##VIDEO ID:pBCM3Sj7m80## e e e e great to welcome could everyone please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance plge ALG to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you and welcome to the October 2024 Board of Health public meeting so first um I'll introduce the Board of Health members so I am Dr Drew bunker to my left is Kathleen Savage uh board member and to my right is vivana katano board member also here we have Lauren Buck director of Public Health Michael Wells who's Health agent and director of inspectional services Paula suita who's Board of Health Clerk and Luis cavagnaro Building Commissioner um first topic is going to be reviewing and approving the minutes from the September meeting so I just ask the Other Board of Health members to approve those minutes I approve of the [Music] minutes I approve of the minutes also great me as well excellent next is going to be the public health communicable monthly report with Lauren thanks Dr bunker uh for October 2024 our communicable disease burden is relatively low again it was low in September this is consistent with what we're seeing across the state as well I will just point out that we've had 11 suspect and one confirmed Hepatitis B case um our Hepatitis B case load uh is continuing to be um trending high and it's just a reminder that we uh you know it's important to make sure we're continuing and finishing our hepatitis B vaccine series and I also will note that our covid um our covid illness we had 40 confirmed cases and nine probable cases low comparatively to other months um but we will continue watching both Co and flu over these next several months some other public health updates from the north suff epidemiologist who gave a report uh this week from October 23rd um just two things that I wanted to point out um she mentioned uh Aven flu I've talked about that here um in the past couple months as well continue seems to be a major concern throughout the country Avan flu is suspected in four um Washington State Farm worker illnesses and it has been um Trace back to some cows killing some cows in California and the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture resources just want to make sure that in Massachusetts we're advising that all backyard and Commercial poultry owners to practice strong biocurity measures to prevent domestic poultry from having contact with wild birds their feathers and droppings the AV the Aven flu virus is continuing to circulate in the wild bird population particularly in Wild Water foul eliminating standing water and preventing domestic birds from having access to Pond streams and Wetland areas that attract wild water flow sorry Wild Water foul is of critical importance letting your flock free range poses substantial risk to exposure to hpai which is the acronym for the Aven flu that is circulating currently and those consequences can be deadly I'm just pointing this out because M uh Rivier has or Urban farming regulations specifically around uh chicken keeping and so I'm just putting this out for all the Chicken Keepers in Rivier that is very important to make sure you're taking precautions um right now with this very very um infectious Aven flu that's going around and then lastly I just wanted to point out um the epidem epidemiologist um follows trends that are going um that are happening across the country and also regularly communicates with other epidemiologists in the state and the country and there has been an a a substantial increase in contaminated food products and recalls from major food production companies happening this month um around 200 schools were affected by a recall of ready to eat meat and pouy products from the manufacturer Bruce pack this recall also affected stores like Albertson Safeway Shaw Star Market and other grocery chains none of the recalled products were purchased were purchased or distributed by the usda's national school lunch or breakfast program all were purchased by private vendors and so far no schools in massachus have been affected but there are some grocery stores in Massachusetts that have stocked the recalled products so that was one example that's recently happened this month also this month the Pennsylvania based company has issued a recall on trail baloney meat processing kits that may have had an Undeclared wheat or soy allergen also this month Treehouse Foods had a which is a major food Processing Company expanded the recall of Frozen waffle products to include hundreds of breakfast foods found in the freezer section because of leria risks the brands include best choice and CRZ I think that's how you say that and then lastly another thing this month one confirmed death and other illnesses have been linked to a multi-state E coli outbreak tied to Quarter Pounders sold at McDonald's stores the CDC FDA USDA and public health officials are currently investigating to determine which ingredient is causing the outbreak and currently the reports are traced back to stores in Colorado Colorado and Nebraska all of the things that I just talked about come on the heels of a major leria outbreak associated with B's head food products that started started back in July 2024 it has now been associated with 10 deaths and 59 hospitalizations across 19 states there are three new wrongful death cases filed this month associated with the outbreak in the B's head processing plant in Virginia has been permanently shut down all this to say recommendations from the CDC and the public health department for re rever consumers is to regularly check recall lists on places like recalls.gov sign up for recall notifications examine food products for Best Buy dates and if you're unsure about a product call the manufacturer or discard make sure you discard any recalled or expired food products that's it thank you great thank you Lauren next is going to be the inspectional services monthly report with Michael Wells thanks Dr bunker inspectional Services report for the month of October on the interior housing division We performed 170 certificates of Fitness 37 reinspection on Certificate of Fitness in interior complaints are in process a total a total of 13 uh four interior complaints were received one interior reinspection one pool or SP inspection on the food Inspection Division We performed 37 routin inspections 17 reinspection one complaint inspection one pre-opening inspection one temporary Food Service inspection on the exterior sanitation division we issued 51 violations for accumulation of litter trash and debris three violations for carts out at improper times 41 dumpster overflowing violations 386 improper placement of garbage trash and bulky items two violations for improper signage on public property 13 violations for improper storage of garbage and trash seven for Junk keeps um dumps and automobile graveyards three for multiple unregistered vehicles and three for radent hoverd 35 for unclean unsanitary land or overgrowth and that concludes the October report thank you Michael next is going to be the notice of violation appeal so this is for the 838 winthrip Avenue residents um I'm going to have uh Lewis come up and speak about the uh the violation and Lewis is the Building Commissioner for the city here yes my name is Louis cavanaro the G silent like Noy I'm the Building Commissioner and um this property has been a problem for a while now and um we just wrote up another order to correct that the property owner had an illegal bedroom on the first floor and he's appealing the order saying that it was a coincidence that someone else in the property bought a new bed and that just so happens that that was right after I sent out the letter and he had someone moving on a mattress and the bed frame and he's saying someone else in the property bought a new bed I looked through the property and I didn't see any new beds um in the room so we have a picture of uh the bed the mattress being moved out and put on a car um we have a picture when I was there doing the inspection there was a guy carrying out the bed frame um in the room there was a nightstand there was laundry there's a closet I have all the pictures um it's in the order I don't know if you guys have it um and in the room that on there mockings on the wall where you you screw the headboard to the wall and um that's basically the order right now and he's appealing it so I thought he was going to speak first see what he has to say and just if you don't mind introducing yourself sure um so uh my name is say s AE my last name is josein z it's a bit hard to pronounce um h o s e i n z a d e and I'm the owner of this property 838 wi through Avenue I've um I've had this property for for like uh 3 years it's an invest property so I have tenants there and um so yes so there was um there was this I I received um a letter from uh from Lewis uh I think sometime in late o in August saying that there are violations so he wanted to do an inspection in 5 days and um we actually scheduled an inspection I think like know in three or four days so he came in and um he uh basically like inspected the uh the whole property and there is a room in the first floor as he explained it's uh so that room um uh is it does have a I did not build a closet the closet was not was there before me um and um about a um about a uh there is so this is something that happened uh so my my previous tenants is like you know this is like around two years ago my previous tenants were using it as a bedroom and I was not aware that it cannot be as it cannot be used as a bedroom uh but then when there was an inspection for another reason so I was um I was let known by the by the city that this is not a bedroom so people cannot use it as a bedroom so I asked my basically tenants not to use it I had some issues with my previous tenants I eventually uh I eventually let them go so this is like you know two years ago um and um again I imagine they uh the screws that are on the wall for the bed so it's for back then uh so my new tenants came in and I uh because I knew that this was an issue before and that room looks like something that can be used as a bedroom because it has