Board of Health - Regular Meeting

Good evening, Littleton, and welcome to the board of health meeting for Wednesday, October, August 27th. Um, today in the meeting we have myself, Kevin Davis as the chair, Matt Wson, and Dan Kaine. And also joining us is Francis Dangle and Heidi. if uh we do have a quorum. So, we're going to start the meeting promptly at 7:00 p.m. Um and the person that we need to hear from is the public hearing on 4K Road at 7 p.m. If the person who is Oh, and we have Kevin Baker promoted him to panelist. If anybody is in the and raise their hand, we will promote you. Here we go. Mitchell. Mitchell, can you hear us? Yeah, I can hear you.

Perfect. All right. Uh, Francis, do you want to read through the notes?

Do you want to start with the the presentation of what uh Oh, sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, Mitchell, uh, this is why don't you go ahead and present, um, for, uh, what you're proposing and maybe share share a plan. Do you have a plan to share? Yeah, I submitted it to Heidi. I I thought, um, you guys were going to be able to show the new certified plot plan. Okay. For the project. So, originally we had Oh,

one second, sir. Let's uh, try to get that up. So, give me a second. Can everybody see it? Okay, go ahead.

So, originally we were trying to get a um 18 by 14 foot um screened in porch. Um the issue that um the board had was that the footings were closer to the septic uh leeching field and components than 5 ft. Um the 5T I is the um you know the distance from the components in the in the field that the board is comfortable with. Um, so we had to shrink the screen porch to 13 instead of 18 and then change I mean 13 instead of 14 and then change how it was framed in order to um get the footings outside of the 5 ft um radius of this the leeching field in the um tank. So we were able to do that. had to shift it a little bit over, but it's still um it's obviously still tight, but um it meets the 5-ft setback requirements for the footings and then also um still the setback requirements of the side and rear yards.

Okay, Francis, do you want to read any of the notes? Uh yeah, so just to reiterate, originally they came with us for a 14 by8 screen porch. Um it does show a 1-T reduction. Um obviously the certified plot plan did change some of those distances, so they are meeting the 5-ft standard. Um the deck is still in proximity. We did also receive a letter from Kyle Man, who does a lot of work in town right now. Um, and he said he would have no problem accessing this site. Um, cuz the deck, I mean, the porch itself was kind of a concern given that the restraints of the lot. And he said he had no problem going back there if the system ever did fail. Um, given that he does so much work in town. Um, that made me a little more comfortable. Um, but they also um, if I he actually also worked um, to install the original system as well.

Okay. Um, so overall, I mean, they did meet the 5-ft standard. The most concerning thing is the footing. So, given that they able to do that, my recommendation um would be to approve the proposed plan. Okay, thank you for that feedback. Um, Matt Wson, um, Francis, your notes just mentioned that the drawing didn't show a third footing. Is there a third footing and where is it? Um there is no. So um part of getting you know getting to meet the requirements the beam the carrying beam is going to be upgraded significantly to eliminate that middle footing.

Cool. Just wanted to make sure that Y um and then I I don't I didn't look at the original drawing. Did the porch move northeast on your diagram any closer to that property line or is that still the same distance? Um, so originally was 4 foot6 where it says 3'4. So it it had to shift that way. Okay. In order to achieve the the setback requirements.

So you ended up losing you'll end up losing approximately a foot of space between that far corner. Oh, but then it went from 14 feet down to 13 feet. the gap from the the closest corner to the lot line is probably about the same as last time. Yeah, pretty much just on that. So, okay. Uh, no other questions. Thanks. Uh, Mr. Kane, uh, no, thank you very much for going back and looking at those we are concerned from our last meeting.

Okay, Mr. Baker. I have no questions. Thanks for all the cl clarification. And the chair has no questions. I need a motion to

I'll make a motion to approve the deck patio plans as presented here showing two footings both outside 5 foot range of the septic tank and field. I'll second that. I have a second. Okay. Uh, let's do a roll call vote. Uh, Matt Wson. Matt Wson, yes. Excellent. Dan Kane. Kane, votes yes. Kevin Baker. Kevin Baker votes yes. And the chair, Kevin Davis, votes yes. Thank you so much, Mitchell, for showing up. We really appreciate all the hard work that you put into it.

Yep. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Thank you. Okay, we are just flying along. We got three minutes until our 710 hearing. Um, and it looks like Do we want to do any um Do you think we can do the meeting minute approval for July 23rd before we get to the next person? Okay. All right. Does any has everybody had enough time to read uh those minutes? Okay. Does anybody have any comments on those? The only question I had was I chair at that point or was that the meeting afterwards? staff will look into that more closely.

Okay. All right. So, um I think with that with that in there, I think we can I need a motion. Uh yeah, other than that, my name was uh spelled wrong at least one point. So, if you could just do a double check that. Sorry. Yes. Thank you. Two two admin. We have a motion. I'll make a motion to approve the minutes as presented. Um, with those two admin notes corrected.

