##VIDEO ID:dLro1QqxMqE## e e everybody get their microphones leave office after I usually do it after the okay okay good afternoon uh welcome to the January 22nd 2025 meeting of the Westport Board of Health under M General lot Chapter 30 a section 20f this meeting is being recorded and we'll move now to [Music] the I pled alce 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 say that with a lot of fervor uh today we have to okay thank you um we'll move on to the director's report um anything on the written report okay update all right so the blood drives have started for uh 2025 and I print to the schedule um on the director's report so um we had our first blood drive on January 16th it went well our next one is scheduled for March 20th then April 17th May 15th June 12th and July 17th these are all these these are all at um St John the Baptist Church um 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. okay August to December once we get that those um dates will'll um post them on the web page or we'll announce them at the meetings okay thank you so we ordered two bicycle sheds uh for the bike recycling program uh we we purchased those sheds out of a a mini grant that we received from D um The Sheds were delivered and the volunteers from the bike committee are going to come up with a plan to get them assembled in in place Tim's B Tim Burns was a transfer station worker his last day was December 30 1st 2024 the highway department covered the runs to empty the containers up to January 9th so I just want to say thank you to the highway department for helping us out to keep operations moving at the transfer station the transfer station forming position has been filled and the Kevin who is the new employee started on January 9th so far so good um things are getting done and um I haven't heard any anything otherwise so under emergency preparedness the state has updated updated its Hazard vulner uh vulnerability assessment H it's called an hva uh the annual deliverable is uh being coordinated by Region 5 health and medical coordinating Coalition the hmcc and just a little background the hmcc is a formal Regional collaboration of Public Health and healthc Care organizations focused on preparing for for and responding to emergencies Mass casualties or other catastrophic health events so I'm currently working on finalizing the hva and I'll have it submitted by February the February 3rd deadline okay is the HBA um is it just for Westport is it for the region five I don't know it's just for what so each yeah each Community within region 5 has to do an hva for their Community you Al but so I mean it was it's a little bit confusing some of the questions force you to think on a regional level as well cuz some of the stuff that we don't we don't have hospitals in Westport and so on and so forth but but they want you to focus on the answers primarily for the community okay our Animal control officer has applied for the Mac spay and neua license plate Grant uh program uh the grant determin the grant determinations will be made on in March of 2025 if you want to learn more about that program uh please visit mass animal coalition.org and uh navigate to the um program's license plate um and it'll take you through and and explain the program so basically the program is just for um spay and spay and neuter of um cats and dogs so I know we did a program a free clinic been clinic for past years so yeah and this would fund next uh this could yes um and uh yeah it could we do a lot of feral cats in town so it helps with that population and being able to keep the feral cats um spaying nuded as well okay great okay can I just go back on um so this relates to um the um Hazard um you know mitigation that that that uh that plan that um the town representatives and I represent the Board of Health and um they're in the middle of or we're in the middle of kind of working up this plan and we should have kind of a draft of it and I'm just curious so one of the things that I have been advocating for which have not been in the traditional plan is um in terms of preparedness is um extreme heat events and um because there's floods and fire and um you know hurricanes other kinds of extreme weather events and I'm just wondering whether the hva is kind of goes through those well the report is broken down by the type of emergency you know like here's what happens in a flood or here's what happens in a fire here's how we're going to respond to that so or is it more I don't know I'm trying to it gives you a basic scenario for that let's say for um extreme heat or extreme cooling or extreme cold it gives you a basic scenario but then but then after it gives you the scenario it breaks it down into infrastructure and you going to answer the infrastructure questions and uh health related type impacts um I'll forward you a copy of the hva or I'll for the entire board a copy um and you can see how it's broken down is um one of the tabs is kind of like the um answer key it explains you know the different categories what they mean and the scoring um of those categories so you know you wouldn't be able to answer it without that key but it's part of what I'll send you in one of the tabs on the Excel sheet okay just because well I can save this for the update section if you want but it's kind of there like now there are these three things going on so there's a hazard vulnerability assessment there's the this Hazard mitigation plan or like what we would what had been called like almost like the emergency response plan um which is also being developed with the assistance of pair Corporation for the town and then there's the climate resiliency committee which which is going through the same kind of analysis in a certain way all moving towards you know this plan that um uh and I don't think there's with the hva but with the hazard mitigation and the CRC is kind of to get um Community input on and uh so it would be helpful if they were all consistent in you know what they were uh looking at because for example the chart in the in the hazard mitigation committee you know really focuses kind of on a where we are now you know where we want to be and it could be similar you know anyway so um so I mean in some way it's good because it's you know moving along concurrently but then there's just just this potential for it to just um either be you know have internal contradictions and I'm just trying to avoid that kind of stuff well you're on both committees so that's helpful too yeah yeah yeah but I hadn't um but one thing say but one thing the committee that that the hazard mitigation committee doesn't do is what I think the hva says which is actually um the more nitty-gritty of how staff and people respond you know or at least I've always been a little I'm still unsure of of how you know what there's like FEMA there's the state and there's the local and we're all you know kind of should be coordinating on an emergency you know so and maybe the hva goes into more detail about you know I don't know what the town nurse should be doing or what how it all fits it doesn't yeah yeah it doesn't it goes focuses on the impacts of these events yeah okay it doesn't focus on our response but on what our like what do we see uh based on the scenario what are the impacts okay so it is so it's more like an impact analysis than a response analysis it's a well it's a vulnerability assessment so where are you most vulnerable where are you least prepared which then you should respond to to say okay this is where we need toar right right which is I mean which is you know kind of a you know a work in you know kind of a work in progress kind of thing that'll be good to I mean so we we should be um singing out of the same himno I gu yes and getting the looking taking a look at the ATA will be help yeah okay um let's move on then to director approved plans um Matt can you run those three for us please okay so we have a three-bedroom repair on three Long View Drive for a Kathleen theol on a 20,7 190q foot lot and um this one will require a deed restriction we have a four-bedroom new construction on a 393,000 three-bedroom repair on a 4.62 acre lot on 470 sawm Road for a LS Fado utilizing a stone bed four bedroom new construction on 632 Old County Road for long Built Homes on a 60,1 164t lot utilizing a quick four and a microfast the last one we need to skip over um there's a little bit of there was a little bit