Board of Health - Regular Meeting

[Music] All right. Good evening and welcome to the April 7th, 2025 Grafton Board of Health meeting. As a preliminary matter, this is Jennifer Maynard, chair of the Board of Health. Permit me to confirm that all members and persons anticipated on the agenda are present and can hear me. Members, when I call your name, please respond in the affirmative. Andrew Chalupka here. Dan Finn. Dan Finn here. Karen Gustavowski Govin. Karen Gusteski Goven here. Bill Müller. Bill Muller here. Uh staff and anticipated speakers on the agenda. When I call your name, please respond in the affirmative. Let's see. Molly Scanel. Molly Scanel here. Devon Thornton. Devon Thornton here. Kyle O' Conor. Kyle Oconor here. I'd like to open the meeting. May I have a motion to open the meeting? This is Dan Finn. I'd like to make a motion to open this meeting. Bill Muller, I'll second that motion. All in favor? Dan Finn I. Bill Muller. I Andrew Luke I. Karen Gusteski Govin I. Jen Mayard. I All right. This open meeting of the Grafton Board of Health is being conducted hybrid uh consistent with the act extending certain CO 19 measures adopted by during the state of emergency. Governor Healey has further extended this act until June 30th, 2027 of the remote meeting provisions of former Governor Baker's March 12th, 2020 executive order suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law in order to mitigate the transmission of CO 19 virus. The act extends the requirement of the open meeting law to have all meetings in a publicly accessible physical location. Further, all members of public bodies are allowed to participate remotely. The order, which you can find posted on the town's website at www.grafton-m Grafton-mass.gov allows public bodies to meet entirely remotely so long as reasonable public access is afforded so that the public can follow along with the deliberations of the meeting.

Ensuring public access does not ensure public participation unless such participation is required by law. There are no public hearings scheduled for this evening's meeting. If the public has a question or comment on an agenda item, please utilize the Q&A feature in Zoom. Please include your full name and address when submitting a comment for this meeting. Grafton Board of Health is convening by video conference via Zoom Zoom and in person as posted on the town's website identifying how the public may join. Please note that this meeting is being recorded and that some attendees are participating by video conference. Accordingly, please be aware that other folks may be able to see you and take care not to screen share your computer. Anything that you broadcast may be captured by the recording. Any supporting materials that have been provided to members of the body are available on the town's website unless otherwise noted. The public is encouraged to follow along using the posing posted agenda unless I note otherwise. Before we turn to the first item on the agenda, permit me to cover some ground rules for effective and clear conduct of our business and to ensure accurate meeting minutes. I'll introduce any speakers on the agenda for a topic. After they conclude their remarks, I'll invite the board members to provide any comment, question, or motions. Please identify yourself by your name when speaking. Further, please remember to mute your phone or computer when you're not speaking. Please remember to speak clearly and in a way that helps generate accurate minutes. For any response, please wait until I yield the floor to you and state your name before speaking. If members wish to engage with other members, please do so through me, taking care to identify yourself. Finally, any votes and any motions made during the meeting will be conducted by roll call vote. I feel like it's longer in person. All right. Thanks for that everyone and welcome Nikki. We recognize you're here. All right. So, um, alliance team, we were thinking that you all would go through with your updates and then we'll have Kyle give his. Does that work? All right. So, Molly, do you want

to take it away? I'd be happy to. Great. Um, so good news. CO numbers have significantly decreased with one reported case in Grafton in March versus the 10 that were reported in February. And again, this is just reported with um PCR testing at like doctor's offices, things like that, not home tests, of course. This significant decrease is true for seasonal flu numbers as well. uh with 27 reported cases of flu in Grafton for March which is significantly less than the 104 cases that were reported in February. This decrease is expected as we are coming out of flu season with the coming of spring. Uh we still have no reported cases of ptasus since December 2024. Um for town updates, DA presentations will start this month with the first being next Tuesday and um on April 15th at the Grafton Senior Center. And again, that first topic is scams targeting seniors. Uh blood pressure and file of life clinics continue every first and third Thursday of the month at the Grafton Senior Center. Uh I saw 17 seniors at the March 6th clinic. Uh and the March 20th clinic was unfortunately cancelled due to a scheduling conflict. Um for in the news national and global. So measles as of April 3rd, 2025, the CDC reports 67 confirmed measel cases this year, surpassing the 285 cases reported in all of 2024. So, that's a big jump for this year and it's only April. Uh, most cases do involve unvaccinated individuals. Outside of Texas, New Mexico, and Kansas, where there are confirmed outbreaks, the CDC has

