 Okay. Okay, so this is the Amherst Board of Health, April 21st meeting, and pursuant to Governor Baker's March 12, 2020 order suspending certain provisions of open meeting law, general law 30, section 20, this meeting of the Amherst Board of Health will be conducted via remote means. For information on remote participation, please see the Board of Health agenda posted on the town of Amherst website. No in-person attendance will be permitted, but every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings via technological means. In the event that we are able to do so despite best effort, we will post on the Board of Health website an audio recording of the meeting as soon as possible. And with that, I will call the meeting to order and have a roll call. So in attendance, Stephen George. Here. Jennifer Brown. Jennifer Brown, I'm just going across the name. Sorry. Jen Brown is Lauren Mills. Here. Maureen Malay. Here. And Tim Randner. Here. Nancy Gilbert here. Jennifer Brown is the health director and due to circumstances, she will not be actively present during today's meeting. She will be monitoring the participants. So the first order on the agenda is the minutes of the March 10th meeting. Does anyone have any comments? Corrections? No, I don't think so. Okay. If not, may I have a motion to accept the minutes as presented? I'll move to accept the minutes from the March 10th meeting. And may have it seconded? I'll second. Okay. Steve second. So I will have a vote. Steve George. Hi. Hi. Lauren. Hi. Maureen. Hi. Tim. Hi. And Nancy. Hi. Thank you. So next we are going to move to our open hearing, the public hearing. This is a public hearing to discuss the recombinant DNA regulations for Amherst. The Amherst Board of Health is a five-member board that is appointed for a three-year term. The duty of the board is to promote and protect the public health of the residents of Amherst. The board derives its authority from the Massachusetts legislature. The members are Chair Nancy Gilbert, Stephen George, Maureen Malay, Lauren Mills, and Timothy Rander. Jennifer Brown is the director of the Amherst Health Department. She is an employee of Amherst whose duties are to carry out the wishes of the board and assist in the enforcement of our regulations and deal with the day-to-day operations of the health department. With the exception of Title 5 regulations, it's not legally required for the Board of Health to hold a public hearing on proposed regulations before them, even though all proposed regulations are addressed at meetings to which the public is always invited. This meeting will be public. However, the board will not provide time for further public testimony unless a board member has specific questions to which the audience member can offer some clarification. After the public hearing, the board will accept written testimony for a period of 22 days until May 13th. Letters can be emailed, mailed, or delivered. The email is brownjayatamherstma.gov or to Jennifer Brown at the Health Department, 70 Boltwood Walk, Amherst, Massachusetts, 01002. The board will vote on the final regulation at their June 9th meeting. If the proposed regulation is passed, the regulations will be posted at the Health Department office and online and will be publicized in summary form in the Hampshire Gazette within 30 days of passage. Before we begin taking testimony and in the interest of time, we ask that you follow the following rules. Any person wishing to make comments will be allowed to speak. The host will unmute the speaker. At this time, please identify yourself and give your place of residence. Before addressing the Board of Health, please be familiar with the proposed changes to the regulations. When addressing the Board of Health, please state any professional affiliation you may have that impacts your comments. Identify the section of the proposal you wish to comment on. Please limit your comments to three minutes so that other members of the audience will have a chance to speak. As noted earlier, written testimony will be accepted until April 30th and can be emailed to Jennifer Brown at brownjayatamherstma.gov or mail to Jennifer Brown, Health Department 70 Bultwood Walk Amherst 01002. Thank you for your anticipated cooperation. May I have a motion to open the public hearing? So moved. Okay, Steve, may I have it seconded? I'll second that. Okay, Maureen, thank you. So it has been moved and seconded and we have to vote on it. So Steve? I. Maureen? I. Lauren? I. Tim? I. And Nancy? I. So the public hearing on the recombinant DNA regulations for Amherst is now open. Does anyone want to make any comments? Well, we have, we have one person. Jen, can you open it? Yes, I just received an email from that person and I believe they're not commenting on the DNA regulations, but I'm not a hundred percent. So I'm going to call them. So Carol, Carol Gray, I'm going to allow you to talk. This needs to be about the recombinant DNA regulations. If it's about another topic, we'll call on you soon, but not now. Okay, thank you. It's on the COVID regulations and could you tell me what time to come back? So on the agenda, it says, let's see, 515. Okay, that's fine. Just stay here and I see, I see you. Yeah. Thank you. So we have five more minutes of public comment. If there's no other public comment on the recombinant DNA, would we just take the public comment that we have? Well, what we had? No, no, because this is a special hearing. So we have to close the hearing and then open the meeting again. So this is just the public hearing on the recombinant DNA. And then we will vote on it on our June 9th meeting, allowing people to write comments. And it had been posted. And the draft of the proposed regulations have been posted to meet all the legal considerations of the public hearing and the regulation. Did we get a final draft of the regulations? Yeah, it was sent out with this meeting. So it was what Steve and Maureen have been working on and we've been discussing since January. And this is the final draft. And then in June we'll vote on whether this is the new regulation we'll have due to the time commitments because people can submit written testimony if they so choose to. Steve or Maureen, you want to say anything while we're waiting? We'll just have to wait. I don't know that there's more to say about it from our discussions of the previous meetings. Yes, and I know that Jennifer sent out notices to the three schools about them. So if nobody's come, I'm sure there's no comment and we'll just wait another minute and then we'll close the hearing. I think we can close it now because just sitting here. So may have a motion to close the meeting? Okay, I'll move that also. Okay, may I have it seconded? I can second it. Okay, thank you, Tim. So it's been moved and seconded to close the meeting now. We can vote on it. Tim? I. Maureen? I. Steve? I. Maureen? I. And Nancy? I. Okay, so it's moved seconded and voted. So we've closed the hearing and there's been no public comment on the regulations and we'll vote on those in June. Okay, so now we will go to public comments. And according to the guidelines for the Act extending COVID-19 measures, June 16, 2020, the open meeting law does not require that public bodies allow public comment or public participation during the meetings. But we can choose to accept public comment and therefore the Amherst Board of Health will allow public comment using the following guidelines. Residents may make public comments up to two minutes during this period. When called on, please state your name and your address. We'll be giving priority to Amherst residents than to others who do not reside in Amherst. To be acknowledged, commenters must have their names in their windows. And the intention of the public comment period is for the Board of Health members to hear comments from the public, but not to engage in discussions or debate. And the chair has the right to deem commenters disruptive and will end their public comment period for any disruptions. And there, if there are any questions for the health director, she can be reached via email. And her contact information is on the town website. So with that, we're going to open public comments. And this is where Carol Gray has her hand up. Carol, welcome back. If you can state your full name and where you live, please. Oh, thank you very much. Carol Gray, 815 Southeast Street, Amherst, Massachusetts. Thank you for letting me speak. And thank you for your service to the town. I am a parent of a high school student. And when the town imposed the mask mandate, I gave a huge sigh of relief because I had been really worried about my son going back to school. And