 Okay, so the webinar has started and I am going to. Are you sure you want it. So we're recording to the cloud. Okay. All set. Okay, so welcome to the board of health meeting the Amherst Board of Health meeting and pursuant to Governor Baker's March 12 2020 order, suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law. There are no laws through 30 a section 20. This meeting of the Amherst Board of Health will be conducted via remote participation to the greatest extent possible for information on remote participation please see the agenda on the board of health website. There you will find the zoom link and directions for telephone dialing. No in person attendance of members of the public will be permitted. We will be made to ensure that the public and adequately access proceedings in real time via technological means in the event that we are unable to do so, despite best efforts. We will post on the town's website and audio recording of the meeting approved meeting minutes will be posted on the Amherst Board of Health website as soon as possible after the meeting. So, welcome. The first item on the agenda is reviewing the minutes from September 8. You did roll call. Hi me. Oh, sorry. Thank you. On my technical tech problems. Okay roll call Tim. Yeah. Maureen. Maureen. Can you hear me? You're, you're maybe a muted Maureen. I am muted. I've been coughing a lot so I've been trying to spare everybody this. Okay, so Maureen's here. And I'm here. Lauren is not here. She's absent. Have you hear from Lauren at all. I was interacting with her during the week and I saw her. And I know she's playing on be here, but I'll keep monitoring the attendees to see if she jumps in. Okay, and we have a special guest. Emily. And so now we will review the minutes. Does anyone have any comments on the minutes and thank you Nancy Schroder for doing the minutes. I didn't find any issues with the minutes. Hi. So can I have a motion to accept the minutes? I'll move to accept the minutes of the September 8, 2022 meeting. I'll second all in favor. Maureen. I. Tim. Hi. And Nancy. I. Okay. We have public comment on agenda topics only. And I don't see any. I don't see any raised hands. No. No raise hands. Okay. So all business. We have the toxic chemical regulations. And Tim. And I talked about it in preparing for this. Meeting. And there are a lot of other variables that need to be considered. Especially with facilities management. So I would like to make a motion and then we can discuss it. That we set up a subcommittee that you and. Maureen. Chair that has someone from facilities management and Jen as an ad hoc member to take the, the regulation forward with necessary revisions and additions. To meet all the standards. So this is. The motion. To open it. I'm forgetting Robert's rules. Okay. So all in favor. Maureen. I. To open it. Oh no. Now we have discussion. Discussion. Now we're going to discuss the motion. Of having a subcommittee. For the board. With. Tim and Lauren, Jen ad hoc and someone's from facilities management. And Jen, can you give your input here so that Tim knows what we were talking about briefly. Right. So last month I said, I'd like to take a look at it, you know, as the health director and you guys said that would be okay. And I really, I approached it as like, you know, to serve, go through it. And I was like, I don't want to keep going. But when I started looking into it, I was thinking this is such an important topic and let's, let's do it right. And I got some input from other departments. And I think we really need to sit down and, and, and take a look at, you know, our wording and what our goals are. Cause, you know, it seems like we had shifted a little bit. And I just want to make sure that we are focusing on how we can make things and that's something that we can really implement. And for example, when I spoke to the facilities maintenance manager, I said, you know, what, what do you, how do you look at different chemicals, you know, pick the least toxic. He says he actually doesn't choose the product with the least amount of toxicity, but, but those that meet the green seal requirement and their goal is to make it consistent. And I think that's, you know, a lot of this, so there's, there's different wording and different things that are involved. And I just think we should bring that all together. And, you know, how are we going to make it consistent? You know, one thing is to make it consistent from building to building. So I think there's a lot to, to consider. And I'd like to be part of it if that's possible. You know, this interests me. I think it's something that interested the town. I'm not sure if it's going to be a good idea, but I think it's going to be a good idea. I think we should be able to check. Send a message to Lauren too. So what do you think, Tim? So. Instead of a subcommittee. It's not like we are going to rewrite everything. I'm just curious if they could enter there. As comments. On certain wordings, if they, if they wanted to change, I think. If that would be the best way to go. On what they mean by toxic chemicals, or if they have any compliance type of requirements. If they could add this as comments and I could take a look at it again. That might be an easy one. I think having subcommittee and. I'm a little worried about my time, you know. No, I agree. Yeah, I agree. I think this could, I mean, if it's going to be substantial change. I think a subcommittee might be good, but if it's going to be some clarifications. I think it's going to be a subcommittee. Why need a subcommittee? Well, then I mean, that's something, you know, if that's what the board wants, I can take it back and look, because when I looked at the, the previous standing. Regulations and the ones compared it to the draft, and I know it's just a draft. It seemed like there was different focus, you know, before it was originally, I thought it was limited to cleaning and office products. And now it seems to be extended to the schools. And then that variances should come through the health director. I don't think it should come through me. I think we need some wording on that. How are we going to implement that? And now if the board really wants me to do that, it's something that, you know, I'll, I'll figure out and I'll do it. But I don't think that's the best thing use. I don't have that expertise. It would take a big amount of time. It would mean other things would have to, you know, come off my plate. And so I'd rather have experts involved in with this. Who are the experts that would be helpful that you, that you're aware of? Well, I think when we think about purchasing. People that are making these green choice purchases already. And I don't know if people actually knew about our regulation. Some may have, but I don't, I want this to be a good regulation that people, you know, pay attention to, and it has, has some bite to it. If we just put a regulation out there and no one knows about it. You know, that doesn't do us very people. It doesn't do well by the people, the residents or the, you know, the, the town employees as well. So. So that's, that's what I'm thinking about the maintenance, you know, facilities manager. Yeah. I think, you know, we, I mean, there is EPA regulations, deep regulations. A lot of other regulations. I think this one is some sort of a, not as a binding rule that you have to do this or that, you know, it's primarily we're saying to consider alternatives, you know, but if they don't have it, we also have a way we are saying, you know, just let us know, you know, that type of thing. So I think, you know, the best way is if you can add comments to those sections, you feel it same. Same thing, you know, if there are the facilities, people, I think probably looking, they are looking at alternative toxic, you know, less toxic chemicals, you know, if they just highlight that one put a comment saying that we need this to be clarified or something. Then I think we can go to the second revision stage where I, you know, we could take a look at what type of other compliance regulations are already there, which will, which regulates their facilities and we could update it. And then I can bring it back to the committee, you know, see, you know what they think. And then the facilities also can take a look at it, you know, so I think that might be the better way to, if they could add those comments in a specifically for the document and then you also can add to that. I think we can move from there. I mean, that's, that sounds fine to me. And I think that's, that's part of my purpose here, speaking with you. I thought I would have it done for you today, but I think it's, it'll need a little bit more time. So I'm glad to keep chugging away at that. If that's what, you know, folks want. And again, I just, you know, I know I keep coming back to