Preamble uh yeah we're recording now so you can all right um pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021 and renewed by Governor morah this meeting of the Board of Health will be conducted via remote meanss members of the public who wish to access the meeting May do so by following the instructions on the board of health posted agenda Vas no in-person attendance of members of the public will be permitted but every effort will be made to ensure that the public will adequately access proceedings as soon as it is technologically possible after this meeting all approved Board of Health minutes are posted on our website once they are approved by the by the board I will now open the board of meeting for April 11 at 5:33 p.m. with a roll call Rilo I think you're muted from forgot I was muted I'm so sorry here Lauren yes and Tim R here so the Board of Health meeting is has started hello Kiko hello good evening so we will we will start our agenda with a review and receive session which is primarily meetings from the March 14th um minutes um are there any comments questions or changes proposed for those meeting meeting minutes neither Lauren nor I were present last month I think yeah Lauren and pra are absent um I'm the only one here present I think last I don't have any edits or comments um uh so can we make a motion just by just one person or Risha is not here yeah I'm just texting Risha because I didn't get a message from her that she wasn't attending so I'm not sure what's happening um but I think technically we have to have a quorum in order to make motions isn't that correct yeah so for the minutes uh minutes vote I think I'm the only one here who was present last month so right we can actually wait until Risha shows up you know yeah um I don't know what's I don't know it's not like her not to be in touch so I'm not sure what's going on um and then Prema you also need to jump off in about 25 minutes correct right right so when that happens if Risha doesn't show we won't we will no longer have a [Music] quum yeah my uh video in and out as well so I'm trying to be as present as I can yeah we mostly hear you but you are cutting in and out a little bit Yeah my zoom keeps going out and in so that problem can we put the approval of the minutes on hold and go continue on sure yeah let's uh let's decide on the approval of the minutes for March 14th uh on hold right now okay so our um next in the agenda is the public comment there anyone in the public who would like to speak we don't have any attendance at the moment so no all right so now we are at the old business which is tobacco regulations just continuing the discussions from last month [Music] um I think we could start up the discussions and hopefully Prisha can join us if not we cannot any make any final decisions because of the lack of Quorum um are there uh what what are some of the questions we had which was still pending or at least continuing into this into this meeting from this uh Board of Health draft Yeah so here's the other thing um Tim that's a little complicated is that Risha so since Moren is away and Risha and Moren were the two people who were kind of driving this tobacco regulations revision Risha had agreed to facilitate this section as you know Tim of the meeting and she's not here so um yeah I think I can try have some notes here so I can try to kind of remind everyone of the things that I think are still pending so we can start to have a discussion and for the the 30 minutes or I guess it's now 22 minutes that we have Prema with us we're still a quorum and so that you know discussion can count but once Prema leaves if if Risha hasn't joined then I'm since I'm I haven't encountered this situation before but I don't know that we can have a productive meeting without a quorum isn't that what happens we'd have to just adjourn isn't that right uh not adjourn uh I think we cannot make any decisions make any decisions okay like say we can't vote on certain things so uh we still can because it's recorded we can still have the director's report and everything and then we can adjourn after that okay okay um and I think the goal all along with these tobacco discussions has not so much to make has not been to make decisions in this meeting just yet but to talk through all of the issues and sort of reach consensus and then have a list of the things that we want to change have them written into the regulations and then vote as a group on the revised regulations so I think we can get around the voting issue anyway on this particular topic anyhow because we're not there yet yeah yeah okay so the decision I have a question I'm sorry so the things that are marked decision um decisions are not yet voted on is that correct that's right I mean the idea was we got Clarity on these things and so um Risha and Meen were're sort of tasked with writing that up into a final document which would then be reviewed in detail with everyone and voted on as a as a board yeah so should we just get to a discussion on number two or um yeah I think I think the main thing that we wanted to discuss today is about the the violations so um we had decided in the last meeting to stick with the um let me see where are my notes um for the penalty structure for violations so um we did decide we discussed the penalties for State regulation violations at the last meeting and we agreed to drop the suspension for first violations that didn't involve sales to a minor so if there was a sale to a minor there was the, fee and the 7day suspension as is currently written in the regulations but if it wasn't a sale to a minor we agreed you all agreed to drop the 7-Day suspension in light of that brain tree um the Cumberland Farms lawsuit I think was it in brain tree am I remembering that correctly yes where that particular item came under scrutiny so the idea was let's keep it in sync with the state regulations um so that you all decid or you know there was consensus on um but then the question was about the penalty structure for the town regulations which has lower fines um but then there was also Al an automatic suspension of 714 and 30 days which seemed I think to the group maybe out of Step or a bit harsh so I think that was the conversation that Risha was going to lead the group in is what about those the penalty structure for the town regulations violation of the Town regulations versus violation of the state regulations so as of now the uh Town violations first ation is $100 and 7day suspension right so we we thought of um the 7day suspension is some sort of a harsh you know so just leave uh keep the $100 uh fine is that right right that's I think what we I don't remember exactly that we talked about that as a group but that is definitely the recommendation that Moren and Risha were making just what you said Tim okay and this was for the second violation we again uh retain the fine of $200 and not do the suspension of 14 business days correct I think the recommendation that Moren and Risha had made was to keep the fine of $200 but to make the um suspension seven days instead of 14 because it was going to be zero for the first