 That's it. Perfect. And it's recording. And you are good to roll. Okay, thank you. Yeah, have a great meeting, everyone. Thank you, Angela. Okay, pursuant to Governor Baker's March 20, March 12 2020 orders suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law, general law 30 a section 18 meeting of the Board of Health is being conducted via remote participation. A roll call to check and make sure everyone committee members and staff's video and audio was working. Okay, so roll call, Jen Brown. I'm here. Jim Ranner. Here. John Tobiason. Here. Maureen Malay. Here. Steven George. Oh, we didn't hear you. I didn't hear you, Steve. Oops, we're not hearing you, Steve. I can hear you. Yeah, slightly slightly. We can't really hear you. And yeah, you're very mute. This down here we go. Now you can hear me. That's what it was. Okay. Okay. Listening to the top of your head. Okay, I'm going to call the meeting to order. And first thing on our business is the minutes of August 12th. I have to go back and get those. Does anyone have any comments on those? Good job, Steve. Yeah, I was talking about a lot of stuff. Yeah, I can't find my name. I had one question just where it I can't find my minutes now. But it was the last part where the Board of Health shoot. I'm so sorry. I just had them here and they disappeared. And it was just that that I think what we we said was that the that we can't pass an ordinance. So what the Board of Health, it was in that closing comment that the Board of Health, we felt that we couldn't pass a regulation, but that if there was going to be an ordinance or a bylaw, it had to come from the town council. That's not true. We can pass a regulation. No, I said, but we weren't passing a regulation at that point. But if it was going to be an ordinance or a bylaw, that had to come from the town council. Um, do you know what I don't remember us talking about that or not? I have to say, I just had them here and now I've lost them. See, I think it's the last after the last one there and I just lost them away in a minute. agenda. You're getting Nancy a few screens and you can have everything in front of you. I can't do that. I just can't do that. No one went over. It's about, is it the last bullet point on the reasons not to do, not to act, the proposal that would be difficult or impossible to enforce, et cetera. Yeah, about the regulations and if there was going to be an ordinance or a bylaw, the town, we would support the town council in doing that. I just 61 minutes. Agenda, I keep getting consensus was that a large social gatherings can indeed be a serious problem in the COVID era, but an order or bylaw on gathering sizes, not the most effective way to address the issue. Oh, I see. What we were saying is that a board of health regulation is not the not the most effective way. Right. And that if there was an ordinance or a bylaw by the town council, we would support that, but that for us to do the regulation, I mean, I see the point. That's that's the point. Yeah. Yeah. I just wait a minute. Ah, here they are. I printed everything and accidentally left the folder at home. Okay, so the board's consensus that large social gatherings can indeed be a serious problem in the COVID-19 era, but a regulation by the board of health is not the most effective way to address the issue at this time and that the board would support a ordinance or a bylaw by the town council. And I don't remember talking about it that way, but I don't okay, but I don't think I didn't I don't remember that discussion at all. All right. But I also do remember that one piece that didn't get in that if we if we limited it to 20 people right now, some properties would be too small to host 20 and would be giving them permission to host 20 and some properties. Do you remember that? You had that somewhere else. I don't remember. No, I do remember that because I gave an example of my yard. I think I could get like 10 people in this section of my yard, maybe or and that was a pretty big section of my yard and I thought, you know, for a lot of those downtown front or backyards that 10 people is way too many by a factor of two or so. Right. And I said that if we limited it to say a property on Phillips, where there are lots of parties, and if we limited it to 20, they'd be far too many people than the eight one person per 8,000 square feet. The state, wouldn't the state law still apply though? That mean we're assuming all these ordinances and so on are going to be followed. Let's assume the state law is going to be followed. Then those places will be limited by the state law, which is my state law, eight per 1000. I don't understand your reasoning, Nancy. I mean, that would the eight per 1000 applies to any number. So if you don't know my point, although it does say something about like a limited area, I guess like a big park or a beach, then those numbers are different. You know, that it's harder to have a boundary on some of those things. But I think a yard or a house or my porch or whatever has boundaries. My point back then was that the properties on Phillips, if we passed a regulation that limited it to 20, that would be far too many people on the property. But the state law. Alright, I still don't understand what you're saying. I think we decided just to follow the state's guidance and use that density. Exactly. Because in part because of things like that, because in some cases, 10 is too many. And in other, you know, that's what I wanted to get up. I don't know if the minutes reflected that that sometimes 10 is too many. Never mind. Never. It did come up. But never mind. Okay. Just should be be saying that somewhere. Because I think that was the consensus that that we should abide by the guidance provided. We say that we say the statewide maximum size of gatherings is not 50 in all cases, but rather 18. Oh, yeah, there it is. Right. So that's what we Alright, does someone want to make a motion to accept the minutes? I'll move we accept the minutes from our August 13th meeting. Second. I can second it. All in favor. John. I'm favorite. I morning. I Steve. I Tim. I Nancy. I Okay. All right. Thank you. So all business 61 Main Street. And do