##VIDEO ID:es3vnH2dS8Y## e e e back to school night or open house night for the high school this evening and he needed to attend he let me know so I think he was going to let others know but okay okay so why don't we um recording in progress go ahead and call the the meeting to order um and so in terms of uh we should do our usual roll call um you just St your name uh Kevin yes Kevin Texton uh Jerry uh you're on mute Jerry Kramer right here K Carrie Carrie denell here John John John can you hear us must be having some audio problems probably okay and Sophie Sophie Hansen here thanks okay we we'll let John work on the audio and um we'll move ahead uh I'm gonna just turn it over in terms of tonight's agenda we're gonna we have a new member of the health department that a day is going to introduce uh we'll review the minutes from last time we have public comment um we have Bill Sullivan here talk about the dog Forest uh by dog the Town Forest dog bylaw um day's gonna update us on a dog complaint um then we're going to talk a little bit more about the community health Improvement plan and then wrap up with the monthly report um so with that um day do you wan to introduce thank you very much Dr Lopez I would like to introduce our new public health nurse Olivia balom Olivia is a registered nurse she has prior experience from Boston Medical Medical Center Braman Women's Hospital and uh Boston Children's Hospital she received her bachelor's uh of Science degree in nursing from nor Eastern University um Olivia is going to do great things for our community please join me in welcoming Olivia to our health department welcome welcome happy to have you welcome board glad to have you nice to meet you thank you thank you so much thank you a day and if you want to say anything about yourself feel free to do that um I'm very happy to be here I look forward to getting to know all of you as well as the reading Community um and I hope you will see me out and about um and if you see me say hi thank you thank you um we have high expectations live but all right going on to the minutes from August 8th um hopefully everybody had a chance to review it and um were there any edits or changes nope not for me not for me either none from me okay so I'll make a motion to approve the minutes from August 8th is there a second second Kevin second roll call um Carrie yes Kevin yes Joan I think Joan is still having she just rejoined so she might it might take a second for her audio to click in okay I think she's back in now I see her but I don't hear her is everybody on mute you know what um can we unmute her she's not muted um well she wasn't but her I think her audio is just off on her computer or something r as muted on yeah I just hit as to unmute yeah okay well obviously she's gonna be working on that and um I would say I as well to the minutes and we have an eorum so we can okay in terms of um public comment I see several um members of the public oh John we got you on video yeah sorry about that oh perfect finally have some um some audio that's good welcome back thank you okay in terms of um in terms of public comment uh I don't know Cassie there anyone first or should we just uh there there were three people maybe we can start with uh Linda uh Linda if you want to make a comment feel free you'll be unmuted um I think Linda and um Jennifer are on the same team on the same okay that is that correct then maybe we should go to Jennifer Jennifer welcome thank you very much um I am um Jennifer K I'm the the owner of 12 Pineville AV and the on the Pineville AV team over here so I was I was happy to join the meeting tonight because we've had um ongoing concerns about dumpster Management on the South Main Street Street Corridor and our neighborhood has been kind of communicating with different departments um with the town specifically I think you know we've been struggling with this for about five years now and um I think the first recorded complaint uh went in to the town in 2019 so this is a concern about dumpster management but then um unfortunately the effects of kind of a rodent infestation as a result of kind of the poor management specifically um the dumpster behind dominoes so we've had conversations with the conservation committee about various locations um and because of the proximity to the conservation land and kind of the pollution that has developed we've also spoken with the cpdc as new developments were kind of being reviewed at those meetings uh we worked with j ER the health inspector trying to resolve some of those issues I think uh ad is now familiar with me and we more recently were communicating with the assistant Town manager so the reason why I'm here today is really to get an understanding from this board of like what are what are the appropriate steps that we should be taking um and what is how are these issues typically resolved I did just today um share some photos with ad around uh just rodents in our neighborhood in the condition of um the the current the dumpsters in the area I'm specifically concerned about this because you know coming up upon um the NBTA Community changes um one of the things we've been very vocal about as a neighborhood is how is the town going to navigate you know making sure that infrastructure is in place if we're approving these larger um buildings along the South Main Street Corridor and day do you want to comment yes I believe this should be an agenda item so we can put it as an agenda item uh at the next meeting so we can actually go into details I think that um I think the board recognizes that the rodent problem has been is prob not only in in the Pineville area but in other parts of the town it's sort of been an ongoing thing we've addressed it um uh last year on in the Washington Park area um but like many other towns and cities um you know it's a it's a prevalent problem um I I do have to say that uh when we received your complaint um last month I did do an informal tour and understand what you're talking about in terms of the uh trash bins and the covering and so forth um I think this is the rodent problem is something that and day and I have talked somewhat about needing a sort of comprehensive plan uh to develop a comprehensive plan and so um we have also been uh down staffed the last six to eight weeks without a public health nurse without an inspector which has hampered our ability to uh interact so I think I would just um sort of reiterate what a day said is we will have this as an agenda item um in our in our next meeting and um perhaps we can come back with uh a plan in the in the interum since that's a mon the way um I think when we have an inspector on board um I think we can we can at least do some interaction or uh in involvement with the situation going on at Pineville certainly before next month but I appreciate you coming and uh sharing that with us can I just ask like one clarifying question maybe it's you know for next month but what is typically the process like I we worked pretty closely with Jennifer and she was going to the site um twice a week but even with that in place we didn't see much in the way of improvement so I I guess I'm like are there existing um policies in place that uh specifically say kind of what steps happen at and at what timelines or is it just uh you know dependent upon the the situation and D you want to comment on the process so this is a very uh complex situation so the fact that the rats are going to the dumpster doesn't mean the rats live in the dumpster uh you might have some construction going on you know about a mile away um you might have you know National Grade digging somewhere so again it needs a uh it requires a comprehensive plan um right now um we are looking at moving from poisonous uh bait um to non-toxic baits um we did that at Washington Park um but again is that going to be our policy as a town now um are we going to you know put a policy in stating that you can't use poisonous baits are we going to infring on people's rights to use poisonous baits so it is complex um the area you're talking about about uh conservation lands you know so it's not just um a one-sized fits all solution so but but it is just in terms of process it is the health department and the Board of Health is should be your contact for um addressing this issue and we need to to follow up on that um so stay tuned and we hear you is is Linda part of the pine bille team Jennifer she is I don't know