of confusion on this one um so from the notes that I see that um maybe Nancy or Pat put on there was that Lenny is going to be submitting plans for a five bedroom and just a short story is on this is It's a house um looks like they're um rebuilding it and one of the rooms has a kitchen and a bathroom but they not calling in an apartment but it looks like it could be at any time um so you know I talked to the architect or John talked to the architect and uh Lenny I believe is going to be submitting a um going to be submitting a a plan that reflects five bedrooms and once we get that we can bring it back on for director approved okay okay so the last one is um removed from the list yes okay okay um any questions about any of these if none take a motion so I move that we uh endorse the director approved plans for three Long Long View Drive um which would um under the condition of a three bedom deed restriction uh Stonewall court for um 470 Sodom Road and 632 Old County Road okay can I just ask you to amend it doesn't that these have been through Kong any of them on my sheet yeah um they I believe they all have been um okay why don't just add subject to subject to con con con review um and then just reiterate the total nitrogen testing for the two instruction and U for the um so the new constructions the um two years of total testing second motion made and seconded to approve the four plans three Long View Drive Stonewall Court 470 Sodom Road 632 Old County Road as described by the director all approve all in favor excuse me all that's unanimous thank you okay um next we will go to the December 20 2 3r 2024 meeting minutes I was absent so I will abstain for this one okay any questions or comments or edits for this these no I'm fine I'm fine as well so I move that we approve the plans for December 23rd 2024 second motion motion made and second and all in favor I I abstain so two two to nothing with one abstention thank you um next is January 8 minut this is a working meeting correct yeah working and I was not present so I will extend okay did you have any no I would take a motion uh so I move to approve the minutes of January 8th 20125 I will second that all in favor I I that's um two to nothing with one exstension thank you okay uh we move on to other business um uh so the first one is the FY 26 budget review um we just wanted to go through some um updates that happened since our last approval um and just conf confirm that with the board turn to that okay so we just um in the transfer station under the um Personnel salaries portion I moved from um expenses 6,800 to add into the salaries because we will have to use either outside contract um we will have to potentially use the highway department to cover when our driver is out so the only way to pay the highway department personnel is through that portion the salaries portion of the budget so we had to increase that to cover that to potentially cover those days um and we've traditionally had $1,000 in overtime U but I wanted to increase that by $11,000 because we've been running over a bit in the past years so I increased that to 2,000 we took that um from expenses as well um we specifically reduced that from vehicle repair to add to the overtime so so the bottom line is the same but I just wanted to make sure that you were aware ofes was negotiated with Jim and to the finance committee that way as well so um so um I would take a motion just to endorse that updated budget I Mo second all in favor I that's unanimous okay um next agenda item yearend transfer from Animal Control to transfer station that we do that yes so because we've had to use a mishmash of people at the transfer station all year long contractors and um temporary help we will run short in the transfer station uh budget so um on both the expense side because we've had to use highway department and the um Personnel side so animal control because we weren't able to hire a second Animal control officer we have money left in that budget that we can do an Department transfer so we're going to transfer down that those remaining monies into the transfer station it's somewhere in the ballpark of 28,000 we're not short 28,000 and I won't exactly know what would be show until the last day of the fiscal year but anyway anyways by my estimation the 28,000 should be you know enough to cover all of that and then whatever is not used will end up back in the general fund anyways so um it's just a way for us to cover um the should fall on the transfer station sh because of uh all the um staffing issues we've had turn over yeah um and as you know Animal Control we were getting close to getting some viable candidates but um um because we weren't going to get funding for the position next year I told m not getting funded for so that money is available um do we need to take a motion on that yeah I just in case we're asked if the board you know approved it um so I would take a motion to endorse the transfer request from Animal Control up to 28,000 to transfer station by 25 second motion made in seconded all in favor that's unanimous okay thank you um now looking to the annual town meeting in may we have um few proposed um warrant articles um and I'm going to again um turn that over to Matt you have copies of the draft you describe okay so you want me to run through them let me just pull them out all right so we have um transfer from the transfer station receipts reserved article um for 25,000 purchasing one replacement rolloff container and light duty equipment at the transfer station take any other action relative there to to support the operation of the transfer station it's pretty much the same article we put we've been putting on it helps us you know replace some of the containers that need replacing um so and this receipts Reserve is the revenue that 15% yeah 15% of all transactions that go through the transfer station end up in this receipts reserved article yes um and if we we I know that we do need a lawnmower down there um ours are pretty old the one I think the one we borrowed from the cemetery is like from 1960 so you know we really do need to get a better one let's just go through them all and um you know we probably can endorse them all at once okay the next one is um nurses revolving account this is just we put it on every single year um it just basically you know just to have Town approve the revolving account for the nurse not to exceed 20,000 to pay for vaccine purchases and all supplies and expenses associated with vaccine Administration um which may be expended without further appropriation by the Board of Health and take any other action relative there too so here's the one for the um septic betterment um we have 163,000 left and Neil's got kind of a list of people still uh that probably eat that up pretty quickly so this this is this article would allow us to apply for the um for the $500,000 loan so specifically it reads to see if the town will vote to appropriate 500,000 for the purpose of financing the following water pollution facility projects repair replacement and the upgrade of septic systems pursuant to the agreements with the Board of Health and residential property owners including without limitation all costs thereof as defined in section one of chapter 29 c of general laws to deter whether this appropriation shall be raised by borrowing from the Massachusetts water pollution abatement trust or otherwise and take any other action relative there too and next one is for a household hazardous way day to see if the town will vote and raise an appropriate and transfer from available funds the sum of $15,000 for the purpose of conducting one or more household hazardous waste collection events for residents of Westport and properly disposing of the hazards materials and take other any other action relative there too so we have we're going to request 15,000 from free cash and marry that with leftover money from the previous household has itous way day which is I think $88,000 we have left so it'll give us a total of 23,000 to hold uh an event um we haven't done one of those in three or four years so thought it would be a good idea see if the town would be interested in doing that again uh any other uh questions or comments on those no I'm good okay um i' take a motion to uh endorse those uh for uh warrant articles for submission to uh I guess it goes to the FL board some moved second motion made in seconded all