 And you'll record, yeah. Good. So I guess I can start with a welcome to the July 13th meeting of the Amherst Board of Health and read this preamble. Pursuant to chapter 20 of the Acts of 2021 and renewed by Governor Mora Healy, this meeting of the Board of Health will be conducted via remote means. Members of the public who wish to access the meeting may do so following the instruction on the Board of Health, the Board of Health hosted on agenda via Zoom. No in-person attendance of members of the public will be permitted, but every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access proceedings as soon as it is technologically possible. After this meeting, all approved Board of Health minutes are posted on our website once they are approved by the board. I will now open the July 13th, 2023 Board of Health meeting at 5.30 with a roll call. Pam? Yeah. Ramila? Yes, here. Maureen, here. We don't see Lauren. So I guess we really need Lauren for the first item on the agenda, which is to review and receive the minutes because I was not present at the June 8th meeting. So should we push that to later? But help me remember not to forget that. And I guess then now is our time for public comment. I don't know if there's anyone who is interested in making a comment. We have a couple. I'll allow the phone number to talk first. OK. So I would just say that a public comment is limited to two minutes per person. And it's not a question and answer period. It's just for a comment. Yes. And thank you. And I'll just say if they can please state their name and where they live. Am I unmuted? Oh, so yes. So Nancy, if you can state your name and where you live. Hi, Nancy Gilbert, 166 Lincoln Avenue, former board of health member. I know this is Jennifer's last meeting. And I just wanted to come on and publicly make a statement thanking her for all that she's done for over 10 years as the public health nurse and the director covering both director and public health nurse and that she's made a difference to the town for all the better. And it's a huge loss that the town won't have her anymore. And so I wanted to thank her and I want to thank all the board members because you're also special. That's all. Thank you, Nancy. It's very kind of you to join us. It's good to hear your voice. OK. It's strange not to prepare and be here for it. But it's nice. Thank you. Looks like there's another person with a hand up. So the person with a 857, if you can state your name and where you live, please. Yes, hi. It's me. It's Lauren. Sorry, I didn't let you guys know. Hi. Hi, everybody. I'm going to be on the phone. OK. Thank you. You know, we were looking for your I know your phone number, so we'll promote you. Sorry about that. And I was looking for emails. No problem. OK. No problem. All right. So you should be moving over. Because it's a phone, I can't promote her to a panelist. Is that right? OK. No, that's OK. So now we can actually go right back to where we were going to start was the review and receive the meeting minutes from June 8th, 2023. Does anyone have any comments on those minutes or questions or corrections? No. Again, I can't vote on that, but we can need a motion then to accept the minutes from that meeting as written. I can make a motion that we accept the minutes from June 8th. And a second. I'll second. And any discussion? No. Should we end to vote? Tim. Hi. Kremlin. Hi. Lauren. Can you hear me? Yes. OK, because I was raising my hand. No, just talk. But I did have one correction. It was about the re-seconding the vote on a geothermal well. I don't believe that is correct. So I just wanted to know if that could be corrected. I think it's on. I didn't underline it. All right. But it says that I seconded the motion. But then I abstained. And I don't think I seconded. OK, thank you, Lauren. Yeah, that was a. Well, we can go back to the recording and check to see who seconded the motion. Yeah. OK. Correction if needed. I shouldn't do that. No, no, we can do that. Absolutely. We'll check. All right. Should we vote then to accept the minutes? We'll make another motion. Just correct it. It's just updating what we're going to do. Yeah, I can make a motion to accept the meeting minutes as amended based on the comments for June 8. And I'll second it. And now we'll go to voting again. Tim. Hi. Pamela. Hi. And Lauren. Hi. OK, so minutes will be accepted. So there's no public comment. So all the business. So the body art regulations. I I hope people have had a chance to review them and to bring forward any corrections or questions that they might have about them. I know that they are. Extensive 34 pages and. That times a little bit repetitive, given the nature of the different aspects of the regulations. But I just wonder if there are any. What what people are thinking about those state of that document at the time this time. I know. Pamela and I looked at them together and we tried to clean things up and make them make sense. After. If there are no comments, are we ready to actually vote to accept them? Lauren. I I looked at it briefly. I can't say that I read every page. So. Is there something in particular that we should that that we should be looking out for like. That you updated particularly for. For this, you know, vote. Well, I know some things came out in the discussion, but. I don't want to hold things up, but also I. I didn't barely read the whole thing. OK. I think the main changes. A lot of things were updated just to include like a reason why we have these regulations and some wording and some things around sanitation and all and all. Auto claves and the fact that if we don't use reuse items, the establishment does not need an autoclave, that's a big. It's complicated expense for a lot of. Shops and but the main things we updated is the fact that we can have guest artists. That was the reason this was brought to the board and that we adopted some regulations from primarily from Northampton to include that and that we also added. Regulations to allow for apprenticeships for both piercing art artists and tattooing artists. We the other main aspect that we changed was the way the rule with the. Regulations were written Amherst. They only allowed a fairly limited number of piercing procedures, very straightforward ones like ears, eyebrows, lip. I can't remember exactly umbilicus and maybe the tongue I can't remember. But most other municipalities seem to have a broader range of options in terms of piercing. So we went in a direction that allowed piercing, but then listed a lot of things that we felt