violation and then 7even days for the second instead of 14 days okay and for the third violation it'll be 14 days correct I think that's the recommendation that they were making so I don't know if there's some discussion folks want to have about that it seems reasonable um was it sorry go ahead go ahead Lauren is there a f on that that was my question is there a fine on the third suspension um for the third violation currently there is a fine of $300 and a suspension of 30 days so what we're proposing is keeping the fine of 300 but changing the suspension to 14 days for the third violation of Town regulations pra what were you going to say well I just was curious about um you know what the discussion was in terms of uniformity um with the state it just just listening quickly it seems like we're we're lowering fines and suspensions and there for not um violations you know will be um less I can't think of the word but there's less uh disincentive is what I mean to say and so I was was the General consensus that $1,000 was just too high oh that's for the state yeah fine we are talking about the town no no I know I know that but you know I don't know if $1,000 was even considered uh or if you know so I just wondered I'm not advocating a thousand fine but it does seem overall like we're making um the restrictions more uh more lenient or you know yeah I mean so I guess my question would be since I wasn't haven't been around for a long time when these fines were set for the fines for the first second and third violation of town regulations they're lower fines like you're saying Prema for the state it's a thousand for the town it's only a 100 for first violation so there must have been it's been like that for some time so there must have been some discussion about that right when so that is that true for other towns as well do you know I I don't know I imagine that when these were set or developed that it was to be in sync with what other towns are doing um but I wasn't around I know Tim do you recall um I don't recall but uh I I you know you guys you talked about it last time and made some kind of a decision um as well so I wasn't present I don't need to belabor the point I was just asking for more inform information whatever you decided at the last visit is reasonable unless you want to have more discussion about it well I I would just add because I I do kind of agree with I know that as I said before you know math is and and numbers is not my best strength but I know that the town has issues um and I know with um Cannabis stores that they're supposed to have like certain Community imp I just to wonder what is the intentionality some that could be used for the things that the town needs or you know programs that the town needs so that's I I don't know I hope you heard me oh I was just going to say Lauren you were breaking up a bit I mean I caught some of that I don't know if others were able to yeah catch yeah I was not able to yeah um so Laur Lauren I think I heard you saying something about um you know the importance of fees maybe being available to pay for certain Town services and so questioning whether they should be hire in order to generate more revenue for things I think that's what you were saying yeah yeah okay yes that's a good point you know I I was looking at Northampton tobacco regulations they don't have anything for the town violations they have for the state violations exactly the same numbers but violations related to the the town I don't think or city they don't have anything listed there oh okay so does that mean ahe they would just follow the state I mean is that what's implied or not that they don't have any um fees at all for violations right so the town has some specific regulations I think I think for example the number of tobacco tobacco sale permits prohibition of smoking bars and that is very specific to our town and those are the ones I think we have this fine structure different from the state regulations which are uh State U primarily defined by the state you know uh regulations and penalties so these are same you know $1,000 2,000 and 5,000 for three violations in incrementally but I don't see one in Northampton but I'm not sure other towns have that for Town violations can I ask a question um so if someone is found to be in violation do do they only pay the town violation fee or do they have to pay the state one too when does the State one get levied uh I'll try to answer that you know primarily I think the state doesn't um have penalties for town uh Town loss for example there loss about the number of tobacco sales permits that type of things so so whenever there is a violation of the state it's automatically um those numbers like thousand comes in but when it comes into prohibition of smoking bars in ammer uh minimum pricing of sale of cigars which is a town Town type of a byw and so Town regulations are usually coming under Town penalties so when would the state regulations apply do you know like most towns have governing bodies that decide these things right yeah yeah so the state regulations are governed by the M mgl the moset general law uh within the public health you know that's where state laws comes in yeah so the state regulations are things like you can't sell to a minor that's a St that's set at the state level so we have that in our local regulations but it's a state law so if people violate that state law then they they get the penalties that go with violating a state regulation okay then yeah but then amest has decided to put in a couple other things that are just specific to the town that other towns don't have so if people violate those things then they get penalized according to the town F fine structure okay I understand now thank you sure I think uh Lauren's uh point is really well taken you know in terms of revenues generated by any type of penalties and how we could use it for other related you know uh programs and $100 for the first violation is not that much you know the yeah I mean certainly the other finds are are Hefty you know the $ is a decent fine and and we've levied that you know for a number of times over the last several years um when people have violated it and sold to a minor um so that has generated some some Revenue but to your point Lauren I don't actually know where that Revenue goes what happens with it it's a good question for me to follow up on um in terms of thinking about where those how those fines are used to pay for programs because I don't know the answer to that question but I think um so I will follow up on that just for my own information as well as everybody else's but um I don't know so then it sounds like I think ammer might be somewhat exceptional in having some Town regulations that we are charging people money for violating I don't know how often that happens I looked back through my records and I saw violations of state regulations over the last several years but I didn't knowe any violations of our town regulations so we haven't as I could see recently recouped any of these smaller fines for anything and it sounds like other towns may not even have regulations that