 Webinars being recorded. All right, and we're still waiting on one when the board health member, so we'll give a few minutes Such a beautiful day today. Yeah, I Spend it pulling up digging up the Dahlia's finally because they had to freeze like two weeks ago before you're supposed to get them out of the ground Usually freezes before November like fourth or something like that, but those crazy this year Yeah, I didn't finish the yard work. See is Lauren up yet. I got an email. Okay, so With the email from Lauren. Yes, so I'm re giving her a new screen name and then I can promote her to panelists. It's just a few steps. It's not allowing me. Lauren, if you can unmute. We can hear you. I don't learn. Can you unmute Yes, I can hear me. Right. So I'm not able to promote her to a panelist, but is this going to be okay if she's able to speak I'm home and I'm going to open up my computer now, but I just wanted is the last time it was in and out. So it's better for me to, you know, I think he's both on the phone. So I can hear the whole meeting and then just be visible on my computer, but I'm going to open up my computer now. Yeah, so you can keep the You can keep the voice off the computer and Yeah, yeah, yeah on the phone. Okay. Yeah, yeah, I gotta do all this kind of Mitchy matchy stuff. Okay, but I'm here. Okay. Do you feel comfortable if we start Yes, yes, yes. Okay, great. Okay, so I will call the meeting to order and read our usual piece 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. via zoom or by the phone. Our zoom link is on the top of the Board of Health agenda found at the Amherst Board of Health website and the information for dialing is at the bottom of the agenda. No in person attendance of members of the public will be permitted, but every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access proceedings in real time via technical assistance. Proceedings in real time via technological means 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 and minutes of the proceedings as soon as possible. So I will start by roll call. So Steve here, Maureen here, Tim here. And Lauren here. Great. Okay, so the first before we even do our minutes. I want to just congratulate Jen. She's been appointed as our full time director And she's been doing a yeoman's job as interim director director public health nurse and everything. So thank you for all you've been doing. And I hope We can give you all the support you need in your role as director. Oh, thank you. Nancy is the board and all the board members and everybody. It's just, it's, it's an honor. I'm really happy to be here. Great foundation and it's a great teamwork and looking forward to working with everybody. We have some good shared plans and goals. And we have such continuity. Okay, so the first Item on our agenda is the meeting minutes from our October 14 meeting. And then also we have our November 2 meeting. So on the October 14 meeting. Does anybody have some comments. Yeah, I didn't actually saw a couple of things. I read these things before I send them in, but then somehow I don't miss this. So under Board of Health member appointment to say that Lauren was welcomed by the board, it says It calls us the Board of Health, the capital T, and that's not necessary. It's not like in Boston where some people say the law school or the medical school, you know, darn well what they mean, even though there are several of those institutions. We're just the law, the Board of Health, so it should not be capital T. And also, there's a completely nonsensical sentence. I do not know what I was thinking, but it is On the top of the second, the top of the second page. Let's see. Totally, sorry. So the phrase is because of the decrease in volume of recyclable. Oh yeah, it's the it's the last in the last sentence of the second paragraph on your waste hauler zero waste committee presentation. Calculations predict that the cost of trash disposal disposal for each household should go down under this plan. That's all good. But then it says because of the decrease in volume of non recyclable waste. So that's bullshit. That's nonsense. So just delete because of the decrease in volume of non recyclable waste. Right. Okay. Thank you. Sorry about that. Yeah. And I just have one, just under toxic chemicals 2001 Timothy and Lauren Mills will work on reviewing and revising the toxic chemical regulation so that really we review and then if needed revise Review and revise. Okay, good. Yes, but Anybody else see anything. Okay, may have a motion to accept the minutes as corrected. Correct. Yep. We'll make the motion to accept the minutes as corrected may have a second. I'll second. Okay. Okay, all in favor. Steve. Hi, Maureen. Hi, Tim. Timothy. You're me. Hi, Lauren. Is that my Yes, I Okay, and Nancy I okay then we have the minutes from the November 2 when we gave a variance to Craig's doors. Anybody have any comments on that. No No Okay, can I have a motion to accept them. I'll make the motion to accept the minutes of the November 2 meeting as presented and have a second. I'll second the motion. Maureen. Okay, all in favor Maureen. I Tim. Hi Lauren. Hi Steve. Hi And Nancy I. Okay. Thank you. So on under all business, we're going to review and update the regulations. I want to just really emphasize that we need to have a plan for we to routine reviewing of the regulations and the ones that we had identified are the recombinant DNA which were and there's a it's 2008 and what I found when I looked at them in the old regulations, these regulations are effective as of April 17 2008 the board shall annually review these regulations and may make such recommendations as it deems necessary and appropriate. So I know Maureen and Steve were going are going to be working on it. I didn't hear get any more information from Cheryl Sabara. I think she's very busy. Do you need time, a plan? How do you want to work on that? I think we sort of have a plan. So yes, Maureen and I have been in touch and I also talked to Alex Purdy at Amherst and John Castorino who is a molecular biology at Hampshire. Those are the only two places that our regulations affect at the moment because we don't do UMass and there are no companies in town that do this as of now. Anyway, I think certainly my idea and Maureen can say if she agrees with this, but these regulations are more like from 1978 than 2008. They are way out of date. You know, and I remember I'm probably the only one of this committee that was even alive in the 1970s, but I remember that I was also very worried about what's going to happen with this recombinant DNA. And this recombinant DNA was totally new. It was going to be putting a gene from, you know, a human gene in a bacterium. And even if the human gene was innocuous and the bacterium was harmless, nobody could be sure that it wouldn't be a terrible thing that it might create a terrible epidemic or something. So it was all too good to have that kind of regulation. And that's where that comes from. So there is no need to even lead with recombinant DNA. The recombinant DNA as a practice is not inherently dangerous. However, the town has a legitimate interest in preventing infectious agents from spreading, I suppose, even though no other town that we can find seems to have this regulation. A few large cities do, but, you know, Williamstown Mass doesn't Wellesley Mass doesn't Brunswick, Maine doesn't, you know, places that have colleges do not do this, but we could, you know, if we didn't have this regulation now we would not be putting it in. So you could say, Well, maybe we should just get it off the books. On the other hand, that might set the wrong message that open season on doing dangerous things. So we're just going to try to scale this down, make it more reasonable, make it target the issue that is really the concern that is the containment of infectious agents used in research. And I think we could have a much simpler straightforward regulation without incredible threats of $4,000 worth of consulting and this and that that's in there, if we do that. So that's, that's the approach that I would take and we can do that probably by the next meeting. Um, I guess I just had questions about, as I was reading through this, if what record do we have in the health department of any kind of registration or permits or inspections, did we ever do it? I'm not aware. It's a file cabinet somewhere. Director as the agent of the board. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Alex pretty at Amherst said that they have been sending certain documents that are required under this. But they asked, is this really necessary? They never got to respond. Not from, not from Jennifer, but. No, I didn't Jennifer just took that seat. Yeah, it's not fair. Anyway, I just wonder if there is, if there is any history, you know, of missing. And also, if, you know, the emergency planners or fire and, you know, have any concern, but they have any concerns. That's a good point. Well, we can certainly take a look here in the health department, but you know, when health department, we split with the health inspections and inspection services, some things over there. So we definitely can, can dig into this. And I think in 2008, Epi Bodie was the director of the health department. I think Julie came in 2010. Julie might have been the public health nurse in 2008 she was the public health nurse and she went to the Hadley school system. Then she came back as the director. And what did you find, Steve, when you talked to the folks at Amherst and Hampshire? Are there many level two labs? Is there any level three lab anywhere? No, no level three, there is something called level two plus, which is also I think sometimes called level two slash three. What it means is that the organism. So that means that the lab is physically set up for level two containment, but some of the individual practices like how many what sort of hazmat suit people need to wear or whatever is level three. So it's a hybrid. There is none of that now but Amherst has a new person that might do some of that research. But other than that, Amherst has only level two and obviously level one and Hampshire has only level one. Which we don't need to, we do, we did say we wanted them to let us know though, right? Oh, that is. That's like student labs practically, isn't it? Exactly. We should not be dealing with level one at all. It's just ordinary practices. There's no indication that it's dangerous. And, you know, just excuse my ignorance, but you know, I read about CRISPR and how things have gotten so easy to move genes around etc etc. Is there any thought that there are increased risks, not maybe even in animals and humans, but in plants or, I don't know, whatever. Yeah. One thing that Alex mentioned from Alex was the professor at Amherst, who's their IBC director. She said that NIH requires the preparation of a formal risk assessment or anything of level two and above. And that would be the sort of thing that would be included in that risk assessment. And so it would not be a huge problem for those risk assessments to be shared. In fact, I think Alex said that the predecessor of them are being shared, but she never got any feedback. She's been sending something over to the health department. So asking for the risk assessment, sort of like the worst case scenario type of thing in these experiments, which are not inherently dangerous, but you know, maybe some terrible failure of containment or something. And so the health department might want to collect those I guess. That would not be a problem to do that. Yeah, at level two and above. Yeah. I just got the April 17 minutes up and it says under our DNA regulations, the board reviewed input received, including input from the public hearing changes were made including a permitting cost of up to $4,000. The board authorized Ms. Bode to either confirm or lower this amount. The regulations were passed unanimously so that to end the month before the minutes are online. So that's, that's all that's there. And Epi Bode took the minutes. And that's that. Can I ask a quick question? So the biosafety and safety of research labs and any labs have multiple jurisdictions from the federal government. We have state government regulations. These are like, you know, CDC to NIH, very strict data in terms of monitoring and having an emergency plan and all those things. So my question is, what is not covered that we are covering? Well, one thing to note is that, of course, the NIH and CDC, that's not a national law. Those are guidelines and you have to agree to it to get funding. But you don't have to, you know, a person could in their basement might not follow those. And I don't think they would be in jeopardy violation of any law if they didn't. So that is a kind of consideration that could come in here that these, that these are, you know, in fact, these, these guidelines says very specifically, these are not regulations. There are recommendations and you have to square to follow them if you're getting funding and the local colleges have agreed to follow them, whether they're federally funded or not. And I guess I didn't actually find that there were state regulations of this, this area, but maybe I missed something when I was looking, I looked at the Department of Health. I did see the federal guidelines and, and some towns had had regulations quite similar to this. I think, I think Cambridge was like, the first one in the country to do this back in the 70s, 1977. But a lot of places where they're more intense biotech companies and things seem to have a more vigorous regulations of pathogens and DNA, or recombinant DNA technology. So in this state regulations, the Mass Department of Public Health has one of ICMR and those are regulating lab spaces, you know, the regular basis, you know, they monitor. And I think there is a nice document developed by a Boston, I think it's a Boston University that was just looking at it and I can, I can share it with you, you know. It's a biosafety and microbiological and biomedical labs, you know. They list all the regulations at various levels. The NIH is one of them. I agree that they make the recommendations because if you're getting a funding, you have to comply and then sign off on things. But there's also specific regulations on recombinant DNA technology, disease surveillance. There's also select agent rule which covered by Health and Human Services. USDA has some, they cover some of the invasive species and plant species. Department of Transportation in terms of spread. So, there's a lot of guidelines everywhere and I just wanted to make sure. We are being some sort of not, you know, we don't want to actually assume that there's no regulation and then have redundant type of a policy. You know, if we could find something which is very critical for Amherst because we are a college community and we can focus on that in our regulation. Maybe I can share that page with Steven. Please do. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Timothy. Yeah. Well, one of my thoughts was, why does the town need to know about this? And I guess that it might be in part something to do with emergency preparedness if there was some kind of odd thing that occurred in some kind of organisms or toxins were somehow released when they shouldn't have been. But in terms of our going in and inspecting and overseeing those things, we don't have the technical capabilities of doing that. And I don't know that that makes sense. But the NIH guidelines do require to report certain types of, you know, departures from the procedures. There's some accident or something. And I think the town guidelines just say if you have to do that, you must also tell the town, which is a good policy. I think our last meeting, Steve, you talked about bio safety. I think looking at this regulation is safety in case there is a release of something and also to know where, where some of this experimentation might be going on so we know it. We know it's at Amherst College. Unfortunately, we don't know what's going on at UMass and a lot is going on at UMass. But if there was anything that got into our systems, our sewer system or anything, what happens, where does it go? If it's, if it goes into the air, is there a safety issue? So I think it's really knowing where it is in case there is an accident or a departure from something that's safe. Yeah. I think. So keeping this, you said as simple as possible to promote safety. And can I just ask a clarifying question? Are we talking about bio safety that is happening in the two colleges that we connected to somehow we oversee? And you said it's Amherst and Hampshire. Yes. That's right. Yeah. Yes. Because somehow for reasons that aren't clear to us, the UMass is not under our jurisdiction in this case. I think UMass is not under jurisdiction for many things, right? I mean, you don't, you don't, we can't make a mask mandate down there or anything. It's like we need risk mapping or risk assessment, you know, on where the hotspots are and the second part is going to be emergency preparedness. Probably there is, our emergency offices are probably are prepared for that, so any type of an outbreak. But I think those are two things I think if something we could be prepared, you know, and keep it updated. You know, probably that is something we should think about. I'm just wondering, who is the contact for the Amherst College and Hampshire College labs? You said Hampshire College is a level one, and that's the lowest level. So, what is it that we need to know directly from the actual colleges? Is that, is that a good question? Yeah. So in other words, I think what Timothy is saying is we should know if there's, if there's research being done at level two or higher. There won't be any level three at either of those institutions, but there could be that level two plus or something. So for those we should want to know about that it's being done and what the, and we'd like to know their risk assessment that they're required to make. So we would get nothing from Hampshire basically because they're not doing anything above level one, but we would get that information from Amherst. And I guess if you have level two or above, you also have to have this biosafety committee. And on the campus, so that's who Steve was communicating with is the director of the biosafety committee at Amherst. And I don't think Hampshire has that, or do they? I just identified the person there who was doing that kind of work and that's John Castorino, but he said there's they have a person who's the manager of their science building. And she does all the stuff about lab safety and so on. So I know who she is. And so she would be the one that we would be dealing with there. Okay. If we deal if we do, I think we Hampshire will be, except for assuring us that they're not above level one, I think we won't be dealing with them at all. Any other discussion. I mean, related to that, in addition to the risk mapping, we wanted to know what is the liability, you