you ready okay okay uh good afternoon and welcome to the Westport Board of Health um March 31st 2025 meeting which I am calling to order um under Mass General Law chapter 30A
section 20F this meeting is being recorded and please join me in the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation
under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you okay then moving on to um the director's um written report um any questions on that if not we'll go to the verbal
report okay the um again the Red Cross blood drives are listed out at St john the Baptist Church um the next board drive will be held April 17th 9:00 a.m to 3:30 p.m may 15th 9:00
a.m to 3:30 p.m june 12th 9:00 a.m to 3:30 p.m and July 17th 9:00 a.m to 3:30 p.m again those are the Red Cross blood drives being held at St john the Baptist Church the temporary acco position has
been filled um right now uh the position is currently in training and we expect the position to move to fully on call duties in about two to two and a half weeks so somewhere around the 22nd 23rd of the month um we
expect um the the new the new person to be able to take over on call duties and again this is temporary until we know if we get the budget at um town meeting for FY26 right yep okay great at least it's a you know it's a fills a
hole for for a few months that's great and that leaves up for both the police department and for Nuke transfer station improvements the plan is to use the 75,000 that was airmarked to the town for transfer station improvements we're going to
uh pave so basically we're going to pave and reseal fill the cracks pave some unpaved areas and um seal and fill the cracks in the existing paved areas the project includes various paving and surface improvement tasks um
these tasks involve crack filling seal coating installation of new asphalt in designated areas and the painting of directional arrows lane markings and parking spaces on the newly paved and resealed surfaces the goal is to improve the appearance and functionality
drainage and safety of the paved areas for both employees and visitors we're also going to do some signage updates which will include updating the signage aiming to improve visibility clarity um and give the you know people
who come in to use the transfer station um better visual um I don't know um information information on the signs and the directionals and all that um the the update will include the removal of outdated signs the
installation of new signs and any necessary adjustments to meet current standards and regulations so that's where we're at with with the airmarked uh 75,000 for the transfer station so we're just waiting for the contract to be executed um to move forward yeah
we're just waiting for the contract to be signed uh by the town and by D and once we get that then we can we can start moving forward with the project okay great um so director approved plans
sure we have um five bedroomedroom upgrade on a 104,544T lot at 1782 Drift Road for Jeffrey Cornell um this is an upgrade that's going from
four to five bedrooms and it's going to use an AX20 Advantex in a quick four we have a two-bedroom repair on a 10,585 foot lot at 104 Sylvia's Lane for Brendan Donado utilizing a quick four this one
will require a deed restriction and this one is replacing a cess pool we have a four-bedroom new construction on 673 River Road for Katherine Barnum utilizing a quick four in a singular
960dn and we have a 4bedroom new construction on a 132,711T lot on 7 1779 Rift Road for Holly Borges and Seth Gynan um utilizing
the stone bed and singular okay and so we just need a deed restriction on the sofas anything else they've all got com all right right so I move that we endorse the director of plans uh for one
for 1782 Drift Road um 104 Sylvia Lane with a um twobedroom deep restriction 673 River Road and
1779 Drift Road i'll second that um all in favor i um 220 2 with one okay next is uh 109 Brinks Road uh no
I'm sorry minutes minutes we have um the minutes from March 17th um I had one thing on the limits see if I can find
it there was a statement about a series of um let's see okay so it said um down in board member updates and Samar provided an update um and reported a planned series of
speeches in the public schools on addiction really it's one speech by Chris Herren which is actually tomorrow morning um so it wasn't as serious a speech just one speech public supported
okay um anything else i take a motion so I move that we approve um the minutes with the um uh the addendum with the correction second all in favor
i All right um okay next is 109 Bridge Road um and and I'm going to turn it over to um Matt for discussion about what the issues are there and how we should proceed so 109 Bridge Road is a property
that we've been dealing with for quite some time um the exterior of the property as you can see from what was in your packet um quite has quite the the buildup of uh trash and debris which is uh rodent
harage mosquito and uh harbridge areas uh so I'd like the board to um vote um or take a look and vote to see if they consider the property to be a source of filth or cause of sickness that way we
can exercise our right under chapter 11123 to pursue um the removal of the nuisance um separately from the state sanitary code okay so
um these are recent pictures um and this has been going has not been resolved um there's a lot of trash and debris in the yard um and on the deck um my understanding also is that
there's been more than one complaint or concern that's been expressed about this property so so the question is would we determine this to be um the statutory language um um a determination of
