e e e e e e e hello everyone welcome to the May month of May Board of Health meeting for their city of rever please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance so like I said this is the May month of May meeting for the Board of Health the city of R I am Dr uh Drew bunker I the chairperson with me tonight is vivana katano board member to my right and also for municipal staff we have Lauren Buck who's the director of Public Health Michael Wells who's the health agent director of inspectional services and Paula Paula sua who is the Board of Health clerk also in attendance tonight we have the director of six City tobacco initiative Bonnie Carroll and as well as the Northeast Massachusetts mosquito control and wetlands Management District Barry noon um and director Kimberly Foss an etymologist Jennifer sposa I hope I said those right sorry um so first part of the meting we're just going to uh review and approve the minutes from the April meeting so do you approve Viviana I do I approve the minutes as well second um we're going to have uh Michael Wells talk about the condemnation proceedings regarding the 85 Jones Road residence thank you Dr bunker uh we had a condemnation um for a property located at 85 Jones Road we had a referral from R fire department um on a recent visit to that property for a medical emergency and it was referred to inspectional services for further review Upon A further upon further review of that property we um did make a decision um to proceed with a condemnation hearing um after much um interaction with the the residents and the family of that property we were able to um come to terms with them and the uh Property Owners had listed the property for sale recently and they do have a signed purchase and sale agreement for this property um it's expected to close on June 30th um and at this time we will not proceed with the condemnation hearing as the um attorneys did send me a signed purchase of the copy and of the purchase and sale great thank you so no vote no proceedings um I think some of the the family is here thank you for coming um and glad we could settle it outside of having to do the seedings thank you all right um next is the um we're going to talk about the smoking violation there was a second offense by Parkway Liquors that's located on 190 Riv Beach Parkway um and I'm going have Bonnie come up talk about um the offense and then the the penalty okay on um March 9th 202 24 at 3:16 p.m. uh the second violation happened where a young person under the age of 21 was able to buy a single backwood cigar this is the second offense the first offense was on January 22nd and 23 so less than the 36 months that um could start it over so this is considered a second event therefore um it's a $2,000 fine and a 7day suspension of the permit excuse me to se sell tobacco um if if there's no objection we'll begin that on June 10th for 7 Days Y no objection for me no objection for me yep great can I also just add in that um the fine was paid by Parkway Lookers on looks like April 7th of $2,000 um and so the inspectional department will post signage or will give signage via certified mail to the um to The Establishment after this meeting great thank you so much by y next um part of the meeting is going to be the presentation from the Northeast Massachusetts mosquito control and wetlands Management District good evening my name is Barry noon and I'm here tonight with our entomologist Kim Foss and uh our office manager and Board of Health liais on Jen Forza um might be jumping on later she did have a little family emergency um again my name is Barry noon some of the people in this room are familiar I think I know Mike and Lauren um I'm pleased to be here tonight um we're going to go through a fairly comprehensive um slideshow and then we asked that if we could take questions at the end from everybody so if you have any any questions jot them down and we'll do our best to answer them at the end of the uh presentation and with that I will let Kim take over good evening um I'm Kimberly Foss the entomologist and if you want you can go right to the next page please the next slide oops okay so our district uses integrated Pest Management which is one of the most effective long-term ways to manage mosquitoes use it uses a combination of methods while minimizing risks to people in the environment this presentation will discuss the integrated mosquito management techniques that are nmmc uses to minimize the impact of mosquitoes on human health including education surveillance Source reduction habitat manipulation biological controls and targeted insecticides next slide please we also have a redesign website that we did uh last year uh well actually in 2022 uh it's to more userfriendly to Residents uh we actually added translation services to this this winter um on the bottom of the page users may choose from several options the homepage buttons are focused on Services provided to the resident such as residential ultra low volume um adulticiding and property inspection requests there's also an area for spray uh spray exclusions we have our pesticides listed and it's a detailed list of what we use their labels and safety data sheets we also answer questions there's a tab for frequently asked questions which uh provides answers on everything from our catch Bas and laring program to our salt marsh helicopter treatments and in R we don't use helicopter but um we use other types of equipment that people may see us out there with it also has a protect yourself button which offers information to residents on how they can prevent mosquito bites and breeding on their property and then we have a notify me tab uh an option for residents to subscribe to topics of Interest as they are shared on our website and other social media platforms uh we also have Facebook next slide yep part of our education and Outreach follows State's messaging on preventing mosquito bites by reducing mosquito breeding around your home and the use of personal protection while Outdoors we encourage residents