you want to just give it a little information? Jennifer and Susan is here. So yeah, Susan's here. Okay. Are you are you've been unmuted your microphone? Are you able to talk? Yes. Can you hear? Yeah, hello. Hi. Hi, everybody. Isis. Why are we doing old business first? Is don't we do old business first versus new business? I'm just reading the agenda. It started the next item is there's no business. I'm whatever. I just in the agenda. Sorry. Isn't 61 Main Street next? I wait a minute. Oh, that's it. I'm looking back to January of 2019. Sorry. I'm just reading the agenda with the next item is new business. And I don't care. But I'm just mentioning follow the agenda. I was falling in old template. I may have mixed that up. And Nancy and I were trying to get this organized. So I apologize if that's my doesn't matter. Yeah, thank you. All right. So I can't find. So what's next? I can't find the agenda. I have like three agendas. New business. Okay, town discussion of prohibiting smoking in the workplace in public spaces. And I put that on because those are two were last redone in 2010. And now that we redid our smoking regs for selling tobacco, I thought we should go and look at our other two related regulations. And these are 10 years old. I read through them. And it does seem like some of the definitions are different in the fact that it addresses like it says no smoking and smoking bars. Maybe it would be helpful to have them work better together. I didn't they see other substantial changes? Now, Gilford contacted Jen asking about regulations. And we have to look at parks, playgrounds, and other areas. It's not very clear in them. Look, it does mention them. But I think we need to review them and revise them and bring them up to date and also put in electronic devices. Right. So it's not that we're doing it tonight. I just want to get out to work on it. And how should we proceed working on it from here? I sent an email to Cheryl Sabara asking her if there's any new templates coming out. I've looked through several other towns. They're using these. If you look in Newton and Brookline, of course, they have very large health departments, and they have these documents that go on and on. And they have all of this in this overall regulation that also includes a million other things. So we need to just figure out what we want to do from here. Comments? I mean, make sense to update it. Or it doesn't have a definition of public places, despite that being in the title. It's kind of unusual. It has lists. There's a list of where those public places are. At the end, I mean, at the very end. Yeah, that's not sort of really not clear. It says in addition to prohibition and it has a through J town owned athletic fields town owned playgrounds and swimming pools. It doesn't say parks like it doesn't say grove park or middle river. Okay, and it doesn't include electronic devices. Yeah, that's a big admission. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So how would you like to proceed with this? I know Steve provided us with a I mean, a nice editable version of this, right? No, I understand. I guess I wouldn't mind taking a stab at making some revisions and then passing them back to people for a comment. No, I don't know. If Nancy, if you have information about templates from other if you from Cheryl, I'll try calling Cheryl other towns, I would volunteer to help out to provide some updates so that it's consistent with state language, electronic devices, and take a stab at the, the whole outdoor public spaces. Thank you. And I, I've done some work with seminars, tended some seminars with Cheryl and I could perhaps get an update on what are some of the current issues other towns are looking at. And we could then just to give you kind of a menu of what is being looked at locally. And you could have that in advance of a meeting. So you'd have a basis of something to to look over. Thank you, Susan. That sounds like a great place to start. So Susan, do you want to work with Maureen on getting us some draft materials? Yeah, update. Now, did you talk to Gil? We feel for interested in this information. I think it was it began with a request to use the space. I vaguely remember it beginning with that. And he was asking if there were any local regulations prohibiting smoking in public space. And there is just one brief reference in local Amherst Board of Health regulation. So I think it might have been sufficient for his purpose to use just that one reference. But Well, ironically, I put this on the agenda before he contacted us. So I felt that it was needed anyhow, because it's 10 years old. And I know that I just was signing up for a webinar on the on state tobacco regulations. It's an update. When I worked in the Berkshires, and this was five years ago and more, I was, you know, the lead board of health at Tritown was very involved in tobacco and we did tobacco and compliance inspections and so forth. So I'm happy to revisit it and take take a look. Okay, well, thank you, Susan. Very helpful. And thank you, Maureen. Maureen, I will, I will email with you and and talk about how we would maybe get started with this and get some materials to work from. That'd be great. Okay, God, now I've lost it again. I honest to goodness, whenever I discovered I got up here without the without my agenda. So emergency condemnation, emergency condemnation for 11 Phillips and I drove by it, I walked by it. So I'll give you an update and just hi to everybody. I'm Jen Brown. It's nice to to see you all and the acting director. Yes, nice to see you. So I spoke to Ed Smith today and he said that they heard from the landlord they're all set for now. He does not need to bring this in front of the board of health. I believe there's some deadlines next Friday. They expect to get an update from him tomorrow. So nothing to do today on that. Okay, that's nice. Thank you. And now we have 61 Main Street. That's Susan again, with the unresolved water filtration. Okay, so I checked in with John Thompson. And John's recommendation was as it has been in the past. September tends to be the rainy season. And he would like to see what that property looks like after some