um nuisance source of filters cause of sickness um which would allow the board to issue a notice um with a timeline for um um result of
clearing up the um nuisance it appears that way to me and because of the also more than one complaint and um that's been made
okay so Why don't I make a motion to um deem um there to be a nuisance at 109 Bridge Road um and direct the board the director to
um um proceed with notice um for uh correction so the um so the uh the general law says we can the board can order it within 24 hours or within such other time that it considers reasonable
i would suggest that 24 hours is a bit unreasonable given the scope of it so um and but also taking into consideration this has been going on for a while i would suggest 72 hours okay uh amend the motion to
include within 72 hours um can then um if if they fail to um comply the board um can should I include the Well let's do that motion first second motion made and
seconded to declare a nuisance and require an order to correct within 72 hours for 109 Bricks Road all in favor i I that's unanimous um two to nothing with one abstension one one absence excuse me um do I need should we do a motion about
section 125 which would authorize if within the 72 hours um after notice they've not proceeded that authorize the the office to the board to proceed with um I don't think we need to do that yet
okay we can come back to that um like at another meeting if you know at the next meeting and say they didn't do it or they did do it but what we can if the board can do is authorize if they don't get it clean within the 72 hours to start issuing fines uh not more than
$1,000 for every day during which he or she knowingly violates such order um so you guys can set that amount and just let me know and I can automatically if this doesn't get cleaned up I can automatically get into that okay and and without have to come back to the board
noncriminal disposition then um it's under section 123 it's under that Yeah 123 language based on that statute yeah um what do you think is unreasonable um I don't think a thousand is No I'm
not going to go there um $50 a day that seems not enough but every day constitutes a separate violation it adds up pretty quickly but that that that's that would be I guess my recommendation okay
donna any thoughts on that what would be your recommendation $50 a day $50 that That's your recommendation no that's my my recommendation would be to um because the lang Sorry you said it wasn't enough yeah
okay got it okay i'm I mean I'm fine with that i I think um that's the first step right we can escalate it up to a thousand if we need to um Okay so I'll make a motion to authorize um the
um director to issue fines should the um o the owner or occupant fail to comply with the order um up to $50 a day um and we'll
revisit it if necessary hopefully not do I have to second that i will motion made and seconded to authorize issuance of fines if necessary for 109 Bricks Road all in favor i that seemed
two to nothing with one absence thank you okay um next on the agenda is um Pine Ridge Estates um this is a
um comprehensive permit um for a proposed development off American Legion Highway is that right american Legion it's off American Legion Highway i'm not sure yeah Westport Lakes Road is uh right over next to Grand Pine Way yeah
uh the uh applicant has requested a whole lot of waiverss mostly from the planning board rules and regulations um and one from our local septic regulation um um I also picked out um for discussion
the waiver request for from the planning board subdivision plan form and contents um uh because of the way that was worded and um it says wave requirement that when municipal sewers are not available
to the site that test pits are required by the board health so um the way that sounds is they don't want to have to do test test pits um I don't believe that's what they mean but it's unclear so we want to make sure that they
um that that is not a that's a requirement under title five and could not be waved um um and so that that's my recommendation is that we um suggest that that not be
granted because of the way that's worded it could be misinterpreted and um in a project like this we don't want any confusion so they either need to clarify that request or um deny it is my recommendation um on
that any thoughts on I agree with that okay and then um the other um waiver request that is applicable for the board of health is our local septic regulation they are asking for a waiver
of section 10 only which is the new construction requirement for um essentially denitrifying systems this is a um project of 38 I believe 38 houses 89 bedrooms 89
bedrooms on um lots sizing varying from 9,000 plus square feet to maybe 30,000 square feet um so some of them um you know there's there's nitrogen loading limitations there's obviously very high
density and we don't have any sewer in town so this is all going to be individual wells on those properties plus um septic um so my recommendation here is also not to for the ZBA not to grant this waiver request and I'm in
agreement with that as well okay um as you know um before Phil went on vacation he made a number of other um comments most of them are really focused
on um title five issues um around um nitrogen loading shared systems and so on that that that may or may not be applicable depending on how they this project proceeds um so I um recommended
that we um just make a note that the applicant really should they have not approached the board of health have not reviewed any of the project design with the board of health at this point um and that they should do so as soon as possible because there are going to be a