I'll second a roll call vote. Mr. Kane states Mr. Baker. Evan Baker votes yes. Mr. Wson. Mason. Yes. And the chair, Kevin Davis, votes yes. Okay. Meeting minutes approved. Also, those were Heidi's first time doing the minutes and she did a really good job. Oh, thank you, Heidi. Much appreciated. Thank you.

All right. I think we have about 30 seconds until this. Why don't we I'll promote Evan so he can get into the meeting and it is now officially 710. So it is now 7:10. Time for our public hearing for 34 Fletcher Lane. Uh Evan, do you want to go ahead and share a plan? Sure, I could do that. Hey everybody, how's everybody go do doing tonight? Ducky.

Good. Good. All right. 34 Fletcher sharing. Go. Can everybody see that? Okay. Yes. Great. Thank you so much.

Um, so 34 Fletcher Lane. Um, we are at the end of Fletcher Lane. It's a good size piece of property. Uh but it is pretty uh enveloped in um in wetland. So uh what we've got here, it's an existing three-bedroom home. And we come out uh the back of the home and the existing system is uh noted here by plan note one. We've got a tank in this area and then we've got a leech field down here near the wetlands. So, um there was a title 5 completed and we did a test hole nearby and it was showing that the um the leech field was was below the groundwater table. So, uh we went ahead and um did soil testing and we uh we went further away from the wetlands. We got up we got up out of it uh in the I guess it's the other backyard or sideyard um to the back of the house to the north as opposed to the east to to try to get our um our leech field away from the um the wetlands. Um we did look at changing the plumbing. Uh it is a field stone foundation and um with the stone patio and the wall and the steps that are here, it just didn't seem like a a great option. So uh what we've got is is we're showing a tank come in. We're pulling it back from the wetlands um a bit. We are uh about I believe 11 or 12 ft off the foundation and then we go down uh gravity feed into a pump chamber which is right off of the uh the edge of the field which will then pump to a presby enviric. Uh it is high ground water here. We're anywhere between um yeah it's between two and three feet. So, it's um 26 in in two of the test holes and then at 30 in

in the one that was um a little bit higher in elevation, but uh we are holding the 26 all the way uh for this whole system. So, it's a sloped presby. We are requesting the twoft reduction as allowed by the remedial use approval letter. Um and then it was requested that we add that twoft reduction as a local upgrade on the plan as well. So uh that is the request tonight. Okay. Thank you so much for that wonderful presentation. Francis, would you care to share any notes?

Francis, you are on mute if you are talking. Sorry.

Okay. Um, so there's not really many additional notes. Haven't pretty much covered everything. Um, the only additional notes would be the property is served by town water. Um, like you said, significant wetlands, so it is within the 100t buffer. Um, based on our new way of doing permitting, conservation commission now gets notified as soon as any plans are submitted. And so we talk to them before it comes before us as well. But it'll also be going for conservation after tonight. Okay. How are we handling that? If conservation needs to have something changed or whatever we approve the plan as built, will they come back around?

They're going to have to come back around. I mean, essentially at the end of the day, we're doing a conditional approval pending approval by the conservation commission as well. So, if there has to be a plan change, he's going to have to come back with a revision. Okay. All righty. Okay. Uh why don't we start with Kevin Baker?

Uh Evan, can you confirm the the perk rate? Uh yes. So we we got three minutes per inch. Um we we Yeah, we got three minutes per inch on this one. pretty fast.

Yeah. As you got closer to the the wetlands, actually, it got even sier. So, we we perked up here, but we noticed in test hole three, we we got to a a grainier soil, but up in test hole one and two, it was more of a more of a lomy sand type uh type soil. And did you consider picking the whole system up a foot? Uh because it was so fast.

No. No. We we went with the uh the 4 foot and then down to two foot reduction. Um, we design we in mind when I was out there with Jim, we were looking at the soil and and again it did vary and we we decided we we decided that three actually felt a bit fast for what we were seeing up in test hole one and two. Um, certainly for test hole three, 3 minutes per inch made sense, but what we were seeing in test hole one and two, we we thought actually was was um we might have hit a a better pocket. Um so we did design accordingly. You know we've got it sized where where um got it sized well into you know 10 minutes 10 15 minutes per inch.

Isn't it at at only just 2 minutes an inch uh one minute test that that you have to you're required to to pick it up a foot.

Yes. But but um I'm confident that the soil that we've got I mean we are uphill of the testing that had soil in two areas that was it was not it was not the same as what was we saw getting closer to the wetlands. Yeah. I guess my only concern is that, you know, since we're only 2 ft off the 100 foot buffer and we're only 1 minute above the mark where you need to actually pick it up a foot by title 5, uh, that it might be worth just an ounce of prevention to do so. That's that's my only comment. Okay.

Yeah, there's I mean there's definite um, you know, it's a it's a beautiful property. uh this just keeping the mounting as low as possible. It's something that uh you know I know all parties all all parties involved are very interested in that. Um the buyers particularly

Mr. Kane My thing with Mr. Baker, I mean it's paperwork's conf obviously it's you're you're close to the open sh Hey Jan, you might want to reset your mic. It sounds like it's you're talking through a piece of wax paper, but we got the gist of what you're saying. Um, okay. Um, Mr. Wson.