heavy rains, because he is not completely confident that the infiltration has been resolved. He'd like to see what it looks like after some heavy rains. Also, just so you're aware, the we have been getting fairly regular pest management reports over the past 12 months, for the exception of March, which was that whole beginning of COVID issues. So that's not to be too unexpected. But the cockroach population has been held at zero, according to the reports. There, when I did an inspection of the basement, about a week ago, there were mouse dropping significant mouse droppings in a storage area that I'm going to ask them to focus some attention on. So we, we want to, and in sort of summary, we want to say that while the cockroach problem seems to be under control, there's still issues with pests in terms of mice. And we are not absolutely certain that the water infiltration has been resolved. I'm just bringing it back to you because that property at 61 Main Street, which was at one time used as a restaurant, has remained vacant all this time. And I'm anticipating Mr. Tang, or his representatives have occasionally asked if they can start to get a tenant again. So I'm anticipating that request, and want to make sure that Julie was a strong opponent of any food establishments going into that address. So I just wanted to bring it back to the board's attention of where we are at with the situation. Susan, this, this is the, so this is the space next to Lone Wolf? Correct. On the ground level, it's got apartments above, it's one building, right, 61, 63? Correct. Yeah. Residential units above and loans, and what used to be Himalayan friends. Yeah, the same owner, it's, it's still the same owner and we hit in the infiltration issue. I remember our discussions about that. So you just bring it into our attention that this needs looking into Yes, that that I think that John Thompson and I should send you an update maybe for the October meeting and just keep you abreast so that if we get to a point where John can say confidently, the water infiltration is resolved, then it could come back to the board to whether or not you want to consider the property open to a food establishment, or if you want to continue to prohibit the food establishment. So we want to make sure you have all of the information before making that decision. So it was it was an open ended prohibition of a food establishment until conditions were met. Is that kind of the where it sits? Yes. Yes. You know, if you if we go back to the beginning, when I came to the Amherst inspection services in 2016, and I did an inspection and found some problems there. I found a letter dating back to 2015 from John Thompson asking Mr. Chang, the owner to resolve some structural problems there. So this is a long term unresolved issue that I guess I just, you know, just don't want to at this point, don't want to let it go. We may be close to resolving it. And I just want to make sure it doesn't get lost. Yeah. As far as you know, is the lone wolf situation okay? It's it seems to be, but I have to keep asking the owner and I have a good relationship with Rob Watson and his overall his inspections have been good. But I am prodding him because he gets his he contracts separately for his pest management. And I have not had his reports for quite a while. And I said, you need to let me have the last six months of reports. So I will try to have all of that for you in October as well. Okay. I would do the mouse droppings. Were they in the Himalayan side 61 or 63? So at one point they were in the Himalayan side and I haven't been back there for a little while. But they were in the lone wolf side of the basement. There is a rear storage area closeted area. So the mouse droppings right now seem to be just in that area. The Himalayan side 61. No, it's it's the it's the lone wolf side. I have not been able to get back to the Himalayan side. So it was bad. It was improved. But I don't have recent information. So I will try to get more recent information by the October meeting. Thank you. Does anyone else have questions for Susan? If the conditions stayed the same, could a non food establishment go in number 61? Yes, I think there would not be a problem with a non food establishment. We're just wary about introducing another food source. Sure. Yep. Yeah. Any other questions? So a quick question. I don't know the background of it, but looks like the objection started with this water problem, right? Is that the water problem or the best problem? Or are we They were they were intertwined. So by by creating a water source, it encouraged the cockroach problem specifically. And it was an infestation. It was a very dramatic problem. And if there were dramatic solutions, and it was cut back and cut down and vastly improved, but it took took a couple of years to get to that point. The mouse droppings, I think, the mice problem, I think, was exacerbated when Himalayan friends vacated the premises, but food and things were left behind. And no one was addressing the cleanup until I went in. And it's been almost a year since I went in there and discovered it. And then over a few months later, that was greatly improved. So one of my concerns is without close supervision on this property, it's it seems that it can be easily neglected. Okay. And that's sort of been the history of it. Correct? Yes, I agree. Yeah, Julie was pretty adamant not to have another restaurant on the Himalayan side. We just exacerbate the problems that are somewhat controlled. Any other questions for Susan? Thank you very much, Susan. Thank you. Now we have to appoint Jennifer, who's the Acting Health Director as an agent of the Board of Health. So may I have a motion for that? I'll move. We appoint Jennifer Brown as agent of the Board of Health. Second? I'll second it. All right. Okay. All in favor. Let's see. Tim. Hi. Steve. Hi. Maureen. Hi. John. Hi. Nancy. Hi. Congratulations and thank you, Jennifer. Thank you. Thank you. They always, they always tell us, you know, we have police powers and how you have the police power. Responsible. You can go and hand out masks. Mask fun. There weren't any topics because Jennifer's going to talk about