001e e e um good evening everyone I'd like to call to order the November 12th Board of Health meeting for the town of Ashland um the first thing on the agenda is citizen participation do I have anybody for citizen participation okay no one um so the next thing on the agenda is the BL uh blight bylaw review Doug Scott our Building Commissioner here with us um Raj do you want to start or just have Doug um go right into it uh Chief I can we can give it to Doug but what we are trying to sh is a blide bylaw uh it's going for the town meeting next week you know so Mr Scott is here to uh brief the board on that I know we we had this for discussion before as as well
002you know I'll give it to you D thank you dou we can can't hear you hello yes how you doing yeah that works we can hear you now no no I I I not now but Doug we can't hear you new computer can you hear me now hear yeah we can hear you now okay sorry about that it's a brand new computer the other one I apologize for last uh time we were together my personal computer and my work computer all died at the same time um so I this this is a this is a a bylaw that we've been working on for quite some time um I've been getting and and Raj we've both been getting complaints from citizens uh last one I got was about a week ago it was a woman that
003was terrified uh to let her daughter out because the people next door hadn't done anything to clean their yard it was it was a pretty sad mess and they she she and her husband saw rodents and um so they were afraid to put their daughter out and and and we we don't get a m ton of these but we it's been picking up um as you know um you know blight takes many different forms uh it's uh it can be uh it can be a uh you know somebody's uh yard that they've never taken care of uh it's Bon homes it's a graffiti uh businesses don't don't pick up their trash or they they they're attract attracting nuisances um so you know this is generally what the blight bylaw is we've we've had this go
004through the town's attorney Lisa me um we've made pretty significant changes from what she had uh written up because that was a a little a little too on the stiff side but I want to say that this is not something to punish people we're not going to go out and you know neither Raj nor I or the police or the fire have the Manpower to go around and Order people to clean up their yards this is like all the rest of our um Town bylaws it's pretty much complaint driven um so it gives us some teeth I I think all of you have heard of the 137 Pawn Street uh project that is now in the hands of the uh the uh receivership um that had gone on for about a year and a half
005and had we had the bylaw the blight bylaw it would have moved along quicker we could have get been able to get a hold of the Attorney General's office to help us quicker um and um you know it's it's it's these things that are um just another tool in our work basket um so I I don't want anybody to think that any of us are going to go run around uh and find issues you know sometimes what happens when the when there's a fire the uh the police department or the fire department will uh will see an issue or a concern and and that's one of the reasons why they are part of this in in this uh involved in this bylaw and the same thing with the police the police should see something you
006know they go in somebody's injured or hurt uh and they may need help this is also to help people we'll work closely with Courtney and um you know to to work with people to try to help people that have troubles or they're in trouble for one reason or or another um and you know it's it's we have you folks as the um as the board um and and so before anybody can file an appeal on anything that any of the four of us order or wanted to cleaned up so they would come to your board and you would hear it it's like uh like my board is in Boston it's a b uh Board of building regulations and standards that's the appeals board for for building code uh disagreements so your your your function would
007be to look at what's going on discuss with discuss it with the uh applicant and you know maybe broke her a deal maybe during that hearing we could find that there's a bigger issue um but you know again I'm I'm didn't want to read through the whole entire thing but it's really for the town this is to help the town rodents are coming becoming more and more prevalent in town uh more you know there's we're building apartments like there's no tomorrow um and growth is happening and we want to make sure that the growth in the town is is is in with the checks and balances of making it a safe and secure home for everybody so any questions yes I do have a couple of questions if you don't mind and uh D the
008question was is the enforcement is on the part of the Board of Health or is that any other department can enforce it too no the the enforcement has uh has has four arms to it the uh building in building department the building inspector the uh B uh border of Health Raj the director the police and the fire department okay you're not your P of health is not and an enforcement arm you're a hearing okay all right that one the other thing is that you talked about um to negotiate or something like that is there discretion available in that light law that permits us to negotiate something yes with yes there are there are and actually you know they an applicant is somebody that uh has uh been ticketed or been um hold to clean up
