 the Board of Health meeting. Welcome to the Board of Health meeting. And pursuant to Chapter 20 of the Acts of 2021, this meeting will be conducted via remote means. Members of the public who wish to access the meeting may do so. There is an online Zoom link at the top of the Board of Health agenda, which can be found on the Board of Health website for people to join. 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 the proceedings in real time via technological needs. In the event that we are unable to do so for reasons of economic hardship and despite best efforts, we will post on the Board of Health website an audio recording of the Board of Health proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting. All Board of Health minutes can be accessed on the Board of Health website. And with that, I will have a roll call. So Maureen. Here. Malek. Steve George. Here. Nancy Gilbert here. And then Lauren and Tim are absent today. And as I said earlier, I double checked with the open meeting laws. A quorum is a simple majority of the members and because we have three attending and there's a total of five, we have a majority. So the first item on the agenda is to review and receive the minutes of the May 5th meeting. So Maureen, it's just you and I. Steve wasn't here. Oh, wow. Can we do that? I mean, is that enough people? No. I think we need to wait. Wait, because Steve can't vote. So we will have to postpone our reviewing and receiving these to our July meeting. Speaking of minutes, Nancy, do you have any recommendations for today's meeting? Jen is having Nancy Schroeder do them, correct? Yep. She's here and she's out there doing a great job. Wonderful. Thank you so much, Nancy. And Jen. Yeah. Thank you. So next, and it's 505, we will have public comment on the agenda topics only and let's see. I don't see. I don't see any hands. Oh, I mean, there are three attendees and I don't see any public comment. Okay. So we will move on to all business and the community health assessment phase three. I spoke with Emily and she's starting phase three and I'm trying to work out with Anita and Lillian setting up a meeting by the end of June that meets with everybody's where they're going to be. So Thursdays afternoons won't work for Lillian. So I'm going to go back and see because there's part of one week that I'm away. So we will have a meeting by the end of June and we'll report in July. So any questions from anybody on phase two? Green Meadow Pool, the update. Susan Malone, thank you for being here. Oh, thank you for the welcome. So we had a very good outcome. It was a little bumpy for a few weeks. But we tried to be patient because there were negotiations going on between Green Meadow and Eversource that were not. They thought everything was all set and it wasn't and they did meet, work it through and finally Sharon, who's the president of Green Meadow, agreed that they would just go ahead and put up some temporary fencing along the carriage lane side of the pool. And I went and I checked and sure enough there it was. It's some dark kind of webbing material. Usually it's an orange color, but they had selected a dark color. And I think it is sufficient as a temporary fix. They don't intend to open the pool this year and they have an ongoing dispute with Eversource around the fencing. And it is still their intention that when they open the pool that Eversource had agreed to replace the fencing with the current code. So I think for the time being, we are all set on the FFA. We can consider that they complied with the order. Susan, I was going to say thank you. Susan, you really stayed on top of this and it was really an important thing. And I appreciate you communicating with everyone frequently. Thanks, Jim. Most appreciated. Thank you. Thank you and I'm glad for everyone that has a positive outcome. I felt so bad for the association. I did because they really had the best of intentions and they had really thought that it was from their past conversations with Eversource that when the board said a deadline that they would not have any problem meeting it. And then when they went back for further discussions with Eversource, they were not met with cooperation. So I do feel bad for them, but the immediate safety issues are resolved. That's great. Whenever I drive down Shays Street or Bay Road, I see they Eversource their massive timbers out with all their machines. And I thought, and they've been out, they've been like that for months, not like, oh, we'll do it and leave. I mean, this isn't going on for. And that goes right through all the backyards of Carriage Lane. No privacy there anymore. Yeah. It's quite dramatic. Yeah. Well, thanks, everybody. Any any other questions for me? Am I all set? No, no. Farmer's luck are going well. Very good. Very good. Great. Okay. Good night, everybody. Good night. Okay, we're going to table the toxic chemical regulations till July because neither Lauren nor Tim are here to present when they're work. Now, because three of us are here, can we still vote on their competent DNA review and vote? Because Steve worked so hard. I want to see his signature. Yeah, Steven and Maureen, but Maureen will still be here. But after this one, Steven won't be. So I want to make sure his signature is on the regulations. The one thing would be, I think legally the three of us can vote on it, but I would hope that the other two that couldn't be here today could also sign if they agree. Yes. So what we can do is the three of us can vote on it and then we can have us sign and then we can re-vote. Does that make sense? I would just think if they agree with it. Yeah, we can just agree that if they vote, that they can agree with it at the next meeting and then they can sign. Would that work? Or even before the next meeting, if they, you know, I don't, I don't really know, like, there's a specific rule about that. We can definitely vote to approve it, but whether they could sign just on their say so that they agree with it, they're, they're, they've been involved the entire time. You're not forced to sign just because. No, because they've been at the hearing. Everybody's at the hearing. Yeah. So like the final step, it's just, yeah. Were there any written comments, Jennifer, because there was a comment period that some people could have submitted? Yes, no, there have not been any. And, and thank you, Nancy Schroeder for doing everything, you know, properly through the Hampshire Gazette. And I believe we have one more responsibility after the vote that we'll take care of on our part, but, but the answer is no one, no one. Yeah. Sorry. I had a question about the actual application or whatever it is that people have to register these labs. And do we have a form and all of that for this process? Somewhere in there? And I just wondered if that needed some work to go forward. Is that something I can do? I think probably my guess is there is something on the previous iteration of these regulations. But before I think it was like an application that required somebody to substantively approve it. This is not that they're just required at least at level two. Yeah. At the levels that are there allowed, they just are going to inform or they're going to have to write what it is they're going to do, but it's not a review. Right, it's a registration rather than an application, I guess. Yeah, let me look into that. That sounds good. So I just when I read through that the other day, I just thought of that we need to have something available for that process. Yeah. Or would a letter on file meet that or would a form be better? I think it should. I think a form because you