if she was prepared to speak this evening but I do think you know um I I hear what you say loud and clear that the this there could be lots of variables but I just want to really reiterate that this is something that we have been trying to resolve for five years so we do know that that is a a you know specific area that is has constant activity as recent I mean I I emailed you on Mon on the 10th and I was able to provide you um photographs the very next day so it is you know it is just I don't I don't want to spend too much time questioning where the problem is because we're very very much aware of where it is but I appreciate your time and I appreciate that you are hearing um the concern and willing to address it great well thank you for coming and uh we will follow up I'm gonna move on to I see a resident Roy Welsh m Mr wel welcome thank you um I'm new to this business so pardon me if I don't do it right but um I I just have an interest in um learning about or fig figuring out how I could learn about cancer cases and patterns and locations in Reading um I don't know you know how how to get out that information but I'm I'm trying to learn um I feel that there's some patterns given people I know uh that trouble me and I'm trying to figure out a organized way to gather that information or work with people to gather it or um maybe the state has something uh as well D you aware of dph producing that kind of data like cancer rates per Community down to the community level I mean there is a possibility but the um we use Maven and it pretty much talks about um shows us data regarding infectious diseases right but there is I'm sure there you know I'm certain that we can find the information about cancer clusters and you know things like that didn't it's it's a possibility yeah yeah to the state that' be greatly appreciated sorry I I was just thinking Roy have you reached out to the American Cancer Society the Massachusetts chapter I have not they um I'm going to put a link in the chat here but just from a quick Google they have some statistics about types of cancer in Massachusetts at large and so I'm wondering if they might have a way to narrow it down or they might be connected with somebody more immediately it just might be a good um a good place to to start for you good suggestion thank you you're welcome thank you other other thoughts um I you know I don't know if hospitals need to report cancer diagnoses to the state or not I was just going to say that the national canc Cancer Institute has the Seer database so it's surveillance epidemiology and end results I just don't know if you can get as granular as a specific Town yeah and that's the National Cancer Institute yes it's the seer.cancer.gov s e okay well there there are a couple leads Roy and uh um and if we find if day finds any other information or I may do a little surfing myself and uh we will let you know I appreciate that very much you're welcome thank you have a good evening thank you um all right uh Nancy D if I don't know if you're just tuning in or if you'd like to comment you can raise your hand or say something otherwise we'll we move on on okay so ad day you want to introduce um Bill yes um I'll just let Bill introduce himself okay ahead the topic right you mute B you're on mute mute sorry about that I should know this by now since doing this since 2020 um I'm Bill Sullivan chair of the Town Forest committee and um I've been communicating with a day for a while now about the um a bylaw change that we're proposing to put to the November meeting uh as it as it relates to animal control I have a a brief um PowerPoint if I can just run through that I think it would help clarify what the issues are if that's okay sure actually can I share mine a day because I made a couple of small changes okay nothing let me try it again it says the host oh there okay there we go right so can you all see that yep let me start the okay all right so thank you for the opportunity to speak with you about this uh this this bot change that that we've been working on and so what we're trying to do is to one of the discuss with you a a request that we're going to be making to to change the animal control General bylaw to address public safety concerns regarding number of offleash dogs per Handler in the Town Forest you know as recently as today we got there's another complaint on on social media about this situation so I like to speak to you and see if if um if it would make sense if something that you all would consider would be to co-sponsor this bylaw change at at Town meting so okay on this slide you know we with continued complaints between commercial dog walkers and offleash uh dogs in the public the bylaw as it stands right now it um dogs can be off Le if they're under voice control but there's no limit on the number of dogs that that a a a Handler can have so this Facebook post from a little while ago I'm a dog walker in the Town Forest I bring eight in off leash and they're all in divor control there are a lot of people on the trail who are very mean and will treat you this way I deal with it every every day to do your own thing and ignore them so what I mean what that says to me is that you know this is a very common occurrence there's a lot of conflicts between people uh in the town forest and these commercial dog walkers so this this post from today was dog walk dog owners if you employ a woman to walk your dogs in the ring Forest you should check on them I just encountered a woman who had two dogs on a leash and six to eight off leash she couldn't control them four of them attacked my dog while she walked away my dog is fine and she was under my control if this is your dog walker your dog isn't the last two dogs didn't catch up with her until she was about a th feet away down the path she was screaming obset me so clearly there's a big problem here and obviously reading residents and really anyone used in the Town Forest whether they have they're walking with the dog or whether they're bike riding or running or whatever these safety concerns should not be ignored and there are many members of the public that feel threatened by these large groups of Unleashed dogs and and the key thing here is the Town Forest is is not a dog park and because if you're in a dog park you'd expect that you're going to have dogs around you and they pretty much have free reain but this is a town forest and really needs to be treated that way so the Town Forest committee looked at uh policies in neighboring towns and you know I'm not going to go through each individual one but to summarize them of the 15 neighboring towns 11 require dogs to be leashed in public except in a dog park and or allow dogs to be offleash in a public place if obedient to command so we're in we're in the minority you know there are you most towns require that if a dog is in public that it has to be leashed accepting a Dogma so the existing uh bylaw as it's written 8813 the definition of effective voice control an animal sh be deemed to be under effective voice control if it is within the owner or keeper site the owner or keeper is carrying a leash and the animal refrains from illegal activities now it may not be illegal for a dog to jump on a young child but it's clearly not something that that should be permitted in town Forest uh so what we're proposing to do is to change that effective voice control that an animal shall be deemed to be under effective voice control if it is within the Handler's site refrains from aggressive behavior comes immediately when called by its Handler and the Handler is carrying a leash per dog aggressive behavior is any behavior that would cause a reasonable person to believe the dog poses an unjustified imminent threat of physical injury to a person or another dog including but not limiting limiting to jumping on repeatedly barking at or approaching any person without their consent then going with that is is a a new item under the the leash portion of the uh the BW the maximum number of offleash dogs shall not exceed two per Handler in the Town Forest any dog that does not remain under effective voice control must be placed on a leash or removed from the Town Forest immediately dog waste must be removed dogs must be leased when entering or exiting the Town Forest who do not abide by these rules may be required to leave the to Forest in addition to enforcement action provided for under the bylaws so in summary we're we're