in favor I that's unanimous thank you um okay draft 2024 annual report um it's got an earlier version it's been U spiffed up a little um I Incorporated the comments that I got I believe I have another one I mentioned to that there's one line in there that needs to be strien okay I I had a suggestion for the um the bullet lists of um in order to protect the public health and environment of Westport the Board of Health will um um which my my suggested language is um is you know to coordinate with Town departments in planning and responding to Future threats to public health safety and the environment um just because add that in as a new one you're saying is that correct yeah because um um because of all the activity going on that because there's a lot of activity that we're doing about that and in fact the the first uh like and in part because the you know so the U reversing the deterioration of Westport water you know quality is really an environment Al thinking there's no reference to like in the opening um sentence you know he were providing services to improve the General Health Physical mental and social well-being but we do have this environmental responsibility and then you know some of the other things that are uh listed the climate resiliency and has its mitigation so anyway I can just pass that sentence on to Matt yeah if you can just tell me where specifically did you want that add a bullet list of the thing yeah you know these are the the overarching goals and so um uh so anyway and then um I I had some minor there were two places in the health in the report on the health collaborative where I thought there was this is so unusual for me to do this Ed anything but I think there's an there there additional the word the in there okay um and you know I wrote notes on where they are if you want me to tell you where I think they are then um if I can find it myself uh but anyway uh uh let's see uh in the third paragraph now let's see so where's the maybe it's the third sentence I don't know anyway so I will pass them they're very mind but um oh yeah I think I think to Aims to strengthen local public health systems instead of the local public health systems maybe yeah okay maybe that's it yeah and then she'll get rid of the FR a local yeah and then in the in the one where where well this is I think this is yeah this is fine I don't it where the sentence down one anyway it says in addition the collaborative where you have a capital T and I don't know that it doesn't need to be Capital it doesn't really need to be capitalized okay anyway okay that's my that's my contribution and mine was to remove strike the sentence assure that the basic health needs of the community are being met we cannot do that oh how do you assure that the basic health needs of of the community are met we can educate them about basic heals but to assure that they they're met is another animal so good point okay um that you've got those yeah um otherwise we would um we can let that then proceed on to Nancy adding the the uh data for fees and permits do you know how many permits we do in a year because I have found that out oh you have because I'm working on a a total number just generally um jez it's like between 2500 and 3,000 PS a year wow yeah we do a lot of work we do no I mean I think as a as a report if anybody reads it I think they would be impressed I was impressed yeah it's not something it's not something just an engineer would be able to um I don't want to say manage but it's far beyond just an Engineers oh yeah View and position and and responsibilities right a lot going on yeah that's yeah the board the the role of the Board of Health and its director are why why spread in the community with various levels of responsibility and concern not just the septic systems yep um in in 23 I don't have 24 data 2,927 permits were issued by the board will we say that again 2,927 I think I said something like that so it's a lot okay uh so we're done with that U we have reached for 30 so I'm going to um segue into our first appointment we'll come back to the rest of this other business um after we've done with the appointments so I will call the 4:30 p.m. variance hearing Len Potter representing Richard lank leblan excuse me at 550 Adamsville Road is a three-bedroom repair with a quick four on an 18,730 good afternoon Mr butter good afternoon this is a difficult repair this particular plan was approved back 2019 by both the bation previous own now the house is being sold and it needs to be installed anyway I did a small lot 18,730 ft add is no roll at the top of the plan top of the page and the plan on the left hand side just right on the corner the well sits in the front yard and that well is going to end up being 56 ft from the proposed septic system we had to do a sub analysis back in uh 2017 and we ended up it's a 130 par it's it's a it's a Sandy room so consequently three bedroomroom house I have a system this size 5 four quick four standard infiltrators in six row configuration the septic tank that stays 1,000g tank and that's no that's no good uh so we're going to put a 1500g tank in in place of it tied into a distribution box into the septic system the septic system will have PVC barrier on all sides and to save the pave driveway out front on Cornell is going to build a uh concrete block retaining wall uh to allow them to park their cars more or less level with the road the um finished grade the existing grade 9510 and the finished grade is going to be eventually 98 so it's almost 3 ft variances that we need uh three the proposed system is less than 15 less than 20 ft from the basement wall so we need 15 ft we can give you uh the second variance is the proposed well is less than 50 feet from Wetlands the closest point in that corner is 20 feet and the average is 35 ft gets a little wider toward the middle of the system more or less 35 ft and there's a drainage pipe I don't know why it's comes right from mville Road right alongside the Eastern side of the house that dumps into the wetlands on the next lot and it's there but I have 30 ft from it and we required to be 25 so there's really no variance on that and of course the well is less than 100 ft is 56 ft so that's what we need to do it and uh make it work okay and well data was good yeah okay um turn to Matt for his report I think everything is you know as best he can do is a tight spot to squeeze this in so I don't really know there's anything more you can do to get distances away from Anan yeah just to say it was discussed at the concom meeting last night and the commission was comfortable with the 20ft separation from that so um I have a question about the variances just you just mentioned C analysis are you asking for to use of C analysis instead of yeah I turned I turned a c report in on the original form right cuz that isn't that part of the variance wouldn't we need to approve the C analysis or not it's we do have to approve the C analysis I just wanted to make sure that we include that I me was I'm assuming that was reviewed that's okay um okay so um those three um local upgrade approvals we needed three bedroomroom de restruction the usual oh hold you guys do motions did you did you guys review the um MFC waiver he did put one in there yep okay the water T yeah I did yeah because the water test results are okay I don't think we would have any additional conditions from my perspective okay okay so other questions I no I don't you I don't either I just wanted to clarify the he mentioned C analysis it's not on the variances as a request so I just wanted to make sure that we covered that okay so I'll approve the plan for Richard leblan at uh 550 Adamsville Road a three-bedroom repair on a plan dated 12 14 24 um has conom approval would be subject to a three bedroomroom feed restriction local um approval Authority waivers of reducing the setback from the basement wall from 20 ft to 15 ft reducing the setback of the SAS to the wetlands of from 50 ft to 20 ft and uh and reducing the setback for the site well from 100 ft to 56 ft um a hold harmless agreement and are we doing well testing yes and three years of well testing and approval of the C analysis and approval of the Civ analysis and we have a d restriction yeah I got that first okay do you have it's not in this packet but it was yeah I know I know we had to do it then too second motion has been made in second to approve the project La bank