Board of Health - Regular Meeting

all right good morning everyone I'm calling the Southboro Board of Health meeting to order on January 14th uh 2025 at 11:07 um thank you everyone for joining um and we're gonna we're going to do our public hearing and then introduce Chris but Chris Craig's our um new health agent so um he's on the meeting this morning so thanks for joining us um and first order of business is um public hearing so I'm going ahead and going to go ahead and read the hearing notice to open the hearing um the Board of Health Southboro Board of Health will hold a virtual public meeting on Tuesday January 14 2025 starting at 11: a.m. this meeting may be watched or residents May participate in the meeting remotely with the meeting Link at https ma- bro. Civic plus.com 674 virtual meetings it will be uh it will also be recorded and available on YouTube the meeting will include a vote on the adoption of the Board of Health trash huler regulations copies of the regulations will be made available at the health department and on the town's website www.brown.com written comments may be mailed prior to the vote to the health department 9 quarterville Road lower level Southboro Mass 01772 This legal notice is also posted through legals wickedlocal.com so with that the hearing is open for discussion um and if there's any public comment um those can be heard here I did not receive any written correspondence um for um the trash Haller regulations and just so that everybody um anybody listening on this recording um we have never had trash hul regulations in the town of Southboro um

and uh our neighboring towns of Westboro and boon just adopted these so our health director um took those two towns um and made them custom to the town of Southboro the Southboro DPW has a vested interest in having um trash regulations so we also had them reviewed by the DPW um director as well as Town Council so does anybody have any comments on those okay and we don't have any public so um with that I will make a motion that the Southborough Board of Health adopt the um self bro trash hauler regulations as presented um this morning I second vote High Medina I and malinowski's I um and with that I will make a motion to close the public hearing at 11:10 is our a second second and vote I I and malinowski I thank you very much next approval of the 1224 meeting minutes did everyone get a chance to review those okay I had one change on those on the section um on the opioid settlement funds if we could um say or change the last sentence in the discussion to say m malanowski um is opposed to pulling the money at this time without a plan with all four towns and wants to continue to pursue working um with North bro um on a program for the school system okay got

it thank you all right so I'll make a motion that we approve the um revised the minutes um as revised this morning for December 10th 2024 okay and second and vote I I melowski ey thank you dry January so Safar do you want to talk about um this item sure sure absolutely so so um dry January is actually a worldwide effort to um promote people to re-evaluate their relationship with alcohol primarily it's not meant as a anything to preach or anything like that it's just an idea of hey you know what if we all tried a month without alcohol tried our best to um do that and and we can just re-evaluate how we feel after that month whether it's physically emotionally um in terms of how productive we are at work or school or anything like that and so it's just a time for reflection more than anything else but it it of course goes along with promoting a healthy uh Community as well with alcohol so it's it's all age ranges obviously it helps adults who do drink look at how much they drink and what they do it you know teenagers can do it if they are drinking or if they're not drinking it opens up discussions in their families about what alcohol is and you know how harmful it can be so you know there's a lot of um Encompass the northb Southboro Coalition for substances prevention has you know put out a lot of information about it so you know my thought was that we just link it with the Board of Health and and what's going on so that we can also through the Board of Health spread that message whether it's through social media or just through a bulletin or something like that just encourage people to take a look there's apps people can use to track their alcohol intake um during the month if they do drink or if they if they really want to avoid drinking the app guides them through how to how to do that so that's kind of that a summary so there uh Encompass actually put something out on their Facebook page do