reported between 1 and nine measles cases in states across the US, including Alaska, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York City, and New York State. They count them separately. um Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, and Washington. Uh Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has highlighted vitamin A, budenicide, and chloriththroycin as showing good results in treating the symptoms associated with measles. While the CDC acknowledges vitamin A uh as a treatment option, it is emphasized that vaccination is the most effective defense against measles infection. Uh reports of vitamin A toxicity in children highlights the dangers of excessive supplementation without proper supervision. That's like in a hospital setting. Um, the MMR vaccine, typically administered in childhood, offers long-term or lifelong immunity and is highly effective, providing 97% protection with the recommended two doses and 93% with only the one dose. Adults unsure of their vaccination status or those vaccinated um early with a less effective version. So that's before 1968, they had a different concoction of the vaccine. um those individuals are advised to get revaccinated if they can. Uh for bird flu, as of April 4th, 2025, the CDC has reported 70 confirmed human cases of bird flu since the outbreak began in 2024 with one human death confirmed. Even with the cases that are reported in wild birds, the risk to humans in

Massachusetts still remains low. The virus has only spread from animals to human at this point and there is no reported humanto human transmission still. Bird flu is being monitored through a combination of advanced technologies and public health strategies including bio sensors that can detect the virus in the air. uh wastewater monitoring as an early warning system, viologic surveillance tracking influenza-like illnesses and animal monitoring by public health systems. These efforts are intended to detect and contain outbreaks early before you know it gets out of hand. It has been reported that bird flu has also been infecting wild and domestic cats. Um though the overall risk to indoor cats still remains low, feline cases are typically severe and often fatal and are often linked to exposure to infected birds, raw poultry, or unpasteurized dairy products. To minimize risk, experts recommend keeping cats indoors, avoiding raw diets, and ensuring proper hygiene when handling raw meat. While there is no evidence of transmission from cats to humans with recent strains, the situation is being closely monitored. Bird flu has had a significant impact on agriculture particularly in the poultry industry in terms of loss of livestock and economic consequences uh from distribute uh from disrupted supply chains. It is also affecting the dairy industry with a decrease in milk production, trade and market challenges overseas. Despite these challenges, efforts are underway to mitigate the impact, including research into vaccines and improved biocurity measures. Recent updates on bird flu vaccines highlight significant progress and challenges for human vaccines. The FDA has approved

three bird flu vaccines for humans, which are stockpiled for emergency use, and these won't be um used unless there's a a an outbreak. Uh these vaccines are not yet available to the general public but are ready for deployment in case of a health crisis. The uh poultry vaccines the USDA has conditionally approved an updated aven flu vaccine for poultry aiming to curb the spread among birds. And then mRNA vaccine development. The Department of Health and Human Services has allocated $590 million to MADNA to fasttrack the development of an MRA sorry mRNA based bird flu vaccine. This technology promises quicker production and easier updates compared to traditional vaccines. Um, in terms of challenges, scientists warn warned that the H5N1 virus is mutating rapidly, potentially reducing the effectiveness of existing vaccines. Research is ongoing to develop formulations that can address these evolving strains. So, symptoms in humans, bird flu symptoms are similar to seasonal influenza symptoms. Uh for mild illness it includes cough, sore throat, eye redness or eye discharge such as conjunctivitis, fever, runny nose, fatigue, myalgia, joint pain and headache. For moderate to severe illness, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, altered mental status and seizure. Complications can include pneumonia, respiratory failure, acute respiratory distress syndrome, multiorgan failure, specifically respiratory and kidney failure, sepsis and meninjo and sephilitis. Uh for prevention and

reporting, so it's suggested to not touch consume to not touch or consume raw milk or raw milk products especially from animals with confirmed or suspected bird flu virus infection. The public should report observations of sick or deceased wild birds, poultry, and domestic birds to animal control. If a dead bird is on someone's personal property, they are responsible for disposing of it. If there is a dead bird in a public way, then animal control would be responsible for picking it up. If there are five or more birds in one location, it should be reported to the state via their online site. And I have this link. I don't know if I should put it in the chat or if it's best to email, but I don't think it's helpful for me to read the link. If you want to email it to us, we can have it put on the website and it's Yeah. Thank you. So, it's um that's if there's again if there's a group of five or more dead birds, you report it in this way to the state and then they take care of it and investigate. Great. Um livestock and poultry. Since wild m migratory birds are natural carriers of bird flu, preventing wild birds from mixing with or having contact with domestic flocks is essential for disease control and prevention. So I'll I'll write that in an email with that link just so everyone has it. Any questions? Gee, that's it, Molly. Yeah, I know. The bird flu is a lot. It's it's like there's a lot of new information. What questions, if any, do folks have for Molly? Um, is there any guidance for um individuals for disposing of the bird safely if it's on their own property? It's just not to touch it um not to it's like contact precautions, you know, wear gloves, things like that.