009they actually have the ability to come up with a uh with a plan which can be presented to the board and there are timelines for all of this they presented to the board and the board can agree to it or not okay so there is discretion available for us to yes exercise that the other thing they talked about rodent rodent could also be because of the climate change because the weather keeps warmer and warmer the radent population also go up because of that too well it could be but okay I'm not an expert on Ro I me neither I but I've I've seen what they do I live in Worcester I was standing in my bathroom one one morning and I looked out the window and I saw a rat screeing across and I was
010like they're just taking get beity Bear all right thank you dou you're wel and uh Dr J you know I know you have sent sent some comments you know uh besides like the spellings and all that do you have any any question for Doug or me you know yeah I do hi Doug um just I have it open here so yeah there there was just one uh I sent Raj some some of my comments on the document and yeah aside from the the typo um I just just wanted to know and it's not necessarily something that would be addressed in the document but are there any considerations I mean you mentioned um it kind of answered the question a little bit but economically um could have an impact on people that you know may not
011have the means to clean stuff up and I'm wondering if the town would be working with um social services or there would be some consideration for hardship and um you know has that been discussed or considered yes yes and definitely that Courtney uh works out of the community center with uh social services and and the good thing about having this and the way we've structured it in our bylaw is that that will allow us you know to meet and have a broader discussion if find somebody with an issue or concern we like I about two three weeks ago I was called to to an address with by the fire department and we found one of one of the sons has some some serious issues and uh and so what I did was I went and
012talked to Courtney and and um and I asked her if she was aware of it and she said no I didn't even know about this and uh I'll I'll have to I'll have to do some research and look up and see because there's a mother there's other these are all grown sons but there seems to be a bigger issue here uh so these things bring to light why some things are happening you know and the neighbors didn't understand they just thought he was this was uh I hate to say this but just a crazy kid and he was in his 20s probably and come to find out he's got some issues and the mother and the other brothers are not want to have anything to do with it and so so this not only you
013know will help everybody but it will also help us to maybe get some help to these people like I If if you if you have a home and I you know I go to houses all over the town all the every day for inspections some homes I walk into there are spotless it's a you know like a widow she's spotless and and neers a pit and some places I go into where there's definitely issues and so it allows you know I can I can I can talk to uh you know our social services people and see if we can if they can look into it and see what's going on um instead of uh just you know not saying anything and uh and and you know you get major hoarding issues and all kinds of
014other situations and they're hidden away and nobody would know um and all it uh you know all we all we want to do is was with it being a complaint driven with the neighbors it allows us to communicate with the neighbors get back to them and say hey appreciate it this is the issue we have and we're going to work on it it may not happen clean up or whatever it is instantly but we're going to work on it uh to try to help everybody the I have one question if Jay is done is Jay you still on or I yeah I have one more and that and and thanks for that Doug that that makes sense I figured as much you know that that you know the town would try to work with the
015owner but um just wanted to raise it because I know it's outside of the scope of the actual written document which is fine the other uh question I had is in um section 266 D5 um it's actually part four and it mentions this is all about time frame for notification and that sort of thing and it it and there's an exception for emergencies and I was just wondering what in your mind would be an emergency that would uh change the time frames for action on the the part of the Town um say you the fire department goes in to answer a call with the ambulance the floor is collapsing or part of the floor is collapsing a a wall walls literally coming down water is leaking in its mold everywhere um so these are the
016types of emergencies that you can that we would and believe it or not we find we see these we and and and deal with them but this just gives us again this just gives us that little extra tool because uh you know if you've never been to Housing Court um in um judge solivan it's a good thing probably judge solivan is's he's been he's been a jurist for decades he's a wonderful man great man puts on seminars on for housing and and health and all kinds of things like that and he is uh he really cares and uh when Raj and I were there um for Pawn Street um he uh you know there was the wora was there they had firefighters there for the health people there a couple building inspectors there and this
017was all for these kinds of issues and he was and he was very articulate about uh asking questions and how do we do with this and what do you do and you know the landlord or the tenant is there and what can we do to work together um and it's not this isn't a Draconian you know this is it um you got 30 days to fix this or I'm throwing you to jail or I'm finding you ,000 doll well finding somebody that can't fix it in the first place isn't always the the uh the simple thing to do uh so so you know those are the types of things that um you know with the emergencies and things like that it and and sometimes you know it you if somebody's got the means like a
