##VIDEO ID:aWEBBK77wsY## in and let's see this is the Board of Health meeting of what October 2nd 2024 we have a quorum consisting of myself Katherine Arlene Reed Garrett Simonson and Norine peace and we're hoping for whim but who knows y so first order of business can we uh accept the minutes uh yes I think so they seemed great any problem with the minutes from anybody who was here last time I know Nori and you weren't right that would just be Garrett yep I'll move to approve second all in favor yes Norine you want to vote for them even though you aren't here you're allowed to yes I will okay and me too so those are done um all right we've got a few things things on the agenda one is a disposal works construction permit for 59 Shore Drive that is Donna and Gary West and this has been a long long Saga they they bought the house next door to them which I think was number 57 and they tore it down and they had um they had a tight tank at number 59 but now I believe they're getting a full system I should check that hang on and it's taken a long time you know going through concom and whatnot it seems like it's been going on for just forever yeah this is definitely a whole oh no it's another tight tank it's another tight tank yeah yeah I have the plan in front of me here tight tank plan for b41 and 412 number 59 so another tight tank so it's pretty simple pretty simple matter I don't know why it took so long but there you go so the question is shall we shall we um approve it Claudia says we should uh some move that we approve that tight tank second second all in favor Arlene yes norin yes Garrett yes yes cat yes okay I will issue that and we'll finally get that put to bed we also have a repair permit for 29 Lady Slipper Lane um and Claudia I don't really know anything about it it's a conventional system as far as I know Claudia recommends uh approval um uh Arlene I don't know if you consider this a near neighbor that you should recuse yourself or or not that's kind of your call I understand um we're not abutters but we're very we're our well is very close to it I mean not not within 100 feet but you know um I guess if I'm not needed uh for the Quorum on this then I would recuse myself okay okay um I don't know that there is anything um noteworthy about this it's a simple um replacement it's simple replacement meaning all components are being replaced or I believe that they are yeah I it's a full a full replacement yeah they they paid the full fee so so um yeah it's my understanding that there have been some problems at that place so this is a this is a good thing yeah part that's partly why I think it's best if I recuse myself I thought you might want to um is there any other discussion about this about this permit has this whole house recently sold or what what prompted the U I think so yeah yeah there was a Title Five and a looks like a new owner and uh they are getting the place in shape great uh well I move we approve this new system for the system replacement I second all in favor Garrett yes Arlene recused oh that's right I'm sorry norin yes cat yes okay there we go okay pretty much across the street at number 1618 Highland Drive they did a Title 5 um uh inspection and they found that the tank needed to be replaced and they're going to replace it with a it's a since it's a duplex they're going to replace it with an enormous 6,000-gallon tank apparently wow um and the way that this is normally done is they find out that a component needs to be replaced and they immediately move to replace it and then they catch up with the paperwork afterwards they apply for a permit and they have a review and so on but basically they have it done so probably um possibly by now this might actually be in but we will be asked to sign off on a permit before the replacement of a single component is there any objection to this has has it been this is the sort of thing that gets reviewed by Claudia as well yes and has yes but it's pretty much proforma because um she can't she doesn't prevent it you know right Alan Weiss is the the designer here and uh basically they're just swapping out one tank for another except in this case it's a bigger tank they still have to get a permit anything else on this I move that we um complete the process by signing off on this application second okay all in favor norin yes Arlene yes Garrett yes cat yes so I will issue that when the time comes it has not come to me yet but Allan gave me a heads up that this was happening um are there any updates that we need to to discuss anybody know anything that they want to share Garrett does so so at our last meeting we briefly talked about the op opioid settlement funds right and there is a October end of October deadline for shutesbury to report on any expend expenditures that we've made with those funds uh as a reminder we went to the select board and sought their approval and they did approve for us to pull funds with the Valley Health Regional collaborative uh for shared initiatives around um mitigation around uh you know addiction and and uh opioids from the last Val Valley Health actually not from that last meeting but from talking with um Greenfield my understanding is that not the other communities haven't bought into that concept even though we have and so I don't think that it's likely that the funds are going to be pulled okay on the agenda for the collaborative to talk about on the 10th and I've reached out to Becky I I assume we haven't spent any of the funds as the town shout to her to confirm that and then to offer assistance her assistance with completing the reporting um and so I'm still waiting to hear back from her on that um but it is a topic of discussion at the collaborative on the 10th so I'm assuming that we got permission