want to know who's responsible, who's doing it, where it is, and just an outline of what it is they're going to do. Okay. Yeah, my guess is there is something that exists that probably would be pretty close to what we need. Yeah, we'll do a little research and come up with some things and show you. Yeah. We also need a effective date when the when the new regulation will go into effect. Since this mostly is academic year things, should we say September 1st or September 1st? 2020. A chance to look at whatever the process is. Okay. Well, if we approve it, I will take responsibility to make the signature page. And I'll go around and get the five signatures if there are five people who want to sign. Okay. And I'll provide, I'll provide Jennifer, you know, a proper searchable copy of the whole thing. In the past, Nancy signed it where we went, the last one, we went up and signed it. Yeah. So if you just get it to the office, Steve. Yeah, but the thing is, I have a little bit best studies about like the how it will be on the website. And I think it's better if I do it because that way there's a page that has some graphic material. All right. Okay. Okay. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. I'm here until a week from Friday, then I'm gone for a little over a week. We'll do it within the next few days, everybody. Okay. So we need to review and vote on the regulations. I reviewed them when Jennifer sent them out. Thank you. And it all seemed fine with me. We agree. So may I have a motion to accept the recombinant DNA biological laboratory regulations as submitted? I'll make that motion. Maureen, do you want to second it? I'll second it. Okay. So all in favor of the DNA biological laboratory regulations, Steve? I. Maureen? I. And Nancy? I. Okay. Right on here. Okay. Mosquito control update, Jen. Okay. So here's an update. The last meeting we had, the board of health voted to join the Pioneer Valley Mosquito Control District. And then there was deadlock, it was two to do vote on whether to opt out or not of the state reclamation control board spraying. Because of the wording from the last year's Pioneer Valley Mosquito Control District vote to opt in, I had to bring it in front of the town council. So I brought it forward, said the board had approved and the town council agreed to join the Pioneer Valley Mosquito Control District. So I'm very happy about that. Really excited about the services they're going to offer. Trapping starts mid-June. So we're talking about what we're going to put on our website so we can really get that information out to people. So I think the traps are set twice during the month in two different spots. So I think that's going to be pretty exciting. They'll be able to tell us what kind of mosquitoes quantify viral load. So I think that's going to be really helpful. This is stuff we've talked about already. Regarding not opting out of state spraying. So I come to you with more clarity. Because Amherst was designated as a high-risk regional town, we're in the red. So if you look at the map, and I've shown this twice I think now, we're high-risk Belcher Town, everything east of us, Pelham, Ware, Gramby, they're red, they're high-risk. We don't have the option of not spraying. The option is, do we have the state spray or do we have our own vendor spray? So Maureen, you had some clarity. Yeah, I knew we couldn't really not do it. I just didn't know how it worked. Whether the state would just come and do it or would the responsibility for it would be on us. And I didn't understand that part of it. So I think not opting out is the way to go. Or opting in to the state plan is the way to go. Yes. So Pioneer Valley Mosquito Control District this year does not have the ability to spray adult side, larva side. But that's their plan to do it next year. So we'll have some more control out of that. But as it stands, that's where we are. And then just a reminder, Hadley and West of us, they're all green. They have the ability to opt out. So if we hear different information coming from our neighbors, really different designation of our town due to our wetlands, our habitat, and past surveillance of us and our neighbors. I'm not sure if I agree with our designation, but that's what we are. So that's the update on mosquito control. The one thing I do want to say about this that if you go to the Amherst web page, the health department web page, or you can Google it, there is a request for exclusion of private property owners and tenants. So you can sign up to have your your property asked as a no spray area. I don't know how that's going to work. But I want everyone to really know about that. That's an important thing. That's all I have on mosquito control. One question is there a material difference? Like let's say that the town says, okay, now next year we'll do it. Does that mean, for example, that the state would do it by air, but the town could do it by trucks going by? Yeah, you know, I don't know the answer to that. I know there has been discussion that helicopters are more accurate. I think we're always going to have some drift and worry about that. You know, can you get a truck down, you know, the bike path along Lawrence swamp? The answer is yes. So you're right. We might have some more control. That's a good point. Is it possible to opt out as a property owner, even if it's a public health emergency? Or is that again, one of those things that's there's overridden in the public health emergency, I think it might be. Yeah, I don't know the answer to that. And there's I think a special thing for organic farms, but I don't remember what that is. Last year there were aspects of that, but I do not recall with accuracy who could opt out or have a say because of organic farming. And if you didn't want your property sprayed, but I do not recall what it was. And it also can change from year to year. Who knows? Well, thank you. I don't see Earl Miller here yet. I don't. I know he got our invite and agenda. So we'll keep it. I'll keep an eye out for keep it. Yeah. And Earl, Earl Miller, if you're here under a different name, raise your hand. I can give you. Jen had brought up the issue of tanning salons and having them licensed and not licensed in town. So I did some research. We've never had a license for tanning salons. There's a lot of research that UV light from a tanning bed is 10 to 15 times stronger than midday sun. There's been an increase in melanoma in teens who quote unquote tan. And I remember hearing students, we had a tanning salon years ago down on University Drive, where Louise used to be, where the hospice shop, I think it was where the hospice shop is, where the laundromat is, something in there. And I used to hear kids saying, oh, I'm going tanning. And they'd go there. But May 6, 2016, in Massachusetts under chapter 31 of the 2016 acts, Massachusetts prohibited anyone under the age of 18 from using tanning salon and devices. And also that law, if you went to tan and you were over 18, you had to sign a form acknowledging the health risks of using a UV tanning bed. And the law was championed by Dana Farber and the Institute of the American Cancer Society. I checked and the only place and I'm not sure Wilberham may have one UV tanning salon, but I'm not sure. There are salons that offer tanning in East Hampton and South Hadley. But I believe it's now they've moved to spray tanning. So it's not the UV beds. I call Cheryl Nina. They didn't answer. I left my name and number, but they never called me back because their ad says tanning. But I do believe it is probably if they do it at all is spray tanning. Nationally, 27 states and Washington