to use CDC approved insect repellants and it will say on the on the um repellent itself it'll say approved or it'll say for West Nile or for tickborne disease but it's usually has deep um or something similar to it and if you don't know you can always call us or send us an email and we can help you out with that uh wearing protective clothing or staying indoors when mosquitoes are most active is very helpful as well and we encourage residents to also mosquito proof their home by dumping any standing water that is present for more than 5 days like cleaning bird baths clogged gutters pet dishes and swimming pools or Kitty pools make sure all your screens are repaired and trash recycle bins tarps and boats are turned upside down so they don't collect water next slide please we also do property inspections um Northeast enacting legislation under Mass General Law chapter 252 in conjunction with mass dph um allows the district to engage in preventative uh management and eradication methods deemed necessary within the Commonwealth residents or Board of Health may call us for property and sight inspections if they are wet areas and Lawns unus swimming pools ditches Wetlands that have breeding mosquitoes we can use a larva side Board of Health can also call us to inspect unsanitary or vacant properties for mosquito reading we also removed um abandoned tires upon request as long as they have no rims want to throw that in there rest is th as me for a while so surveillance is the Cornerstone of a quality integrated mosquito Management program it's provides data to support timely and effective control actions to reduce mosquito populations and the risk of mosquito born disease Massachusetts has about 54 species of mosquitoes we are experienced in all methods of laral and adult mosquito surveillance and identification larval surveillance allows us to identify and treat breeding sites often eliminating the problem before adult mosquitoes appear adult surveillance is the process of understanding the population Dynamics and species distribution of mosquitoes in a given area this is a critical factor to determine how to control them and the potential risk disease in a community the adult mosquito surveillance season begins the second week of May and continues until October 1st each municipality has several different kinds of traps depending on what species or diseases we're looking for we only collect female mosquitoes and those are the ones that are sent to the state uh Public Health lab for testing which starts June First Once uh once any Community Massachusetts gets a positive virus notification all mosquito control districts start submitting Bridge Vector mosquitoes Bridge Vector mosquitoes are the ones that feed on birds and humans and uh they're the ones that are responsible for transmitting the viruses from birds birds carry the viruses mosquitoes transmit those from birds to humans the public health lab releases positive results on Thursdays by noon you to be on Fridays we got it to change early so we um because what happens is a lot of the board of healths aren't open or they close early on Fridays and we can't plan for any emergency applications so we got uh a Thursday um delivery date we then contact the local Boards of health and coordinate the appropriate response in years where virus is extremely active and weather conditions are suitable for response the Department of Health May extend the surveillance and testing season into October next slide we are most of our traps are designed to capture adult female biting mosquitoes we use four main types of traps for for surveillance we have a CDC CO2 light trap it uses carbon dioxide octanol and light as attractant mosquitoes like either uh breath that's released by humans heat all kinds of other different cues that attract them these traps can attract those using those cues they're drawned into the attractant and pulled into a mesh collection net and then once a week we go and we collect the Trap uh we keep them on ice so that the mosquitoes are frozen permanently and ID them Frozen and then they're sent to the lab Frozen and that maintains the virus chain we use gravid traps as well which is that little uh looks like a tackle box and it sits on top of this pan of of kind of stinky water that we make it's a hay infusion with some other things mixed in that's that's very attractive for mosquitoes laying eggs when they fly into the pan we collect them into that little net and those are the ones that are usually collected for westn virus recently uh we added over traps which are um they little cups that we set out in places with papers in them and that's to attract a mosquito that is new to Massachusetts and it's uh invasive from the south part of the country and it can bring a lot of other diseases so we're tracking the uh colonization of that species in Massachusetts so we use those traps on occasion you can switch slides and down here we don't use them but in most of the other parts of the district we do these are resting boxes they're used to collect a mosquito that's responsible for the transmission of Eastern equin and sephtis and they're mainly in red maple swamps and a lot of these uh kind of acidic Peete bog environments which there aren't any in R so but um we still you know when once we get Triple E we start sampling for bridge vectors because the bridge vectors the birds can have it and still move it around so uh we may not use these here but we're still actively sending a lot of mosquito different kinds for testing next slide please and in the event of a positive uh doesn't matter which virus uh we place supplemental traps out in the municipalities because we have historic trap sites so every town that we have has a historic trap it doesn't move it stays there and that's that way we can um look at seasonal populations yearly populations and kind of make we don't like to make predictions but it allows me to look at see what might be coming up in the next couple days or in the next couple weeks based on Epi weeks when we get a