Okay. Yeah. So, disposable gloves or if you're using your, you know, even if you're using your garden gloves, you probably want to wash your garden gloves afterwards. Um, yeah, definitely wash your hands after or shovel or something like that. Best to Yeah, use that question. And kind of a silly question, vaccines uh for bird flu. I'm assuming we're talking about human vaccines, but is there something or that being in development for birds or at least for birds that are, you know, Yeah, they have developed a poultry vaccine. Um, it hasn't been issued yet, but it's been uh they're developing it right now and it's to prevent spread among domestic birds. That's So, I'm assuming that's like poultry farms, things like that. And maybe pet birds. Yeah. Well, if if they're susceptible, certainly. Yeah. Yeah. Anything else for Molly? Great. Thank you. Uh Devon, I would like to start out um by apologizing to the chair and the board. I usually get um the data that I will be reporting from the admins ahead of the meeting. I haven't I hadn't received it. I don't know if you did. Uh, but if you have received it is if there's any questions about any of the complaints or any of the food inspections, I'd be happy to um answer any. We didn't get a report this time, so um that's okay. You don't have to start your start your report with apology. Um but could you just summarize for us um you know what you what you've done in the last month or so and any um uh of the complaints? Just a quick summary of what you've seen, any any repeats. Okay. So, just complaints. uh complaint and then how

many inspections you were able to complete? Inspections I uh at least uh 10 inspections since our last meeting. Uh complaints um I had about uh five complaints actually. Um two food complaints that were unfounded. Um a complaint from one of the um convenience store establishments. Um um it was it's it's been addressed. Um uh Dan brought it to my attention. It's been addressed and there was one complaint uh about um some nuisance at the property. It was unfounded as well or it was just taken care of before I was able to find anything. And um that was all so far. Any um for complaints in particular, any repeat locations? There was just one repeat location, but it was across the street actually from a location um and it was a vacant lot. Okay. Yes. So, typically we'll get a report of all the food inspections Devon has done. um uh title five inspections and also any complaints that were called into the board of health that he's then investigated and sort of the status of what those things are. Um any questions on the summary or Thank you. Okay. Well, we'll see that report and if we have anything for next month, we'll add Devon. Thank you. And I do apologize. No worries. Uh Nikki, did you have anything? I no I I do not. All right. Thank you. Um before I turn it over to Kyle to share his screen, I ap I apologize. I should have done this in the beginning.

Uh we do have a new member of our board of health here. Andrew, I don't know if you want to say a few words and introduce yourself, not to put you on the spot, but welcome. We're happy you're here. Thank you very much. And um my name is Andrew Chalupka. Um and this is my first meeting. I'm a lifelong resident of Grafton. Um, and uh, I appreciate hearing from the members of the alliance. I know you guys do a lot of great work on our behalf and to help the town. So, thank you. Great. Welcome. Yep. Welcome, Andrew. Thank you. All right. Nice to meet you. Thank you very much. All right. Kyle's going to share his screen and take it away for us. Hopefully. Hopefully we'll go through the rest of the committees after. Okay. So, thank you, chair, and to the board. Um, my name is Kylo Connor. I'm from the City of Worcester Division of Public Health. I'm the tobacco prevention specialist. Um, and I work with the alliance. So, I work with the town of Grafton. Um, just to kind of go over some of my enforcement and then regulatory aspects of the thing. So, I'm glad that this is your first meeting so you can kind of get an overview of the tobacco regulations and then I can provide an update to the inspections that I did last month. So, that's basically the overview of the presentation. I'm going to review the regulations, discuss some compliance and enforcement, recent trends, provide an update on my retail education visits, and give you folks an opportunity to have any questions if you have any. So, permits and restriction requirements for the sale of tobacco in the town of Grafton. Tobacco sale permits are non- transferable, which means if an establishment changes ownership or if the new owner uh decides to move locations, they would be