DC have laws saying that no one under 18 can use a tanning salon, the UV bed. 14 states have that someone under 18 can do it with guardian permission. Three states have made that minors for summoning, quote, reasons can use the tanning beds and they allude to a medical reason. And six states have no restrictions. So I don't know, Jim, how you'd like the board to move forward, but I would be very happy having the board do something and say, we don't allow any tanning salons using UV light here in Amherst. Or do we just know that they're not coming? Because there was one or two when they left after the 2016 law and no one else has come in with one. So there are none in Amherst because at the regulations, it looked like there was a process for inspection of all these UV tanning salons or sites. So we haven't been inspecting anything or doing anything for years or since they went out of business. I've been unaware, could have asked Susan Malone or if any of the inspectors had gone to see them. It was only the broad state regulations. I didn't have any tan regulations. And yeah, so your inspections. So, so let me tell you, I just, I think it's a great idea. This was actually mentioned to me by one of the inspectors in passing. So I said, that's a really, really intriguing idea. So let me bring this forward. So, so it's true. There are none licensed right now. So this would be an opportunity if you wanted to explore it. You know, I could take the next step and see if, you know, at the town attorney says it's something that we can do. I think that would be probably prudent if you want me to. Yes. And I went through a lot of towns and in the Boston area looking because it said Dan versus is forbidding tanning salons. But it was it was for people under 18. I could not find but I didn't go to 300 towns and cities to see what regulations they have. But most of it when they say they don't have it, it was after the 2016 State Act that prohibited anyone under 18. So yeah, if you want to follow up and give us a guide as to what to do because it would be fine with me if we put it on the agenda and wrote something that we don't allow these in town. Likewise, I looked around to the only things I found is Australia and Brazil have banned these things in the whole country. Yeah, I did notice that too when I was looking and I went through and looked at the states. Yeah, I did. It was no there are no bans by state. I had written down all the states but you can imagine what ones. But I was surprised at how many had it that it was a total of 27 states and do you see that under 18 can. In terms of the medical uses, there are certain medical uses for certain types of skin conditions where UV radiation is used a lot of dermatologists or some dermatologists have the ability to provide that but it's an unusual thing. Yeah, and it's in a very much more controlled environment. Right. I remember when I was in college, people bought those tanning lights and burned off their faces. It's not good. I mean, all of us who are over 70s spent a fair amount of time trying to get tan. It wasn't a good thing. Natural like in the sun. Yeah, they sold those reflective things that you could and you saw people holding them up at noon to get more on their faces. That was the 60s ignorance. Okay, so Jen, you can give us more information in July on that. Yeah, a little homework. And I don't see Earl here. After the moment where he was scheduled, so it was like on the agenda for 525. We give him five more minutes or should we I'm emailing him. So, okay. Yeah, because I had emailed him and he said yes, he would was looking forward to it. Yeah, he's been so busy. You want me to go ahead? We'll see. Yeah. And if he comes in, we'll just go back. So directors update? Yes. Okay. So COVID update. Our numbers are coming down. Thank you for that sheet. Oh, good. Good. Yeah, you're welcome. I've heard between 6% and 10% of cases are not being reported. I don't know how accurate that is. That was from the Boston Globe. These are PCR tests only. Maybe there's a proctored antigen test, but most people have rapid antigen tests or they're just not testing. So I'm just going to mention while it's on my mind, people can call their rapid antigen results to the health department. We're not keeping account, but we're helping people with contact tracing or support or I'm always plugging Paxlovid. If we had a high number of people reporting, but we just haven't, we've had one or two. But we continue to monitor our other key public health indicators. We go to Cooley Dickinson to see hospital capacity, acute illnesses. But the other thing I really want to bring everyone's attention to, and we've talked about it before, but is our wastewater testing. So if you go to the Amherst Town webpage on COVID, it'll bring you to a link about the BioBot wastewater testing. And there's some really great graphs there, the way that IT has embedded them. We as a department upload them, and then they get automatically uploaded to the webpage. And I had to really look for this. I really wanted to give an accurate number and I found a research paper. And it really, it said that the virus in wastewater testing is detected 10 days prior, approximately 10 days prior to confirmed cases. So if you look at those trends, you can really see that they proceed about a week to two weeks ahead of COVID cases. So we're really happy with that program. Thank you to DPW. They're doing four tests per week, sending them to BioBot. BioBot is also supporting other towns in the state. So you can see Amherst, but you can also see Hampshire County, you can see Massachusetts. So that's been very reassuring to see. One case point for BioBots, not helpful, but really looking at those trends is wonderful. Steve, do you have any thoughts on wastewater testing? No, I've said I was very impressed by what's on the website now. It's very scientifically good, but understandable language. So that's great. That's great. You know, and just considering surveillance, I'll be interested to see what the Department of Public Health does this fall. You know, when we talk about these case numbers, you know, it's a pandemic, we've been really following them. I like putting our daily numbers up, because I really know there are people that really look at our daily numbers and put them into their tables. But at some point, are we going to stop posting these sort of crude numbers? So there may be a time that it comes to that. You know, right now, COVID is not seasonal. It's not like flu. Hopefully it'll come that way, but we're still seeing surges outside of what you would normally see. So I can tell you that right now, 60% of our cases are the BA 2.12, but the BA four and five are 7% in New England. So we'll be watching that and see how that that goes. But you know, I just want to also say that we're six times higher than we were last time at Memorial Day. So that's that's higher, obviously. So I just think back to that time, I just don't know if we were all thinking the same thing that maybe we're just going to sort of skate through this. But fortunately, the numbers are coming down. They definitely are coming down. Yeah. And there was that uptick through graduation. Yeah. And it's nice. You can see, you know, if you looked at wastewater, you can really see that it preceded that those case counts. I think that's what I want to say about COVID cases. Just other COVID updates. We continue with our vaccine clinics. Thursdays, our vaccine clinics, four to three to five, we're doing about 60 case patients or so. Second boosters, first boosters, finish your first series. And then we're rallying our