I felt like as I watched the statistics across the country, I thought, well, my kid is safe. Everyone's masked. The mask mandate got lifted and our son was still fully masked at all times, every time. And I let him participate in the musical. And I think it was probably one of the worst parenting decisions I've ever made because when they came out for the show, I saw that he was one of about three kids masked and about 50 kids on stage were not masked. And I sat there in the seat terrified thinking we've been so good for two years and my husband's 70. He's higher risk. And I thought, oh, my God, he's not going to get through this without getting COVID. And unfortunately, I was right. So he came down with COVID. And so we had plans to have vacation plans to look at colleges out West and everything was canceled. And we've all been quarantining. And thankfully, it seems he's gotten through COVID. Okay, he tested negative, but then he got a headache. And then I started reading that about 10% of kids, even those with minimal to no symptoms, will get long term COVID. And they could have it for six months, they could be completely debilitated by it. No headache today. So I'm hoping that's not our kid. Anyway, I'm asking you to please reimpose the mask mandate. I'm a fellow at the Humanities Institute at University of Connecticut and you can just impose, reimpose their mask mandate for all classes in all workplaces, regardless of size, and for all indoor events exceeding 100 individuals, but for everything, basically, you, you, and Yukon has a fraction of the cases that UMass had from the April 6 statistics, Yukon has 44 cases, UMass has 109. Then I started looking at towns that are reinstituting the mask mandate, Darian in Connecticut, Darian, Greenwich, Norwalk, Redding, Stamford, Stadford, Stratford, Trumbull, Westboro, in Massachusetts, Salem, Lowell, Boston, Belrica, Lynn, Revere, Newton, Wurst, Westboro, Philadelphia just reimposed. I know close to a dozen kids who came down with COVID because of that show. There's going to be another show coming up. I'm not going to let my son participate in it unless there's a mask mandate. But I'm really, and it's too late for our kid, you know, if he gets long-term COVID, well, there's nothing I can do about it at this point. But I thought I have a duty as a parent to come and ask you to save other kids because of those, there's probably at least a couple dozen kids that came down because of that musical. And who knows how many just in school, our kid tests every week, we've been doing, we've been so careful for two years, just put the mask mandate back into place until the end of the school year, please. Like any one of these kids can bring it home. My other fellow at my school, his kid brought home COVID and he emailed today to say he and his wife and the other kid all have COVID. And he said, I have severe symptoms. You could be saving some kid's parents' life. You could be saving some kid from long term COVID. It's, please, please. Thank you. Thank you, Carol. I'm sorry that you, your son got COVID. Any other comments during this public comment time? I don't see any other hands. Okay. Okay. Well, thank you, Carol. And we will move on to our agenda. So old business, toxic chemical regulations update Tim and Lauren. Yeah, we had been working on a draft document. And I believe a few weeks ago it was, I think Lauren was looking at it. And so I think we're still working on it. That's the status of it. Okay. Yes, I've gathered a few articles that I'm reading through and also looking at the definition of neonic pesticides, which are chemicals used in a lot of sprays that are water soluble and they mimic the effects of nicotine on the nervous system. So it's kind of like a new, you know, thing for me to understand. But I like the list that it gives of these particular chemicals that do get into the soil, that are sprayed on the soil and do get into the soil and could, you know, be a hazard for people and for certain important insects like these. So I'm still gathering information that I would like to be specific in the regulation. Okay. The other resource that you could look at is the University of Massachusetts Extension Service. And I have a name of a faculty member there who is her area of expertise is pesticides. Let me see. I had it here. Sorry, here it is. Pesticides. Natalia Clifton. And she is, has lots of information about pesticides through the UMass Extension Service. So if you, you could contact her too, Lauren, if you want. And her name is Natalia Clifton, N-A-T-A-L-I-A Clifton, C-L-I-F-T-O-N. But her area of expertise is pesticides. Thank you. It shouldn't still be due by this month or? Well, do you want to have, do you think you'll have a draft of the updated regulations for our May or June meeting or June meeting? I think June is fine, but I just don't know how the old regulation just seemed very vague to me. So I don't know how, I feel like it should be more specific, but I'm not sure how specific or there's any direction that. One thing I've done is I've looked at other town's regulations to see when they were updated and how they compare to ours. Does anyone else have any advice that they can give, Lauren? I agree with that. I found that useful in looking at the regulations I've reviewed and it just helps to give it a breath of what's out there and maybe some ideas for improvement of our old regulations. And Tim has a lot of expertise too. Tim, maybe we shouldn't wait till June. Yeah, you've had a lot. That's fine. I don't know, we'll see. Okay, so that's fine. May 5th, this very is right around the corner. I know, okay. Yeah, so June 9th is fine. I put this on the agenda last year when I just went through and looked at all our regulations because that's what we do as regulations. And I looked at the dates that they had been reviewed. And it's to review and revise if they're needed or you can review them and say we're happy with the way they are. I just put them on so that we can act on them and not have a regulation that's there for 15 years without anybody looking at it. I think the basic framework for the draft was using many of the laws or the regulations in other towns, especially coastal towns and so many were there. I think just to, you know, in terms of specificity, there are thousands and thousands of chemicals. We are living in an environment where there is, you know, I would say thousands, you know, consuming and exposed to. But I think having, you know, guidance from those types of regulations which actually look at commonalities and making the regulations, you know, we are not going to regulate and measure and monitor every regulation we impose, you know. So that's, but I think it giving guidance to protect the public health with some sort of a basic fundamental rules at the public spaces. That's where I think we are focusing on. That's right. That's right. And when we looked at the regulation a few years ago, we found out that the town hardly ever used. I think there's two incidences in the last like 10 years where they used Roundup as a last resort on Poison Ivy. I think it was at Groff Park and or Mill River where they hand pulled it and it kept coming back. So they used it a very small amount on a very specific patch of Poison Ivy. So the town is not using these chemicals to any extent that we reviewed and talked about a few years ago. So that was good to know. Okay, so June. So any other comments on toxic chemicals? The community assessment. I'm really excited about this. So phase one, which is a demographics. My watch is talking. I'm sorry. Okay. The two students, Emily Connors and Bailey, and also I'm blanking her last name, are doing an amazing job with the demographics using the census data that's just coming out and different vital statistic reports. Unfortunately, a lot of the vital statistic reports are already 10 years old and a lot of the vital statistics of diseases and chronic illnesses come just by the county and none of it do we have access to race and ethnicity in that data. So at our May 5th, and the reason we're having this meeting on May 5th, because the following week is their graduation in the School of Public Health Thursday afternoon and evening. So they're not available at our usual time and they will present their data. And I will have hopefully the report out to you so that you have it during their presentation on May 5th. And so what I've done is I've also divided the rest of the community assessment into two additional phases. So phase two, which is really most of it is quantitative data on the social determinants of health. And Emily is going to do that over the summer as part of her practicum. And