positive we set out supplemental traps in other areas so the historic trap stays where it is and then we set these supplementals in other places and that we can use to find out if we're getting any mosquito disease in other places so we can treat appropriately they're also used to pre- and post monitoring of our adulticide efficacy so a lot of times once we do an adulticide event we'll place a trap out to see what we get from mosquitoes to see what our percentage of efficacy is on the application that we did and then for equipment security and Resident PR pracy we don't disclose the locations of any of our traps to the public uh the local Boards of Health can request that confidential information from us and we ask that once we give it that it's not released either next slide please another vital part of our integrated mosquito management is physical control through mosquito habitat mitigation and manipulation we have specialized low ground pressure Wetland excavation Mowing and Earth moving equipment last year the district cleared over 23,000 ft of impacted storm water ditches and we cleaned out about 57 calverts clearing these either by hand or mechanically keeps storm water from backing up and creating stagnant areas where mosquitoes can breed uh we also have worked on large salt marsh projects and those can dramatically reduce mosquito habitat by providing deeper pools for birds and fish and ditch restoration projects provides better drainage of tidal water the district has removed and disposed of used tires through petition Wetland management produ projects coordinated cleanups resident requests scouting and participation in household hazardous waste events we remove anywhere from 600 to 800 tires a year these practices are considered an important part of the district's IPM approach and have become a valuable Vector mosquito habitat management tool through our invasive plant protocol we mow large areas of uh frag mes this is a tall dense aquatic freshwater and brackish water plant that provides breeding habitat for several species of mosquitoes of of viral concern it also provides shelter for large populations of resting adults mosquito control efforts may be inhibited by DSE stands of fragm mies either by preventing the adulticiding from reaching the spots we're needing to treat or the availability of us actually accessing the site it's so tall it's razor sharp uh it makes it almost impossible to get in there to treat so every year here in Rivier in the fall we mow it down so first thing in the spring we can go in and treat all these salt marsh areas with a larvicide product that lasts a long time before the fragm mites gets up to a height that we can't treat them anymore next slide please next I'd like to touch on our general L liver sighting program lver siding is the primary um chemical approach to Mosquito Control when habitat mitigation isn't an option and it's also the most efficient way to kill mosquitoes before they ever hatch and fly the district keeps a database with historic lav siding sites which include spring snow Mall areas Woodland pools pastures flood Plaines Lawns swamps and salt marshes Laver siding begins in March or as the snow melt allows until usually the end of September our field teams go out to each site and dip multiple times for larvae some samples are brought back to the lab for Speed species identification sites may be treated by hand backpack mechanically or aily not all of these site requ sites require treatment there are predators present such as fish frogs where we will not treat that site freshwater spring snowmelt sites abandoned swimming pools require one treatment per year salt marshes summer flood water sites ditches may require multiple treatments within a season uh on that slide the Dipper to the left is a pre-salt marsh larva side treatment in one of the historical pools that we find there's thousands upon thousands of mosquito lver in there and then after treatment we go back out to the same sites and record what we find uh which is quite a big difference um the mosquitoes are not eradicated but uh reduced to a more manageable level next slide please next I'd like to touch on our catch Basin program our pet catch Basin program is designed to reduce the seasonal risk of westnile virus in urban sites CX mosquitoes are the primary Vector for westnile virus catch basins like tires and containers are their preferred habitat so timing the treatment of basins is critical annual treatments can also have a cumulative effect in reducing the total population into the following year by up to 80% compared to un untreated catch basins um we do reach out to Municipal dpws and assist them in efficient treatments of catch basins by scheduling annual cleanings either before or after um in which helps us decide what chemical we're going to use for the season um cleaning reduces organic material in the basins that allows for greater efficacy and bacteria l side treatments next slide [Applause] please all right I'm going to talk about larva side products so most of the well all the products we use are EPA registered category 4 and the category 4 means it's low to very low toxicity to the environment or people or animals pets children Birds anything but our Target species um we use bacterial biolarvicides which could be uh basilis thinis israelensis or sphericus those are bacterial they're specific for mosquitoes and black fly larvey we don't treat black flies here so we're focusing only on mosquito larve um we also use um methoprene which is a growth regulator what happens with methoprene is it's ingested by the misquito larv and then they'll continue their development as as juveniles and before they pupate into adults they don't make it so and we use that product when we have certain areas we only use methoprene and containers so catch basins uh swimming pools things like that and um we'll use that product when it's really dirty because the bacterial product the mosquito larv ingests it as well and it doesn't work as well if there's competing organic