two big windows so like people would normally think that they can use it as a bedroom so I specifically put it in their leaves that that is not a bedroom so this house has six bedrooms uh according to the plan three on the second floor three on the third floor and I specifically told them that you're not supposed to use this as a bedroom there should not be a bed in this in in this room and they've not been using it as a bedroom so there is there they have a young teenager uh who uses this basically room as his like a game room there's a TV there there's a gaming console and I've seen that like you know he or maybe some other people keeps keep their clothes in that room and yes there is a clo closet there's like you know uh uh clothes around I've I've seen that um and yeah as as Lou said he told I mean I never noticed that but he told me that there's a nin stand I think that's like they they use a I don't know why that now stand is in there but again they they don't use it as a bedroom I specifically asked them not to use it as a bedroom it's in their lease um about that bed moving out of of my property right before the inp inection happening I asked my tenants what is going on and they told me that we just changed the bed that's why that's that's a coincidence so what I can tell you is um I mean whenever the city wants to come in inspect that room they can and a lot of times that because like you know that room has a window to the street I mean my property is such that uh it's it's a little higher up on the Hill so you may not be able to actually see that room when you when you're on the street but like you know if you come up the stairs a little bit you can actually see inside that room right so so what I am understand what the city is saying I mean it's not I'm not saying that like you know I don't understand it but what I can tell you now is again I told you all the stories plus what I can tell you is whenever the city wants to come in and make then do another inspection uh I can a scheduled inspection in at at maximum two days because it's not all it's not always the case that I'm available on that day we can we can schedule it in maximum two days and they can always come in see that and lwis has been in my property several times before regarding other issues so he inspected my property several times and so over the past year when I when I basically uh resolved the issues previously like you know like two years ago he's been he's been in my property I think like you know at least three times in the past year and I mean he's here he can tell that if he saw any bed any bed frame in that room there was nothing in there and he inspected that room as well as part of inspecting the whole building so again that's what what I can tell you is I've been very clear to my tenants that that's not a bedroom number one I haven't seen a bed in that bedroom number two number three if the city does not believe me and they want to do inspections going forward making sure that that's not a bedroom I can guarantee that I can schedule any inspection in maximum two days they can come in and when I sell two days because I mean it's not always easy for me to schedule an inspection because I need to let my tenants know in advance and their working schedule is like you know it's uh it's not it's not regular so during the day they I cannot do that and they have their kids at at in in the house so it's it's a bit hard someone needs to be there for me to get in with the inspector and do the inspection that's not always the case but what they can do is I can actually let them see what is in that room from the not from the street but like you know from the from the front yard because I'm the owner I can just enter uh with an inspector and we can see what is in that what is in that room very easy great yeah so thank you I just have some questions for um Lewis and do you have more to say leis sorry yes okay you want to ask me a question first or no well yeah just a question um so just to understand the the reason what is the reason behind not having a bed in this in this particular room and I know that may be very obvious I'm Sor so he this is house has no driveway so it's what you call a pre-existing non-conforming house he can he can't add any more bedrooms to that house legally so he's not allowed to use it as a bedroom okay so it's just based on the fact that there's a limit when someone has this type of house to the bedrooms okay got it um you know Mr s he has a poor history when when he bought this house he he the previous owner had a second unit there and the previous owner removed that second unit and then when he bought the house he put it back in and then we had to make him take it out and then he started renting out rooms multiple people per room um it's the window that he's talking about there's I can never see through it there's always blinds on it and I can't be going there all the time and checking to see if he's using as a bedroom I just I don't I don't trust him and then I I want him to remove the wall and make it one open space that way there the city does have to keep going there multiple times and if he's using as a bedroom and then he I go there do inspection he just removes it before I get there and he says I'm not used as a bedroom so if you just remove the wall and make it one open space then the problem's solved and just from uh so at the current time how many tenants are living at the building I don't know okay all right we don't have a is there a okay I don't know if the council wants to speak yeah please I got a long winded so my name is uh Joan McKenna I'm as a resident tonight not as a counselor okay I live next door to celed uh for the last three years a really quiet neighborhood and Beach mon has endured an illegal roing house with large parties until 2 and 3:00 at night loud music loud parties there have been 16 police calls since he bought the house there has been a warning from the rever fire department for an O open fires okay and if you see the picture I have a neighbor here that's 3T or 5T away from his house if there is a fire five houses six houses are going to go up in Flames um one of his tenants sent me a photograph he's gone now but one of his tenants sent me a photograph of the fire alarms being removed because people smoke in the house we are so close together neighbors are afraid of fire if there is a fire five to six houses will burn my house will be one of them all I can say is that this is was a really quiet neighborhood when we met him he said oh we're I'm GNA move in I'm going to be the tenant I'm going to I'm going to fix the house up I'm going to do this I'm going to do that people come in all hours of the night with mattresses and refrigerators when Lewis when I called Lewis because I was the one that called Lewis and said what is going on next door he went in with a bunch of um inspectors and found people in bedrooms multiple people in bedrooms with a refrigerator microwaves and I think there were locks on the door the locks were removed now I'm not sure about that so don't quote me okay and because I complained to the city he's insinuating that I'm a racist which he doesn't even know that my mother and brother were born in Italy and I'm first generation M immigrant so he's shown pictures to um he's videotaped me because I was um trying to get three feet of my property and I was on his property so he had his tenants videotaped me and then he came into City Hall and showed people that I look at look at what she's doing look at what she's doing and he should be ashamed he's he's a professor at suffk University and he's he has this house that is an illegal house and is inundating the neighborhood and let me tell you something we have all senior citizens that have lived there for 40 years 50 years around his illegal roaming house he's been fined and he went to court and they upheld it so I don't know I mean this I face my house faces the room that he's talking about the big window that you can't see cuz there's a shade there okay I know at least 15 people that are living in there some are related there's family there's uh you know a son uh a mother and father but there are other people there there's there was uh a young couple with the dog and they had to get rid of the dog because they couldn't they would put him in the back where he AB buts my property and the dog was crying they left him there with no water nothing so I complained again I'm a big complainer I can't I'm sorry but I mean if things aren't right I'm working for the city to make things right and I've lived there over 68 years I've lived in that house and never had a problem now we're having a problem and it's been three years we've having a problem and he'll sit there and he'll say oh it's the tenants and I have I have you know um residents I have the licenses but what about the other people that have no licenses that come in and they're living there yes he has he can show the proof of licenses that people are living there but there are people that take the train every day that don't have cars and I just want to say there's no parking and there's six cars there now and if you live on win Bev and you don't have a driveway it's very hard to Park thank you um yeah ten then say we can have you come up after you didn't hear that I've been told my voice is deep anyways when the gentleman here purchased the building next door to me he told me that he was going to move in I wished him the best of luck after that it became a bed and bath I had people knocking at my door at 2: in the morning waking me up looking for a place asleep said next door this went on for quite a while eventually the bed and bath disappeared but the people coming in and out at all hours of the night you can hear the car you can hear the people bringing mattresses in my door is less than 5T from his door and when they're carrying up big bookcases and stuff and you can hear them speaking in their language just giving your name sorry just oh my name yeah yeah thank I apologize no problem that's my father show Kenneth Labby lbe great thank you and I get woken up and I got