after her schoolwork is done, she is going to spend the morning at the health department to get a sense of the health department, and she will be collecting and have a written report and give us that data for phase two at probably our September October meeting. Then the qualitative phase, which is the words and the stories about health and public health and people's concerns about it would be phase three that I'm calling now using mixed methods to collect qualitative data for the community assessments. And Emily is going to take that on because what she is is she's called a four plus one master student. She's graduating, getting her bachelor of science in May. And because she's an honor student and applied for this program, she completes her master's degree in one year rather than two years. And so this will be her project. And we are going to recruit other students to work with her. And this is using interviews, focus groups, listening sessions, and anything else. And this is the qualitative data that we are going to be doing. And then she will put the whole everything together. I also met with Earl Miller briefly last week in his welcoming cup of joe. And I'm going to connect with Cress and invite them to listen to our public health community assessment and then also invite them to our June meeting to talk about Cress and what they're doing and how we can connect our the departments and the board. So do you have any questions for me? I have a question. For the phase two, the student, you said she's gathering quantitative data. And can you just like say where the data is coming from? Okay, so the quantitative data, a lot of it is coming from existing reports. So for and she will be calling or interviewing or emailing people for some. So if you have the data collective collection tool, she will be getting housing characteristics. And a lot of that will come from the census tract and other things such as the total units, how many are owner occupied, renter occupied, the median house price, housing subsidies, homeless provisions, apartment complexes, the number of low income apartments, and that's just the numbers. Then income and that she'll get from the census data employment you get from the census data. And then she will identify the leading workplaces and industries in the major employers in Amherst, transportation, recreation, education she'll get from DESI, which is the Department of Elementary and Secondary Schools and interviews, but that data is collected by the Department of Education statewide. Places of worship, library services and law enforcement, our fire department, the major forms of communication in town, our water supply, sewage, land policies, she'll list the health care service providers and then an overview of government and policy making. So it's really more how things are done. Then the qualitative is using key informant interviews. This will be phase three focus groups, surveys, descriptions of from people in the community of who's important, what are some of the most serious issues related to health in town, what are some of the services that are most needed in the community? Who needs them? Are people taking advantage of services that exist? What are the community's significant assets? How can they be strengthened? What are some of the deficits in our town or weaknesses? And who should be involved in any coalitions or moving forward with the whole idea of finding out what are the community's assets and resources? What seem to be the community's biggest challenges? What's the most striking thing about the community and what was most unexpected? Does that give you an overview? Thank you. Okay. So that's where you'll be very important in this phase three. And you'll hear in May the data and you'll get a picture. They're collecting it by census tract in town. Any other questions? So I'm looking forward to you seeing their work and meeting them via Zoom because they've really been amazing, amazing help to doing this. Okay. So new business. The first item is the center east way for the subdivision that Christine from Planning brought forth. And Jennifer and I met with her in March and we looked at and I walked by several times the parcels and I had a lot of questions about the effect on the water table, storm infiltration. The project says that they'll identify environmental protection measures. I had questions about the size of the drive for emergency vehicles, trash collection. I also thought about if these are businesses or offices and people park on Gray Street, will that leave enough room for emergency vehicles or school buses to go up and down Gray Street? And I said, oh my, I'm over my head and I sent all this to Tim because he is the most expert on our board. And I don't see anyone from Planning here. I'm here. Okay. Oh, Chris, your name didn't come up here. I'm sorry. So I don't know if Chris, you want to talk. Yeah, you came up as a panelist known as an attendee. Sorry. This is Jennifer. I'm just going to jump in that we have John here as the property owner and invitation to attorney Tom Reedy was sent. I don't see him here. Okay. But yeah. Thanks so much. Okay. Yeah, I was looking at these versus panelists. Sorry. Yeah, see, before you start, we got a bunch of stuff and saw I didn't know what it was about. And there's no explanation. But one of the things was a list of questions about it. Was that what you were referring to? Maybe Tim did that? Or there was an extensive list of questions. I just wonder who said, asked those, where do they come from? That document was from Tim. Okay. Thank you. Not sure I saw that. So I can send it again. I think it was in the packet, Maureen. Okay. Yeah, I have a lot of things in that packet. There was a lot. I could have missed it. Would you send it to me? Excuse me. Would you send it to me also? I don't think I saw that I didn't look in the packet. I wasn't expecting to look in the packet. Yes. I see 11 questions. Is that what you guys are talking about? Huh. I don't know how I missed that. Some observation based on mask GIS. Subdivision plan. Comments. It's entitled. Yeah, I have. Yeah, it says here are some observations and questions. Yeah, I did. I missed that somehow. So yeah. And it has the picture, the aerial view from GIS of the site. And so those were Tim's questions and observations. After he reviewed all that data, that's the beginning of that you got that we got that I looked at and then walked by the property and said, Oh, I have these questions. And as we said, we met with Christine Jennifer and I met with Christine and then I sent this all off to Tim. So I think let's see. Christine, do you want to present from the planning board and talk about why you sent all this to the Board of Health? Yes, I'd like to give an introductory statement and I see that Tom Reedy, Attorney Tom Reedy is in the attendees and it would be helpful if you brought him over because he will also have a lot to say, I'm sure. But why don't I start with an opening statement? So the applicant in the case of this definitive subdivision plan is John Roblesky and he's here with us tonight as a panelist and he's filed both a preliminary subdivision plan and followed by a definitive subdivision plan in order to freeze the zoning on his property at 462 and 446 Main Street. The zoning was changed in the fall of 2021 and Mr. Roblesky had already had a plan and an idea about how he wanted to develop his property before then. The zoning bylaw that went through that was approved by the town council changed the regulations with regard to mixed use buildings. So in the past mixed use buildings which are a combination of residential use and commercial or retail or other types of use didn't really have too much too many criteria about how much space needed to be devoted to both of the different uses. And so Mr. Roblesky built a building at 462 Main Street which you're probably both all familiar with. It's a new blue New England style building. It has 24 apartments in it and a small office building and that building was approved a couple of years ago based on the existing zoning bylaw for mixed use buildings. And then Mr. Roblesky had an idea that he wanted to purchase 446 Main Street and do a similar type of building on that property. So he went ahead and purchased that property but then the town changed the zoning with regard to mixed use buildings. So prior to the fall of 2022 as I said there had been no criteria with regard to mixed use buildings after the fall the criteria included that the ground floor needed to include at least 30% of the floor area as non-residential use. So in other words a store or a restaurant or an office or something