material so that's why when we reach out to the dpws to clean the basins they'll clean them and then we can use bacteria if we get to them and they're not cleaned yet we use methoprene and methoprene works it doesn't compete for the mosquitoes food source we also can use a liquid mechanical suffocant um it's like a coconut oil or mineral oil it dissipates in four to 5 days we use those for pey because pey don't feed so the only way to get to them before they emerge as adults is to put a layer on the surface of the water so actually physically suffocates them um and then it it uh biodegrades by UV sunlight or bacteria will eat it within four or five days it disappears a lot of these products too we use on a rotational so like methoprene we don't want to use every year we might skip a year or two and then we have a lot of these other products that are listed different formulations different percentages of different products sometimes there's a blend of the products so we'll rotate all these products to make sure that we don't get any mosquito that become immune or unaffected by the product that we use next slide it's up to you to talk about that so when we can't kill the larvae we have to attack the adult flying mosquitoes um we deploy ultra low volume truck-based adult assing uh usually coordinated with the boards of health or in towns and cities where uh residents are allowed to call in one advantage to U ulv applications is only the very minute amounts of pesticide that are dispensed over a large area about 1 ounce of mixed product is applied per acre or about 1 millimet of active product over an area the size of a football field to protect uh pollinators and bees adul aiding operations are only completed at night and we start 30 minutes after Sunset um we also have onboard weather stations on all the trucks uh so we can know humidity temperature wind um and we also have GIS mapping with with endagered species layers um resident exclusions uh with warnings so all of our field techs know where they should be going and where they can't be using adulticide um the product is highly effective um it provides a quick knockdown with reliable control um at flying mosquitoes only at time of application uh there is not a residual meaning the product does dissipate fairly quickly um and as a reminder especially on the coastal towns salt marsh mosquitoes fly and bite during the day they rest in thick vegetation at night so sometimes the nighttime applications uh won't control these mosquitoes a lot of the time um and again adul asde applications uh will be cancelled if temperatures Dro below 50 if it's raining or wind speeds excess of 10 miles an hour and that's all due to the label of the products uh the labels the law so we can only follow what those labels tell us we can do um to reduce oh next slide I'm sorry to reduce the need for repeated applications we do Rec recommend uh barrier treatments uh we have done those before in the city of Riv last year they worked out really really well um these are usually used in in um High public areas such as public Fields schools parks and athletic fields um the barrier treatment is a residual microencapsulated product applied to a physical Brader such as trees fences outdoor structures and such um to protect bees again another pollinators barrier treatments are completed only at night 30 minutes after sunset uh re-entry is treated re-entry to treated properties is usually good when the product dries usually in the morning and on all School properties we always post a sign of when the application was done let me see all right next slide please we do take Board of Health requests for adult aiding um we followed our phase response to virus protocol to reduce the risk of West Nile and Triple E inhuman infections we do recommend selective and targeted adult deciding applications when virus infected mosquitoes are discovered only the boards of Health in Our member municipalities can request adulticiding and barrier treatments for schools Recreation areas publicly owned Municipal property we do have a lot of residents who are like oh I was walking my dog in the park I want you to spray the park and I'm like well you can't do that because you don't own the property we have to talk to the city or town and get the Board of Health approval to do so um this year in the best management plans that we sent out to all uh member municipalities include a new checklist or a reminder for Boards of Health um tasks that can be completed early in the season such as scheduling barrier treatments and contacting IPM coordinators to uh update their plans to make sure they have our latest product and I've already been in touch with uh hajar this year about scheduling that for the city uh next Slide the school IPM program is very important um for us to ever even go on school property IPM plant must must be updated by the IPM coordinators uh Every Spring we send out a list of our newest and up-to-date products I know I know that Riv we did that a couple years ago we brought everything up to Snuff so almost every school in the city I think meets uh the newest products that we do offer um we do this in coordinate coordination with the child and family protection act which which requires a school IPM to list pesticides that are going to be applied on school grounds schools must include Mosquito Control in their outdoor IPM plans if they intend to request Services um if the IPM plans don't list the products we use then we cannot treat um we have a great relationship with the IPM program for the ma uh the state of Mass and um can easily get schools updated in an afternoon if which we've done before uh and uh they've been very very helpful next slide resident residential uh adult siding requests um not every town in the district which were made up of 32 different cities and towns allow this uh rever does for their residents uh for good reason uh residents need to request their own property weekly uh as needed um to control mosquitoes they cannot not request their neighbor their uncle