e e e e and recording in progress hi Jerry hey Jerry hi so welcome everyone uh to the town of reading Board of Health meeting uh so we'll start the meeting with a roll call um I'll start uh I'm Rick Lopez uh chair of the board uh Paula present Kevin yep Joan yes okay very good um in terms of the agenda tonight we're reviewing the minutes from um the short meeting we had on March 26th as well as our regular meeting on April 11th uh we'll have public comment if there are any members of the public and then we'll go on to uh a variance discussion from Professor Market um a Camp permit uh discussion which we've had the last couple years from the YMCA um Erica will be doing a followup on the opior funds um and there's Carrie hi Carrie hey Carrie hi guys sorry to be late okay um and Carrie actually had suggested um that Albert plus from the office of equity and social justice Come and Talk um to the board about um his area as and particularly as it relates to our our three goals uh in our chip and then um a day will wrap it up with our usual monthly report so forth so um in terms of minutes from April uh 26 um they look pretty good to me any comments suggestions edits uh yes um just one little one y um on paragraph two under food code oh no we're um we're doing the March 26th oh sorry yep that's okay um that was fine by me okay every okay with everybody else um yep so I make a motion to uh approve the minutes from March 26 do I have a second roll call uh Carrie yes Paula yes Kevin yes Joe yes great thank you and then um for our last regularly scheduled meeting on April 11th Paula you had a yeah paragraph two line six I think it should say cook chill not cook shill it starts with Jennifer Velasquez cook chill yeah this it says it twice but the second time yes next to the bottom of the page yeah that's it right there chill yeah thank you and otherwise it looked fine to me yeah good catch paa yeah because I'm a slow reader and I had um one actual suggestion on that same segment around the food code um for someone who wasn't at the meeting and reading this um they may wonder what the outcome of that discussion was and so I would add a sentence at the end of the adoption of 2022 food code to say um you know that board agreed that uh we would plan a public hearing um ah on the on this change Point good point really good point with those um edits I'll make a motion to approve the minutes uh from April 11th I have a second second second Kevin uh roll call Carrie yes Paula yes Kevin yes and Joe yes thank you great um I don't see any members of the public here so we'll move on from that uh agenda item and I'll turn it over to a day for the uh professor's Market discussion introduction all right um thank you very much Dr Lopez so I'll just go ahead and G um give a brief uh introduction and then um hand it over to Tiffany from Burger Food Consulting um so this is um this is about requesting a variance for professor's Market um the food establishment um the food code states that a food establishment shall obtain a variance from the Board of Health before Packaging time temperature control for safety food using a reduced oxygen packaging method the food code also states that a food establishment that packages time temperature control for safety food using a reduced oxygen packaging method shall Implement a hazard plan which is the um Hazard analysis and critical control point plan Professor Market is here to tonight um Mr Frank Pelini and um Mrs um Tiffany Todd um they're here to um request to conduct uh the specialized processing method which is called the reduce oxygen packaging in order to impede the growth of microorganisms that can spoil their food products um which will in turn increase the shelf life of of their food products now um I know people are wondering what exactly uh reduced oxygen packaging means um it is essentially the reduction of the amount of oxygen in a package by removing the oxygen displacing the oxygen and replacing it with another gas or combination of gases or otherwise controlling the oxygen content to a level below the level normally found in the atmosphere it is also a process that involves a food for which the hazards posterum Binum or leria monocytogenes require control in the final packaged form can you put up the Red Slide please all right so there are five different types of reduced oxygen packaging methods we have the modified atmosphere packaging we have the vacuum packaging we have the controlled atmosphere packaging we have the cooked chill packaging and we have the Sid packaging Professor Market is here tonight requesting to conduct vacuum packaging in which air is removed from a package of food and the package is hermatic sealed so that a vacuum remains inside the package thereby impeding the ability of microorganisms to grow and SPO the food I will now hand it over to Tiffany from Burger Food Consulting to give a quick presentation about the variance request the methods involved and what Professor Market is trying to achieve well you pretty much summed it up um professer Market wants to take some marinated different proteins marinate them and then vacuum package them and then sell them for retail sale in their establishment H they will follow the has a plan following the critical control points of temperature control and of the labeling to make sure that we don't have any issues there and that all employees are aware of the temperature requirements of remaining below 41 degrees and the time parameters that we are allowed to hold that meet at 41 and below and um they also submitted uh a asset plan to us so if you want to like quickly go through it you know just just briefly um through the hassard plan sure So the hassard plan uh that is how that's Hazard analysis critical control point so we identify the hazards that we're worried about most of our pathogens like salmonella and eoli they'll be dealt with because they're kind of competing organisms so the two big ones that you've already mentioned are uh costum bachelin and leria and those we are going to control through monitoring during the temperature um they will keep a written log of the refrigerator and freezer temperatures that they'll check twice a day they'll maintain their records for 30 days I mean excuse me they'll maintain their records for six months um Frank Pelini is the trained designated person so all vacuum packaging will be done under his supervision um standard food safety practices of there's no bare hand contact allowed all of their sanitizers and um areas need to be cleaned and sanitized they need to have everything up to date there let's see we also talk about how things move in their establishment in the hassa pl they receive the food food TCS food is immediately put into proper storage they also have to because Clum botolinum can be found in the air and it can come in on products they need to be very careful about keeping the area clean and keeping their vacuum packaging bags in a sealed containers so that they stay clean there's no chance of contamination there and labeling is really important in the house of plan as well all products have to be labeled with the following um what the product is that it must be refrigerated at 41 degrees or lower the date that it was vacuum packaged and then the statement not used by not to exceed 30 days from date packaged and packaged by which would identify oh there it is which would ident identify um the employee who packaged it if items are frozen then we also have to have an additional statement that says that it must remain Frozen and to be used within four days of tha and then post packaging is when we're worried about it Clum botanium can grow without oxygen which is exactly what we're doing we're removing the oxygen from that package and that's why we want to make sure that we stay at 41 or below to limit the possibility of that growth um just scrolling through you have the flowchart that shows they receive the packaging they store it they receive their raw poultry so the um I'm on page six has the flow chart I think oh no maybe it's there you go yeah yes so that's yep that shows how everything comes in how it's stored and then the two critical control points of labeling and then storing at appropriate temperatures then further down we have some training information and then all of their Serve Safe certificates allergen certificates and then on page 20 is their log that they will maintain whenever product is vacuum packaged these are the records that they will keep for six months along with the um refrigerator freezer log yeah the right um those are the recipes and then there's all the specs for the vacuum packaging machine are there any questions I can answer um go ahead Karen sorry just trying to get to my got multiple windows here yes thank you um I know that there there's one person who's trained on that is that typical and what you see um Tiffany for um for for folks and and is there accommodation for if um if somebody was on vacation or anything like that how how would that impact um it is typical usually it's the chef or the SEF that that's the only one in larger establishments they may have more people it's certainly I think it's a document that could be updated if Frank wants to add an additional employees later on down the road but I know a lot of lot of people like to have control of it the less people he he can supervise others doing it got it got it yes thanks yeah and I know it's a lot of it's a lot of work so you know I commend professor's market for taking this on and um you know recognize that the skill and effort that goes into it this is a extra level thank you any other questions um I have I have a couple um one is Tiffany um the plan looks extremely complete and uh detailed um is is this process um and the plan to do it correctly is this comparable to um sort of Industry standards I mean we've all we've all purchased vacuum packed you know meats or products before so it's done on large scale in in Industry food in the food industry is this plan um comparable to the kinds of stand FDA standards that uh those Health Industries are held to um at retail yes it really doesn't matter if they do vacuum packaging once a month or they do it every day these are the steps that they have to follow these are the parameters that they have to work within okay and I would ask a day um does professor's Market having this process does that change in any way the frequency of inspections that um from the health department that you would do or does it change the risk factors and and increase the frequency or not um not necessarily but um you know we just have to uh wait and see um so essentially they had their product for like I think four to seven days but now uh if this is approved they'll be able to have a shelf life of almost 30 days you know so they don't have to keep making it like every you know every week or so um again we're just going to have to wait and see um if they're following the you know the Hass plan if they're following the food code and everything um but for now you know I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and um you know and just go from there I have uh reviewed the the hasset