number of complicated issues um that should be discussed um and that would I think be in their best interest to um pursue that and that we reserve comment for and the authority obviously so for
the title 5 related approvals um um um for when they actually submit plans to the board for review under title five um so that's the gist of it um I had drafted over the weekend um some
comments to sort of reflect that um and I did send them to you to be able to look at them before today's meeting so um if you're okay with that I would suggest that we um uh make a motion to
request that the planning board uh I mean excuse me the zoning board of appeals deny uh wave a request se of section 3B3P definitive plan which is a planning
board um rule um because of the wording issues there as well as deny the request for the um of the section 10 of Westport local septic system regulation so moved motion is made i will second that um all
in favor i that's two to nothing with one absence i'll put it on weatherhead and email uh add a signature line and then send it off to the uh to Maria and um Roger and the board health yeah the
hearing for that is April 9th um um I will be um out of town um that day and Phil will be absent if there's a need for board of health representation um can either you
or Donald or I may be able to attend do you know what time is the CBT i would imagine it's in the evening CBA rather hearings but I don't know i think they are yeah that could be
or it'll be posting board uh yeah 6:30 6:30 6:30 thank you okay you should be able to make that okay so the um tomorrow morning I can put this on letterhead and um do you want the the
three board members do you want me to have Pat use the stamp or to stamp it or do you want them sign how do you want it just done um you can sign on behalf of the board okay i just make that simple um and it can be recorded the board
voted in you know two to nothing with one absence at its meeting on Monday 31st um okay you can just forward the comments that would be great okay
um let's move on we have 4:30 appointments so we'll move on we have a few minutes u for board member updates um so I continuing to work on the opioid settlement fund advisory committee um I
met with um Jim town manager and Nicole to talk about once we receive proposals for um use of the funds um how the money would then roll
out what is the process and there were some questions that needed to be answered um um I um I wanted to make sure that we have all our ducks in the row um when we people start presenting ideas how they would want to utilize
those funds we have another meeting on the 15th um I'm also working on um mental health awareness month i have nailed down two pres presentations and I'm working on
two other options and as I said in the um correction of the minutes um uh the collaborative is paying for this um but Chris Heron um will be speaking to the 8th to the 12th grade about his um
journey through addiction and recovery and um this was spearheaded by the opioid settlement fund advisory committee we weren't ready to use our funds um but we thought it was really important to um um start utilizing and
talking about it in the community um and and also part of that is I will be meeting with the um the parent teachers um organization [Applause] uh next week and um I will be talking with them about how they might request
funds to help students and what um kinds of programs would they like to see happen and then open it up to um uh to come up with a date to do a focus group with parents who are very interested so so that's some of the stuff that I've been working on
um the um dispersement of funds would still have to be voted on by the select board yes okay so the process is we're an advisory committee so what we're doing is data collection right now we're looking at what is the need in Westport
for what services are available in um communities around us so we have speakers come and talk about what they're doing and how we might collaborate with those already in um uh established programs like STAR um
there's a fast program in Fall River uh we have a speaker coming to talk about what they're doing within the police department um the outreach that they do we've had um a couple of speakers one uh people didn't know about the program and that the police department does where
they actually after someone has an overdose um a plane closed police person and um a social worker will go see them in their home and provide resources um bring them a kit that would have an NRC can um in it as well as fentinel test
strips um and then um kind of address what's going on with the person and I as I said um I believe I said before in a meeting um I was I asked about how many kids were there when a parent had overdosed and um the police officer said
more than half so so when I'm talking about kids in school and and addressing those needs a lot of them are struggling with parents who have an addiction who may have been there when parents overdosed or um for grandparents who are
raising their grandkids um um and because their own child is um is struggling with substance use disorder so so um so we're in the beginning stages but again we are advisory so we want to um uh we'll be sending out an
advertising in the community anyone who has a program that meets relapse uh prevention um risk reduction education and then people can apply for grant funds but we don't know how much yet um but people would be able to apply for