at 550 Adamsville Road with those conditions all in favor that's than you thank you very much I wish I could do it better but I can't on this one it's better than a failed system right see it's better than the failed system that's there so that's good okay um we have a couple minutes I'm guessing do people feel comfortable I don't see any of Butters or anybody here we just move to the next heing sure okay we'll call Christine Lewis I'm assuming that's you who else would come to a very cold for out meeting oh it's freezing today it's not that warming um so you're applying for a stable permit at 32 and 36 cahun's Lane for after to Five Horses is what we have on our agenda I going to let you just describe we have um we have the application and a sort of a a little drawing yeah they told me to draw my property because I own both properties and um but my house the one I live in is basically I put the bond on the other piece of property cuz it's but it's a budding I it's right next door I just consider it one big property okay so so that's why I put both the 32 and the 36 okay um let me turn it over so I will just say that um we hadn't had a chance to go out and do our inspection yet um there was an inspection on it before uh he had come in the um when do they usually go in September October bar books bar books yes I guess so so we has to come out and do a separate inspection for the Stables okay for location of things and uh so he'll I'll have Joe our health agent reach out to you to set something up you know maybe for Friday or next week early next week just to get that out of the way and um I do have an appointment on Friday at like 12 okay well we'll we'll reach out to you and you can just let us know what's best for you and I know you've been speaking with Nancy so we were still waiting for um proof of vaccine for Lincoln uh I got it I printed it up before I came because I says they didn't give me my when I uh printed up all my stuff I says they didn't give me the um the r one for Link in so is this my copy yes okay thank you yeah I called the V and asked them to send it to me that's the um I think uh when I was talking with uh Donna earlier she had mentioned um The Well distance from the the um did you mention that yes yes so the the well distance so we're just going to need to get the we like to know the well distance from where it is to the padic so so we can measure that when we're out there okay and it's supposed to be how many feet away from the pth well we like it to be 100 feet away so other than that I don't have anything else okay and you have all the um copies of the know what the requirements are for management and I actually we can give you a copy of the man Manu management rag that we have when we come out all we can email it to you okay well because I didn't even know when I pay like do I wait for this to be done because I still have to pay uh them putting it in the paper do I come like tomorrow to ask the girls I think that's us I think we took care of that I'll I'll just give me a call tomorrow morning and I'll let you know and are there Butters that we need to did all the about notifications are in here yeah y so I have a question so um so the last time that I recall that um we had a uh uh a stable permit a stable permit we took some pains to um figure out how the manure was being managed and part of it and so I don't know if there was something particular about that case but there should be a manure management plan yeah there supposed to yeah um in which there was two parts to it I think one was um and this is essentially a groundwater protection and May and also maybe a nuisance thing depending on where your neighbors are but and so part of it was having um the pile be either in a covered structure that it's covered some way so it's not getting rain and snowed on which then increases um contaminants from going into the into the ground the groundwater and then um and then also we asked for um whatever the contra actual Arrangement was to have the manure removed so I don't know if that's in your plan or not or how you plan to manage the manure so honestly yeah I I actually never seen a manure pile covered to be honest with you I've never heard of it being covered I try to keep it away from my horses as much as possible I don't have it near any Wells or anything I bring it to um like the back of the property because there's no houses or anything I'm kind of surrounded by a lot of woods and stuff so I bring it to the back and what we do is once my pile gets full enough we take it with the back hoe and move it or I give it to people for their Gardens things like that okay okay I just will say there was something very particular about that last case yeah so it might have been that it was so um but we do have a newer reg that I can should you know I will get to you and um so you can follow that Reg but yeah there was a lot of different things with that case that sparked all that different stuff okay okay so about concerns oh oh going so but I um I you know since the office is going to follow up with you um we have to make this if we do an approval today would be contingent Upon A the inspection um and um I think it's probably a good idea just to um review the manure management regulations and acknowledge that you understand what you're what you're supposed to um abide by my recommendation and we have everything we need here so we got the rabies so I think we're good paperwork wise with with to satisfy the application other questions no just I'm just going to check are you in a butter to this no support we like support we like horses too I know oh okay um so uh we obviously have no about concerns um so um if all the questions have been answered I would be um ready to entertain a motion okay I I will move that we approve the application for stable permit for up to five horses to Christine Lewis at 32 and 36 cahons Lane contingent on the um um the inspection by our um health inspector um and a a manure management plan um do we want her to do a Manu management plan or understand about what her responsibilities are for the manure management just say I would compliance with our manure management break okay compliance with our manure management rag second um motion made and seconded to approve the stable permit for Christine Lewis all in favor so it is contention about um as soon as that inspection gets done um and you'll get a copy of them regation so you're familiar with that um and U just work out the details with the office so do you have a card so I can call you I don't know if I have any on me check or do I just call here and just call the office yeah 636 1015 all right I'll do that I'll be calling you okay so sounds good all right thank you so much have a good night you too okay um okay we now move back on to the other business we're going to do the a meeting calendar because there are four or five meetings that occur on holiday uh holidays we need to reschedule we're only having one meeting in February no we have one on the third third the 17th is a holiday so we either reschedule or cancel um I won't I would be here for well actually no I would be here that's school vacation week also for those who are babysitting or traveling skiing or whatever that's a tough week for me okay yeah um so we can either um move to the following week now what we've done sometimes is move like have the meeting on the 24th and skip the 3rd of March so that we have like you know 3 weeks in between um March has three meetings anyways yeah yeah I won't be here for for the 3D of March I won't come back till the 7th okay so will you be here on this 24th no of March no February no okay will you be here on the 2th of February if we move it says we're okay we're I'm suggesting that we move the the the President's Day 17th to the 24th to the 24th and skip the 3rd of March oh so we have because it's three week I don't want two meetings two weeks in a row that's too hard to manage and there's not that much okay pry quiet um okay yeah I'm trying to remember uh yeah that's okay okay I think I am going on vacation um this is more April thing I'll come back later on and make sure what the are my vacation the end beginning of March so just so for February where are we so the proposal is to take away the 17th and just um can we do not meet on the 17th on the holiday and we on the move that to the 24th okay and uh cancel the March 3rd meeting we would