would not be allowed. So it was a kind of a flip of how to describe what's what's allowed in the town of Amherst and a pretty much mirrors exactly Northampton's regulation. Those those I think are the main changes. Okay, but no, I understand that it's a lot. Other people feel comfortable voting on these at this time or they need more of a chance to review them. So there are a couple of questions. I see the document has a lot of comments and I don't know if there's comments or incorporated or or the just to track what changes have been made. It's just to track that. That's a I guess what came to you was surprised to me actually is what that's the view. If you just went up into review and said, don't don't show the comments. They will go away. So that was mostly for my use. And I didn't realize that it went out in that form. So that probably distracted more than helped. Although it did point the thing to the things that were different in some ways. No, that's a helpful because we like to see where edits were made in. So it is nice. So one thing I see is the effective date is not updated. I didn't. Yeah, I saw that. So, you know, if you want to vote on that, it will be good to also handle when it's going to be effective. And I think, you know, in general, I think looks, it looks pretty good. And I think, you know, if you want to specifically vote, I think. I think you can, you know, maybe we can discuss about when we want to have this one be effective. To start with. Yeah. What we hear. I think, I think to change it changes, we also need to have a hearing. Is that correct? When we put update regulations, do we have to have a hearing as well? You know, I'll look into it and find out. Okay. I don't know. And I know we did that on the tobacco regulations, but maybe that was more of a. Higher profile. Yeah. I don't. And, but let's us, here we are, it's July. You know, should we say like October 1st or something like that. That give people time to digest them and for. The health department inspectors to kind of get up. You know, I understand them as well. And I can make sure it goes over to. The permitting coordinator to so they can decide a fee. Is. Right. Should we give that a little more time to like November 1st or something just. I just don't know how quickly this turnaround makes sense. So there is going to be a hearing. We would like to have some sort of a. Like a rough draft, which is some sort of having all the elements. So that we can vote and then say it's open. We can open it first. So it'll be like. At least next meeting we could do a voting. After considering all, you know, we can consult with all the relevant people on permitting and everything. And if you vote next next meeting. The following month might be a hearing. Maybe that is September. So maybe like November. The first of the year. I don't know. I don't know. It'll be good to ask the person who. Is looking forward for the visitor. Yeah, this, you know, if, if they have some sort of something coming up very soon or. Yeah. We could do November 1st. So it looks like it's that's the number is the earliest we could do. Excuse me. Number is the earliest we could do. Given that there's going to be public hearing. It's going to, it looks like this is an amendment just like our tobacco. Yes, it is. So it was just an amendment amended. So. A number of things do change. Maybe we can say November 1st. Suppose we could change that by next, next meeting if we feel the need to do that. But I will put in a date of November 1st. If people don't think that's too short a window. I don't think so. You don't think so. Okay. So we'll. I'll send out a copy with a date. And without all of the extraneous comments in the border in the margins. And maybe read through it one more time and make sure it doesn't make any sense. And. And hopefully we can be prepared to vote on it, but I do encourage people to take a closer look if they can, to just make sure that. You know, I got pretty immersed in it. And, you know, The make sure it makes sense to, to, to someone who reads it fresh. Okay. All right. So that's a plan. And the next item is the toxic chemical. Regulation question. I don't know where that is. I know we talked about changing that to more of a guideline, but also getting some input from other sources. So. I haven't done much in that, but I know that we're going to consult with a few folks from procurement and. But if there is any input from on the current document. From those departments, I think it'll be good for me to have so that we can. Modify that as guidelines, but I could work on this in the next month or so. Is it, is it something we have shared? This is a question for Jennifer. Did we share it with the other departments? Who have a stake in this regulations or guidelines? I can definitely, you know, Jeremiah LaPlante, the facilities and maintenance manager would, would I think be curious and appreciative of seeing it. Is that what you were thinking of? I'm looking for any type of a specific edits. They suggest our clarifications because it's no longer a regulation, but it's going to be a guidelines. Yeah. Resources that type of things. Yeah, that's a great. I think it also. If you can. Share it with the fire department. Oh, of course. Yeah. And maybe the public works. I can send it to the department heads. I think that's a good idea. That's a good idea. And, you know, if you, if you want, you can give a specific time for them to review or give solutions. And then once they give solutions, they can send it to me and I could work on it. Okay. So I'll share your email with them. Okay. Any other comments about the toxic chemical regulation? Yeah. So the board of health succession, that means. Well, I have to say it was a little surprised to me that Lauren is here. And because we thought she was leaving us, but I'm happy to hear that you're back. I just, I'm curious, are you what the terms are? Are you going to be finishing a third year? Or is this the beginning of another three year term? Yeah. Yeah. The town manager. Told me that to. Renew. My, my. Being on the board, I have to. I have to agree that the, the renewed term has to be three years, but I do not have to necessarily stay. The whole three years. And I thought because I replaced someone that I would automatically have a full three year term, but I guess my initial term was only for two. So that's why I suggested because there was going to be vacancies and not knowing when they would be filled. I would be willing to do at least one more year. And, um, but from my understanding, you