know. You know, if there is some sort of an accident or whatever it is, who is liable? I mean, that usually, you know, in legal terms, it comes under strict liability because if you're holding a dangerous substance, you know. But that is something we also need to explore, you know, in our emergency preparedness. I'm a little confused because if it's on a campus, then the liability would be with the campus. So I'm not able to see exactly what we're trying to draft for this, for biosafety. I'm trying to find it in my emails, but I'm just wondering. I just, I'm trying to understand what, what's the town we're trying to do actually or decrease the risk or find out what the risk is. I'm just going to clarify that. I'm sorry. That's a good question. Yeah, I think the idea is that, you know, if there was, I mean, it's not going to happen, but if there was some kind of disease outbreak, it wouldn't necessarily be limited to the campus. It would affect the whole town, but this is something that is would be very hard to imagine at the level of danger that these experiments are. But the fact is, the colleges have to supply that risk assessment in the worst case scenario. And if it were to become released through water, air, however it's transmitted, even a vector. So, you know, that that's what this risk would be at the very, very worst case scenario. It's impossible to, I mean, it's more, more worse if it comes from like that animal or testing on some animals. I don't, I know, I don't know if they do that at Amherst or Hampshire, but I'm just thinking like, things that are used in, in the agriculture and the farming, like that could easily get into, you know, drinking water or something like that, but we can test for those things. So, I guess I'm just, I'm just asking questions right now because I'm a little unsure. I just to clarify, I think this is not the regular pollutants we are talking about, like nutrients or sediment or pesticides. I mean, here these are some dangerous, you know, biological agents, you know, primarily in the experimental stage. And the thing is we have wanted to know what is the risk management and what is the risk we need to know from those people who do the research, you know, so, so that we could be prepared or is there any emergency preparedness. So do you, Maureen and Steve, do you think you'll have a draft of something for our December meeting? Possibly. Okay, or January. Definitely by January. Yeah, hopefully. Okay, so you'll have it to us by January and we'll look at the draft. And then, Maureen, what we'll do is we'll look at our old regulations and our new revised regulations, and then we'll discuss it and move on to eventually accept our revised ones. After a hearing, of course, after a public hearing. Yes, yes, after a public hearing. Although, you know, there was no public hearing on that last one, per se. Okay, so the next one is the toxic chemical regulation. And that is an old one. It was adopted in April 9, 2001. And under, it says variants, which were, besides the regulation, it says if a non-toxic replacement product cannot be used for any reason, a variance must be obtained from the health director or his, her designee. And one reason we're looking at it is a it's 20 years old, and be it was brought to our attention that House bill nine to six was in the state, looking at pesticide protection for children in schools. And we don't know that in the past five years, roundup was used. I believe it was at Graf Park or Mill River in a very small area for poison ivy that was not responding to hand picking so we might want to add besides town buildings public spaces such as recreation areas, school grounds, where possibility of using roundup is. So, Tim, and Lauren, we're going to be looking at that one to review it and come up with some possible revisions. The toxic chemical regulation, which was developed in 2001, 20 years ago, regulates the use in public property, right? Right. Essentially, products like chlorine free paper or products in, you know, town, town buildings and all those things. So, we are restricting to these type of public spaces, right, for this. Right. And, you know, we may think this is, is adequate, but I think we just, we do need to just review it. And Lauren, we suggested you do it because be on it because you have children in schools and a lot of it is on school property. Okay. And see, there's a question. Are we taking questions now are we going to wait until. Okay, let me just see what I'll open it up for any discussion. In a minute. Okay. So yes, we can. I don't see it. Who has the question. John root has his hand. Oh, it's down. Oh no, it's up. Oh, it's up. Okay. Okay. So, John, do you have a question. muted. Yeah. I have a comment. And that is that. I attended a presentation. Zoom presentation just yesterday evening with an expert from the Zersi society for invertebrates. And so this was about. The use of pesticides in management of insects. And, and other pests. And her comment about glyphosate was that. The primary concern is that if you use glyphosate when plants are in bloom. That can put pollinators at risk. So I just wanted to give you that piece of information. That if glyphosate is used. Care should be taken to make sure, or it should be timed in such a way. To make sure that you don't pose a risk to pollinators. Because plants nearby are in bloom. Okay. Thank you. So Tim and Lauren. Will you. You don't have a, a call. How, how do you want to make a plan for looking at this? So what is the timeline on this? You can pick any timeline. You know, I can't do that in next couple of months, you know. So it may be in the next three months, you know, we can, we can develop some draft, you know. So by April? Yeah, we can. We have to do some. Meetings and do some literature review and update because it's already 20 years old. Right. A lot of new things which happened in between, you know, so. You've been looking at other, other towns to see what they have for their toxic chemical regulations. Yeah. Is it specifically as it pertains to where children play? Because you said, that's what is specific to so should we make our research specific to that? Or play and, and, and, and in school zone. Well, it seems the current regulation also covers just people who work in buildings in Amherst as well. I mean, it's not specific to school children, but certainly they're among our most vulnerable. Parts of our population. So I think they're important part of that. So that's for you and Tim to decide when you after you do your research. Okay. And so under open meeting was you and Tim can work together and then present to the board. And that that's fine. So two people can talk about an issue and work on it. Okay. So you'll have something to us by April. It's a little far away to me. I don't see why it would take that long, but okay. Well, you and Tim communicate. Yeah. We'll see. We'll see. That gives us a little leeway, but I don't think it's going to take that long. Okay. Okay. Okay. So then regulations for refuse collection and mandatory recycling, which we touched on last week, last month because of the waste hauler zero waste committee. And what I did is I, I did a lot of review and I just want to give a recap to you. So I reviewed the board of health regulations for refuse collection and mandatory recycling. We first accepted these regulations in 1989. They have been reviewed and revised seven times over the last 32 years. And the last two revisions were in 2009. Susan wait the recycling coordinator came to the board and recommended an amendment to the regulations to require commercial properties to recycle. And the board accept approved that in 2014, the DPW came to the board and asked to add pay as you go bags for residents who use the transfer station, and the board approved that. Amherst no longer has a recycling coordinator. The position was established in 2006 and Susan wait was the first and only coordinator, and that position was eliminated in 2015. And Susan became the waste reduction coordinator for Northampton. And over the summer she moved to Western mass DEP for waste reduction and recycling. Amherst has had a recycling and refuse management committee. It was first established in 2005 as the solid waste committee. In 2007 it changed its name to recycling and refuse management committee to better describe the issues that it addressed. The last meeting was March 29 of 2019, 18 I mean, when it was subsumed in the sustainability committee. And it's called sustaining Amherst, which is a single place for residents to find information on all the green efforts happening in Amherst. And on that site there's seven links and Stephanie, Sikarello is the coordinate into November 2017. The select board accepted Amherst zero waste myth. They had zero waste Amherst which started in January 2020. They had their meeting right before the pandemic. And their mission is that their resource for moving the town of Amherst towards zero waste through planning policy initiatives legislation education and community engagement to reduce toxic pollution. Zero waste Amherst brought a proposal to the Board of Health at our October meeting for a pilot project with four elements to transition away from subscription services with hauler to either direct provision by the town or town contract with a hauler to provide curbside compost pickup in the basic service to include pay as you throw fee structure so the smaller your container for trash, the less you will be paying and adding local compost