plan myself and it looks uh adequate um and I recommend that the board approve this variance request any other comments questions [Music] okay so I would um I'll make a motion to approve the professor's Market variance request for reduced oxygen packaging I second that thank you Paula roll call uh Carrie yes Paula yes Kevin yes Joan yes and Rick yes great well thank Tiffany um I believe Mr Pelini would like to speak okay you on mute Mr P can you unmute yourself Cassidy can you unmute him no no I asked him to unmute uh he says he did Frank try holding the space bar down maybe there's a technical issue no check volume that's the other trick that gets sometimes if if um the computer volume is down or muted on the keyboard ER had that same experience I can tell I saw her grin at me or maybe not Pini the um the mute button is in the lower leftand corner looks like a microphone do is that what you've clicked um no well I think we'll probably need to move on um but I appreciate uh your presence here and and Tiffany your explanation um of the process and I'm glad we were able to accommodate the request thank you byebye thank you okay um you too Mr pel Grey so next um are you going to uh handle the uh YMCA request yes but um I don't is there anybody in the waiting room for YMCA okay no Mar I don't it's not important for them to be here I guess so uh we'll wait for them to uh show up at the next meeting to ask for this so we'll defer this to the next meeting correct okay were was somebody supposed to show up a day absolutely uh yes to show up so the only um and the only thing about this and I you could certainly defer them to June is that do they need to have um a permit in order to begin to enroll um campers into their camp and we're delaying it to June whenever that is well honestly I feel if it's important to them they will be here yes so I think this has come up in the past where it was customary to to send the letter not to show up necessarily I I don't remember the why being the room too many years um in regards to their camps and I I remember specific speically I think we ran into the same thing last year and it was just there it's not their um it hadn't been the customary way that they needed to go about it they sent the letter in and the request and then the board either was yay and nay them being here would be more um from a effect if we were going to deny it you know they'd want to be here obviously um but they probably feel pretty confident that we're not going to which assuming we're not um going to yeah Mike I I sort of agree with you Kevin I think um uh I wouldn't mind deferring it but I don't want to impede uh you know their enrollment uh a whole month and um which could be very problematic I I I vaguely remember that was potentially an issue and as I understand it a day the um the letter you that you included in the pre-board information the letter from last year to them um they met all uh six of the requirements and to your understanding do they still meet all six requirements I mean I can I can give a quick uh presentation on their behalf and the board can go ahead and make a decision based on my presentation um but again if this was important to them somebody will be here tonight one and two um I'm not comfortable you know um pretty much issuing a permit prior to inspection um to a place that you know that provides services to kids so I'm not comfortable with that but I can advocate for them and the board can um make a determination tonight and then I'll just let them know that this happens again they won't tolerate it you know if you don't show up it is not important to you um how does the board feel about that Terry I I I understand what you're saying a day and I I I I I do support that you know that that this is a thing I think that we're challenged because past practice has been different and we um and you know this is a relationship thing too as well so I think that's the the challenge of this um but I you're I I would tend to agree that um issuing a permit um before um inspection is a little um problematic um so I I understand why you're expressing this I hope we can work this out um and figure out how to make sure that the Y is um is a active participant going forward I mean we really it does it does put the town in a difficult position you know issuing issuing a permit prior to inspe we can resend it but um it's just complicated so all right so I'll just go ahead and um advocate for them and uh the board can make a decision so YMCA is requesting permission from the Board of Health to operate a recreational camp without prior inspection the YMCA serves students that use vouchers as a means of payment and the state will not allow the YMCA to register these du students until a recreational camp permit has been issued by the Board of Health 105 CMR 430 which is the minimum standards for recreational camps for children makes provision for local Boards of Health to Grant a license without prior inspection based on the following conditions one um the camp is under the same ownership and directorship as the prior camping season two the camp has had a satisfactory inspection report the prior camping season three the Board of Health determines based upon the record of the camp there is no evident risk to the health and safety of campers and four the camp is subsequently inspected by the board of health during the camping season so based on on those um you know those uh criteria um the YMCA meets all the requirements um I would um recommend that the B the board Grant a license without prior inspection to YMCA with the understanding that the camp will be subsequently inspected during the 2024 season and also with the understanding that they would have to show up at the next bille meeting in 2025 so I think that's reasonable yeah you you had included on last year's letter two other conditions which weren't up on the screen one was that the camp submitted a timely application for renewal of its license and secondly that the recreational camp is located in the same site um are those would you a day would you apply those two criteria as well correct yes so those are those are valid they're still in same location and they have turned in their application they have okay go ahead Carrie you're on mute you're on mute Carrie sorry of course I am um a day who will be doing the inspection all right so uh as you all know um our health inspector is leaving um but I am in talks with um Anette who is our shared services coordinator to see if we can get um the shared services nurse and the inspector help us out if not I'll do it okay thank you um just so it's it's fresh in our head uh a day can we invite the um the director here for our June meeting anyway because we did this last year right now fast forward a year and I'm a little fuzzy on exactly the reasoning why from Rick what you had said earlier I think you're correct there's a timing issue of it all um and there's definitely an issue how it used to be done so let's just kind of get it get it out right while it's fresh in our head so just invite them up to the next meeting put them on for a 10-minute um discussion just so we can all get on the same page what 2025 is going to look like and why it needs to look like that y that would be my suggestion I agree okay so I would um I would make a motion that we um Grant the permit but make it dependent on um uh three conditions um one is that uh in a day's judgment the camp meets um all six or at least all six requirements that were listed on the letter from last year that secondly um that Maryann hanifen come to our meeting in June to explain um why this is required this way before an inspection um And to clarify um uh and and and third to sort of secure an agreement from the YMCA that they will appear in 2025 um in a timely ma manner to um if this request is made again so there would be three requirements um but presuming that um uh those who met or particularly the the the six uh requirements you had on your letter for May 11 2023 um that you can go ahead and approve the permit so it's we're approving it dependent on those six items being uh met and before anybody second it Rick can I interrupt you real quickly you may um I wouldn't make all three of those together because if they can't come to the June meeting that will negate their permit so I'd do the permit and okay do the other two things just to be okay so let's let's cous the other two things for the the June meeting let's just go with the six requirements if they meet the six requirements from a days May 11th 2023 um uh letter to them then um he can go ahead and approve the permit and Kevin you're seconding that second okay roll call Kevin yes Paula yes Carrie yes Joan yes and Rick yes all right that's a plan as they say right Erica thank you for being so patient and um you know we uh we had a brief discussion at our last meeting because one of the three as you know one of the three uh goals for our community health Improvement plan uh is to address substance abuse and and mental health issues and it came up in that discussion about the op batement funds and uh and reading being actually the only Town that's actually done anything with them in our shared services collaborative um and so I think we wanted to kind of hear uh where the Coalition is coming from what they're doing what we can expect um it would would be interesting to to hear that we've been wanting to have you anyway to give us an update uh for the longest time so thank you com wonderful thank you Dr Lopez I appreciate the invitation and hello to all the board members uh to those of you I know it's nice to see you again for those I don't know my name is Erica mcare I'm the director of the reading Coalition for prevention and support we're located at the Reading Police Department um tonight I'm going to go over very briefly just a snapshot of who the Coalition is what our history is so you have a sense of um kind of why we are doing what we do um the actual allowable use of the funds as defined by the state and the settlements and our future plans moving forward so a little bit about the Coalition um do we have the slides being shared a day yes okay great um so a little bit about the Coalition um we started in 2006 by uh local community leaders families um our police chief Town manager uh Superintendent at the time many young people in response to opioid overdoses that were happening in the early to mid 2000s and the decision was made to form a community-based coalition that would focus on primarily prevention with the opportunity to maybe expand Services over time to intervention and treatment so over the last 16 years um that I've been in in the position we really have built an enormous amount of capacity and grown our services and our program for the first 10 years of the Coalition we were funded by a Federal grant as well as some State Attorney General funds that were also part of a settlement um we raised um we can just stay on the about rcps slide if you would thank you um in our grant work we raised 1.2 million in federal grants and then an additional 750,000 in other grants we expended all of those funds to support our local community in