this, but I don't know if I'm, we'll figure it out. How are things going to be in compliance? It shouldn't be, you know, through the health director specific, there needs to be something in place. But that's very solvable. We can talk about it. So should I just withdraw my, can I withdraw my motion or do we vote on it? We can vote on the motion. I mean, were you going to say something? I just wondered how much input you can get. And if the purchasing is the same from department to department in terms of products that are on this list, that seems to be a quote greener list. What your sense of that is in the town. Yeah. So, so I think my, my thinking is that it might be building to building. But I'm not sure, but that's something that we could really work on. Yeah. When you say facilities managers, it's only one person or many people. I believe it's the facilities maintenance manager is one person that oversees the buildings. Oversees all the buildings. I'm not sure I can get you the answer. I mean, usually the decisions are made if it's one person probably they're making the procurement decisions, right? Yeah, I think if, if, if the manager can add some, some sort of mark those areas where he wants more, he or she wants to more clarification, but also any documents that could be added to that in terms of, for my review or whatever it is to see if there are, that is a specific procedure to look at all, all three degree ones. Is there any list already existing that would be helpful for when, when I rewrite it, you know, so. Okay. I, I mean, that sounds fine. That's what the board decides. And then, you know, just from my being a TA just looking at the site. I mean, from a pointed view of just making sure it flows, some of the, you know, references were updated. And I know there's some real like zeitgeist articles in there, like I even remember Landergren, you know, there are these great names in there. So those articles should stay. But, you know, I think some of the citations were updated. So they just need to be a little, little boost of modification and updated. That just takes a little time. So I can certainly do that. I think it's, you know, we shouldn't hurry. I agree. Okay. I think some of the citations were just coming from the previous document. Yeah. But so probably they could be updated. Yeah. Yeah. I think the very first line is there are 50,000 known chemicals used by him. And like I did a quick search and someone said there's actually about 150,000 now. So I don't know if that's true, but I just think everything is a little different. Okay. So should I withdraw my motion or do we vote on that? I'm going to withdraw my motion. And we will just. Continue working on, on the toxic chemicals with input from you, Jen, and from facilities management. Thank you for what that's very important. Thank you. Oh, well, I was going to thank you guys for allowing me to do this because I think it's really interesting. And I think we have a good group here to bring it all together. So you're welcome. And I look forward to working on it. Okay. Thank you. Next, we have a community assessment. And we have Emily Connors, who is a graduate student in the school of public health who worked very hard over the summer on phase two. Of quantitative data collection. Moving more to the social determinants of health. And I'm going to turn it over to her for her to present. The information. I want to share my screen. Oh, that's okay. And thank you once again for your wonderful work. Thank you for all the support Nancy. I appreciate it. Jen, it looks like I am not able to share my screen. I'm going to give that to you. Hold on a second. Thank you. What's really the nice Emily presents. She asks lots of great questions from the data she sees. Okay. Okay. Can everyone see that screen? Okay. Yes. All right. Okay. Thank you everyone for giving me the time to present the work I've been doing on the second phase of the health assessment. I will jump right into my slides. So quick introduction. The intentions of this project. We're intending to give the Amherst health department, board of health and other community groups, comprehensive information in order to identify needs, prioritize decisions, identify ways to reach at-risk disenfranchised populations, address systemic health problems and concerns of our community members, promote equity and guide advocacy efforts and policy develop. So a quick overview of the process. I'm going to focus on the assessment into three phases. I presented on the first phase. At the end of the spring last year with Bailey Glenn. And this presentation is going to focus on the second phase of the assessment, which I worked on over this past summer. Just a quick overview. I'll talk about the census tracks in a few of the different sections of the presentation. But in Amherst, we have North Amherst, the UMass track, Amherst Center, Central Amherst, East Amherst, South Amherst and Hampshire College as the census tracks. And I have a little map on the right to give you a visual representation of that. So the first section I'll discuss is economics. Here I have a graph of per capita income by census track. And then I have a comparison of the US estimate for some scale here. So we can see that East Amherst has the highest per capita income, followed closely by South Amherst, North Amherst and Amherst Center. And the remaining three census tracks have significantly lower per capita incomes. So this is not super surprising to us. Next we can look at employment in the town. North Amherst, South Amherst, East Amherst and Amherst Center all have pretty comparable percentages of employed versus unemployed and not employed. So this is not super surprising to us. Next we can look at employment in the town. North Amherst, South Amherst, East Amherst and Amherst Center all have the highest per capita income. So this is not an unemployed and not in the labor force. We see around 60% of residents being employed in each of these tracks. And we can compare this to the remaining three census tracks. Again the three tracks of the main colleges in town. And we can see across these three census tracks that the number of residents are not in the labor force. Around 59 to 49%. So that is a large portion of people not working. So during phase three kind of looking into information about how students are affecting the economic functionality of the town and how this is affecting non-community members is of interest. So like I just said, the main focus for phase three that I'm suggesting is how students are kind of affecting the town in terms of economics. Next I'll talk briefly about transportation within the town. So the PVTA provides Amherst with the main sort of public transportation. It provides transportation throughout Amherst and the surrounding areas. But it is important to recognize the seasonality and inconsistencies of these services, at least in Amherst. We see changes in the bus schedules in accordance with the university and college schedules as well as general holidays, which can have a major effect on residents who are relying on the bus as their sole source of transportation. And I'll talk about this more later in the presentation, but we found that the majority of Amherst residents are living in a USDA designated food desert. So a substantial portion of residents do not have convenient or reliable access to supermarkets. So losing access to bus routes can mean that they have no way of getting groceries. There's also rules regarding number of bags allowed on the buses as well as space of bags on buses. And for many parts of Amherst, you need multiple combination of bus routes just to get to major shopping plazas. And it's important to note that transportation can be a problem for activities outside of just getting groceries. So we look at, you know, access to getting to the polls to vote, healthcare services and doctor's appointments, getting prescriptions filled, getting to social gatherings and events. All these things can be affected by a lack of access to transportation. So the main takeaway here is obviously the PBTA is the main form of public transportation within Amherst. However, in consistencies and schedules and all these other things play a key factor in access and ability for residents to use the bus in order to have access to key resources. So in phase three, looking at how residents are actually using public transportation and where are the gaps in services and how we can improve accessibility to key resources for residents living without cars. Next, I'll talk about the recreation department. So we see in Amherst that there are various parks in recreational facilities. Lots of playgrounds, sports fields, pools, parks, et cetera. And the recreation department does have a nice website that includes all programs offered for various ages and