required to apply for a new permit as the permits are issued to the individual and also to the address. In the town of Grafton, the regulations state you have a maximum of 12 permits allowed. Currently, there are nine active permits, so you still have some available. No permit shall be issued within 500 ft of a school and no new adult only tobacco store shall be located within 25 ft of an existing retailer. Uh smoking bars are also prohibited in the town of Grafton. Uh permit renewal. So like I said, there are permits available. Um each permit um is a responsibility and renewal of the town Grafton and the board of health. Uh tobacco sale applications are found on your website and then are turned into your um administrative office. New ret if a new retailer were to sell to a minor three times within a previous year, the permit would not be renewed. If a retailer has failed to pay any outstanding fines, that tobacco sales permit would also not be renewed. Now, I'm going to get into some products and sales restrictions. So, flavored products are prohibited. Um, this aligns with the state law, Massachusetts, as well as any tobacco product flavor enhancers. The enhancers aspect of the regulation is a local, uh, regulation to the town of Grafton. Uh, what I mean by flavored tobacco products, we're talking about things like vapes, uh, disposable vapes. You're seeing flavors in that were really popular, um, in 2019 and 2020. Um, but that has since been banned as it shows. Uh, if youth aren't, you know, allowed to get these flavored products, they likely aren't to use those tobacco products. So that was the uh kind of point of the regulation and we have seen a decrease in usage. So it has proven effective. Uh blunt wraps are also prohibited. Uh non-residentidential will your own machines are prohibited. Self-service displays vending machines are all prohibited. Uh and this aligns with most other municipalities in the Massachusetts. And uh tobacco sales

permits are prohibited in educational and healthcare institutions. Uh nicotine pricing uh and restrictions. So, electronic nicotine devices shall not exceed 35 mg per milliliter um of nicotine content. And this basically bans 5% uh vapes. Um so in um all your retailers, no retailer should be carrying a vape that is above 3.5% nicotine unless it's an adult- only retail store. So like a smoke shop, they are permitted to have 5% nicotine vapes. However, still no flavors are allowed. Only tobacco, Regina tobacco or clear are allowed. And then cigar pricing, that is also a local grappton regulation. Uh 290 for a single cigar is the minimum. And then for a two pack or more, it has to be at least 580. Compliance and enforcement. So my goal um for all towns and the alliance is to visit each establishment three times. Uh the first visit is a retail education visit, which I just completed last month. That's when I go in, introduce myself as the tobacco compliance officer. I review the regulations with the owner or manager, whoever's on staff. I give them a copy of the regulations, my business card, and I'm available for any questions that they have. And if I do see things that are not in compliance with the regulations, I point it out. I give them a chance to correct it while I'm there. And then next time I would visit, if those things were not fixed, that's when I would do the citation and fine structure, which I'll go over in the next slide. Some common violations I see, uh, the most serious ones are selling to minors and the selling of flavored products. Those are both state regulations. Um, and those violations have a pretty steep structure. Again, next slide I'll show you that some violations that don't always occur to a citation or improper signage or incorrect minimum cigar pricing. That's something that's usually the um, establishment doesn't know that they're in violation of and they do want to

correct it. And I do carry around a big according folder of all my signages. So, um, those are provided to retailers at no cost. So, this is the fines and penalty structure. Uh, a state violation, like I said, is a flavored product or a sale to a minor, for an example. First violation is $1,000. Second violation is 2,000 with a 7-day suspension. Third violation is a $5,000 fine with a 30-day suspension. And those all would go before the board of health as well. Uh, some local violations. First violation is a 30 $30 fine, $300 fine, excuse me. Second violation is a $300 fine plus a 7day suspension. Third, $300 fine plus a 30-day suspension. And then the fourth time, the board would likely revoke their permit uh permanently. Uh but that's of course again to the board. So this is an update u specifically on the retail education visits I did with your establishments uh last month. uh out of your nine tobacco retailers, all were visited for the inspection. 43 Main Street was still under construction. Um so I could not visit that store at that time. And then 215 Worcester Street appeared to be permanently closed. There was no products or any type of anything in that store, including food or anything like that. I let Nancy Connors know about this and she will follow up with the permit holder to kind of check in with them to see where they're at. And like I said earlier, each retailer is given a copy of the state and local tobacco regulations, a brief overview of those regulations, my contact information, and any additional signage needed. And these are just some of the emerging trends and challenges that I've been facing. So, an increase in youth vaping all across the country, not just in the town of Grafton of the state of Massachusetts. Um, especially with disposable brands like Elf Bar, Crave, and Flume. These are things that um the youth can get their hands on pretty easily unfortunately and then just discard. Uh there's also been an increase in youth uh using oral nicotine