reducing substance misuse improving collaboration and promoting mental health so we do have long-term experience with funding managing the requirements of of state and federal details which can be very P niky um and we really um have the expertise so our current funding model which is on the next slide um for the last um I guess eight eight or so years has been um focused on being under the the town structure so when our Federal grant ended we were given 10 years of the grant with the expectation that the town because they had made an investment in our work would ultimately pick us up as a um in-house program and with the support of the police department taking us on we were able to do that with the town support we also received additional funding from the town um town meeting group um to hire our Public Safety clinician and then for the past few years we've received a small amount of additional funding from the opioid settlement funds um we do our work based on a variety of needs assessments so we never do anything just because we feel like it it's very much Guided by prevention practice um we participate in a regional needs assessment which is funded by Our Community Regional Coalition which is Mystic Valley Public Health Coalition that's Medford Malden Melrose Wakefield reading stonum Winchester um and together we work on these specific issues of substance misuse priorities and we conduct a fulls scale needs assess assessment every two to three years we just recently finished ours last year this includes key informant interviews discussions with people directly impacted by substance misuse and Recovery um we talk with young people we conduct large scale surveys uh qualitative and quantitative data um we conduct a youth needs assessment every two years in grades 6 through 12 with the reading public schools and and the middle sex League that's our youth risk behavior survey we do conduct an annual review of Dent certificates we look for all of the information related to um how a person lost their life whether they died due to substance misuse or by Suicide side and that information is incorporated into uh understanding the context of these cases we collect key informant data post evaluations and other key points of information um throughout the work that we do we track all our activities and client interactions in a cloud-based software that's hippoc compliant called social Solutions and we track all our mental health and sub substance use calls for service and follow-up so we have a lot of information that gives us details on what trends are happening where are the priorities where are the sticking points for some of these key issues where are the the areas of the Behavioral Health Care System where we're falling down where are people finding gaps in services and so on we can go to the next slide this is just our staff um we there's three of us myself the director we have Tanya jereni who is our Public Safety clinician she is uh dually licensed in massachusett as a licensed mental health counselor and a licensed alcohol and drug counselor so she provides both of those Therapies and can work with duly diagnosed clients um Jess Cruz is our Outreach coordinator we have a therapeutic space in our office um and that's where Tanya sees most of her clients uh we're located in the police station but she also sees clients privately in library space as well as at the schools all across the district next slide please so just a little bit about the funds overview um over the last couple years when we were initially um this all started about four years ago we knew the settlements were happening we knew the lawsuits were happening we met early with the town manager at the time and discussed what things might look like there was a lot of Loosey Goosey numbers in terms of what it might look like when it might happen um it definitely took a lot longer than we had anticipated but we just got the first deposits in 2022 2023 and when we got the first deposits we really weren't sure even though there were expected dates of deposit for future funds we really weren't sure if those deposits were going to Happ so in the first year we drew down 23,000 under the town manager's discretion with the approval of town manager um with t with the approval of the Town manager and town meeting um to use it for specific things that are allowed under the opioid settlement this current year we did the same thing because again we were expecting additional funds but weren't quite sure what was going to actually happen a couple things we've learned since then um settlement deposits are expected from a number of the the settlements Johnson and Johnson Tava Allergan CVS Walgreens and Walmart we expect portions of those settlements to happen through 2039 however there is no true guarantee we've had two deposits in March that came in and then were rescinded because it was a mistake on the part of the settlement um we've had changes due to settlement implementation cost so the numbers change and the timeline of payments is constantly modified so we're part of care Mass which is the Statewide network of municipalities that are drawing down on funds and have to report in their reporting system so we have pair sharing calls we do conferences we're learning about how we do this the right way um I feel very passionately about this particular issue the reason These funds are available is because of the malpractice that happened and also um how marketing was done um and the many lives and people we lost and the many many people who developed the disease of addiction because of how um the products were marketed so there are some specific areas that the settlement allows you to expend funds in the first is prevent misuse of opioids um connections to care those connections to care do need to be specific to mental health and substance misuse harm reduction and then treatment and Recovery again that is specific to um substance misuse or substance use disorder um or specifically opioid use disorder next slide please so for the past fiscal years we have focused in all of the allowable uses allowable use one uh prevent misuse of opioids um just a little bit for you to understand in terms of how you are allowed to use the funds you can't supplant something so you can't take the funding to replace a position you already have so that you could use money in another way you have to either grow something you're already doing that meets the criteria or you can pilot new initiatives or you can partner on initiatives so there's a couple areas that we have a history in but we needed to scale those up um with the addition of a small amount of funding so our team mental health first aid program has grown um we teach this program in grade 11 one of the components of the program is that every student that is certified um learns the recovery position um so they understand what to do in case of an overdose um they also understand about Narcan they learn how to call 911 what the Good Samaritan law is all of these techniques are part of understanding how to respond um in the unfortunate situation that they witness an overdose um we also do a lot of prevention work before we do Teen Mental Health First Aid which is focused on opioid misuse for grades nine and 11 we have a rocket leaders and action peer leadership program um we have our Mental Health First Aid programs for parents uh adults and older adults each of those components reviews the impact of substance use how to help someone what the resources are how to connect someone to care and then we also are going to be working with um a storytelling company um which is a nonprofit um in our state that has done work with us previously to do some prevention education for our middle schools next slide please um for the allowable use on connections to care we're doing a lot of work in this area it's the area that we know is the most frustrating for residents that are trying to access care accessing care continues to be a struggle for many people despite Insurance despite lot of the resources that out there when you're in a situation where you need something the process is not always as easy as it should be so one of the resources that the funds a portion of the funds pay for is our interface referral service which is a contracted service through William James College um there are um trained counselors that answer the phone and it's a matchmaking service for outpatient mental health care so callers can call in let them know what they're looking for uh you know I'm a 16-year-old child they seem to be dependent on marijuana I don't know where to where to start if they needed a therapist if they need a psychiatrist and um what interface will do is ju of research come back to them with two or three matches in the next couple weeks with open appointments and at times that the family has requested they can actually do therapy so what that means is it saves you calling 12 places that may no longer be taking patients or don't take your insurance or don't have availability um we've had 240 reading families match with outpatient services in the last two years the interface system has 10,000 providers in their system they are all credentials they are licensed no malpractice issues um interface is aware when some practices are on vacation when they've closed down different patient areas what their expertise is do they do good with kids five and under a Homebase care do they do great with kids 11 to 12 that work on anxiety issues so that level and specif spe ificity within the mental health care system is rare it's often times people throwing you a list from the insurance company and you have no idea what the expertise is what they specialize in how your family will connect that being said about 75% of the providers that are currently in the database since covid only see patients through telea health so there is still a gap in inpatient therapeutic services and inpatient substance misuse services so that is an area we are working on and we do have some other referral sources but I just want to let the board know that this is continuing to be a frustration for many people because during covid many of the behavioral health practitioners gave up their offices their leasing space and they started these online practices and um the insurance companies don't pay a higher amount if they go back to in person so there is a limitation in terms of that but we're doing the best we can to connect families to care um we hosted a providers breakfast at um Reading Public Schools this year that was trying to bring together local mental health and substance misuse providers in the area with our school staff and our school clinicians and our School nurses we did a lot of great brainstorming and networking and connection the more we know about the providers that are providing care in our community and the more they know about what issues our young people are facing as well as our adults the better that we can work as a community um we operate the reading Crisis Intervention team um with the Reading Police Department that is um a specialized team that is focused on intervening in crisis situations and then providing