uh going to you know submit this General bylaw request this amendment to the November town meeting and you know for the purpose of improving Public Safety and to reduce the negative interactions between dogs and residents uh this change was um reviewed by Town Council and was approved by the bylaw committee so what the Town Forest committee would like to you know want to discuss with you is is if co-sponsorship could happen because you know we think if it if it could then we would it would prove the likelihood of Passage at the town meeting so happy to answer any questions that you have hi Bill thank you so much for your um your presentation and laying that out it was really helpful can you share a little bit more about what enforcement looks like right now with spe specifically with the amendment that is in place of um demonstrating that the dog can be on under voice control right now they really I mean I I told this example of something that happened when I was at at the selectboard the other night that uh there really is next to nothing in terms of of enforcement I was in the Town Forest this winter and my wife and I were in snow sh and this group of people came up with you know a number of dogs and it was you know one per handling so it's not like it was a group but this just an example of of what happens in the town forest and you know the dog started barking very aggressively at my wife and I said to the woman you know get your dog under control and she said well you know there's no leash law in the town Flor so basically he can do whatever he wants so it's it's that type of of frustration that that might not have been illegal for that dog to do that but it's clearly not something that I think is is appropriate for for people going into the town pars now with this proposed bylaw change part of it the purpose is public awareness that by having a better definition of effective voice control we can then post that on on signs at the entrances to say what the expectations are and if people you know don't comply with that then you know then we're going have the the animal control officer's phone number so we can you know we can keep track of of these incidents so we're hoping that that you know we're we're not advocating to to join the other 11 communities that that require leashes on all dogs in public places uh but we are hoping to make some improvement to the current situation with you know again not just on the a large number of the commercial dog walkers but really everyone that goes into the town forest with a dog U just an awareness that not everybody's necessarily going to love your dog and want them to come up and jump on them or whatever does that answer your question yes thank you Kevin um hey thanks Bill for um bringing this to us um as a town meeting member I look forward to seeing in November and voting in favor of it I I think it's a more than reasonable um request quite frankly my my only question is where does it fall I know you're looking for a co-sponsor from the Board of Health and that's where my question lies is I'm trying to make the leap of where the Board of Health is injected into this this is really this is a police um protocol if I if I'm correct right Bill well I've had some discussions with the police and uh the police will help find a lost dog but they won't enforce um you know this because Animal Control is now under Board of Health or the health department so that's why they are kind of keeping that at the animal um since the animal control is not under them they're not as actively involved that's why we came to you we originally before in fact we started talking to the police before Animal Control came under you all and so U but then once that happened and that was removed from the responsibility of the police that's when we started that's when I started communicating with the day perfect that's I was looking for an answer thank you very much Bill I would ask a day is um is the work we do with animal control I believe it's a contractor um could you see enforcement of this fitting in in their role that they do for us no no currently correct no okay so okay but in future how are we enforcing the current uh regulation then is it just by report only I I assume mean we don't even go ahead go ahead even even with this if if this bylaw were to pass we don't expect you know the animal control officer to be doing regular patrols but if there's a dog bite I would assume that the Animal control officer would would get involved and that there is some responsibility since they come under you know the health department absolutely so you know it's not yeah we don't we understand enforcement that was what the police brought up when we were speaking with them that but you know a lot of times people when they see a sign that says you know don't allow your dog to um jump on somebody or you know don't allow them to approach with without consent even if we can get half the people going in to read that sign and to be more aware of how they what the level of expectation is and seeing that the bottom of that sign will be the the phone number for for animal control that with a you know with potentially a $300 fine that gets people's attention so in other words like this signage will be some type of a deterrence to people yes that's that's what we're hoping that's what you know we'd like to see some improvement obviously there's a there's some a lot of problems now and we don't want necessarily because we know that there are many many people with dogs that go into the town far and and love the opportunity to have their dog run off Le and so we don't you know we're not we don't want to take that away but we have to do something because What's Happening Now isn't working yes Carrie um I'm just I'm I'm also you know looking forward to seeing this at town meeting and I certainly would support but I do have con concerns about the um the stipulation of being required to leave the Town Forest if there's not any way to enforce it um and you know I I I understand the the input us for including that but um if we generally not in favor of of implementing things that we know we can't enforce and it's not clear where the enforcement Authority is so can somebody help me with that nope as well too it's it's what are we doing right now I mean what is our enforcement we have we have something on the books right now similar to this not as as extensive as this one but what are we doing right now if there's a is it just complaint-based uh is there it is complaint based okay so this would be the basically the same thing we're just changing see I don't mind things like this we're just changing a little bit more of the education or the perception for the public nothing really changes on the end of as far as being able to um to enforce it there's not much we're doing from enforcement now but I do feel like you know people do regularly understand that um they can have their dog um in the forest off off leash and that's the only place in town now that's not everybody some people think it's just public parks and what have you as well too which is not the case it's just the town Forest but again we're we're not we're not really quote unquote you know policing the matter as it is right now um to a big extent that wouldn't change much the the problem that I would run into is if we're now creating a mechanism where there's going to be constant calls to the Animal control officer at the implementation of this right that that's the only worry I would have really is is the volume that would come in right out the well and I and I agree Kevin and and and thank you and I guess I'm I'm going back to um I maybe I misheard but there is a question to a day about whether the Animal control officer whether we see the Animal control officer as being um responsible for enforcement and a day's answer was no so maybe I wasn't understanding the question or the answer um because if that if if the ACO is not going to enforce then I'm a little at a loss so ACO um is an independent contractor that works for multiple towns yep so we don't have the uh you know the the steping capacity to enforce those regulations at the at the Town Forest can I speak about the calls sorry if I can just I just I'm just I yes but just so a comp so we're complaint-based a complaint comes into the ACO the ACO responds and investigates and reports back to you correct and then you would be responsible for enforcement