are Town specific that they find people for so it would be good to understand how these fees were set initially when this regulation was written you know last written and what that what information that was based on okay so if we can take yeah go ahead sorry if we can take a look at the specific um regulations of the town of amest which which are listed under uh seven violations and then B five there's a whole bunch of uh lists of uh what violations constitute for the town town uh laws right so it includes tobacco handlers quiz and we had discussion about tobacco Handler qu last time but I don't know if he decided on that uh but it also has a uh violations of any type of a uh um exceedence of permits or prohibition of smoking bars that's exclusively um Town oriented or town relevant um so if we can take a look at it and see if they are still relevant um if so I think we should we can reduce the list and since we are getting rid of the suspension I could make a recommendation that we should increase the penalty of the fine you know uh because so we need some sort of a disincentive as Prema was saying you know to follow the yeah to violating the rules so do we want to look at that right now the list as you just pointed out that's on page 11 um under Section seven bullet number five a through J those tobac uh Town specific regulations are any of those no longer relevant well so we talked about the tobacco handlers quiz as you said Tim but I think we we've now kind of I think Meen is rethinking it like oh oh maybe we should talk about that some more because um you know it might be something to talk through with Cheryl Sabara if we decide to invite her to our next meeting I think it would be good to have a list of questions to ask her because Meredith oir did sort of say that she thought it was a good thing and there are some folks that are doing it with good effect I think risha's sort of on the fence I think it would be good for have to have all of us here to talk about that again um but are there other things in this list that folks think maybe we should dispense with I I'm looking at the first one the maximum number of tobacco sales permits that's actually decided by the permitting authorities right why why why will that become an a violation yeah I think it's a good point I thought the same thing and and and same thing with the prohibition of smoking bars you know how would one violate establishing a smoking bar without permit or yes yes it's it's a mismatch the the set of violations to these things are these are this is huge if you actually set up a smoking bar without anybody realizing and we only charge you $100 for doing that that none of that makes sense right yeah yeah and that becomes illegal you know so they're yeah so violating some of the uh loss existing loss yeah and and minimum pricing on the sale of cigars uh that is U some sort of a giving discounts is that right I'm not sure what that means you know well didn't we talk about that last time um about the oh risha's here oh risha's here I'm so sorry completely lost shock of time no worries we're glad to see you thank you for you joined just in the nick of time because Prema has to drop off and now we'll still have a quorum since you're here so that's great um um anyway so Tim do you want to catch Risha up on what we've talked about so far yes um we had been in uh the violation section couple of things we had been discussing is if we get rid of the suspension period for the town violations um I think we talked about this last time I think last meeting um which is $100 for the first violation and then having along with that seven consecutive days of business days of suspension so I think we thought that suspension is a much more harsher penalty and one proposal this just for discussion is to if you are getting rid of the um suspensions we probably need to increase the penalty which is the fine for each one of those from $100 you know little a little bit more because um there there's there's no sufficient disincentive for violation you know so so so that is one of the thing and then we are we are also right now discussing about the list of violations which were mentioned in in that same subsection B5 and U which is which includes tobacco handlers quiz as one of the time violations and I think we discussed about whether we need to have it or not but that is something we can we can discuss but I was also saying the other specific things which were listed which might be redundant for example the maximum number of tobacco sale permit allowed in amost that is decided by the licensing Authority you know primarily the person will not illegally open a uh toaca sales you know permit or startus to because we have to to permit it you know someone is permitting so it becomes very R to have that as a violation the second is also the prohibition of smoking bars you know so violation of establishing a smoking bar illegally that is something you know usually smoking bar licenses or anything is actually controlled by the licensing Authority now so I it may not be a uh it may not be listed as a violation and so those are three things we discussed um and and I don't know what you think about those list you know can I just say I have to leave now my apologies I will see you next month okay thank you PR bye care bye yeah oh sorry Lauren no it's okay I just wanted to ask a question is is it more talking about like the ille Al setup like a informal kind of smoking bar not illegal but like informal um do we even have a definition of smoking bar in here let's see yes we do so an establishment that exclusively occupies an enclosed indoor space derives revenue from food alcohol or other that is incidental to the sale of tobacco yeah cigar bars hookah bars are included in that definition so it's a pretty formal definition of a smoking bar okay yeah um and and so Risha just also to say um that Moren had you know suggest or you both had suggested that we adjust the um suspensions from instead of from 714 and 30 days for first second and third violation of town regulation to 07 and4 which folks generally felt was reasonable but as Tim said you know maybe we want to think about increasing the fines because it's not very punitive but then the whole question was what are the actual things that people would be fined for in that category and this is the list and it's not really a good match as Tim was saying um you know obviously someone wouldn't be able to the maximum number of tobacco sales permits is is set by the licensing they control that somebody couldn't violate that and be fined $100 it's not it doesn't make sense unless I'm missing something it seems like an odd list of things for which you would find people these small amounts of money does that make sense to you yeah and you know I don't think that we considered or discussed that so I think these are all really good points um I I think on its face the the difference was solely what's in the state and what comes under the state mandates and then what's unique and and sort of more municipality run and nobody really thought about whether the crime matches the punishment