Uh, so Evan, it's only that initial tank that's actually inside the 100 foot. Correct. Correct. The pump chamber and the field are completely outside of the 100 foot buffer. Okay. And it's gravity. Okay. So then it's gravity all the way from that tank over to the pump. Um, yeah. We, you know, it's this is one of those weird ones that could have potentially made gravity, but by the time you you factor in what the sewer line would look like, it it wouldn't it doesn't make sense. So, we we went with a pump instead. Yeah. No, yeah, I get it. Um, question, Francis. Um, do we have to approve it differently because any part of the system is within the 100 foot?

You do not. Okay. One one other note, both tanks are called out to be monolithic as well. Yeah, monolithic and booted. Uh not booted, but we can certainly put that in there. Would that make the board feel a little more comfortable if we had booted tanks? question. I think that's an easy an easy thing to to do. Okay. All right. And not a bad idea. Yeah. Yep.

Yep. Okay. I I think it's I think it would be a sure. None of us are going to say no, don't do it, Evan. Um, yeah, but to Dan's point, this system is now perfectly falling within the criteria we have specified. It's meeting all of the requirements technically. Yeah. Did you test to see if there were any alternate locations that would work with a standard or alternate locations to pull it away farther?

Yeah. So, so we definitely we didn't even bother testing the location is now obviously due to the proximity to the to the wetlands. Uh when we started get sorry um when we started getting up uh past these trees here uh we we wanted to keep it uh below the trees because we didn't want to we didn't want to take them down. And if we were just if we were to try to fit it up in this area, we would end up having to take down one one or both of the trees um due to just the construction or the fill um because we are we do have some fill that is it's it's a raise. We're essentially what we're doing is we're going to strip up strip off the A and B but the bottom of the system is we actually are are pretty much using a twoft. So we're pretty much starting the um the sand of the system at grade. Um, so therefore we do have some fill that's going into the 100 foot, but the system is outside of it. So, um, so the answer is no. We did test down in this area. Um, there's some space up here, but we didn't test there uh because it it just felt like we knew it was going to be a mounted system. Um, we knew it was going to be high water due to the test hole we did for the Title 5. So, uh, coming up in this space, um, it felt like the finished product was going to one two things. It was going to end up impacting the trees, but then it was also going to um basically be be building a mound into the high side of the yard where uh if we build a mound into the lower side of the yard, it can kind of tie up into the high side of the yard. So So aesthetically, it felt better as well. Okay.

Okay. Does anybody else have any other questions or comments? I don't see anybody in the audience and uh we remissed to check the last time uh and there was nobody in the audience for the previous time. What's up? Nobody there in the audience for any comments. Board members, any final comments? We have one friendly amendment to to have everything booted. Do I have a motion?

I'll make a motion to approve the plan as presented uh with the addition of the boots on the monolithic tanks. Second. I have a motion and a second. Uh Mr. Wson. Yes. Mr. Kane. Mr. Kane votes yes. Mr. Baker Kevin Baker votes yes. And the chair Kevin Davis votes yes. Thank you so much Evan for coming in and presenting. Thank you so much for having uh taking that friendly amendment. Absolutely. Thank you very much everybody. Have a great night.

All right. It is now 7:23 and it is just in time for the ID decision support tool. So Matt, take it away. Most popular part of the night. You know it, dude. Come on.

Okay, so uh CO 19 is going to get shorter and shorter uh because the CDC's data is now from May 24th in terms of uh variance. So they're really not getting any data to update that. So, I'm just going to kind of keep watching it and I'll let you know when it is updated. As we already mentioned, vaccinations are from last um kind of last season. So, the uh state of Massachusetts has also kind of transitioned CO 19 into the respiratory illness category. So, it is officially out of season now. So that's why you see that the town data hasn't been updated since June 28th for cases because it won't be updated until the fall when a new season starts and we will start getting new data. Um noted the wastewater numbers appear to still be happening but these are as of August 14th and I seem to recall those being more uh current than that. So I haven't seen anything as to why there it's kind of a delay there cuz that date is usually posted really quickly. Um this could be normal. I just can't quite recall it. But the the numbers have popped up from sitting between the 100 200 now something over 500 um over a couple of days in mid August. So it'll be curious to see where that goes next if that means anything. Um and as we'll we'll keep an eye and post it up there. Uh the bigger news is in the arvirus category for triple E. We still remain low in this community, but Westnau virus, we are now at um it's probably only the moderate level because Francis, correct me if I'm wrong, but Littleton did have a positive mosquito sample as well as from at least three neighboring communities, I believe. So,

we're the only one that hasn't yet. We're the only one that has or hasn't. Hasn't. Oh, okay. I couldn't remember if we actually got a posit. Everybody surrounding us, but there's everybody around us. So, we have that magical bubble. Yeah, that's good. I love those mosquitoes respecting the property lines. I love it. So, it it's moderate here, but I think it's should be well make sure people are taking taking precautions. And Francis, thank you. I know you've sent out um some communications to the community lately, which is great. So, this shouldn't be a surprise to anybody. Um and that is where we are at.