like that. As I said Mr. Roblesky wishes to build an excuse building similar to the building that he's already built at 462 Main Street so he isn't planning to or doesn't want to have 30% of the ground floor be non-residential. In sometime this winter I think it was in January the planning board approved a preliminary subdivision plan with recommendations for some changes for Mr. Roblesky's subdivision and now the planning board is reviewing a definitive subdivision plan. They had their first meeting a couple of weeks ago and they're having another meeting I think it's on May 4th. Now Mr. Roblesky isn't planning to build the definitive subdivision plan he's merely using it as a vehicle to freeze the zoning. What it allows him to do is because he's filed these plans at a proper time in a proper sequence he has the ability if he gets this plan approved by the planning board to freeze the zoning for a period of eight years and that would give him time to build his new building. So the planning board as I said is reviewing both the definitive subdivision plan that you're looking at tonight and soon they'll be reviewing a plan for a mixed use building. Even though Mr. Roblesky isn't proposing to build the subdivision that you are going to be reviewing the planning board and the planning department are treating the application seriously and requiring that the applicant provide the necessary information as required in the rules and regulations governing the subdivision of land of the town of Amherst just the same as if he were going to build the subdivision. So the planning board is taking it seriously we're taking it seriously we want to make sure that Board of Health takes it seriously but I wanted to mention the fact that normally the scope of review of the Board of Health on a subdivision has to do with water and sewer and in most towns or many towns in Massachusetts they don't have public water and sewer so they have to have on-site wells and on-site septic systems and those things are very important to the Board of Health to review those and make sure that they work properly. In this case there's no proposal to have on-site wells or on-site septic since anything that's built on Mr. Roblesky's property would have town water and town sewer. So from that standpoint there's not that crucial piece for the Board of Health to review. You can look at the plans and see what Mr. Roblesky is proposing for his water line and his sewer line and I did notice tonight that the rules and regs governing the subdivision of land require that an eight inch sewer line be used for the main trunk line. In Mr. Roblesky's case he's proposing a six inch sewer line so that's something that you might want to ask him to change on his plan but other than that I haven't seen anything amiss with regard to either the sewer or the water that's being proposed. So that's really the end of my statement and I'm here to answer questions. I also wanted to suggest that Mr. Reedy who's Mr. Roblesky's attorney who's here tonight he had submitted a letter to the Board of Health asking for an extension to the 45-day review period. The rules and regulations governing the subdivision of land try to be fair to both the town and the applicant and so they put these time frames on all of the reviews. They don't want towns to drag out their reviews so that a developer can't build what he's proposing to build so they say the Board of Health has 45 days in which to review a subdivision plan and give its recommendations to the planning board because of kind of a little mix-up in my department and not getting the plans to you soon enough. You are now reviewing this a little bit late in the picture and so Mr. Reedy has asked that you give him an extension of that 45-day review period. The 45 days would have elapsed on April 3rd and here we are on what is this April 21st so that might be something that you want to vote on to agree that you have extended the 45-day review period and let's see did I have anything else to say? Oh yes once you're finished with your review we would love to have you write a report or a letter about your review to the planning board so they have a document that says that the Board of Health has reviewed this definitive subdivision plan and here are the recommendations that you have to the planning board and the planning board is required to act within 90 days of the application being filed so they're on a deadline to react to this plan by May 18th unless Mr. Obolesky requests or grants the planning board an extension of that period of time so I guess that's that's really all I have to say thank you. Does anyone have questions for Christine? Yes Christine could you just clarify a couple of times you said that Mr. Obolesky is not planning to build but at one point you said he is planning to build later which is it? Oh he's not planning to build the subdivision so the subdivision is a roadway you probably know this already but it's really a roadway with all of the utilities that are required that would be in the roadway and then a division of the property around the roadway so that each property has the proper amount of frontage and the proper amount of lot area. Now Mr. Obolesky is not planning to build a roadway into his property with lots individual lots surrounding the road what he's planning to do is actually combine the two lots that he has 462 and 446 Main Street and build a new building on what is now 446 Main and so he would have essentially three buildings he'd have an existing an existing mixed use building which used to be the Spanish cultural center or study abroad or whatever it was and then he's got his blue building which is next to the railroad tracks and now he wants to build a new building but this is not a subdivision it's actually just a mixed use building development. I had a few comments and questions I'm glad that this is coming up the connection between the planning board and the border health because I feel like that although there may be like one particular person on the border health that is has expertise in this I feel that there has to be adequate time for all of the members to review things and also you know from what I'm seeing why we're discussing this is because it has to do like you said with water and sewer and I would just can you still hear me? Yes and so I just you know I'm a little concerned that one we're we're not reviewing it in a manner that will give us you know a thoughtful decision and also you know would the owner of this property would they you know perhaps change their mind and want to you know build a subdivision in the future like I'm just I'm just feeling that there has to be more of a a second approval to what the board of health approves or you know reviews as far as like any kind of water and sewer changes so that's just my first initial thought. I guess I had a question will this come back around when the plans change or it won't because it's not going to be an actual subdivision and it's going to be a mixed use building that has different regulations and we won't be involved. May I answer that? Yes. So when we receive an application site plan reviewer whatever it is we send transmittals to all of the department heads and so we would send a transmittal about this about the new building to Jennifer Brown and she would have the opportunity to bring it to the board of health if she felt that there was something about it that should be reviewed by the board of health. Otherwise she would just look at it herself and decide if she wanted to make any comments. So you could have the opportunity to review Mr. Oboleski's actual proposal to build his new building. The other thing is that the the new building will be carefully scrutinized by the town engineer. The town engineer reviews all of the plans that come before the planning board so and then the planning board is going to hold public hearings on the new building. They're also as I said holding a public hearing on the subdivision which is not going to get built but as I said previously we're taking it seriously as if Mr. Oboleski could indeed change his mind in the future and decide to build this subdivision you know we that's kind of the way we have to look at it because it's a it's a real thing that's been presented to us and so you know that's that's kind of the way we're looking at it. Thank you. Sim do you have any comments? Yeah I have a question. I know water and sewer you mentioned but you never mentioned the storm water impacts. I think you Board of Health focus on groundwater but also on sewer systems but our septics are not not there but storm water is something I'm not sure you know if storm water is a possibility