018landlord it you know it doesn't you don't have to be an owner occupied building residential commercial to come under this bylaw I mean we purposely made it so that it's it's B basically every town everybody in the town every building in the town and you know sometimes it's just landlords are just lazy and they don't they're cheap and they don't want to spend the money well that's another situation where we might say I don't really care buddy you're going to fix this I'm going to take you to court and I'll explain to the judge why you need to fix it okay thanks Doug I appreciate it you're you're up K you know sorry and everyone you know this has to be approved at town meeting for a bylaw change so this won't even go in
019front of until the next town meeting Chief we are going this Tuesday for the special town meeting is going in front of the town it's on the agenda okay yes correct Doug I had a question um is dust an issue within this framework you know I I had you got me kg uh you had good but it it it can be a health issue correct you know I mean you know like I know the high winds and everything I you know yes it it it's the dry uh lawn because water is not being permitted to be used for that purposes and if the uh grass dies there it's going to be a dry land and no owner wants to probably reinvest money again because they anticipate another waterless situation so he's being asked to put
020money down there to build the lawn and then die again and again that's not helpful and then the dust is going to be an issue well when there's law that's going to be enforced then it's going to be a problem for them but again it's going to be from a complaint it has to stem from a complaint driving around looking for this so let me let me this is is this is kg this is um this was where Common Sense comes into play uh you know none of the none of the four groups that are enforcing this are may I say wet behind the years okay we're all fairly competent knowledgeable understanding we've been around the block one or two times maybe five or six for me but um but it you know this is
021where you know listen somebody calls me complains about the wind blowing there well I gonna say hey buddy be happy it's not on fire that's right that so it's not a sledgehammer that's good no no no no no this is not a this is not a sledgehammer at all thank you I've got a couple of well I guess two questions the first one was uh about the pwn Street um example that you provided so what would this bylaw do you think have have um helped how would it have helped that situation would it have just allowed for a sort of a quicker resolution um no no real different outcome just you would have gotten there quicker and yes yeah definitely so when you go to court you've got to have a a leg to stand
022on and when you don't have a leg to stand on then don't waste your time going to court because the first thing the judge will say is well show me if you know show me where it says that this is a problem show me where this this this is uh needs to be how or why this needs to be taken care of so you have to have some place where it comes from and you know that oh my my dog is coming to visit me he's a big shepher um but anyway um yeah yeah it would have it been probably six eight months quicker great okay um thanks and so the the second question that I had was I didn't I didn't see anything in the bylaw about uh communication um with the public or
023or anything uh about you know reporting or or recordkeeping requirements um do you think that's necessary I mean it it seems like it might be a good idea if say for example Raj were to you know come before the board or include in his report to the board every quarter or something like that the number of cases that have come up or or something just so we have an idea of of first of all how uh the impact of the bylaw over time and and you know whether there are maybe some bigger issues in the community that we need to be aware of yeah this was actually brought up brage where was that conversation you actually was brought up uh by I can't remember who but it might have been at the it might have
024been at the select board meeting yes yes it was okay there you go some somebody was paying attention don't tell them I said that my my wife might have mentioned it again after the meeting so oh okay all right should should that be part of the byaw or could that be part of a policy that we can that that is my question is that is that something that would need to be included in the bylaw or is that something that you know we can just sort of do without having to write it into the law itself I I guess we we can keep that data you know at our end instead of writing that you know this is my thought it's just this document you know came from our attorney's office right like Lisa me's
025office uh I guess all that data we we can have it at our end and we can provide it to board whenever needed you know I I don't know if we can have to typically write this in the bylaw listen you know what everybody hang on a minute we have a lot of people waiting we're now 20 minutes behind schedule we have a lot of people waiting if if everyone feels that we should table this and we can but we have a lot of hearings that people are waiting for that was my last question so I don't know if anybody else no yep y nope that was it that was that was it all right Doug thank you thank you very much you're welcome thank you all of you for taking the time to uh