have March 17th and 20 31st okay um so I won't be here for the 31st okay just so but I will be so they'll be okay so they'll be Forum all right barring disaster uh April we're okay we avoid those holidays with our 14th and 28th um May the second meeting would be on um Memorial Day so um we get that get into the busier time of year with septic stuff so I'm thinking maybe we should try to do the 27th okay 27 the 27th of ail may do you have oh um I can't remember um I mean I have the I don't have the calendar here with me so so we can I can we can put it down tentatively it's not that terrible to have you know two meetings in you know it's not the end of the world if you want to put it there okay um all right so we'll move that one to the 27th um June is fine July is fine August is fine um September um the first meeting on Monday the 1 would be Labor Day uh so September's another three meeting month yeah um but then I might suggest that we have the meeting August move the 18th to the 25th and just skip that meeting so again we have three weeks in between rather than um going four weeks without a meeting but I'm I'm open to that I mean it's fine with me this is so annoying what does it do there I I I tilt it and that do you want to look at this fil I tilt it no I and I just left oh sure so everything in red is a holiday everything in yellow is a meeting right yeah so when September now we're talking I'm talking about September um moving the August 18th to August 25th and skipping September 1st okay okay so yeah that seems things happen we might change it but so what was can you repeat that Tanya please I'm sorry what did you what was that plan we are moving the August 18th meeting to the 25th um and canceling of the September 1st meeting cancel have three weeks in between each seven so cancel l 18th and move it to the 25th right and then canc yeah just reschedule and cancel the September 1st all together yep um and then in October we have one more meeting that we have to uh Columbus Day or indigenous people's day whatever we call that um the 13th um I would suggest moving that to the 14th if we can is that all right with folks y so move October 13th to the 14th I just said going to have to check you know to see that that works with conom okay and then we managed to avoid all those November December Hol so we don't have to wait res scheduling we may end up canceling if it's quiet do this year Well tried to do this confusion there okay um so do we have to vote on yes okay so uh I move we revise our um 2025 calendar to um cancel the February 17th meeting and move it to the or rescheduled to the 24th cancel the March 3rd meeting reschedule the May 26th meeting to May 27th uh reschedule the August 18th meeting to the August 25th and cancel Alto together the September 1st meeting and reschedule the October 13th meeting to October 14th I have a second second motion made and seconded to revise a calendar accordingly all in favor I I that's unanimous thank you always subject keep oh yeah I do or I can make you a copy of it though no I got them upstairs okay right um you know as you get closer but at least you can plan ahead for that okay um so we can do sort of a combination of the next two agenda items which were just it's the January beginning of a new year um kind of wanted to just take a few minutes to talk about sort of priorities for this coming year where people um could you know based on projects you're already working on or things you know what we know we need to come back to um that we've um we just need to I think it's a good idea to revisit that every year to make sure that we don't lose track of some projects that have kind of Gone by the you know to the side a little bit and do we still want to prioritize those um Etc so um um have um so some of the things um I wanted to just throw out there well one that will be done because we have that ear Mark is the transfer station improvements um before the end of June um of course household hasard its waste if we get funding that will might happen this year or next spring um but I wanted to revisit things like the well regulation yeah unknowns and targeting as a possibility um mean unknown septic systems unknown septic systems unknown status and I have some updated data to give you on that um uh website I think um I understand that the town is doing a website revamp but I think we should and maybe somebody wants to take the lead on that take an opportunity to look at what is the information we're conveying what are we you know could it be spruced up more you know just transferring the existing info um you know there might be better ways of organizing it and so on so I know um this may be late in the game because they're revamping right now but um so anyway they just throw that out there as a possibility um I'd be happy to to look at that and um cuz for me it's a lot about communication and um how we do that within our communities yeah and I think there are some towns that I really good websites that we can learn from so um again it's a um I don't know what the revamp is going to look like and what the amount of Labor that's involved in doing any updates so we have to keep in mind our staffing constraints on that so if I can get a volunteer to help with that I will do that okay um you can um sort of revisit that and you have some info to share um total nitrogen testing policy that sort of was on my lap and has kind of Fallen by the wayside so I put it back on my lap um storm water management is another topic that we keep on wrestling with periodically and not doing anything about um yeah okay and then um I H sort of the kind of a larger um financial planning project is um we had we had requested as part of our alternate budget submission this year the addition of a part-time clerk I mentioned earlier we have uh we issue almost 3,000 permits a year most of those are mandated but some that generate a fair amount of Revenue are not are based on our local regulations and we are squeezing the balloon there's just the staff are overworked and there's just not enough time um to manage um and you know they're getting um it's possible that one or one person might retire in the near future and and there's a lot of institutional knowledge that um so uh that could be lost and I I think um I have started doing an analysis of of the and in particular the dumpster rolloff um regulation which was instituted in January of 2019 um and um uh so it was before my time but um that brings in on average the revenue for that is 48,5 se5 a year dumpsters and rovs combined um the number of permits I have that note um is hundreds hundreds of those per so it's it's labor intensive um I believe it's a good program because it helps um keep dumpsters you know that they're not too close to somebody's property and they don't cause a nuisance and they're not overflowing regulating is beneficial to the town residents um and you know for public health but um I I would like to put together a proposal to make an argument that we of course have to continue our mandated services but um in order to continue um doing those extra beyond the bare bare minimum of what we're requireed to do Services we need we need resources we need the staff you know we have been level funded um other than the 3% raises but for expenses for years or the staff um you know at some point when there's increased you know construction there's lots of increased activity um we can't put the stress on the staff anymore and so um so I would like to um pursue that and bring a proposal to the board to see if we can can um um seek support for a part-time clerk we've looked at um you know 197 whatever below below benefits um um but a part-time clerk to to take on some of these specific programs that generate a lot of revenue for the town but we can't we're we sacrifice in our mandated duties um if we you know because we don't have the resources so that's um and the other part of that is um we should probably also review our um fees general you know for all of our permits um because we're again we need we need to support um the town needs the support we're just you know be bones um and um when we have a low tax base the way that more of the burden falls on the permit requesters they have to pay a higher fee in order to sustain the um infrastructure to manage that so um so that's my you know high horse for today can I um um I was um just curious about the dumpsters