for the Board of Health to be considering. I agree with you Tim because when I looked at that and then the plan was very vague on what was happening and I'm looking at what happens when this water comes in there's this railroad tracks and there's other things that it can cause lots of potential problems down the line after built and drainage has changed and more areas are paved and um so yes there's this the sewer issue but I think there are a lot of other potential safety issues and that's what we are concerned about and what would happen to the road and other environmental things which would affect people's health and safety. Does that reinforce what you were trying to say what you said to Tim? Yeah I think most of the subdivisions they plan for certain runoff and so one thing is of course the plan has some sort of a capacity to have underground detention which is nice but having no uncertain I mean certainty about what will happen in the in terms of those lots being developed in the future if there's going to be a lot of impervious cover that's going to create more runoff which essentially can influence water quality so that's what I'm coming from in us see how robust this the proposal should be in terms of the stormwater runoff which could potentially impact water quality. Thank you. May I say something about that? So that was one of the things that the planning board flagged that stormwater calculations are a required part of this application and Mr. Robleski had asked for a waiver of that requirement since he isn't planning to build the subdivision but the planning department felt that was important and so as part of his review with the planning board a couple of weeks ago the planning board agreed that Mr. Robleski should provide stormwater calculations in addition to that the new building well so I shouldn't say that so that would be for the roadway itself and then if any of these lots any of these three lots around the subdivision road were to be developed those would actually have to be have to go through site plan review with the planning board or a special permit with the zoning board of appeals so each of those lots would have to have its own plan for stormwater management so in addition to planning for the road itself there would be a plan for each of the lots but those plans would come in the future so the board of health could certainly request a copy of the stormwater calculations for the roadway if that's something that you felt was important we're going to be receiving that and so you know we could say that you would receive it too thank you Tim anything follow up so I know that these some of those observations which I listed didn't reach the planning board it didn't reach us yeah so I think I made some comments some of them may not be important but about drainage itself the proximity to or distances to I just calculate some distances to environmental justice communities traffic for access to some large trucks so I mean I mean those are something in I would like to the planning board to actually consider and it's also in a high corrosive area for concrete so what type of mitigation they will have in terms of concrete structures and stuff like that so I'm sure you know the planning the engineer will account for all those specific aspects in terms of what parameters are going to be there but right now with the information provided it's not clear for us you know but I just listed so those observations there you know it's a high drainage area that means there's going to be a lot of infiltration if there is potential impervious cover which is going to be very high because we are not sure how much rooftop and new parking lots are going to come it's not very clear I think you cleared it up Christine that it's going to there's going to be additional requirements for at the large scale to have the stormwater calculations and mitigation um can I just clarify um a question with a question um you said that the owner is freezing the uh the development to build right now so is it possible just to repeat that again he's freezing the zoning and what that means is that the zoning will remain the same as it was last fall mr oblesky submitted his preliminary subdivision plan before the town council voted to change the zoning um so that was the first step he took and then that preliminary subdivision plan was reviewed and approved by the planning board and then he submitted his definitive subdivision plan within I think it's within seven months of the preliminary is what the requirement is so he did that and now we're in the review process for that so he is um he has essentially frozen the zoning assuming that he gets approval um for this definitive subdivision plan which is kind of like a ticket to freeze the zoning and it freezes it for eight years that means that the zoning remains on his property the same way that it was back in you know like november or october of last year and he gets to go by the old zoning rather than the new zoning any other questions should we open it up to mr reedy or mr oblesky does they want to say anything uh for the record time reedy attorney with bacon wilson out of amherst here on behalf of mr oblesky uh i think chris press trip i think mr press trip did a wonderful job of of explaining um you know why we're here what mr oblesky is really looking to do um we don't disagree that it should be taken seriously what we're trying to do is let folks know that mr oblesky has no intention to build this it's really just it's it's the vehicle to freeze the zoning because of the mixed use change because of the location of this property that obviously should not impact you know your questioning um or or meeting the requirements we're doing it frankly out of transparency so that folks don't think he is looking to actually build a subdivision there um you know we're happy to show you the plans walk you through the plans i think you know i'll defer to miss breast strip if the next step is you know once you get enough comments from the board maybe fashion a letter and suggest to the planning board here are some of the things they should include as conditions if the board of health needs additional information before they're willing to do that we're ready to do that you know let us know and we're happy to provide you that additional information so we're happy to answer questions um as they come up but i think miss breast strip did a wonderful job um summarizing thank you okay tim do you want to take the lead do we want to discuss writing a letter um to the planning board with our concerns um i'm leaning on you a lot tim sure um i can draft you know i mean i can draft it based on the questions i have the 11 questions um which can be forward to the planning board um some questions also can you know has to come from uh from the plan itself um which the owner is proposing and so yeah i'll be glad to do that so board members what would you like us to do now i guess we were supposed to validate the timing because we're already past the deadline and obviously right we need to get that extension and then uh there's a small issue of the pipe being not big enough those are two things that at some point we've got to resolve and if i may madam chair you know so the board of health actually has to approve or disapprove and so it sounds like you could a um to mr george's point vote take a vote to affirm or accept the request for extension extending the time and then vote to approve conditioned upon you know uh compliance with the planning board rules and regulations which is that eight inch waterline and then after you condition it maybe go through a recommendation list um that that tim had mentioned and then you can list you know whether it's the 11 items that that he had uh maybe if miss mills miss mills had any questions or comments for recommendations and those can all go to the planning board for their consideration and so it would be an approval with a condition and then recommendations approval with what did you say approval with condition so the condition would be the compliance of the subdivision and then that that eight inch sewer line and then recommendations that tim had mentioned and then whatever else the conversation break thank you thank you seeing that we've never done this before i know okay also vote to accept the um lengthening of their review period yeah that's that will be our first right well we could do that and ask for more information and deal with this at the next meeting which is made fifth i mean that's i don't know if if all of this has to happen i know we have to extend the time and we want to you know make a decision on this you know promptly but if we