troops to do the the little ones six months to to four years. I really think this is a time that the local boards of health can help. I don't know what pharmacies are going to be able to do. They're allowed to do younger. But I believe they're staying to an older age group. So there's some training that we sent out to our vaccinators. And then one of our pediatrician vaccinators has agreed to do some education. So, Maureen, I'll just ask you, are you comfortable vaccinating that age group? I wrote back to Lillian to say, tell me how to do it. And I will, you know, I have never done that. I, but I'm willing to learn. And I think, you know, it's, it's not so much like how you put the needle and wear, but like, how do you get the baby to be called? There's a lot too. Or the toddler or whatever. So having my only experiences with my own children and sometimes it was easy and sometimes it was hard. Yeah. Well, we have Dr. Scott Cochran. Oh, yes, yes. And so we're going to arrange some education. So we really thank him for that. I don't know. We've been a Pfizer kind of group, but also Moderna is offered Moderna's two shots Pfizer's three. So we haven't decided what we're going to order. But it hasn't neither been approved. You know, we just are waiting patiently through the process. But I'm really happy about that. And on to antigen tests, we don't have the PCR, which we miss greatly, but we have antigen tests. We have the National Guard delivering more next week. That may be our last delivery of free. I hope that's not true. But we, we, we love our antigen tests. They're a great public health tool. We've had a lot of sort of confusion about, about the interpretation. But you know, one, one sort of sort, advertising I saw was if it can detect, you can infect. So assume if it's, if it's positive, assume it's, a yes, you're your trend, you're able to transmit, but if anyone has any questions, please give us a call. And then I just learned tonight, you all may know this, but for a fee, your, your antigen test, your eye health that you can get here for free free can be proctored and it can be official. So if you want it needed a PCR some confirmation, if you pay $25 to iHealth, they can give you an official test result. So people may have known that but I just I just found that out. So that's what I have for a COVID update. I'm going to move on unless there's any other questions. Item D sorry, it's the second item under director's update. The Board of Health packet are going to start being posted on the Board of Health webpage. I thought I had it all set to go in so you could click on a folder and then open up the packets, but it didn't get stacked that way. But I really want to be transparent, open meeting laws. So that's what's going to happen. But I wanted to ask that I do believe the meeting minutes, will those continue to be private? I just don't know if they need to be seen by by eyes before they go out there or if I do a watermark that says draft, but if we have something that's incorrect, I don't I think only approved minutes should go up because it was confusion. And we post them when we say that that, you know, as soon as they're approved, but I really believe do not post the draft until they have been approved. Okay. There could be errors that we need and then misinformation might be getting out. So that sounds great. Let's go with that. And then everyone other people feel that why Steve Maureen, I certainly agreed. One thing to keep in mind is that according to the open meeting law, anyone, not just an average, I think anyone can request the minutes in their current form, even a scribble thing or a draft, they're allowed to request it. But the best way to deal with that is just to approve the minutes promptly and upload them properly once they're approved. And I don't think anybody will take advantage of that. I've been using yeah, thank you. The zoom meetings transcript. There were certain things with the the subdivision that I didn't understand. And I went back. So that's another option for people. Moving on to extreme heat. I just wanted to just briefly say we're all aware of this. We had some really hot days two weekends ago. And I just want to make sure that people know we're talking about it. I don't want anyone cut off guard that things got heated up really fast really soon. The town is aware of when we should be or talks about when we should open cooling centers, you know, the heat index over a period of days, that's when we might initiate a cooling center. And that's through Amherst fire department. But also, I think there's pockets of places people can cool down. Typically the libraries air conditioned and that really attracts people. So the other thing is that the graph park splash pad opened, I think it opened a little bit early. Yeah. And I don't know the hours but I know for that that heat those heat hot days, the times were extended to 8pm. So I was really happy about that because in the past, I'm not sure if there was that flexibility, but but we kept them open. So and then a third thing about heating, I was looking through some of our our documents and in 2018 2017, the board granted a variance to one of the residential dwellings here and older building to change the the heating time. So the heating season is something that may come up in the future. And I just wanted to let people know that we're thinking about that as well. And it may come forward to the Board of Health. If it gets really hot in the future, what does that mean to our tenants of some of these bigger older buildings? So I just want to give the heads up that that's on our radar. But I'm pretty sure that when we did that before, we did we did it without a timeline that it was that it was up to the management that they could change the date. I think in for future years as well as last year, I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure. No, but thank you because I looked at that and I spoke with somebody and we were trying to decide if it was a specific or broader. But there is the sort of different interpretation of the heating season. And does that actually refer to minimum temperatures that need to be maintained or specific dates? So I bring this forward because I had an email from Joe Comaford and Mindy Dom with a different interpretation. So I just want everyone to know that this is something that people called us about called Mindy and Joe and really got some good action. So I'm not sure I understand the whole concept here. So for for example, you know, as I said, I look out at Clark House and Anne Wayland. And I there's there's different types of housing. But I can tell you that this is my understanding. So it may not be complete. Clark House is a really old heating system. So to convert from heat to air condition, you have to drain the boiler, you have the pipes need to be this and that. And it takes a few days to sort of get things up and going. So this conversion is intense labor intensive. So I mean, that's okay if it's labor intensive. But I think they want to do it as infrequently as possible. So the state housing code has that there is a heating system between June 15 and September 15. So I can't be really specific. But my my thought was that it was sort of a stricter interpretation, like that the heat couldn't get turned off until or the AC couldn't get turned on until June 16. But I think what I'm hearing is the interpretation is is that we just need to maintain these minimum standards between September 16 and June 14. I can send some information out. I get it now. I mean, it sounds like what happened in residence halls on college campuses, you