COVID. So I'm going to pass it on to Jennifer for the director's report. Alrighty. Well, I do have, it looks like I have four things. The first thing is, you may know this, but I just checked to the tobacco regulations that are going out will be going out, but through the inspections department. So I spoke to Rob Mora and he says he's taking care of that and he has the new tobacco regs. So just to confirm that's through that department. While you're on the tobacco regs, Jen, while you're on the tobacco regs, the, I see on the website, there's a version of them, but it's not the signed version. And it's also not a text. It's just a PDF. It's a picture. Could we put the proper version on the website that has the signatures and has a searchable text PDF, which I can create? Yes, I'll do that. So, so I'm the right person to do that. So I'll do that tomorrow. Yeah. I don't have the, do I have the signed? I'll get it from you. Nancy Schroeder has it. Oh, okay. Okay. Nancy has it. Yeah. And you know, you can't, it's really, I think important to put a text, you know, have the PDF created through character recognition, not just by a picture. Because otherwise it's not searchable. I don't know if you can do that. It's the first ways to do it. You know, I can do that. And it was okay. I had both ready to load. And then I check everything afterwards. I was like, why is that so blurry? It's like, oh, I uploaded the wrong thing. But then I should have changed it. So Yeah, no problem. Okay, good. No, thank you. I'll do that. The second thing I want to do was just go over the COVID concerns line. You may know about this. I don't know if you spoke about it, but it is the line that the town's developed. It's 259-2425 or you can email COVID concerns at Amherst mass. It started August 30th. And I just kudos to them. I think it was a really great idea and organization. And since that time, they've had 95 calls I checked today. And the calls come in, they're anonymous. And that's great that people feel there's a place that they can say something if they don't want to give their name. And they can give their name. Also, that's also perfect. So it goes to this one line and the three community participant officers, take those, those concerns or questions, and then they get sent to the appropriate person to respond. So it goes to inspections, or the health department, or the ambassadors, which I'll talk about, or to the police. So I just look very briefly at what the concerns were. And they are, as you would think, people have talked, called in about mass questions, gatherings, and then a lot of questions about testing. So that's been a great success, I feel. So that's another one point. Any questions about that before I move on? Just a quick question. So you said that you categorized the responses into four. What was the major one? Are all the questions about mass or gatherings? You know, I looked at the list very briefly, and I really want to go through it so I could give you the range. And I just don't know if I can answer that. I know I did see masks frequently, that came up, but I just don't know what else was there. So, so that's not a good answer for you. The next thing I'm going to talk about, and you probably know about this as well as the ambassador program that was started, I believe we're a week into it. So that's the program. I think it's the police chief, and Kat Newman was hired from the town. They've hired people, they're still hiring people. But it's up and running. And it's been programmed, I think it's really based with leading with education, and promoting, you know, distancing and wearing masks. So far, or wait, I'm not sure about so far. But what I've heard is over the weekend, there were 127 interactions. If I'm getting that number correctly, that's what I wrote down. They've handed out paper masks to folks. And also, if you're a UMass student, they have UMass cloth masks. So it sounds like it's been also a success. I'm happy to see that, and hear these good things about that. And that'll continue and just with more people coming. And, you know, they're going into the downtown area and the neighborhoods, you know, do you know what hours they might, they are working? I don't know. I don't know if it ends at 9pm if I heard that. I don't know if it goes later than that. So, and then just the last thing I'm going to talk about is just, you know, personally, you know, I'm starting, you know, interacting with some of these meetings and with different, different folks. But one meeting I sat in on today was the fall reopening working group with UMass and the town. And really what I took away from it was like this really positive experience. I think the way that the town and these UMass folks and different people from UMass, you know, talking about what's going on, it sounds really, again, I want to say positive, you know, hearing about what they're doing. I think that they have knock and talk and they're giving out bags to people, to students. But, you know, each weekend, you know, we're getting more information and learning more and figuring out which way we should go. So those are the things I just wanted to touch upon. Jen, were you aware of the like, the newspaper reports about a very large number of large parties with police visited, at least on the pretext of noise, although I'm sure they were concerned was really more about the size of the gathering. It seemed like that was no no better than a normal Labor Day weekend for all the remonstration with the students. Yeah, yeah, you know, I don't know if I can comment directly on that, you know, I just I did hear that this was, you know, relatively, you know, a good, good weekend and then there were these reports. So, you know, they'll just, you know, take them as they come. And I don't know, you know, much else I can really say about that. If there's anything you'd like me to follow up on, I surely can and get you, you know, specific information. Yeah, you know, I think after a few weeks, it might be interesting to get from the police, some statistics on comparing, say, 19, 2019 to 2020, number of calls, you know, just they used to report being replaced report. I'm