from the select board to to pull the funds but that doesn't mean we can not pull we can't not pull the funds that we can we can that's not going to prevent us from using the funds simply as a town alone with yeah I I think that's a fair assessment okay um and I've had a couple of emails with Sarah Fisk um who's been doing work with Leverett on how they're going to use their funds and I think she had a pro did she have a program tonight you said Arlene that she was doing a program stro stroke awareness at the uh Leverett um Town Town Hall I think she wasn't she wouldn't be able to to attend tonight's meeting but you know once we I think after the meeting with the collaborative on the 10th and Nori and I'll take cues from you on this too since you're also involved in the collaborative that based on what we learned there maybe we asked Sarah to come to one of our meetings to talk about what she's doing with Leverett and if it makes sense to do the same here yeah I guess just just clarification Garrett I I thought understood from the minutes that it was Greenfield that no longer wanted to pull funds is that wrong or is it it's sounding like the other communities haven't perhaps gone to their select boards to ask about the because everybody seemed to be in favor of that process a year ago so I'm wondering what's changed my understanding from Megan is that Greenfield was a definite no okay and that perhaps the other communities hadn't done the leg work we did right that's that's what I would that's what I was intimating yeah okay so I mean it's might still be possible to talk to collaborative members and pull money with the other five towns potentially although it sounds like Leverett has you know gone in a different direction and maybe huh that they're looking at spending it locally right do you remember what it is is it like it's only like five or6 thousand doll for Le and shuty I think it's not a huge amount I've got notes on it somewhere I'm just can't remember exactly yeah five or six thousand sticks in my mind it isn't a lot yeah well when when we were talking about this originally the idea would was that there would be a fairly large scale Regional um right action and I wonder if that is really the way the way this is most likely to play out it's possible that fairly small local actions are going to be more effective and more what we need and that um I mean I don't know I don't have any sense of the scale of the problem here not in shuberry and not in the whole not in the whole region I don't know if you guys have gotten any sense of that from the collaborative um my recollection is that the funding allocations were at least in maybe significant part based on prescriptions yes yes and not and not necessarily documented uh misuse or um you know what have you but that that's my recollection of how the funding was set up mine mine as well do we have any sense from the collaborative or anecdotally or in any other way the extent of this problem in our town no I think that's one of the things that we were talking about when when Jen was still um director in Greenfield was trying to to do some research and and and learn a little bit more about it to even use some of the money to see if we could um you know put together you know a little bit of analysis of you know what is happening in our six towns I think Garrett mentioned last time that um Sarah is putting together a a questionnaire that we can use for this kind of assessment good and would it be legitimate to use some of our funds to do any funding that we need for that I'm not sure what it would be possibly sending out questionnaires to the town Town's people I'm not sure there are some limitations on it as as I recall but I I don't remember specifically specifically what they are and going back to the data piece I don't know if and I can't remember if Jen ever did anything around EMS data so like 911 calls or but okay yeah I think maybe pulling some data I don't know if um our police department and emergency response keep track of what kinds of calls they go out on and if they're related to uh drug overdoses or that sort of thing I mean it would be it'd be something that'd be kind of interesting actually to look into I would think that they would keep records of these and and I mean we wouldn't want to to violate anyone's privacy but we could certainly ask them how many right just how many calls right have they gone on and say the last year yep that would be that would be Illuminating all right I will or maybe maybe it would be better if Garrett or Norine did this reach out to Kristen and say um Lenny and just ask them if we can have a number or two um how many calls have you have you taken how many um addiction related or drug use related calls have there been since say 2024 and just so we can try and um tailor our response if any um I can do that okay since did you say since 2020 yeah see just just this just this calendar year that would give us an idea well 2020 and this calendar year is different so I thought you were looking no I'm sorry I meant 2024 and somehow I'm in a Time War okay I thought that was me but go for it if you want to me that that is catching I guess yeah apparently who know okay yeah it might be better to have the whole calendar year 2023 anyway I'll think about it I'll ask them how they keep their data and it might be interesting to know what happened in 2023 and maybe the first six months of 2024 something like that sure um yeah keep it open-ended and see what kind of information they are willing to give you and whatever whatever seems good to you okay although I'll point out that the um they as First Responders don't always have a diagnosis they don't have a it may not be obvious to them you know it's the hospital