know, they have the heat on and then they don't. Yeah, sometimes, you know, it timing isn't always perfect in terms of the seasons in New England, but it's not it's an on off. Yeah, and brought to the brought to us before the issue is climate change and how everything is changing. And even this, you know, it's 95 degrees one day and five days later, it's 40 degrees cooler, you know, it's 52 and how, especially for vulnerable populations. How do we help them not freeze to death or boil to death? So you know, I tell you this, that was my interpretation. But I want you know, there's some real experts that can tell you this information cold. And, you know, the the folks at the Clark House are really good to work with. So so let me do some more research and I can get back to you. But you know, if we got Ed Smith in here, he could just tell you what's going on, you know, quickly. But I just wanted to, like you said, Nancy, bring up the the concept of extreme heat. And what else will be before us? And the homeless, the people without permanent residence population. Yeah. You know, when it gets extremely hot. I know, was it Craig stores or was the fire department that opened up cooling sections? Well, now it's that parking lot is a building construction site. Do we call what they did to last year, the year before a cooling? They had tents with cooling things? Oh, I don't know. I mean, it might have been the summer of the first summer of COVID. I'm blanking. But it was set up. There was a tent, there was ice water, there were fans, there was spray for people without permanent residence. I think homelessness is so pejorative. So I'm moving to people without permanent residence. And I know Craig stores is undergoing a whole leadership change. So I don't know what's happening with them. But that's a population we'll have to sort of look out for too. It's a really good point. I know we used to give out even just sunblock to them. Going to item F Puffers pond, just a general seasonal overview. Puffers pond is a conservation land, a conservation spot. It's not recreation. It comes, you can find information about Puffers pond under the conservation commission. And I just I'm bringing it to our our knowledge because the water quality testing has resumed for the summer season. So you can go to the Puffers pond web page and you can see the first results of the samples. There's two at Puffers and one at Stanley. So if it ever goes over the E coli, you know, they put up the no swimming. And that's when we sort of intersect with the health department. So that's exciting. Any questions about Puffers? My husband didn't answer. That's my brother. Um, so item G, we've brought it up before we'll bring it up formally. But this is Steve and George's last meeting here on the board of health. And we're just going to miss him. I know I'm really going to miss you, Steve. Did you volunteer to help out a little bit? Yes, I'd be very happy if there's things that come up that I could do. I really would be delighted. Okay. Yeah. Yes, because your your wisdom is very helpful. Yeah. And very instrumental helping us with some some complex, you know, issues. And really, you've done it so gracefully. So thank you. That leads into that there's a board of health vacancy. And it's been posted on the web page. So just want to get the word out for that. I just want to say that I really have enjoyed doing this. You know, I think it's, I have a much greater appreciation for the great work of the health department and the board. I really didn't know that much about it before. And it's very good to have as many people as possible rotate through so that people will appreciate what's going on. So thank you all very much. I really have enjoyed doing it. And I want to just give you a little heads up or maybe threat. There is one item that I'm thinking about bringing to the board is something that is not a life threatening health situation, but it is well within the board's purview. And it's something that is, you know, I just felt it was sort of personal privilege to do while I'm on the board. And what it is is gas powered so called leaf blowers. These are machines that started off up until, you know, eight or 10 years ago, they were just, you know, for a few weeks in the fall, there would be people blowing leaves around they are now basically the size of shoulder fired anti aircraft missile launchers. They have, I regularly measure the volume at 85 decibels in my yard. They are now used eight months of the year from mid April to mid December. So for the greatest part of the time, they're not blowing any leaves unless you botanically claim a leaf of grass is a leaf, but mostly they're blowing dust, which in my neighborhood is a lot of powdered dog poop. And so these are menace. They are way too noisy. They're not like a construction noise that's unavoidable. They're completely unavoidable. 100 municipalities in America have banned them, including San Francisco and Washington DC. And I see that recently, Lexington Mass has a very thoughtful ban that's phased in that treats commercial versus privately owned differently and so on. So it's something that if there's public support that I'll check on. It's something I might bring to you all sometime soon. Okay. Thank you. Harding agenda. Yeah. I think you'll get a lot of support here. I think we have to have complaints about them frequently. And they pollute too. That type of engine is an alternative, which is electric. That's very available. So they should. Yeah. And I see a huge movement to electric because we have to replace our lawnmower and you really don't see gas lawnmowers. We got a battery powered lawnmower. It works very, very well and it doesn't make much noise and it's very light. So I see movement to that. Hopefully. Okay. I have one more thing. Remote meeting. Yeah. So the extension to the remote meeting provision expires July 15. I want to let people know that I just got information from Joe Comaford. There's a state Senator Brownberger that filed an amendment 1114 to this act hoping to extend the remote meeting provision to December 15, 2023. So we are still good for next month to be remote, but we'll have to report back to you to see what's going on with that. 2023. Fingers crossed will be, you know, the pandemic will be super endemic. And but I think also part of this is that it's really increased participation by residents to keep that going. We've really had a lot of residents say they've gotten involved. They didn't know what was going on in the town. So I don't know how you have felt about it as board members. I've enjoyed the remote. I do miss seeing people in person and sort of it's sort of more of an open banter. But I think this outweighs. I wish financially we could do the hybrid like the town council does. That would be ideal. Yeah, we may be doing that. Nancy, thanks for bringing that up. Yeah. Okay. Thank you very much, everyone. That's it. Public comment. I also have two topics I do want to bring up that and maybe I will bring those up because the public might want to comment on one or two of either either one of them. One is the zero waste composting and curbside pickup. Darcy Dumont has sent an email today and one of the town counselors has requested to put this on the town council agenda. There's an increased number of endorsers. One thing was we have printed it out. Now I can't find it. We made a motion in January. Here it is. We made a motion in January that the board of health supports the zero waste Amherst proposal for a pilot project to include curbside trash, recycling and compostable materials pickup in the basic service and is