Lovely. Uh speaking of uh Westnile virus um and I know we've seen some of the stuff going out and it's really good. Um I don't believe we need to take any action as a board right now with it being at the moderate level.

No. Um I mean I just guess I would say keep an eye on your email in case we do need to have an unscheduled meeting for a situation. But um so far so good. I mean West Nile virus is not triple E, so it also wouldn't be the same type of emergency. Most people who do get it do not even know because they're not usually symptomatic. Um but as more information comes in, I will keep the board updated no matter what it is and we can make a decision collectively. Perfect.

Excellent. Okay. And then um while we're on it, it looks like we have a flyer uh for uh in our packet to talk about for the fall vaccinations. Um it looks like that looks like beautiful flyer.

Yeah, our intern was very good this summer. Um so we have two finalized clinics, one on September 29th and one on October 21st. The one on the 29th is going to be more geared towards seniors. Um we're working with the volunteer core. We're working with um aer family pharmacy who we've worked with previously. Um so as long as we meet a quota of they said about 50 people um there will be no cost to us. The Rotary Club though has generously donated up to $500 for anybody who is uninsured who wants to go to the clinic. Um so that was huge. Thank you, Rotary. That's amazing.

Amazing. Yes. Um, so we've already started working with the seniors. The Council on Aging has their staff um manning phones as well for people who don't want to sign up online. Um, and they can also sign up at the new center itself and it's good promotional for the new center itself as well. Um, so we're hoping it's going to be highly attended. And then the second one is seemed like a good place to have it would be at the middle school like previous years to get all ages to come out just like last year. Last year I think we did about 140 at the middle school. So hopefully we keep same numbers.

That's awesome and amazing. How does the new um CDC or FDA advisor um information affect the administration of the vaccines? Um well I mean the recommendations um the only contingent we have in terms of our side is um it's now 5 years or older instead of 6 months. Okay. Got it. Does anybody else have any questions for Francis? Oh,

we bought a tablecloth. Um, so I figure, yeah, um, I figure we're going to be doing more events and I really think in the next year or so we should be trying to create some kind of health fair in some kind of form to start. Um, we have Susan, our nurse, attending Westford's health fair, which is coming up soon, so she can kind of get an understanding of what an event would look like, what kind of tables would be there, and we can try to recreate something like that in the next year or so in coordination with some other departments. Um, but as we start center to do that, too. So, that'd be amazing.

Yeah, I mean, it's a great promotional tool. Um, but we should really have some kind of tablecloth identifying stations that we could be at at different events telling people that we are the health department. So, um, we put together some basic designs I'm not very good at, but it says who we are. So, um, we'll start those at the clinic and use those going forward as well. Sounds amazing. anybody on the board shared any comments?

Well, I think it's just in terms of the news that's been coming out today. I think I think one of the questions that that I'm unclear on is um obviously if people come to our town supported clinics, they're not going to be charged. And that could be a a sales pitch for our clinic because there's not a guarantee that depending on their insurance coverage that they would be charged elsewhere. Francis, correct me if I'm wrong. Um, so sorry, the question is will they be charged if they went to a clinic elsewhere?

Well, correct. So if if somebody comes to one of our clinics and they are technically not in the list of FDA approved or CDC recommended groups, so a healthy 12year-old um I got your question. Will they be able to get a COVID vaccine from us without cost or they bring their insurance information and it's still based upon their individual's insurance coverage? My understanding is the coverage is still coverage, but um if they would, no one is going to be turned away no matter what age, no matter what insurance, no matter any factors whatsoever.

Okay. I I'm more just saying um I I think the confusion is going to come out is that there could be insurance carriers moving forward this fall that won't cover the vaccination for certain individuals. And unfortunately, that means people who come to our clinics thinking that they're going to get a free shot, that might not be the case because we try to build their insurance to get paid or we provide it no matter what and we eat the cost. I'm just not sure how the town works with the insurance companies.

Um, so that's why we have the pharmacy do it so we don't have to. Um, dealing with Commonwealth Health is really challenging and it's a pain and a struggle. Um, we will be covering it regardless. So, we will eat the cost of what is not covered either way. Okay. Um, family a family pharmacy is going to be dealing with the insurance end of it. So, as long as we meet the quota of people who show up, that is the only requirement on our end.

Great. So I think that's an important I don't know how to communicate. I don't really want to say okay well you know no matter what you can show up and get one but at the same time it's people should know that if they typically get it at their physician's office and that's the way they want to do it or they typically walk into a pharmacy and that's the way they do it. Those two avenues could start costing people money this fall depending on their insurance carrier and what they decide to cover for the vaccinations unfortunately. Yep. Excellent point. Okay.

Thank you, Matt, for clarifying what I was trying to say. You said it in so much better words. Thank you. All right. Um, the other question I have on the flyer, um, this is for the COVID side and for the flu. These are the new fall. So, these are the 25 26 fall shots. Is that correct?

Correct. Excellent. Any other comments? Seeing none. Okay. So, it looks like we have covered that. We've taken care of the minutes and now we are on to administrative matters. administrative matters. Francis,

um well, just quickly touching on um the clinics made me think of um I do want to talk at some point in the near future about having revolving accounts um in the next budget cycle. I think they're important to have and I think as we grow I think they are kind of required. Um so I just want to put it on people's minds.