groups. Mainly these activities include a handful of sports and these may not be suitable for all groups of children and adults. So overall the assessment of the rec programs available point to major holes. We see a lack of activities for both children and adults involving arts, music, second language programs, cooking, computer skills, all these things. So that was very interesting to find. So the main takeaway obviously from this section is the lack of activities for both children and adults. And in phase three, looking into the reason for the lack of activities through the rec department and how community members feel about the range of activities available and what changes they would like to see. Next, I'll talk about education within the town. So I'll start focusing on the elementary schools within town. There are three elementary schools with around a thousand students across the three ranging from pre-K to sixth grade. We can see on the left distribution of student race and ethnicities. So the majority of students being white, followed by Hispanic students, Asian, African-American, and multi-racing non-Hispanic students. On the right, we can see a distribution of selected populations within the schools. So we can see the largest percentage of students are considered high needs at around 52%. Also around 39% are considered low income. And we can see the percentages of students with disabilities, first languages that are not English, as well as English language learners. So just to get a little bit of scale here, we can see a distribution of selected population percentages for the elementary schools versus the state percentages. So Amherst elementary schools have percentages above the state for first language not being English, English language learners and students with disabilities. So looking into how the schools are serving these selected populations is of interest. Next, we'll look at the same kind of distributions for the regional middle and high school. So there's two schools in this district, the middle school and the high school, around 1300 students in grades seven to 12. Again, on the left, we can see student race and ethnicity distribution. Again, mainly white students, followed by Hispanic, Asian, African American and multi-race non-Hispanic students. And on the left, again, the distribution of selected populations within the school. Again, a high percentage of high needs students and low income students here. And here we see the middle and high school percentages versus the state. So the Amherst Pellum regional middle and high school district falls below the state percentages for all of the selected populations except for students with disabilities. So looking into programs that support students with disabilities is of interest here. We also found the accountability classification for the regional district somewhat interesting. It is classified as meeting focused and targeted support due to low participation rate of Hispanic and Latino subgroups, which is an interesting finding. So in conclusion, overall for at least the regional middle and high school, we do not have data surrounding students living specifically in Amherst. All of the data that I presented before includes students coming from all of the different surrounding towns within the regional district. And also the regional school district being classified as needing intervention and assistance. So investigating in phase three data surrounding schools specifically in Amherst, as well as looking at progress being made to improve participation rates of certain groups and how the community feels in general about the school system is of interest. Next, I'll briefly talk about the environment. The main concern we found here was food access. So as I said before, 97% of Amherst residents do live in a USDA designated food desert. We also found that one in four residents is low income in living more than a mile away from the closest supermarket. And access to cars and public transportation makes accessing healthy and nourishing food difficult for many residents of Amherst. We do see an intervention in the Amherst mobile market, which is making produce available at more affordable prices within walking distance of certain residential areas. And this is a really fantastic intervention, but it is seasonal, meaning that starting mid-October and no longer operates. So year round access to fresh nutritious food is a continuing obstacle. Here we see a graph regarding vehicle access within the town. It's depicting the percentage of households that do not have a vehicle that are more than half a mile away from the nearest market. So we can see that across Amherst, many households do not have access to cars and live more than half a mile away from a grocery store. UMass is the tract that contains the largest percentage of households, followed by central Amherst and Amherst Center. So increasing access to grocery stores and new nutritious food is an important area for further research in Amherst. And this is basically what I said before, but in addition, kind of looking into interventions that could be feasible within Amherst and in what areas and how they can be helpful is an important focus for phase three. Next, I'll discuss healthcare services within the town. So obviously there are many different services that are provided within the town. There's primary care practices, mental health services, dentistry, senior care, all this stuff. We also have the Moussanti Clinic and Tapestry Health, which are examples of programs that are trying to increase access to healthcare services. Throughout the next phase, an important focus is going to be on how accessible these services actually are within the town and where the shortcomings are in terms of availability of care, how these clinics and affordable options are being used within the community and where areas of improvement that can be made to better serve the community. Last, I'll briefly discuss government and policy within the town. So as I'm sure most of you are aware, there is the legislature. So the registered voters of the town elect the town council, which is 13 members, three members are considered counselors at large and 10 of these members are known as district counselors. There's also an executive town manager, Paul Bachleman, who is responsible for all town departments, including employees and functions aside from schools and libraries. And then there's the five member school committee and the six member library board of trustees. Some key takeaways from the government section are obviously the town switched to implement a new form of government, the town council fairly recently. We also see two political action committees around the Amherst forward and the progressive coalition of Amherst. So looking forward to phase three, kind of investigating community satisfaction with the new form of town government, community views on political action committees and gathering the main concerns of residents surrounding policies and politics within the town are key focus areas. So looking beyond to phase three, we're kind of looking to put an emphasis on collecting data that is more relevant and representative of the Amherst community. So we're going to be doing this through focus groups and listening sessions as well as key informant interviews. Through having more detailed data from the community directly we will be able to kind of supplement the findings from both phases one and two, and further allow for the development of effective interventions in areas of concern raised during the first two phases. So thank you all for listening and thank you Nancy again for your continued support throughout this project. That's all I have. Okay. That's wonderful. Emily. Do board members have any questions for Emily. Maureen, Tim, Jen, do you have any questions or comments. Let's say, thank you Emily, we are distributing some antigen rapid antigen tests and we're using the list that you created. So it's, it's in use. Thank you for doing that. And I really am interested in the PBTA that's the schedule, you know I was up at the Amherst survival center this past Monday, giving COVID shots and the bus schedule was on reduced, you know, a route and there were less people there, getting food, the other services. So I think it's a big, big issue and further research is needed there so thank you. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Maureen. So, Tim, UMass. Many students they access for the dining commons and everything they don't need to go to the grocery stores, even though they are far away. So they are. I'm just curious, you know, how UMass, Amherst College, they are where the access to food is different. I think maybe separating that out to study actual issues of access it'll be useful. Even in Amherst center, I think easy access to excellent food, you know. Of course there's no grocery store that's. So I think in terms of easy access to fresh and everything might be relevant to households who are actually cooking and making food themselves rather than like a lot of students who are residing they go to dining commons. And that one maybe I think you could mention, because in the in the data it was showing like UMass having like far away from a grocery store and it may not be a problem. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. It's definitely an area that we will kind of look further into. Yeah, through getting some more data that's specific to the certain census tracks we don't necessarily have all these things teased out with the available data now so you know looking forward to phase three and kind of getting some hands on feedback from the community is going to be really helpful in separating out the real issues within census tracks. One additional one is the PBTA. When you, I think the frequency and everything during the non weekdays and also during holidays. That's a that's an issue you know. The majority of the time I'm also seeing you know, PVT are going empty running like a big buses with only few few passengers there you know so I think one alternate mechanisms probably you can think about is to have smaller size vehicles which doesn't consume so much fuel but exclusively focused on underserved communities in so those are alternative things you can think about instead of asking PBTA to run more frequently with large capacity buses, having huge emission issues and stuff like that so that's just a suggestion. Yes, hi. This is mine. Yes, hi. Hi, sorry. Hi, I am came in in the middle of the community assessment but I just wanted to give a few points. I think the survival center I think some of the reason why there might be best people there because of the delivery service, which is much easier for people to have the food delivered and I know that was extended, which is very helpful for people who don't have transportation and I would just like to know from the assessment is it possible to know how many how many families that do not have their own cars. How do we find that number, because it seems that even for those who might be considered low income they probably do have a car and I just would like to know, you know, how we can find out the exact number of, you know, families or individuals that do not have their own transportation and are relying on public transportation that possible to know. I think, at least in terms of the data available we don't have that specific data that has been collected previously. It's a potential area for, you know, further research, I think there need to be surveys and such kind of distributed and it's not something that we currently have but yeah it's an interesting point to bring up in something that we could consider for future research. Let's say, excellent point but I'm also wondering if the town has that data because they register for taxes, almost all cars which are owned to pay taxes for the town also so they might have a list of households who don't have cars from there. I'm just suggesting that's a possibility of data. Was that a specific question, Tim? No, that's a suggestion. There might be some data at the town level that we could tap into. Thank you. And I'm also wondering about the income levels and we are showing in the bar charts, very low income levels for students, you know, that's per capita. I know that it's purely based on employment right. So we could maybe separate those out, you know, if possible, to show the per capita income only for those non students who are waging us because much of the student population I think they're not just income but also the loans and taxes and taught or different things, you know, burdening them. So but I'm just curious, you know, when we compare different districts I think it would be helpful to, census districts, it would be helpful to have this regions with schools separated out because that 35,000 and then you have 3,000 at one hand, you know. That's sort of like the million dollar question that everybody asks, how do we get data on the town residents versus students, and it's a conundrum that everybody faces and with the black census and with other senses. It's, it's, it's a question that keeps coming up and being repeated that how do we get that data. And how do we separate it. Emily have you come across any way to do that. I can't say that I have I mean I can definitely see how you could at least just ignore the students I suppose in a lot of these situations but I don't know if that would paint the kind of holistic picture of the town because realistically they are part of the town so I think it's a tricky question that doesn't really have a good answer necessarily. Yes, and I think you in the beginning of your presentation I think you very succinctly asked that question about how does the students population affect the economic functionality of the town I think that's an excellent and important question and I think it's a question that is asked in many ways. Morning, do you have any questions. Whoops. You're muted. You're muted, Maureen. You're muted Maureen. There you go. No, you had it. You've had it for a minute. Unmute. That even then all students aren't the same I mean many of the students in the MR star that you know 18 to 22 year olds who are still somewhat dependent on family at home, get their meals at in campus and kind of live on campus or close to campus and have less to do with either providing town services or providing town services. But then there are these, there are other students who really are more part of the town the graduate students but even other younger groups of students who are living in shopping and doing all kinds of things. It's just really tricky about how they interact how how the populations do end up interacting. It's a huge one for housing I mean there are so many considerations. But it's yeah you can't just, I don't think you can just like, get rid of them all and forget about them. But the other thing is, you know, I guess just seeing this with older Amherst adults, you know the loss of the use of a car. It really requires a car to live in most parts of Amherst to function. And, and to, you know, to have a kind of flexible robust transit system that can support people to go where they need to go when they need to go would be an amazing benefit if you know, and I agree that having big buses driving around and a circular root isn't going to be the, the answer to that one either. But even they are the vans that go and pick up for for individual rides and things like that but it always takes about 10 times as long as it would to do it any other way. So those are big problems in the Amherst I think is the transportation and shopping. Can I just add one other comment. Yes. Okay. I would say that Amherst is the only place that I live that the buses, you know, are free, which is a big benefit to, you know, low income people and young people who can just hop on a bus and go into town. And that's why I think that, you know, the transit system is the problem. At my, at my experience, you know, you have to do what you have to do and, you know, food, food justice is a big, you know, important topic for me. And, and I just know as a parent, you just, you have to get to the go store, how you get to the grocery store. And if you don't have a car, you have to take the bus. But I think that the, the access to services is, is limited. And so I would just, you know, I would just encourage any, you know, survey or assessment to really, you know, find out what services low income individuals and families need because I know for, for my experience, help accessing health services has been difficult in Amherst. Thank you, Lauren. Any other questions or comments for Emily? So another aspect is walkability of the town, you know, beyond vehicles, you know, I mean, many, for example, many stores are in highly. And if you, if you have apartment complex, like Renew or Brooks boulders that one, and if people wanted to access some super, you know, supermarkets, you know, there's no really a way to walk, you know, because, you know, in between on, on East Hadley, you know, there is clear distinction, you know, so you have nice walkway until the town border. And after the, you know, once if you enter Hadley, that is nothing, you know, I mean, I have seen many, many families actually walking without any, you know, very dangerous, you know, I'm just saying in accessing that type of a walkability and bike paths, access, all this should be some sort of a plan so that, you know, it gives a better access for a lot of families. Yeah, that's a really important point. Thank you. Well, thank you, Emily. And we have a meeting coming up, getting ready for phase three. Emily is the chair lead