always was astounded, you know, you ever please responded this 150 something this week. I mean, it's big numbers. I'm just curious. It'll be interesting. Be interesting to see the comparison from last year to this year. Yeah, no, that's a great idea. And, you know, I hear from them that these they're really taking down and from, you know, information and getting numbers and stats so they can see trends. I would assume that kind of data is routinely collected and reported by the police department. Yeah, for what they do. And in terms of deep, deep, decreased overall numbers, you might think there'd be less but and COVID there should be less. It's hard to probably separate those two factors. Yeah. Yeah. They handed out, you know, many, many citations, they were collecting. If the money is paid $9,000 worth of fines according to the newspaper for the noise violations. Yeah, there were 30 but there were several to one party. Yeah, I don't know if people are then calling more frequently now on on parties. I've walked up through Lincoln Avenue and Phillips and down University Drive and what I see on a day to day we we only came up to New Hampshire on Monday. I didn't hear anything over the weekend. There was something on McClure Friday night, but it didn't seem too wild. And I saw other and I counted the corner of Fearing and Lincoln. There were eight boys. There was another McClure and we walked by and there were four people and two people drove up in a car and they got out and they said, Oh, okay, there's four. There's two more. There's six. That's it. That's all we can have here today. So I'm seeing good things and on University Drive, I've seen the students wearing masks, but I saw a faculty member running without a mask. Yeah, I was just gonna say it's not just university. It's all of the residents. I see a lot of students running and they have their masks down here and then they pull them up when they see you coming. So I've seen pretty good things and we I've even walked through town once and it looked pretty good. I was really surprisingly impressed. Yeah, I always say thank you for wearing a mask and they say thank you for wearing a mask and they also on Lincoln Avenue because there isn't the parking because the students aren't there, which we were afraid was going to happen. People cross the road because Nancy froze. Oh, there you are. Okay. Oh, I froze. Okay. Well, I know some of the phone calls I feel are residents, you know, town, you know, permanent residents and, and, you know, students really asking what's the limits? What can we do? We want to make sure we do this right. So I commend them. Yeah, it would be nice to find out from the police. Exactly. And I saw that a Pelham Road home was visited multiple times. So they might they I think a lot got several tickets. Oh, so at least that's what I got from the newspaper article I read. Because it also made the Boston Globe. Oh, so what went to the Boston Globe? I'm sorry. I didn't get that one. The parties that the the 30 citations made the Boston Globe. Oh, 30 citations. So and one thing is, when police listed, you know, they usually list it as nice complaints, right? And nice complaints doesn't really mean crowding, right? Is it is it correct? Correct. Okay, so we have to actually tease out those two things. Because sometimes people are only two people sitting there. Very big huge nice and calling. That's a good point. And I also wonder, because I have a friend in a Grantwood neighborhood, and I know she counts cars and she takes pictures. So I often wonder if people are calling in advance with a little bit, because they're over of the concern. And I'm not saying that there probably are problems. But you know, I have one more thing to share. Is that okay? Yes, go ahead. Okay, so on the Amherst webpage, not the town webpage, but each morning, or Monday through Friday, I'm the person that logs in and puts in the number of current cases, and the running total. So if there's ever any field want some modification or have thoughts about that webpage, you know, you can let me know. Sorry, Jen, which which web page? I don't know if that's really gonna. Can you just say you can't see that. It's the health department one, correct? Yeah, the health department. In the town of Amherst. I'm very impressed with what you keep up there. Yeah. Oh, okay. So that's me. That's the first thing I try to do in the morning. I go on to Maven. You know, the Massachusetts Virtual Epidemiological Network, and see what our current current people residence and isolation, and then get the running total. So our positivity rate is point something, correct? I don't I don't know. I think I looked yesterday. The Amherst COVID-19. Yeah. Yeah. So Amherst COVID-19.org that page or go into the health department. Okay, Amherst mass.gov and go to health. Health. And then you can see the COVID concerns with the pink phone to the right isn't the novel coronavirus. Yeah. Before I do that, when I opened up the town page at the very top, there was big COVID-19 cases and then there was a link COVID-19. Oh, okay. So the big the banner? Yeah, is IT has has organized that. And I communicate, we communicate back and forth. So it's coordinated. But so not that page. Not that. Yeah, that has great, great services. So I'm under health. Do I click on COVID concerns or novel? Which, which thing do I click on novel coronavirus COVID-19? So it says the latest? Yeah, virus disease. September 10. And then you go go down 745. I grabbed those numbers and put them on. So anyhow, those are uploaded by by me. So what does the word current mean under current cases? Daily. Current people in isolation. Oh, I'm sorry, in isolation. Yes. So I'm generally question about that be cases identified in a lot within the last 14 days. I'm just trying to, is that what what makes a number go away from that nine when they end isolation, which is 14 days? No, that's quarantine. So this does not reflect quarantine. This is only confirmed laboratory confirmed cases that are in isolation. So current cake current means in isolation. Okay. There's just so many numbers out there and things people are doing, you know, running seven day average 14 