Okay. Um, more importantly, administrative support. Um, at this point in time, we've been told tenatively that there is going to be a split between current administrative staff and land use where the former building administrative assistant will now be covering 45% of health, 45% of uh 45% of facilities and 10% of the conservation commission. Um, as you know, we had a 50% person before, so this is a little bit of a drop. Um, the situation kind of is what it is. Um, so we're just trying to manage it the best we can.

Okay. Have we started taking on that? Um, have we started taking collecting data on activities and all that kind of good stuff so that way if you're finding out that you're overworked or whatever that we can start to provide the town with data?

Yes and no. I mean, now that we're going more electronic, we have a lot more access to data itself being readily available. And now that is out of the picture, we have um numbers that we know that we can use. Um the biggest thing that we are not currently tracking which we really should is that the foot traffic has significantly um increased. Um a lot more calls, a lot more people in office, a lot more emails, a lot more followup. Um it's it's been a lot. Um and it really bogs us down a lot. Um I was surprised by how much. So, um, that is something I'm going to have to figure out a way to keep track of um, in between things, but I have not gotten to that point. We're just trying to keep up at this point. Um, I mean, the workload is significantly increased and I'm running around a lot and just because of the time of year, you're usually out in the field most of the day at one site. So, it's been hard to kind of keep organized in office, but we are keeping on top of the work and once things slow down a little bit, we will get a better tracking system for everything.

Okay. I was just going to ask if you guys had if the ego gov thing had an electronic ticketing system. It does, but then we also have to I mean the thing with health numbers is it's not just the number, it's the time behind it. So like with a building inspection, you already know exactly what it's going to be timewise where you know if you're going to get a housing case, you're going to get a food inspection, you don't know what time it is and no one else knows what time it is. So it's also being able to say what's behind those numbers. um because no one truly understands the time involved in each thing we do. Okay.

Anybody else any general comments on that? Go ahead.

Um just kind of for the foot traffic just to have a sense of what kind of things you coming in for. Is it so they coming in for files and info kind of thing? Is it coming in walk-ins for submissions? Is it public I don't want to say is it medical nursing public health kind of questions. I'm just curious like what that sense is so how best might be able to help support a plan to address it. Um so in terms of the medical not so much yet. Um that's still pretty low and we also haven't really promoted the nurse to that degree yet where we might get more increase in the future. Um we're still giving her exposure. So like for example um we recently talked to Nhoba about trying to help connect her to the school nurses and kind of start to building that network. Um so I think as stuff like that grows, we're going to see a significant increase on that end as well. Um but a lot of it is definitely files, a lot of it is questions about files. Um, I asked Jim to drop off any hard copies of anything in his building to our office so we did not have to go through that channel anymore. Um, so he did do that. Um, but there's al there's just a lot of questions and there's a lot of questions that the office admin probably won't be able to answer and that's no fault of hers. Um, and she tries to the best she can but usually requires a different kind of follow-up.

Um, so we definitely see a significant increase there. Um, we do have a lot more people just calling in asking general questions. I think just that went to Nishoba just out of 20 years of thinking that's where you go. Um, and Noba has told people now that you need to go there. So that's part of that too. Um, not nothing unexpected, but just yeah, everybody's getting rechanled. So

that's kind of I was kind of curious of where that was. It sounds like it's truthfully it's regular operational health department business. So that's expected and good. But it's one of those things it was hard to quantify cuz nobody never really quantified those numbers for us. So it was hard for us to quantify them to town administration of no it's going to be a change in practice and yeah.

Yeah. Um, I might suggest that we um as a policy sort of kind of things start to think about um methods and materials to start to track those kinds of things. Like today we had 17 calls come in and one was medical and one was and 16 wereformational about XYZ, right? Whatever that is. um just starting to kind of put something together because um I think it would be really helpful as we are coming up to budget season I think right um knowing what those numbers what that impact is that we can start to say hey um we've had 700 calls in the month of August you know something like that so that way we can start to quantify it I saw you come off a mute do you want I mean, I was going to say the same thing. I I don't know if there's any task more annoying than time tracking if you're like working in a job ever anywhere, right? Um, but we've seen repeatedly over the years that we we can't prove what we need and therefore we don't get what we need. Um, and so the the more data we can collect, whether it's from the administrative side or the task side, and I I I don't think we need to be tracking minutes, but honestly, phone calls and dropins, if we have a tally list of phone calls and dropins, you can assign an average time to later and show how much time that's taking. Um, and then you're you're obviously doing a good job now, Franc, of tracking the food inspections and those kind of things. Similarly, those you will be able to put an average time on to do some math later on and say, "Listen, this this is the stuff we're dealing with that we also, like you said, didn't have eyes open to because all the phone calls weren't

going to us." And uh I highly doubt Nishobo is going to give us call volume records for the past 18 months. So, those are kind of we knew it was going to happen, but had no idea what those volumes are. And so the more we can track that and help open other people's eyes to the workload that this health department is going to have to manage, the better. Kevin Baker.