um and whether it would be worthwhile to break out the construction related ones from the household waste ones um that would be a lot of Labor because we don't track them okay that way um okay so okay probably not okay all right yep are you thinking about like well I mean it just because I think that the um uh because I think you touched on the two aspects of it and and one is like through the regulations you know to reduce you know the kind of complaints because I think what really initiated the initiated doing this was because the office was getting complaints about people who were not you know managing their um their dumpsters right and and um you know and then there's the revenue part of it um and and I didn't know uh because we so there are two solutions I guess you know one is to you know get another um you know get get a temporary clerk you know but who knows if that's going to happen right if if they're going to fund another you know if the um if the town will fund another position for that so then it's going back to just kind of reducing the workload as a whole and so what I was thinking of is okay I I mean I would personally might continue to request fees for you know for uh construction and demolition but less motivated necessarily to do that for household waste ones just because the former one just gets rolled into the cost of constructing the house I assume or whatever the you know the construction's going on so but I don't know if that would be significantly different in terms of the workload um but I was thinking well there's probably you know a lot more homes that are using dumpsters than are and homes being built using you know using you so anyway it's just a just a wild thought but because if what you're saying is true which is that the situation is untenable for staff then plan a is to get more staff but given everything that's going on you know what do you think the odds are so plan B would be resend the regulation and not have that workload well I think there's a difference between resending the regulation because resending the regulation relates to us going when we get a complaint complaint we can say we have a regulation on this and you're in violation of the regulation and you have to come into compliance you know you can't put your dumpster on the road or you know you're not keeping it covered or whatever so that's separate from issuing a permit um and anyway no so that's just a I I was if if everything was done online wouldn't that take care of some of the burden of the cost on the staff if things were done yeah but doing the money part of that complicated I mean it's complicated for the town I don't know quite how it works you know everyone have to be paying by credit card and all that stuff and I'm I'm assuming it happens could join the 2st century yeah no no I mean I mean there are tals that have all their permitting done you know online and they have yeah and they have centralized a centralized system to do it and you know to manage um it this is more than that though it's getting updated list from the from the dumpster companies you know dumpsters show up in one spot for a couple weeks and then they get removed and we have to track that we have to remove them from our list we have to get an updated list we have to the money is different each month that we collect from um these dumpster companies so it's a little bit even if it was online permitting it wouldn't alleviate the burden of the TR backing of it yeah well there's probably systems out there that could do that for us if you know we if we had the money to you know I'm sure that could do it but anyway we don't have to you know we don't have to massage this idea anymore but I'm you know uh uh well what I'm looking for is essentially your support for us to at least make the attend and then we can reassess how do we manage the workload yeah going forward yeah and maybe that is stop collecting fees and tracking that and I mean how many dumpster companies are there just gen you know I don't know maybe two dozen two dozen okay yeah all right but the number of dumpsters and rollups I have that somewhere because I was been doing these figures uh so in 2023 we issued third combination 1,300 48 dumpster permits and 297 roll up permits y but we don't know how many companies they came you know companies pay the fee but then they may pass that on to and I think there's certainly a there's almost like an incentive for both sides I mean you know it's too bad there's not like a dumpster Association but I mean there could be ways that the companies like if you sat down with some of the companies and just talk to them about how we could make this more efficient or you know do it in a more coordinated way you know that also you know might be possible but I don't I I think the idea first getting the additional staff um is you know is a fine way to to go about it I mean it might be that someone would ask the question well can't you make the system more efficient so you don't need something you don't need the staff like what have you done to try to make the staff you know make the process more efficient it's not just about the dumpster there's tons more things that the the additional staff could help it's not it's not I just using that she's using an example but there's probably you know another half a dozen or more things that additional staff would be beneficial for right okay on a part-time basis and like um like um Tanya to that you know if there is a you know retirement in the near future part-time staff would would have to step into that role otherwise we once that person's gone right then what do we do and so then we have to so I just think that we'll be more efficient with we we're so we're efficient as as much as we can be and if we were able to get more staff we'll be more efficient and be able to serve the public better right I think that's you know what we're trying to get at here yep no no I that that's that's important to I mean that's important to know and to note but I guess the part that I'm saying is we generate you know 45 or $50,000 of revenue from that program right that more than covers $25,000 part-time so um yeah um so that's um so I'll work on develop continuing develop a um proposal for us to see if we can get somewhere with that um just to say on the list I I have kind of um kind of treading morar on the on the on the well RS you know we made you know no we made we made a fair amount of we made a fair amount of progress on it and then um as I said before there's uh on the permitting side when you get into this issue around water quantity which I also began to think about in the context of um accessory dwelling units um you know being added to properties that had Wells that might have been configured just for the number of bedrooms in the existing house and because a lot of these water you know how do you ensure that there's a sufficient amount of portable water is based on the number of bedrooms uh but anyway so um and it's been difficult to get clarity about that and now the issue of um of uh adus and uh um and testing uh what am I thinking about you know the um and yeah testing for p on sales and this new legislation that's been proposed um about this one yeah yeah and so and again even even in the um I don't know about this but even looking across towns you know as to what contaminants should be tested you know there's probably five different um you know different models about how it should be done and what should be tested for and so I think there's this kind of bigger and so anyway I know that Matt has really been flat out and and um so but I think it definitely should be a priority that we worked on I mean particularly just from the permitting point of view you know the permit process point of view I think that would be really important and you know if we want to finesse the other to later times or just reiterate what's in our rigs now you know you know and leave it open-ended like kind of um you know that would that would be okay too we could take it in phases but Matt and I need to cut some time out to do that so so it sounds like well regulation should stay on the priority list for this coming year and hopefully we'll make some complete I mean do you think that's right that we should move ahead on it yeah yeah I think so yeah um so the unknowns um which is the septic systems we don't know whe their assess pools but we suspect