person on all of this. And we have two other master's students that will be working with us on phase three. And one of the students is listening. And so we're looking forward to moving to key informant interviews and the focus slash listening session groups coming up to get more of the, the nitty, nitty gritty data. That's qualitative versus quantitative. So thank you, Emily. And I'll see you next week. Thank you. Thanks. Okay, I think Emily's just done an amazing job, putting gathering the data and putting it all together. So next we're moving to new business with the geothermal well applications. And I see john's here. We have here. Yeah. All right. We have two new ones this month. Plus, there is some survey testing going on at the new Fort River school site, which will eventually be 80 to 100 well system. Part of the plan to meet the town's net zero building goal. But that the testing started the test will eventually convert into a well. So that it's it's not wasted effort. I believe they went back and did the thermal testing there this week. So I'm going to talk who's the wetlands administrator and I did visit the site and we're in close contact with the engineer from Gza associates, who are the architects, architectural firm. The two that are up for permits tonight are 46 Kingman Road, and 57 Bay Road. They're two very different properties. And it is easy because it's a previously undeveloped lot. I think that's the echo Hill section Kingman Road that backs up to the railroad line. And then across from that it's Henry Street. And it's just a cleared lot at this point. I mean, it's, it's a blank canvas, the trees are gone. They haven't been constructed. They had when the air and chalk looked at that one she said the conservation commission had no concerns about that property. There's no wetlands jurisdiction there. They had no concerns for that property. So that one I would highly recommend that it get its, it's perfect approval. And if you want me to talk about the other one too, or if you want to consider that one. Well, why don't we just consider that one. Okay. Any questions. Tim or Maureen. I didn't have any. Tim. So it's a clean state it's a cleared lot. I'm just curious. If there are plans coming up. Are they going to build something that or I'm just curious, you know, we have a part of the building permit application was a, an outline of the building, which I think was included in your packet. Yeah, I had, I had seen that it's sort of like a diagram of the house. Right. The proposed floor plan. Well over in the one corner. Right. So, driveway on the left, two car attached to garage. And don't recall whether it's more than one story or not. You couldn't tell from the. Yeah. I'm sorry, I didn't review the building permit. I don't see bedrooms marked on the first floor so I'm assuming it does have a second floor. But anyway, it's a single borehole to supply the single family building. It is state both of these tonight are proposed from the well driller Connecticut Valley artesian wells. So just to the last couple months we've had proposals from dandelion energy, which is kind of a one stop shop operation. They provide the design services, the coordination of the HVAC systems, as well as the well drilling, the, you know, cleanup landscaping afterwards removal of spoils from the site if that's what's been coordinated. Those are done with the smaller rigs these are would be done probably with conventional size rings. But both pieces of property have easy access for the large standard well drilling trucks which operate faster, but are more intrusive, they're much heavier machines. I didn't see the Bay Road documents in the packet. Maybe I was there. This is, it's the house just west of where the Kestrel organization is located next to Plum Brook pond. One property over from their headquarters. There are some wetlands concerns not necessarily with the sighting. So it may need updated mapping and so Aaron Jacques is coordinating with the homeowner about updating the map. I think from our standpoint it's again a fairly straightforward project. Easy access fairly level ground. That one is a three well three more whole project project. I have a question. Is there any way that we can simplify this process so that you don't have to come every month and we, is this something we should be looking at to to make it more streamlined. It's important for for us to know where these wells are. Especially if they're going to affect the aquifers but neither the aquifers are all off of southeast street from what I when I look at maps so these aren't going to affect any of our aquifers. So it's important to really know where they are but is there any input on how we can streamline and make it easier for you easier for us. Yes. Yeah, thank you for asking. I've been talking with Jen and mainly we have Aaron Jacques keen interest and her expertise I think she's been doing what was worth. I believe she said for 18 years. Both for private engineering companies as well as other municipalities, and she is working on a checklist. She and I sit in the same room when we're both in the office and we've been had a running conversation about what is it that brings her to a point where she can say the conservation commission say has no interest in the property has no jurisdiction. We're using mass maps and a number of other mapping tools and records the conservation commission has on previously mapped areas. She's able to check, probably seven or eight sources of information to the locations that we're giving her with our map, our well application and get to that point. We're having a conversation currently on the conservation commission about whether the geothermal wells can be regarded as minimally intrusive and not in need of a determination from the conservation commission, which most of the state does operate under that sort of guideline the western district is more conservative and emmerced so far has been but it is open to discussing this idea. I, I've heard from you all in these meetings, and I'd like to see. Maybe if we can get the state wells staffer perhaps to come and answer questions sometime about whether. There's a potential impact on aquifers on the groundwater by, you know, 123 geothermal wells or in the case of like the school 80 to 100, you know, in a fairly small location. I know and talking to the well drillers outside and engineers. They keep pointing out that it's a grouted borehole when it's done that there's a plastic tube that goes down to the bottom and back up. It's a grouted in place. And it's considered, I think stable at that point, but there's no. It's a closed loop system to. So, but, you know, I'm not an expert. I think I, you know, would be happy to see if we can get the well person to attend a meeting safe you'd like that and answer questions. But conservation is considering this right now and I think a lot of our concerns are based on conservation being happy. I'm looking at at the process. Yeah. You guys already, I think, you know, trust me to do septic systems. Yeah, I'd like to get it to that point, ideally where, you know, it'll help the applicant be simpler and easier. But we'll go through the same process, I think where we're getting conservations input. And this would only be after you felt as though it's okay to delegate that delegate that authority. So it's an administrative review in the inspections office rather than a board of health monthly review. Yeah, because drinking wells are a different thing than the the geothermal closed loop wells. So let's figure out how to do that in the future. But right now, what we need to do is approve these two well these two geothermal wells. Does anyone have any more questions or is just someone want to make a motion to accept them we'll do them separately so that it's not confusing. And I would say these are subject to approval by the Conservation Commission in the Kingman Road case. They've already said they have no jurisdiction on the property. And the other one that's under consideration now. So they will not be issued a permit for the Bay Road one until conservation commission is satisfied with the So should we wait and vote and vote on that in another meeting. I would suggest going ahead if you're comfortable with that because what I mean, these projects are being driven by energy costs and expensive projects. And, you know, winters is coming. Okay, so the Bay Road one we can make a motion to approve the Bay Road geothermal well pending the conservation commissions approval. Is that how we could shouldn't write make that one works for me. Yep. Well, then I'll make the motion to approve the 57 Bay Road geothermal well application pending the conservation commission approval. I have that seconded. I'll second it. Okay, it's been moved in second any further discussion. Okay, then let's