as it were um so I think it's a really good conversation to have and to consider and and uh uh Kiko was mentioning uh that the historically the violations were more focused on the state violations and we didn't have much of these Town violations in the historically you know people being P penalized for some of those list in the list so yeah and also Northampton had I was just looking at Northampton northampton's tobacco regulations they don't have any City violations or anything section mostly they were all state regulations I don't know if uh I'm reading the right one you knowa you can correct me I I thought they did but I don't have it open right now and so it's probably not a great use of time to for me to try to figure out which is the right one but I can look at that um yeah I mean I didn't do a comprehensive review but I did look back because Meredith since she's the coordinator of the P Valley tobac Coalition occasionally checks in you know wanting me to verify her records with what she has as a list of violations and so over the last two and a half years there have been several violations in to the state regulations sales to minors all of them were sales to minors and there were finds that were collected and all that stuff but I didn't see unless the data were was in a different folder that I didn't look at again not a comprehensive review but nothing stood out to me in terms of any fees that were levied along the violation of town regulations you know those H1 or $200 fines I didn't see anything like that um so I I don't know that those that were actually leving those fines for violations of the Town regulations much so I think as you said Risha it's something to consider the other thing I'm just going to add to this conversation while we're all here is that I did get a report at the end of March from the pvtc again that the a representative went out to conduct education Merchant education and pricing checks in amest among our tobacco retailers and six of the 14 retailers did have I guess you would call them technically their minor violations in that they didn't have their do permits posted they didn't have their B um permits posted they didn't have no smoking signs you know those kinds of things that they're supposed to have I guess per the state regulations now here's where I'd have to right you're you're nodd in your head I'm not as familiar as you are so then the question would be should we be finding them for these kinds of things because I don't think we have traditionally we've only levied those more substantial fines for the sales to Miners and and what what are those fines would it be I guess it would be I don't know state level and that's right required retailer signage is one of the specific penalties for state enforcement so yeah so we don't have control over what's listed or what the fines are if I've understood everything correctly I guess that and I don't know what our what we're allowed to do in terms of not levying a fine um should be right I mean I so Meredith is on vacation this week I was on vacation when I got this email now she's on vacation so we haven't had a chance to connect because my question would be should we be levying fines are other municipalities doing that because that's pretty significant it's almost half of our retailers that are not in compliance and and as you said it feels like a fairly M you know it's it's a piece of paper that's not up um versus I don't know a a vending machine a cigarette vending machine um which feels like a much more blatant disregard for the the regulations um and and you know that's $1,000 for the signage and right now it's $100 for the vending machine right yeah so is there no prohibition against cigarette vending machines in the state regulations no I mean to me it feels like a maybe too specific right that that Self Serve because there's also but I mean that's still a municipality but those are sort of the same things um yeah and then there's this weird and I have to look if there's more of them but like sales of rolling papers to miners is a $25 fee like there's a whole different set of lines for that yeah I know I know um so yeah it feels like there's some leveling that needs to be done here in terms of making sure we've got the right we we can't do anything about the state ones as I understand it but that that ours are the right things and and to be honest if we felt like we had two categories within local regulations if we thought that we had minor and major we could set different fine schemes to to address that so if we felt like um I don't know are any of ours minor not really pricing on the sale of cigars if we felt like that was a minor infraction and $100 felt right on that versus you know sales of products in in educational institutions I don't know right yeah so how do we how do we move this forward do we do would you guys like for a small group of us again sort of you know marine and myself to go and and put our heads together and come up with some suggestions or options um and and come back next meeting or or what would be the best way to because it feels like there's a bunch here that we really haven't thought through I I think it's kind of hard for me to follow um that way and I have to be honest that I Haven and to these places of business and make sure that so I thought that's why we were kind of being more lenient in some ways but I would like to oh or we gonna be in suspense on what she'd like to have I was looking forward to hearing it um I am not able to follow um Lauren is is it possible to call with your phone for the audio um try I can try good suggestion hopefully that will work so I would suggest that we make a comment about this list today and then Risha and Moren can actually work a little bit more on making some suggestions on which we could delete because looks like some of them are redundant but some of them are important so we can actually have those things which you are proposing to have it in the list um you can you can we can discuss in our next meeting yeah and just FYI um now that I have everything in front of me and deepest apologies that I was late uh we had removed the educational materials the quiz um okay list in the latest draft which I think I think we haven't shared just because it's still a work in progress but I see it in front of me and it's not there so um so I think the the question now is on these redundant ones and and does it make any sense to have them in the list yeah and then maybe some thoughts with some pros and cons on sort of you know how much below state or equal to State fines we would want to be um Lauren are you back listen yeah it's still cut out a lot it's okay I'll just listen oh no but I think you were talking about how we enforce at the local um uh regulations right and how we even check is that is that what yes but I don't I don't want to say too much because you probably won't be able to hear me we can hear you really well now um yeah I was just saying before we were saying that there's not enough staff to follow up with these you know infringements and um so I didn't know if that was one of the reasons