they really have to live there um we run into this a lot I think with the new updated website by entering an email allowing permission on the premises has kind of streamlined this a little bit I think a lot of the education um that the city of Rivier has done um along with us guiding people to our website has really transform the way we interact with the public the last couple of years so I applaud the city for that um when when residents uh request adult deciding we only use truck-based treatment applications and what that basically means is we back into their driveway we stay on Solid Ground uh we turn on the machine and we slowly pull out and and and shut off and leave uh when that sprayer is on it puts a column of spray that can go up to 300 ft wide and probably like F50 feet back so even though we can't get into the back lawn um we're pretty sure that it's going to go behind the houses and a lot of the houses are pretty shallow here in Rivier um with that being said the onboard weather stations and the g GIS tracking systems we have do allow us to make sure that we're not spraying someone on the other side of the street who may be an exclusion or anything like that next slide please residents who request exclusion of their property must comply with the legal process to do so um private property owners May request exclusion from wide area applications or pesticides on their property by the district if a tenant is requesting the exclusion the landlord the landlord contact information must be included and the landlord can override this request each property owned owned needs a separate exclusion to be filled out exclusions cannot be completed for public Properties by residents this Pro this procedure excludes the ENT excludes the entire property from ad Dela siding and Lara siding residents may be made must be made I'm sorry me start over there residents must be made aware that the Massachusetts Department of a agricultural resource resources will go into effect 14 days after the date of the request is received all exclusions start on January 1st and expire on December 31st the exclusion requests may be accessed either at our website or directly from the mdar website and we do have a button on our website that brings residents directly to that next slide all right so this is a timeline of our activities a lot of people think we just kill M mosquitoes during the summer and don't do anything else the rest of the winter that could be further from the truth um we do yearr round Mosquito Control in Source reduction efforts with our special ground uh low ground pressure equipment we're always trying to get the water moving um we have many many areas that um we work closely with dpws residents um and the boards of Health who who find these areas um so the timeline above is kind of a breakdown of what the district does all year long and with that if there was any questions me and Kim would be happy to answer I do have some questions thank you so much Kim uh and Barry for this great presentation I have a question for you um what recommendations do you have for people who are keeping rain barrels in their property a lot of times you can buy they sell uh mosquito or insect covers like with mesh or screen and you could put that over okay and what if you have like those um containers that are self-watering that usually have like a little thing in the bottom so that the plant can suck up the water is that concern I mean yeah you can get hundreds of mosquitoes breeding in a bottle cap so I mean if they just dump it every once in a while refill it with water you know it's just kind of waiting the 5 days is not good cuz any little water sitting there you know they'll lay the eggs and they get glued to the side of anything and then when it ref floods the eggs hatch and then you have larv in there so just by dumping it it kind of keeps the water fresh you know so it's not stagnant and full of nutrients that the mosquitoes can breed in so all it takes is you can just look and see and if there's things wiggling in it dump it and then you can refill the water so or the screening again thank you I have three so one second question um it sounds like residents can request an inspection and then a spray and my question um would a resident have any hesitancy if they call you guys to do an inspection for mosquitoes maybe they're nervous maybe there's something they know maybe they're not in compliance with the city would you guys be looking to see if they're violating other things or do you guys just kind of go in there with your mosquito so we are only mosquito based we are not enforcement we are not an enforcement agency so unless the Board of Health asks us to go to a residence to check for a public health risk then we'll do a full report but other than that if a resident just says hey I think I have breeding on my property or can you come help me and pick out you know anything they tires whatever it is that they have um we'll just go and then we fill out a card after we're done if we see something that might need to be treated we'll treat it and then we fill out a um a door knocker that we leave so that they can read and see what the result was when we went but we're not enforcement okay and um finally so it sounds like your products are as safe as they can be for human pets pollinators um is there any reason why any particular resident should not be calling to get this service like if you have a child with asthma or is it really safe for anybody there shouldn't be any concern yeah I mean we we take into account for every situation we can I mean each one is done on an individual basis so if it's abandoned home with a swimming pool we may use a longer lasting product that you know I probably works better but there's no people there so we can really you know use what we need to use in that swimming pool and then tell you guys and that you know but with a resident we may more likely dump something or you know just take the dish turn it over flip it over or grab the tire that's on the lawn and take it with