##VIDEO ID:-M5J1TnaG5U## e e sorry we're all woring I'm recording already so I good thing I didn't say anything nasty she usually edits anyway any changes okay okay uh good afternoon and welcome to the Westport Board of Health September 30th 2024 meeting which I'm calling to order um let's start with the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all and I forgot to say under masteral Law chapter 3A section 20f this meeting is being recorded okay we'll begin with the written report from Matt any questions or comments if not we'll go to your verbal report okay um there are two blood drivers remaining for 2024 October 28th at at Westport from 2:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. and December 12th at St John the Baptist Church to date there have been 190 donors and those donations will help 570 patients so good job everyone the public healthman started administering the fu vaccine on September 16th as of September 25th we administered nine Fu vaccines and we have 20 homebound visits scheduled thank you the new Middle High school as build plan has been reviewed by myself and John Schwartz and we both agree that the as build submitted is sufficient because the asbill plan was completed after the system was backfilled it was not possible to get all the grades and elevations and due to that fact the following disclaimers are disclosed any and all certifications present on the asil plans that were submitted and reviewed on September 19th 2024 pertaining only to the locations and elevations indicated and only to the extent to which confirmations were made possible the Board of Health does not assert or guarantee the satisfactory operation of the subsurface Disposal system system okay that's fine so okay um the hazard mitigation plan committee uh their first public meeting has been confirmed for Thursday October 17th at 6 p.m. located at the Westport free public library located at 40 408 Old County Road um there's going to be there's a flyer that was just created we're going to I know it's out on the town's General web page but we'll put it up on the board of health web page uh this week and um if people are interested about learning more about this please you know um visit um the web pages and and take a look at the flyer all right um director approved plans can we before you go ahead that um on just on um Animal Control I asked Nick um to share um how many rabies cases we've had this year um and he just indicated he gave me the um the print out so we've had 10 cases of positive RAB rabies um uh testing on animals and just to alert the community that there's an increase this is larger than we I believe we've had um recorded this in the last few years so just to be on the alert um and to be careful When approaching any animals that look like they're um they're aggressive or they're having difficulty just to call Animal Control um I I'll not I saw on the news too that a person in New York um passed away from BBE so it right yeah I saw that as well and also that the issue of the Triple E the positive um mosquitoes and some cases of Triple E um as well so to for people to continue to protect themselves from Dust to Dawn um from being bit by mosquitoes um and and also the there's been some more reports of mosquitoes being positive for westn virus we still remain in the moderate Zone but Tian went to the hot so or Rhode Island went High I should say Rhode Island um uh increased their um and we're they're right there with us they're they fly over the bard of those mosquitoes you that's it they don't need a visa to come over okay okay um we'll move on to uh director approved plans sure so we have a four bedroom um new construction on a 58,000 86 squ foot lot 1219 a main road for a Dan B burck and Katherine Flynn um this is a um it's been concom reviewed and there was no issues with this plan we have a three-bedroom uh repair utilizing a stone bed on a 20,1 156t lot 6 meal Road it's been through concom and this one will require a deed restriction and then we have a six bedroom this is an upgrade I believe it's going from five to six bedrooms um at 684 River Road on 3.91 acres for a um Matt SL Chanel of Fritz B through conom and um that plan is is okay as well okay all right so I move that we endorse the director approved plans um for 1219a Main Road um for 36 Meadow Road with the condition of a three-bedroom deed restriction and for 684 River Road um I'll second that motion all in favor I I that's um unanimous two to nothing with one absence thank you okay um next we'll go on to the minutes I had um no changes to the minutes okay um I neither so all right so I move that we approve the minutes of September 9th 2024 well what's on your agenda does it say September 9th or August 19th say 19 hold on um the the printed agenda but yeah it's on the other agenda yeah it still says August 19th August 19th we can bring these back to the next meeting okay to it doesn't match the agenda okay so we'll pass over the minutes um probably this wasn't updated from the last meeting okay um moving on to other business um the next our next regular meeting would fall on a Columbus Day or indigenous people's day um so we need to reschedule that and the proposal I believe is to just postpone it one week and go three weeks because we haven't had really heavy duty agendas is that right right so it would be the 21st yeah we don't know about but well our next meeting would be following the 28th so did you want to postpone it a week or just do or skip it skip it to the 28th oh let's skip um wait a minute October okay day before my trip so um yep um why don't we just um postpone if we need to pull one up for some emergency urgent reason we can do so that's fine with me all right so the next one would be October 28th yeah okay do a motion for that no right yes okay so I move that we um uh postpone our well that we move our um Columbus Day meeting we just read connect on the 28th that we skip a week and canel thank you I'm trying to figure out a different way to say it we cancel our meeting on the 14th and resume our meetings on the 28th uh second um all in favor I I that's unanimous thank you two to nothing one absence um board member update um so I guess the update I have is that I presented um Olive uh wersi