quick followup after an incident um we also have um about 80% of our officers that are trained in the crisis intervention team um program which is a 40-hour training that focuses on deescalation of mental health challenges and referral TOS Services we also engage with the critical incident management system or Sims it's a middle sex County effort we enter and track all follow-ups of any calls for service of those experiencing Behavioral Health incidents or overdoses if they're over 18 we entered 155 cases just in the last year from reading and what this allows us to do is if someone has an incident in stonum and they would like a followup because they live in Reading we can communicate that information confidentially hpoc compliant so that we can get that person multiple Services if they prefer to have services in their Community or Beyond so this is a very robust system um that was developed by Kelly research Associates um and we found it to be very helpful it also gives us data on how many people actually accept follow-up care um statistically and this is kind of Nationwide um when folks do get a crisis followup or a behavioral health followup um from their Community only about 7% accept services so there's still that challenge of people being ready to accept services so a lot of the work that we do is trying to build rapport and engage people meet them where they're at but continue to offer because there may be a time when they do feel ready we um run the pocket talk translator program for the town we've disseminated 35 devices to our schools our officers and town staff to improve communication and referral these devices allow you to speak 80 languages they also keep a record so that you can use it for notes um and it's much easier to use than a Google app or something on your phone because it's meant for communication verbal communication um we just just deonate a lot of resource lists so although a resource list is isn't everything sometimes it's a place to start with folks and so we do have all that material available all of our officers have packets that they can share with families um and we do follow up in the schools with those resources every school in the district has them as well as AUST CP you can go to the next slide um the next allowable use is harm reduction so this focuses on things that may reduce harm for someone who's actively misusing a substance especially opioids most of what we see right now in terms of opioid use is fentanyl use um it can be fentanyl mixed with something else it's often for the most part I would say 99% of it is counterfeit fentanyl it's a legal synthetic fentanyl it's not hospital grade fentanyl um so we see most of the overdose situations related to that type of fentanyl it's very potent um we do disseminate Naran and we do educate people on Naran um in the last year um we had 42 adults trained in overdose prevention and were provided with Naran doses we partnered on the health department with that so we did those trainings with the the public health nurse at the local library and we found that to be a nice um connection so we hope to do that in the future when your Staffing rimps back up we also have additional Narcan doses at our station um we provide all of the um doses for the School nurses they are required by state law to have a dose in each of the buildings so they have two doses in each of the school buildings including um whether doesn't matter what age El eles have to have it everyone has to have it um and part of the school law outlines that um it may be an adult on campus that goes down it could be a child it could be um an accidental um exposure so we need to have that Naran available obviously our First Responders are the the biggest administrators of Narcan and they carry the IV Narcan as well as nasal and they're really the experts in um reversing overdose in our community and have done an amazing job in saving lives this is just to supplement you know other people's access um in terms of um prevention we do a lot of work with young people around having them understand what fentanyl looks like what counterfeit fentanyl is what compound pills look like what we see in terms of people getting access to fentanyl is press pills that are illegally produced so we have drug dealers that have little pill presses in their basement and they mix things together and they make a little pill put a stamp on it you could look up the the pill description and it would look like an authentic um medication so it's very confusing for people um when people get a little further in their use they do know what they're getting um but sometimes they don't understand the potency or the batch is bad um or sometimes what is what what is stepped on meaning what are the other impurities that are put in it can be very dangerous we teach the recovery position in all of our 11th grade classes and we talk about Narcan we educate on the Good Samaritan law which means that if you call for help when a person is having a medical emergency related to substance misuse or alcohol poisoning you will not get in trouble with police um they're there to focus on the medical emergency and get kids home safely um non-fatal overdoses um if they happen in Reading are always followed up by by our clinician with an offer of services and Naran access so we can do a quick one-on-one with folks on Naran most of the followup that we've seen that the clinician has been able to provide has also been for families so families who witnessed an overdose experience post-traumatic stress or acute stress following the incident so we've provided support around that we also have family members of Overdose um poisonings where they needed support as well as the people themselves that have gone through it next slide please um the last um allowable use is treatment and recovery so because we do have a licensed alcohol and drug counselor on staff um she completes most of the referral to Services um she does do ladak evaluations which is a um diagnostic profile and level of treatment evaluation which allows her to meet with young people or adults and determine what level of care and what diagnoses they're working with so that you can help a family determine okay are we looking at a Partial Program are we looking at impatient do they meet criteria for detox um sometimes people will go privately to do that but we do have that availability and I think we've done 12 this year they're very extensive evaluations they definitely require someone with a lot of expertise and we very much appreciate our clinicians um care with those we run the chemical health program at our local schools um there's these are first second and third offenses there's a school policy that says if a young person misuses substances on campus or off 365 days a year and they get caught they can get a First Defense a First Defense means they will lose a third of their competitive Sports season or Club they still remain in the club or on the team but they can't play for that period of time in addition to that they must meet with us for a class and a one-on-one followup and be assessed for referral to Services if it's a second violation we require that they visit their primary care doctor for an a full evaluation and the reason we do that is because vaping has done so much chemical tissue damage to lungs that we prefer the primary care to make a determination on what they see and also to make recommendations around cessation medication if that's warranted because quitting vaping is not an easy process for kids we can share with them all of the cognitive behavioral resources but the addiction level is so high with with the nicotine products that they really do need some assistance from the medical community um they also get guidance from our clinician for second offenses they're required to do counseling third offenses require a ladak evaluation and a recommendation for a minimum level of six months of treatment in whatever form the family determines is in the best interest of the child based on the diagnostic profile we also do overdose awareness events um so you may have seen out on the common our story Walk to Remember um this is really a representation of all of the lives that we've lost to substance misuse and suicide including 95 of our own residents over the past 11 years the purple Flags represent lives loss to substance misuse and the yellow flags represent lives lost to Suicide the larger um heart that you see is the entire Region's loss and then the smaller heart is our reading um we've worked with families to feature their stories and what we've tried to focus on is educating in the community on the power and potential that every person that we've lost had they are someone's daughter they are someone's son they are someone's brother father mother they laughed they cried they loved animals they wanted more for their lives the disease of addiction took them apart and we really need to remind the community of that because the stigma of addiction often puts it behind closed doors and we don't talk about it next slide please so in terms of collaboration for future implementation we now see that we may have um be expanding to get additional deposits so we know that the fund is going to grow um we'll continue to do care sharing um with the state through the care mask program we meet with the seven communities in our regional group every two weeks and we have a specific group that is focused on opioid settlement sharing so we can talk about what is wake feeli thinking of what is stonum doing um is there things we can collaborate on what contracts have you looked at is there a better way to do this um we also have a specific group that is connected um via recovery um expert on meeting with folks in the recovery Community to talk about what are the strategies they're seeing work with current users how are we looking at harm reduction how can we support the existing efforts we partner with The Bridge Center in Malden which provides a whole host of recovery Support Services um needs assessment we're constantly reassessing what our needs are are we review all the local needs assessment data um and we'll continue to have interdepartmental coordination obviously within the town we work very closely with the schools um but you know we'd love to continue to expand our work with the health department in terms of monitoring e efforts there's a very specific way that we need to look at how we use the money because of the allowable uses um what the yields are for referrals and participation in program programs and services because we need to also defend the use of the funds and make sure that it is in the best interest of the reason we were awarded the funds um State support um will continue to reach out to the partners that we have and learn um from our peers uh next slide I think that might be the end yeah I guess I'm done so hopefully I know I went fast but hopefully that gave you a flavor of what's going on excellent presentation yes yes excellent presentation and um yeah I'm just I you know I had no idea so much was being done which is very reassuring I know it's good to hear I would add that doing that all with