they are responsible for enforcement um but they report back to me okay thanks yeah Joan So it seems to me that this is really as I think Kevin mentioned before everything is basically staying the saying the same it's just clarifying some vague terms of of what exactly is expected behavior for the dogs is that correct bill and the number also adding the Lim number no yes correct yeah yes that's correct so there's no enforcement now so no enforcement in the future isn't any different in terms of yeah in terms of you know the calls I don't expect to be a large volume of calls uh and even if the ACO can just keep track I mean that's all just the database because that would be helpful in knowing you know how widespread are there other things we need to do uh you know what type of complaints are there are the commercial dog walkers still going in there do despite the bylaw I think that's an important piece of information and we will very likely get that from the public if that is posted as you know no more than two per Handler and they and and you know somebody goes in a commercial dog maret with you know with eight dogs that'll get you know they'll they'll know you know other people will know what to do and I think I think it's important to to track that information got so handlers refers to both commercial dog walkers and dog owners I or does it well the definition well yes anybody I mean yeah I I think there are probably very few you know individual individuals that have three dogs on you know by themselves um but uh it's really you know the goal is to avoid for example what happened today where of course you know you had this situation where these eight off Le dogs and and they attacked another dog yeah yeah RI just a point Rick just a point something up real quick I know we're having a discussion Nancy D has her hand up she is a member of the Town Forest committee so it wouldn't be public comment just wanted to point that out yes the race yes and I was I was gonna call on her as well um but before I do um isn't the or couldn't the uh issue of enforcement be separated from uh the actual you know recommended changes to the bylaws in other words if you if you have a set of bylaws um and and they are approved by the town meeting would you not then um look and say okay now how are we going to enforce this it may require more funding um you know it could be the Animal control officer randomly you know once a week or every other week random ly walks the forest and and you know produces citations to people who are not following it just enough to um you know to keep people on edge in addition to as Bill said collecting data on complaints and so forth I mean I'm not sure I would necessarily say gee it's not enforced now it'll never be enforced in the future um and you know frankly maybe that might be something to consider and going to the town meeting I don't exactly know those processes but you know maybe there needs to be an extra you know 5 to 10,000 or something for additional enforcement of this new if the town meeting passes it so those are just my thoughts and now Nancy I know you've had your hand up and go ahead and and speak to this oh can I there you go oh there I am Nancy doctor um I Street and a town Force meeting member jelan thank you very much for your comments that's kind of head you know spot on the the issue is um the enforcement is a problem because we don't have the funds we don't have um uh the ability to have like a um someone to patrol the Town Forest but keep in mind we have things like water restrictions and the police don't go around and hand out tickets for that either because that's not necessarily a good use of their time this is mostly education and Bill is right the more we can actually advertise and educate and give people a sense that there are consequences that helps to shape Behavior that's actually what public health does a lot isn't it you try to shape and improve behavior um we're here with you because the town put the Animal control officer under your jurisdiction not the police department the police department um un like you also they're not able to monitor this but it's about shaping Behavior so the more we can do to shape the public to kind of understand this that changes Behavior so we're really hoping the the more folks um that can get on board the select board was very supportive last evening in supporting this we're really looking to get your support as well so when you go to town meeting it's not just the town Force committee looking at this it's it's a much bigger broader with many more people involved so I would really encourage you to sign on and support this thank you thank you Nancy you so um I think I I think I'd like to call the question may make a motion to support the um Board of Health co-sponsoring these bylaw changes with the uh Town Force committee at the town meeting um second did I hear a second second John okay uh roll call Kevin um just a quick discussion before we um I'm I'm just trying to wrap my head around what we have on our agenda tonight it's an informed discussion um we may have to postpone this till the next meeting to vote on it um just thinking maybe I'm missing that I mean this seems kind of organically happening outside of the um of the agenda I'm not that I'm not for it I'm I'm certainly um for co-sponsoring it um I'm just thinking procedurally wise we may have to do it in the next meeting anybody anybody have anything to refute that please typically for voting on something it it needs to be a vote right on the agenda right I think you know we can certainly discuss um how much we're in favor of it um tonight but to actually sponsor it um where we're going to be a co-sponsor on the actual um warrant article we should probably um which I don't think is a big deal unless when the wor articles are getting printed that my only question in regards to timing of it all or we could simply call you know 48 Hours simple quick meeting um this mon next week whatever to one item agenda or whatever else a day want to throw in there um on top of it um just to get it just to get it on so before printing happens yeah right because our next meeting is until October 10th and that's only about what three week no four weeks before the town meeting yeah which may be already printed by then right maybe off to the printer y okay so um Wednesday next week 10 10- minute meeting I think we can we can manage that just to just to dot the eyes and cross the tees okay I I won't be able to attend okay okay I can why don't um why don't we ask CID we need 48 hours and so we can um if Cassidy can uh maybe send out something to solicit dates for next week and then um we can go with the one that ensures a quorum and literally it will probably be a a 10-minute meeting at most yeah it' either be Wednesday or Thursday because that because tomorrow Town Hall's closed so Monday starts the clock on the 48th right right all right we would U send a poll out next week okay okay appreciate you doing that making a special meeting to to vote on it just really appreciate it and I think it will make a big difference to have as Nancy said I she said it perfectly you know I think it would really make a make a big difference if it's a kind of a combined effort I think I think it's more than reasonable bill I mean at the end of the day the Town Forest is there for the for the Public's benefit right and yeah you pay taxes and you have a dog and I get it but it's really that doesn't mean you get to impede on somebody else's public rights to use that Forest as well right so I I agree with you wholeheartedly in that regard thank you appreciate that thank you Bill for coming thank you Nancy thank you thank you thank you very much thanks for the effort this is good good work a dve you'll you'll let me know how the how the boat turns out absolutely okay great all right thank you all thank you good night okay day another dog another dog story yes another dog story they should have just left Animal Control under the Police Department chief Clark is watching this meeting saying oh all right so uh yeah we received a dog bite letter that constitutes a complaint bed under the state statute and uh because it was piled under the state statute um uh it triggers uh the requirement to investigate the complaint and hold a dangerous dog hering so in the T of reading the animal control appeals committee ACAC is the hearing Authority not the B of hell don't