pouches like Zen. Um those are currently being looked at by the state. Um and if I do have any more information on those, I'll of course provide that to you as well. And then of course online sales and social media u make enforcement difficult and the trends of smoking and vaping are unfortunately still present. Um, but the division of public health is actively working on prevention and education materials to to combat that. And um, if there are any new potential policy enhancements to address new products or enforcement gaps, I'll be looking at those as well and bringing those to the board. And if you folks have any questions for me or concerns, I'm happy to answer them at this time. Dan. Um, thanks. This is Dan and Kyle. Thank you. Uh I do have a couple of questions about the permit itself. Is is it a state permit that's issued by the town and is it renewable each year? That's a good question. So uh tobacco retailers, the first step for them is to get uh the do permits, the department of revenue permits from the state. Um that allows them to purchase the tobacco products from the distributor and then the local Grafton tobacco permit allows them to sell those products in the town of Grafton. Um, I'm not exactly sure in the process of the town of Grafton's renewal and application process, but for Worcester, they do have to present the three types of do permits, sale of tobacco, sale of cigarettes, and sale of electronic nicotine devices, which are vapes. They have to present those three documents to us. Um, we go through that process. I do an inspection, and then they receive the graft or sorry, the local regulation that allows them to sell. Thanks. Thank you. when you have a violation, um there's there's a different fine for the town than there is for the state. How do you reconcile that? That's a good question. So, like I said, the state violations are a bit more concerning um and a bit more serious, I

would say, for a lack of a better term. Uh selling to minors is something that we take very seriously. Um, we don't want any tobacco products to be in the hands of the youth. And also the flavor ban is a big issue for us as well. We have sometimes establishments who get them from out of the state or from, you know, distributors who aren't permitted to provide those products to establishments in the state of Massachusetts and then they kind of sell them under the table. um haven't had any experience with like those in the town of Grafton yet, but when I do um those compliance checks with youths, after I complete those, I'll come back to the board with an update on how those go. Um but going back to this finding structure. So, um depending on the situation, if a violation were to occur, I would usually refer to the state um higher fine and suspension structure. Um, it usually has a better way of deterring retailers from continuing violating the regulation. Follow up. Pat, you good? It's a lot to throw at you. So, if you ever have any more questions, I can leave my contact info or I could always come back to But since there's a state fine, um, why do we even have a local fine? Uh, because you have regulations that are permitted only for the town of Grafton. Um, the best example I can think of is your cigar minimum pricing. Each each of the alliance sounds have a slightly different um cigar pricing minimum. So um that would be an example where I'd only find them for a local violation, but selling to a minor would be a major violation. Be a state fine. Correct. So you would come with recommendations to us as to how to apply. Yep. Uh, a lot of my work right now is involving enforcement and making sure I complete my goal of meeting all of those retailers with three times a year. Um, but I do try to make time for looking at policies and regulations of other municipalities

um that are, you know, more updated have more updated regulations that I can then implement into the alliance towns or Worcester. And Kyle, three times a year. That was one of my questions. Um, unless there's a complaint maybe you may go off. Exactly. And I assume the others are unannounced. Correct. Yes. So, um, this is for Worcester. I'm sure it pertains to the town of Grafton as well. If the town were to give an establishment a permit, somewhere in the regulations it says they are, you know, as you're doing business with the town of Grafton and we're allowing them to have a tobacco permit, they are open to any type of inspection at any time. Yeah. Thanks. And all of my inspections are unannounced. So to Dan's point, the I was going to ask the same thing. So the first one is to sort of introduce um everything that's one time or every year. I do that my goal would be to do that once a year. Okay. Um next year if it's the same owner, you know, it's the same establishment, I would give them less leniency because I did go over the regulations with them and they have copies of everything. Um, so that's when I would treat it more as a um followup or a uh enforcement regulation as opposed to a education visit. And the other two visits are more like secret shopper surveillance. Correct. Part of those. Yes. The the one um the compliant youth compliance check is when I uh we hire youth interns to come with me and I send them into the store. Um they come out either with or without a product and then we follow up with them uh with a violation if that were to occur. And then the third type of uh inspection is just a general enforcement uh inspection is where I I go in myself and I check basically all the things I check on my retail education visit except this time I kind of they know what I'm looking for. I know what I'm looking for and if I do see any violations that's when I would uh issue a citation. And as if any law changes or requirements throughout