processing to and reuse. This has been happening locally on the state level, the massive department of DEP under 310 CMR 19.006 as of November 23, 2023. They have banned on mattresses and textiles, including clothing footwear towels curtains fabric for disposal or transfer just for disposal, and they're going to lower the threshold for commercial organic and food waste to a half a ton per week. The goal is by 2025 to 2030 to decrease the disposal volume by 30% and ban all organics. And right now there are 11 state and 49 local meaning town active landfills in Massachusetts and every year there are decreasing. What we're doing is we are increasing exporting of rect fuse at a larger volume and we export to Maine, New Hampshire and Ohio, and our recycling goes to Springfield. Right now the seven combustion facilities in Massachusetts are presently operating at capacity. There's one in Pittsfield one in Springfield which just whatever they're burning comes right up the valley. April saw saw this Milbert, Milbert very north and over in Rochester or the other combust the combustion facilities. So refuse collection and recycling is a regulation of the Amherst Board of Health, and what happens to the refuse does affect public health in town. So what I would like to do is I would like to move to have the health department create a working group who and that group would review the present regulations and establish elements of a pilot program to be provided by the town or through a town contract with one or more haulers that when include curbside trash recycling and compostable material pickup in a basic service a pay as you throw fee structure and local compost ability for materials processing and reuse. And it would be a seven member appointed working group by appointed by the health department with two board of health members, one DPW staff member appointed by Guilford mooring, one sanitarian either Susan Malone or Ed Smith. And then there's the Sikarello, who's the sustaining Amherst coordinator to zero waste Amherst members, and the health director as an ex officio member with an update on their work by March of 2023, a final report June of 2023. If we are moving forward we can have a public hearing in September of 2023, and a start date of January. No update of March 2022 sorry final report of June 2022 public hearing September 2022 and a start date of January 2023. So now it's open for discussion. Pardon me. Don't you need a second. Oh, yes. You made a motion, very long motion. Yes. The motion was so I gave you the history and the motion was. And I can send it to you so you better darn well said it yes. I need a second on the motion. I'll second the motion. It's open for discussion first by board members and then by attendees. Well, Nancy, first of all, could you just say you made a very specific statement there and I you know I'm all in favor of the time going this direction but I still want to know you said that putting compostables, you know that dealing with compostables other than recycling is a public health problem. I would really like to know exactly what is what happens to refuse is a public health. No, but we're not talking about that yes we of course we're going to worry about refuse and all that chromium and everything else that's a very bad thing. We're talking about compostables here. So how do compostables. I'm talking about all of it. So, compostables is part it's like what we do with the trash so if we keep compostables out of our trash. How does putting compostables in the trash cause health problems. We're talking about what happens to the trash. When it's picked up and leaves here going to Springfield and being burned is a public health issue. And maybe that's why Springfield is like the highest has the highest asthma rate. I think that I think that this this program or the zero waste project doesn't really take into account. One for me, the those who live in apartment complexes I don't think we should wait or put that off. I understand you want to, you know, implement a pilot program but I'm concerned that it doesn't encompass, you know, people residents who live in apartment complexes and I don't understand why why not if we want to, you know, get rid of trash in a in a more environmentally safe way. That's one of my one of my problems with with with the proposal is that it should include apartment complexes. What's happened in the past, Lauren is even with the recycling, it started as the town and then in 2009, it went to commercial properties where we were required to recycle. So it started. It's very hard to start across the whole board would have to pilot to see how it goes and then we would have to have a lot of input in how it would move on to other properties, large properties, such as apartment complexes. And that could be included in the plan, you know that not, you know, to say this, we're going to start here but we'll have some goals to get to the commercial properties within a certain amount of time. So phase in. Yeah. Partly complex. Yeah. I have a question. I have a question here. So, I know we have the authority to do this. And I was questioning that last time but I'm completely convinced yes the board of health if it is going to be done, it will be voted by the board of health through the process that you're doing. So I understand we have the power to do it. I do think that there's a lot of things that the board of health has a power to do in terms of regulation and enforcement that we do not do the things that we think we have a reason to do it but we find a power to do it such as that there's a better way to do it than a force of law, get people to do it other ways than we all we think that way all the time. And so I have a concern about this idea of public support. And I think that the zero waste people have given us all these endorsements and I respect all the organizations that that they're there that have endorsed it. One thing. Most people most residents in Amherst use one particular hauler that is USA recycle, maybe all of them but I think there's another some that are authorized USA recycle provides by subscription by weekly curbside pickup of organics, including animal products which is hard to recycle hard to compost at home, they provide the very thing that is being asked for here. And yet, very few people apparently I don't have a number but it seems very few people in the town, do it. So unless we're saying that words speak louder than actions, it doesn't seem like there's a lot of public support for doing this, and to the board of health, if they're going to do a regulation like this. It's, you know, if it doesn't have a direct public health impact. And I just, I'm not convinced that the compostables really do. I feel like it's, we should know that there is public support, and these endorsements are great, but the people are showing by their actions in the town of Amherst that they apparently don't support this. I want somebody to say maybe when there's a time for public comment we could hear from the zero waste people about this but it's anybody on the board have a assessment that's different that there is public support for this. I've asked several people and I was at a group and there's a neighborhood branch and people when I asked what they thought of it were very supportive of it. Why don't they why don't they subscribe to the service that does the very thing. $10 or $15 more each month and the price, the cost for Amherst trash hauling is quite expensive now it's like $500 a year. Well now if you're saying that the reason for do this is money that's totally different than saying that it's a public. That's why perhaps they're not as many people subscribing to that service. I think with with having a town negotiate if you look at the cost for recent for trash hauling in parts different towns like Long Meadow is way cheaper than Amherst. Why should that be that's those are fine reasons is nothing to do with public health, nothing like that's fine. I, you know, and I think and then some people do their own composting because they can. But I, I think in some ways we're kind of overall responsible for what happens to the trash Amherst makes and where it goes and whether it ends up, you know, into the air into to the ocean or into wherever. And it does have an overall effect on the health of the people of the world and us and the whole environment. So, and we have had these regulations under the Board of Health since 1989 for refuse collection and mandatory recycle. So, refuse I don't I think I agree that refuse is really connected to public health. So, couple of things you might want to clear for clarify. Composting if it's being pulled and taken somewhere it is a health hazard somewhere else. That means you have when you're treating there are research which are actually saying there is air pollutants from the from couple of. So, this is coming from epidemiology research which came in composting facilities are having aspergillus fumigatus and thermophilic actinomyces. These are compost dust going downstream and most of the time that is a health hazard. So, we are actually creating some sort of a some way a problem somewhere else that's one thing. Of course, the incinerators are definitely composting of adding composting to incinerators. The volume will decrease, but we are not dealing with any heavy metals or anything which is going to come in with this. So, it's still going to be that whether you add compost or not because this is going to be in carbon dioxide or methane