to come out and see what's going going on and I my wife will come out and I'll say oh they're moving something in whatever they do next door it's like sometimes they're in my parlor I can hear them in my parlor if they're playing their music it's not like when my granddaughter plays her she'll say Alexa play I'll say go to volume three loud enough she can hear it when these people play their music it's loud enough for Frank the next house to me can hear it so it does get a little bit annoying um during their soccer game I know everybody's big in sports they set up a big TV outside and there had to be at least 30 people out there and I couldn't sleep CU a soccer game going on but I didn't complain about it I just kept my mouth shut and rolled over and put the pillow over my head try to muffle the sound from day one he hasn't been completely honest all right with the neighbors I've tried working with him at times we've tried doing things you know that if he needed something done I'd say okay I'll take care of that you know even though that wasn't my property it was his but it was my stuff on his property so I would take care of it the only thing I can say is I still see people coming in and out all hours of the night and yes to confirm what he just said the inspectors when they go to the house they have to notify the party that they're coming I would assume that's one of the laws by doing so you open the cage and let the roaches out and you don't see them what I mean by that is if you would inform somebody you're going to do an inspection on their house I've seen people carrying bar Springs mattresses loading them up on cars I looked at my wife and says oh people are moving but they'd be back 2 days later so your inspections mean nothing if you don't go there for an in a surprise inspection catch them while they're there that's all I can say thank you ladies and gentlemen say do you mind coming up speaking you okay so there is That's So they they brought up several issues so the way that I'd like to proceed if you agree is uh there is a specific um uh there's a specific issue which is in the letter violation and that's why I'm here and that specific violation is the bath is the is the legal bedroom if we want to talk about fire alarms if you want to talk about my name my tenants being loud if they want to talk about like some other stuff I'm happy to do so but at the same time I don't I want to use my time to make sure that this specific topic that we going to talk about today is taken care of and I will and I will be listened to okay yeah yeah so just to clarify that that's why we're here is for the appeal for the bedroom so I know they brought up other points you don't have have to have some sort of answer or response to those points um because I don't think they relevant to why we're here exactly and and I'm happy to again I can I can I can explain and I'm happy to but again if there's a certain time I don't want to spend on some other stuff and we don't get in to get to talk about this yeah so from from my perspective I can ask The Other Board of Health members I think we're trying to stay on topic for why we're here um I appreciate everyone who came and spoke and I understand that um it's always that's why we have this open Forum where people can speak and talk and and tell what they're experiencing and what they've seen but I think to to stay on topic I think for now if it doesn't pertain to the the appeal that you're talking about for the bedroom I think rather you not talk about that but again this is an open form okay sure so regarding regarding that uh so first of all like you know I I appreciate the feedback that's not like I um I I I try I've tried and I always told my tenants to try to be good neighbors it's not always the case because houses are very close to each other that's that's a separate issue but so regarding regarding that bedroom uh that illegal bedroom I think I've told you what I needed to tell you um again so for me so first of all um so Louis said that we we actually met like two months ago and there was a remediation plan and as he explained he want me to basically remove one w wall and um um basically extend this uh the main entrance to that room uh to be a big to be a big space so that that uh incurs significant cost on my end plus it reduces the value of the property significantly because the value of the property the number of rooms has an impact on the value of the property so I do not want to do that because of the reasons that I told you and if there is something that my tenants do illegally let's say let's say I need to tell them that this is what you're doing illegally that's the proof you have to pay me and you need to leave okay so I cannot tell them that uh so first of all I don't believe I personally I don't believe that there has been a bed in that room that's number one but if there was or if there is or if there will be okay I need to I need to show them something saying that I specifically told you you sign the lease no bed in this room so I'm going to find you and you have to leave I cannot tell them that there is there are screws in the uh in the wall showing that sometime there was a bed here I cannot tell them that there is a night to stand there that's why this is a bedroom I cannot tell them that what why do we have clothes here why do we have a laundry there that's a room they can do whatever they want to as long as they don't put a bed as long as no one sleeps there that's fine okay uh that's that's my take at least like you know if you guys think differ differently let me know and about the um and about the inspection right again I I told you that if the city wants to do the inspection going forward I'll try my best as I said I'll try my best to and not I'll try my best I will do the we will schedule the inspection and not the same day because I told you I cannot always do that but in two days at like maximum uh two days and about they like this I this concept of like you know surprise inspection but it's not it's not like you know I'm doing something and FBI is going to raid my house like this is this is like an illegal bedroom and like the inspection needs to I need my tenants know I need to know it's not like that's how it works so you cannot just tell people that oh I suspect you're doing something and I just without any phone just show up I just like you know uh enter your property or whatever and because I think that if I call you in advance you're going to whatever do something about it it's again like you you're talking about like an illegal bedro it's not like people are like doing something like crazy over it there that's that's not the that's not the case um so again that's that's like uh that's like all I can all I can do uh for the city just again just to make sure that that that room is not um is not used um as um as a bed what is your oh sorry M go ahead Ju Just a point of clarification as well um under the state sanitary code uh property owner is required to give their tenants 24-hour notice of an inspection um so as much as we would love to do surprise inspections you know we those happen in businesses uh but on the residential side unfortunately that that cannot happen um yes we're an enforcing agency um as part as far as inspectional Services goes but we unfortunately don't get instant results right um and I've talked about this before in in different um areas but you know we we have policies and procedures that we need to follow we can trespass on a property um so so there are rules and regulations that we need to follow as a department and as inspectors um so it's it's not as easy as as it may seem um to to to get things done uh we eventually do get results uh but it's not like police you know someone's breaking into your house you call 911 please show up right away same thing with fire you have a you have a fire in your house you call 911 they show up right away they can trespass they can break your door down they can get into your property we don't have that power so it's important to understand that we have to send letter one we have to send letter two we have to send letter three we have to get in touch with a property owner before we can physically take action um and and serve Property Owners thank you yes so um I do have a question Mr say do you have a copy of this tenant agreement that proves um that you asked them not to make this into a bedroom yes and again is something I'm not sure if it's going to help or not but I had um I had uh potential tenants coming in and seeing my property and they asked me like you specifically and I do have the communication with them I can provide it later to you if if it helps so so they specifically ask me if they want they want seven bedrooms otherwise they don't rent it they don't rent it as a six bedroom because like you know they're like they needed seven bedrooms basically uh and I said no so I told them like you know specifically that I cannot that's illegal that room doesn't have a it does it does have um what do you call it like not exit whatever egress so it does have it's called two large windows does not have a smoke detector in that room so I specifically told them like I told them my tenants first my current tenants and also um and also uh the prospect prospective tenants I told them specifically and they're like you know they said we don't rent it and I was like I don't care you don't rent it that's a it's a six bedroom uh legally and uh that room it's it's dangerous for you I cannot let anyone sleep in that you cannot use it as as a bedroom and I was again I've been clear about this in the Le with my tenants and with prospective tenants we said that no no one should sleep in this in this room that's it um can I clarify something so this is a one bedroom house I'm sorry this is a one family home right yes it just happens to have three Flo three bed oh really so one family home three floors three bedrooms in the second floor um and so the number of tenants on this lease is seven right yes so there should never be more than seven people at this property so there is two um there is one um uh there