why we were trying to be a little more lenient um and so I'm kind of getting lost and what Our intention like where we I'm really it's just not clear to me um and I have to do more studying before yeah so you know Kiko jump or anyone jump in if I'm off base because I learning as as we all go but my understanding is that the state has the inspectors for this or you know there's um that come in but they will take our local regulations and check for those as well um and so I don't think we have to I don't think the reason we're considering changing the fines is because we don't have people who can check the fines um that was an issue with the tobacco quiz in particular um whether that was sort of enforceable but I think there are people who go out as Kiko just mentioned she got a report that check um for for this right Kiko am I yeah yeah that's correct um there they are the affiliated with the pvtc the tobacco compliance officers and they do these checks you know not that frequently it's maybe a couple times a year um I think in other municipalities like in Northampton their inspectors do also do some inspections of of tobacco retailers in addition to what the pvtc provides so they're out there a little bit more we don't really have that capacity so much here our inspectors don't do that level of work but I don't know that it's needed necessarily um I think what we should definitely focus on is as long as the tobacco compliance officers are out there and finding violations we should be acting on those and I don't think we have again I should probably go back and really review to make sure but it doesn't seem like we have in the past sorry I unmute uh Kiko you you're going to go and check whether that's happened and then whether it's a mandatory thing that we need to make sure happens right yes right yeah yeah because this is all for fun if we don't have so um I think we we just discussed until the minimum pricing of the sale of cigars what do you think of the other items you know maybe a quick overview so that Risha can take notes and on others you know what what for example the sale of blunt traps is that something constantly violated or is it something prohibition of the sale of products tobacco product products and educational institution that makes sense to keep it you know uh these are schools and universities colleges like that do college do the universities have separate enforcement mechanisms do we they have the a Board of Health you know at UMass right I mean the health officials yeah they have an environmental health department and they have you know university health services so if they're communicable diseases and whatnot among UMass folks we don't track those as a health department they they track it themselves and if there's a building inspection that needs to happen it's Environmental Health at UMass that does it not our inspectors um so I would think I would think that this would fall under the environmental health umbrella regulation of this sort of thing okay I mean I think the it's still useful to be there because it would School however it does um that's not a that we would find that out in different ways than the the inspections right because it's not in a tobacco premise right right get reported or something and that seems fine I mean I think we should check over this whole list and make sure that a it still aligns with everything that's been mentioned as a local regulation um and that we haven't missed any or or have something there that's no longer in the rest of the document but I think the second then question is are breaking of these regulations minor as we are sort of insinuating they are By Their fines or are they closer to the level of the state ones mhm and and there's also other other others in the list which says prohibition of tobacco product vending machines versus prohibition of self-service tobacco product displays I don't know they look like very similar uh display versus vending or it is that a is that something people do in terms of violations or I'm I'm not sure I mean I get so self-service both vending machines and self-service displays have um definitions in the earlier section and they are separate I mean it's just automated versus like having them out on a counter and you take them and Lead money um there's there's certainly ways to streamline this which is you could just Define self-service as also including automated not have to list things doubly but I it it holds up in terms of they are mentioned and they are defined I'm sure there's still an old cigarette vending machine somewhere in town yeah hopefully not being used but I'm sure it exists and uh e and uh H like for example tobacco sales in educational institutions and Healthcare institutions we can always combine them you know and saying educational and Healthcare institutions yeah I think it's just about so I think the the ones in the fine are just perfectly aligned to how we've defined the prohibitions and so we can combine them in both the prohibitions and the fines but if we keep them separate in the prohibitions probably makes sense to call them out separately in the fines and I have no strong opinions on this you know um if we feel like it's fine to to combine them that sounds reasonable I I I'm I'm thinking more on the implementation side you know uh there are so many in the list um and everything is equally weighted in terms of penalties right now so right right so you're essentially suggesting kind of a rewrite of this section in terms of what are the regulations that we list here and then what are the corresponding fines for violating those regulations yes um but that also will become little complicated so now who will decide you know whether it's going to be $100 versus $200 for the first violation and what is the severity of those you know that becomes little more complicated it it seems like it's worth some research so I mean what I hear you saying is is opportunities to streamline this um and I'm sure enforcement people would would appreciate that right it's yeah um it's a little clearer what they have to do and and and certainly the the store owners and and workers also the easier it is for someone to remember the the easier it is for them to adhere to them um so we can definitely look those over and if you see more um we can we'll keep looking at those the fines to me feel like this is a really good space for us to do a little research and see what other municipalities are doing and if there's any sort of Trends in that um that make sense um that give us a sense of a pro or a con of you know the the kinds of levels of fines that they're doing because I just don't know I haven't done that research so some of the fins are written I would say decade old or maybe that so there is inflation you know when we account for it it's nothing you know dollars is nothing based on the profits and stuff like that so I think we have to revisit that type of a change in value of that you know money but I'm not sure if other towns have updated their penalties but uh yeah if he could review what others are doing and maybe we can come back readjust ours all