emissions. So, I wanted to address this one because this one was promoted as an environmental justice issue. So, here we are talking about composting where people can actually compost in their backyard which I do. I use it for my recycling your nutrients. Instead of that we are pooling asking a hauler to take it to a composting centralized facilities which is sometimes a massive operation. Often there is this dust, compost dust which is having a public hazard for the local communities. I don't know where it's going and a lot of times that is a public health hazard for them. Especially for asthma and any type of lung infections. So, that is one thing. The second thing I am also bringing up is the quantity of compost itself. So, we have the estimates say that roughly around 6 pounds per week is the volume of from two adults and two kids. This is a study across many cities in the US. Again, you need a volume which is reasonable for the hauler to bring in the economics of scale. That means the price should come down with 7 pounds difference. My worry is we might end up with higher cost by the haulers because they have to create maybe new bins or new type of collection equipment or whatever it is and new trips. So, the economics plays a big role. That's why last time I emphasized that we need an economic analysis need to be done so that it will be an informed one for our citizens to make a decision. Do any other board members have any comments before we open it up to attendees? So, we have hands raised for attendees. So, Christina Platt. Nancy, excuse me, do you want me timing the limit, putting the limit on the two minutes? Two to three minutes. Two minute warning with one minute wrap up. Okay, so Christina Platt. Her hands up, but I can't unmute her. Let me see if I can. So, Christina, can you unmute yourself? Did that do it? Yes. Okay, go ahead. I just wanted to address the issue of why we want to take compost out of the trash stream. And I guess it also works into backyard composting. I did backyard compost for probably close to 20 years. And I'm just not interested in doing it anymore. And I tried to get my neighbors to cooperate and we could do it together. I didn't actually know myself until I learned from Darcy that USA offered that service and I'm going to sign up for it now. They don't really advertise it unless that they didn't mention it when they changed over the service from Amherst trucking. They didn't offer that as one of their services, but you can get it. They don't bundle it, but you can get it as an extra one. But again, if we don't reduce the amount in the trash stream, that has to be either incinerated or put into landfills. And you contaminate the recycling stream with compost. You can't have that in your recycling for paper, plastic, plastic, full of food scraps and bosses and stuff like that. So there are a lot of reasons why the board of health would be concerned with getting compostables. Managed in a, in a better. Larger scale way. Thank you, Christina. Does anyone have a comment for that? Okay. Let's just listen to the, let's listen to the comments without, without the board and then we'll finish the comments. John. Let's say if you unmute yourself. Yes, thank you. So. First, I'd like to comment in terms of the motion. Nancy, I think you mentioned. The size of the. The size of the house. The size of the house. The size of the house would be commensurate with what the individual, individual households would pay. And you might want to add to that the frequency of pickup. That's another way. To incentivize. In other words, you could have the same. And I'm not sure what that that's what this group, the, the motion you made this group would talk about these, these options. The size of the house. The size of the house. The size or selective size of. The, the bin for waste, but also. To select a frequency of pickup. I wanted to comment about the health impacts of compostables. Organic matter. Particulates is a word that I'm not sure if it's been mentioned in our discussions to date. It is a huge concern. It's a huge concern. But I think it's important to note that. What USA hauling is doing with the trash that we give it. That the trucks pick up. We don't know if it's being burned or buried, but either one. Must be seen as caveman technology. There is simply no advanced technology. To either burn or bury trash. So. The burying has to do with, you know, every. The liner. And that means that it's going into the ground, but, but incineration. Results in particulates and there are no filters that catch those particulates. And particulates are very insidious for public health. I also wanted to comment that in terms of, you know, we're talking about two things. Our responsibility to other communities and our responsibility to our own community. And so the public health hazards of. Of burning anything, including organics. Do result in particulates and being released. And my understanding of our own. Situations here in Amherst is that we receive. Pollution, including particulates. From the Midwest. You know, We know no borders in terms of waste pick up in terms of these, these emissions. So it's important not to, you know, in this time of. Global climate change. We often think about climate change. But when we're talking about trash, it's yes, carbon dioxide is a concern. But pollution certainly is huge as well. So. And I also wanted to comment that a big part of this. Proposal is the pay as you throw component. So the. So. Even if. Well, it's just, it's in other words, that's part of the motivation to get people to use those. That third receptacle that we would be offering to curbside. If there's a. Compost or organics. Receptical. I think that I think it. And if it's seen as routine now. To address Christina's point, everyone would at that point would know there's a third bin and you wouldn't have to an extra. Charge to, to put things in your bin. I've also wanted. This, that's three minutes. So if you can start. Okay. Just a couple of real. If I may. The. Let's see. I think. Yeah, the. The fact that this, this is really important. I mean, one. Fact is that, you know, United States as a country is far more egregious in terms of the volume of waste per. Disposed of per individual. So. And so it can, it certainly is something that. It's a high time that we take more responsibility in the west coast. They do a lot more. Consistently. So. And the final thing I wanted to say was that. Yes, I think we did demonstrate support when our, our committee that I was a chair of. When we submitted our solid waste master plan. We also did a survey. And while you, we can't really maintain that this is a representative sampling of the people who submitted the survey. However, there was significant. Support. So I wanted to add that to the endorsements that we already have gotten from organizations. The, the survey itself from, from the populace also shows significant support. Thank you. Darcy. Let's say. Whoops. Okay. You should be able to. Did you unmute yourself, Darcy? Yeah, I think. Darcy. Yes. Can you hear me? Yes. Yeah, I just wanted to very much thank the board for continuing to consider this. And. I think that you, you saw that we are in the process of doing. Some fairly massive outreach. The, the, you know, we shared that we have seven endorses now. The most notable is the energy and climate action committee that endorsed it yesterday. And we have many outstanding requests and are really trying to get it out there, including in our article that we put in the bulletin. Which I think you probably all saw. Also, I just wanted to update you that we, we met with. We've been trying to do our homework. We've met with Susan White, who's now the DEP coordinator and Catherine Raté of the Pioneer Valley planning council to get. Try to get feedback from them. About. Their ideas and whether they can provide technical assistance or funding. To help this along. And we got a lot of ideas from them with, which we would be glad to share. Although we don't think we don't have time now, but. We did one of the things that they offered was that they definitely have a technical, you know, a grant possibility that could. Pay for all of the new tort toters that would be needed to be the compost toters. So that could really be something that the town of Amherst could offer in a contract situation. So. I also would like to. Reassure you that we absolutely considered. That apartment complexes and commercial ventures, businesses and institutions will all be part of this plan. We are considering that a part of the proposal. Just not part of phase one. And so. But we would like to get started with. Community groups looking at. How it's going to be done in apartment complexes, just because there are more challenges with, with dumpsters. And so we would want to, you know, invite people to be, you know, have a seat at the table trying to figure out how that next phase would be done. So. Yeah. I'm, I'm, I am very. I hope that you'll be able to support this motion that the chair put forward. It seems like it. Will help. But this helps us move forward so we can decide what the elements would be. In a recommended program. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Now, or do you have any questions? Yeah. Nancy, the, you made a list of the committee that you were proposing. I think there were seven people on it. Yes. Is any of them elected? No. So in other words, it's possible that this would go through that process and then come to us. And the entire thing would be put into place because we have the authority to do it. By people by not a single. I mean, I don't know. I don't know. I'm not an elected person on here. You're going to not get eight or you get hard to get seven people to meet at the same time. So no, no, no, you shouldn't. But I'm, that is a concern. I really feel that this is a very important thing to do. I'm all for it. I just think it's a town-wide thing. It has to eventually have buy-in. So where do we start then? I don't know. I thought we were just going to at least start by getting a plan. I think we're going to have a plan. Which would be a way to get the town sort of involved at a higher level at least. And that's something that council would be aware of if the money was made clear, but I guess maybe that we're not ready for that yet. So it seems to me like the working group would have to put together a plan and then get kind of quotes. Or have some discussions with haulers and try to come up with. What seems like a reasonable plan and get quotes. I think we're really, I think we should start with the council planning. And we need to get rid of that, but I'm just putting the horse before the cart in terms of figuring this out. I, yeah, I would get elected officials involved in this, and it's not the select boards of not the select boards, but the council's. Per view. It's, you know. I don't know. If it is not, if it is not the council's purview, if it's only our, me because it's all to the good, but the good is everything but public health. And so that's why I'm really concerned that there's not going to be a broader consensus from people who really know about what's up. They are regulating what's happening now and it's like it's maybe not optimal the way things are right now. But we have that regulation and that's what it is and it's not the town council and it's not the the town manager, it's us. It's been us for 32 years. I mean I was surprised by that myself to be honest but you know it's I guess how the town's waste management has always been managed that way for a long time by the Board of Health. Lauren had something you know. Yeah Lauren. Thank you. I think we have to stop arguing about is it a public health issue or not because everybody has trash. It's a question of you know how effective are we disposing of that trash and and and not doing damage to the environment whether it's far away or it's you know time the time that we're not living but you know far into the future or years into the future and and for me I think when you talked about the committee sustaining and if that's a committee by Stephanie Chikarillo that that would be a good place to start because I know there are a lot of residents who are passionate about you know gardening and you know would like to you know have an easier way to separate their their food trash from their as they said in the the article the the bulky the bulky items. So I just I just think that we need to not make this issue such a like dividing issue on the the board because I don't I don't think it's just the the board the board of health that has to take this on. I think the the committees that are the environmental committees such as was stated like with any Amherst they definitely have a role to play and I would like to know what if Darcy and the others who are you know putting this forward have spoken to them already or or not. Thank you Lauren Darcy have you included the sustaining Amherst? Yes the sustaining Amherst is basically Stephanie Chikarillo and she is staffed to the Energy and Climate Action Committee and they have included Zero Waste as one of the goals in the Climate Action Plan. So this is part of why we're putting it forward is that it is part of the town's plan now in any event and so yes but the the Energy and Climate Action Committee doesn't have the authority like the Board of Health does to actually do anything about it. So that's why we're coming to the Board of Health because you have the jurisdiction over your own regulations to do something about it. Thank you. Did that answer your question Lauren? Yeah but when you say do something about it that that's unclear to me. Well what I'm saying is that the Board of Health can through its regulations require the town to carry out this proposal that Zero Waste Amherst is putting forward but the Energy and Climate Action Committee does not have that authority. But does the Board of Health they don't have the ability to make the town pay for the pilot or pay for parts of the the program that you need to have funded so I just think that you're putting a lot on this Board when you know we haven't really been able to digest all of the proposal it just feels like I don't know it just feels a little like you're asking the Board to do a little too much of the work. I think your proposal is not to to to do it but to create a working group to make a recommendation. Okay it's already 616 so I am going to is there another hand up? No. Do you see another hand? No. So I'm going to sort of close discussion so we have the motion it was seconded correct? Yes. So I'm going to call the question now so that we can vote on it whether we want to have Jennifer from the Health Department create this working group to review the present regulations and establish elements of the pilot program. There was way more to the motion could you read the full motion? Okay move that the Health Department create a working group that would review the present regulations and establish the elements of a pilot program to be provided directly by the town or through a town contract with one or more haulers that would include curbside trash recycling compostable materials pickup in a basic service a pay-as-you-throw fee structure and local compostable materials processing and reuse. It would be a seven member working group with two Board of Health members a DPW staff member appointed by Guilford mooring one sanitarian either Susan Malone or Ed Smith Stephanie Ciccarello from the sustaining Amherst coordinator the sustaining Amherst coordinator two zero waste Amherst members and the health director as an ex-officio member to give us an update March 2022 with a final report June 2022 if we're moving forward with this we could have a public hearing by September 2022 with a start date of January 2023 and I can email that to you Steve yes thank you okay good so that is the the motion so I'm gonna call it Maureen hi Lauren Lauren are you there yes I'm here are you support this motion um I think well I get yeah yeah yeah okay yes Steve hi hi Tim hi Edith Lane and Nancy hi okay so Jen that puts it to you to get this working group in order because you're our agent okay I have my marching orders thank you very much everybody so uh next on all businesses the tobacco violation order updates so uh quick update um the spirit house did pay their $2,000 fine for their second violation of selling tobacco to under a under a person under the minimum legal sales age they paid their fine $2,000 they had their seven-day suspension and just FYI if they have a third violation it's $5,000 and a 30-day suspension but I hope they won't go there so that that was paid that's my update I'll speak later about the tobacco handling place okay so new business um health director update okay so I want to talk just about some statistics I think we're all following what's going on pretty much but just to sort of talk about that our plateau we are off our plateau and cases are going up it's not unexpected people are moving indoors and into more densely populated situations and also we're sort of seeing that people are beginning to act almost normal and sort of there's more human interactions so the numbers are going up slowly that just it's not a big increase but we see them now 35 active cases just as a comparison um a month ago um we were at six cases the 14-day incidence rate a month ago was 2.0 and is now we're back up to 7.6 so that's in Amherst and also the CDC county tracker for Hampshire County before we were in substantial transmission rate which was an orange color we're now back up into the red at a high risk um transmission risk so in terms of the mask mandate um I'd like to personally see it continue for five weeks or so and we'll take a look at it in January I can tell you from firsthand that um transmission or spread we're seeing in large events in Amherst so there's not a big number that we have but it's through families and family events so we have Thanksgiving we have Christmas we have New Year's so I think if we can have all the mitigation strategies in place it's just going to be safer for our population so talking about all of mitigation strategies um COVID vaccine clinics are continuing in Amherst there's one right now if you see me jump off we're just finishing up and I can tell you we did all Pfizer and we did 161 people so thank you all you volunteers that are still down there vaccinating um we've also done some smaller clinics um for the younger kids we were in the school so we vaccinated them um that was at Fort River Wildwood and Crocker Farm and we also have a bus coming now to the high school and this bus is from Bay State and they're opening up to anyone that wants to get vaccinated next Tuesday which is the 23rd I believe and they're going to continue that five to eleven group our vaccine rate in Amherst we've recalculated it with a new formulation and I'd like to thank Steve George and also we've had um assistance with Carlo della piccola if I pronounce that correctly