there's two that those name is those are the kids so Sandra Mario Duan Louis Santiago Santiago and Doris plus the two kids so there should never be more than nine people on this house living there yes is there a reason why the kids are not mentioned in the lease I don't know no okay and and so you told your you told your tenants that they're not allowed to rent out rooms separately yes and so I see here that you put um this property a single family house no rooms can be rented separately no lock can be on any interior door refrigerators microwaves are not allowed in the bedrooms and only refrigerators microwaves are placed in the kitchen and are shared among the tenants are allowed so I guess my my question for Louis is when you did the inspection did you find microwaves and refrigerators in the other bedrooms like were you able to inspect the other bedrooms yes I walked through the whole house there was there was no not no microwaves of fridges in the bedrooms this time there was years ago but he he since then had had them removed okay so let me if I if I yes so what happened was there was actually so the thing is that I have this I have this letter from my tenant sorry it's in Spanish but I I had it like translated in English I already sent it to the city so this was so when I think it was last year um so when Le inspected the prop he found um he found sorry so he found two small refrigerators in two of the bedrooms right so I I did not know that like you know these small refrigerators are illegal I think they're not but that's why I did not know that those two rooms they had they had like you know these small refrigerators but LS told me that City thinks that that makes it like potentially whatever like they City didn't want them so I asked them to remove those plus I also asked them to explain why they had those refrigerators so in that letter they say that they have like a small like kit um so the lady says that we had this a small refrigerator because like in overnight we just wanted to give milk or like you know whatever to the to the kids so that's why we had that small refrigerator plus there was an older lady because like you know the staircase to the kitchen down the stairs is like you know pretty small and the older lady said that I have this refrigerator because it's hard for me to go down the stairs to use the the main refrigerator in the kitchen however I still had them remove those those and then because again like all those terms that you see that they added to the lease was because I mean initially these were not included in the list because I did not even know that these were going to cause problems but like knowing that these are problematic so I specifically told them no refrigerator no microwave in the bedroom even though I personally think that it's not fair it's their house if they want to have a small refrigerator in the bedroom they can but the city wanted me to do that and I was like okay if the city wants me to do that I have them do that again I felt bad but they did that um and I said them I told them that no no refrigerator no microwave uh specifically said even though it's on the leas but people don't really tend to read all the leas so I specifically told them again that no lock on the on any of the room on on the doors sorry because there used to be there used to be uh but again I took care I took care all of um all of these issues just again I just want to make sure that I go by whatever the city is telling me to do not not causing problems because uh I mean it was it may not be irrelevant but like you know I got I got push back from my tenant saying that like what law tells us we cannot have a small fridge in our room I was like there is no law but but I don't have the time and I cannot like you know get a lawyer to go fight with the city just like you know because this small refrigerator May uh cause potentially this being a this being a ruing like whatever finish up here but okay so I just want to reiterate that like what Michael said we have to notify the owner to get it and and when when an owner rents up their house even he can't just walk in there the tenants have to allow him to walk in there and that's that's the problem is that he doesn't he can't control what their tenants are doing so they could be using the as a bedroom right now he can't even go walk in there I can't go walk in there and that's the problem is and then I send out a letter to go in and then they remove it and then I go in there and there's no bedroom but I see evidence of a bedroom and it just so happens that he was removing a mattress and a head and a bed frame and a headboard when I after I sent out that letter and I just think that it's a lot easier for him to remove the wall and even that won't stop it it's just hard to enforce they can sleep in the living room yeah it's it's hard to enforce yeah just like one minute um is it is it pertain to just what the the appeal yes okay just please brief just one thing because I mean I totally understand this like you know 24 hours or like you know whatever notification time and I guess what they can tell is that like as they say I even need to notice to give them notice to be able to enter but what I can tell you is even if they do not let me enter like you know without their permission what they can do is I can be there in like 48 Hours let's say not 24 because you want to make sure that like you know I'm able to do that like we can walk up the stairs okay and I can make sure that at least even though they do not let me go in because like whatever they're doing or the kids are alone whatever at least I tell them that like you know this time this like tomorrow whatever that time I'm going right just keep that curtain open so that we can see inside that room that's that I I I I can do that without even like you know needing them to let me with the inspector in that's it okay so this Drew this letter from the tenant is saying on I I read the Spanish version and the English uh version but the tenant is saying we also want to clarify that we do not live with strangers or people that are not family related so because I'm I'm trying to understand if this is a roaming house or not um to get that like a to this no I thank you Vivian U I think that's helpful but I think trying to just stay on the topic of we are here and um so yeah I I think for the appeal I'm just talking to the board right now there was no bed when they went but signs of what appears to be a room being used as a bedroom you know what the time frame of that was this the headboard or the screws from two years ago or was it recent was the nightstand recent you know it's it's I don't think we'll ever actually know um without evidence of seeing a bed in there um but I think there's a larger issue that's going on here um and there's concern from Neighbors about um this particular property having too many people and and more than should be staying there and that's a concern from public health perspective obviously but I think if we're going to stay on the topic of was there a Bed there there wasn't so I mean I can't from my perspective I have to um uh and I'm happy to hear your opinion but mine is to to allow the appeal um to go through I just want to ask a quick question when was the last inspection done the one I have here is in August it was August 28th so that was the last one okay thank you um I also have a question what is the amount of the violation so uh is Mr s uh appealing so he doesn't pay the violation and how much would the violation be or what's the consequence of him receiving this violation there's been no violations issued on this particular notice of violation uh previous fines are over $65,000 so if he if he has to pay this violation is $65,000 for the illegal bedroom based on previous orders of this property and previous fines issued to this property there were $65,000 um currently upheld on this property so he already paid 65,000 is is the no he has not paid it oh he's not but if he found guilty of this violation he made the he he appealed every violation that he received yeah to the city's Municipal hearings officer the municipal hearings officer upheld those Mr s appealed the hearing officer's decision to Chelsea District Court those were upheld in Chelsea District Court as well gotcha so this is a separate matter those previous violations are from previous notice of violations okay okay if you upheld if you keep this order then he'll have to pull permits within a timely manner to remove the wall and if he doesn't do that then he gets fines but he'll have six months to do that I don't know if that really changed anything for me I mean I just there's obviously concerns but from my perspective I I want to be clear as well you know when we issue a a a fine to a property whether it's a $25 trash fine or a $250 fine for working without a permit it the the the point of a of issuing a fine is to change a behavior not to continuously issue fines we after week you know for you know cuz you just aren't following the trash rules or you're not pulling permits to do work on your property yeah understood any you guys wanted to say that sorry I'm still unclear so I want to make sure that I understand kind of like what we're doing here tonight um so Mr say has been charged with a violation because he he's he has been said that he has an extra bedroom right if he if we don't and so he is coming before the board to appeal is violation right if we don't if we don't approve the appeal then he gets charged money or he has to remove that wall yes so if we don't approve it he has to remove the wall right he has to pull permits and we give him 6 months to do or he can get fined we do not appeal he has to remove the wall correct okay like if like Michael said we don't want to find people we just want them to fix their actions thank you for the leeway I appreciate it Joan McKenna um it would be so simple maybe this it would this problem wouldn't come up again or issue wouldn't come up again if he just removed the wall thank you ask another quick question is there an alternative to not moving you know is there