asking for the input from the town council and the town manager's manager for action on the zero waste Amherst proposal to move forward on the proposal. We made that in January. Has there been any action? Do we need to write a letter to the town council or what to follow up on that? Also, I was looking at old minutes for the next topic I was going to put up. On February 2017, I was not on the board. I was off the board then. At that point, on the topics not anticipated, Julie Federman brought up a topic February 2017 that we should think about prohibiting compostable materials from being placed in the household trash and require curbside recycling for compostables. And that was brought up in February 2017. So it had been brought up to the board back then. I just found that. So I just wanted to bring that forward to see should we put this on for the July review to see if we need to write a letter or what should we do to the town council and the town manager? I can let you know that I told the town manager of what you said and relayed that to him. So they have that information. A letter is your decision. Steve and Maureen, what do you think? Is what we just hear from Darcy about going to town council or being on the agenda. Is that happening? That Shalini, I don't know how to pronounce her name. I'm sorry. Requested for it to be put on the town council agenda, whether it's put on or not. And Darcy's in the panel. Can we ask her? Yep, she has her hand raised. Can you let her in there? OK, OK, Darcy. All right, Darcy, we should be able to talk. Yeah, thank you for bringing this up again. I think that it would be great if the board could underscore what they moved in in January, as far as just encouraging the council to get and the I know that there have been conversations behind the scenes about getting it on the agenda. I'm not sure what the hold up is. Shalini did bring it up at the Monday meeting at midnight or whenever it was the very last moment of the meeting when they asked about future agenda items. That was great that she brought it up and to try to, you know, let other counselors know that this conversation has been going on. But if the board could also encourage and remind them that you had asked for this back in January, that probably would be really helpful because I'm not sure all the counselors are aware of that. And I do know that at least five counselors are very, very interested in the proposal. And of course, you know, the number of organizations that support it. So it's just a question of getting it on the agenda so that it can get referred to probably the town services and outreach committee so that then, you know, if there are issues, they can just be brought up in the committee and they can be fully discussed because there are a lot of people that are interested in discussing them. I remember when we discussed this way back in the January or something, one of the sticking points was that it would require staff time on the part of finance people or others to develop a proposal that was concrete enough to do evaluate. Is that is that I think maybe there were some resistance that the town was very flat out of its staff time and there wasn't a possibility of doing that. But is that part of the still part of the plan to do that at some point? Because that's really kind of independent of the council. Yeah. And I think that's that's the type of issue that if you get something on the agenda and it gets referred to the town services and outreach committee, the first thing they'll do is ask the town manager what he thinks the issues are. And then it can be fully aired about whatever he might see as an issue. If there is, you know, that that staff issue would be one that could that is a startup issue. And so there are two separate questions, you know, how much staff is needed to just get a billing system in place? And then is there any additional staff needed to run the system in the long term? If it's a contract with the hauler? The hauler would be doing most of the work. And so that it's just a question of airing these things publicly in a town services and outreach committee meeting and seeing where it goes. And Steve, I think what happened was at our November meeting the motion was made for the Health Department to create a working group that would review the present regulations for refuse collection and mandatory recycling. And we we we identified who would be in this working group. And then Paul Bachman said, no, we don't have the staff to form this committee. So that that was one thing he said back then, because it was two members of the Board of Health, one member of the public work staff appointed by Guilford Mooring, one sanitarian the member from the sustaining Amherst, the coordinator, two zero waste Amherst members and a town health director as ex officio. And we and that was what Paul said, we don't have the staff to form that committee. And then that committee as as it was written by as it was, yeah. So right, another committee might have a different. Yeah, right. So we couldn't form that committee that the board was recommending. And then our retort to that was the the motion in our January meeting. And do you want me to repeat that motion? OK. So so what do you think about writing a letter to the town council saying that we voted on this in January and we. Want to know what what they're doing seems reasonable. It's six months. Or maybe in July to do that, you know, after we see if anything happens right now, I don't know. So Jim, do you want to bring it up again with the town manager? And then if we don't get any feedback in July, send a letter for an update. I think the next step is to you decide if you want to write a letter, I can show him the minutes again if you want. But but I would say that it's it's been discussed. And I think to move it, you know, with any momentum, I think a letter would benefit. OK. So what do what do the members think about sending a letter to the town manager and the town council, noting that we had this motion that we voted on in January. It was brought forth to the town manager and we just want an update. Sure. Steve. Good. Yeah. OK, so I need a motion and then I'll write a letter. You don't. I can make a motion that we should write a letter. To the town council and the town manager. Requesting further information about any actions on the request that we made in January concerning. Curbside compost. Pick up as part of long motion here as part of the routine. Trash hauling contract. Second. Second. Any further discussion is removed in second. OK, so we'll vote on it then. No discussion. Maureen. I. Steve. I. And Nancy. I. OK. I'll look on that letter and have it done by Monday and I'll send it to you, Jen, on Monday. I'll send a copy both of you before that. Great. OK. Then the other topic not anticipated. That I want to bring up is gun violence and gun safety. And the American Public Health Association says it's a public health issue in October of two thousand and fifteen. Julie Marcus and I put gun safety on the board of health agenda. And both of us attended an public health association webinar and did a lot of research February of two thousand and sixteen police chief Scott Livingstone was a guest at the board of health meeting. And when you look at Massachusetts, Massachusetts does a pretty good job with gun safety and we've been very fortunate. We, you know, we we haven't had any horrible things happen yet around here. So our gun laws are OK. The police have safety locks available. All applicants for gun permits are interviewed by the police. This is the information we got in two thousand and sixteen