worry about it um and the reason I'm bringing this up at this meeting is because the animal control in Ren now falls under the health department and I just wanted to keep the word of Health in the loop so at this point I am currently working with the ACAC um the last time they met was in 2012 you know we're looking at about 12 years ago so um you know I'm trying to bring everybody back together activate the uh committee and um it's been going well so far um you know we are in the process of finalizing a date for the public hearing and um you know I just want the board to know that uh you know you're free to attend this hearing as members of the community if you wish so um yeah that's pretty much it good and you'll let us know when the meeting is just in case someone does want to dial in absolutely it's going to be it's a public meeting the same way we did public hearing for the nfg policy and other things so the information is going to be out there okay great okay okay um terms of the community health Improvement plan so at our last meeting um we had a preliminary discussion about how to go about implementing um the community health Improvement plan and um at that time we did not have a public health nurse and we w we did not have an inspector and um I think we now have a public health nurse and soon I believe we are going to have an inspector um and and so uh so we're still I was I'm still thinking through this took the feedback from the Board of Health at the last meeting and um what I want wanted to do was to um and I have a can share my screen here um sort of think about how we would approach this and going forward and um and so let me let me just put up let's see share screen um so everybody can see that I hope um you know they didn't teach Public Health when I went to medical school and um I've picked up uh tidbits over the years and a whole lot in the last five years um on the board and so um this is sort of my primitive um way of looking at uh public health and and there's a sort of purpose behind this um these are the four areas that what I have seen both through the um the assessment process as well as just being on the board is what we do in uh in public health and I know it's very simplistic and I hope the professional Public Health people on the board you know don't laugh at me keep your um but so is my pointer visible to people yes okay okay so um let me just go over these four quadrants and and to make my point um which is we spent a lot of time in this regulatory space um and here we have a full-time inspector and you know a day skills um in and regulating and inspecting and uh keeping these areas um healthy and uh you know safe for people um so we spent a lot of time in this space and up here on infection control we we also spend a lot of time tracking ongoing uh diseases monitoring them reporting them in Maven educating people like wearing masks or washing their hands or doing whatever um and uh we we have a public health nurse now especially um who who has a major role in this space but there are you know these two other areas that um we I think we see ourselves as responsible for at a in a broader sense of improving the health uh of the community and one is around disease prevention um you know doing screenings and improving access to care and doing immunization um and you know Public Health nursing has a role in this for sure um and then there's healthy lifestyle you know health education as Nancy was talking about substance abuse trying to uh deal with that and healthy activities creating environments and and other things that uh are um will in general improve the health of the community so when I when I think think about um when I look at our community health Improvement plan um it's really about these two areas on the right that it's trying to address because we we're already doing a whole lot here and this is where our staffing is but beyond the public health nurse and a piece of the day you know we don't necessarily have a robust Staffing in this space um and and maybe that's why when we looked at the 2015 strategic plan um it didn't seem like a whole lot was done over those five years that you can directly tie back to it I I could be wrong and I'm not I just didn't see it so um so I wanted to um say that um this is why I think we need additional resources whether it's a staff person or whether it's a contractor if we're going to do this uh if we're going to work on the goals outlined in the chip I think we need this and um I think we are already pretty stretched with an inspector and public health nurse and um a public health director you know just to do what's you know legally required on the left side uh of this um so having said that um I did put together and and I will pull that up as well which went out in the pre-board packet um I did I did put together um this oops actually before I go on maybe Carrie do you have a question or a comment just a quick comment and I I dropped a link in the chat and I just want to say thank you Rick for for for raising this and for doing this work the link I put in the chat is for the foundational Public Health Services and and that are required for all municiple public health departments um and what you're talking about is it's it's spoton you're you're exactly right not laughing at you supporting you fully so there are three core functions for public health those functions are assessment policy development and assurance and typically they're depicted in a wheel because it's an iterative process right and and depending on what you learn in assurance you may have to go back and assess and then look at the readjust your policies accordingly and what your graphic that you put together for us shows so clearly is that really our efforts have been focused solely on the Assurance Assurance being you know are the policies being followed are we you know um ticking the eyes making sure that they were doing case investigation in Maven making sure we're doing inspections and the like and that we don't have sufficient resources to take take on the other pieces of work which are what you need to do if you're a public health person which are the assessment so we were able to secure funds to support a contractor to help us with the assessment we got a great Community Health needs assessment process and a excellent Community Health Improvement plan and then from there you go to your policy development and figure out how you're going to conduct assurance and you are you are you despite the fact that they didn't teach Public Health when you went to school you have um laid it out beautifully um so thank you thank you for for putting it in that context and and and there you know Fab the public health accreditation board um has put together some some prettier Graphics um because they have more staff um that that might be helpful but um but yeah this is this is great this is right in line and I'm so glad you're raising this because I really was frustrated after last week's after last month's meeting and the you know the idea that somehow you know we're were going to have to rely on volunteers to um do something we have to make an investment but munic the whole town needs to make you you need to be able to make an investment in the maintenance and the implementation of of changes and that doesn't always you know it can't fall to sometimes the public health nurse can do it sometimes the inspector can do it sometimes the director can do it but not always um so thank you yay you thank you appreciate the support um so so as I thought about this you know we had talked about a resource and um you know that could be a very vague term particularly when you're trying to get funding it's like oh we need a resource well you know that's money that's FTE so exactly what would that person do and I I sort of did a brain dump over here um which again gone out hopefully you've had a chance to read it where you know I think we need someone who can drive this process uh under under the direction of the board and a day and um really be involved in uh all the coordination because a lot of this activity is not um is not going to necessarily be the health department providing a particular activity or a particular resource it's going to be getting resources in the town and in the community and um to work together to provide uh that resource so even things like the Shaw's immunization you know we're we're not doing that but it t it