you want me to just share that on the board of health um Facebook page yeah yeah that'd be great there's that article Community Advocate as well I think the link shares the article it does okay as well yeah okay so I can Taylor gave me access to to um be the Board of Health so I can go ahead and um link that up I didn't know if there was something else that you wanted um the only thing I thought was maybe just putting it on our web page as well just a quick link either to Encompass and or to the um to the uh Community Advocate article itself okay Barbara can you do that yep I'll take you okay cool thank you awesome thank you all right next is Chris Craig who is our new health agent so I just wanted everybody to be able to um introduce themselves to him and Chris maybe you can give us an overview of um your background and um what your what you've been able to work on in your first I guess month almost month of work hi so uh yeah my name's Chris I'm the new health agent for South bro North bro um I uh I'm coming from NAIC I did two years as an environmental health agent there so kind of a jack of all trades doing food inspections housing inspections Title 5 inspections um my role kind of with South bro North bro is uh primarily Title 5 septic related inspections but I'm kind of here to expand capacity uh for both Health departments um so yeah it's been good I've been doing uh a lot of kind of getting used to some of the ongoing Title 5 projects in town as well as you know handling other cases as they come up um but it's been good it's been a good experience so far and I'm happy to be here I'm a I'm a Northboro resident so it's it's nice to be local awesome well we're really excited to have you join the team um and you know provide the stability that we've

been looking for um afterz do you have any questions or comments for Chris no welcome award oh thank you yeah no say we're excited to have you join especially someone who's local it knows the community so thanks totally thanks thanks for yeah totally absolutely thanks for in to introduce myself and we usually meet on um Tuesday morning is um that's generally the time that works for us um and we probably 99.9% of the time meet on Zoom um so Tuesday is obviously a day that Chris is in North BR um but we we we don't need you on every meeting I wanted you on today so we could introduce you totally um but we'll keep you up to speed if there's um meetings that barar will reach out to you if you um need to be on an agenda um and obviously you don't need to be in self bro to do it so pretty well no yeah I totally try to tune in just to kind of stay in the know and what's going on um but totally I'll be I can be flexible in that regard even anything in person and we our goal is to keep it to 45 minutes sometimes we hit an now we try to be efficient so that um you can get along get on with your day totally so feel free to stay um it shouldn't be it's on a lengthy agenda so there's okay thank you thanks Chris okay town meeting um so I just put it put it on there so that we just remind ourselves that we have town meeting coming up um so it is a Monday night annual town meeting I think it's April 7th um we will not have to my knowledge we don't have anything specific on for an article um that we'll need to address other than obviously our budget and also increasing our revolving account um that I actually need to email Carla about just to make sure that I'm not sure I emailed her about that but we already voted that to be an increase um but I don't think that there's anything else for us for town meeting

so okay greater borrows update so we had a greater Burrows meeting last Thursday um and because we are a town that's part of the pH Grant um with the Burrows um the state is doing an analysis of of Staffing and um cost so um they're looking at the pH funds which will be provided by North bro because they're the Fiscal Agent so we don't have to worry about any of that but we will need to provide um the selfbow operational budgets and any revenues and my understanding is the revenues are um anything that that comes back to the Board of Health which would not be a general general fund um line item it would be an item that goes into into a revolving account so um so I'm actually meeting with Barbara and Chris towards the end of this week so that the three of us can kind of make sure that we're covered in terms of what needs to be provided to a company called BME who the state's Contracting with to do this work um so I didn't get a ton of information on Thursday there is a web there's like three Tuesdays in a row that there's a webinar um to explain how to use the tool Etc but we also have a contact at BME who will be assisting us so that's coming um the other update on Burrows is um we have not filled the nursing position so we're into January and what we don't want to do is end up where we ended up last April with too too much funds and nowhere to spend the money right because you Lo if you don't use it you lose it um and we obviously want to keep that position active and want to fill the position so we don't want to lose that funding um as part of the pH Grant so one of the things that we did vote on on Thursday was to um engage with a third party to

help with hoarding cases so we have not had that support before there is a um larger need in one of the other towns um but I do think it's something that um all four towns could benefit from in having that expertise so we are going to engage um with a contract so Isabelle is going to um let us know when that's ready to go the second um item that we discussed but we didn't vote on yet because we still need some more information is using my senior center to track um people that we service um the senior center actually already uses that software and I think Youth and Family Services went to that software as well um so we already using it in two Town departments so um just need to get some more information about how we do a yearly contract midy year and um kind of the um kind of the administration piece of that also making sure we um go to our it departments um even though we already use it just making sure that um if it's on a different um s you know a different sign in that we're um covered in terms of protection for um any information so that's another item um they're also looking for ideas for onetime things that we would want in our towns that we could do by June um one thing that I requested is that we go back to the state again and ask them for um them to approve purchasing aeds for the other three towns we have them in the town of Southboro but obviously our kids are going to other towns to play sports so anything that we can do to make sure all kids are safe No Matter What town it is I think is important we got rejected on that last year but um I think it's worth asking again um obviously we've heard in the news constantly of um you know people going down at sports games whether it's a spectator or an Umpire or whatever um and having aads available and how crucial they are so um that's that was one thing that I brought up so