and they give locks at our March six two thousand and sixteen. Meeting we discussed the importance of having pediatricians and. Ask about guns in the home along with, you know, do you do you have a do you come in a car seat or a seatbelt? Do you wear a bicycle helmet? We felt that you should ask is there a gun in your home and is it safely locked? We also talked about having a kindergarten screening at schools if they're guns and homes and there's free locks available through the police department. But then there was all this discussion. It doesn't have it in the minutes because I was rereading all these minutes. There was pushback because way back in like two thousand and fourteen. I think in Florida, some pediatricians started asking that question and then I don't know if it was the NRA. They got it up in arms and there was some suit. And at one point, you know, eight, ten years ago, pediatricians weren't allowed to ask that question. But now they can, you know, I don't know if they're asking it or not. In April, the board identified mayors against illegal guns, which is every town for gun safety, which was founded by Mayor Bloomberg and Mayor Tom Marino out of out of Boston. And we asked the board to ask the select board about joining at our June meeting to join the the mayors against illegal guns. My term expired in June of two thousand and sixteen. So I was no longer on the board. Supposedly, there was going to be an intern that summer doing a gun safety project and there was going to be a report. But I was off the board and couldn't find anything. And then I followed through in the minutes and in October of two thousand and sixteen, gun safety was deferred and I couldn't find it any place else. And if you look at national approaches to the epidemic, the public health approach to gun violence and prevention is to define and monitor the problem, identify the risks and protective factors. The last time we looked at it, we had a lot of protective factors going on. Develop prevention strategies and ensure adoption of effective strategies. I just felt and there was another mass shooting today in Maryland right before the board. Yeah. You know, it's like how many every day's are we having shootings? So I just wanted to bring it forth to see if as a board, do we want to review what's going on? I'm sure people are calling the schools and saying, what are you doing? I'm sure people are calling the schools and saying, what are you doing to keep my kids safe? It's just the amount of death by this gun violence. Last week, it was like there were two hundred and some odd people were not even halfway through the year and two hundred and some odd people have been killed by gun violence in some kind of mass shooting, whether it was three people or six people or the poor kids in in in Texas. But I just wanted to bring it up because it's every day when I see the news, it's just a heartache in and it is a public health issue. And I don't know if if we can do anything, what we want to do. If we just want to review it again and ask chief livingston, what's happening? Can we do anything? I don't know what your thoughts are. I'll be quiet now and you can give me feedback. I do remember the discussions when I joined the board in two thousand six. I think one thing that came and I was left. I remember well, is that it's easy for us as a board to say, teachers must do something, pre-nutrition must do this and that. You know, there's so many pressures on those people. Tell you know, advising them, giving them information is one thing. But to try to mandate what people must do when we don't know their scope of their job and everything else is I think people were very reluctant to start making laws like that. You must do such and such. That's that's one thing I remember. So I hope that I agree with that. I think it would be very good to make sure information is available. And of course, encouraging people to do something is fine. But I would be skeptical about starting to tell people what they must do when we don't know all the stuff that they're having to deal with already. Well, I wasn't I'm not saying tell teachers what to do or anything. I'm just saying look at the look at the problem. Yeah. And then identify the risk factors here in our town and the protective factors in our town. And then see if we can develop any preventive strategies with not just the board, but with other people in town and then see if these are are effective. Because also if you look at the health impact pyramid, you know, the bottom may the health impact pyramid on gun violence is look at identifying the socioeconomic economic factors address inequity and structural racism, change the context, second, change the context to make individual default decisions healthy, past universal background, background checks, firearms, licensing, repeal, stand your ground, long lasting, protective interventions are extreme risk. And the top is safe storage campaigns and firearm training courses. I just don't know if you want to put it on the agenda to look at and review it to look at our risk and protective factors in town. It sounds like it's been eight years. It seems reasonable to take another look. I can check in with Earl Miller from Cress. Yeah, I wish he were here because I would have fed in with him because, you know, he's really they're really looking at the bottom of the pyramid of of of where we can help with prevention. And so I'm I'm maybe he can come to our July meeting. And then we can also ask. Chief Livingstone, if he or or representative from the police department, you know, what's happening with them? How are things progressing? Well, because I remember back then it wasn't in the minutes, but I remember him saying, well, we know where every registered gun is in our town and they have locks. And we also have a good idea where every illegal gun in town is. Um, you know, that that man who who had back pain and he went and shut up the doctor's office. I mean, we could have a disgruntled student here now. We could have at the college or the university, we could have anything. I mean, it's just it's just become so pervasive. And I want to make sure, you know, I know back then the university, I don't know about Amherst College, they were all talking, you know, what if we have a shootout, a gun? You know, what will we be doing? So I would like to just get more information to see where the problem is. And as I said, really look at the risk and protective factors, because after our last review, I felt we had quite a few protective factors in town, and I hope we still do. So how would you like to proceed to you and I, Steve? Steve will be gone. You shouldn't say what you should do. I definitely not. Oh, I don't know. The first step really is maybe to get more information from the police department and update and maybe also if we how how Chris is looking at this as as a public health issue and what their role might be in this. You know, I. And also how schools look at it, you know, from their safety procedures, eventually, you know, sort of just kind of recollect some of this information and and and try to see how it stacks up to some of the better models of prevention and education. Yeah, I think you're right about Florida had the law that doctors couldn't ask that question. I don't think Massachusetts ever doesn't, but it made it made people leery because this was way back to 2015, 2016. No, my brother-in-law will practice medicine in Florida and he was appalled. But yes, yes, I think maybe putting it on the agenda so we can gather more data to monitor the problem and and identify the I like the idea of identifying