takes some effort to work with Shaw to get the logistics set up and to advertise it and to make that happen and and I think that's true for a lot of the things on the chip um Improvement plan is is getting other agencies and other entities involved and help and supporting them in providing some of these services so a lot of the role of the project manager is kind of coordinating that under the oversight of a scaring committee which I'll get to in a minute um and this person would need to have a good knowledge of managing large diff diverse projects um the chip is a five-year program um and so you know maybe the first couple years are more intense than the last couple of years but it's not something that happens overnight and it does require it may require um you know grant writing getting more funds to do be able to do some of these things um obviously background in in public health and uh I think that um you know doing I'm a sort of big on metrics and being able to track them over time to know that we're achieving our goals and I don't know whether this is a halftime job or full full-time job um but this is what I see as the sort of kind of resource we need to move this ahead um and then there's the steering committee and the purpose of the steering committee is really to provide some broad oversight I mean the Board of Health really pushed and initiated this um but we need to rely on a lot of the entities listed in the steering committee um to be able to to drive things happening and for them to feel like they have a stake in this and for them to um be able to speak to what they're doing or or for the steering committee to say you know for you we need this to happen in the next six months um or whatever you know you want them to have an investment and so that was the reason behind and I think we talked about this the steering committee having you know a sort of very diverse uh group of entities coming together um on some regular basis uh to kind of monitor how things are going sort of with the project manager really kind of driving the U the process um at the Board of Health meeting at our last meeting there were some suggestions which I put down here as well um you know maybe some of the other six towns in our collabor cative are um you know doing something similar that we can leverage um and you know potentially have the public health nurse or the inspector or some staff um you know support us in this effort uh number two here find out what other towns have suc successfully implemented a chip I did a cursory review of a Board of Health and Health Department we sites for about eight surrounding towns of reading and none of them had a strategic plan a posted or any type of you know um thinking along these lines I don't know but I that doesn't mean that there aren't you know 338 other towns but maybe there aren't I don't know Kerri no I mean I think I think that what you'd see first I'd say that I don't think websites are are necessarily a great representation um I think that lots of communities find it really challenging to um manage the websites and figure out what you're putting on there and what you're not and um and um there are a lot of communities that are interested in engaging in it um Community Health needs assessment they've been trying to figure out how to do it either among their shared services for folks or in a um you know in an individual municipality so we are a little bit ahead but not by too much um and I can do a little research myself and find out in the places um um kind of generally in the regions I work with um and I can contribute to your info if that would be helpful yeah that would be and you know it's too bad dph doesn't track these things in some way shape or form that would be very useful well and this is one of things of it's a it's a a local Authority right um there's is it's a it's a um sort of a shared Powers thing and there's question of what do you what do you track if if it's a local Authority versus a state requirement kind of thing um and I think that they keep track but I do think shared services I think office of local regional health is working to to gather that information um I do think that in the next couple cou years the the data available will be much more robust and um specific um and so um and so in terms of the path forward here um you know uh I'm I'm thinking that um the first step is trying to uh figure out how we can get resources to fund a lead person whether you call it a project manager coordinator or whatever whatever term you want to use um to be able to um help with putting together than a steering committee I think that there's in terms of communication um I think there's a there's a balance here on one hand I'd love to go out and communicate that we have this improvement process we've done this assessment um you know and rally the troops on the other hand I don't want to do that to an extent in the community until we have the resources to be able to then show that we're doing something because if uh you know we raise expectations and then nothing happens for six to 12 months um I don't think that helps anybody so the reason for me putting this on the agenda was to get feedback um from the board in terms of this this you know either specifics around what a coordinator or manager project manager would responsible for or who should be on the steering committee um I'm thinking that maybe a day and I would go to meet with Matt uh when we have a sort of plan uh something concrete like this and um you know and see if there resources in the current budget we're not asking for a whole lot but I know I know every ask is is different so uh that might be the the first step is to see if we can easily um acquire our resource uh to begin the process uh but I'm I'm very naive uh about how to get resources in this town I I really um you know it's a learning process for me so any any thing you can suggest would be helpful so so Carrie you um I mean I think this is great you know I think specifically as I look at this I think your you know your point of how do you how do you pitch this and you do it as a coordinator or a manager if you're looking at um cost you could certainly you know save some funds um um reduce the hourly rate by making a coordinator and do that by stripping out the grant writing and the um required experience in public health and you could get a project coordinator um and then I guess my question would be as we think creatively about making the ask is are there other departments in town who are also in need of coordination services and is this something that could be uh combined and you know I don't know they they's making a face at me I can't tell if I've if I've said something really wrong or really but but I mean one thing might be to say okay is this a short-term contract that we put out and could you could you share some costs because there's another department that has something and it's 20 hours on this project 20 hours on the other um or is it a part-time position of 20 hours you know or 19.5 if we're trying to um not add FTE um then um you know that would be another piece I think you know I think you you you you wrote up a nice description um and I think the place to figure out if we if we can get a number from someone then the room for shaving would be is this a manager Ro or is this a coordinator that you know would require some more supervision and guidance from a day um I think they probably require supering guidance anyways because they need to be able to reach out to a bunch of different folks in different departments and um they need some Authority and some support um but no I I think it's it's accurate um I think it's very very much needed um I think that we have to figure out how to invest in implementation um and I'm G to shut up and let other people talk Dr Lopez yes able to share the the four quadrants again sure um and the reason I'm asking for that is um so everything you explained those things already exist so so the uh regulatory part you know we have the health department the uh infection control epidemiology we have health department disease prevention can be seen as the health department and the Pleasant Street Center we already doing preventive uh screenings we're already doing immunizations um you know access to care we're doing those things now the senior center has the you know the ability to get grants from the state that would actually boost the access to