us um if we notice screening that could be repaired um things like that we we do a full write up when we do an inspection okay so it goes beyond what Barry was saying which is coming to your driveway with a truck and spraying you do a number of other things so so there's two different things and this is probably where so lar siding or service request we have um there's when you get up the screen there'll be three boxes there's larva sighting or an inspection so we go looking for young mosquitoes ones that aren't flying yet when there's an adul asde request that's where we use the truck and we don't check the property it's dark we come we spray we leave if it's a tire request they can check that box and we go pick up the tire so it's the inspection The larva siding inspection that's when we go on the back and we go during the day and we check things for mosquito breeding and let them know that what they can do around their property to alleviate that or we treat the site with a bacterial product only bacterium at residences thank you so much live you said it all I have I have a couple questions for you guys too I want to I know some of these answers but I want to kind of get them out to our viewers listening at home so you can imagine that there's sometimes novel ideas on the news or on the Internet about how to kill mosquitoes and I want to talk about two that come up a lot and maybe why they're not you don't see them around r one thing that always comes up and we sometimes get questions about is for the frag using goats to eat them I'm not this this kind of comes up a lot in like why don't we do that the second thing that has come up a lot is and I talked to you about this last year Barry but again I just want to get it on record is dragonfly boxes so could you guys talk about those two techniques and like why they're not necessarily used here or effective here um I mean dragonflies can eat mosquitoes but there's a lot of things they like to eat that's better um and then the other thing is is when you get dragonflies sometimes they're shipped and ordered from other states which they're invasive so when they're brought here they end up destroying our native dragonfly species so we tend not to want to have them bring in any organisms from other states you shouldn't be doing it um our native populations they do and and in those areas where we have like ponds and things that are you know frogs and dragonflies you we don't have to larvicide those areas because there's a little niche and they take care of everything all on its own you know most of our larva siding is done because of containers human humans so you know or roadside ditches or storm water things like that you know we get the same questions for vernal pools we don't treat vernal pools you know with eggs and frogs and salamanders they don't hardly have any mosquito larv the pool next to it might have 600,000 mosquito larv but it doesn't have any frogs or dragon flies or anything and then uh it's like the bat question you know bats eat mosquitoes they really don't eat a lot of them you know they're bats are bats they'd rather have a hamburger than a french fry so you know they'd rather go after really large beetles and bugs rather than try to fly through a swarm of mosquitoes or a single mosquito so it's it's good to ask those questions but yeah we don't really care for the bucket biology bringing things from other states um you know that there does r you know kind of create huge problems environmentally when you do that so I appreciate it you want to talk about the goats Maybe in the goats yeah go ahead I think I've seen goats not used in Riv um as many other municipalities as well I just think that the frag Mighty plant is too thick too strong it's almost like bamboo and too fast and it grows too fast um when we come in and mo we bring it into a pulverized pulp uh takes longer to grow back in that case um and another reason we started out mowing Riv for fire break for for something that happened 30 35 years ago and I think it's worked out well since then so we don't have any neighborhoods burning down on top of that we realize that if we go in there and we mow in October traditionally um it stays dormant all winter long and then as soon as the spring starts it starts to grow Again by the end of June it's usually 3 feet tall by middle of July it can be anywhere between 10 and 16 ft we found in a lot of the eight areas we go in into in the city with the machines that um they're Prime uh salt marsh solicitan breeding and so we realize we we go in there with our specialized tract equipment um to put out that granular that Kim was talking about that gives a a longer lasting effect sometimes up to two months or five five to six ref floods yeah so but I think if we could get into those areas in the future and do some um Source reduction some digging we could work with the DPW with the boards of Health uh those areas would actually breed less the frag would actually then um be in competition with the nation natural plants that are in the salt marsh and maybe begin to recede a little um but the frag Mighty is is a heavy duty plant with deep deep Ryon that uh does not give up easily thank you so much for explaining those questions that will also help us when residents call in talk about that last thing that I wanted to talk about is we will hopefully be doing two barriers sprays again this year like we did last year so again any of our residents just listening at home that means that we will be um doing a barrier treatment to our schools our Parks our Fields um and so there's going to be signage posted two times you know two times this summer but I just want to reiterate again what Barry and Kim mentioned is that you know for the night that we do the spraying obviously we don't want anyone on the field and then when you know practice resumes again the next morning all the kids should be okay to to practice on the field with without any worry from the parents correct absolutely thank you that's it thanks so much guys for being here