Personnel who make the diagnosis but but they may nevertheless get feedback on that I don't know those protocols so um well but I mean they might get the question out to them they'll let you know if there are limitations on their knowledge of whether something was determined to have been um drug related or not right I would assume that they would that that would be part of the call-in you know somebody would call and say somebody's having an overdose you would think but but or if they've had to use Naran for example that that kind of [Music] thing that would be interesting to know if they it you know just from all the people I know I can't imagine anybody in shsb having this problem but I'm sure there must be people who do because it's so widespread yeah okay all right are there other things that we need to talk about I have a question um in C in your recent um townwide news email that you sent out um when you followed up and said here are the um links for registering Yeah you mentioned the um uh Clinic the the vaccination clinic now why am I oh here's my uh got kicked out of my Board of Health email for some reason hold on I'm logging back in um and uh I don't recall that there had been a preceding email that said that notified people about this Clinic it maybe deleted it but I'm just checking in as to whether there was an an email that explained or not told people that in fact there's this Clinic happening there was okay I must have misplaced it okay but I did see the one with the links and I knew you had sent out one about availability of tests and about Sarah's availability at Town Hall um and that was I'm seeing that as the September 20th email um you address three things mosquito season not over Sarah's availability um and um the fact that she has covid tests so that was the 20th but I there was a subsequent one other than the one with the links that told people about the clinic is what I'm hearing you say yes yes okay yes um I don't have it but okay well I'm pretty sure that I sent it out a and I know that people got it because they immediately asked me for the link because I oh I see to put the link out way I don't fact that se okay on September 26 there's a September 26 one that says free covid tests and more there's covid tests and then there's vaccination clinic and then there's the new new guidelines for isolation quarantine all right I must have somehow put it in the trash and I'll 26 okay thank you yeah yes it in my trash okay interesting just what we need uh when is that what is that clinic date since you have have it up or somebody has it up it's the 25th 25th of October at the elementary school from 3:30 to 6:30 okay thank you right and we are not we are not being asked to assist uh at least not so far they have they have a a commercial vendor that um is contracted do you know how registration is going I don't I don't a few people a few people have um expressed interest I may actually register and get my um latest booster me too kind of bump them excent excellent because they do need to have 25 pre-registered or they'll cancel okay okay um I'm not sure I suppose I suppose Sarah will know okay we can check with her and can I just ask here I got an email from mafco and it looks like there's some changes in mafco Garrett can you um basically just summarize what's going on at mathco so I think the main change is that uh the meeting dates and times have changed for both steering the steering committee and the full Coalition so I think instead of the first what was the first Monday it's now the second Tuesday okay uh for both committees and see other other big changes are really around so the uh the planner position the contract for that is in full effect with DPA between dph not dph but uh for Cog and the uh contractor and that the uh Coalition has an approved work plan with dph um and that work plan is going to be discussed next Tuesday right and something about the focus is now on response as opposed to planning for the objectives for this year yeah so the shift is is around development of a public health emergency response framework for each of the coalitions um what that looks like is has really been left up to each individual Coalition I think with within region one they're taking more of a region one approach than just specific coalitions um dph has declined to provide guidance or guidelines as to what are essential components of the framework um so it's likely to end up looking very different across the regions uh within the state so well that that makes a lot of sense doesn't it yeah yeah but um I mean they they also have declined to Define where they fit where the state fits into the framework excellent so all right I'm I'm almost sorry [Laughter] I oh that yeah that all sounds a little bit strange doesn't it yeah is there is there some unanimity about what is a public health emergency good question that is also not defined in the deliverable U the way that I'm approaching it with the communities I work with and Metro Boston is that as opposed to talking about it from a specific hazard we're talking about it from the perspective of what are the public health impacts associated with the hazard you know so we're not talking about respon responding to a hurricane but we're we're talk talking about responding to populations that have power dependent medical needs right um so that's that's the approach we're taking with it because my philosophy is absent guidance and guidelines I'm GNA make up my own yeah you have to okay well it should be interesting to hear what you all come up with I mean the good news for the western part of the state is that communities are a bit more alike than you know Urban to Suburban you know like in the communities I work with we have some communities