can't just sign up for another, for another year. You have to agree to do a full three year term. Okay. Even if you don't stay. Okay. Whole three years. Well, yeah, there was, oh, yeah. Well, I hope you're not too surprised. No, well, welcome back. Thank you. Um, and, um, and I think. The other question is, I guess there. We're still down one person member of the board. I don't know if there's any news about that. I don't have any news. Okay. Yeah. And the last question is, um, as our. Former chairman just showed up for this meeting. Unfortunately, she did not stay. Um, uh, we, we need to decide, decide on who will be the chair of the board going forward. And I know, um, I've been encouraged to accept that. And I, I feel I can do it for the next. Like till through September, but between October. And at least till January, I have a big family commitment that makes going to make it hard for me to do that. And so. I wondered how we can look at this is either a co-chair where we switch off. Or if they would do something that rotates. But it's just, um, I know everybody is busy. Um, and that's. But as am I. So, um, so I just feel like that I'm going to be out of town about two and a half days a week. Um, it's just not something I see myself being able to do well. One of the concerns. Comes to me is that it is, although it's not that frequent, there have been many occasions where there's been something to respond to on a rather short notice, like. Well, the pandemic, you know, mask mandates or, uh, Um, responses about the turf, athletic turf. Uh, artificial turf or, um, I don't know, there's just been, I can't dwell them off the top of my head, but I know there are times when the chair is involved and needs to kind of step forward and I don't feel, feel I would be able to kind of get up to speed and, and do that effectively for, in that time. So between like October and February. So, um, so I don't know, what do other people have to say? Mind speaking. I'll go ahead. Oh, I'm just asking, you know, I've. What the rules are for. Chair appointing someone to just to coordinate something. In absence of, you know, for some, you know, those days. Or is it has to be a co-chair option? I don't know what the rules exist. I don't either, but I certainly can find out. So I guess we have a few months, a few meetings to find out a little bit more. And for everybody to think about it a little bit more. And see if we can work together so we can go ahead with this and at least until that if there is someone who wants to step forward to do. Be the chair and ongoing way. That is also what might be preferable, but I didn't have a sense that there was somebody who was ready to do that. I was interested in perhaps co-chairing. I know that I. I'm still trying to figure out. You know, what. We as a board how we are. You know, coordinate coordinating and. Improving, you know, what the department of health is doing. There, there is. You know, certain things that I'm passionate about that I am hoping. Will. Be discussed more. So I feel like we kind of are reacting. As you said to things that have come up. In the town. And. That have to do with, with help with public health, but. I think it kind of like. Waves are a gender here and there. And so. I just would. Would like to. To see like the board kind of. That more of the agendas and like this. Topics that. You know, you know, may present themselves. You know. Unexpectedly. So I would be interested in. And maybe co-chairing or like you said. I'm feeling the days or the months that you're not. You know, you know, you're not able to, but we also, as you said, have a vacancy. So. I don't know what experience or who. Would fill that, but. I would like to do a little bit more. I feel like I don't have. A point of, of, of work. I kind of fell off the toxic chemical regulation. I know that's still. I feel. There are some other areas, some others, some other things that I would like to. To, to put on the agenda. Going back to like mental health and. And. Some other things. So. Yeah, I, you know, I guess my understanding of the role of the board. Is to. Make regulations and. And I'm not. And try to support the department in what they are doing. So. I'm not sure how our, our, we've fit in in terms of directing the department. Exactly. So. We're going to be working with a different director. So there might be some conversations. Going forward about. Those issues. Shall we just put off any decision about this until. At least August. I can get a little bit more information. And give it to Kyle to present in August. About co-chairing. And stepping in. With us, that would be great. Yeah. And then maybe by then there'll be some interviews and another. Member. Joining you. And then I can find doubt. Or maybe clarify the roles of. Board of health. Members versus health department. And how they complement each other, but. They can be interpreted different roles. Yeah. I think that would be really helpful to us. All right. So I have a little homework. That's good. All right. We always like that. Any other questions around these issues? Okay. So I guess. Where are we? We're running a little on the early side, but I guess that's okay. We're. Going into. New business on the first item on that. The agenda there is the simple gifts farm question regarding the. Hand washing station. And if there's somebody else from simple gifts that wants to be. Join us as a panelist. Sure. If the other person could raise their hand and just let me know. Who they are. If any. Promoted Jeremy, but I'm not. Seeing him pop up. Maybe Jeremy. If you can hear me sometimes there's something you need to acknowledge to join as a panelist. I don't know if you're getting a prompt on your screen. Jeremy, can you hear us? He's muted. Yep. Let's see. He may. Ask to unmute. There we go. That took a while for me to get linked in here. Hi, Jeremy. Welcome video on two. Yes. Thank, thank you guys for letting me come in and speak with you. Excuse me, Jeremy. Is there anyone else that's joining you? My business partner Dave Tepper might be here. Oh, okay. Bruce Coldham or Barbara Partee from the. Okay. From the land trust may have also. Okay. So yeah. Yeah. Great. Or are we waiting for someone else to join our shows? I'm trying to promote Dave, but I'm having a little trouble. Okay. Oh, he declined to be promoted to panelists. So. Yeah. I'm going to ask Jeremy if you want to take it away. Okay. Yeah. So I sent you guys a letter. I guess. The crux of the matter is really that we, we've been approved. In the past and that, you