day average isolation. There's so many metrics that I always love to see the max, the definitions really clear. Yeah, got it. And running total is all that have been confirmed. Since that first case in March, correct. I'm generally to ask a question about the maven, how the data gets in there. So let's say that a student lives in town to go to university, let's say, but their permanent residence is somewhere else. And let's say that they get tested somewhere else and, and you know, they give the home address. So what I'm asking is, do we know that the maven data for the town of Amherst really reflects how many people who actually are here who are getting sick? Yeah, so that's a good question. And it's, it's pretty, they're pretty good. They, I know the University and the college, they've dealt with these kind of situations prior. So when, when a case is reported, it does go to the town, the resident, I mean, where the person lives their home residents. But you know, it also goes to, you know, if the person says, Well, you know, I'm living here. So it gets divided that way. And if there's any discrepancy, it's an email, a click away or a phone call away, I'm communicating with every other town in Massachusetts. So it's really very up to date. I think we've had just a few, you know, questions about resident status concerning students. Now there were some other things that were labels that were mismarked that should have 14 that should have been in Sutton, but they were taken off within a few hours. Now, Ann Becker from UMass said that everyone who's tested at UMass, it's in the 01003 zip code. So, so UMass, so all students that get tested at UMass come in to the Amherst zip, that zip code. Yeah, it's pretty accurate. Where they live. And I heard her say too that they asked them, where are they actually living right now? You know, in terms of like getting that address, so they know if it's on campus versus in town. Yeah, yeah. And I know it's a hard thing to do with students. I mean, they move a lot. And they, yeah, yeah. You know, when we talk to people, we always confirm where they live. Yeah. And many of the students who are living in Amherst, who go to UMass, even in remote classes, they are required to do like a weekly testing. That's what I heard. Not if they're, no, not if they're in remote, if they're all remote, they are not even known to the UMass authorities is what my understanding was, only if they're taking at least one on campus class. So I, well, I, I heard, you know, that the students who are taking remote, but who are living in Amherst sent an email to be tested weekly. That's my children were, they're my children were asked to do that. That I listened to that that panel discussion last week, and it seemed like they were testing students who are not going to campus, but are living if they have an in town address, they are being requested to come in for testing. I can read you an email, we got a 12 oh five today from Jeff Hascock and Ann Becker went to the campus community, if you want, or I can send it. But what does it say? I read it. It says dear campus community, supporting the health and safety of our community is the most central part of the university response to the coronavirus pandemic, coronavirus, we're heading today to update you. Let me see. It's about the asymptomatic testing program for COVID-19 conducted at the Public Health Promotion Center at the Mullen Center. We've updated, let's see, some of the testing protocols for students, students who reside on campus are required to be tested twice a week. In addition, off campus students coming to campus for face to face classes, research labs or work are also required to be tested twice a week. Graduate students who live in the Amherst area and are not coming to campus for classes are strongly encouraged to get tested twice a week. We ask that you take us up on this offer for free testing. Graduate students who live in the Amherst area and are not coming to campus for classes are strongly encouraged to get tested weekly. These students also have the option to be tested twice a week. So I didn't realize about the options there. That's new to me. I knew what was required in the Amherst areas to find Xambers Hadley, Sunderland, Belchertown, Pellum, Shootsbury and Leverett. Faculty who are teaching or conducting research on campus are required to be tested weekly. I get tested weekly. Clinical faculty who are working in health care facilities or university health services staff are tested twice weekly. Staff who regularly work on campus are required to be tested weekly. So that's the sort of status of that. Yeah, thanks. Good. Yeah. I got my fourth in a row negative test result. This afternoon. From MIT. You like it when you get the email and not a phone call. Yeah. So, yeah, I'm just, you know, every day I look and it's nice to see a couple thousand more negative results and no positives. That's a great day. I think I saw an email from the university where they've tested since they started over 20,000 and there was like 14 positive or something. I just read as of last night, 29,000 tests, 13 positives and that goes, that's cumulative positive and that's goes way back. Yeah, August 7th, I think. Yeah. Well, I did about testing wastewater and John and that's John and Tim, those seem right up your alley. What have you heard about that? Let's see, one of my colleagues sent me a plot today of some data, but I can't share it. I mean, yeah, doing and she's a copier. I signed off on a five million dollar grant proposal yesterday for the same kind of work to NIH. And it's with colleagues in other places and all that. Yeah, it works. I mean, you're seeing the South Hadley thing. You can see positive cases in sewage. There's enough, you can see enough gene copies. So we're actually measuring, she's we're actually making measurements in the three inflowing sewers to the wastewater treatment plant, which there's three. The way the wastewater enters is three sewers. One mainly is UMass. One is mainly South Amherst and one's mainly North Amherst. So they're being measured plus certain sub-sewersheds within the campus to look for look for look for evidence. So