had well i don't know if if getting more information that's supposed to be available soon would um help us to make a decision but the point is next time the point is this plan is not going to be i know but we have to submit well maybe oh this is such a good idea why don't i just do it i mean i don't expect that to happen but okay number one let us vote on and may have a motion to extend um the date of the review um christine when do we want this review this extension too i need your help on that well if you're it depends on if you're going to um act tonight and make a vote to approve with conditions then you would just extend it to today i think and then you would have a letter following you know that would describe what went on tonight but if like miss melia wants or suggesting to do that you want to some extra time to think about this and you're going to um take it up again on may fifth then you would vote to extend the time till sometime probably to may fifth yeah it's just another thought i i i don't know how we want to do this well i i just feel like we're for the past couple meetings there's been certain items on the agenda where we've had to make a quick decision where i feel like we haven't um necessarily had all the information that we needed and if the if the zoning is frozen now from just from what my understanding i limited understanding if the zoning is frozen now and he has eight years of that same same as you said that that he has eight years for it to remain how it is then why why do we have to extend you know his request right now because of the review period we we're past the review period it's what we're extending is the review period not the not the change in the zoning but couldn't he just reapply or and i'm sorry if i sound very um very incoherent what couldn't he just reapply instead of an extension to madam chair if i could just to um so miss mills how this for sure yeah so this is this is all statutory so there's um statutory requirements for filing in order to free zoning so we filed a preliminary subdivision plan which doesn't come before the board of health and then we followed up within seven months with a definitive subdivision plan which does come before the board of health and the statutory section says that the planning board has a certain number of days to review and give their either approval or disapproval if it's an approval then there's an endorsement if there's an endorsement that's when the zoning freeze starts for those eight years if there's a disapproval then the applicant has the ability to appeal so that's with the planning board that 90 days the board of health has 45 days from that filing of the definitive plan to either approve or disapprove just because to miss breastrupts earlier point uh the law wants to be fair to both the town and the applicant so if there's inaction the applicant has the ability to do something about it like appeal or pursue in court um but the town has sufficient time in order to to review it so the 45 days was up at the beginning of April but because the board of health you know we didn't deliver the plan to the board of health planning board didn't deliver the plan to the board of health so the board of health didn't have it and so you weren't able to review it and so we said as the applicant and you know miss breastrupt had suggested why don't we give some additional time for the board of health to review it and so I sent in a letter saying could we have could you have some more time just because I think if you don't act it's deemed a denial which then puts us into a predicament where we have to then sue the town to to perfect it because you can't go back to like the only way to keep the zoning freeze going if it's denied is to appeal it which is it doesn't make sense really for everybody so may I interrupt just for a minute according to the planning board rules and rags governing subdivision of land failure of the board of health to report shall be deemed approval by the board of health oh wonderful well let it laugh okay well there you go so I mean you're I it obviously behooves the board of health to allow the extension of their time to review so it's not deemed an approval and so that's all we're talking about is is for the board of health to approve or disapprove you know approve with conditions is really what we're asking for here so that's and the eight years doesn't start until after mr. Roblesty gets through this whole process then the eight years start so that clock hasn't even started yet okay all right anyone have any other comments I think it really since this is the first time many of us ever even heard of this and it's fairly complex I hope it would be just held over to the next meeting which is very soon and do the conditional approval do all that stuff then because otherwise I could not stand up and explain to my neighbors why we did something if we did it tonight I just don't feel okay so I'm going to make a motion that we move this we give the extension we move this to our main meeting with the idea that we will give an approval with the condition on the sewer line that has to be eight eight inches versus six inches and that we will make some recommendations using Tim's list of questions a second date so it's been moved and seconded did you get it Steve that we move it to our main meeting with the idea that we give an approval with the condition on the sewer line being eight inches not six inches and then that we will look at the recommendations that Tim has given and we will list them in that letter that we will then draft and send out after our May meeting our May May May May May fifth meeting good okay so that is the motion and it's been seconded I'd like a vote on it Maureen aye Tim aye Steve aye Maureen aye and Nancy aye okay so does that that's that's great and if you you know whether you madam chair or Tim wants to put some of those questions in writing and get them to Ms. Breastrup and to us we may be able to provide you some additional information like the the storm water management report hydro CAD etc so that might nip it in the bud a little bit about some of the questions that you may have so if you want to put those in writing and get them to us then we might be able to provide you information ahead of that meeting okay we have them in writing Tim do you mind sending them to Christine Bestrup I sent them about 45 minutes ago okay so thank you everybody and this is the first time in 18 years that I've ever known that the board has done this so thank you everybody for getting us through that and we'll follow up on our May meeting so everybody will have time to review everything perfect see you in a couple weeks thank you thank you bye bye okay so mosquito control and tanning salon is going to be moved to our May meeting oh man our May meeting is something else and the solar bylaw regulations we had a request for a member from the town manager to be on this and we sent out a request and nobody volunteered to be on this and I'd like to discuss that and one thing that I want to go on record for is that I think it's important that the health department be involved in this because sighting of solar arrays can affect groundwater and wells and the point I want to make is that the health department's infrastructure is non-existent we have Jennifer Brown who's amazing who's covering the health director the public health nurse we have 12 hours of Nancy Schroeder who does a lot of work for us and then we have Lillian who is here for two years under our money so we really do not have a public health infrastructure to help us look at solar bylaw regulations and have the health department do this and present information to the board for us to act on it so I I want to go on record saying that we do not have the necessary public health infrastructure for us to to work efficiently for the town in supporting issues related to public health and public public health safety because we have no infrastructure so I don't know I wanted to open this up for discussion comments or thoughts but I thought this was a place for the board to have comments on this the lack of public health infrastructure in the town of Amherst and that we cannot participate because of lack of personnel in the solar solar bylaw regulations opening it up for comments so what did you think when you got that request well I would say that that's a very complicated thing I read all of the things that they were supposed to do and I have no expertise in any of it the one thing Nancy I agree with everything you say about the lack of infrastructure but they didn't request somebody from this professional staff they wanted somebody from the board