questionable funding I mean it it seems outrageous to me that you have to go through all these hoops to get reported yeah yeah and the the piece that you know I I think that I've gotten some questions where people a little confused about how you can use the funds and one of the challenges is especially in those first two years um you know to look at a staff an expansion of Staffing didn't seem appropriate because we didn't have a prediction of when the funds were going to come in the the date yeah the dates changed you know bringing on a staff person is a long-term commitment so um that's why we have focused on programs and services specifically because we knew that we could demonstrate how those programs impacted but also because we felt like it was a more prudent use of the funds when I think about every dollar we spend from the fund I'm thinking about the people I know that we've lost from this community and the many many people across our state that we've lost so it's it's very personal to me as well as it's my profession and it's something that um you know we don't take lightly but we're always open to suggestions and partnership it's just a really narrow area in terms of what we can and can't do Eric yeah thanks Erica it's always nice to to see you and I'm always impressed by the work that you do and the ways that you um develop and and maintain programming um it's a way reading is very fortunate to have you um and the staff that you've assembled to to do this work with us um I um I have a couple of questions um and that comes from the perspective that the board of boards of Health in Massachusetts have been spec specifically and emphatically charged with making sure that we are engaged and involved in the use of the EMB batement funds and I want to figure out how we can go about doing that with you um and I don't mean this in any way in disrespect to your planning and decision and expertise um but um you know there there is that that piece of Engagement and there's the question of processes and how you know how are you going about getting feedback from patient people with lived experience and how are you um you know using um how are you able to drill down from the coalition's data and focus on reading needs and not um so I'm really interested in in knowing about that so I'm going to and if I can roll um and then my second question is that there are a couple other areas that are are are more Niche that are are allowable costs and I'm just curi I'd love to know more about you know how you go about choosing the areas um and you know what percentages of the funds are dedicated in each I know we there's the annual report but I think sort of getting into maybe a little earlier I'm interested in getting it a little earlier on sort of what's the thinking you think you wanted 50/50 or you know this is onetime money so we're only going to use it in this way as you said and not use it for staff um so that piece and then um shoot I hate it when I do this um sorry I have three things I I lost the first I can answer the first two parts and then if you you think of it just feel free to jump in in terms of process SES um because we're engaged in a community- based assessment process um annually um we are working with people with lived experience and doing key informant interviews what we have found is that a community meeting is not always the appropriate place for those conversations and because of stigma um what we have found is working with the recovery community and talking to families who've lost loved ones um is kind of the better way to approach some of that not that we haven't had Community meetings or forums or like that but they they have a different um feeling in the sense of um not everyone wants to share their their ups and downs and some of the challenges they face with gaps and services so there's that piece and then we have because we're part of the seven Community Coalition the regional group um we also are guarded by kind of the same charge what's interesting in different communities some are connected to their Board of Health meaning they're under the health department um we're one of the few coalitions that is cited at a police department um but that model has worked well for us in the sense that um we have stayed Community focused and we try to engage all 12 sectors of our community um we have um Kevin as our board liaison um so there's lots of different ways that the the board can be involved and I can communicate more frequent updates if that's needed um but I know that each Community is doing it slightly different the larger communities are getting large amounts of money so they may be building out much larger processes to determine the use of those funds um we are considered a community that is receiving a much smaller amount of funds so for example we would not hire a staff person to manage the funds because we wouldn't think that that is a good use of the funds we want the funds to go back into the community for those allowable uses right right right yeah so and then I guess too I'm thinking um I mean I know there's there's from support for criminal justice involved there's support specifically for pregnant women um and support for treatment and I I I I you know they're not there and I'm sure they're not there for very good reasons I'm interested and and those are really specific areas that need to be done extraordinarily correct right um you're working with people who really require well-trained staff and um have experience with those Target populations so a couple things that we've talked about there are some really great programs in the area um that may be something we could partner on to expand or Pilot different initiatives um um we have always worked with mowers Wakefield and our regional hospitals around their um pregnant and parenting um maternal sub substance misuse and neon exposure situations um they have a great partnership with Jewish Family Services that monitors the pregnancy as well as the five years after child is born we recognize that there are a number of young people growing up without a parent or a parent that um is still suffering with the disease another area that we have looked at and have put some resources is our grandparents that are raising grandchildren so that's an area that we would like to continue to do more with and find out what specific supports might be the most helpful and then another area is um something for children that are grieving so there is something called the comfort zone camp for young people that have lost a parent due to substance misuse or suicide where they can meet with other young people their age and get a safe Camp experience to learn how to process grief so there's a lot of different pieces that we could pilot and um or provide scholarships for for people to attend different programs um one of the tricky areas I will say that we have to be very conscious of is the treatment industry for substance misuse is there are four profit entities and there are nonprofit entities some are licensed some are not licensed so we're not just going to go oh you sound like you're doing a great job let me throw you six scholarships you know we're going to do our due diligence to determine who is licensed by the state who has had no issues what a CLI cents think of the program does this an appropriate use so one of the areas that we are looking to do scholarships for is for the bridge program in Malden because they do job assistance for um folks that are coming out of the Criminal Justice System who are also dealing with the addiction so that type of program where we've seen success over the last three years with clients that have already been referred that might be something we would look at but these are costly programs so again with our money things may only go so far so we'll weigh those pros and cons and that is also an area where we can invite Community input it's just a matter of um trying to prioritize what we have been able to do and then look at how we can pilot and expand um there's always more to learn with this this disease and this issue um you know I've worked in the field for 26 years and I never take it for granted that there's always something to learn so I'm willing to talk to anybody um but I do also wear the hat of discretion because there are a lot of promises made and there's a lot of vulnerable people that want to get better that have been sold to Bill Goods so we're not going to be sending money to Palm Beach for the $50,000 a month reab that isn't really licensed or doing a great job you know that type of thing wouldn't be appropriate so I don't want to sound cynical but we've seen a lot of families in Reading um unfortunately remortgage their houses and and place a lot of money into the hands of people that we really can't trust so I want to make sure that we honor what we've learned and then also make sure we're working with reputable Partners right okay so that yeah I'm so again I'm just I'm I'm curious and and I know you know you said you know if that's if that's requested or required I I'm requesting it and I think it's up to the board for how we how we do it but you know maybe now that we're five I can join Kevin um and working with youall because I am interested in knowing more about the um the decision- making processes and um you know the the the the um the the designations um and um I want to be able to be supportive if I can um so thank you again for all the work that you do um it is it is a lot and we are really really fortunate to have you so K I appreciate that you brought that up um because the timing of the meetings I have not been able to make the last few of them so if you want to run with that baton by all means um if you do so I apologize Erica that I have not no that's okay it's been from a coaching standpoint it's been a difficult time period so I can send the information and you know we can see who can come and um yeah we're very happy to have um anyone who's interested that's great thank you um and yeah because Erica now we are actually a a body of five so there can be more us in one place at the same time I love that yeah so Erica can I ask you a question or maybe I should ask you day or both um you know you've done all this great work with the Mystic Valley Public Health Coalition but now we're also part of this other collaborative yeah have you in a day talked about how um you know some of the work might be expanded um potentially with additional resources from this other collaborative um in terms of the work you're doing I I I'm not sure where the overlaps are um I know that there's overlap amongst the regional coordinators so I know that our regional coordinator does meet with um all of the groups in the state and so there's collaboration there um we have there's a shared services Grant um you know in our region as well as that reading is part of um we've been part of the Mystic Valley Public Health Coalition for the last 10 years and um reading was a member at one point but then decided to go in the other direction to go with Andover so it's doing a lot of the same works it's it's just you know kind of a different combination of communities but we're