Isabella was going to check again on that if you have any ideas you can say them now or you can just um send me an email separately um and I can bring it to the Burrows if you have any other ideas of um onetime things that we could do go ahead S I only a couple things um I know Taylor started this with sunscreen available in all pars do we can we do we need to expand I don't know where she was able to get it and whether that's expanding with any any monies that's available to every parkite and in different places that where people can grab sunscreen all right I'll check on that I was say plus suncreen plus bug spray I know with the increase of mosquito born and tickborne illnesses I think there's a that's another like I I don't know I think we need to be cognant of that as well especially in some of those same areas where we think about sunscreen application yeah the other thing that I was curious about was I know that we Ed some extra money this year to purchase purchase vaccines um of various types and I don't know if there's any demands in that space anymore but I I thought everything that we purchased was used if I recall yeah so with the so with the vaccines we had excess flow so we we had um I don't have an updated number of where Taylor left at in December but I think in November we had like 60 left over um the co back so those were all purchased through the revolving account not through um grant funding so we just had a cap on the amount that we could purchase because our revolving account spend limit was 10,000 or something like that we ended up increasing it to 25 I think so we won't have an issue for that for next year I just don't know that we can purchase well I don't I don't know that it would make sense for us to purchase vaccine now before June just because we

don't we yeah I think people are they either got it or they didn't um but we are looking to expand covid for next year um once we increase our spending limit but I can definitely talk to Isabella about um just ask her if if she thinks that there's any value in doing that the other thing that I'm curious about I don't know if there's a need again is like the Narcan training and and support I know that um there's a couple sessions at the library last year to do community training and then I think did pass out um so I don't know need for that either but those are just some things that I've been thinking about so our Narcan trainings we do every month and we they rotate between the four towns they are sold out every single time yeah so is there a way that we could use these funds to just I can ask increase that or like increase access to Narcan for the community if people who are trained can come and if there's I don't know but that's the other thing good question okay the other actually now that I'm talking about that CPR certification for people in town if there's a way for us to do anything around that I mean I don't know again I don't know the limits of these funds and like what's already being done but I think kind ofing access to the community to those types of trainings and uh you know we can bring someone on board that would be interesting our CPR trainings do very well too the ones that we have I'm not I'm not sure if we could increase the frequency but I can ask if we can yeah or like pay for like the Red Cross certification for people who participate like if there's just like costs that are associated with running some of those that we could decrease the cost for 10 like whatever official attendance yeah one thing I add thear can definitely like Liz said getting more access to it in general I think would be great for those funds as a one time thing the thing I was think about for next year for vaccines so tag what said was you know we had the flu in covid but the RSP vaccine for seniors would be a good

because that's a a good one-time purchase item that we could give to seniors yeah especially home Bal so that we should be able that we should be able to do through our revolving account STAAR and then we get the administration fee back as well as the um the insurance P you know the insurance payments we get back um I'll have to find out the timing I don't know I don't know that we can use um pH funds for vaccines now that I'm talking about this okay okay I'll ask yeah what's the what's the RSV is it is that a yearly or is that what's the um the no it's a one time it's a one time one time and then you're and I forget I you know have to look back at like you know us living in the world the Pediatrics have to look at the adult RSV vaccine recommendations again but um it's not annual yeah so it's not annual is that what you said yeah yeah okay so can quickly look okay but all right that's great this is a great list I mean if you think of more let me know but I'll definitely get back to Isabella we're supposed to meet we're meeting every other month now for Burrows so we increased it we work quarterly now we're every other month but I think we may need to have an additional meeting um in between January and March and I can't remember why but something came up that we we need to talk um so I will bring that oh I think it was to approve my senior center so we can get going on that um I think those were the main pieces um for borrow so and those are recorded too if you guys ever want to watch them in your free time yeah RSV just just verified it just a one time at least for now unless we learn that immunity wains after a few years or something that yeah so all right so that's good that's good to know all right so we can