care and then if you go down to the health lifestyle um we have F Center and then we have the Coalition under the police department so everything here already exist but they're not under the same roof with clear leadership if you go to your steering committee that you listed out of the 14 that you listed if we had all these departments under a Health and Human Services model we already have seven or eight members just from combining those departments where have seven or eight members as part of the staring committee so the issue here is that we have all these little departments you know under they're all separated they're not under a Health and Human Services model again we have funding in the Coalition you know that can be used um the senior center has the ability if it's combined with the health department to actually apply for Grants you know so again all these things exist they're just not under the same roof and that's the main issue we're having in reading so if we can get those departments under the same roof things are going to be way easier with clear leadership things are going to be way easier for us Rick I know I said I was gonna shut up sorry but I just can I ask a clarifying question sure a day are you suggesting that if we if if we were operating in a Health and Human Services model like you say that that there would be capacity for somebody to fill this chip project coordination role there will be capacity there without having to hire a new person well we will have uh access to grant funding you know we can ask for a grant to get somebody in here under the Health and Human Services model without paying out of pocket for it right now if we're trying to get a grant for this position who who is going to be applying for the grant is it going to be the health department is it going to be the Coalition is it going to be the senior center you know who is actually going to you know pay this person you know right well and it seems like naturally because it's our community I mean because we we LED right the health health department led the community health assessment um even though it's for the whole Community it seems like that would Naturally Fit under Health but but I I I understand what you're saying um okay thanks there is a unused funding in all this little departments okay so for example we just merged the um you know public health nurse from the health department we merched that position with the nurse Advocate at the uh you know Senior Center we were able to free up some funds that you know helped increase uh the hours for the clinician and the you know so we have you know fund then we use them you know if we merge departments and use the money appropriately we have and funding we have in the op settlement funding is still there um I know that Erica was here to explain everything but if we were under a Health and Human Services model um you know the broader group would have potentially have access to those funds we can Rec coros some of the funding you know so again I I think that we need to come together have a health and human services model and things would uh work out better for the town of Ren so D you're talking about a reorder yeah of the absolutely okay okay so certainly from a um systematic standpoint that makes a lot of sense in to um expedite this because I think otherwise Rick the one thing I was you know looking at y model I just kept thinking 12 to 16 months before you even get that thing up and running um you know it's just because of how slow the crawl of government is you got to go to town meeting you gotta estab you know you have to establish it all first and then you haven't even hired anybody because you can't hire until you established like it's the whole you know what I mean so it takes like it just it's so slow um governments at times um but that's an interesting concept today to just rather than do all that just kind of merge what you have right now um with with grant writing um sounds like a faster means to an end and probably more efficient you you're breaking down a whole bunch of silos and you're putting them all into one um yeah I kind of like that that model of day it's a great suggestion a day would um would there be any sense in a interim step um short of a HS HS H whatever model healthy human services model um where the steering committee um was uh put together that actually had the Departments you mentioned that would be part of a Health and Human Services Comm that without short of a reorg you would put together a steering committee that had these with a a mandate from above that you know um resources in those various entities the Coalition Pleasant you know needed to be made available um to to address the chip uh in in a way that um might move faster than a reord well if if if there is a you know like a clear leadership then that's very possible but imagine me going to the Coalition you know and demanding things right right it would have to be a mandate to say you know this is this is a high priority and if if the process requires that the chip process requires you to submit these three grants you you know that becomes a priority you know but because otherwise it it becomes the usual interdepartmental kind of you know Str we have a great team here in Rin and we work together well but again you know if if there's no clear leadership um you know it becomes you're at other people's mercies and you know you may not be able things done like right away the way you want to get those things done so Generals in the room sorry say that again you can't have 14 Generals in the room exactly exactly thank you very much for making that point and Rick I I know where you're going with this you you know to expedite things I would say this um you know my my thought process would be just because we call it every five years doesn't mean we have to start the clock on on day one of all right right so five years starts when we get to start the fiveyear clock right so I don't think there's a huge rush to need to do that I I I think you know the way I've always looked at things if you set it up right to start off with it will then run smoothly for decades and decades to come and and makes it easier for those down the road to just keep implementing and keep rolling with it so I'd be more of the model of like you know let's look at the structure of it all and set it up um the way we feel like it's going to run most efficiently smoothly and and one that is you know if if we don't have to to add to the budget um obviously I think it's going to be some ad there' have to be um at some point but if we can minimize that I think that's going to be palatable to town meeting as well I I agree with Kevin the the idea of going slow to go fast you know it the the time spent you know organizing thinking planning out what's your structure what would be impact be so that your organization can then move nimbly um as you go forward that's that's very worthwhile um and I know it's hard to kind of say well but we have our chip and we we really wanna we need to go um and I'm with you I I I want to go but it sounds want to start down a path and then flip right now we're gonna switch it now we're gonna do this that becomes very confusing yeah yeah because we're not we're not we're not set up in a way that supports the ability to do it and we can identify a few different kind of stop Gap Solutions but we don't know if we can access the funds to support it we don't know the longevity of those funds and um we don't know you know I mean you're still as I it's there's the lack of authority right because there are currently you know eight eight departments each with their own work plan and identified priorities and so on and um so all of them have to figure out how to okay well yeah how do I add this in I can I can adjust but um yeah you know that's one of the outcomes actually one of the first outcomes from the chip is sort of this in order to be able to um do this you know you really do need to look at your structure um I think that was actually in the in the document as well I mean it's it's sort of a in my mind I kind of go back and forth between not wanting to lose momentum um but I hear what you say that you know you might have to go slow to to be able to be successful I sort of don't think these are all going to turn on a dime in the next this fall but we got to have a strategy so okay so that's that's very useful feedback and um you know maybe