um using their um calculations um it was a good calculation when we started now we have new information we're at people that have had at least one vaccine in Amherst is at 91 percent wow so Jen I just want to put a little piece in here um I heard uh via a neighbor and through Mike Morris Jen is really moving towards equity in vaccination of children and can you give us the date because you are really um earmarking getting to children that are on free and reduced rate launches and um and other groups do you want to just share that information I think you're doing an excellent job of making sure this is more equitable yeah thank you so much so when we went to the schools the kids that were identified for being vaccinated 72 percent were identified as students of color 29 percent were English language learners 52 percent qualify for subsidized lunch and 29 percent of students were vaccinated with special needs so I thank Mike Morris for compiling those stats and sharing them with us so that's who we were targeting here um so Phil it was a very successful vaccination thank you again for promoting equity in vaccine yeah excellent um that was not done in the spring um with with the older children school children vaccine so thank you yeah yeah you know it's just it's a great team here and you know the next two months I think our you know our way out of this this pandemic is really getting people vaccinated so this still needs to be the priority and we still have people in town that have not received their first so that's where the work comes to us to figure out how to reach those folks um any questions about the COVID stats just one thing I want everyone to know is that we've signed on and this may be old you may know it with a public health excellence grant out of Northampton so they're looking at a more regionalized approach to public health so we're working with Northampton and they're going to be giving us support with contact tracing so that's a really great service and also they'll have nurses that we can call upon for interventions and any kind of programs so I love seeing things being thought about in a regionalized way it's it's just going to be sort of more more streamlined um we have things that will support people different towns and we can mix and match that so I'm very happy to Northampton for doing that for us that's my update okay so the other new business is we do have the statement on racism and public health and now we need to identify actions in our next steps and so the last part of our statement it says that we're committed to the following actions assessing the community health needs to do a comprehensive community assessment that focuses on health inequities increasing funding for the health department evaluating policies procedures and regulations to ensure racial equity and support local state and federal initiatives also the state came out with a blueprint for health equity on July 1st 2021 I don't know if anybody else has looked at that but under the health equity it it said that we need an after action they want a state after action review to evaluate what worked and what could be improved with the COVID situation and the vaccine and then it said as you just mentioned vaccine equity it's the north star and key driver for control of COVID-19 and that we need to strengthen local public health systems which is the blueprint for public health excellence and so Jen's involved in the excellence and that we did do the town did an after action review with our listening session so Jen do you want to give us an update on the assessment and then other people to ask any questions yeah well you know the assessment and you know I just love this racism statement but the assessment is really part of you know the four cornerstones of public health you know assurance policy and regulation so what we're going to be looking at is we have a meeting this Monday with UMass and we're going to be looking at community assessment and that's the first step that foundation is getting that information so the first step is talking about where we want to go with that and that will be happening Monday with one of our good partners at UMass public school yeah that was the the connection I had started back in June but we put it on hold after we didn't have a full-time director other thoughts on our next steps and where we should go so this is a quick question you know in in the state level that is a the office of health equity has put out a racial equity data roadmap it is just mapping out you know I think this is at a state level but I think they have a template on how to develop a roadmap you know and where we are going and where we are I'm not I'm not sure if we can use those types of templates you know and in developing some for UMass you know yeah no thank you Tim there's so many good toolkits out there I think is that the blueprint for health equity no this one is a data roadmap you know just data roadmap yeah so that means I missed seeing that one yeah the data roadmap is primarily developing baselines but also seeing where we are and how we are progressing as a timeline and I think it'll be good to use that data roadmap to develop one for UMass Tim I'll take a look at that I know of that Tim but thank you for saying that and I missed it thanks Tim and I just have a question Jen the the cooperation with Northampton and other towns is that really COVID related or is it more generally around strengthening public health ties among the towns it's not just COVID yeah okay it's really working that's good to know yes yes thank you you know I'm I'm not going to be correct with this but it's it's good for I think two years with an option immediately for another three and then it's just marched out of almost nine years you know into the future so it's really building it's not just a flash in the pan that's good yeah it is good right right and thank you Meredith for doing that other comments discussion so one additional one I think it'll be helpful because Amherst has so much multiculturalism linguistics you know in terms of the variety of you know and and and lot of environmental justice issues too you know and and I think there you know some sort of a developing action related to how our whole health planning and everything is culturally you know fostering cultural thing or benchmarking so that we are embracing that diversity and having there's some sort of access with related to language because there's so many languages too you know so I'm just saying you know if something you know something like that we can think about you know how do we incorporate into our programming this culture and linguistic diversity yeah thank you Tim yes hi I I have something to add as well I thought I was unmuted I've been trying to speak for a minute can you hear me now yes yes okay I thought that's the the statement that the Board of Health that we adopted for systemic racism addressing systemic racism and health when it includes you know some of the following issues that I forwarded to you Nancy and Jennifer and some of those were access to whole food examining like the the problems of having low birth weight in in women of colors newborns the impact of the impact on the nucleus of extended family members stress chronic disease high blood pressure mental health grief loss of loved ones to violence internalized racism low confidence and self-esteem lack of representation and authority and families and substance abuse and I'm not sure if all those fit but those are some of the points that I feel you know should be part of our examination of health and systemic racism and I also just wanted to go back to how you were talking about equity and COVID response and you know people getting the vaccine who are part of free and reduced lunch or receipts of free and reduced lunch um my son who just is returning to the middle school he says that the school lunch is terrible that is terrible also the um the children still have to eat outside which I don't know when that is going to end but I I just feel like when you do get a a vaccine vaccination for you know protection from disease your body has to be resilient in some way to fight that infection whether it's you know through the air or through you know like a vaccine that you have decided to take um but nutrition plays a lot into how your body is able to recuperate and I would like you know that to that our board be aware of that that you know our children and the students in the school you know because they have you know many have had the vaccine we also need to you know look at how the nutrition in the school is either helping them to be resilient and helping them to be as healthy as they can be since they spend you know a lot of their time in school and as you said a lot of students rely on free and reduced lunch and and rely on the um the the the food from that that is served in school so I just wanted to share that yeah thank you Lauren thank you um so Lauren a lot of those issues you brought up would come up under the assessment I I will send you the assessment tool um that we the proposal and the tool that we discussed at our I think it was June meeting I can't remember that we're going to be using when we talk to the people at the school of public health Jen and I have the meeting Monday morning so it's it's just how how how we look at it and then what is in the purview of the board versus the health department and then working with the school the school committee some of your issues really are are are