they are based on the age of the house and the fact that there's no plans on file probably means most likely those are assess pools um based on um the pump reports that we got this you know just I identified 16 properties that have assess pools um some of whom some of which were already identified previously but a bunch not um we have had a number of plans coming through that were unknown um so those um are knocking down the number of total number of unknowns we're now at um 691 total unknown septic status um which I think we were over 800 before so we're you know making progress um but these are a lot of the these are property owners who have not been um alerted to the fact that we um we don't have actic plan information for them and we would like to get information to have our records more complete at the very least um and if they are C schools um you know they should know be aware of the deadline um in 2028 um uh give them enough time to figure out a plan so um I know one of the ideas was to prioritize um based on location um so I did um I updated you know I did a a ped um data sort of by street address um which is the best I can do for location um and I'm wondering if we should Target streets like let's say River Road that are right on the river um um or at least on that side thing know I don't know what that if that's the odd number side or even number side um or some other way of um um I don't have the technical expertise to do like an overlay of you know 200 ft from the river and which properties addresses those are um um but I I would certainly um open to some way of prioritizing if that's something we want to pursue for this year I think we should do at least something I agree with that yeah I I've been you know a supporter of that I mean it seems that um and then I think it's you know within our Authority I mean I think the idea that we had was asking people to either you know produce a plan if they might have one if they just you know something or that we would you know require them to do an inspection I think which is in clearly in title our tified authority to do that and then um then we can see what we want to do because if it's a failed system then we know there's a process for that and if it's not a failed system then it kind of falls into the greater bigger category right so um yeah uh any thoughts on targeting just by Street and looking at the map um or any other or does anybody have expertise or know people who have expertise who can do an overlay and give us addresses of properties um you know 500 ft from the river or 200 ft from the river or streams I mean I don't know how well there [Music] were um see but I think that they relied on so when they did the um uh trying to think of the name the company the the consulting firm who kleinfelder yeah and they they were able to using the board's records um you know map everything by longitude latitude and they converted all the address to Long lat and then they could map them all and but this is kind of a scenario going beyond that and so I just don't know how like whether or not there's an application you know a computer app where you can feed addresses in they can convert it to longitude latitude and then give us a map um and which would still require somebody to input that addresses but um I don't I have all the addresses all the properties the 691 properties so I think that um you know so we one thing to do would be inquire how complicated it is or whether you could just acquire that um uh you know the application and just run the application and have it you know generate a map based on the addresses I just had thought about and then once it's mapped then you you know can do distance from right bunch of different things you know okay so that's um well it sounds like we want to pursue um this so we'll keep it on the list for 2025 um and work on our strategy for doing some targeting and come back we'll bring that I'll bring that back to folks um to nitrogen testing I guess I need to revisit that storm water management what are we thinking about that um well so um one thing that's happening kind of in a Glo so to speak Global sense is that I that DP I believe is on the cusp of issuing um a a big update to storm water regulations and which is incorporating climate change into um you know doing storm water regulations um but for us the complicating factor is that if we didn't have our own regulations um storm water the storm water management the state storm water management regulations don't apply to single family homes they only and so you um and then what the planning board does is when they're reviewing um uh subdivisions then there's enough homes uh there that it you know it it it triggers the storm water regulations so uh and then I think what so we have it's really been a thing between the wetlands regulations because they have they have storm water regulations planning board who has their own storm water regulatory appro you know and and then us who we have our own statute I mean our own regulation which um I think a lot of the contractors the engineers I think it's Overkill right there's other things in there aside from the design of it that should we we we should probably take a look at as well yeah but a lot when when just to say that a lot of you I see this more on the concom is you know when people are building homes a Butters come in who are concerned that storm water is going to run off from there property onto with their property and uh and I think we had one of those cases here you know that you know that you know that's really a big issue um so I think the challenge for us maybe I I shouldn't speak for that is that this stuff is so technical you know that I don't I don't think think there's I don't think there's I certainly don't have the capacity to evaluate across all these different approaches and the planning board has its own consultant who does all the work for them plus they have Bob daylor on there who you know is you know you know knows this stuff backwards and forwards so um I just don't know um you know quite how to you know quite how to deal with it um but can we consult with I I think we can well uh but I do think the first step would be to you know get Mike burough and us and Chris together Capone and just actually have a meeting and we have oh we've never actually had that meeting no so if I just can suggest that I think the first approach to this is put it down what what are we trying to achieve with the storm water and then this is what the Board of Health is trying to achieve and then have that meeting and say okay what's the best approach to achieve this I don't I think the the whole there there's one whole technical side of that regulation and you're right it's extremely technical um I don't think it really needs to be that complicated so I think if we can figure out what we're trying to achieve we could either consult or have that meeting we can bring in our own consultant or consult with somebody to kind of put help us put together a regulation figure out you know how to achieve what we want to yeah I don't think there are a lot of other towns that have a regulation similar to ours not like no nothing like ours but there are towns that have their own storm EGS some of them are tied together with their ms4 and some of them are just there are single families storm water eggs yeah which is B I read through some of them and it's just basically you got to capture your roof run off and you know the roof drains or whatever that's basically it right and that's basically what happens in the in the in when we approve Wetlands you know is to control roof roof run off but they're also swes and a whole bunch of things that you know you know get you know get developed I know these RS have been on the books for a long time um probably an era when where was an engineer forward or something but um so it's something that sounds like we could address it sounds like there's some labor intensive work possibly with I mean so we have to manage our expectations I guess right but one of these complicating things just generally speaking depending how we want to approach it is you know what do you want to uh you know is how do you factor in you know climate Chang and you know changed in the precipitation rates and you know kind of building those in I mean they're particularly interested you know in culs and stream Crossings and you know those kinds