Yeah, I think as we as we get into this, we'll be able to to track all the new business that's coming in to the best of our ability. We we're just really getting into it, so we're not going to know the time needed. Um, but just in three months, we should be able to tell exactly what our needs are and what kind of resources we're going to be asking for moving forward. Okay. I think that transitions well into the August 2025 report. It looks like that was emailed out. Do you want to go over any of that, Francis?

Um, sure. Maybe share it on the share it for the community as a whole. Where are we? There we go. Okay. Share screen. Okay. Um, so we have a basic numbers. Um, one of the most more seen share Francis. I was going to say I'm not seeing a share yet. Oh. Can you see it now?

Yes.

Okay. All right. So, we have our numbers in all categories uh for the quarter. Most importantly to note is um this was kind of a big deal. So, New Oriental Market applied for a seafood dealer permit through the state. Um, and to get permission from the state to be able to do that, they reach out to the local health department to ask um, if they meet the prerequisites to be able to do it. Uh, new to market is not allowed to do any prep work whatsoever. Um, they don't even have the code required equipment to be able to do any prep. Um, also dealing with seafood is a high-risk food category and overall their inspections have not been great in the past. Um, reading years back they even had issues with DP over um unidentified seafood being sold unlabeled uh unknown origin in the past. Um, so I made the recommendation that at this time they do not meet any prerequisite to be able to hold a seafood dealer license. One thing in particular they wanted to do was have a lobster tank. Um, in my experience, any place that has a lobster tank is a nightmare. Uh, especially in a place that may not be on top of uh sanitation, logging, um, just general maintenance. And you know, if a lobster dies in the tank, the whole tank needs to be completely cleaned out. Every lobster needs to be destroyed. Um, and someone can die. So, um, I tried to make it very clear to the state that no future applications should be accepted until dramatic changes happened in that establishment. Um the old DCU um across from Donins has

been repurposed into a CA temple. As part of that renovation, they built a kitchen into it um where all the old teller stations used to be in the building for anybody familiar with it. Um they did a very good job. They're very thorough. The inspection went very well. Right now they're open for partial service uh 2 days a week with U members. Um, so they are due for an inspection I believe in about 3 months from now. Um, so we'll see how they're doing, but I felt pretty good about it overall. They were very meticulous and they did not spare any cost. Um, the Tadawan Masonic Lodge did a recent kitchen remodel. Thanks to Dan Kaine, we're able to connect with them about it. And so I did ask to go out and inspect it. Everything looked good. Um, they did a good job. They didn't really have much assistance in the build. So, I was actually kind of impressed how well they did and they did meet code and everything. So, I have no issues. Um, they are all clear. I guess there are some previous issues between the building department and operating, but those have since been resolved as well. Um, Fat Rooster food truck, which is located at Farm 359, right across the street from Town Hall. Um, we had tried multiple times to get them to do their routine food inspection for the truck um for operating a town that was met with silence. Um, we had to start sending out letters uh requesting and eventually demanding that we inspect the truck because it had been so long and it's a health hazard to not be inspected for that long. um that was obviously nonresponsive as well. So I called the town clerk and asked them if they would be able to possibly put a hold on their business

license being renewed until they received an inspection from the health department as well as a permit renewal from us as well. Um, so at this time we have seen a new truck called Stack in Season uh supposedly is not operating at this time but we are keeping an eye on it and they're not allowed to get their business license approved as well. So between the two departments um we should be able to get that done one way or another in the near future. Uh we did have one unconfirmed foodborne illness complaint. Um usually we do get two or three per quarter. that's not unusually high or unexpected. Um, in that type of situation, we go to the establishment. We take the notes from talking to the person who made the food born illness complaint. We check the food that was made. We ask them to recreate the food and the steps that are taken so we can see at each station if there is any chance of cross communic uh crosscontamination or bad food safety management. Um, in this case, there was none. And then some stuff that we already kind of already talked about is just transition notes.

Yeah. Before you move on to the next section. Um Sure. I was glancing. So Fat Rooster is officially not then permitted in Littleton right now. Correct. Okay. Um because I was just checking that the the list of food trucks and since I was on list of food trucks, could you get in touch or if you maintain it? I don't know who maintains it, but could it potentially be alphabetized by food truck name? Um, because I love that we have the list and we're maintaining it better. But if you're actually looking to check if something's on there, it's just kind of you got to do your own eyeball search and I miss things sometimes. So much appreciated if that could be alphabetized. Yeah, in all fairness, I haven't looked at it in a while. Um, okay.

So, it probably needs updating as well, but yeah, we can definitely make a change.

