they invoice the check's already been sent but they didn't receive it in time so we look like we're a month behind but we're not so again just including the detail okay okay okay one of the things that I did
take on myself I hope you don't mind is we have emergency disaster welcome kit it's it's a little um sticker that hopefully people put on their refrigerator and it says hey do you know if you have to leave if if there's a flood or something these are the things
that you need and being the Board of Health when I receive a title five and a water test it's pretty certain that the people are moving so I will send a welcome kit to all residents and then a lot of people will call and say hey I'm
new what do I do about the trash so I I will hand deliver to them because I can't put these things in their mailbox but I will deliver recycling stickers all the information with the recycling center the fees the schedule great IDE haitus ways the swap shop oh do you have
your title 5 do you have your water test do you have your plot plan and it's these little Halo emergency cards I've had them forever and I ran out and I found them so it was $250 again um can come out of our budget
you have the money I think it's important well that's a great idea yes thank you you're welcome and that's that's it okay um performance review we have on under our conation um Carla Walters um performance
review from January 2024 until January 2025 um because of confidentiality we're not going to discuss um our recommendations um but instead um we already reviewed them before the meeting
so I who who propos a motion to approve um um Carla Walters performance appraisal appra performance appraisal um 2024 January 2024 January 2025 I second
that and hold in favor say I I I to sign it Paul you're going to sign it and then I'm going to sign it well and that is all I have chairman members you can see that your next
meetings you have the discussion in the first and second generation um Ro S size um that is exactly what Karen and Irene were talking about and I love the owl um them I I think that's really going to work
well and then um on the 25th you'll go back to your public hearing for the styrofoam okay will be at the end of the 2 you'll also again be talking about Earth Day and that's when um hopefully we will have something conrete
for um Shaws in their number it's important for you to know board members that I know that you're stressed about time is running out but there's two numbers on the table so the finance committee and the board of Selectmen know that there's two
numbers it's not that they're out there undecisive of a what going to happen they have two numbers if they decide to go with the all-inclusive so but they have numbers they're they're not looking at oh my gosh what are we going to do if Glenn comes back with $900,000 they don't have to worry about that they
have their numbers yeah so it's just a matter of the two boards deciding on which one okay well well we well we have two different opinions and the board had the select board has one number we have one number might I suggest that you
bring Irene con to the next meeting Mr chairman as you are um the so representative and L Irene talk uh where she is the department coordinator and works for the D and does this for a living I think we should bring her then should
we I get a motion I get a motion to have Irene called in there I'll second it I want fav say I invite her gonna invite her then invite her she she yeah um
parla um thank you so much there's a area here oh down here I don't know if you have space it's okay no employee signature right here no no
comment okay I didn't say no on the here oh my comment if you want comment if not great to be appreciated thank you above and beond after five o'clock you
continue take care of business most people would turn off the phone so thank you so it's 6:39 um uh a motion to adjure um the Board of Health meeting I second that
all in favor say I I meeting a jur excellent