and I uh U appeared before the select board um and presented a um request um for an advisory committee for the opioid settlement funds to be formed um we presented some data um we you know pled our case for um doing so in assisting the select board in making decisions that are based on the abatement agreement which is really a legal um kind of binding agreement with the state um when we receive funds so we receive $35,000 a year with a projection by uh 2038 of having a million over a million dollars brought into the town to address uh the needs of the community in um education um uh risk reduction um and direct um programming uh that focuses on U you know addiction and specifically with the opioid add um addiction issues so so anyway that they requested that we create a charter um iive worked on the charter um I have been doing an Outreach um with people in the community and who would want to be involved in such a committee um so Laura sheret who is the principal of the middle and high school has agreed to represent the school um department and um their Valerie um betet who is a clinician who appeared as well at that select board meeting um uh and spoke eloquently about the money being blood money it's the reason why we're getting money is because people died from opioid overdoses um and this is the kind of the restitution that um people who are complicit in that um they're paying so that we make sure that we're using these funds appropriately to address that particular concern and need um so she's agreed um and um I've asked Craig Dutra who is on the select board if he would um participate on the committee uh he once ran a United Way so he has uh probably some really great ideas about uh grants and things that we can do within the community to um continue continue to uh address those needs so um I believe he's agreed he said it was up his alley so okay and um and of course my myself on the committee um so we're still looking for someone from safety um we're hoping that uh Glenn Nunes would want to participate in that um he's an EMT and um anyway so that's so that's where we're at we also are going to need somebody in the community who has direct um impact and that would be somebody who's either in recovery um or um and or uh family members of someone who's lost somebody to Opi overdose so um so that's we're working on that so I'll be presenting that I'm going to send that over to the select board um uh tonight or tomorrow morning and hopefully they'll be able to review the charter in the next meeting um you had in the when you did the opioid um um panel you had some um in community members I had I contacted um uh the woman who spoke and she hasn't responded to my emails okay so um so I mean I there are some other people in the community that I can reach out too but um I I think that one of the things they can also do is uh post something um and see if people um will respond to that so but I do and I also know if's been in recovery for probably 25 years who's run NA meetings who lives in Westport who may may want to participate so I have to reach out to him well it doesn't have to you don't have to be on the committee because I assume you will be doing some public Outreach session my my goal is to run at least two Focus um groups um I would like to do one to the school department and in the school and address it to parents and people that are in the um um within this within the school system and then do another one for the general public we could do more um but I'm thinking at least two because somebody might not be able to meet make one and could make the other so and then go um from there with ideas we're also going to use um I think we could look at what Fall River did because it was posted in The Herald News um and I received the um uh the press release from Michael Rodricks um our rep our state senator and and um or our the senator for our area and he's on Ways and Means and um he sent me the um the press release before it was released to Herald news so but it was in Herald news on the Monday we appeared before the select board so I presented that and there giving um a certain amount of money to the school system and then they're doing what's called an advocacy fund which is for people who have been directly impacted so if somebody in the community needs to go um into treatment and doesn't have the money to um to say maybe live in a halfway house or something that maybe Fall River will help them do that for the advocacy fund or if they need to pay for heat and they don't have the money for that um and they are in recovery so they're not able to work so there's but there's a way you have to um figure out who's going to be the person or the people in need um so I have this idea about the grandparents that are raising their grandkids because the the parents of the kids are have addiction issues in Camp that perhaps the grandparents um need support RIT you know giving them some kind of RIT so they can get some help so they can have RIT but those are those are ideas that's what we're going to do the um focus groups to get people to give us ideas and yeah and then there's going to have to be people presenting um if they want funds to do a specific program write out what the program is and the committee will then say this is a good program and present it to the select board this is what we recommend so but it's up to the select board right we don't hold the purse strings they do yeah okay great well thank you for your um diligence on that um appreciate that I don't really particularly have any updates um so we have um are there a Butters no for Elmwood no okay then we could go you could move it up if you wanted to I I don't know if the people coming Greg is not going to be able to make it but uh I don't know if the people will com in or not but um I don't see why we couldn't move it on if you wanted to I know I wanted I did want to bring something up okay yeah let's cover any everything else um uh topics for the next regular meeting um anything unanticipated so Donna you wanted um yeah um whether or not we were going to try to do Co Clinic um for that when need covid vaccine because um someone from the Apothecary mentioned it to me so I don't know they are able to get it we could do combined