the protective factors that are that are going on and then and also the risk factors, but also getting Mike Morris involved because I'm sure parents are worried about schools after Sandy Hook and Texas and not to mention Florida and Columbine and all the others added up. Not that there isn't room for improvement, but Massachusetts is the second lowest rate of gun death in the country right to Hawaii. Right. But it could be better. And and then really to see how our protective factors are and can we improve any more of those because. OK, what do you think of that, Jen? Yeah, you know, I I think it's a great thing that we should be considering. And I like the idea of figuring out how to do it. Yeah, I didn't mean to sort of do the super surprise. A Darcy called me today in this. So I was just looking back at the gun thing over the past few days because every day when I look at the newspaper here, the news when we're killing in Pennsylvania over the weekend, Philadelphia. It was like, yeah. And I can tell you, you know, the police are doing things. You know, we have Alice training here in the town. And, you know, I get snippets what they're doing in the in the school system. Yeah. So I think really for us to just get it again, another overview on the problem and the protective factors and what did what do what did the police and what did the school look at? They see as risk factors that we. And if is there anything we can do to support them? Nancy, can we jump over public comment? Oh, yeah. Yes. And then we were going to go back to public comment because Darcy was going to. I knew Darcy was going to public comment. So we'll go back to public comment. Are there any comments? Any hands? OK. Yes, Darcy. All right, Darcy, unmute and state your name and where you live. Hi, this is Darcy, two months. I live at Pondview Drive. I will not, you know, I'll I'll allow you to just read the public comment that I sent in. I don't want to take any more of your time. I really appreciate your being. You're sending a letter to the time council. I think that will really help things a lot. And just want to thank you for all your work. It's amazing, the array of issues that you consider on a Thursday once a month. Thank you very much. Thanks. Thank you, Darcy. And keep up your good work. Thanks. I don't see any other public comments. Our next meeting is July 14th. And without any other anybody else have a comment? If not, I would like a motion to adjourn. Nancy, can I just ask you there was some consideration to not having an August board of health? Yes. Is that something we want to do? We can always convene if there's something. OK, yeah. And we talked about, and I missed it up here, not having an August meeting. When I was first on the board, we only had like nine meetings a year. Sometimes we didn't have one in December. Generally, there was never one in August. So what did the board think about? Not having an August meeting, but if there was an emergency call meeting sounds reasonable. Steve, I know you're not going to be here, but there's just three of us to there's no need for it. Unless something comes up, it seems like there's no need for an August meeting. So I'll make a motion to not have an August meeting. And if some emergency measures come up that we have to act on, we can always post a meeting and call a meeting. Can I have that seconded? Second. OK. Any further discussion? Nancy, Earl Miller is here. Oh, do you want to invite? Yes, or it's an hour after his scheduled meeting. We can invite him back if it's possible next month. So up to you. Well, let's just vote on this, not having the August meeting. Oh, sorry to sorry to interrupt you. OK, so no August meeting all in in favor of vote. Maureen. I. Steve. I and Nancy I. OK, Earl. Yeah. What do you think is best? I'm so sorry, I can give you the quick version of the spiel. If that would be helpful and then come back for more in depth later. I'm incredibly sorry. Yeah, why don't we have you come back in July? But if you just want to say a few words now. But no, I just want to appreciate, Jennifer, the kind of collaboration we're getting from the health department has been immense. I'll tell you that all the other approaches to this challenge nationally are really kind of public health focused and led. And so us being public safety, it was really important that we have her support. And so I just want you to know the work you do is meaningful to us and be in time for you to have a robust and meaningful role in what we do. Thank you, Earl. I look forward so much to collaborating with you and supporting you and your mission and your new staff. And you're coming to the Bang Center. We're really excited about that. It's a great community. I think we're going to make a real impact. I will see you all in July. Thank you. In July and Earl, we have something for you. We're putting on our agenda. A public health approach to gun violence and prevention. It was on our agenda in 2016. And we're going to be looking at defining and monitoring the problem and identifying risk and protective factors that we have here in Amherst to move forward to if there's any way we can work with other people to develop preventive prevention strategies and adoption of strategies. So if you can add to that discussion in July, anything I can do. I people have, I think, are really hungry for that conversation right now. And I think you're the right. I think it's important that you're the folks leading that discussion. OK, so it is on our agenda that it has become an epidemic. Fortunately, in our discussion early, fortunately, Massachusetts, it has not been a pervasive problem, but we want to keep it that it's not a problem. So which is absolutely linked to gun access. If you look at the suicide rate, you can line that up with a list of access to guns in states. And it's the most common use of guns in this country is suicide. So I think we're in the right place. So that will be on our July agenda. And we'll invite you back to give us an overview of the program crest and how it's progressing now that you're up and running. Thank you so much. OK. And apologies. I'm very sorry this will happen again. OK. I was glad you were able to check in. OK, so before we adjourn, is there anything else? Jen or any other members for the good of. The board. You and if Nancy, you and Marie would like to give me a time tomorrow when I can come by, she can sign the biological safety thing. Do you have the time you'll be home tomorrow? I will. You tell me and I'll make sure I'm here. I get up early or I could even walk by your house. Tell me when you'll be home. I'll definitely come at that time. I just have to run out to go to the grocery store for a couple of things. So you tell me and I'll be here. 8 30 a.m. 8 30 I will be here. OK. I have a kind of crazy day tomorrow. I'm leaving the house at five o'clock in the morning. So it won't be back till Sunday. So I was at your email that you could tell me what. Yeah, we can figure something out Monday. That's good. OK, thanks. And Steve, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We're going to miss you. Thank you for your work. You're very welcome. I really appreciate your knowledge and. Just attention to detail and has helped us immensely. Thank you so much. OK. OK, so may have a motion to adjourn. So move. We have a motion. Can I have it seconded? I'll second. OK. So all in favor, adjournment, Steve. Hi, Maureen. Hi, Nancy. I will thank you all. See you July 14th and we'll take a hiatus in August. Thank you all very much. OK, thanks. Thank you, Nancy Schroeder for doing the minutes. Yes, thank you. Thank you, Nancy.