another way to solve the issue without removing the wall I think this it's a fine or remove the wall from the understanding I have is that correct Michael is that correct so um if he removes the wall he'll have to pull permits within us you know he I believe he's already signed a remediation plan if I'm not mistaken are okay so he put it on hold um but he would sign a remediation plan a remediation plan would outline um the scope of work and the permits needed to do that and what in a time frame failure to comply with that time frame would incur more fines okay yeah and I'm definitely willing to hear what you guys have to think but that's kind of what I'm thinking at this time it does sound like this is an ongoing issue this isn't something that just came up yeah so yeah so the question I have is just to kind of move this along here so do you want to up uphold the appeal um or allow the appeal um or are we going to to kind of deny the appeal at this time um I know I know we're not supposed to talk about the other issues um but I am going to have to say something Mr say quality of life it's really important when you have neighbors that are you know disrupting your quality of life in your own property that's very difficult because of noise and some other things that the other neighbors were saying to you so um I know that's not what's before and I don't know if if that's something that the other residents have a a way and a means to bring to attention but um I just want to say to the other residents that I'm sorry you're going through that because it's very difficult to live uh with neighbors that affect your quality of life uh but I think what's before us then is whether we're going to approve uh Mr s's um appeal or whether we're going to say no and ask him to remove the wall um yeah so I'm gonna say I'm not gonna I'm GNA say no to the appeal okay and the same here no okay so that's two over one so we're going to have to say no to the appeal um I've been overridden but so we're going to have to no to the appeal and um move forward from there whatever the processes are procedures okay um we're going to have to stop that discussion for now uh move on to the next discussion which is the discussion of the non-medical marijuana establishments um so Lauren I'm going to let you talk thanks Dr bunker I just want to set some ground rules in terms of the discussion tonight um I have some language that I want to read that was um given to me and discussed with the city solicitor and the policy analyst so I just want to make sure that the board is aware there are currently no special per permits in front of the city council for a marijuana establishment the decisions before the city council over the last few months are related to the following two steps one repeat appealing the title 9 ban on recreational marijuana to changing zoning bylaws to regulate construction establishment and operation of the following zoning uses marijuana establishments Laboratories product manufacturer retailers and Transporters with respect to the purview of the Board of Health the Board of Health is currently listed as a reviewing party of any business application to the city council for a marijuana special permit as the proposal is written now the Board of Health can send written recommendations to the city council when an application is reviewed the city council could not act on the special sorry the city council can not act on the special permit until a report is provided by the Board of Health or 35 days have elapsed since receipt of materials appropriate recommendations from the Board of Health could include preventing diversion to minors or limiting advertising the city council would not be legally compelled to apply to the to apply the recommendations of the Board of Health um but assuming the recommendations are reasonable and do not pose an undo burden there could be an assumption that the city council would take up those recommendations but they are not legally compelled to do so so before any discussion tonight begins we just need to make clear the discussion by the Board of Health tonight cannot result in any recommendations at this point to the city council and nothing can be voted on by any board member that is binding um in any way I just wanted to set that ground rule great does anyone want to speak on this matter sure so thank you so much Lauren um okay thank you so much Lauren for that clarification so I wanted just to be able to uh discuss this with The Other Board of Health members just openly um we haven't had a chance to do this um and I think you know what Lauren the guidance that she's given us right now I think is also really helpful um so my concern here is that the city council is in the process of repealing um the recreational marijuana ban and as Lauren mentioned they're also putting in um if this ban should take place they're also discussing um the zoning ordinances like what would be the distance uh how many would be allowed um and so um I wanted to talk today as a board of health member about my concerns uh and just have an opportunity to share this with you as my colleagues um my concern here is that uh we already inundated with tobacco retailers we have 48 tobacco retailers in the city of Riv um and we know that this was not by chance we know that this is intentional because for many years the tobacco industry targeted community of colors minority communities to sell their products we also know that we have a a high number of alcohol retailers we have 23 liquor stores and we have um a total of 84 liquor licenses and my concern here is that while I really genuinely understand that we need to balance our city budget I don't deny that I'm a resident here I want us to stay in the positive um what I what I I feel like my role as the Board of Health is to really consider what is the health impact and cost uh when we're looking at different uh Revenue Avenues so I have worked in prevention for 14 years about seven of those in Substance Abuse Prevention and I have done campaigns on Substance Abuse Prevention in the community I have helped with um things like the riv Beach Memorial um and when we were designing our campaigns and if we look at our youth health risk behavior survey data um and just by the focus groups that we have done with students this was uh what the students would tell us a lot of students and we see this from the data are dealing with anxiety and depression and so when we would ask them like why are you using at that point marijuana specifically and so they said that they were using it to feel better so they were like self-medicated so my concern is that we we are kind of grappling with this issue that our young people their brain is still developing the brain is like not fully developing until it's developing throughout our whole lifetime but it's not like 90% develop until like we're 25 that is why uh car companies don't rent to people under 25 because they understand their frontal Lo is not developed so my concern is that when young people start using uh these substances uh they're more likely to develop um a very strong addic later on in life and the Cannabis that we are seeing today is not the Cannabis of the '90s and the 9s you know it might have been like 5% THC and the products available on the market today are much higher than that uh some studies are saying 20 to 30 the New York Times um article from October 4th that talks about as legalization grow so do the harms uh talks about some products as much as uh 90% th so my real concern here as a board of health member is that our young people here in re have a low perception of harm um they're they're viewing this as a natural product that can help them and I'm concerned about aggravating um that is going to actually aggravate the anxiety and depression I'm also concerned about um and again my stance on this is never a judgment on anybody who's using any substance um we all for what whatever reason take care of ourselves as best as we could so this is this is not a judgment on anybody who uses cannabis but my stand on this is at what cost are we inviting a$ 33 billion industry into our city um we are also dealing with the aftermath of what happen with the vaping epidemic among kids how do we get here because these companies intentionally use young influencers and flavors to attract young people and so at the high school my kids uh I have a child at high school right now and somebody who just recently graduated you will find the little Vape cartilages inside the bathroom uh grates right so and a lot of Youth my kids included and a lot of um the kids of the parents that that I use no you can't even go into the High School bathroom because it it doesn't feel safe it feels like people are using substances in there so again out of all the folks um thinking about this article from New York Times that talk about a 18 million people that currently use uh cannabis a lot of them without consequences but there is onethird of them that have cannabis use disorder and this number is even higher for 18 to 24 year 24 year olds with 4 million uh people who use daily and it's estimated that in this age group about 81% of them um have the cannabis use disorder and so again because we are supposed to look out for the health of our residents our I understand our counselors need to look out for the budget and I appreciate that but we as the Board of Health need to ask the question what is the real cost what is the real cost like right now um I know we have the opiate abatement funds um I feel like again we were deceived I went to a conference one and one of the doctors was talking about how when the pharmaceutical Representatives would go to them uh they were told them that this um drug wouldn't be addictive and so they were prescribing it and then and then you we all know what we're dealing with now and how much money that we had to you know Sue this company to get this money back so um some of the numbers that we are hearing in terms of Revenue are potentially like I heard councelor Kelly mentioned uh threee average for Lynn Chelsea and Malden was around 250 to 3,000 but what