Okay, thanks. Um in terms of environmental the rest was related to transitional stuff. Um so as everybody knows that we made a final transition as of July 1st. Um that is when we went as online as well to better keep track of permitting. Um so everything has been built out in the system over the past year. So, it was ready to go. Of course, there were kinks. Um, so we're kind of learning as new permits come in and making adjustments as we can. Um, but so far not so bad. Um, a lot of this point is just making sure that we're notifying people to come to us instead in the show. So, we're going to try to be proactively, especially with the food permits that are becoming in October. Um, so we'll be sending letters out to each establishment this September to make sure that they are ready. We anticipate having to help people in some instances apply online. So we are ready for that as well. Um, most permits that were with NOVA we have honored to the end of the permit cycle. So no one that is already working in the show and has already been permitted is not required to get a new permit at this time. But if they are new to the town, they would be obviously. And then we talked about increases in time with the public. Does anybody have any questions on the environmental health report? Um, so with community health report, um, this time I worked with Susan to kind of add in things that she had been doing in the community and kind of how she's been setting up in office. I thought it'd be good to get an understanding of what our nursing is going to look like at the

intro point and things we're doing. And obviously the board can look at that as well and, you know, any suggestions are helpful. It's new to the town, it's new to us. So, um, I'm building the best I can, but we are learning along the way. A lot of it has been I've been connecting Susan with our neighboring towns and trying to build her resources and kind of build a community where she can turn to. Um, Tamara Badard from Nishoba recently transitioned to a state position um, helping our region. So we connected with her and she is now meeting with Susan once a month to just talk about the work in Littleton and with her history in Littleton over many many years. Um she's been able to help her kind of navigate certain things as well which has been helpful. Um we also navigated as I mentioned earlier with um Alicia Leard from Mishob as well who was the main contact for the nurses in Littleton. Um so that's been building out her network as well. Um, if we look at here, we have our cases for the quarter. That was going to be one of my questions, France, is that it doesn't say anywhere on this page what the time frame is.

Oh, sorry. Uh, so third quarter. Um, okay. Yeah, I I'll put quarter numbers on the next one. Okay. And then by community, is this Littleton only or this is Littleton only? Okay. Thank you.

And obviously we're still twothirds of the way through the third quarter. So it'll be a final quarter report at the end of September. Is that right? So at the end at the end of the year, I'll create for you a kind of full year kind of review and just numbers and information of everything just so we have a record too because that's probably something we will use as part of the budget process I think too. Yeah. See how it was only from July 1st.

And then there'll be a question of like sourcing I I is this all through state database? Um, so this is through the Maven database.

Okay. Um, and then I I guess there will be some that I think you I assume Lyme disease is the the most likely culprit where you have probables that will hopefully for the patient's sake turn into confirms or turn into negatives. Um, and so I guess it just we just have to know as a board that sometimes numbers will like bounce a little bit even between quarters as as a case uh changes from confirmed or probable to confirmed. Just comment that's all Any other comments on that section?

All right, let's roll. So, we have our flu clinics listed for this fall. Uh, mosquito ticket information. So, I sent out uh was it about a week and a half ago maybe um we did a promotional educational campaign on ticks uh because there have been increased cases. So, we sent out a press release um just kind of talking about that. We also created a um a PDF of just kind of factual and statistical data. And then we also purchased um 150 tick removal kits. Um they were pretty neat. They weren't too expensive. Um and they sold out within 3 days.

Woohoo. Yeah. Nice. So yeah, good first educational campaign. Um did we order more? Did we order more? I I didn't had the budget enough for that. Okay.

Um so as part of the revolving accounts and programming, I mean that's part of what we'll talk about in the fall. I think we'll be able to support that. So we'll do small campaigns just to show that there is a need and that it does fill a void. Um and then we can support it in the budget for the next year. Um, and a lot of our work now is trying to connect with EHS to be able to promote these project because it's going to be the most actively engaged population. Uh, Susan did mention some meetings that she does go to. Um, I think they're very helpful meetings. Uh, especially the regional epidemiology meeting. Uh, Um Susan is working on an educational campaign for maternal child health work group. Um she's working on a resource document now. I think she's about halfway done. So we should have something in the next couple weeks for the board to look at. Finally, just an administrative any points that may not have been covered in any of the above reports. Um, also some focuses that we're working on right now as well as some upcoming focuses that we'll need to look at as well coming going forward. Um, oh, recently we did yesterday receive something from the tobaccof free generation coalition um asking if they wanted to asking if we wanted to have them present to the board on their proposed model regulation for making an age cut off for tobacco sales within a town. Some towns have done it at this point. Um, it'd be for a future discussion of whether you would want that or not, but um, I was going to send that out. I'll send out tomorrow um for the board to think about for an upcoming meeting.

But we our tobacco regulation, why I mentioned it, it hasn't been updated since 2018. Um the Mon tobacco Act was 2019. So I think that's a regulation we should just double check to make sure we're fully up to date on in the coming months as well. Okay. Anybody else have any comments on that section?

Oh, sharps program. Um, I also wanted to mention that that's something that'd be part of the revolving fund. So, previously, um, Nishoba has carried out a sharps fund. They would collect a small fee. They'd store sharps and pick them up. Usually about a quarter, Jim said. Um it we have gotten a lot of questions about it since leaving the showa. Uh there's definitely a need. Um I think it's worthwhile. So I've been looking into figuring out how much it would cost us and what stuff we can do and make sure that we can meet the requirements of the code. Um but it is potentially possible. I think it's probably something that would be worthwhile to consider. Jim has said that he will still accept sharps from Littleton residents, but it might be worthwhile to do it in-house.