vote. Tim. Maureen. Hi, Lauren. Lauren, can you hear us. Lauren, can you vote. Yeah, she's. I say yes. Okay, and Nancy. Yes. Okay. That one's passed. Now 45 Kingman Road. Geothermal well application that we approve the geothermal well permit. And I have that seconded. I'll second that. Any further discussion. I just had a question. Yes. I'll make a motion that we approve the geothermal well permit. And I have that seconded. I'll second that. Any further discussion. I just had a question. Yes. The other world before they were on private property. You said there's a different. Like conservation. Land or I just didn't understand. Bay Road already has a house on a developed plot. I think it's eight plus acres. The Kingman Road is a previously on the bill plot, Lauren. In the middle of Echo Hill. So it has houses on each side, but it never has had a house in this particular lot. And so currently it's been cleared for construction. There's a building permit underway for the house. And they've also submitted this permit. For a geothermal well to be the. The, the. Okay, so the grant. I'll make the case the heating and cooling. Component for the proposed house. Okay. Did that answer your question, Lauren? I just, I'm trying to understand the difference. Conservation land and. It, it wasn't conservation land. It's the conservation commission. Okay. Not, not that it was conservation land, it's the conservation commission. They review these. Right. That answer the question. On King. There are no wetlands concerns. There's no pond streams. It's not within 200 feet of any known wetland. And that was determined to be outside the conservation commission's jurisdiction. Bay Road is a larger property that has wetlands on it marked weapons. It's been constructed on for the house that's there in the not too distant past, maybe 25 years ago, 20 years ago. And the mapping is probably going to be brought up to date. Just to make sure that this is not within an area of concern. I guess it's just hard for me to understand and I have really researched that I should, but when that when the wells are put in. Is it one house. The for a single house. One to three well holds are what we've seen in the past for applications. I think it's just an engineering question about how much heat is required. How much cooling is required by the house. And then the Kingman road proposal. They've determined one hole can do it. It may go as far as 500 feet deep. Bay Road House, the plan calls for three holes. And I'm not sure the depth from those but generally I think three to 500 feet is what we've seen in the past. And I'm still trying to understand. Well, how, how, though, if I don't quite know the impact. Or, you know, but I'm glad that the conservation commission is. You know, also. So, thank you. That's all I have. Okay. So now we're going to vote on approving the well. Kingman road. So it's been. Motion's been made in second. Now all in favor of. Approving the king row geothermal well. Maureen. Yes. Tim. Hi. And Nancy. Yes. Okay. So both wells are approved now. Ed. Thank you. Okay. All right. Thank you. Yep. Before it leaves. No. Yes. I'm just curious. You said 80 to 100 wells coming up. For the. That looks like it would be intense operation. And, you know, I think. Check list based on wetlands. It's perfectly fine, but it's only for. It's not doing anything really regarding groundwater impacts or. Subsurface impacts, you know, so. I think if you're developing a checklist which will. Help to. Clear at the inspection level. It should have some sort of a dense density of wells taken care. How many wells. Per square meter or whatever the unit area. But also how deep in terms of. Potential impacts, you know, on subsurface. You know, aquifers and stuff. So. Just because the conservation commission is clearing wetlands. Doesn't mean that. It's not going to have it. And I think. Sure. Downward impact. So I think we have to be very careful with that. Yeah. Well. I don't know if John Tobiason might be available still for the board, but that certainly was an area of his. Expertise. I would guess. You know, on impact of wells. Well, that his work was more in drinking water wells. Yeah. Okay. I will reach out to the state. Yeah. These are mostly impacts are during the construction site. Because after that it's sealed. And so. As long as the. Construction mitigation is done correctly. And then the building inspectors. Can look at that one. And we. We should be fine with that afterwards. Can I say. One more thing. Go ahead. Yes. I do. I do. Remember. Reading or watching some things. So where that. When water. Is warm, there is. Certain. Can grow more in their. Water life that. You know, is affected by. You know, water. Being. The temperature being. Or lower. So I guess I'm wondering like. Does it. Not the germ. The geothermal wells. Do they affect. Any streams. You know. In that. I'm just. Yeah. I'm just, it's just a question. Not necessarily. No. We. But I. Anything that is going down in the ground, I'm. It is going to have some effects. On, you know, the. The. The. The area. That. Going into. So. You know, I'm just. Trying to. To understand. Right there. Yeah. I'm just, it's just a question. Not necessarily. You know. You. But I. Anything that is going down in the ground. I'm. It is going to have some effects. Okay. Can I. Can I answer that quickly? So I think temperature has impact on aquatic life. But it's mostly in the streams and lakes in a surface water. But I think here we are talking about. More of these, you know. Wells, which are going into the ground, you know, and. It might have some impact on the microbes on the top, but I don't think there is. Any impact in terms of temperature. From the ground. To that answer your question. Is that something that. That. That. For. Whoever's doing it. Well, that's, that's another. That's another. That's separate from this right now. And then. Ed will be working on that with others. And get back to us. What would I'm just saying, you know. How do we, how do. Follow up for. If we have questions, how do we. Direct those questions to the people who can answer it. Jen, can you jump in? At all. I think, I think it depends on the question. And then. Who is the correct person to answer it? It could be Ed. It could be. It really depends on the question. Okay. And Ed, do you have someone at the state you can talk to and consult with? Yes. I'm sorry. I didn't already do that, but I can get that information to Jen. And she can. Share it with you. There is a person that coordinates. Well, reporting. And well questions that we can go to. I don't think it's somebody at master EP. I can get somebody at the state, but I'll look into that and get that information. Yeah. You know, it's, it's easy for me to see these one, two, three well sites and not think anything of it. When you're turning about a hundred in that. Field behind the Fort River school, it seems like a different kind of animal. But I'm sure it works. Yeah. But interest is growing certainly. And it's, you know, even though it seems like we're. Being inundated with these. This is probably nothing compared to what it could be. If it catches on. So getting ahead of this issue would be a good idea. I mean, it's not a low cost solution, but know if you can afford to do it in the long run, it makes a lot of sense. And there are increasing incentives for doing. Yeah. So. Well, fuel prices rising is thriving. This I'm sure. It is absolutely. It's, it's not. A low cost solution, but no, it's not a high cost solution. It's not a high cost solution. It's not a high cost solution. It's not a high cost solution. It's not increasing incentives for doing. Yeah. Right. They're tax incentives. Yeah. Well, thank you, Ed. Oh, you're welcome. And we'll probably. Hear from you next month. Take care. Thank you. Yep. All right. Now we have the director's report. So I'm going to turn it over to Jen. All right. I'm going to go over. The board of health. I want to remind people that some of the numbers we're going to discuss were distributed to the board members and they can be found on the board of health webpage. Amherst and a dot gove. Board of health and then there's agenda packets and you can see some of the data. That we have. But our. COVID case counts. the real cases of illness at a true rate. We have asymptomatic cases, mild cases, less PCR, dramatically less PCR testing, and antigen tests that don't need to be reported. We post our cases daily. The State Department of Public Health gets some information daily, but they post it weekly every Thursday, and I can see us doing the same at some points moving to a weekly posting. Also, there's talk about moving to how do we report flu? Are we going to move to a model of flu reporting in the future? That would be looking at sentinel provider sites, not every provider giving information, but