are we going to have to pay as a city when we have to deal with the consequences so I I want to encourage us to put Health First to think about what a retail environment um does in our community and also um somebody was asking what is the harm what families have been damaged um and I have to tell you um that I have been in this room and I have had a mom come up to me crying and say I raised my child right I taught them right and now my son is struggling with this substance and we're trying to help him to come back we're trying to help him to find a job uh this is not a a unique Story another person was telling me about um a child at Rivier High School who passed away from a drug overdose and this person started with marijuana uh and and another mom who raised her child right had gave provided everything this this child needed and now they're struggling because their child is dealing with a marijuana addiction I also have heard stories of marriages being destroyed because of the substance so I know I know again I am not trying to uh promote fear I am not trying to stigmatize anybody who currently uses but I'm asking here what is the real CA to this public health experiment that we are running and does r want to be part of it um so that's what I wanted to make sure that um you as Board of Health members uh were considering today um Drew another thing that that caught my attention and I wanted to get your perspective as a doctor and I think it's just a good point to bring up for the community is the cannaboid hyperemesis syndrome so according to the uh New York Times article um this is something that is being seen more in hospitals um this is a syndrome that is becoming more reoccurring like it was rare in the 90s and now we're seeing it more um this happens to uh people who are using more frequently and higher potency and what what seems to be happening is that they experience this nausea and extreme vomiting so they're finding themselves in the hospital room um you know wanting to vomit and and nothing comes out uh and the only thing that seems to relieve it is heat and so the article points out that a whole bunch of people may be experiencing this on certain levels uh I'm also a very curious person so I I went on YouTube to like you know see from like a Doctor Who's like talking about this syndrome and and having been on user himself and now recovering um and the comment section is is interesting how you know people uh discuss you know how this this substance gave them relief for such a long time and now they they cannot use it so um I think it's interesting that heat also seem seems to relieve it um so I also just wanted I think this is a good opportunity because as the article points um we in the public health sector may be a little bit behind in having these conversations I think as the article also points out uh the doctors and the coding are just catching up to be able to report on some of these uh harms that we are seeing and so I think it's also a good opportunity again not to stay stigmatize anybody and I especially do not stigmatize young people who have always been the victims of these industries you know who you know there's money to be made here right and so like tobacco they have to replace their smokers because they're killing them uh and so it's it's the same thing with with industries that come into our communities to make money so just curious kind of like Drew and um Kathy what are what are your thoughts on this I know we cannot uh send uh a recommendation to the city council um and we cannot have these conversations oneon-one because we are a small board and so that would be against um open meeting laws and again this is an opportunity to to have this discussion as a community about what is the real cost um and how yeah what do we as a Board of Health have to say about how much money we then uh end up spending on these crisis Lauren I was also curious if you at the top of your head know like for example how much money we have spent with the opiate AB banement crisis I know that not necessarily money that that we put in the city budget that came out from the lawsuit um and if we you know if you could talk about a little bit about like how much are we spending as a as a city how much money did we get how much money do we expect to get um to talk about that to deal with that the consequences but I you I can ask you that later I just kind of wanted to hear from Drew and Kathy yeah sorry just quickly so I've seen um cannaboid hyperemesis Syndrome from excessive marijuana use and unfortunately marijuana cannabis is something that can be abused um and that is one of the the consequences of it um you know I I won't I'm a physician um I the way I think about marijuana in particular is um obviously it's legal um so patients are going to use it um I think when it's used uh daily it becomes a problem um and I've seen it just from a mental health perspective um so that's my opinion on on it um but uh I'm happy to have someone looks like Mark is here to talk and I'm happy to hear what he has to say but Kathy just quickly I just want to quickly um I've tried to do a little bit of reading on it about the pros and cons I know we're talking about the non-medical marijuana we're not talking about the mar I would also like to know what the policies are at the dispensaries I know obviously you have to be over 18 21 21 thank you okay uh it was vague as to what I was reading so you have to be over 21 unfortunately it's not going to stop the problem with under 21 they're still going to get it they're still getting it illegally um so I just is it I I want to know what the policy is at the dispensary what kind of information I do realize that it's a lot stronger now than it has been in the in previous years I those were questions I had so I just which I can't answer thank you board thank you Dr bunker and um I I'd just like to share some information here just to can you mind ince yourself Mark sylvestri 501 Riv Beach Parkway um so again I'd like to share some information here and this was published October 23rd 2020 4 a new published study tracks calls a significant decrease in marijuana use from 2011 to 2021 in a period which a dozen states legalized marijuana for adults lower rates of both Lifetime and past month-by-month use by high school students Nationwide has seen a significant decrease since the legalization the findings run contrary to to the claims from legalization opponents who said that the policy change first enacted in Colorado in Washington state in 2012 would leave to skyrocketing consumption among teens in 2021 the study says that the month in periodic reports Journal 39.9% of adolescents reported ever trying or have tried marijuana as of that was before 2021 so that was 2011 to 21 as of 21 that number has fallen to under 27% to Shear the whom consumed cannabis at least once in the past month well meanwhile fell from 23.1% in 2011 to under 15% in 2021 drawing on data from the centers of Disease Control and prevention CDC youth risk behavior assessment which poll's 9th through 12th graders I believe you just spoke on that vivana poll's 9th through 12th graders reported trying cannabis before the age 13 fell dramatically studies dropping from 8% to under 4% in 21 this significant decrease observed both the ever used and currently using categories a promising reduction to adolescent use despite the long-term declines a decade saw at least some UPS in team use rates including slight rise in female teens dramatic low Dr drop in meal teens so I know you said you you did not want to stigmatize but I I have to say vivana you you 1,000% stigmatized the use of recreational Cannabis you you have put out there uh false claims false data as I have here data in front of me by R ybs um you said it rises Federal data says it's declined um the the the concerns that I have and and that are being portrayed out there and whether you're for it are not facts matter and when people come before us and say that that marijuana is being sold in recreational dispensaries from Venezuela tainted tainted and in in in laced false all the Cannabis in Massachusetts is is highly regulated through the CDC when you say that it's going to impact our children you can't be 21 you can go into any liquor store in the state with a child under 21 you can't even get into a parking lot at a dispensary with a child of 21 you can't even pull into the parking lot with a child so I'm just not sure how a month ago we sat up here as a council we passed several other liquor licenses and not one peep was made no one not a sound but then we went to go past recreational marijuana in the stigma and the finger pointing and the threats being made are just not fear it's not fear and and someone that says they're here as a member of the Board of Health should be giving facts and not just their opinion and that's mine does anyone else have anything else to say um Mark if you could come up again please could you share with me um the October 23rd 2024 article that you're sharing what is the source yes it is science in health all the data comes from the Journal of parotic reports uh drawn from the C of disease controls sorry um so the article is done by science and health they get their data from the findings um periodic report rep s um drawing from the centers of Disease Control RBS with f Federal data I can share you with this after um we again and it has tables and it shows the dramatic decrease actually the time before recreational Cannabis ever passed in 2011 because the first was 2012 in Colorado and Washington cannabis use between adolescence was up over 40% 20 21 it's down under 26% so I I again I just if we're going to share facts I hope we share facts thank you Mark and one more question for you uh you mentioned the article talks about youth health risk behavior data uh did you say that National Data that is National Data have you asked um the city of Riv for our youth Health RIS Behavior data to see the trends I know with covid that might have thrown off our numbers because obviously the kids weren't in school so we may not have gotten the data so I'm just curious