thank you very much all right the next topic of the uh of this meeting is going to be the public health communicable monthly report from Lauren Buck thanks Dr bunker so for the public health communicable disease report for this month is actually uh incorporating two months worth of data because I wasn't here so the the report runs from March 28th to today um I just want to highlight a couple things the Hepatitis B um line item that you'll see we have three confirmed three probable 32 suspect over the last two months that's a that's an unusually large number I just want to talk about it because myself and the other public health nurse from rier um have kind of been investigating why we had 32 suspect Hepatitis B cases um there's no cause for concern none of the cases seem to be in any cluster or anything like that what we think potentially is happening is that most of the suspect cases that we see come through Maven which is the disease reporting for the State uh is the software program for the state we think most of these are people who have already been known to have Hepatitis B and just got retested for some reason potentially had some blood work done um and so we don't think that number is is a cause for concern at this time obviously we keep monitoring everything on a daily basis and if there's anything that we seek concerning related to Hepatitis B we will continue to let the Board of Health know um you can see that our influenza case numbers um are you know5 confirmed cases over two months of influenza um for covid we had 59 confirmed cases six probable two suspect again we're reaching the end of our uh concerning season for flu and covid but it's definitely still out there um I think these numbers are obviously our major underestimation of of what uh our flu and covid numbers actually are I think many people either don't get tested anymore especially for covid or tests at home using home tests um but just another reminder that anyone who is immuno compromised super young super old just needs to continue to be super careful um but we are reaching the end of the risk season for that and then I just have a couple of updates from the CDC that I wanted to make you aware of um as of May 22nd so yesterday um a human case of Highly path pathogenic Aven influenza or this is the h5n1 bird flu that has been on the news a lot lately um so I wanted to talk a little bit about it so a human case of the H sorry h5n1 virus um in the United States has been identified in the state of Michigan so it's a human case this is the second case associated with an ongoing multi-state outbreak of h5n1 in dairy cows as with the case in Texas the individual is a worker on a dairy farm where h5n1 virus has been identified in cows also like the case in Texas again this is a case in Michigan also like the case in Texas which was the first human case the patient only reported eye symptoms there have been no signs of unusual influenza activity in people in affected States otherwise and So based on the information available this infection does not change the cdc's current h5n1 bird flu human health risk assessment for the US public which the agency considers to be low however people with closer prolonged unprotected exposures to infected birds or other animals are at greater risk um okay secondly I just wanted to update the CDC uh update uh the public about a May 14th report from the CDC that um showed that drowning deaths are actually on the rise in the US following Decades of decline um this is according to a new CDC Vital sign study over 4,500 people di due to Drowning each year from 2020 to 2022 which is 500 more than compared to 2019 groups at higher risks groups at higher risks are the greatest increases in drowning deaths and those groups are children un from 1 to 4 years old adults over 65 of all Races and ethnicities as well as black people of all ages drowning is the number one cause of death for children 1 to four years old in the US everyone can help prevent drowning death by learning basic swimming and water safety skills children who have had swim lessons still need close monitoring and constant supervision when in or around water you can also prevent drowning deaths by by building fences that fully enclose and separate the pool from the house fences should be at least 4T high with self-closing and self- latching Gates wearing life jackets while boating for people of all ages and all swimming abilities not drinking alcohol before or during swimming boating or other water activities and finally uh learning CPR so just a warning obviously we're coming into pool season just make sure that you're following those guidelines from the CDC and lastly from uh May 16th uh this was actually an um information from Boston got boston.com that was reported from a CDC study that showed fatal o opioid overdose deaths in Massachusetts have decreased by over 10% in 2023 marking the first annual decrease in four years preliminary this is preliminary data from the CDC the State's Department of Public Health said it continues to invest in harm reduction programs like expanding access to the lock Zone fenal test strips and sterile consumption supplies just in 2023 more than 262 ,00 nxone doses were distributed through Community level nxone distribution programs and more than 99,100 overdoses or reverse using the medication just another highlight here that as we talked about in two months ago at the public sorry at the Board of Health that the um the city of Riv will be getting naloxone or Narcan boxes installed in hopefully in the next month um around R uh this is a life-saving medication that can help re first opioid overdoses and Rivier is also part of the community level nxone distribution program and we regularly distribute nxone to anyone who has recently had an overdose and their families and if you are in need of nxone please call um our office um or call 311 and ask for the public health department and we can definitely get you no lock Zone thank you great thanks Lauren uh next is going to be the inspectional