026to look at this and uh I hope you will come to the uh next Tuesday to the to the town meeting take care have a good evening everybody do we need to do we need to adopt it and approve from side or no R do we need to vote on this this is going to town meeting you know they're going to take thank you but do we need to recommend it to the town or we don't need to recommend it to the town who's recommending it it's already on the agenda with kg so I don't even know it's already on the town meeting agenda I guess Ed I guess I guess if you you know individually if you are for it you think it's a good thing you can certainly stand up and speak at
027the town meeting um you know we just that we all wanted to make sure that you folks had a a chance to discuss it look at it and ask us questions um so that being said does does it hurt if we recommend that this be adopted no no I we can we can certainly so why not we why not we vote on a recommendation sure so you want to make a motion I I do I move that this plate Lobby recommend mended to the town meeting for adoption second I'll second it so all in favor I I unanimous okay great thank you dougk you very much Everybody Take Care thank you Doug um so the next thing on the agenda is the uh 208 Myrtle Street um greenh Hill engineering request for a septic tank
028variance is anybody here to speak on that hi I'm Mark Green Green Hill engineering can you hear me yeah yes okay great so I am the designer of the project it's a existing single family home on Myrtle Street and we're asking the board for two variances one is h a Title Five variants uh that would be the leech Field title 5 specifies be 10 ft from the property line and we're proposing to put it 7 feet and the reason being is there's a driveway there and a handicap ramp that if we would slide it over they would have to be compromised the ramp and the driveway uh so it's entirely on property uh it's it's not going to be on the neighbor's property it's just it it's within 10t the second variance is for a
029variance to the Board of Health Reg regulations uh that the Le field be designed 150% of tidal 5 um it does not meet that I propose to put in a uh Elgen drain Elgen system which is an advanced uh system an alternative system that provides a higher level of treatment and uh with that you can put in a slightly smaller footprint than Title 5 the uh uh the the design as shown exceeds the uh Elgin requirements for minimum sizing uh but it does not meet the uh con bachin requirements so that's basically what we're proposing and asking for uh I'd be glad to answer any questions the board might have anybody have any questions does we have a diagram or schematic to show us there was Raj did that I know we had a diagram
030should have yeah hang on yeah it was part of the pack PG it is okay y all right okay I'll take a look at it that's fine thank you you're welcome um sorry say something we have kissy you know our regional inspector U he reviewed the plans you know he was at the soil test if we have any question no that's fine if he has reviewed it that's good yeah I I oh go ahead sorry go ahead yeah I received the original plan uh Mark um I've known him from from other towns I I don't think he I think this might one of his first early projects here in Ashland and he just needed to make it so uh asked the variance it's a very tight lot there's really very little place put it um
031so to that's why you need a variance to have a smaller system and to not be so um to be a little closer to the property next door um they really I mean it's a pretty standard variance request there really aren't really any reasonable Alternatives I don't know if any um the neighbors all were um they all received certified letters um of this hearing if they wish to add comment as per title five so I don't know if there's any concerns or questions from any neighbors if they're here are there any AB but on didn't receive any messages or phone calls and nobody's here tonight that I can see thanks Laura so someone want to make a motion I will give it a shot um so I'll make a motion um to provide a variance
032uh from the Le local Asen regulations related to leeching area Dimensions um section 30311 and a variance from Title 5 for retic system with a setback of 7t instead of 10 ft I second that any other questions anybody all in favor all right it's unanimous okay you're all set okay great thank you very much have a good evening you're welcome YouTube you over and out um the next thing on the agenda is uh 2011 Winter Street uh civilized Solutions request for a septic variant do I have anybody here for that one yep it's Eric Dickinson with civilized Solutions um could I share my screen yeah good Laura can you give him access yes hold on should be okay yeah hold on one second let me see if I can find the I have the auto
033fan but that's not going to work uh it just had it open let me see it again okay now let me try to go back to you guys there it is can you see it now yes okay sorry about that I thought I had it open anyway I'm I'm Eric Dickinson of civilized Solutions here on behalf of the applicant um this project is 20 one Winter Street um the location of it is near the um the intersection of uh Strobel if you're if you're familiar with it um it's a four bedroom single family home uh the existing septic system is in the backyard it's right here in this bubble type Cloud um it did fail a Title 5 um there's an existing Str it's a um a perennial stream going alongside the Eastern side of