that have populations closer you know maybe double what shutesbury is but we also have you know Cambridge and Somerville with 100,000 um so it's out here we're a little similar a little more similar right okay well keep us posted you said there's a meeting next Tuesday is that a steering committee meeting or a full Coalition meeting I think that's a full yeah so next Tuesday is mafco and then next Thursday is Valley H okay actually no the eth eth is steering okay good it's steering okay because I was gonna say and I'm I'm the full Coalition representative from our board am I Garrett or are you I think technically I am but okay okay that's that's fine with me that's great others are are others are in terms of voting yeah I think I'm the representative but great board members can attend I happen I have a dentist appointment that day so but you said it's you just said it's steering okay on Tuesday and then th that next Thursday is Valley how okay and are you for that one norin yeah I'm available it's is it still at 8:30 in the morning I think so yeah yeah okay great yes I am excellent I'll let you know closer to then if I can't go but if you're going to be there you can represent us yeah fine looking at the email just now I noticed that the email did you all get the email from I guess dph saying that the the Triple E um uh risk level has been dropped all over all over the state no but that's good good news yeah I got the is that on the one with the subject line uh the weekly Aral virus report no it's what's the subject line the subject line is State Health officials announce Triple E risk levels lowered in several communities but what they want to say is that tripa is no longer cons the risk from tripa is no longer considered high or critical anywhere in the state communities previously at higher critical risk are now at moderate risk okay so that doesn't affect anything out here I do have that but um but you know it's all good yeah yeah I got I have did a search with those uh terms in it and I just got that uh an hour ago but hadn't seen it yeah interesting so that's a small bit of good news well I have kind of a snide comment is that because they sprayed in high-risk areas do we know even now uh what they said let me go back to that um what they said um well what they say is we know that most triple E infections occur by the end of September um and that so Katie Brown is quoted as saying those the mosquitoes most likely to spread triaa are dying off and are present in smaller numbers their activity is driven more by temperature and humidity and somewhat less by the time of day I don't know what that means um but uh they don't mention spraying I think they I think that they did spray in some places but I don't really know okay just curious because I know communities can be um you know overridden their decisions about spraying can be overridden by the state so I was just curious if that had right right you may remember that a few years ago I went to quite a lot of trouble to opt us out yes and one year they just refused refused all those requests and then the following year I did it again and um our our request was um granted but it turns out that um it doesn't apply to state property in a town which in our town is practically everything so because there's there's so much of it so I have not I have that's interesting I have not bothered to do the op out procedure anymore I figure it's pointless I I also thought I heard recently that that um the ability to do that to opt out for community to opt out no longer exists I wouldn't be surprised but know that that it's not uh within I don't know if it was a statute or whatever but that it's I thought I I thought that was my understanding interesting it certainly makes things more you know simpler for them if if we can't if we can't opt out I'll be amazed if we ever have to actually face that in in shoots fa it just doesn't seem to come out here but the way things are going you just never know okay okay the only other thing I can think of is I listened to the last select board meeting uh and they discussed uh not weed and it sounded as if we might receive a request from the select board for our view on or or what we the feedback that we gave to the not weed committee when they came with their proposal they were possibly going to ask for additional information from our meeting and also the uh conservation commission's meeting so I don't know if you've heard from Becky about that at all but that might be that might be coming our way I have not and it doesn't seem to me that we really gave any feedback at all at that meeting um although I I provided that the not weed folks with some written feedback on uh things that I found in other management plans right right there was that right they can get that stuff off the website I don't know why they would have to yeah have to bother with us but I don't know um what what sense did you get from that meeting of how the select board is responding to this I I think they want us and the Conservation Commission to weigh in but in my opinion the Conservation Commission should lead on this but I had um intended to um view that meeting and something came up I don't remember what but I was unable to and then I went to see if I could find the link to the recording and it was very confusing maybe it just wasn't up yet but I thought I saw something that said that that meeting had been cancelled but I'm obviously if you went then it wasn't so um I'll try again to find the link and listen to it yeah I think sometimes there's a significant lag between the time of the meeting and it's beinged that may be it it's just it's just especially with early voting and stuff going on there's a lot of on the on the T um do we I mean since