grant funds so they could do programs within um Westport and then once we do that work then we go to the select board and say here are three programs that we support and we want the select board to approve um that funds be used for this
so because we don't have the purse strings great um okay and I just want to also um point out that you um help facilitate a caregiver support group oh yes um so that's the other thing that I do once a
month there's a caregiver support group i look and see what the date is that's held at the library um I run that um at a request of someone who's caring for her husband and uh we started off with
three people and I now have 12 13 people coming um to get support in their um as they're caring for a loved one the next meeting is at the library from 2:30 to 4 on April 10th um and anyone is welcome
um to join us and it is being advertised um through um Coastal Neighbors so there's a contact information u Wendy Goldberg is the person people can call to contact and get more information and then let us know that you're coming i
saw it in too I think maybe somewhere because I'm not in the coastal neighbor network but I saw it somewhere so great okay great thank you um I u just mentioned earlier before the meeting started I have submitted the
next um monthly Westport health notes column on uh green burial home burial options um um so that may run this week or next week so um that's all I've got and we have
Bingo 4:30 um I'm going to call that um 4:30 meeting hearing excuse me just a second um for 9:30 American Legion Highway [Music] um with for Cheryl and DeLo with Mark
Rogers thank you good afternoon good afternoon uh Mark Rogers analysis and design engineering i'm here to talk to you about a living waiver for property located 930 American Legion
[Applause] Highway property uh this property is located at the corner of Skford Road and American Legion Highway uh it's a multi-use uh building uh which includes several
retail uh shops and also residential living space totaling eight bedrooms so we've got a relatively large system that we're replacing what is in the ground now is uh actually two systems that have
evolved over time there's a leeching pit and also a leeching field that are there now those are circa 1977 and 85 if my memory serves me correctly they are currently in hydraulic failure uh the owner of the properties pumping those
tanks there are two tanks on site right now and that's uh within a month's period they're filling up so the system is absolutely in hydraulic failure we've been just doing it a little bit there we go uh so the uh the applicant
here is looking to uh replace the existing system uh given the uh fact that we've got a well a public water supply well there was care taken into observing the uh setbacks that we need from the well which we've achieved uh
two tanks one of which is elevated in the parking area the paved parking area so what I'm proposing to do is to gain access to the effluent discharging from the large building in those two locations where the tank to the east and
the west are located and then I've got a denitrification system a singular 960dn500 gallons per day uh I I got some information together and reviewed it with with Matt beforehand for design
flows and what we're actually dealing with there so that represents a relatively accurate title five design flow summary which comes out to 1442 gallons per day uh current system per records that I have is more like 560
gallons per day so the system did its thing significantly underdesigned uh I did recently take receipt of the uh public water supply uh records the ASR that was just recently done and we've
got an an average daily flow over 2024 of about I think it was like 490 gallons per day so the system is designed per title 5 replacing the failed system at 1442 and we had 560 and
it looks like the public water supply wells about 490 so the numbers are about right so we we do have adequate capacity for the proposed system here given the elevation of the inverts the cast iron inverts that exit the building um this
the system's low in the ground as is the existing systems plural both of them are in the ground uh quite deep in an effort to try to avoid uh a pump chamber I maintain gravity which leads to the one local upgrade approval
which is the depth of the of the soil absorption system in excess of 36 in so I proposed uh heavyduty H20 loaded chambers per the design guidance for those chambers and I have approximately
50 to 53 in with the crown on the system versus the 36 so the local waiver that I'm requesting is for the depth of the chambers at 50 to 53 in below grade versus 36 and I'm proposing heavy duty chambers so the long and short of it it
was a little complicated to get there but I feel confident that this is probably uh a good system to replace what's in the ground now okay great um thank you and I'm going to turn it over to Matt for his comments yeah Mark and I went over this the
pre-existing flows what's actually there mark came up with these flows and it works very well for what's there um so and the design is is as good as you're going to get I think for this location and it does have the uh
Singular 960DN um I think this is a good design and I don't see any issues with it okay so um this would require approval with the one waiver of course compliance with the
total nitrogen testing and all the yada yada stuff that is correct my understanding as well i don't have any questions or karma i wanted to know how many you know how many apartments there are in this there's a total of eight bedrooms yeah
but how many apartments uh there are two in the middle on the top level one in the back so 930G if you were looking at the plan W and F are the three apartments and then number 930 is a