034the property with um a headed Flag by a Wetlands professional um there's the 25 foot buffer the 50 Foot buffer 100 foot buffer then there's the Board of Health 75 foot buffer um this site is pretty steep in the back um I did my testing around the existing system trying to make um it work by grabbing and save the homeowner money and you know we try to stay away from all the pumps if we can um there's a lot of Boulders and Ledge in these test pits I did ended up doing five of them um we finally got the depth um I ran a perk in the B layer um I could not do the C layer because it was just too dangerous there's a lot of fill and there was just Boulders and it
035was just you couldn't really get in there um sent that off to a lab uh came back not to bad of soil it was actually a uh I believe it was a um let me see what came up as a pan in this for some reason came back as A8 minute prch soil um I ended up using an Elgen system uh their Elgen trenches I did design it for a garbage disposal um so it has it meets all those requirements it also has a 200 or a 2,000g tank for four bedroom with is oversized recommended by elen um the uh so those are State the uh the elen variants they all apply two feet to groundwater um 40% reduction to try to fit it in this area what it doesn't show here is this area
036all down here is just heavily heavily wooded and there's Wetlands um the uh that's why I sent the soil to a lab that's a variance a state variance um and then the the one that I'm mainly here for we did get I did get uh Conservation Commission approval uh negative determination but is a 75 foot buffer to the Wetland as you can see that's that's a Board of Health requirement I don't think I could have fit anything in here you know the buffer extends from here down you know would have to tear up the driveway the water service so that's the variance that I'm requesting to night um along with like I said using a Civ for the C layer and then the elen system which really isn't a variance but um it's uh that's
037what I ended up using that's about what I have if you have any questions like I said it did get Conservation Commission approval the homeowner grew up or the applicant grew up in this house her mother passed she's selling it um she would like to get the system put in before the winter so she doesn't have to heat the empty house which can get costly that's what I have for now does anybody have any questions yeah I have a question yeah Eric if I may yeah yeah go ahead um the elevations of the uh the Lee field and the uh elevations of the peral stream there that you have you did say there's a steep slope is that right yeah it's about a 10% slope in the backyard here yeah is that a concern if
038there's a breach here would it impact the penal River or did you have a any um any kind of retaining wall or something that helps no it's yeah will be slightly elevated and the stream is actually the Contours don't show it but it's it's like the top of the system right here is at uh is it 102 and the stream way up in here is 102 but it's pretty they should have extended the Contours over but um it's pretty much a valley in there it's a it's pretty cut in you know it's it's it's flowing it's um I don't see it climbing all the way up to uh no it's not climbing it's the breach from the um the septic yeah that's what I'm consider that that gets into the stream will be a problem
039so have any you have a retaining wall to protect it or you have something no I was able to grade it off there is an impervious be barrier right here okay all right yeah so anywhere where I could potentially have breakout I put I install that or have proposed that all right so that's good good question yeah you always think about it when you have a difference in elevation you always think about it yeah anybody else have any questions yeah so can I get a motion yeah I'll make the motion um so I make the motion to Grant a variance from Title 5 CMR 310 sections 15284 and 15 uh 405 allowing for the SAS to be installed 2 feet above seasonal High Ground water using the Elgen GSF system and to allow for the
040SAS to be designed based on a Civ versus percolation test I second that um can you unshare your screen because I can't see everybody oh unshare it uh stop share yeah there we go there we go any any additional questions anybody all in favor I it's unanimous great thank you thank you actually does that include the sorry I didn't thought I only heard two variances did that include the the wetlands uh yeah I think you might have skipped that yeah you want to add you make an additional motion for that and then we can clear that sure yes yeah I'll make a motion that we Grant variance uh for the uh local Health variant section 30315 um wetlands and water bodies uh to uh be within 75 feet uh with this project I think it's
041about 50 feet I second that all in favor hi hi hi great good catch Dave thank you thanks a lot guys have a good night thank you um the next thing on the agenda is the grease trap waiver request Texas meat market at 6 Chestnut Street do we have anybody on for there Helen yep we're here hi I am ta I am the business consultant helping them with the project for the food permit and um this project project is just for a butcher and a small grocery store like a convenience store so it's not going to be any frying product any type of oil collection or nothing they will have a greas strap under the Tre Bay sink but they are not going to fry anything they are not going to cook any food in
042the location that's why we ask for the waiver for the GRE strap external um any does anybody have any questions this is this is the old Dairy Queen building right exactly okay so what does what is your recommendation Raj um Mr kg yes we we good to go on this you know we we reviewed the plans you know uh so uh I guess we should be good as as long as they're not cooking any food not generating any of the facts you know okay they that they have to come every year like that before right as usual it's usually so I guess how we dealing with they they get they get the waer but then uh we bring the list of the vendors right who who have external that we bring it to the board