Um, I I fully support this. Uh, the number of GLP1 uh medications that are on the auto injectors as well as Epipens as auto injectors and whatever other sharps for like diabetes management and everything else like that. Uh, I think we should definitely look into something like that. Um, I know last year when um I needed to turn in a few sharps uh from expired EpiPens, um it took me a solid week to find someplace that would take them and the place that we went to was our doctor's office and they were very hesitant to take them even though they were the one that prescribed it. So yeah, having the service in town would be a huge thing

within a revolving of fund it it will pay for itself if we charge a small nominal fee. Um, same as Nishoba basically. I think that makes I I've got three auto inject. I've got three EpiPens I'm looking for a place to put because the doctors have said no. It's kind of interesting. CVS won't take them and so it's kind of missing thing. I've also reached out to our legislature and uh wrote them a note as a private citizen to say, "Hey, this is a problem. the state needs to figure something out and I got to come and thank you for your concerns and pull yeah didn't go anywhere. So,

um one other thing that I just want to highlight is um the public health excellence grant. Um that is something we were working on last year and we had multiple meetings with Westford to talk about um doing something with them and the understanding at the time is that we'd be able to take the money that we were allocated as part of Nishoba in that grant and be able to shift that as we left Nishoba to start a new venture. Um, when we went to do that this spring, uh, DPH was not responding to our emails and calls, um, that raised some concerns. So, I reached out to our state representatives. Um, and I asked them to assist in getting DPH to respond. Um, they eventually did and told us that they would not make any contract changes, no money would be moved. Um, there is nothing we could do until the FY27 contracts. Um, obviously that's not a good answer. Um, so I brought it to town council and they have been reviewing it and trying to work through it, but it's not looking good.

So, when you got asurances that that would transition over, was that in writing? No. Yeah, it's on me. Okay. And town council is saying that it's not looking good because the contracts say there's contract language in there that says it can't be transferred from one place to the next. Um yeah, I mean just generally he says that they have the right to be able to do that. Um, I'll get more details on that as we get to a final stage now, but that sounds wonky from a contracting perspective,

seeing how I've played with federal contracts and they can move them around all the time. Interesting. Okay, it's a state thing. It's a state thing. Anybody have any comments on that? That really sucks. It's a whole fiscal year of money, too. Yeah, we're it was pretty much a done deal. Okay. Is there anything that the board could do to maybe assist the town or is there

I think it's legal at this point to be able to make a challenge to their points. I don't think we're going to get a personal plea that's going to change their minds. Okay. Is there a conversation that we need to have with the town council to strongly, vigorously, or whatever adjective, adverb you want to put in there to tell them to look for a corner case or something like that? I think it never hurts. Okay. I I can help you draft something. Okay. board. Okay, with that.

All right. Is there anything else we want to talk about in that packet of information? Um, anybody? Matt and Kevin, my only question about the report is are we recording and presenting all of the legally required things for tracking. So like if we needed to track the number of thumbtacks injuries or something like that, um are all of those items that we need to have that we're required to track in that report? Yes. I mean, in a general sense, we are now meeting every state mandate that we are required to meet where we might not have been meeting them before. And that's what it boils down to.

Awesome. Okay. Because I know that was a concern that we had talked about before in a bunch of other meet. I know Dan had talked brought it up. I know Matt and Kevin had all brought it up. I know we talked about it at our off-site meeting as well. So, congratulations. Thank you. Does anybody else have any other matters that they would like to discuss? Francis included. Oh, sorry for me depressing.

No, it's all good. It's all good. All right. Why don't we go to individual um where we at? Okay. So, that's administrative matters. Yeah. Okay. Correspondence. Um why don't we go to the crap here? Matt and Dan and Kevin. Anything that you would like to bring up in chat.

Dan shaking his head. It might be worthwhile to write a letter to the Rotary Club thanking them for their donation on behalf of the board. If you want me to craft something up, that would be wonderful. Let's do that. I'll even come and offer my gen to sign it if you got it. Get official. Kevin, anything you want to share with the meeting? No. Okay. Thank you.

Oh, yeah. No worries. Matt, anything to share? Nope. Okay, I have nothing else to share. Um, so thank you so much for that, everyone. I have one more thing. Sorry. Uh, Heidi's getting married. Heidi's getting married Friday. Oh, congratulations, Heidi. Thank you. That's awesome. and she's a resident. Whoa. Yeah,

that's awesome. Well, congratulations to you and yours. Um, have fun with that. And I don't see any other people in attendance. I don't see anything else. And we are at the end of our agenda. Oh, yes, Mr. Baker. Mr. Chair, I'd like to make a motion to adjurnn. Do I have a second? Second. I have a Mr. Baker and motion and Mr. Second. Uh, all uh do a roll call. Uh, Mr. Kane.

Mr. Kane votes yes. Mr. Wson. Matt Wson. Yes. Mr. Baker. Kevin Baker votes yes. and the chair Kevin Davis votes yes. Our meeting for Wednesday, August 27th at 2025 has concluded.