we'll see what what comes of it. Yeah, I think everybody's scramble on what to do with the data, what to do. There's an example that gets publicity from Arizona. I think Arizona started it. And when I was on that webinar about schools opening and he's a former DPH person and he's now advising the University of Arizona. You can go back to data we're collected in France and in Paris, a couple of a couple of places starting in January and the sewage data tracks deaths, cases, you know, whatever, all tracks really well. And the idea is that that Arizona, if you can see a signal, you might pay attention to a particular block or building or something. And in this case, I think it was Arizona, it was a dorm and there were two asymptomatic positive cases identified otherwise. Now, it seems like the testing UMass is doing of everybody should cover that kind of ground, but it's a good combination. So yeah, what's going on? I don't, you know, be on telling you that. I don't PCR tests. And what the South Hadley is participating with this company, Beta Bot or Bot Beta, Beta Bot, I think it is. And I assume they're doing things, startup grants, venture capital, they want to go bigger, you know, they're doing, I doubt South Hadley's paying for this. I can't imagine they are. I know we have somebody running around to several municipalities in Amherst. I only know this because I'm paying, I'm signing off on travel reimbursement. But silly mundane things one does, but yeah. So yeah, I'm encouraged by both the town and Jennifer. I think our town is doing great reporting. I think our state does great reporting. It was great to see something last week of the governor's, you know, putting efforts on those communities where we're, you know, we just haven't been able to drop below 200 to 400 cases a day, you know, a few deaths. But emphasis on Lawrence, Chelsea, Riviera, land, you know, that makes sense. It's a target. Yeah, I agree. A lot of transmission in those towns, consistent, not just, you know, spotty. They need support. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's great that, you know, so I think our state's doing pretty good. Yeah. In terms of work and effort. Response. I just had one or two questions just as follow-ups. Have we heard from anyone with concerns about masks in the village centers that came up last month? Maureen, I don't know on summer. No, you haven't heard anything. Yeah, I don't know if there have been. Yeah, so, but you haven't heard anything. Yeah. And the other question I had is about flu shots this fall. And what is the department thinking about any kind of flu clinics or outdoor flu clinics? Or I don't know, is there thinking about it and maybe in a different way? Yeah, I mean, that's a great question. I'm not quite sure we have all the answers. I know it's obviously on everyone's radar, and, you know, I've been thinking a lot about it. You know, one thing is it's gonna be required for students, K through 12. A lot of the practitioners in town, I believe are gonna be doing their own flu clinics. So I spoke to someone that said, oh yeah, they're all getting fired up to do outdoor, you know, drive-through clinics for the students. So that's a great population to get that flu shot. You know, from me as the public health nurse, we get vaccine from the state and it's earmarked for adults who are uninsured or underinsured. So one thing I've done every year and I'll continue to do is offer it to people that, you know, fit those categories. I go restaurant to restaurant and vaccinate people. I've gone up to the survival center. I'll have to figure out how to do that with them. Community meals. I used to, or I still do work closely like with the Center of New Americans. It was wonderful. They used to be in the building. Now everything's virtual, so I'm not quite sure how we'll do that, but I'll open that up and make sure people get shots. You know, otherwise, there's so many places to get flu vaccine. I hope everyone really does get it this year. You know, for the same reasons they should always get it. But now with COVID, obviously for their health, you know, for preventing the spread of flu, but also just to make sure that we don't overtax the system, you know, the healthcare system. So it's gonna be something for NPs and doctors to really think about. If someone has these symptoms, well, I really have to differentiate between, you know, the flu and COVID. So there's gonna be probably maybe drive-through flu testing sites. It's interesting. It is interesting, yeah. So a couple of questions is for Jennifer. You have this data you get every day, right? Do you map it out in Excel or anything? It would be interesting for us just to see, you know, what's happening on a weekly basis or something. If you have it, I'd love to. Oh yeah, you know, it's interesting because I felt very proud of myself. I made an Excel spreadsheet and I did a pivot table. So I put it, you know, demographics in it. And that was a while ago, I haven't done that. You know, I do look at the Hampshire County and take a look at that. But as we get more cases, that is something that maybe I can do. You know, one thing I think about is I wanna be really careful, you know, with HIPAA, obviously we all want that. But so that's something on my mind to balance those two things. Not on the website, I'm just saying for the board itself, we would love to. I mean, at least I'd like to see, you know, some data for our own town, you know, so. Yeah, yeah. Another one is, is it possible to just, because education is a very powerful instrument for flu, you know, encouraging people to, so maybe have some sort of education material right on our side, you know, for flu, you know, vaccinations. Yeah, you know, I did put something up like three days ago about flu. So it was there, it doesn't have a pretty little photograph icon yet. I need to put that up. But I agree with you, I agree with you. And I'll definitely get, do that. I tend to look at the weekly, the weekly report from MassPublica Health that breaks it down by every city and stuff. That's interesting to look at those rates and all that data. Yeah, pretty good. And that's the kind of impressive