of health so in the past when we had other directors and more staff the health department would help the board go through this and so we do not have the help from the health department for a board member to do any of this and in the past there was the infrastructure that the health department could support the board in doing this work can I make a comment sure I think that that we're finding now that the need to collaborate and maybe have liaisons from one committee or board to another and I don't know the exact name of the committee but they were dealing with the water levels and the aquifers and there were a lot of scientists on I think they met once a month or maybe less than maybe just three times a year but was a special committee that was looking at the new the needs of the water and and how in the town of Amherst and so I'm just saying that if it's not a board of health member would it be possible to ask some of these other more expert scientists who know as who know about you know solar and who may know you know another important area is the water table and you know water health in the town so if board members are not able to fill those positions maybe we could ask for liaisons from from another you know department who would have expertise and hopefully the time other comments my my only concern is the time they haven't represent I mean they haven't mentioned about how frequently what is the commitment what are they expecting from the board of health you know and and I mean I mean solar installations are some sort of a new area of and and I think of course and I think that'll be a huge benefit they could get from board of health participating but I think my hesitation to commit anything is purely based on what is expected. Other comments? Yeah I felt the same as Steve that it just was an overwhelming like issue that I know zero about and to educate myself enough to make any sense of that would be I just couldn't imagine it honestly to you know I I could get some general impressions but the idea of really looking at something and really with a critical eye I I have no experience or knowledge in that area and I don't you know is this is this an area where the town hires a consultant or you know to be active on their behalf I I just don't know how this can be managed in in a town like this it is a very important a very important issue both to build solar energy sites but also to protect the other infrastructure in the town. I agree. Other comments? I wanted to use this time for the board to get some of the issues out so that that they're out in the public because we are a volunteer board this is a very serious concern the solar is is much needed to get away from fossil fuels because of the effect on climate health the environment the effects on health and yet the siting of solar has also effects on where it is water quality if we're doing deforestation the effect on the environment the health the water and I do think that someone with a health background needs to be on this committee but I don't think a board of health member has the time or expertise and not knowing what are the expectations and likewise we have no public health infrastructure so that someone from the board of health I mean the health department be on that committee either so I wanted that to to get out I don't know what other people think about that but I thought this would be a forum to get our concerns about that out I don't know what your thoughts are you're shaking your head Maureen yeah I mean don't seem to have again it's an unknown like amount of time and energy that that's involved but also there's the the health department itself is very very slim and doesn't have the resources to to do anything like that and the board is pressed as well with full-time jobs on some of us and knowledge on others it also says the purpose is to draft a solar zoning zoning bylaw including standards and guidelines that will guide and encourage responsible development of solar installations including battery storage and there's seven voting members and it seems like they want members from five particular committees and then two residents and but there's no liaison so it it seems like if you're on this this committee then you'll be you know you'll be doing it's not like you can just go and listen or something like that but you have to be involved and vote Tim do you have anything to add as I was mentioning I think it's not clear on the resources they're expecting and I mean the committing time how many meetings you know what type of outcomes and I mean those are some of the concerns it's not very clear for and since we are as as Maureen was saying you know we're slim trying to deal with a lot of other issues you know this is additional workload coming in so yeah I don't think at this point any of the board members have the time or the expertise given that we don't know the time commitment or what are the expectations of us on it so well if no one has any other comments we'll leave it at that but I thought we could use this forum to get the need for better public health infrastructure known because we have Jen we have Jen Brown who's doing an amazing job and she's covering being the health director the nurse and if you look at other health departments of comparable sizes in our area they have much more many more members and more support and Nancy Schroeder and Lillian do an amazing job but Nancy Schroeder's 12 hours a week to the health department and Lillian is there for two years and that's it so that's our infrastructure thank you we're going to not have the directors update because of the today's situation and Jen is not available we'll do that in May I don't think we were prepared to vote on the mask mandate at this point um we can open it up for further public comment at this point so I don't know yet Kara Carol Gray Jen can you let her in um for public comment hello it's me again um so um I would just um urge you to reconsider and I know that maybe this isn't on the actually I didn't catch what this is on the agenda for um you could if you don't agree with me that we should save lives and have a mask mandate until the end of the school year maybe you could say that for gatherings over a hundred people inside require a mask mandate because like literally like we know if a dozen kids close to a dozen they got they got sick from that play and it's happening on April 29th again and there will be more kids and each one of them brings it home to who knows how many vulnerable family members I just don't see any harm to requiring masks for crowds of 100 indoors like it it's just gonna save lives and and just till the end of the school year get us through by the way I heard that before you guys lifted the mask mandate some people a restaurant owner in particular came and gave you guys a really hard time and was very disrespectful and and when I heard that I was like you know we should have been going to those meetings they should know that the vast majority of the town supports this we like I was so pleased that we were from a town that was intelligent and wanted to save our lives and that was the priority and I just don't Philadelphia just did this you're not like out there on a limb you know Yukon just did it uh there's there's this is this is the safe trend thank you okay thank you Carol um back back to board members um I don't think we're prepared to to take an action on the mask mandate we could write a letter to the superintendent um about gatherings with especially singing and people this is opening up their lungs and spreading I don't know can someone make any comments or thoughts of what they have because we did get in our pack a packet a letter from another parent who was concerned because of the spread of COVID after the musical and that they did cancel one performance because of the spread of COVID within the school and especially people that were involved with the musical are any of you following that or I didn't hear about that but I I want to pass the uh what do they say um transparent um it because this the public health I mean the public comment um the the situation has happened in the school first I would have spoken and I'm not sure if it has already been done but spoken with the the superintendent and so I'm just I feel like we can't you know you can't um it's like ripping a band-aid off and then trying to put the same band-aid back on just like just feels like there's one anecdotal person you know stating what what has recently happened in in their um child's life and in their family but I I feel like there hasn't been a complete picture and the data that you know and the the measures that we have been using to