right um looks like we have a plan for that for the next meeting yeah so we'll say and Morin get together and update it in so we'll make suggestions or bring arguments of you know the why you might want to go one way or the other at the next meeting okay all right uh next in our agenda is director's update okay okay oh let me ask one question first which is that um in terms of inviting Cheryl Sabara back to the meeting um are we maybe we're not ready to do that for this next meeting in May um because there's a little more research and whatnot that you want to do I'm just wondering because we talked earlier about maybe we do want to have her come to the next meeting or maybe that's premature the the only thing for me that feels like it would be really useful to have her is is this um Delta whatever conversation where I feel like I just don't have anything to you know it' be useful to have her context I think at this level she might just be able to review what were you know our our suggested draft and give feedback and then also if we come away from the sort of final conversation on where we're landed with a few things we can't quite you know agree on that maybe that's a place to bring her back in but it not sure we have anything specific to ask her at this point okay unless it's this question and maybe we'll find that out as we research that we need to ask her right and as you said that could be something that you and Meen could just call her about or email her about she might be able to answer so then do we just thinking about our next meeting do we want to because the Delta 8 conversation I think is heating up I think absolutely it would be good to get the rundown from her because she's so knowledgeable do we want to try to do that in May as we're also working on this tobacco regulations or is that too much to do in one meeting I I don't know what else is on those two things don't feel too overwhelming I guess it sort of depends on what else pops up and needs to be addressed at a timely manner yeah yeah I mean I said I feel like the delta8 conversation is a little bit time sensitive um so unless we have you know a million geothermal Wells that we need to approve at the next board meeting I would vote to I mean I would suggest that we try to include that on our um agenda for next time if it doesn't feel overwhelming yeah and if you feel like that's time sensitive I mean we can pause on these regulations too if there's too much else right I mean isn't a deadline for this so right that's a good point okay that's a very good point um and it also depends I think on the time that you and Meen have to do research and work on this in between now and the May meeting so so we can you know keep in touch about that yeah I I feel like we're getting really close on these uh tobacco regulations on having it be something to review in writing that people see a draft see the changes remind themselves of oh yeah this sounds right that we agreed on this or like oh we didn't talk about this I I have questions right versus long conversations that I think we've hit almost all the points except this last one which we'll bring back okay all right sounds good thanks go ahead Tim well uh it's director's update okay so um just the usual sort of standing item things for the director's update um in terms of respiratory illness I think we're finally exiting the winter respiratory illness season covid Wastewater levels are definitely on a downward Trend and staying low so we haven't seen any spikes recently um you know anecdotal reports are that there Lots of colds going around still but flu and covid are decreasing definitely so um we did exhaust our supply of covid tests we had so many of them we gave them all the way to people coming here or to community- based organizations so and they've all expired by now so if people still have a cash of them they they technically can't be used any longer we don't have a huge budget to buy more um the CDC is essentially treating you know the new the revised guidance is to treat as any other respiratory illness and the Mass Department of Public Health has also reinforced that guidance and given that to the local Health jurisdictions to you know work work with um but there is some value I think according at least to mass dph in people knowing whether they have covid or flu so being able to have a provider test someone for covid or flu because in some cases there would be treatment indicated for those things in a way that there wouldn't if you just had a common cold so I there could be some value in having covid tests in the future we're going to kind of see what happens and what if the state provides more free ones or if we have some budget spendings or leftover money we need to spend in by the end of the year that might be a good budget item but at this point we don't have any and people still come by right Kyle still come by the office asking for them because they are definitely very popular um so that's sort of the update there um the kindness campaign um this is the last month of the campaign although we're really thinking about trying to keep the Spirit Alive um on that note Lauren um who I guess really has dropped off which is too bad maybe she'll pop back on before the end of the meeting but she has been communicating or working collaborating with me and um Becky from the recreation department on setting up some more mental Wellness um sessions specifically for Adolescence in the month of May so may is actually mental Wellness awareness month I think or mental health awareness month and we're really excited we're collaborating with the um youth mental health collaborative I think it's called out of Springfield they have some great trainers to do two sessions in May for high school students um I can definitely get those flyers out to you all I haven't shared those with you yet Kyle um but because they're sort of outside of the kindness Campaign which is supposed to end at the end of April but we're you know it's still this theme that we're kind of working on and one of them is a spoken word um Workshop it's called I said what I said I meant what I wrote and really kind of encourag young people to express themselves and their emotions through the written word or spoken word so that's we're really excited about hoping to get a lot of young people to come to those um the other mental Wellness workshops that we've done through the kindness campaign have not been that well attended um I had a feeling this might happen it's just some of them have focused specifically on suicide prevention which we know is an issue in our community and nationally that suicide rates are going up but it's a hard thing for people to talk about and what we learned at the session last night which was attended by only one person other than our staff from the trainer was that often times when she does these sessions it's in response to something that's happened a young person has you know died by Suicide or some family member has had a relative who died by Suicide and wants to learn more wants to spread the word and that's when you get people to show up for these things