efforts or not but um I could ask but um they've been really busy with it so I don't know how much they're getting uh we can get it and I've signed this up with a buying group which is called mm cap and we've got significantly lower prices if we wanted to purchase it um but our revolving account is down because we bought you know a good amount of food vaccine but down to maybe 4,000 that account you know we could probably get 40 50 doses of covid vaccine if we wanted to go down that road we get we would get reimbursed and it's it is uh significant and we would cover our cost and maybe then some but we would exhaust our revolving account down to nothing and then we you know we'd have to wait till we get reimbursed and Rey anything else because um yeah how many doses of flu vaccine did we get this I think we got 100 of the 65 and older vaccine and maybe 60 or 50 doses of the under because the majority of what we do is the 65 and older right okay uh because I think we had to order more last year I'm just trying to anticipate well we'll see we're just getting going yeah so we'll see how it goes over the next month and by then we should start seeing some of the reimbursements come back so if we need to buy more food we can um we more food now if we needed to we have some money left to do that but um I'd rather just wait and see we I asked to let me know when we get down to our last 20 Doses and then we'll think about talk about reordering if we want to do that okay well um I'm sure you'll follow up and we'll see if it makes sense to co or people can pretty much get it just go to Apothecary to get it so yeah it was it was one of the pharmacists picary that mentioned it to me okay um Todd mentioned it to me okay um anything else for the next regular meeting which will be the 28th of October um do we have um plans for health notes I know that Phil was going to be working on the microplastics nanoplastics or but I don't have any plans thought about so I can do the next one if the select board approves oh yeah okay approves the charter and for the committee and then I can start posting some information I could do something in the health notes about that about what the settlement fund means um refer them to the abatement agreement if anybody wants to look over the abatement agreement and what can be um used and then um if people are interested to contact yeah okay um us um or me and if you have dates for a like a focus group you could put that out there too yeah the only thing is is that if the select board approves the committee then I have to help form the committee and set the first meeting so I have some people for the committee but I don't have all the spots filled um so that's going to be the challenge is going to I'm going to try to a few more people um and I would want them to be from Westport I don't want them to be from outside of West no should be Westport okay that's the other thing you were you have you did you get my emails I sent over from Jim about the agenda and what it stuff needs to be in for the next meeting yes and that's why I'm going to try to get it in tonight okay or tomorrow morning because I think it was Tuesday or when Tuesday that it needed to be in so yeah so that's one of the reasons why I get it so um the any updates on the charter Olive just sent to me and I will just forward those to whoever I'm supposed to forward it to that you said well yeah so Jim because Paul is on vacation this week so send it directly to yeah and hopefully they'll be able to review at the next meeting and then we can go forward and set our first meeting and then I can write um something for the next Health notes okay um so that would be the October November Health notes yeah and I um a thought um for another topic is um Matt uh we have we have the bike recycling Grant and we have the air sensor Grant we could talk about new grants that we've received yeah I can do that um um also um just for the next regular meeting I have been um sort of out of action for a little bit but I will get back to the um total nitrogen testing I happened to I had gotten an inquiry for somebody looking for a new onm operator and I uh was calling around I spoke with uh someone who will be willing to come into Westport for uh serice providing service and um he just sort of of his own volition makes I was talking about our two times per year total nitrogen testing requirement and we're developing a policy to figure out what to do after the first two years um and he had some good suggestions for me so I'm going to get back to that and hopefully I will have that for the um October 28th meeting there was a question that was forwarded to me from uh Michael burus um somebody was looking to see if we were going to be doing a um hazardous waste a um so that might be something I know we still have money left in the article from the last hazardous waste day may be something we want to think about maybe asking for at this town meeting you know uh in May yeah yeah and but and maybe doing a fall collection um it was something I topic I wanted to talk with the collaborative communities too um at the next meeting so um um we'll just yeah maybe we can talk about that the next time too see if there's appetite for what if we didn't well I was just thinking if we did something within the collaborative yeah it's the problem it's difficult yeah because of the geographic people won't travel that far um I think the Trion Community map pois Mary and Rochester would have a good shot of having like a some kind of you know combined Hazmat day and some kind of central location but and people from that area would all go to it but then you got Lakeville town and Westport were kind of on the outskirts um but if somebody need to get rid of something that bad they would come I guess but but we can ask the next Mee was in my brain anyway so we can talk about it see what the group that group thinks see whether we think there's any appetite for um pursuing an article a town meeting in May um we probably need another 20 I mean the prices probably have gone up significant since the last time we did it well before time well before we have to get the um articles submitted or the warant submitted we can um I'll research you know I'll call the company that