since it's come up do we have any kind of position on this is there anything that anybody wants to express and should we be taking a position on whether this is acceptable or unacceptable or what any thoughts Derek can you share what you conveyed to the select board about the information that you did find and I know I could go so not to the select board but when the not weed uh committee came to our meeting yeah got it that's right and I I shared some feedback on um information that I was Finding in other management plans around the state that I thought they might want to include so I I sort of highlighted for them here are you know here are some examples of other plans that contain information that address um you know personal protective equipment of the that the individual who's applying U might wear you know other other things like that and then uh I had another thought on this so so to cat's question you know I think I think that it is largely about the town's use of pesticide of U herbicide herbicide on Town property and then from our perspective I guess one concern that we might want to weigh in on is the application as it as it might be proximate to a well and I don't know if DP has guidelines as it relates to public water supply uh that we could look at so that that might be one one thing that we could consider weighing in on um I know that in our meeting there was talk about a regulation in great Bearington uh somebody brought up a a Board of Health regulation that great Bearington has um that may outright ban the application on uh Town property but I haven't looked into that further yeah I know um I don't know how valid the concerns are but there are people who are concerned not just about um contamination of um like bodies of water or even proximate drinking water wells but just that it will get into the groundwater and Will Travel the way groundwater does and eventually show up in somebody's well or a pond or something like that but it's um so even if it's not approximate to a well there might still be concerns that people would have about that right and people are also concerned about the spraying aspect of it that it would be airborne and would affect them we've received several emails full of assertions about how how dangerous this is but they're just assertions we're not getting we're not getting scientific data here yeah however it strikes me that this there's a lot of push back here and while I am totally sympathetic to the the wish to eradicate not weed it seems it seems dicey to me to undertake um a program that so many seem to be so adamantly opposed to I know especially because nothing else has been tried and you know the they're getting their advice from a professional pesticide applicator basically and so he has a particular mindset I'm not saying that he's you know that it's self-interest or anything like that but he has this particular mindset that is basically one and done you know cheap and dirty get it done in one or two applications because the the underlying assumption seems to be that if regular um civilians have to deal with this over the long time that it can take to do it by manual means that they won't that they'll basically run out of steam and um make things worse and not follow up but it doesn't have to be that way you know it would take longer and it would take constant constant effort and it would probably take something like a three-year plan or even a Five-Year Plan you know has been made of this business where if you cut it down it sends out side shoes that is true of every invasive plant that I've ever dealt with and the way it seems to me that the the usual way of dealing with invasive plants is you start in the spring and as soon as they put something out you cut it down and you come back every single week and you cut it down and you cut it down and you cut it down you deprive it of photosynthesis and you um keep requiring it to use up its store of energy in in the underground structures and sooner or later you get the better of it but it takes time and diligence yeah and and In fairness to the highway department a comprehensive plan should be accompanied with the appropriate funds so that they can do it you know if it's going to take uh time and and additional devices or you know equipment to to do it um then they they should be given the funding to do it well that's a that's a good point I was thinking however of um volunteers I mean they have this committee and they have a lot of people who are committed to it and it seems to me that going out once a week and cutting down your particular assigned patch of not weed is not a very onerous requirement and that that you know having a little committee for each each place where you're you're working so that there's always somebody who could do it right if somebody's on vacation or what whatnot um that that is something that could be mobilized yep so we'll see I mean um yeah I don't know they haven't come back to us so we'll find out anything else that we ought to be talking about I have nothing more okay well I'll remind you all that on Sunday we're having the townwide birthday party every person is invited regardless of their age but if you are if you are turning um a zero number as Arlene is um then you're the special guest so it's going to be fun Friday I'm turning 30 congratulations Dean got his invitation he was very excited oh great yeah it's a fun thing I don't know if he came last year I don't remember but uh it's kind of fun it's just kind of silly and JY we've got all kinds of crazy things planned so uh I hope I hope you'll come all right you guys how about wej sounds good all right I'll see you at various times and certainly in two weeks sounds good okay good night thank you bye thanks bye