the year you're going and doing inerson education to them as well. Yeah. So if there are any state or local um amendments to regulations, the board would be notified and then all establishments would would be mo notified. Uh and then they would be given a couple weeks to um amend their store to meet those uh new regulations and then I would follow up with the visit to make sure that they're compliant. just so you know for for this board at least um we have found it helpful if there is a violation to understand you know has there historically because we don't always remember if it's the same location or not historically if they've had you know a violation what was it what action did we take um and also what has been helpful is if they happen to also own uh in the same regions of us but in outside of town um just you know tells us whether or not they they are new to the business and they're just sort of getting, you know, getting to know things or if they they know and they're sort of not really enforcing those things. So, those things are helpful, I think, um when you come to us with things. Not that you're going to find anything, but if you do find anything, um so we know. Yeah. Any type of um regula, uh any type of violation, I would immediately report that to Nancy Connors and then I work with her to uh issue that citation because that citation would come from the town of Grafton and not the city of Worcester. So, I work with her very closely if um I do find anything. Great. Yep. Karen, any questions on the phone? I don't want to forget that you're there. Not that I can think of. All right. Good. All right. Appreciate the re-education. I've been doing this so long. It's like you thankfully, knock on wood, we don't really get many violations. Not that we have a lot of permits either, but still we don't get a lot of violations. So, it's, you know, we don't talk about it frequently, we'll

say. Um, it's not like an every month or even every 3 plus month type of topic unless we're talking about potential updates or there happens to be that random um violation that crops up that we have to discuss. So, we might need re-education if something does come as well. Just let me know when I'm available anytime to come to the one of these meetings and help out. Very good. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Moving right along, Dan and Bill and others, any updates on the OP opioid settlement funds? Um yeah, we had a meeting on the 25th and we actually had a final presentation from the GAP group and uh we took a vote and accepted their proposal and sent it to uh to Evan who was working on um he and Mary are working on a uh a grant for formal grant. So that's good. And then we're hoping to schedule a couple more Narcan trainings in the near future as well. So, yeah, we're hearing from another group um uh schools and things like that are likely going to want that training as well. So, yeah. Great. Um I'm gonna Anything else? Well, we did enter into this without the other two alliance towns, right? Um I think you know a number of reasons for that. One is the GAP organization already has an establishment and are miss um they're optimistic that Shrewsbury may participate as well. Um but uh West Boilston is um it's probably not going to in the near future, right? I think they have

had some unsettling things in the town and so forth. I don't think they're ready to commit to this. Okay. Um it it does um replace some funding that they had had from uh the Worcester the district attorney's office district attorney's office that had um basically not been renewed. So actually um it's an existing program that had existing funding. Uh that funding had not been continued. So, our um proposal would basically uh uh take the place of the funding they had lost. Yeah. And make sure there's no loss of access then. That's good. Yep. Great. Nice. All right. Thank you. And you guys are meeting again. Andrew did join us as well. Oh, you did? Okay. And he has particular expertise as an anesthesiologist. Yeah. Uh with opioids for Yeah. I think it might have been the same day that Andrew got sworn in which was yeah pretty nice and he's welcome. He's going to be on the committee volunteer to do that which is great. Great. And you're at your max for that committee because if you have anybody else then you're open then you're subject to open meeting law. Okay. Well, there you go. I believe that's the once you have enough voting members or something we have to do all the things. Yeah. Okay. Great. That's great. We'll have the police chief. Yep. Uh I'm going to rearrange just a little bit to put the subcommittees together. Um so uh we had um Todd come and speak to us. I think it was last month. It's all a blur now. Um about some findings. He is on the ambulance committee and um was starting to do a report for the town of Grafton on um AEDs and first aid kits uh around the different municipal buildings and