came out the last time and call a couple other companies and see you know what we're up against here for for prices yeah I'm sure they're still all on that Statewide contract which is how we found them before right um and then see how far they booking out I'll get all the information we need um to put them the war out okay okay uh the other thing is uh Wells I think you know Phil had asked me maybe we should pop up a working meeting in the near future to you know kind of revisit that Greg okay um yeah we could do that maybe the week that we would otherwise be meeting day week yeah I'm so I won't be around that week but maybe the week after okay so that's the October 21 week okay yeah you have a conference or something is that right okay okay um see I have the time is 4:29 that clock's a little slow I think we can um seeing no interested AB Butters at this point I think we it's reasonable for us to call the variance hearing for um 25 Elmwood Avenue um owned by Edward Goa this is a three-bedroom repair with a infiltrator quick four on an 8,750 Square lot um normally represented by Greg Nicholas but today voiced by Matt arendo speaking for him yes Greg wasn't able to be here and he asked me to to read this for him um so the parcel is located at uh 25 Elmwood Avenue and it contains 8,7 50 foot lot and it's a three-bedroom home the water is provided by an onsite drilled well and currently Wastewater is serviced by an on-site cess pool which is in hydraulic failure currently the C pool was 49.2 in from the existing well what's being proposed is a quick four standard LP septic field consisting of 24 units a 1500 gallon septic tank and a 1,000g pump chamber will be installed as shown on the plan the field will be 50 uh 50.8 ft from the proposed well with a 5 foot separation to the seasonal height groundwater and that's because it was an inent two Park that you need that extra for of Separation all the buing wells are greater than 100 feet from the proposed SAS and there are no property line or Foundation setback requested so they're uh requesting a waiver from the setback distance from the SAS to the well the site is predominantly flat but it should be noted that bread and cheese Brook exists to the southeast of the property and Greg's supposition is that the surface and subsurface water that exists is in the soil between the ground and the Bedrock flows in that dire and flows in that direction the well is not a shallow well it is a drilled well and thus is obtaining water from an aquafor rather than the water that exists in the soil overburdened the well has been tested and the results are on file with the Westport Board of Health the water as tested meets all the requirements for safe portable water there requesting a waiver of Maximum feasible compliance the current assessed value of the property is $325,100 attach to the request are two estimates from proposa construction the estimate based on the same plan with the electrification system singular a system is 34,500 which exceeds the 10% threshold for maximum feasible compliance considering the site constraints and the fact that the existing well is producing Safe Drinking Water despite the proximity to the failed cess pool it is Greg's request that the board consider uh that the board consider the cost of the dentification system and approve the plan with the setback waer and the maximum feasible compliance documentation Greg is thanking the board for allowing him to be absent for the hearing and as he explained to me talking at the moment is not his strong point so hopefully he'll be back in action in the next couple months okay I noticed the nitrate reading was 3.9 so that is below five um and so I think it's a reasonable request the maximum feasible compliance um anything else we would want to see for um well protection resource protection I know it's not that much but if I see if they move the coupe which is does not have a foundation um that they could get a little further away from the well I mean I know the water quality is okay but because I'm looking at the existing well from the other property and it's 104.6 and they have room between there in the property line but then they would be moving it closer to that well closer to the well that's 104t away if you move the coup yeah I mean it's only you know if they move to four feet then they move the CPE somewhere else but but I just thought of that I just thought there was a little room because that CP is not not foundation so I'm not sure of the uh requirements for zoning set back for a shed from property lines so if you were have move the coupe closer to the property lines I'm not sure if that would run into some kind of trouble with that with those zoning laws um I'm uh given the current conditions and it's with a where SU cool it's right like it where the um am I not seeing it see sess pool sess poool is um it looks like a circle with a line through it oh okay so the sess pool is even closer than what's being proposed right now right okay given the um test results I I think I'm okay with um the plan is proposed with a three-bedroom deed restriction and three years of water testing for the site well and does it have it does not have but at least this yeah it does have concom yeah we just can't see it because it's not in red but it's over there okay return from concom it's over in the right hand lower count corner right above storage repair plan the word on the lower right corner oh yeah there it is okay all right so um I move that we approve of the plans for 25 Elwood have owned by edwarda dated 7224 uh maximum feasible excuse me with request for a maximum feasible um compliance variance one reduction in the offset Edge to the well to 50.8 um inches or feet excuse me from 100 and with the following conditions hold harmless three bedroom deed restriction and three years of water testing uh I'll second that motion motion made and seconded to approve the project for 25 Elmwood AB with those conditions all in favor I I that's um again two to nothing with one absence okay thank you um we have anything else short and sweet okay well being there no further business I that we adjourn this meeting at 4:37 p.m. second all in favor I I that's unanimous thank you very much thank you valie thank you