if you have those numbers or if you because I know I I believe up to like 2022 uh the school has made them public um but I'm I don't know moving forward yes so um I I haven't been able to get 21 or 22 the last I I've seen was 19 and again in the RBS all Cades across R also seen a decline in use um and I and I have to say to the Board of Health we heard up here kids are going into school and they're saying that there's a prevalent use of marijuana so much so that they're scared to go into the bathrooms well then I asked the Board of Health what is the prohibition in our city doing to stop this and if they're getting this means when we don't have the stores how is opening a store from legal means that takes away the black market going to increase this availability because it shows in the neighborhoods that you've legalized decreased because kids have hotter access there's not enough there's not as many Street dealers out there dealing marijuana because they can go right around the corner to get it thank you Mark uh Lauren do you bu any chance um again I know I'm putting you on the spot so if you don't have it you don't have it um how much money are we spending as a city um addressing substance use disorders like curious about the op a batement funds I know that's a separate fund that's helping us fund the sub boxing boxes but how much do we spend as a city with staff yeah like staff in and with the programs that we run to support uh Substance Abuse Prevention or to do like harm reduction okay I can tell you a quick review of the opid settlement funding which I presented to the city council um a couple weeks ago uh in terms of opiate settlement funding to as of September 30th 2024 we we have received 674 th000 approximately um in fiscal year 24 we spent approximately $997,000 in fiscal year 25 we allocated $150,000 what's left and what's still coming um what's left in our current allotment that we have is around $427,000 and an estimate of what is still coming is around $1.5 million over the next um 10ish years that is the opid settlement funding um brief synopsis of of you know just the numbers um we have a substance use and homelessness initiatives office it consists of two full-time staff we contract two Outreach workers who work each about 20 hours a week we work in conjunction with the behavioral health unit um we the sui office also you know Works in conjunction with the public health staff um and and does that help answer your question okay yes thank you Lauren so we are we're gonna it sounds like we're going to be getting um would you say over like $2 million in op bement funds if it's like 674k plus the 1.5 million that we expect to be coming so the city of Rivier is going to be getting like in the next 10 years to 2 million to deal with the we I don't think we know for sure what our total number is going to be but we know what we have and we know an estimate of what is still coming and those two numbers together are over 2 million okay and that covers does that cover our staff um that help address some of these issues um the fiscal year 24 allotment covered 05 FTE for two staff members but after that it has not covered covered staff it has it's covering contracted contracts and um initiatives okay um and then Lauren do you know if we have any funds in the city of river uh to pay for prevention efforts so I feel like a lot of the work that we do with the op bment funds are it's important like harm reduction do a boxing boxes do does the city of Rivier a lot or have any money set aside for prevention efforts in order like to do like campaigns or I just want to yeah just make one point of clarification Suboxone is a a medication for medication assisted treatment what we have is n boxes I just wanted to make sure sorry I apologize yeah okay um Rivier is part of a a prevention Grant along with many other communities we're in a mass call three Grant with Chelsea um Rivier Winthrop and Everett maybe one of those something like that and so every year there's money allotted via that Grant to do prevention work that Grant has regular meetings in which um the decision on how to spend that money is made they spend money on things like me youth uh mental health um first aid training they spend money on um conferences they spend money on trainings for teach teachers trainings in schools and the people who sit on the um allocation not necessarily committee but the people who decide how the money is spent are people like jel herwig at the school um uh principes um public health staff um a wide range of people who help decide how to spend that money okay thank you Lauren thank you Mr chairman uh Paul agenzio 245 Reservoir Avenue I'm the wad for City councelor I just want to clear up a misconception uh I've been getting several calls on this um we are the city council is not repealing the ban on recreational marijuana in R there is no ban it's perfectly legal in Revere to use marijuana you can sit in your backyard and 10 ft away the people in the your neighboring are of smoking marijuana it's completely legal what we're doing is is looking at dispensaries right now uh R residents are taking their R money and in some cases going a few hundred feet outside the Rivier City Limits and purchasing marijuana we are surrounded by dispensaries Chelsea Malden Melrose Boston Lynn Salem so dispensaries are in full operation in these cities and R residents are just going there purchasing it bringing it back to R and I don't want to make it seem like this is a money thing but the other cities and towns surrounding us are benefiting from the money that Rivier is spending at them we in a very limited controlled way are looking to open a dispensary so Rivier residents have the convenience of staying in Rivier and the tax revenue and the fees would be collected by R and there is some discussion about uh Revenue potential Revenue if this does happen coming in uh to reia would go to a majority of it would go to the building of the high school and into the public uh Health Department so this money that is generated or potentially could be generated would go into uh the public health department and we just seem to be mixing the conversation with opioids and marijuana marijuana is different a lot of people use it um a lot of adults this is an adult decision so we have tobacco we have alcohol we have vaping we have gambling and you can become addicted to any of these things but adults have that choice and that's uh that's what we're looking at And discussing there is no ban of recreational use of marijuana in Rivier you can use it so that's what the city council is discussing and we uh I commend Miss katano on on the information uh that that she's trying to bring forth and there's dueling and mixed results when you look at these um reports uh I don't have it in front of me but I will bring it to the city uh council meeting in Colorado that was one of the first States uh to legalize it they see a dramatic reduction in use among teens and children uh by taking the as councilor sylvestri said taking it off the black market and legalizing it um it it becomes harder for uh kids to uh to get their hands on so uh that's what we're uh endeavoring to do or discussing uh we'll find out where this goes on Monday night and um I welcome this discussion I'm glad this came up before the Board of Health tonight thank you very much U Paul before you leave can I can ask you a question so Paul does the does the city of Riv currently AR allow recreational marijuana shops like do no they do not we do not so what is the proper language to use because I hear what you're saying people can use like I can go home if I wanted to and go home and smoke marijuana and here could if we wanted to right it's not like we it's not like it's prohibited right but what is the right language then would you say in order to share with the public that right now the city of Riv does not allow recreational marijuana shops shops yes we don't allow shops marijuana is legal in rever we just don't allow shops this came after the state um voted to legalize Mar marijuana uh the city council at the time was very apprehensive about dispensaries and shops there was a lot of misinformation out there they thought there be traffic jams people crashing into each other uh people walking around in a days in these parking lots they they thought there was going to be uh you know a lot of craziness happening so the so the city the city council got together and they voted to not allow marijuana shops in rever now as five six seven years have gone by and we see how other cities and towns are handling their dispensaries and there and there really is no problem that I've ever heard of from these dispensaries in fact I drive by dispensaries and I don't even know there there there are dispensaries uh someone told me there was one night near Home Depot I go to Home Depot uh I don't know maybe 20 times over the last year today I got in my car and I drove around Home Depot and I searched for this place I finally found it uh but I've driven by it 20 times and I I never knew it was a dispensary um the one up on Route One a couple of hundred feet I drive by I I think it's closed there's never a car in it so the marijuana dispensaries I don't believe are the problem I understand what you're saying about youth uh getting their hands on it and it's like any other Vice they could get their hands on alcohol vaping uh many people get addicted to gambling and they get their checks and they spend it all on uh scratch tickets so but like I said it's an adult decision and it's been proven that when legalized marijuana comes in it reduces the impact on teens and young people um Paul also um the state law says that we have to go by our alcohol licenses so we had Paul capy here the other night at the city council meeting and he mentioned um that it has to be five so I I'm also hearing and I you know Lauren I think that is correct so I Lauren thank you for because I know we're trying to clarify what will be our role and I think it's going to be like the um city council who will do the final approval uh and I also have heard some counselors