know, there's just this. All of a sudden this, this change that. And there are some. Actual errors that it seems like Susan Malone made and making the change that she, she thought that we had removed. We had a, we had a hand washing. We do have a hand washing sink in a nearby barn. And we had added. The camera. Hand washing station in 2020 in response to the pandemic to. You know, make it, make it easier for people to wash their hands. But we still do have that hand washing sink in the barn that has hot water and plumbing and everything. And so that, that is still there. And that was the basis of our previous approval. And I think also. The. I think we're a relatively low risk. Establishment. I think we may fit into that definition of a food establishment, but only just barely. We have prepackaged food and we have farm products, which are both. Exempted. I mean, the way the language reads, it's only farm products and only prepackaged food. So, you know, I guess we technically fit in that definition, but you know, we are relatively low risk. Food establishment. And then the hardship, it would just be. We, you know, we have, we don't have plumbing in that building. We have a concrete floor. So we would have to essentially. Build another structure. Like an outbuilding or something in order to create a hand washing sink there. Which just would, it would be, you know, 40 or $50,000. And we don't have the wherewithal to do that. And there may be some grant programs that we could apply for, but I think they're all. Everything I can think of is the. You know, the cycles past for this year. So the. Over a year before we could apply and then get funding. Through any of those grant programs. And I ask a question. I read through the documents that came from. Susan alone and your letter, which was really helpful. That it kind of makes a distinction between like utility sink and a hand washing sink. Is there also a utility sink somewhere? No, we don't have a utility sink somewhere. Okay. And I don't know if that's. An issue. I don't know if you need that. It seems like you're right that. That. This, there is a misunderstanding of some that, that what was there was no longer there. And that makes this whole question pretty confusing right now. To me. But I also wondered if there was some mention on the form that about a. Utility sink. And I don't know if that's just a separate requirement to have. I believe the utility sink is so that we can, if we mop the floor, we can dump the mop water out. Yeah. Which. It just, it just seems like a small. A small thing. Yeah. You have to have a sink that don't dump out your mop water. Is there someone. In terms of. Whether you are or not, whether you're exempt or not. Is there someone who writes these regulations that we can ask just seems to me odd that. If you qualify into categories, that means. You're not exempt. It's just. Doesn't make sense to me. Yeah, that's, that's the state. That's the state code. So. I don't know. I mean, you guys must know. But does it explicitly say that if you're both. That you are not exempt. It doesn't explicitly say that it says. You know, they're, they're in that regulation. There's a food establishment is, and there's a list of things that. It is. And then there's a food establishment is not. And I believe it was. I've cited it in my letter. Two a and three a. Two a was. Only the establishment only serves. Or only sells. Pre-packaged food. And then three a, I think it was, was only sells. You know, fresh raw unprocessed. Produce and maple syrup and honey and. Things that fall into the farm product category. So that it didn't, it didn't specifically say, well, if you have two of these categories, then you are food establishment. I guess, you know, it's a matter of. Have you been. Operating technically as a food establishment. I don't mean are you at food establishment? I mean, have you been. We have been filling out the application and getting inspected by, by Susan Malone every year since, and yeah. So filling out the food establishment. Application and. And getting an inspection once a year. And so she had previously approved. The hand washing sink in the barn. And. And then was under some of its apprehension. We have. We had, you know, taken down that barn, which just, just isn't true. I guess at one point there was a question of whether it didn't have hot water and then you had to add hot water. So that. Yeah. Yeah. So we did, we did put hot water in there. That was, that was resolved. Okay. And that was actually, that was required as well. So that, that barn is where we process vegetables. And we do have plumbing in that barn. And we're required to have a hot water hand washing sink. In order to process vegetables. And so if you had to put in a hot water, you would have to put in a hot water. In order to process vegetables. And so if you had to put in another, like utility sink, that might be possible to put it in there or something. I suppose so. Yeah. Yeah. I just don't know. I mean. I feel like for us to decide on this right now. Given the. Information that this barn and the sink exist. It'd be to just say. I think we might need to go back to the inspectors and ask them to. What they think if that given the fact that those things are still present. Yeah. Maybe they need to come out and like lay, lay eyes on the. There's the thing that's still there. There's the bar. It's still there. Yeah. So I don't, I guess. In some sense that there's some misunderstanding my, my question too is then, are there still other things that are, are a concern, but. That seemed to be the main issue was the, the hand washing sink. So. I think in, in terms of section. Three a you mentioned. That offers only pre-packaged food. That are not time or temperature control safety foods. If. Meat or eggs or anything, you know. Which require particular temperature. And time of storage. I mean, that doesn't come under that. Category is that right? Oh, okay. Yes, we do have, we do have frozen foods and we have. It's all, it's all pre-packaged, but it, there is some frozen and refrigerated and, and meat. The eggs are actually part of the farm. So that. The three a class will not apply for you. So, right? What's that? The three a you mentioned. That for, for. Food establishment does not include or, or excluding thing, but looks like you have a. In addition to that, you have to include food safety foods. Which require. Time of storage and temperature controls. Okay. And we do, you know, the, the main. The main food safety risk. For those, for those foods