always open to learning more and um we do participate in a state conference and other things where we share ideas and things like that but if there's anything that a day wants to keep me up on in terms of what that group is doing and a day is always welcome at our regional um Coalition meetings day I don't get a sense that in terms of uh the group that we're in um there's no mental health um component in so I I don't see a way for us to overlap right I would I would also say that the that the endover collaborative is um still in its early stages and still hiring up and uh organizing its thoughts and goals about where it's going hopefully over the year over the next few years um frankly those towns can could use probably some substance abuse and mental health work yeah and I know I know many of those towns have things going individual coalitions as well it just might not be coming through that shared services project um because I know different communities have focused on different shared services I know for us with the Mystic Valley we have had a grant for the last 10 years through the state that was very specifically focused on substance use disorder but then they also have a shared services Grant that's focused on health communication inspection and all the other kind of good stuff so they're kind of doing both um but every Comm set up a little bit differently but we do find enormous value in having those um six Community Partners because if we haven't tried it they've tried it and you know vice versa and especially around this this funding you know we're all trying to make the best choices we can and learning from each other and there may be something where we say yep let's let's go in three communities and and try something um we do have to follow all the state procurement laws all the Contracting information all of that good stuff um our previous use of the funds were um approved by the town manager as as well as by town meeting so just so you understand it's you know it's as transparent as transparent can be but we're always happy to answer specific questions any other thoughts or comments for Erica before we let her go great thank you so much for coming really appreci sure have a great night thank you thanks Erica for all you do bye bye very encouraging yes um so moving on Albert Le are you there thank you for being patient I hope there we go evening can you hear me okay yes yes thank you for waiting through an hours of agenda learned a lot still learn so I'm glad to be invited absolutely um you know uh Carrie had suggested having you come and I thought it was a a great idea um you know we we have uh we're in the process of developing the community health Improvement plan Y and um we have I think you've been involved in that and you've seen we have three goals and uh the whole issue of of diversity inclusion um Equity has sort of underlined all three goals and so it sort of made sense to have you come and talk to us about the work you're doing in wedding um around this area uh so that we can understand how it how it fits with those Improvement plans yeah that sounds great and I I agree I think there's a lot of alignment there um and so yeah I'm happy to talk about the work um I do have a little power point but again I just I can walk through some slides but you know how much time do I have um 20 minutes let's go for can I share my slides or do I need yes y you can okay so um let me uh right give me a moment so when I do this I'm not gonna be a to see your amazing faces and so that need to it all signal have to come off mic okay okay cool okay um so so I think so the biggest thing again it's all about me right so I just want to make sure that you guys know that slide so I'm just gonna get this folks may know a little folks May a little bit may know more about the offens of equity and social justice here in reading so I'm just going to capture some basic things and then we'll talk a little bit about the assessment that we just did um and then I want to definitely use leave some time for Q&A so you know uh just but to start with me you know again I'm a public health guy so you know I think for me I'm loving being around you guys you know because this is what I did for 25 years and so and also I did a lot of community organizing so for me Community engagement those things reaching uh hard to reach populations or engaging them is is is uh that gets me excited right in terms of engaging them in any process and so I'm excited about doing some work with you know this community health this community health Improvement plan in terms of engaging certain communities so that's that's kind of me you know again I won't read through all of this text some of it's dense I just kind of pull together some slides that are already existing but I want to kind of share with you our mission um you know and the mission is you know it's a it's a townwide service right with you know providing education a lot of Education support resources you know with the end goal of trying to make reading um the most inclusive community it can be for all of us um so there are some things and I'll share with you things a little later around how we're going about doing that but that's what our mission is we are revisiting some of our work and so again I'll speak to just one minute later but that's kind of you know pretty much going to stay true to that mission um you know our approach uh is is pretty is pretty simple um you know we we're identified as like the point you know for information and really providing best practices and resources so that's what we're trying to carve that Niche out on the town side as being that kind of Point resource again we're still trying to you know we sit in the library we're still trying to figure out where we sit at you know what's the best place my position sit in very different places across the state um and we're still thinking about the best place for me to sit um this work's not about enforcing you know but it's about encouraging um being aware making aware education particularly around Dei principles um a lot of our work is supporting other departments so what when our work is like I'm like a consultant right I'm helping other departments boards everything like that how can they build their capacity for Dei right so that's kind of my function right I'm not going to obviously be the doer I'm hopefully to get folks to to to to to adopt the practices for themselves um also we community resource um helping to you know again have difficult conversations um and encouraging again dialogue across these these uh these various different issues that we're dealing with so that's kind of our community arm rooll around that um everything we do is based upon data that's kind of what I've adopted that's how I operate so for me to come into a uh an assessment process was gold for me because we have a great set of data that we can use and I'll talk about some of our findings later um I'm sorry our recommendations from our Consultants five of them um you know I think we also you know want to be you know a a collaborative approach you know everything we do is when collaboration with others you know so I'm excited you know even as we did this assessment that we did this in in collaboration with a a bunch of Community Partners a community residents our Town um uh uh Municipal staff like everything we did um was done with that because essentially this is not owned by the office it's owned by the community it's owned by the municipal so the work is so that's why I want to make sure I'm pushing that ownership you know you don't look to the Dei guy to do it you know it's not about me it's really about all of us and really making build that capacity for others to do it um you know also you know our practice is to be open for feedback and and really how do we continue to build this work right just because our work would be you know we're going to set forth a set of work for this year doesn't mean that that won't change and be adopted you know and adopt different practices moving forward you know we have this kind of this position in Reading it's not the same in all mowers it's a Inward and outward facing position you know so we do some Community work again adopted some of these pra these um events but essentially you know the main ones that jump out are MLK which we did in January June teth coming up in June there's also some other events that again have been on the menu that you know Pride um event some other ones that we just kind of again have adopted um you know a presence there um and and a lot of the community arm of this is really to to uh again build capacity for the community to do this work but also to celebrate and recognize the various different cultures and reading so pulling out that diversity so it can be clear that there is you know different aspects of diversity that's racial and ethnic diversity gender sexual orientation you know you name it right so that's intentionally um to intentionally doing that again I mentioned this whole idea of doing things in Partnership um and and you know really it's about building relationships and we have a particular arm of our work called pair which I'll speak to in a moment partners for um partners and allies for an inclusive reading um again a project I adopted um inherited I'm sorry inherited um coming into reading and I think that's just a way for us to have that bridge built between the community and our work so these are kind of again the way that we look at relationship building again we have our town departments I didn't list them all but those are some of the key ones that we're kind of aligned with right you know these are in the middle some kind of community networks and organizations that our work is aligned with as well and then you see the boards which you guys were on there as public boards um that we see our work again aligned with so this is where I think we think about kind of who we are initially strategically working with this is who it is right this is kind of our starting you know our starting place and again I would say a lot of this work is being Revisited with our process that we're going through right now so and again I'll speak to in a moment but again this is really where I think we're trying to be a lot more strategic about who do we align ourselves with as we think about the long-term work again you know just really thinking about networking you know a lot of our work is in is is kind of that same way we're thinking about how do we network with other municipalities you know how do we connect with you know happen around the region Regional work and even think about Statewide there's a there's a Dei Coalition that exists that I belong to which is about 40 50 of us who sit in places just like I who really uh you know creating best practices um sharing resources sharing ideas everything from like hey what's your budget hey how do you engage your planning department your Bo Board of Health we're all kind of sharing those ideas so we can create again some best practices to do our work um this work essentially municipalities is about three or four years old so we're still all figuring it out right you know