we need to look at you know the structure um and there's probably you know between six departments there's probably you could add up enough resources in those that you might be able to move this ahead without necessarily adding go ahead a day and uh don't forget that we have access to the shared services collaborative as well to those employees as well yeah they can be you know an asset to us yes all right any other thoughts please email me you know if you have any other thoughts or comments or suggestions and uh we'll kind of we'll see how we what we can do around the conversation with Town management around structure um and resources around this around how to implement this you know excellent chip I mean it really it was a good process it's a it's a great Community Health Improvement plan with achievable things that will benefit across the whole Community um and it's a question of how how can we effectively implement this thing that we've already made the investment yeah and I think what you know day's talking about um really is very transformative way of looking at um Health from a governmental standpoint and so this is not something that's we're going to do it this year I mean this is something you're setting we're talking about 20 30 50 years from now um this the town reading the health uh department and and the way we kind of go about um doing the town's business I I think pretty Monumental so definitely of the slowest smooth and smooth as fast uh category right great thank you all and I will turn it over to a day for the monthly report right thank you very much Dr Lopez from month of August uh we conducted multiple Nur inspections and PR inspections a good chunk of our time was focused on permit application reviews and approvals um the good news is that uh we have H had a health inspector our start date is uh December 23rd so we're very excited happy and this is uh you know as a result of um you know being able to get the funding required for that position so i' would like to uh thank uh the uh Town manager for you know navigating us through this and helping us uh get the funding that we needed yes thank goodness I was worried about you a day I was worried about myself I know all right another good news is that the intermunicipal agreement for the services collaborative was approved by the select board on Tuesday night it has since been uh signed and executed I will share a copy of the document with the board uh sometime next week we had uh two fire incidents at two food establishments down reading one at Pizza world and the other at n's Pizza um everything was taken care of and both establishments are back in operation at the next bevel meeting I will be uh you know proposing an abandoned and foreclosed property regulation to the board and I would also revive the potential adoption of the 2021 food code um I know that you know I think it was during the June meeting we had a presentation about moving over from the 2013 foot code to the 21 foot code we never voted the board never voted on it so at the next minute I will revive that uh have uh Amilia health inspector with us and um we'll probably um give a presentation um since we have two two to three Neo board members so it will be good for them to uh hear the presentation uh over again so I will be doing it at the next mid end see I will now pass it on to Olivia for nuring updates um Cassidy I'm gonna ask you to put the visual on if that's okay thank you thank you so much so as you can see here this is for August 26 to September 8th um and this top graph is just showing us our covid and line numbers we we have nine cases of covid-19 during that time frame and two of Lyme disease um and our next graph you can see the trends of the communicable diseases in the area we are downtrending um from the month of August for our covid numbers however as the winter months come we will probably see an uptick so everyone keep washing your hands wearing your masks stay home if you're sick please um and get your vaccines um and before I get into the vaccines I'll just uh draw your attention to the last two charts at the bottom we have our for foodborn illness um which has gone down from the summer as well as our Vector born diseases um the we are seeing a downtrend from the spring as well um and as ad day had said earlier we have the vaccine clinic at um sponsored by Shaw at the coolage middle school we have that on the 27th of this month from 2 to 5 um please come yes there's a QR code right here so people can scan that and sign up um and please bring your IDs and your insurance information if you have it um and last but not least there will be uh flu clinics coming to our friends at Frank Turner and Cedar Glenn um those dates will be posted as soon as we have them and um how many what types of vaccines can we oh thank you thank you and day um yes so the Shaw's Clinic is offering covid flu he B the twoos series num mle shingles and T is whooping cough so just to reiterate this is not just a covid and flu Clinic um so everybody look at your immunization records if you know if you feel like something is expired show up and show up and get get vaccinated yeah come get vaccinated that's great yeah that's terrific um that concludes the monthly report and I'll just say sorry sort of I had covid in August I was I I was positive in August I was really sick um I was really sick I ended up unpack floid um I was still really sick I'm still recovering so um anecdotally and certainly you know my own spe my own personal and specific experience but it's still quite real and it's it it it was um I was flat on my back for four days and then kind of struggling moving forward so um just for what it's worth and I I've known a bunch of people that had it now I've known a bunch of people who have had it recently yeah yep and actually I found out today that my daughter-in-law had it has it right now and of course the numbers that um uh that we saw that live live showed grossly underestimate right because now it's not um you know anybody can buy a test and get tested and know they have covid and no one in the health department or anywhere outside of their full walls of their home will know so um you know I'm sure it's it's much higher actually understand yeah oh I'm sorry I understand that the um CDC is going to require hospitals to um start reporting again Co oh really so they had ended that so it's you know some comply and some don't so but that's it's going to be more consistent so therefore more accurate coming in the fall yeah at least the hospitalization numbers will be you know I mean still there's still the Gap there's never been a mechanism in Mass Massachusetts to report home positive test right right so I mean it's always missed that but you know the Wastewater they've done in massachusett uh was one of the first states to do that it tells a a clear story anyway so without the hospital numbers you don't get the severity of disease but right you get the amount of disease yep and uh we received um test kits from the state last so we have some at the town clerk's office we have some at the library Senior Center so um you know feel free to grab some yeah right can I just ask a question not related to covid um have we heard of any incidents of the mosquito born by Triple E or west nile I know that weak field and uh I think ston are in the high we're still in the moderate but has there been any anything we know of in town well the midle middle SE county is now in the severe um because we've had multiple cases of triple and West now virus um but nothing right now correct um so the the the um spray for the season is over but um we are looking at specific areas um and those will be treated um next week yeah it's still like 80 degrees I mean you know it's like you think the Fall's coming and the mosquitoes will go away but it's still hot that's true correct so the areas where they found um positive mosquitoes those are going to be treated next week oh they are correct so we have had positive mosquitoes in Reading just no no cases yes yep anything else he not having hearing anything else um I'll make a motion to adjourn second second carry roll call uh Carrie yes Joan yes Kevin yes and Rick yes okay thank you all we'll see you next month or or next week oh next week right that's right but not me sorry about that that's okay no worries right everybody use your use your mosquito repellant yes and get your reporting stopped okay l e e