just special selected groups and then hospitalizations. That's it for the case numbers. But I do want to say, if you go to the MassDPH dashboard and the interactive dashboard, they have a really good map of the different variants, and it's interesting to see, it's linked to the CDC, that the BA.5 that causes so much trouble is beginning to recede and we have the BA.4.6, if I'm saying it correctly with the dots. They don't think the BA.4.6 will cause a large wave of issues this fall, this winter because it doesn't have the mutations on the spike protein. I'm reading my notes. But I think what we're looking at now with spread is more behavior. So we need to consider what cold weather has ahead of us, cases may rise, and obviously there's still a lot of unknown. So we do continue to monitor our numbers. We also do monitor our Amherst wastewater, and that's posted on the town website. It's a system that we have with Amherst Department of Public Works. They get three samples per week. We send it off to Jamaica Plain and it's being analyzed still by Biobot. At some point, it might be analyzed by the state when they get that capacity to do so. Just one note with our wastewater, we love putting it up on the website. We post it outside, but interpreting the numbers are very different from other data. We post this raw data, and a lot of studies do this data smoothing. They do trimming. So the five-day trimmed average, some studies do this, that they look at the data over a week, and they take out the highest and the lowest, and use the three remaining points. So the best thing with the wastewater is really looking at trends. Another thing is that the data for the wastewater, it doesn't specifically identify the number of infected people. So one person can contribute quite a lot of gene copies compared to someone else that's positive. So if you look at the numbers and the wastewater numbers and the copies are going up, doesn't necessarily mean it's that number of people going up. So it's one public health indicator that we continue to use and monitor. But we look at other data as well, hospitalizations in Western Mass at Cooley Dickinson, new illnesses, that type of thing. Moving on to rapid antigen tests. The Amherst Health Department received our fourth shipment of rapid antigen tests in when was it September 22nd. So it was one of our biggest shipments, it was 20,300. In the next week or two, we're going to do a larger push to get them out to different social service organizations, places of worship. Some of our partners, the Amherst Survival Center, Family Outreach, those folks that can further distribute it for us. When these kits are done, they all expire in January. So I hope we can get them into the hands of people for the holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas. We hope we continue to get more antigen tests, but I just don't know what's going to happen with the funding. But when we're done with this, the town would have distributed 57,760 tests, antigen tests. And I'll say it again, I say it every time we have a meeting. I do love the antigen tests. If your question is, am I infectious? It's going to give you a pretty good result. So positive, assume you're infectious. If it's negative and you've been exposed or you're symptomatic, they usually give you two tests in a kit. Test on day five, and then 48 hours later, test again. So on day seven, or you can do three and five. So we love the antigen tests. Vaccination, we continue to have vaccine clinics every Thursday here at the Banks Community Center. We have our vaccine volunteers. We have vaccinators that come in. We just respect and love them and what makes it work. We have great COVID ambassadors still and we have some really excellent UMass students. One gentleman I believe is in the audience and I can't tell you how incredible this intern is. I don't know if I should say his name, but we're really lucky with the interns that we have working with us. We are administering the Pfizer and we have Moderna bivalent. If you ask any place for the booster, you're gonna get the bivalent. We are not giving the monovalent as a booster anymore. And today, or was it yesterday? The FDA approved the bivalent booster for ages five to 11. So all those folks that have been waiting for that, it starts with the FDA, then it goes to the CDC, it has to be approved by the advisory committee on immunization practice. So by next week, five through 11, age group can get that booster. I did well with all my first vaccines, but the booster, this one gave me some arm pain and I got pretty fatigued. So I just tell everyone, it's just so worth getting it. It's really just the best thing we can do to protect the community. And ourselves, and I think I've been hearing a little arm pain from other people. I don't know, has anyone else had the booster yet? Have they had any issues? I just had mild arm pain and I had Moderna, Moderna and Pfizer this time, but nothing else. Yeah, great. Anybody else have the bivalent yet? I had the bivalent Moderna, but then I got sick with something else. So I don't know what was what. I'm sure I have a little extra fatigue from the, maybe from the vaccine, but. Every other Tuesday, we have webinars with the Department of Public Health in Boston. They used to be twice a week, then there were once a week now, it's every other week. And there are a lot of great folks that support us here. One is Dr. Katie Brown. I just think she's such a rock star. But one little thing she said is that we're not gonna be calling it long COVID anymore. The term is post-acute COVID. So anyhow, I say that to you just because I see that there's one study. So one study does not mean it's the gold and it covers everything, but that the boosters are beginning to reduce reported risk for post-acute symptoms. So anyhow, I'm really happy about that. So hopefully that means less long COVID, oh, less post-COVID if you're getting vaccinated. So I think that's important. That's my COVID update. Thank you. Under the director's update, item B is called mental health and stress. An event at Butternut Farm. And Lauren, are you able to talk about that? I'm certainly ready if you're not on. Yes, I'm here. Do you want me to introduce it and you can talk or what do you want to? I'm just, I'm talking, I'm asking you by surprise. Did you say you'll talk about it? You know, Lauren, if we can't hear you, we're breaking up a little bit. Okay. Okay, so Lauren, you just jump in when you're ready. So Lauren has spearheaded an event at Butternut Farm and it's called mental health and stress. And it's gonna be on November 3rd, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the Butternut Farm community room. And thank you, Lauren, for organizing this. Gonna include Earl Miller, who is the health, the director of Crest, the community responders for equity, safety and service. And it's really a time for people to go listen to Earl. I hope everyone can join us there. He's just a brilliant speaker, so much to say. Discuss your questions, give your perspective on mental health and stress, especially now with COVID, how important that is. I'll be there to talk about COVID and then we'll have some adult KN95s, children and adult surgical masks, antigen tests and some refreshments. Lauren, anything else? Yeah, yes, can you hear me? Yes. Okay, yeah. Thank you. We came up with the topic, Jennifer, thank you for helping me with the talk here. Yes, I was passing it out. And it's just a community driven conversation to talk about, you know, what they have been experiencing. I think stress out, it makes it much harder to respond. Well, the term you said post-COVID, people are still, you know, feeling the effect of COVID and just, you know, trying to, you know, figure out how to move forward. So I'm just, I'm happy that a community conversation and I was able to apply it to the health care. Maybe he, you know, stopped by. It's a Thursday, 4 to 6, and there will be light refreshments. I hope the town councilors, I'll take them, you know, just finding on this call. They are excited to, so hopefully, you know, talk to people and share their opinions. No, can any of our graduate students go to or other board members if they'd like to come? Sure. Okay, great. So thank you for spearheading this, Lauren. Yeah, thank you. So this is sort of the grand announcement. Tomorrow at 10, Lily and I are speaking with Brianna and we're gonna start sort of pushing out the announcement. So we have the flyer, so they'll go out through social media and all the other places that we advertise events. So we'll start seeing that tomorrow. Thank you. Thank you to the two of you. Yeah, looking forward to it. I'm gonna move on to the director's update item C. So this is something I've labeled outdoor air monitoring. So a year ago, there was talk of getting a grant for