thing, I think that's there. You know, sort of what's the word from Amherst College, Hampshire College in terms of data? I haven't heard anything said about those two places, and they have more, relatively, more students on campus. Oh, yeah. So Hampshire College contracts with UMass. So I don't know how if there was a case or if that would be reported. You don't know what they're doing for testing, do you know? They're contracted with UMass, so I... Okay. Yeah, but right, to what extent? I know I say that because the Public Health Nurses cover Hampshire College. Right. So, yeah. The New York Times has a part of their site that tracks colleges and it showed Amherst Colleges of reporting three positive test results. Yeah, and they have a nice dashboard on their webpage. Amherst College is reporting? Okay. Yes, and I've been working with them and they've been great to work with, very, very organized and responsive, really good relationship. I go back and forth with them, so it's up to date with them. It does, does Hampshire also coordinate with UMass? Or are they doing their own thing? Who? Hampshire. Hampshire does do UMass. Amherst does not. I don't think Amherst does. Right? Correct. Amherst has, just like UMass, they have a separate link with Broad Institute. Right. Oh, do they? Okay. I'm looking at the Hampshire College website. They don't make it quick. Let's see. And Jennifer does have a little piece up on your flus within 2021. So there is a little piece, Tim, on the health department page. And I agree. Bring it more front and center. Yeah. Yeah. Looks like Hampshire's doing weekly testing, Group A, Group B. Yeah. Now, bi-weekly. They're testing every two weeks, Tuesdays, reported today. Total tests completed 301. They've had zero positives and, I don't know, they're testing half the people every week, it looks like. So I think the governor, I was listening. I wasn't doing anything else. I listened to the governor's report the other day, maybe yesterday. And he said that they're going to start reporting on the colleges on the state dashboard sometime soon. I had heard that, too. Oh, yeah. Nancy, I see that George Bryan has his hand up. Is that? Let's see. Wait a minute. Yeah, we usually. Sorry. OK, sorry, George. Thank you. Did you want to have a question, George? Yes. Just not a question, actually, but just an observation that may or may not be useful to Jennifer Brown for reaching out to the people who don't have access to flu vaccine. There's the Wednesday morning breakfast. She may know this already. But at the Universalist Church in the center of town, we have about 50 people on average right now. So I don't know if that's a site that you would consider and whether it would be appropriate. But it crossed my mind when you mentioned the survival center that that's a place that a number of people gather on a pretty regular basis Wednesday mornings from about 8 to about 10. Yeah, thank you, George. I have gone there in the past. Yeah, no, but I appreciate hearing these places. Oh, and then also someone said some of the mobile food markets. I'll see if there's a place for me. Councilor Pat D'Angeles has good connections with the mobile food markets. And if you're looking for someone who could get you in touch with people there, that's someone that could be helpful. Pat D'Angeles, OK. Pat D'Angeles, who would be D'Angeles P at AmherstMA.gov. Or you can just reach out to me and I'll get you in touch with her. But she's got good connections with the mobile market community if you wanted to reach out to them. OK, thank you. And I also know that one of our CPOs, the community participant officers, was doing some outreach with them. But I appreciate you. They're great. No, that's good. Thank you. Any other questions? When will flu shots be available? You think? They're available now. I've got mine. Oh, did you? Yeah. Yeah. Where did you get, Steve? Stop it, shot. You got it in CVS. Yeah. You say, which aisle? No. All right, do it. I'm going to get a second one. They said, I was talking to my, I was in my, my annual wellness visit. So it's probably a good idea for people that are, you know, at risk and older people. It's probably not covered, but it's worth paying for. You know, long about December, because if you get it early, it tends to wear off by this, or by the early spring months, right? Good point. I want to also appreciate Jennifer for reaching out to those who cannot afford. So nice of you to do that. What did you say? I was saying, you are serving the people who cannot afford the flu shot, you know, reaching out to them. It's such a nice thing to do. Yeah, thank you. I think it is, you know, I really feel, you know, the, the, the, the compassionate thing. And I do want to say that Julie Federman started that. So kudos to her. Now, um, any other questions? Nancy Schroeder mailed the card to Julie. And she greatly appreciated. I brought the gift card over to her the day after. I also made some food and brought it over. And she was most appreciative. She didn't expect the gift card. She thought we were more than generous and she wanted to convey how much she loved working with all of us and how touched she was by the two things. So any other questions before we adjourn, Stephen? October 9th, is that it? Yes. Let's check it out. October 1st is a Thursday. So I guess it would be October 8th, rather 8th. October 8th. I'm curious if Susan's still there. Jennifer, hi, hi horse, restaurant downtown, whatever. Oh, yeah, I don't know about that. Did they ever resurface? Has not resurfaced in any way. Yeah. That's what I thought. Hi for anybody, but yeah. They had a lot of work to do. Indeed. We have, so it's October 8th and then November 12th. So we know. Anyone just make sure December 10th. Any other comments before we close? I have a motion to close the meeting. Anyone want to make a motion to close? I'll move. We adjourn. I'll second it. Second. Okay. Tim? Hi. Steve? Hi. Maureen? Hi. John? Hi. Nancy? Hi. Thank you very much, Jennifer, Susan, for your work. Yeah, thank you. Thank you all. All right. Thank you. Good night. Good night. Well, bye. So long. Thanks, Jen. Oh yeah. Thanks, Susan. I'll talk to you later.