you know see where COVID cases are rising and so forth in Amherst to me it's it has to now be specific and first you know I feel like we need to go to the the the place where um incidents may be be more prevalent to you know more COVID cases but if you know what what if we're being influenced by you know this current um situation I I feel that we need to have more you know input and and and understanding of what is what is the administration in the school doing I I feel like it's a lot of pressure to say that we we have the responsibly of saving people's lives I just I feel like you know those comments are putting a lot of pressure on us as a board and I don't think that's fair so I just I just you know I I feel like there has to be some transparency in in how you know we are you know dealing with this on a personal level but also as a board I just I just feel like there has to be more specific understanding of like if this is happening in schools what what do we do if it's you know if it's COVID cases are rising more in the college students what do we do I mean I just I just don't think we can have a broad brush and be like okay one particular incident and now everybody has to wear masks it's would it be reasonable to just think about whether Jennifer could look at the metrics and then also confer with the superintendent and decide if there are changes and incidences that seem to warrant the replace the masks in certain either in schools or in certain activities in schools I feel like we don't have any we don't have anything to go on as a board right now and I don't want to put the onus really all on Jennifer but you know if there's something that looks quite disturbing although you know it would take some time to you could have a special meeting to discuss it or something like that but it feels like to make a decision like Lauren said very anecdotal information at this point as far as we know doesn't seem responsible but you know but the situation nevertheless is concerning and you know it seems that right now with this new wave of whatever it is ba2 that the numbers of cases are going up significantly but hospitalizations aren't seeming to follow um which is thankful you know um and there are other measures that can be taken for vulnerable people in terms of medications um so there's there are masks are one of the measures I feel like you know and I think we need to think of all of the measures um and not just one granted I wouldn't really want to have COVID and take the risk of getting long COVID I just you know there's there's a weird disease um but again I don't know that we have information to vote on a mask mandate right now so I agree we can't vote on a mask mandate today we it wasn't even published in our agenda so we have no input I have followed we have had a slight rise in cases in town I do know about the rise in school but the a school mask mandate is the we can't tell the that's what the school committee has to do um and um so I agree having um and Jennifer's been in communication with Mike Morrison maybe they can discuss what to do especially if they're putting on um the musical again because musicals and singing and not people with masks it's like you know sitting in a choir and singing and hope you don't get COVID not knowing what's going on um so does anyone I don't know if we need to make a motion no it doesn't seem like we do no so we'll just and and Jennifer's on there so she can follow up and talk to Mike Morris about safety precautions given that there was this this increase in cases in the high school because of the musical and it seems as if what I've heard and a little bit then I've read it's been connected with the musical I think this is a primarily a school decision to be made um um especially I think I'm sure they had been following the numbers and I think you know I'm sure you know you know it's not just one parent it's multiple parents involved in any type of decisions I think the school committee and the superintendent should take any type of decisions if there is any type of trends in the in the schools maybe one thing maybe one thing to add is that you know when we lifted the town into a mask mandate we said that we're going to monitor it and we're going to look at the whole picture and we're not saying that that decision was for all time but a lot went into that decision it wasn't just a few extreme comments you know telling us how important it was to lift the mandate it was it was a whole constellation of things it's not entirely the science it's just a judgment about the overall risk and how possible it is for individuals to bring that risk down for themselves even without a legal mandate and so I we're going to be discussing this for a long time given the predictions about COVID being around and but I agree this is not the moment when we are going to do it townwide even the large gathering indoor mask mandate and the schools they have the school committee and Mike Morris with input from the health department okay any other discussion before we move on to that okay so topics not anticipated by the chair 48 hours before the meeting um two things one is I am going to invite Earl Miller from the new crest department to attend to listen to the community health assessment because I met him and I told him that we were doing it and then I would like to invite him and his staff to our June meeting to talk about crests and the interaction that crests can have with the board of health and the health department so that will be in our June meeting and then Lauren sent me an email today about racial equity and issues about access to culturally appropriate food outdoor activities um school and um my response was well we really can't discuss that because you know we it's not posted on our um agenda and following the open meeting law but we could add racial equity in the role of the board of health to future meetings for us to keep that discussion open but given that the board of health is really regulations we have limited ways to directly act on that but we need to to discuss it and be open to it and have greater understanding for for that does anyone have any comments I guess I guess since I said oh if somebody else has a comment I can wait no no one else I guess what I was trying to say um about those bullet points is some ways or some topics that we could be updated on and I wouldn't mind you know trying to you know be more proactive in you know bringing forth any kind of you know updates or models that other towns are doing that might you know help us decide how we would like to discuss racial equity and health care like I said the um the called access to culturally appropriate food and um just like interpersonal community building um because of you know people being you know um indoors more you know just that's just from my observation um and my experience um people have taken on um the the the um COVID measures uh safety measures like you know still being more distant and you know still maybe be more isolated in the home and just how how how how does how does that that isolation how does that um you know affect you know racial equity um just like for for people who may not be as mobile people who may not have like a large you know community um of folks that can support them like how do we how do we see that in an equity lens or racial equity health lens so I just I just wanted to you know figure out with with the board how do we as you say keep the discussion open um on those certain topics comments other comments okay no other comments so we'll we'll put that on our agenda that the racial equity and public health and the role of the board of health because racial equity is very important but the role of what the board does um is is is regulated by state regulations so there's lots of things that can be done but whether we as a board can do it um I'm not sure but we really need to keep this discussion open and see what we can do and I think the community assessment might help us um in helping develop action plans for the health department any other comments okay our next board meeting is May 5th and part of that meeting will be the presentation by the two students on the phase one the demographics by census tract um with health indicators that they can that they have been able to find and other than that we I'll need a motion to adjourn thank you Tim for all your input on the subdivision and everybody's input on all the other matters thank you so may have a motion to adjourn I make a motion to adjourn second I'll second that okay of Maureen I Tim I Steve I Lauren I and Nancy I and remember our next meeting is May 5th okay thank you you thank you thank you