purple air monitoring air sensors. So what they do is they monitor real-time levels of fine particulate matter and ozone. So that was last year. So now this year we have the opportunity to have some of these air monitors in Amherst. And this interests me because I think Springfield Holyoke, the Pirate Valley have had a long history of high asthma rates. So we're gonna be getting two purple air sensors and I'll give some people some links. They will be installed in town and they will be relaying information on the air quality real-time and I'll give everyone the links. What we'll do with this information, I'm not sure. I think it'll just sort of unfold but it's not just us doing it. So let me tell you the organizations that are sponsoring this. So this is what I'm reading from is the Pioneer Valley Healthy Air Network. And they've recently tried to understand how air quality contributes to high asthma rates. They are joining forces with the Pioneer Valley Asthma Coalition, the PVAC, Live Well Springfield and the Yale, some Yale University Researchers Earthwatch Institute. So these researchers from Yale, they're coming up and looking at the Pioneer Valley and hoping to expand across the state. So these little air sensors are just like a little pack of cigarettes and they'll be put somewhere in the town and I'll keep people updated with this information. So anyhow, it's a start to a conversation. If you do go to Purple Air or you go to Pioneer Valley Healthy Air Network, you can see where these are down in Springfield and the real-time readouts. So that's something new. I think outdoor air quality is something we really need to start thinking about. I know we all are thinking about it but I'm interested in it and how can we assess it but what do we do with the information? I also think indoor air quality is very important as well as we all do. That's it for the Purple Air. Does anyone have any questions? Okay. So thank you to all those great companies or organizations that are helping us. Item D under the Director's Update is the Childhood Immunization Clinic. We started this up in the last two weeks and thank you everyone to help get this going. And Dr. Malay, thank you for writing the orders and just being a champion. So again, what the immunization clinic is is we have childhood vaccines here in the Amherst Health Department, those that are mandated for the school, we provide them to students that are unvaccinated that are underinsured or uninsured and what it does is folks can come up from different countries, out of state, get their children vaccinated and they can immediately go into school. And I've always said it this way that it's one part vaccination and nine parts education. So we've done 16 vaccines already and so happy with that but it was two kids but 16 vaccines sounds better. But what we do is we actually walk them to the window and we say, you see the New Santee Health Center right down there, that's where you can get health insurance. And we've already told Deanna Soler at the New Santee Health Center, she's expecting you. And we walk them down to that beautiful health center down there. So anyhow, thank you everybody for getting that going. It's really satisfying. That's my Director's Update. Oh, thank you, thank you. Now we have public comment. If there's anyone who would like to ask a question or speak, please raise your hand. Okay, so we do. Eric. So Eric, if you can please state your name, where you live. Sure. Can you hear me? Yes. Thank you. It's Eric Backrack. I live on Shootsbury Road in North Hammers. I wanna first thank you so much for your really, you know, continuously, you know, really hardworking Board of Health. And I'm just very, always very impressed every time I sit in a meeting, how seriously you take your work. And that's very gratifying as a member of the public in Hammers. I have spoken to one of you, to the committee before, but it was after I had spoken with the Water Supply Protection Committee. The, my initial contact with the Water Supply Protection Committee arose due to the large number of proposed large-scale solar arrays that would supplant forest land in North Hammers. There's one proposed for North Hammers and there's several proposed that would actually run, be located within the watershed that flows right into the Akins Reservoir. When I addressed the Water Supply Protection Committee last January about my concern about the effect of clear-cutting on the watershed, ground water and surface water, the fact that the three proposed solar arrays in Shootsbury are, that there are two main tributaries that flow right through those proposed arrays that flow directly into the Akins Reservoir, the Dean and the nurse Brooks. And when I raised my question about to the Water Supply Protection Committee about the quality of water and how it can be, how can we rely on consistent quality water as private well owners, they said that they represented the public water supply and that it was the Board of Health that represents private well owners. I was gratified to hear the robust conversation regarding geothermal wells and comments regarding surface water and ground water and aquifers. And at the January meeting of the Supply Protection Committee, they had agreed to appoint a subcommittee that would review the potential impact on clear-cutting on water supply, including private wells. The draft report was released about a week and a half, two weeks ago. And I'm wondering whether anybody from the Board of Health or the Health Department is gonna read the report, gonna respond to the report. In that report, it does say that four and a half to 5% of Amherst residents will lie in well water and most of them are in North Amherst, which is where their number of neighborhoods that have purely rely on well water as their source of drinking water. And I'm wondering whether, given that the solar bylaw working group is relying on this report and to begin to make some judgment about judicious placement of large-scale solar in Amherst. And there is no representative on the bylaw working group from the Board of Health that I'm wondering if you will have any response to the report, whether you will be somebody from the committee or the Board will be included in the dialogue regarding the impact. So we will have to- So, Eric, I don't wanna cut you off, but we do limit the time. I am unaware of this report. I don't know if Jennifer's aware of this report. Can you send us this report? Well, yeah, certainly it's Stephanie Ciccarello has access to the report. The report came right from the Water Supply Protection Committee. I will locate it and send it to you, but I think that it's a public document that really should have actually been sent to you given that you govern and regulate private wells. So I'm surprised- Jen, have you gotten a copy of this report? Well, I just wanna say that the public comment, usually it's not interactive. I'm not used to answering questions. This is true. So, okay, so we are, yes, I'm sorry. So, and it's really two to three minutes. So we're gonna end it there. And I think what we should do is get a copy of this report and look at it. And we can do that at a future meeting. Can I say one thing? The Water Supply Protection Committee will be meeting early November that regarding the draft report. I can give you the specific date if you'd like that, but all public comments regarding the draft report are due by October 28th. So I'm just wanna, I know it's not an interactive, I can't counterpoint, but I'm just concerned as a private well owner about the quality of my work. Okay, thank you. And we will get a copy of the report and look at it. I don't see any other comments. Okay, the last piece on the agenda is topics not anticipated by the chair. I'm just gonna make three comments. One is chief Livingston's gonna come to our December meeting to talk about gun safety risks and protective factors in Amherst and at our current meeting. And at our last meeting I had brought up and it's something for us to consider in the future is wood stoves. And the reason I'm bringing that up is because the cost of heating oil is going up and up. And I wanna just make sure people in Amherst are safe if they're using wood stoves and we can look into that in the future. And I am not gonna be here for the next meeting so we need someone else to chair the November 10th meeting. And with that, there's nothing else on the agenda. Anyone have any comments for the good of the board? And if not, may have a motion to adjourn. I can make a motion to adjourn. For this meeting. I'll second that. Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Maureen, all in favor? Yes. Tim? Aye. And I don't see Lauren here anymore. I don't think so. I think you lost. And I will vote to adjourn too. So thank you everybody. Thank you. Thanks so much. Bye.