um just out of the blue it's not it's not meeting people's needs so we did have more attendees at the mindfulness session that um sh and mil um conducted that was at the end of March and there were more people who came for that and Heather or Hala Heather Lord is doing one in April which is for families and I think we might get some more attendance there but we're learning a lot about this how to do this and still trying to just spread the word about how being kind and reduces stress and stress is a big Public Health concern so how can we keep spreading the word about that um we had a successful hepatitis A vaccine clinic at Craigs doors we vaccinated 11 guests and three staff and at first we didn't know that we would have much interest at all but people kind of talked to each other at the shelter and there was a lot of peer-to-peer encouragement even that evening people were kind of convincing each other to get vaccinated so it was actually A really lovely fun Feelgood kind of event so that felt great and we want to be able to do more um hepatitis A vaccine with that population in other ways so we're continuing to collaborate with Craig's doors on that um I don't really have much to to say about National Public Health week which was the first week in April it's sometimes hard to come up with things to do to celebrate that uh I think Northampton had a lot of events like car safety um education evenings and um vaccine clinics um but we just kind of put the word out about it and try to remind people that we're still here in public health and we're still doing our work so maybe next year we could plan something I think it's something we have to think about more ahead of time and maybe that would be a good board of health Public Health Department collaborative activity to plan something for National Public Health Week to again kind of raise our visibility as public health people do forget the important work that we do when there's not a pandemic raging so it's always good to remind people about why we're here um and on that note our public health nurse Olivia has been doing office hours at the bangs um she's the second Wednesday of the month so uh we actually had a lot of interest before it officially got going some people were knocking on her door last month it was really supposed to start this month um but so she has seen a couple of people and it's just nice for her to be able to offer blood pressure screenings and health education she's in The Bubble Room which is on the ground floor of um the bank center and has had a couple of not huge volume but I think it will will um it'll take off with time um it's great for people to have time with the public health nurse just to talk about whatever is of concern to them so we're happy about that um those are the main things that were on my list I did want to mention that we we get these infectious disease reports every month through the maven database and also through our collaboration with the public health Excellence Grant that's run by the city of Northampton so I could add this as a standing agenda item you know our infectious disease reports I think it's probably not that interesting to drill through the whole list of things how many TV cases this month probably not that interesting but if there's something that's kind of standing out I might bring it up and one thing that is standing out is that we are already seeing cases of tickborne disease some lime and anop plasmosis um and it's really early in the season so we're gearing up for what is going to be probably a prolific tick and mosquito season with all this lovely rain that we've had and if it starts to get hot at some point it's just the perfect prescription for lots of bugs reproducing so um yeah we're just going to keep an eye on that um I think you've also heard about Aven flu kind of being out there um and some cases that it has there was one case um in Texas so Mass Department of Health is just kind of on the alert nothing is happening we don't have any it was Avan flu was found in dairy cows in Texas and that the person who got infected got it from a cow no cases of dairy cows in Massachusetts with Aven flu um so we're just on aware of it but nothing we're not doing anything right now except just keeping an eye out and listening to whatever the Mass Department of Public Health has to say about it so also no measles cases in m Massachusetts right now thankfully hopefully it stays that way I don't think I have anything else any questions comments um the the conversation around the Infectious Disease report is there anything akin to that for non-infectious I mean is there sort of a um morbidity mortality you know like we we don't have a lot of deaths so we aren't going to have like a a death report but of you know injuries harm things that detract from Life quality is there anything that sort of combines infectious and non-infectious gives us a sense of where the trends are or where the the greatest need is yeah I think we don't have those kind of data at the hyper local level I mean because we are charged with tracking infectious disease at the local municipal level we get all the all the reportable diseases we have in our townwide database but for some of those other things it would be more like the state puts out reports that are maybe countywide or Statewide um so we can look at trends that are more General but not so specific to ammer so much that I'm aware of and then the is there a Hampshire County Public Health that then is mandated to look at that well there aren't County Health departments so there isn't County entity I mean I think the the public health excellent Grant does try to because they have the townwide reports you know for infectious disease for 16 communities in Hampshire County they can kind of look at a countywide trend for those infectious diseases but in terms of these other things I don't know who's collecting those data and how I mean I think the state probably has some that like for example hospitalization data I go on the mass dph site and I can see in Hampshire County how many hospitalizations there have been um but other sorts of data I'm not really tracking that closely do you have a specific thing that you're thinking about just general no I was just thinking you know if if we if we're doing if if we're trying to think of where to invest and we're we're talking about you know these various things like how does how does the harm or potential harm from a hep a compared to Road accidents or you know completely other things and I don't have any sense of that so I was wondering if there's a place to look yeah yeah I mean those if we had County Health departments those kind of data would be tracked at the County Health Department level and because the locals are often so small like maybe in Boston they can track that stuff better but I don't think we have an infrastructure here to do that um for things like overdose deaths those kinds of data are collected by the state at the ZIP code level so we know kind of roughly what's happening with that and amers but we don't collect it ourselves so for some of these other things