talk about we won't allow more than two but aren wouldn't we be in contradiction with the state law if like let's say we had to um and then another business came in and said well you already zoned it and you have to go um by what the state law says so how can how can we protect ourselves like let's say let's say we wanted to limit access in availability um just as a city because I think you know residents should have a say about what they want in their environment but what will what will protect the city from being able to limit that okay yeah so yes it it is based on the number of alcohol licenses so the city of Riva could have up to five but in the zoning uh committee meeting we've I I wasn't on the zoning committee but they greatly reduced where these things can go in the city so there's another misconception that it's going to come to the end of your street or in your residential neighborhood there's very few places that these um shops can open so the chances of five coming before us are low but it's a special permit and they have to come before the council and like Lauren said uh your the board of Health's opinion is is sought during that process so just because we can allow five doesn't mean we will and I don't see the demand for five dispensaries in rier especially where we're surrounded it's not like Chelsea people are going to come here they have their own so um yes we could have up to five that's state law if we wanted to reduce that number officially then it has to go to a ballot question so I think the city council uh could certainly come to an agreement uh if you're looking to say someone going to file a lawsuit against it while you allowed to and I want to open my third one and you're not allowing me to you know that's that's a legal matter but I don't think the city council has any intention of allowing five dispensaries and re but Paul a few years ago in 2016 the council was completely different um at that point again they supported the I'm going to try to use your language so we're speaking the same thing the prohibition of retail marijuana shops right and then the council change and now the mentality is different so one day I won't be here one day I might get tired of this one day you may also decide this wasn't your gig and so I guess once once counselors move on but what we put in our in our law books would it be binding because it it might be another Council who says actually we we think five is fantastic well yes I mean that's the way government works at the time you're speaking about in 2016 it was a huge unknown the city council didn't know what to expect from these dispensaries so I I think they used good judgment and they banned them and now let's see what happens in other cities and towns are they going to have problems or we made a good decision um at this point we see what's going on in other cities and towns and they're not having any problems and and none of these horror stories that were first put out there have come true so I I think that's why the the present Council has looked at that information and the ideology has changed now it is true in the future something else could happen but that's the way government works and do you do you have an understanding of where these uh retail marijuana shops are going to go have you been told uh where like do you could you point that that's in our Z that's in the zoning that was just agreed to on the 21st but could you describe to the public like what streets or what areas of theity I mean just off the top of my head the north side of Squire Road where Northgate Shopping Center is the suffk Downs area where taret is I know know those are two areas uh there's a small stretch along uh Northshore road going to Lynn uh certainly away from residents homes uh ma probably can speak more intelligently on this than I did because he crafted that and I think he's well aware of where they go better than I do but there're certainly not I think there was some misinformation someone printed a flyer and put it in mailboxes in wad 6 and took a picture of a a dentist's office and said oh marijuana coming soon to a neighborhood near you and the uh the dentist wanted to file suit the people calling them up saying what are you closing down you're putting in the marijuanas so uh there there's misinformation out there and that was one case of it this stuffing of a flyer in people's mailboxes and and I know there were residents up here that were I rate that night CU they thought a dispensary was going at the end of their residential street and and that wasn't true so I at the council meeting I'm sure we could review these areas um where they will be allowed potentially if if the vote goes through what about um special permits so uh the other night councelor Kelly and I believe this failed in the zoning subcommittee she wanted um to put in an ordinance so that like a retailer couldn't come I don't know if it's to us or to you guys and say well these are the rules I mean right now we're talking about 300 ft from schools playgrounds parks where young people congregate um I think I wasn't sure what the result were in terms of the result was 500 so 500 and that's that's following the state regulation um and then if but if somebody wanted to come in and say actually I want to do it different they can what I saw failed the other day is that there will be an ability to do special permits and do less distance than that so a dispensary has to come before the city council for a special permit now can they ask for a variance that um my dispensary that I'm proposing is 475 ft uh 450 ft the city council can look at that and say well um if it's on nor uh on Squire Road there's a six Lane Highway that separates one from the other so the city council could SE certainly uh take that into consideration and say okay the you're 25 ft short you're 50 ft short yes uh we we can grant you a permit we we would have the ability to do that now are we going to say uh someone going to come forward and say oh I'm 100 feet from a school can you wave that we of course not um I mean you have to rely on the people you voted in I guess I I suppose to to watch out for um well-being of the city Paul one more um the so people in the city often gets get upset when things happen and they weren't um notified or like why why is this happening or why is this happening in my neighborhood or um I feel disempowered by the situation that I feel like I have no control over um the amendment to send um a notice to residents through certified mail yes um was it your understanding that that passed yes the other night did uh was it clear uh what how many feet I believe it was agreed upon for 500 for f within 500 feet residents will be would be notified by by uh certified mail yes correct do you do you believe that the city council will really listen to Residents or will like the businesses Trump um what residents have to say because I know often times like when we're looking at at money like you know like I think somebody was telling me like there were some hotels going up and a resident said this is this is affecting my quality of life but do you really think genuinely the council will listen when residents come and say I really don't want this close to my house or will will the monetary benefit uh Trump what the resident that one resident saying well we're elected by the residents so first and foremost we listen to what the the residents have to say and if it's reasonable we would certainly side uh with residents I mean that's what our job is up here um when you say that uh people aren't notified that the 500 ft is is excessive uh but it was agreed upon and I I think the uh those things that the zoning committee put forward are protections for the city and protections for the resident if a dispensary is proposed and somebody from the other side of the city shows up and says well I don't want a dispensary it's two miles from my house I probably wouldn't consider that as a as a valid um reason but if somebody is very close if there's a daycare and what have you that I can't speak for the future uh but we certainly first and foremost uh represent the residents okay thank you Paul all right you're wel thank you okay I think we're going to move on here um so next is the licensing Lauren do you mind sure we just have two licenses um we have another temporary uh two temporary licenses that you've heard before this is for Boston Harley-Davidson and David Martinelli um for a body Ard establishment and a individual practitioner um if you remember I've brought this before you be you know in in previous months for uh David Martinelli who is a tattoo artist who is licensed in Danvers to have a kind of popup um one-day licenses uh that operates out of Boston Harley so before you today is the body art establishment application for Boston Harley-Davidson which is on 64 6 Wire Road we did the inspection on October 10th the event dates proposed are November 2nd 16th 30th December 7th 21st January 11th 25th February 8th 22nd March 8th and 22nd April 5th and 19th May 3rd and 17th and 31st June 7th June 21st July sorry July 5th and July 19th um we have inspected this kind of um operation three times now um we've they passed for this inspection they pass in the previous inspection so we recommend you approve the license for the body Ard establishment at Boston Harley Davidson Viviana you approve I do I approve also okay great yeah I approve as well three great and then the last one is the body art individual practitioner for David Martinelli again he's the tattoo artist who operates at Boston Harley in a popup facility he is fully licensed in Danvers and his address is um 12 Beaconsfield Street in Lawrence we inspected on December 10th as well the event dates are the same that I mentioned for the establishment he passed the inspection and we recommend that you improve that license as well Vivian I approve Kathleen I also approve I approve as well that's three great that's it from that um and then just uh close up here so we'll be canceling the November and December meeting um for the Board of Health and we'll reconvene in January thank you e for