related to to them because things are sort of divided up a little but a lot of that will would come out in the assessment um so any other comments so the next step will be moving towards the assessment and then Jen has been working with the schools and to really improve equity in the vaccine right now other comments or other steps that you want us to take one aspect which was brought up is the school lunch you know is there a assessment on the nutrition value or those type of thing you're the sort of board involved in that or is it something out of our purview that comes I believe Jen from the federal government I really do know Jen I don't know I I know I can make a call and find out but I remember under Reagan there was a whole thing where he moved for school lunches that catch up was a vegetable and I think with Michelle Obama's activism I think there were some changes that got made whether they've been revoked or not about more whole grain you know whole grain type foods or more vegetables and fruits and real food is not just your chicken nuggets or whatever but Betsy DeVos got rid of a lot of what was going on what you know I think that the school lunches are a tricky business but but those guidelines I do believe come from the feds but the programs like having a school um garden and involving kids in in food choices and those kinds of interventions I think do have some evidence based to results that are positive for kids nutrition in school and out of school you know so I don't know and I do think that a lot was changed under COVID because uh the way foods were served children being separated so we have to just see once the COVID restrictions of safety for meals improve and I think I heard at least at the beginning of this year that that the supply chain issues were affecting school schools and school lunches you know and perhaps even um workers to help provide those lunches and prepare those lunches so I don't would be interesting to know if this is usual or if this is diverges from the typical although I think I would have vouched forever to say the school lunches were awful and my kids I think also said the same so I don't know if it's just one of those things that it's hard to move the needle on in terms of of how much kids like school lunch and maybe we can get you masks because they're number one they're good buying experience to take over or help with our school lunches once all the COVID restrictions are lifted he has an article that said that they serve 50,000 meals a day I don't quite understand like my other son he goes to independent school and they I keep telling everyone I'm not sure why they don't have a meal plan there like all all the students have to provide their own lunch and so I don't know why the the food can't be improved in the the public schools I really don't understand that but can you just clarify what you what you mean by the assessment because I'm not I'm not sure as with the um zero waste um proposal like how do we get the public to know this is something that is um part of you know our agenda and you know what do you mean by the assessment by the UMass assessment it is a comprehensive community assessment and I'll send you the proposal and the tool that will be done it's it's a very intense process and in public health um it's identified as a core function and the primary piece that you need the assessment data to start your plans so um we don't have the resources the board or the health department to do it and that's why we've reached out to the UMass School of Public Health to help us do that and that's what our meeting would be on does that clarify it for you Lauren what what what kind of questions um so are what what are you looking for what I'll I'll send you the tool it's really intensive and it's it the town is broken up by census tracks so that we can identify areas so I will send that material to you okay but you've used what equity is this specific to um uh racial equity or racial disparities racial health disparities I'm just want to be clear Jen maybe I don't know if I'm explaining it clear enough maybe you can yeah I think I mean you're right Lauren I think you're asking good questions I just I think when we get the team together and you know Nancy and I are part of it at that point once we identify the community team um we start talking about what's the scope of our assessment and what that's going to be and then we determine what's gonna the data that's gonna be collected um so it's it's what we're looking at so you know I can tell you that racial equity is a big thing it's very important to the health department to me uh for example I know that COVID spread you know rapidly through multi-generational homes and Latino households um so we're gonna be asking questions about that so it's sort of unfolds as we start going on but the but that that's sort of the way that I look at it and using the census data we do look at race by census tract but what I'm asking is when I thought I don't I'm I'm I know that I'm sure that we're not into another part of the the meetings that is not dealing with the systemic racism that's what we're talking about now right okay and you guys um keep referring to COVID and I want to know what other areas of public health and racial um racial inequities or racial um racism particularly racism that produced inequities how how are we going to assess that not just COVID yeah you know one thing I can add is you know I think about the social determinants of health and if we if we talk about you know um living situations education food um those are some of the things that we can take a look at as a broader you know umbrella and then dig down into those categories and the assessment tool goes by social determinants of health does it I I haven't looked at it in a while and I can't remember does it inquire about chronic health chronic illness yeah yeah that's yeah yeah I thought it did I thought it included that some health outcomes are first some health I don't know if they're outcomes but there's some health issues that are also part of that not just the social determinants of health and like reflecting on what Tim said earlier about languages and cultures and these I guess you'll find out but how well the UMass partners are able to help get into those areas where um there may be different languages and barriers um to kind of assess the town in in a full and diverse way and focus groups are part of the assessment tool okay and um and even access to health care is a disparity that that is included in the assessment I'll send you the tool Maureen I'll do that by Saturday yes I just want to make one other comment for someone who um is a resident of Amherst for for five years I noticed that just how um I don't know if the the board um knows this that Amherst is considered a food desert um so there's no to get to access um a grocery store takes a lot more effort especially if you don't have you know your own transportation and with um health care although there is you know you know places health health you know um health places in the you know center of town I would just like to know do most residents because I know we have the large student population and we have the seniors but for you know that transitory um population who might just be here um three years or so you know getting on their feet or you know whatever it just to me I just get the sense that people don't really get their health care here in Amherst and I want to know if that's true is is that you know something that has been looked at at the pet you know in the past I I would like that to be somehow included in our assessment it's a good question okay we're at 651 so we will bring back the information about the assessment um at our next meeting um directors update who did it before and the I'm looking around it's like yeah I think I did that before yeah okay um I would like to add two things though well one thing is that we are considering being in person in January for the board of health meetings so everyone um be prepared for next month so for us to make that decision I believe um and that would be here in the bang center okay and quickly I'm just going to do the topacco handlers quiz um I'm making some good headway I'm working with Steve um McCarthy in inspections I'm going over what we have um organizing the same content a little bit differently looking at some things the MHOA Massachusetts Health Officers Association and working with Meredith um uh just to go over the quiz so I just want to let you know that I've made some headway and I can report back uh next month um where we are thank you so I have no topics and not anticipated um and I don't think we have any other public comment well you know Nancy I think it is a very good thing to have that on the board on the agenda as an actual item so why don't you just just so we can get in the habit of it to say open public comments we are the idea would be is there any public comment and so that is we're going to adjourn so I may have a motion for adjourning I second okay all in favor Lauren I hi Tim hi Maureen hi Steve and Nancy I well thank you everybody all right thank you everyone good night good night after we I have one question for Jen that's really just a health department not to something for the board so after we finish the meeting if you if you can stay on just long enough I'll ask or I can do it by phone or something okay so I'm going to stop recording okay all right bye everybody all right bye bye did you stop the recording