is. Keeping them at temperature and we keep. We keep temperature logs. So that's. And that, that's something that we put in. At our, at our, at our, at our. And since then. Inouye Instance. Or at our suggestion, I should say. Yeah. So. So may maybe that's one of the reasons why you do fall into the. Category of a food establishment. Cause it. Yeah, I guess. They're all pre-packaged. So it's safer than a lot of things, but it still requires that. Monitoring. For. So maybe the whole issue isn't moved in that basis. I think the comment on the sink, it looks like there is a sink, but the inspector has noted that there's no sink or something. So maybe we have to refer it back to the inspector to actually revisit and then maybe come back, you know, come back to the boat. Okay. Yeah. That seems reasonable. Yeah. So we can just do we need to, we don't have to make a motion to do that we can just ask the inspector to take another look right. Yeah. Just to review the that information and maybe we check the area where the barn is and that was previously accepted. Okay, so specifically we'll ask the inspector to go out to the barn Jeremy is that right and then and there's a sink in the barn. Okay. And how far does the bond from the from your shop. It's about 200 feet. So it's close by. I understand that the other hand washing station was supplemental, you know, in your mind and that was helpful, but maybe got us off the track a little bit. Anything else for Susan. That's it. Yeah. Just to clarify the issue of, is there another sink needed because that she mentions that in, in the notes in the narrative of her report. No mop sink service sink, submit plan and install by November 30. So to install by November 30. So I guess that's the other question is that required. Yeah, and I guess, I guess I have some trouble with the idea that a mop sink wasn't required in the past and that now it is. Right. I don't know if they changed any rule, you know, if there's new regulations or not and what happens to the businesses who have followed the existing rules and haven't changed anything, do they have to upgrade. So I guess I, that would be a question that I have. I know for like some building things like I have some deck railings that aren't compliant. They're fine as long as I don't take them down and try to put them back again. So, I don't know how that applies to food service but you know I just a question in my mind. I just want to make sure we're clear about what's required and that you and that the inspectors are clear about what you have. So, you can move forward. Yep. Okay. All right. So looking at the inspector report I think there might be some ambiguity like a sinks with hot water and sinks with with no hot water or, you know, the two different ones so I don't know if you have a sink in the in the barn with hot water access. Yes, we do. Okay. Yeah. That clarifies yeah. So the way that read in the report was we had a hand washing stink sink and Susan came and looked at it said it's not, it's not hot water and we put in a hot water here there. So it's the same, it's the same sink. And in the report there are some narratives mentioned for section eight and nine about eggs being held over the produce. I don't know if you. I don't know that issue is all that and then no proper method of sanitizing has been resolved sanitizing. Yeah, it says like a no proper method of sanitizing. I don't know what that means maybe I think clarifying with the inspector might be helpful when they're doing the visit. I didn't notice that in the report. The report was everything that's ever happened so that do you remember, do you have the report in front of you to say what that. Yeah, I'm reading the report right here. Yeah, what is what is that. So, there are some 22 sections. But eight and nine for nine. That is a narrative added to it in the in the text. There is no proper method of sanitizing. I don't know if you see that. So section nine is food contact surfaces cleaning and sanitizing. And that is a note, which is named as narrative saying no proper method of sanitizing. This is in the report from this season the one from June 1. It was given to us as one single document, and the last page is the report, which was signed by Susan and Georgia, I think. It says food establishment inspect and inspection report town of Amherst. And then there's a bunch of check boxes. There's a narrative that no, you know, Are able to see the narrative. Yeah. Oh, narrative. So it says eggs do not have expiration or packing date and that we've resolved. No mop sync service sync. No hand wash sync. Submit plans to health inspector installation completed by May 30 2024. Request for hearing must be in writing within 10 days. I don't see. Is that the document that you're looking at? I think this is a different document. It looks more like this one, which, I don't know if you can see it. It's slightly different and you put it up on the zoom, maybe. With your virtual background, it won't work. Yeah, I guess. Yeah, that's not doing me any good isn't it. It's just a separate page. Oh, this is actually this was 5719. This is old, old news. I just realized that the date on that is 5719. If you look at the top. Yeah. We have, you know, spray spray bottles of cleaning agents for cleaning, cleaning surfaces there. Yeah, so that I think that's not. Not current. It's part of the historical documents here. And that, yeah, then that's referred to in the, in the summary narrative of 2019. That's when there was no hot water and then that was corrected. And I'm sure the egg issue and the sanitizing issue were also corrected at that time. Yep. So it's really just, this is more recent document that is the checklist. The egg issue was, was in the, in the report from this year and we've addressed it. We had, we had previously, she had cited us for not having dates on, on our eggs. And we addressed that. And then we've actually stopped producing eggs and we've been getting them from another farm. And when she came in June, there weren't dates on the other farms eggs, which we hadn't, we hadn't noticed more thought about. And so she brought that to our attention and we, we now we've gotten that other farm to put dates on the eggs. So that's been addressed. Okay. Yeah, we just don't want to have to revisit any of these other things on the main event. All right, well we appreciate your presence and your and your the information you provided us so hopefully we can come to some solution that will be less drastic than the one pose. Okay, great. Well, thank you so much for