okay I'll put that down for Taylor too when she comes back okay all right future meeting regarding route n so I feel like I messed up on the scheduling for this um so this is so um selectboard DPW representatives and then Dennis and Chris um and US need to get together on what um kind of the working group has been looking at so I asked them to meet with Dennis and Chris prior to coming to a board meeting um and I think I messed up the schedule I can do the 24th but Liz you can't do the 22nd right at noon just put the calendar the 22nd at noon I cannot do and I'm at a conference on the 24th so I don't think I'll be back in time for noon meeting and I don't think Chris Works passed I am free the 2 4th actually I just realized I'm actually free after 1:00 as well from 1: to 2 if that I just don't think I'm going to have the staff oh okay okay at that time okay because I can I can expand on the 24th if need be in terms of when I'm available and we can't do the 23rd at noon I can't do the 23rd and the 29th we have a half day um all right I'm going to have to go back to the drawing board on this 29th is a half day yeah Lunar New Year all right okay I'm talking okay yeah um all right I'll have to loop back we do need to try to I'd like to try to get this done in January if we can so um the challenge is we don't have um Dennis and Chris or at least Dennis on Tuesday

so it has to be a Wednesday Thursday Friday um okay well let me see when they schedule their meeting and then I'll figure it out um you can meet without like do we all need to be there do we need to have no I mean that's the other thing like if somebody's okay with not being there twist my arm I don't if one of us doesn't need to be there it's fine not being there as well but if you're good for the 22nd yeah okay so just as long as as you like nothing's gonna come up because then I wouldn't have a quorum I I I hope not I will block it off and it just I'll have an hour is that enough I'll have an hour I think that's fine okay all right yeah second is totally fine I won't all right so let's do the 22nd assuming that they meet this week if not I may need you guys to do the 24th without me if I can join from the car I will okay that's good and Liz I can do later at like one o'clock or after like the noon time isn't locked in on Friday so I'm free until actually till 3 o'clock well so but I gotta check with the staff though because they only work till 12 so I gotta figure out oh that's right so if we can't do the 22nd let me 24th I could do in the are you're not pray in the morning though after only in the afternoon okay yeah okay unless it's at 8 a well not even Wednesday I can do at 8:00 a.m. early in the morning if people are free but that Chelsea may not work because you've got kids on the Bus kids to put on the bus and stuff I could do 8:30 I can do 830 on the 22nd I can do 8302 I may just have to log out at 9: but I mean hopefully if we're done if not you guys can continue without me what would you guys rather do I mean if you guys can meet at newon on the 22nd I'd say do that if that's not going to work we need another option 8:30 on the 22nd yeah the most complicated part of our agenda together you guys also have young children to look after and juggling all that so I appreciate that part too so

yeah I yeah I can see how people miss it you know but when you're in it it's it's like pure chaos right now um know like I just put that half day in my calendar I'm like great gotta make sure I remember that just mention some half days in March I was like I can't school committee can you resolve some of these half day phenomenons for me the half day is are killer yeah I don't know um yeah because then you need an activity yeah okay next uh okay meeting schedule so do we have February booked I think that we do yes the 11th do we want to pick March get it on the books do you want to do March 11th yeah 11 that works after my calendar sorry I was just checking my calendar okay no take your time to verify said March 11th Yeah March 11th works for me nothing okay y nothing on that day at all okay great um all right next is public comment are we gonna do 11: am again does that work for you yeah does okay yep 11 all right any public comment nope all right our move we adjourn at 11:32 and I just jump in oh go I'm sorry I'm sorry just to remind the board I'll have um the trash regulations ready for you to sign at your convenience ah thank you sure okay I'm sorry go ahead nope

that's perfect thanks Barbara and thank you for posting in the news we don't do that very often right so we get to remember what to I've only done it twice but I'm getting there all right is there a second sorry second vote I look ey and malinowski's ey thanks everyone have a great rest of the day than you bye bye nice to meet you