service monthly report with with Michael Wells thanks Dr bunker inspectional Services monthly report for the month of May on the interior housing division we performed 171 certificates of Fitness this number is very high this month for a busy month with the um housing division as uh this pertains to the suffk Downs Community um the new residential building coming on board with occupancy uh we also performed 16 Certificate of Fitness reinspection eight interior complaints two inter area complaint reinspection four pool inspections nine pool reinspection on the food Inspection Division we performed 31 routine inspections seven reinspection five complaint inspections one pre-opening inspection in we had one establishment closure on the XD area sanitation division we issued 53 violations for accumulation of uh lit trash and debris on the property we issued uh 305 violations for improper placement of uh garbage and trash two violations for multiple unregistered vehicles on the property and 77 um violations for unclean unsanitary land which is mostly for overgrowth one of the things I would like to stress as we do in the winter with snow and ice removal we're at the time of year where we need to um reiterate the the fact of overgrowth and unsanitary land um you know urging the residents to take a look at their property to ensure that they're maintaining their their GR grass um you know keep keeping it low maintaining it um on a weekly to 10day basis um to ensure that're not Hing rodents and um mosquitoes that we just talked about as well um so it's important uh to ensure the the overgrowth is staying low um and we issued one violation for working without a permit that concludes great thank you Michael next was the uh we're going to talk about licensing uh have Lauren do that thanks Dr bunker we just have three licenses for your um for your approval today we'll start with a new chickening license this is submitted by Carmela and Luigi deara at they at 28 malen Street we um did their inspection on May 16th um they did pass I I want to talk uh specifically about two um two situations that we had with this property um we are we are recommending you approve this license but I I just want to make sure we're on record um in the regulations for tricken keeping we do have um two requirements that this this property is unable to meet one is that um someone would only keep chickens in a backyard not on a front or sidey yard this property does not have a backyard it only has a sidey yard and a very steep front yard and so um because of the way the property is set up uh the sidey yard functions as their backyard first of all and second of all is pretty removed from the street level very removed from the street level it's very it's much higher um the second requirement that they don't meet is that there is a requirement that all coups and runs be set back at least 5T from the side property line This is not met on this uh application and it is because they had pre-built um um shed two shed structures that they're they were using as a kind of a uh divider or they were using that as kind of the basis of where they're putting their coup and run and that is pushed right up against their side property part of the um requirements as well make our applicants um have visit their neighbors and have the abutter sign to make sure that they're aware that they're going to be keeping chickens there uh Mike and I do talked about both of these requirements for this specific for this specific property and still recommend that you approve the license the neighbors are aware that they're keeping chickens and they have signed off obviously if there's a change of property for the neighbor we will need to reassess um and also the the side yard situation is is really so removed and it it's really not on any sidewalk or anything like that that it feels very similar to a backyard so I just want to make sure that you're aware of those two recommendations and again we still they did pass their inspection with those two caveats and we still do approve that uh we recommend that you approve this license yes I approve license yes I approve the license thank you um the next the next license is another temporary license uh for a body Ard establishment and an individual practitioner last uh month you did a you approved a temporary license for an event at Boston Harley-Davidson for a tattoo um art David Martinelli um the event was very successful and Boston Harley has asked for him to come back for a summer series um because of the more um it's a popup temporary um event over a couple of popup events over the course of the summer but because it's um not just one singular event we went back and did a reinspection of the site we asked for some additional protocols to be in place because of the more permanent nature of the however it is still temporary just a reminder that David Martinelli is already licensed in Danvers and and holds a license with that City and so he is going to be operating out of um Boston Harley-Davidson over the course of several weekends throughout the summer and those are starting in June every other weekend June 8th June 9th which is one weekend June 22nd 23rd July 6th and 7th July 20th and 21st August 3rd and and 4th August 17th and 18th um we have gone through both at the establishment and with David as an indiv an individual practitioner all of the same questions and requirements of a established you know permanent spot here in Riv um there are a couple of things that don't necessarily apply because it is so temporary um but we do recommend and again we did the inspection on May 2 uh sorry May 21st for both The Establishment and the individual individual practitioner and we recommend that you um approve the license for both The Establishment and the individ individual practitioner for the dates that I already mentioned for both Boston Harley and David Martinelli yes I approve of both I approve of both as well thank you great and that will conclude this month's uh public Board of Public Health meeting thank you e