municipalities is trying to still figure out like you know where do we place us how do we pay us where do we pay us where all those things so again that network is helping all of us um um do that again this is that pair organization um it's really kind of building um allies um who are out there in the Community um doing this work and and so we're now engaging these next three months so June July and August are going to be really strategic months that we're going to be really focusing on revisiting that model so we have a consultant coming in that's going to really kind of step in and do some do some um strategic work with that that that group and so we kind of kind of relaunch pair um probably in September but right now again we're still kind of operating off the the model kind of bringing folks together um we're doing a Community engagement Workshop next week um to really again build some uh skills and tools that are community members can have to go about engaging um others so this is something I want to share with with anybody anyone's welcome to go not just PA participants to really learn about effective ways of your community engagement again this is our structure of pair right now but that can change that's probably going to change we had these three buckets education partners of resources and Community engagement so I want to jump to our assessment right so we did this assessment um I'll share the timeline in a moment this assessment was pretty much I think again gold for us um in our work excuse me one moment iies so again this assessment is something I I came into it October when I when it came on it was really started probably been August um to really um do a deeper dive around um um what the community and what the workforce um you know kind of building where where their knowledge base was around Dei practices and really begin to kind of take that data and that's what we're kind of trying to do now take that data and begin to be strategic about how we go about implementing some of the findings that we got from that and again the we have a report that just dropped about a week ago which I'm willing to share you know it's widely it's out there as well as we have a um a slice presentation that was put together by our Consultants I can share that as well which gives you a lot more information that I'm sharing here in this but again we had a consultant come in really excited about their work with us they just ended their work with us last week actually um so this essentially is kind of the the road map that they kind of took us on so again this is this was um you know a process of looking at again a ton of data from from from um reading you know dating back to probably 2010 and really kind of taking that approach where grabbing that data doing that kind of background research doing the community engagement work around kind of working through um uh um focus groups and um and and some other one-on-one interviews to really begin to gather um data in diff again in different types of data right so we can begin to kind of move for forth in inclusive inclusive way we did did um a root cause analysis exercise um with our community around kind of going do a deeper dive to make sure that we understand kind of the wise they call them you know Wise you know not just taking the surface data but really going deeper in terms of you know why some of these things existed five recommendations that came about from this work one was this idea that we really need diversify our boards and committees again this was really tend to look at racial diversity and so something that I think we're again we're going to try to think about how to prioritize prioritize some of these findings but that was one of our findings again how to diversify boards and committees another Finding was really how to diversify vendor Supply um um and and um you know kind of who we work with as vendors um diversify that kind of pipeline that program work um and another recommendation um was to build a you know a townwide kind of pipeline to get effective uh more effective diversity of candidates for in that pipeline again this is something that's kind of directly connected with our HR department but also just taking a step back and having every department and board on on board around how do we go about um again diversifying that Pipeline and um and the other you know finally again is is I mean recommendations was us to to kind of do deeper dive you know into the into the state of the workforce and learn about the challenges about recruitment um also not about recruitment but also retention um and to really create this welcome and inclusive environment you know in read and our final recommendation was to enhance the role of Community Based organizations in town events and um Communications um so again I can share the full slide Deck with you which has a little bit more detail and the report you know but um in terms of what happens next and I'll come off um cam um slid so in the moment you know right now I think the the goal of this is really to um to move towards having a strategic plan typically when you do these assessments you have a strategic plan we're working on trying to develop that right now um it wasn't a part of the uh the initial assessment and so we're really working towards um pulling together that strategic plan to think about implementation going forward so what that means right now again I just tried to fast talk a little bit to my save you some time for questions is that we have a team um on the municipal side we call implementation team there made up of about six or seven individuals um on the workforce side um including our HR department others that are really thinking strategically how how do we now engage our Workforce right how do we go about um beginning to to build some of these practices on our Workforce side and again this is just the workforce side we're going to probably use our community group pair and other groups that we may have to develop to really do the more engaging on the community side so I'll pause um see ifone has any questions again I take I try to stay in my 15 17 minute window but uh if anyone has any questions it would be um not a question but it would be useful if you could um perhaps email that report to a day and he could distribute it to the board it would I'd like to see the detail as well of course D I think you have that I think Matt sent it out to everybody so all your department heads so you probably have that I think he sent it last week so check that if not can send it to you so it's both the report which is if you have you can afford it yeah of course 45 pages of fund reading uh do that um at night but no I think it really gives you a really deep dive and I think you'll appreciate the methodology that our consultant used um to go about getting this work so yeah definitely that'll come to you guys great and any other questions I'm say again and I'm available after the meeting or another time anyone has any other questions but um we're kind of just getting started with our word har I don't have a question but I just wanted to say thank you thank you Rick and thank you ad day for um entertaining my request um I think it I say as I said when we talked about it initially it's important because Health Equity is a is a part of the work of Public Health and know assessments happening in town um you know we there's always assessments right it's trying to keep track of who's assessing what and how do we make sure as you said Rick how do we make sure that things are kind of aligned and and parallel or or not so um I think it's a a great opportunity to get to um have folks meet you Albert and um to hear a little bit about that work I am a member of pair and I you know I do attend um I think a day assigned to me as the liaison um a while back don't I'm sorry I didn't mean to make you giggle when you were taking a putting me on the but um I I willingly I willingly went but I am a member of Paris so um I have a 10 did some meetings and um you know suggestion did did a nice job and I think Albert is doing a great job picking up now on that and um you know sudesna was the first and Albert has the benefit now of of getting to build on that and take the work that he did in and over and you know teach us about that as well so and just quick to that again thanks Carrie for that Carrie and I I know each other for years so we're like old friends um is uh when I left Andover they were just doing their communitys assessment they were doing it with Andover North Andover so again got pulled into that process I did a ton of community needs assessments when I was in Cambridge and I've always I'm appreciated uh first Rando P Dei into the space I'm appreciative here where the day pulled me into the space because I think not just because we're taking about you know you know same data or you know similar things I just think really being able to pull me and strategically so so we're thinking as we begin to implement the work is that we're we're doing that together you know it's not like separate you know what I'm saying we're being thoughtful about how we used together because we're thinking about the community right we want to make sure that we're doing this in a thoughtful way so I appreciate they pulling me in and again um I I think there's a lot of alignment going forward so I let's continue to think like this um and I think as we begin to get more clear about strategic plan I would love to come back to this board and share with you that strategic plan um because as you saw Board of Health is on definitely one of our our list around a board that we want to be thoughtful around and and I and I would encourage you even as a board and I would love to come back and talk to you about even as you think about diversity within your board you know because again we called out it was called out we didn't call out got called out around the boards and committies not being raal effl diverse and so really I think you should think about really where you could diversify your own self what that looks like for you so willing to work with you around that too perfect interesting so Albert and I worked together uh back when I was first starting my career well we worked at Jason right side by side we didn't actually work together but we both worked in the same Health Department I was 12 so I was only young and I was I was like 10 yeah but um um but yeah so and I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the flyer announcing that he had been um selected to to join reading and um it was a great chance to get to go see a familiar face and and reconnect and um so yeah um he's a good man um from my own personal and professional experience and um yeah we look forward to seeing you many times more most definitely definitely love to invite back so yeah I know that you guys the rest of your meeting so I'm around resource email me reach out thanks to day talk to bye guys oh oh Albert hey oh sorry one oh I'm here yeah hi Sor I just got a couple um quick questions first I heard you said you know you're kind of you're looking to see where you want to be parked and where's the best spot spot for that so