threebedroom residence total number of bedrooms is eight in this case for that property so there are eight bedrooms and three apartments eight bedrooms total three apartments one primary residence okay so three apartments and a residence
and a residence and do you know how many bedrooms in the Well it must be it's three okay it's one two two and three totaling eight okay do we need we don't need to do do we need to do any deep restriction for cap or anything i mean they can't I
mean I think they're at their limit as far as like maximum of what they can do i mean they can always they can always change things out i think like the hair salons uh generally take 100 gallons per day per chair
that's great they could always one day change that into a retail store which is far less flow um and do other things there but yeah you could deed restrict the um where they couldn't get any more bedrooms than they have now
is that I mean it's kind of a tricky because they could eliminate commercial space and you know and to to such a degree where they could put another apartment in if they wanted another bedroom if they wanted to so um and we and we and when I was with
Matt if I may we did look at a number of iterations what if the retail store became an office uh so so I think we were rather conservative in what we've done there to give them uh some flexibility and change of use okay i think we can always look at it on it too
if they do want to make a change or add something we'll just we'll look at it ahead of time um I think that probably the best way to approach it yeah so I I just wanted some way to make sure that the owners understand that yeah they got a big plan to change that they should check in with the board
of health first kind of make sure that it's for for you um and I I think in this case and we've been through this before in Westport uh with change of view so it's something that they should check on and and we've got sort of a living design flow matrix too that can
allow a quick look without getting too complicated to assist the board if that should arise let me ask you about it if there's a change of use for one of the nail salon becomes a retail store does that have to go through the board of health for change of use
i don't know i I It's a question i don't know the answer no I don't uh I don't think so because as long as it's within the flow criteria it wouldn't have to um the only time it really have to come before us is if they were going to increase flow and make a change to the septic plant but if they were just going
to change the the store type I don't believe it would have to there was some discussion by the owner to give consideration to potentially putting up another retail building there uh I personally discouraged him from doing so because of the nitrogen loading limit on the lot so they've I think I convinced
them to abandon that that thought that they had that you're you're way up there in terms of loading so okay and D was really a no-brainer in this case it was going to be um Okay so does that answer the question about whether we need a a deed
restriction i Yeah I think we don't need a deed restriction we just want to have a um some sort of trigger i don't know if the I don't think the deed restriction is the right way to trigger that but a review should there be any change i mean
these owners seem to be responsible to enough to know and you know have them to go through all of this that if they do want to make a change I think they're going to be proactive and talk with you know Mark or call the office to get some guidance before making the change and that's when we can kind of walk them through it
okay okay i'm all set if you want to okay so I move that we approve the plans from the American Region Highway and Lake Cheryl and Dlo LLC date
31125 um the variance of depth of um the chambers leeching chambers 50 in or 53 in below the finish grade versus the 36
with the following conditions it's a hold harmless agreement um total nitrogen testing for two years anything else might need concom review because I don't see it stamped on the
plan okay and okay I'll second that motion um all in favor i That's unanimous two to nothing with one absence thank you Mr thanks so much the applicant is very interested to
get this rolling given the fact he's pumping both his tanks out every 3 weeks so uh I I might give the girls in the office uh a call to see if they can get the paperwork out he's got the IIA form uh I filled out all the other paperwork
for the deed notice for the IIA system etc so they are he is anxious to go so okay and and as am I i think get it fixed do we know who's going to be installing it proposing construction okay um yeah we just give N call in the
morning tomorrow yes and um get everyone with that and we'll get this over to Concom in the meantime yep they've got their check so I did I did bring them a copy of the plan but I did go visit them but I Okay great thank you so much thank you have a good
night okay um do we have any topics for the next regular meeting or anything unanticipated can we just vote on continuing the next one oh yes yes sorry so I move that we continue
um the variance hearing uh for 10 drive um till um April 14th at 4:30 p.m uh second that motion all in favor i that's
unanimous with one absence to nothing okay and that's okay anything else not being there no further business I move that we adjourn this meeting at
4:42 p.m i think that's a record okay um second that motion um all in favor i That's unanimous two nothing thank you very much everyone