of things and ms4 related um you know managing large volumes so we'll leave that to DP and we'll focus on the yeah our I wrote it down on my list okay um other um topics that we haven't mentioned that people think we should you know you know continue on focusing on my mental health issues in town and being on the opioid settlement fund uh committee so your hands h what's that you you got plenty on your plate with that uh I got a few other things as well so um plus I still work anything else that you would want to put on the I don't think so I don't think not I mean we have things there's still the ongoing things yeah but I haven't heard of any other things that are popping up as priorities I mean right I think the whole climate SL Hazard issue will will still be you know moving forward hopefully you know resolution in 2025 y i I just wonder what kinds of changes are on the horizon um for public health in general in general and and how that's going to impact what we do and whether the state of Massachusetts will continue on with um uh the the the the approaches that we have been taking that are scientifically backed and based and um but I'm concerned about some of the possible changes that will be coming up the road um yeah I haven't even I didn't even put that on no I I I think that we need to be realistic about that I mean when when um there are threats to make changes in well-known best practices um then are we going to continue to do best practices um and will we have the um uh the state support um I would find it very difficult to abandon what I know as a nurse of over 45 years that I know is best for Public Health um to abandon that because somebody says they don't agree with it so so I think that that's something that we also have to consider we have our priorities but what kind of priorities will be set um that we will have no control over yeah who knows if another pandemic might be coming our way all things um some to anticipate and some that can't anticipate well I know that the um came up today at the training and talking with some people from pouth they having a heck OFA time with the Aven flu out there so yeah yeah in in the bird population yeah well we know with climate change that one of the things that's happening is increase Vector born illnesses and the movement of some of the um uh the insects mosquitoes coming from the South America Central America coming up in the US where um you know Den may be a problem or malaria is going to be a problem where it hasn't been a problem um for us in this country and the other also the idea of in I'm very concerned about the message about um um vaccines and how that's going to impact um what support that the federal government gives for vaccine um distribution all that support and what and and how we're going to manage around that uh there is a reported case of measles um we don't see measles right because kids are getting kids get vaccinated but there's an increase in parents not vaccinating their children and thus we are going to have a reintroduction of diseases that we haven't seen um so I'm really concerned about that and what our practice is going to be in response to that there's going to be yeah we'll see what how the state provides that leadership right fortunately I think the our our state leaders are um on board with following best practices um but I'm just concerned and I think that's something that you know it's an elephant in the room for me that that we have to look at what possible challenges we're going to have ahead of us um if we're going to continue to protect the public health of the people of West support and what kind of challenges we may be facing as a public health department it's going to be um fra navigation I guess I would say um okay um I think we've we we are all getting cold so let's um wrap this up there any other um key board member updates people want to share so there is one other um thing that to say about the accessory dwelling unit um which is that so you know I I submitted um the suggested FAQs and then um and then I wrote an email to the Depp person who I had sent them to and said I you know don't want to be presumptuous but you know if there's an opportunity to review the for for to review the FAQ before you actually publish it to get some feedback before you do it I'm available Plus on on the I got appointed to the septic advisory committee when the whole um you know so I just so I you know and then um and then I got uh the and then I got a I got who got back to me was the um assisant commissioner for the waters program and the reason I'm bringing this up is that um what he reported to me was going to happen was that first there was going to be a d was going to issue like guidance or a policy and then um after the guidance was issued they were going to do the FAQs and so I said well you know if there's a window between the fa between the issuance of the policy and the fa Q's again I would be available to give you feedback because we could read through the guidance and have questions and you could build the answers back into the FAQ so um so the February 2nd Date is when they're supposed to issue something because that's the effective date of the statute apparently I was told that's when they picked February 2nd so uh yeah so we'll see what happens and then there's this Miha um presentation coming up um later on in February March in March but I think the policy will you know will be out I don't know uh so at least we'll have we'll have some guidance at that point see what it see what what they're doing I think they scheduled it for March because the policy will be out and there'll probably be a lot of questions yeah so Claire will be there to maybe shed some light on that policy right exactly yeah yeah and I don't know what the sequence you know whether they'll put out the FAQ before the you know before Claire's uh presentation or um you know which might make sense because that might um they might anticipate you know a bunch of things that CLA wouldn't have to handle it be we'll keep us posted on that yeah so we'll see what happens we'll see how it goes you anything else no I'm just I've had two meetings um of the OPA settlement fund advisory committee and we're in the process of trying to um organize ourselves to know how our process um for um uh allocating funds or or asking the sled board to allocate funds um and um but in the meantime um I'm working on Mental Health Awareness stuff um and I I will accept any suggestions for any um topics that people in the community would like to be addressed that I can bring in speakers or that I can um at least do an event presentation on for the community so um if anybody who watches has any suggestions or idea for a topic in mental health that I might um uh present in May uh to please call the office and let them know and to leave your number and I will give you a call thank you um and um then January don't know if you saw it yet yeah I did I mean I I um I I I just glanced on it on my phone but hav't actually if you have a chance to I'll send that in yes who's doing February March do we have a plan for other columns yet yeah we do I know I'll do one for May for mental health awareness mon y um I think I was going to do one on the our um green burial stuff because we have the policy now um well the Adu own probably people would be interested um I can't notes about you have one you want to do so do you have one that you would like to do I was saying I could do one on the accessory dwelling one yeah um can't not notes um I did have some thoughts on columns but um so oh Tibor disease we're going to have a presenter in April yeah so I'm I've been working on that maybe March maybe April I know in April May the tick biologists get busy because they're in the field doing testing and all that so maybe March um I'm working on it as we speak I'm okay was working on before the meeting so so maybe we can Wrangle somebody to do it yeah there's a couple uh Tech biologists one there's a couple of them then I'll reach out to and um see where we can uh what we can get going okay so we have a bunch of topics speaking of vaccines there's a tick vaccine that is in like whatever the last phase of Tes you know so if the government allows people to use it you okay all right um I'll take a motion to adjourn I move that we adjourn this meeting at 538 p.m. second all in favor I I thank you I need the heat up here e for