listening and, and yeah, we'll look forward to hearing from Susan. So, I guess we can go ahead to the next item on the agenda on new business it's the geothermal well permit for 170 wildflower drive. I have as has everyone had a chance to look at that and are there any comments or concerns about it. Can you hear me. Yeah. Okay. Yes, I looked at the pictures. I just wanted to state before we go for a vote. That I don't know how many geothermal wells that we've voted yes for. My main question that stays in my head is how do the world affect like the surrounding, you know, waterways and it always feels like I'm like blindly. Voting or not voting at all like making the decision not to vote. And I wanted to know how we can like have a better understanding of that, you know, if geothermal wells is going to be something that we have to continue to vote on. Is there a way to understand a little bit better, like, if it's going to lower the water table or like, I just, I just don't really know. And I'm trying, I thought, like, there were other committees that were going to look at the permitting before we voted like I just don't really know. You know, how we're, how we're, you know, making sure that, you know, the number of wells is okay and how it's affecting, you know, any other water surrounding bodies of water. I don't know if I'm just, this is something that I should be concerned about. I'm just not sure. So I just wanted to let, you know, the board know that. You know, that's always like a concern and I'm not sure we've addressed that or if we should address it. Let me clarify a couple of things. This is not groundwater pumping permit. So this is not groundwater in the sense that will not affect water levels in the groundwater. So I just want to clarify this is a geothermal well. The second one is geothermal wells are closed loop that means they don't, they are actually closed in terms of circulation that means it doesn't. Nothing comes out or comes in goes in. It just the energy transfer. So, so that's why I think it in terms of any influence on groundwater or water water resources, I don't think it has an influence. Only time it, you know, there might be some disturbances during the installation stage, I think that's when many of the installers like the Dan dandelion. This company has some sort of a mitigation of any type of disturbance when they are digging, but once if it's installed I think it's closed loop, it has no influence in terms of any type of water levels. Just to clarify. Okay. So my understanding too is that there's just this fluid that gets pumped down into the into the pipe goes across and comes up in it in the pipe and never goes in or out it's all just going around in a circle. And so, unless there's a breakage or something like that, which is very unlikely. And actually the fluid in it is not particularly is not toxic. It seems pretty safe in terms of that that itself. And like I said Tim has more information about what the process of putting in the well might do and where the location should be and away from other structures and water lines and so, you know, sewage, so septic systems and things like that but but the the actual well itself is a relatively is a very safe. Safe project. It doesn't interact with the water in the ground. Okay. Any other questions around this particular installation. I looked at the plan, looked at the general proposed that to bore wells. I mean to two geothermal wells locations. And it looks like it's pretty I think it also is reviewed by the inspector on the site with it. It looks very straightforward. Yeah, I agree. Are there other questions before we vote on on this item. I guess we're okay then. Can we make a motion regarding the geothermal well permit. Can we make a motion that we approve the geothermal well application. 170 wildfire drive. I'll second it. And for vote, Lauren. Yeah. I'm a lot. Can't hear you. You're muted. We're not hearing. Sorry, I just figured out that I was muted. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Hi. Maureen. Hi. So that's approved. The next item on the agenda is the board of health summary, the report from 2023. That was. I appreciated that and it was interesting to read and I didn't know if that was a yearly. Something that's done annually. I hadn't noticed that before. I hadn't registered it at least before. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I was so happy to read this. I think it's really important to have accomplishments like that. And I thought it was such a smart idea and it is a smart idea. And I've seen that it has been done in the past and maybe that was Nancy doing it. Yeah. So I think it's, it's a great thing to see where we are and what we want to keep building on. No, I think it was very helpful to look at where things to. Kind of track and try to keep moving forward. I agree. And it helps to know where you've been. Yeah. Now where are those files. So, well, that's, that's interesting because that's something that I've been working on as I sort of clean it up and get everything buttoned up. So on the town of Amherst, there's a share drive and all of these are legal documents and they go filed away under. Health department, Board of Health Board of Health documents and then it goes into the year and into the month. And is that accessible to anyone? So people can file to see documents, you know, these, this should have been posted, you know, now we're doing these packets that everything goes to the Board of Health should be available to the public. So, so we've done that sometimes in the past, but, but just within the past year, everything has gone up on the website. So if we're talking about it, people should be able to, to take a look at that. And if this didn't make it on because sometimes things trickle in and we try very hard to get everything up, I'll make sure it's up there. But I'll put the summary, I'll check and make sure it's this one, the summary report for 2023 is up. And that just stands on its own. It doesn't have to be like an attachment to the, to the minutes or anything. It can just be in there. Right, right. So if you go to like we talked about it, it's so it's there. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Board of Health and then you go to, or the Health Department, Board of Health. And then if you scroll down, you have to sort of, you know, click down. Yeah. I think it's nice to have that report, you know, I could see one of the question is how many geothermal wells we voted on. Yeah, 16 geothermal wells in the past year. So it's good to have those types of numbers. It definitely is trending here in this past year. So I guess the economics of it may be more favorable right now or it were when the oil prices were so sky high or or the sense of wanting to do something to reduce carbon footprints. Yeah, all right. But it is it is certainly a small trend. Because it's very expensive to install these things. All right. So, yeah, moving along. And really appreciate the thoroughness of the job that you did on that. It was really helpful. Yeah. So next we have the director's update. So the director's update, I have two items. One, the first is the staffing update and public health director. The director's position has been posted internally, I believe it's been posted externally. So there is a team hiring team that's being convened and hopefully those interviews will start soon. The interim director will be Dave Zomac. Okay, that's the staffing update. And then any questions about that. So the material that goes out to the board of health. Kyle O'Connor has been organizing it over the past few months. And if any questions from the board or the public, they can email the public health at Amherst MA web page address rather or call 259 3077. And Kyle will have the answer for you. Always has the answer right Kyle. Yes, I try. Yeah. And then the second thing, the public health programming. I wrote, this is me opioid resettlement funds planning. So it's opioid settlement funds planning. We talk about re refugee resettlement. So anyhow, that's where that word is in my brain. So that is a typo opioid settlement funds. I don't have any information or an update for the town per se what's going on. People can always go on to Massachusetts dot gov, the AG state opioid settlement web page and see precisely what Amherst is getting when other towns are getting. But I did want to talk about two things that the health, the public health department is doing. So the first thing is that our public health nurse Olivia Lara Cohen has been trained in. It's called train the trainers which is a trainer to instruct people how to give Narcan. So there are a lot of people in Hampshire County that do this. It's a great service that Hampshire hope I believe gives tapestry health may give it. There's different ways to get trained but I wanted to offer that to the public, they can call the health department here if they want to learn how to give Narcan. If anyone wants freak Narcan you can get it from tapestry health. If you want to exchange tapestry health in North Hampton that's on center street, learn to cope has free Narcan and Greenfield, and then wall creams it's free with mass health. That's one of the things that we're doing and thank you to Olivia for providing that service. And then the second thing is that we want to talk about harm reduction and substance abuse but Kyle, can you please share what you have organized. So working with Jen, we noticed that a gap in health of Amherst that was highlighted in the community health needs assessment that was recently done focuses on harm reduction and substance abuse. So we kind of collaborated and thought of a way to reduce that. And our proposal is to put up a free sharps box, accompanied with information about local resources. So we have three goals for this project, number one, to reduce the number of needles in the environment, where they have the potential to harm other members of the community. Two, to lessen the financial stress of those looking to dispose of their sharp safely, and who cannot afford the fee under the current sharps program. And three, to provide information about local resources for those suffering from substance abuse and or other factors that affect their health. So we had a meeting with Jeremiah LaPlante, our facilities manager, and we found a good spot outside of the bank center on an exterior wall. So partnering with tapestry and other local community partners like criggs doors and the survival center police department fire and crests. We hope that this project will make Amherst safer and more equitable community to live in. You can always contact me if you guys have any questions or want to give your input or any ideas. Jen said the number and the email earlier. So yeah, let me know if you have any immediate questions about that. But if you don't, you can always reach me by email. That's a good beginning. I know that's, that's great. And also, you know, I guess maybe it was provoked by the AG report in the settlement I kind of looked at our information on the website about harm reduction. And there is some, and I, I recall that, you know, tapestry was going to be doing some mobile harm reduction like going meeting people kind of where they are. It is in the website, but you kind of have to dig for it a little bit. It's like, I can't remember, you know, I don't have it in my mind, but I think you had to have to go into other resources or something like that to find that that you actually can call their number and they will help you out with different kinds of services to do with harm reduction, including needle exchange. I think testing. I think the testing of the drugs themselves are fentanyl, but also pointing people towards testing for different illnesses that might be associated with, with IV drug use. I think to kind of, although my guess, I don't know, I'm kind of jaded about how much websites help people from college health because people, we put all this information up in college health and people don't go there. But I think if we're going to have it there, it could be a little, a little more available. Yeah. No, thank you. We're really any kind of feedback about the web, the web page. Yeah, you know, we look at things we look at it again and then we look at it so often that sometimes we miss it. But also Kyle is redoing the web page with it here so it's going to we're going to have sort of, it's going to be updated and and some new life brought into it. So Kyle, you heard all that right. That's a great idea I think. Yeah, it is I do agree that is kind of hard to find maybe we should promote the number for the local area for their mobile harm reduction unit maybe a little bit better on the website so we can take a look at that and see how we move that up and easier to find. And I know on the sharp spot that's going to be put up. We're going to put one of their big stickers on it that has the number to call. If they wanted more in person type of service so, and I believe Chris is also in talks with tapestry health and forming a better relationship so I'm sure