schools here in town. Additionally, um you know, the number of ambulance calls and kind of repeat places and what that's looking like uh for the town budget, but also just the ability of the ambulance to be as responsive to some of those things. Um so, we had our first meeting. Andrew is going to join us as well at the next meeting. Um our next meeting is going to be April 16th, which is exactly a month from our first meeting. Um the reason why we need to we're going to have to do a little bit more work when we went through the report um we did find that there's a little bit of gaps in what information we were able to obtain. So we really need to figure out um you know one baseline of all of the places that we're looking at and what everybody has now. Um and so Todd did a really good job starting that work. Um this coming meeting it's going to be more of a working meeting to sort of assign people to go and do some follow-up. Um, we do have Amelia on that committee, Maryanne from the police department, Eric from the fire department, uh, Mike Mullen from the alliance who has done this type of work across Worcester. Um, and then the two of us from the board. We will also have um, Greg from um, the ambulance vendor as well join us thereafter. So the plan is to sort of get a foundation baseline of what we have and then make a recommendation for what we need um and then be able to bring that back to Evan as well as uh educate all the different stakeholders. Everybody is sort of doing their own thing or not doing much. Um and of course that that runs the risk of when somebody needs an AED not having access to an AED, when somebody needs first aid not having access to it. Um and then of course different groups are using different funds to be able to have something in place. And so we really think for um safety and efficiency it would be good to have sort of a uniform uh contract. Um there are some groups that are doing a pretty robust review of

all of this and and have processes in place. Uh but not everybody does. Um so we definitely need to do some education in different groups as well as to you know why we're doing this, why we need an accountable party at each location. uh sort of like a little mini hospital on wheels. So um but there are quite a few municipal buildings um you know outside of this building and even in this building we want to make sure everybody has what they need. So, um it we don't anticipate it being a subcommittee that needs to exist forever, but we need a few space to get organized, make a proposal to Evan, uh do an education plan, and then um likely we'll be attaching something to when people are getting their their permits and renewals and things like that so that Nancy can just kind of confirm that they have everything in place and we don't kind of let it fall to the wayside. So, yeah. So, great. lots of work to do, but should be good and we have a good group to to do it. And Mike uh Mullen from the alliance has, you know, a really robust structure already from uh Worcester, so we're probably going to kind of take that and start to um plug that in for us as well. So, we'll bring back updates to you all. Uh do you have anything on the rabies clinic you wanted to share? Just that it's coming up this Saturday. I thought so. And that it's it's a full slate. Yes. Of appointments. There will be three veterinarians. I'm going to be there from 9:00 to 11:00 just to to um help out a little bit, open doors, pet dogs and cats. Maybe not so much the cats. Maybe some cats like And uh so yeah, we're excited about, you know, getting a lot of participation from the talented. Yeah. People and so volunteers are the vets for the weekend. So mission critical that if folks signed up for a slot to please show up so that they want to do this year over year for us because this is actually probably one of our bigger clinics too since we had a little time

to yeah to socialize it. So y nicely done getting that organized again. Yep. All right. Um then we have a few nominations keeping on the the animal side um for animal inspectors. Um and so the names are listed here on our agenda. Um I don't Has Keith been doing this? I think everybody's renewals. Yeah. For the coming year. Yeah, I think they are reappoints. Yeah. So, we just need um nominations for each of them for one-year term. Okay. Um this is Dan Finn and I believe these nominations go to Evan or the select board and they actually appoint them if I'm correct. So, I would like to to uh make a motion to nominate Melinda Mckendendrick as animal inspector for the town of Grafton. This is Bill Muller. I'll second that nomination. Roll call. And fin. Bill Muller. I Andrew I. Karen Geski Govin. I Jen Mayard. I might as well go. Yeah. Mr. Finn, take it away. I'm on a roll since I am here in front of me for a change. So this is Dan Finn. I'd like to make a motion to nominate Jay Husten as animal inspector for this coming year. This is Bill Muller. I second that nomination. Roll call. Dan Finn I. Bill Muller. I Andrew Luke I. Karen Gusteski Govin I. Jen Mayard. I And lastly on the list um this is Dan Finn. I'd like to make a motion to nominate Keith Elms as assistant animal inspector for the coming year. This is Bill Muller. I second that nomination. Dan Fai. Bill Muller. I Andrew Flipkai. Karen Waseski. Govern I I don't even have to say the words anymore by the time we get to the third one.