if there's not a state mechanism in place to collect them then we don't really have access to that info yeah okay makes sense just still learning the no it's a good question I'm also still learning so I my answer might not be 100% accurate but I I'll also keep this in mind as something to think about too because it helps in terms of understanding what our public health issues are in the town and how we should be addressing them we need to know what they are before we can address them thanks for that question um one thing I thought about though before we adjourn which is uh Prema made me aware that this meeting was meeting time was changed to 5:30 from 5:00 to accommodate her schedule and today was an anomaly for her she but she normally does not have to work on Thursday nights so she said the meeting could go back to 5 o'clock if that's something that people want now we only have two folks two board members on the call right now but I just wanted to put that out there as something that would that work for you both and Tim to start at 5 instead of 5:30 yeah it's fine with me yeah me too 5:00 too okay okay so maybe we can um chat with Meen about that when she gets back see if we want to change the time and Lauren I don't know yes yeah exactly yeah thank um one more thing is uh uh is there a is there a way to arrange a hot spot or something for Lauren you know for some sort of a borrow for that month or no each month you know for during the meeting I think it will help Communications you know really well so because I think the signal signal is being lost you know yeah and we want everyone to participate that's the I know I so appreciate you saying that do you know Tim is that something that had been suggested before it sounds like it may have been suggested before I suggested a couple of times before okay and did Jen did Jen try to make that happen or do you know no no it was not I think it it's not that that expensive I think if even the Board of Health can get one you know if they could right to use for various things right exactly and um okay thank you good suggestion thanks I feel like does the library have them I feel like I've seen someplace that gives them out or has them um and I wonder if we could be a facilitator of getting yeah getting that for because I I think expanding access is really important right it might be Lauren now but it could be anybody that we want to participate in the future so that's a great Point yep y I don't mind but I was just remembering that I've seen them somewhere yeah yeah we can look into that for sure yeah I remember um I know libraries is one option schools might also lend uh heart spots you know they lend laptops but I'm not sure about hotpots yeah and there may be resources and I also like the idea of it being something that we that we have for ourselves for the Board of Health for public health because I think we could use it for a number of reasons exactly uh especially when we are having clinics or anything wherever you want to have a Wi-Fi connection you know it'll be wonderful to have one so yeah okay awesome uh one one question related to director's update I know we are potentially going to have a um larger tick and mosquito uh type of a season I'm just curious I think we' subscribed to Pioneer Valley mosquito control I think surveys District yes district and uh I'm just curious you know I I think uh if they will be actually more providing us more frequent information um uh on on the you know any potential cases or what is the risk involved in this you know I I'm just curious about that yeah no I'm glad you asked that so they will be doing they did fairly comprehensive surveillance starting last year and they'll start doing that in in early summer they're also going to do we've had some I've made a budget request to pay for some treatment as well so there because there was a a a westnile positive pool in September in North ammer last year and so they know that there was West Nile in that area of town So the plan is to begin treating that pool with briquettes you know that that kill the larvi in early summer in that area so we knew that there was West now there last year let's get ahead of the game by treating it early in the season so that's plan number one and then the surveillance will continue throughout the summer and if there is more prevalence then there could be possibilities of more intervention down the road if needed um but yes we're doing treatment for the first time um this year based on what happened last year would there be an interest and I I say this for myself personally I would be interested in um learning more about what we can do at the household level to you know prevent or um or treat in ways that is you know both approved and safe and all of those things yeah I know I mean Kyle we've certainly done a lot of Education about mosquito born illness as the season ramps up and there's you know all the traditional things like make sure you have screens in your windows no standing water wear repellent long sleeves you know all that sort of stuff um but if there are in terms of treatment it might be actually good to give education to some people because there are those companies out there that do mosquito spraying and some people feel like maybe that's the way to go I think there's mixed feelings about whether that is the way to go um it can be expensive how toxic is it these are all questions that people probably have and I don't know if we've have developed education material about that sort of thing it might be worthwhile to do that yeah that could be something maybe we take on as a as a one pager that we put on the website and and and I when I say we I don't know who I'm talking about necessarily but um you know whether that's the board or the department or um but it it feels like you know maybe we don't need to do big sessions but that is kind of what I was talking about is there's always these signs for different sprayers or treatments and you know as a as a resident I don't really know what is in those things or what is the latest um recommendation so maybe just a the the personal I agree has gotten out pretty well yeah but more at the household level or the business yeah um um so John Briggs who is the sort of director of the Pioneer Valley mosquito control dist he's super knowledgeable and when I first met him he did talk to me somewhat about these companies um and I think he we could pick his brain and come up do develop a really nice one pager about this that we could put on the website along with the general you know education about what to do um because I those signs are very compelling I remember when I first moved here I saw them everywhere so yeah yeah and they probably have one right I mean this isn't different town to town so right exactly yeah yeah okay awesome um we don't have any topics uh not anticipated recent days so it's time to adjourn so I will make a motion to adjourn uh the April meeting of the Board of Health I think I'm the only one who can second it exactly all in [Music] favor hi hi oh meeting ad jined thanks all thank you everyone have a good evening bye bye