we're all going to get together and solve the problem, hopefully. I was curious also, there's, there's a fee for for the sharps containers or. Yeah, sorry. No go ahead. So residents of, I think it's Amherst, Pellum and Shootsbury. It's for residents only but they can come into the health department with their kind of court containers. Or the kind of makeshift ones they make out of like laundry detergent bottles but they bring that into the health department, and then we prorate it so the normal size and DPW at the transfer station transfer yeah. Yeah that's something we do it is a $5 minimum deposit fee but okay. Yeah, you kind of get the court box with that so when they come back it's not like another $5 so we try to keep it as affordable as possible but again, this project kind of targets those who are suffering from housing, security, economic and security so. No I think it's good I mean that is a barrier that would be good to remove. It's a law in California that people that sell sharps need to take it back. So it's not not the law in Massachusetts. Maybe that'll change someday. That's my understanding. So that was be public health programming and then I'm just going to add two quick things as I normally do but just if you go to our webpage and Kyle will retool it under mosquitoes. We are full members of the Pioneer Valley mosquito control district this year. We have some updates if you go in there you can see some of the latest information about different mosquito species that are being captured in Amherst. So that's, I don't want to say fun but it is interesting to see what's going on. And then the wastewater surveillance will continue throughout the end of the calendar year. So it's just been pegged rock bottom for burden of of COVID. So we have some updates in our wastewater samples, but it'll be interesting to see, you know, as the, you know as the fall months, you know, head in, if that bumps up a little bit. And then I had a questionnaire from the state would we ever want to see other viruses tested. I don't know anything they have planning for Amherst. I don't know what they're planning, but really this is how I read about surveillance wastewater testing was polio virus. So anyhow I think it'd be interesting to see what else they can do with wastewater. And then come fall we'll have the new vaccine. And that is, when it comes out the monovalent, the new monovalent, it'll be available in the health department, as well as our other partners. You have any indication now about whether that's going to be supplied by the state or whether there's going to be requirements to use insurance or anything. I think what they, and I'm going to tell you I don't, and I'm not remembering now, but they said that they'll be able to provide it for a while so I suspect it'll be the next round it'll be from the state. We always as a health department get vaccine for uninsured. So that's something that will always be able to give out to vulnerable populations are those in need. But, but to the masses, I think, I believe we're going to be able to get it. That's my hope. Yeah. That's it for the director's report Kyle thank you so much. Yeah, thank you. And I don't think there've been any topics on anticipated by the chair that I heard about. But, can I ask a quick question. We're discussing about the sharps and needle disposal program. We are charging people $5. And if they bring their own container. It's very ambiguous it says that might be additional cost. So looks like you know, that is something. It's not, I'm, you know, I'll have to look at the wording. It's a really good program it's been running for a while. I think it's additional I think it's prorated. So we really try to work with the people and look at the volume, if they bring a plastic, I didn't mean to cut you off Tim I'm sorry, I did cut you off. Go on. I mean, meaning it says prorated charge, and there may be an additional cost. So for those who are reading, it's like some sort of a discouraging. Yeah. So I think maybe that is something we should encourage people to actually, you know, that we will work with them because it's five dollars is, you know, something we should provide incentives for people to bring in. Yeah, I favor that somehow we should have like a free. And stop paying five dollars, but that is logistics. And I think that additional fee was in regard to if the container that they brought it in, perhaps was like a thinner plastic then like it's regulated for so if it isn't like a container that isn't appropriate. They have to like, maybe put it in a actual sharps container. I'm not totally sure I can revisit the binder tomorrow and look at the wording. I agree with Tim I just think it makes so much sense for us to remove as many barriers as possible. And I, you know, I think five dollars is something. You know, the, we should actually provide that as an incentive, you know, bring it over and you know, and even if he can offer some sort of an extra funds for people who bring in, give them five dollars to bring it in. I'm just putting some incentive ideas. So I guess we're coming through a close here I do want to second Nancy's comments to Jennifer, you know, in terms of the her work over the years for the town of Amherst I saw an action during the height of the pandemic. I saw her as a calm person in the midst of a lot of chaos sometimes and, and her, her, her expertise and her organization and was really appreciated and then continued and now as you know a very thoughtful approach to the, to the as a depart as the head of the department and also will really sad to see you go totally understand why this other positions might be better for you and this point in your life but really appreciate all that you have done. Thank you Maureen. I really appreciate that everybody and it's really been an honor of my professional career to be here during the pandemic and work with you all and I just sincerely just you, you all are volunteers with what you do and I have the same feeling towards you showing up and, and giving your time to the public. I think we're better for it so thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments at this point in time. No, then I guess we'll look for a motion to adjourn. I'll make the motion, motion to adjourn. I can second. And, Lauren. Yeah. Okay and Pramila. Yes. Tim. Yes. Maureen. Yes. Thank you everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I didn't mention the next meeting time, but when is that it's the second August 10th. All right, sounds good. See you then. Bye. Good night.