I should but thank you. All right. Um then we do have a couple of minutes uh to meeting minutes to approve. Um it's from our last month's meeting and then the meeting where we had uh all of us join the select board meeting. Um so first is March 3rd. I know I don't have that in front of me. Maybe I can dig it up. There we go. Yep. This is actually I've got February 4th, March 3rd. You have Okay. This is Dan V. I'd like to make a motion to accept the minutes of the Grafton board of health for March 3rd as presented. Bill Muller. I second that proposal. Dan Finn I. Bill Muller. I uh Andrew abstain. Karen Weski Govin. Jen Maynard. Okay. And the March 4th, which was our um visit to the select board. Yeah. This is Dan Finn. I'd like to make a motion to accept the brief minutes of February 4th, um 2025 from the board of health. This is Bill Mer. I second that motion. Okay. Dan Finn I. Bill Muller. I And sorry Dan, did you say February 4th? It was March 4th. I think he said March 4th. He said March 4th, I think. Okay. I thought I heard February before we get through the roll call and have to like redo the world. Right. March 4th. Do you have a vote? Miss Gin, Miss Gin,

Karen Goweski, Gopin. I may not. All right. Thank you for that. All right. So, we do have to discuss um for upcoming meetings. Um as I mentioned in my very lengthy introduction this uh earlier um there is an extension to Governor Baker's um provision um to June 30th, 2027 where we are permitted to have um hybrid or virtual meeting. I believe that's what uh the order is is that we can extend as we have been. Um if we do do hybrid meetings, we do have to have um a quorum in the room is our understanding. So at least three of us need to be in the room. Um is there a preference to doing full remote hybrid? I'm assuming not full in person because I know that's difficult for um folks. It's their preference. I think hybrid makes sense. Yeah, I think hybrid Karen, hybrid work for you? It does most likely. I'll be remote most of the time just based on work schedule. Yeah. And typically what we what we've done is if NY's pretty good about if people know a little earlier on that it's not going to work for them coming up to that meeting to come in person. Um and you don't think you know there's going to be three of us. Let's if we give her a heads up, she can repost it as a remote meeting. So it doesn't we don't have to like um we can adjust it as long as there's enough time before she posts the agenda. But we'll stick with um hybrid. I believe NY's gone ahead and um booked the conference room for us and we did last meeting get through December with our meeting dates. They're just not reflected on this agenda. Um so our next meeting at this point is scheduled for May 5th. We'll plan for that to be hybrid.

Are there any other? Uh May 5th and we will have a hearing at that one, I believe, right? Yeah. All right. So, we'll have a hearing. We'll have lots of reading to do before then. Uh is that the well? Yes, the well. That's the well hearing. So, they need to put public notice and things out first. I'm a a butter. Does that Oh, does that make me um have to as a conflict? You might you might want to abstain from voting. You could certainly ask questions though or give us questions to ask on your behalf if you're more comfortable. Right. Yeah. I'm going to have to abstain as well. Oh, for crying out loud. Karen, don't be absent. Don't be absent. Andrew, can't guarantee until you know long as there's no crisis at work. Yeah. Well, now I don't have to excuse ourselves and step out and have a cigarette break. 50 feet away from the It's good that we we have this though now so that we all know and we can make sure to to be here. Um but there are if you haven't received them yet. Um there are regulations and Nancy has some documentation for us to be able to look at. Um we can forward to she sent them recently. Uh is there any other old or new business? I don't know of any other correspondents besides that one. Go ahead, Dan. I just wanted to mention one thing. Last Thursday, I attended a FEP meeting up in Worcester, which is a public health emergency planning group. Um, and it was a big big crowd, probably 50 people, which is amazing. So, we're going to be getting a couple of uh stop the bleed kits for great emergencies if we happen to have to do either a dispensing site or or whatever. So, Nancy had requested those and they were approved. Oh, great. That's another hot item for the ambulance committee, the um tourniquets and training on that stuff. So, yeah, great. That's it.

Um, and I think a few of us are attending. The alliance has some training for members of boards of health, and a few of us are planning on attending one of those in the next month or two. So, that' be good. All right. All right. Anything else, Mr. Finn? I understand there's a basketball game tonight. He always keeps us on task. and uh and I I think there's a a recording of White Lotus, so I don't know. I'll watch it, but in any event, well, the meetings are getting shorter as my tenure goes on. So, I would like to make a motion to uh close this meeting. Is there a second? I'll second that motion. Roll call. Dan Fai. Bill Muller. I Andrew Chuka I go I Jen Maynard I. Thank you everyone. Have a lovely evening. Stay warm. Hope for warmer, drier weather soon. Take care. We'll see you next time. Bye. Thank you. Thank you. Bye. Bye. Bye. Yay. You made it through your first one. [Music]