you know it's interestingly enough have you do you know the full research on on your position because oh yeah when it was originally proposed the school was the alternate um parking spot for that y i often felt like you know the work you're looking to do in my opinion is really generational right it's not something that happens tomorrow a year from now it's 10 20 30 that you have to be thinking in that in that long game right and that where yeah I think originally everyone said for that reason the schools is a great spot to to park the position so I just you know as you're moving forward and thinking about where you're going you know I I would encourage that line of thinking because I think it's a um I think going out working with the youth more than uh um anything is is thinking about long term right that's that's where that's where it all begins just just my own little two set and and I love it Kev and and I my response to that again I'm I'm on record for this so you know so just to town Mee um slbo meetings are on on on tapate I went on record to say that so I'm a believer that you need both right so the model I believe works is the schools need their Dei director and the town needs theirs and the models that is the model going forward arlingon has it Lex has it uh ando's about to have it that that's the way it needs to go there's different cultures that exist but I believe you you with the generational piece though and I i' love that I just think on the town side the ability to work with policies and systems I think is the way to go that's where I feel like you can go deal with the ca stuff so again that's just you know from my experience but I hear you the school who need theirs and um I think Tom is really working on that great yeah sorry I've got to hop in again just you know I it's a it's such a good question I was curious if anybody was goingon to pick up on it um Albert when when you did raise that point of you know where does this thing sit um and you know I I've thought about it I've heard a lot of different discussions about it and I'm I'm I'm inan while I agree that there's certainly um the the the seeds you're planting you you want to make sure you're planting seeds with the people that are are growing up um but I think there's an access issue that um you know I thought about so I had some questions about things when my child was younger than school age and there was no way of me accessing the school right it becomes sort of a captive resource to the school was what I was a little concerned about and I also thought about Workforce questions and as we think about the things of um you know how if you are if a community is interested in diversifying their Workforce um there needs to be somebody who is who has that as their responsibility in the town um you know and that would not be met by somebody in the school system so it's a complicated question and boy a lot of passion and conversation in town about it so very thank you for stepping into the um into again this is It's it's a challenge again um I sit in very different places across the state um some of us sit in fact in Health and Human Services you know some people sit we sit all over right we're trying to create a best practice around where we believe we believe these positions ultimately we created a guide for this we believe they ultimately did report to the town manager that's that's the that's the ultimate reporting structure because that's how important we feel like this work is and there's some models there like that too so again we love to come back we love to share with you as we progress you know some really important meetings happen over the next couple of months so I may I may look very different in in summertime when I come back in terms of where I'm at you know so we love to we love to connect with you guys so um again thanks for inviting me um you're like my second family um so please please invite me back and next time please feed me because I feel like you know like that's how all right good night thank you night thank you guys bye all right so a day you're on how many minutes do we have left we have as long as you need just kidding 1159 59 I believe ter all right town meeting went to 11:30 last uh last night and 11 4 55 Monday night so sorry brave souls to be on that in that meeting tell you all right so uh the month of April was uh a productive month we uh conducted 13 food inspections three food reinspection one temporary food inspection um four housing inspections uh one housing we issued one housing order letter um as you all know um you know uh Jen is living her last day is uh May 16th um you know it's I'm not too happy go ahead I know you can't get into specifics and I'm not looking for that but hypothetically if there was an increase in that position um salary-wise would that be an easier position to fill absolutely okay okay yeah just had town meeting too bad we just had town meeting we missed it missed it okay see you in November it's sad because uh you know Jenna's been very instrumental to the success of our department um but you know it's sad to see her leave it is she was great she was a great employee great person yeah is is is a great person I mean we we kind of talked about things and uh she is uh willing to um you know continue doing inspections um you know on a part-time basis um so we we are looking at that option I'm going to have to uh talk to HR regarding that um but she is willing to come in and help us out till we can feel the position so um that's that will be an Avenue to explore all right in terms of um and also we have the uh shared services inspector and the shared services nurse that can um step in as well so um I'm pretty confident that we will still be able to uh meet uh you know daily demands um but again we we need to get somebody in here as soon as possible so in terms of disease surveillance um from April ail 11th to May 9th um we had we got a one confirmed Cas of tuberculosis nine confirmed cases of influenza eight confirmed cases of Corona virus one confirmed case of group a streptococus and two confirmed cases of neuro virus and um I say this at the end of every meeting you know we urge our residents to uh continue taking precautions and get vaccinated if they haven't you know simple things like you know Wasing your hands regularly cover your cuffs and sneezes you know wear a mask if needed stay home when sick and uh you know keep your distance if you're around someone who is sick all those uh little precautions um do help out so let's see um in terms of uh the public hearings we have uh the community health Improvement planning process hearing that would be uh at the select board meeting room 700 p.m. on Monday May 20 so um you know we urge the residents to participate um I mean we we haven't really gotten like a lot of traffic regarding this we've not really I've not really seen so many emails regarding this but I'm I'm positive that uh you know people are still interested in it in the next couple of uh weeks we'll do a better job of advertising it we have it scheduled to go go out on Monday on uh on our social media platform um so we'll see what the turnout is going to be and then on the 23rd we have the um public hearing for the amendments to the B ofal regulation restricting the sale of tobacco products that would also take place at the select board meeting room at 700 p.m. on May 23rd this I mean I I think this is going to be huge we have um different people talking about it we have a lot of uh emails in support of it and you know we have emails opposing it um I would say like 90% of the emails uh opposing it are from the uh tobacco retailers themselves the business owners um yeah but I believe uh the select board would attend this hearing as well so um yeah it's going to be a big one let get ready um I've already been called a communist because of this absolutely many names it's unbelievable wow yeah and um Dr Lopez uh in terms of the heing I you don't think you're going to be available is that correct on the on the 23rd 23rd yeah yes I been talking to a day and um and Carri have this sort of very difficult conflict that um we're doing work uh on our home on the vineyard and uh it's going very slowly and we have to meet with contractors and the problem is the ferry uh the ferry is just solidly booked and trying to move that around has been difficult I'm on a wait list but we'll have to see how it plays out but I have every confidence in Carrie uh cheering that meeting if that's what it comes down to I you you proud Rick yep all right man there's nothing else yeah on my side sorry for the um loss of a day I know that yeah it's hard hard hit very hard she's very talented and yeah great to work with so I'm yeah sorry I know hiring is is tough right now too I'm in my own seat I'm I'm look filling four positions so I I feel your pain um it's a very competitive environment out here for public health it it is very competitive there are jobs everywhere so um high demand and to your point Kevin not necessarily compensation in line I don't know specifically about where reading stands in it I'm just speaking generally but um so yeah neither do I but I know typically and this is a simple belief you throw money at the problem the problem goes away that's typically how I've how I've come across things in life oh my gosh it's a very simple like I said it's a very simple way of at it yet it's 100% across the board every time oh maybe not everything when it comes to jobs when it comes to employment when when I whenever I hear we're having a hard time filling it first thing I think of is gez you're not paying them enough right yes usually that's simple yeah but life is not simple we don't have unlimited funds and then if you start throwing money around like that everyone else starts looking wait a minute my position's a little on the fun to do so I get the whole scheme of it all but yeah now I think we just actually at the Town didn't we just under go through a round of um um bringing ourselves more into the kind of the middle of a pack we were kind of low on I think what we were paying call us from town meeting carry didn't we didn't there presentation on that that was actually the schools budget presentation and or actually sorry it was um uh school committee chair Tom wise talking about the contract negotiations with the school yeah I know' I think we've on the G for the town as well too and I think yes there was a paying class study conducted last last year okay you know everybody got a little something more but just not competitive enough I guess right so it's going to be Cassidy Cass is a rockar too so absolutely she is better not leave me [Laughter] Cassidy like the Three Musketeers in there so it's a shame to see the band breaking up but I know you'll find somebody yeah don't make him cry don't make them mad all right any other final comments before we adjourn no no okay make a motion to adjourn do we have a second second second Okay Kevin uh roll call Joan yes Kevin yes Paula yes and Carrie yes and Rick yes go we'll see you at the hearings y good night everybody recording stopped e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e