043I guess right the individuals doesn't come you know so okay but they they come back again at the end of the year I presume that's what usually happens anyway I'm uh ready to make a motion if that's what is needed one sec kg real quick so once they have food in that building they will they'll be subject to your inspections correct that is correct sir yes okay yeah go ahead kg I move that they be given the waiver gase stap exal second okay any additional questions all in favor right great it's all set thank you very much for coming thank you have a good night you too um the next sorry the next thing on the agenda is the uh grease trap waiver request Clock Town pickle ball at 200 Homer Al Raj who's on
044for that uh one second Chief you know so anybody from Clock Tower Jeff Walker one of the owners of the clock tower pickle ball and I should also have my partner Steve pinski should be here as well and Mr Walker if you can explain the board you know why we're asking the please uh sure uh basically we we as hopefully you know we have a pickle ball facility over at 200 Homer and um with with a bar and wanted to be able to serve some a very limited menu um with a limited kitchen uh basically the kitchen containing uh convention oven uh microwave and I think a panini machine um is all we have we do have one three Bay snc uh which we again like the previous applicant will have um a internal grease
045trap um but um you know we're not there's no burners there's no um we're not going to be cooking really anything um that will require the additional grease so it's pizzas uh most of the stuff's going to be served in plastic back baskets and and napkins and um just a little snacking food if you get a little appetite after pickle ball very similar to what they have downstairs um at the um uh the golf simulator Dr greens when you said um you're serving pizzas in plastic the plastic containers don't get washed there or uh no we were not even going to have a dishwasher um so it's it's basically sort of just handwashing uh some stuff yeah so they'll be limited but um you know I'd say it's less than your conventional kitchen you'd have
046in your house for sure okay Raj will will they be required to have the separate sink for hand washing for this with this amount of food I mean definitely separate sink for hand washing you know but and then they have a threeway sync you know for for any of that and that that's going to have a internal greas strap you know any additional questions anybody okay so I will I'll make this motion that we Grant the grease trap waiver requests for clock toown pickle ball at 200 Homer a a second then all in favor I I you are all set thank you all right thank you very much sorry um the next thing on the agenda uh Chestnut Place Apartments unsanitary conditions at dumpsta area Raj let you take this one yes sir so uh
047Chief as we discussed right so uh uh the just not Place Apartments I I know they was in front of the board I guess last year or so right uh and what we have noticed um um and correct me if I'm wrong you know that they have change of management maybe six months back or something like that you know but uh I have not seen too much improvements in the conditions you know and my past couple of of inspections uh there was a lot of stuff going on at at the dumpster area you know so I I have bring get to attention of Mr Brian who's here um on my phone call last week didn't had a very good response from him you know I had couple of bad cases that are still pending and
048didn't had response on that uh two unpaid tickets at the location you know so uh I just want to know what's going on and what we are doing to improve the situation sure I'm going to introduce a couple members of my team for my regional team uh Stacy loville and Dan Chan who I have spoken to about uh Stacy's gonna talk a little bit about this as we discussed it earlier yeah hi everybody um my name is Stacy I'm the area vice president for Willow Bridge which is the management company for chest Place Department um so we actually like um and I apologize if I'm saying your name for is it reie okay we haven't met yet so um so as ret mentioned we actually took over Management in April and so one of the
049reasons why we a third party management so we don't own the buildings um that they made the change and one of the issues they said with that they were having was this trash issue um so we came in um and this was obviously something that we were very concerned about and wanted to fix right away um so we we have been paying attention to it I know that he mentioned we had I believe two fines since we've taken over um we're looking into the unpaid tickets there's some back and forth between the checks getting to you and not but we have Pro um process those on our end um but we have you know we have our trash pick up every day we have been notifying the residents of what is needed for the trash
050pickup we have changed Exterminating companies back in June um they're there every other week um so yeah so we have been making making the improvements and we we have our guys there we have two maintenance guys on staff they're there every morning they pick it up and stuff so we are working and taking this very seriously see can you please update me on on the pending cases you know so I have two cases where I had roaches problem for over two years you know and was not solved you know when I talked to Brian uh last week I was given the impression that this kind of industry standard that these Roes don't go away I I I did maximum I give maximum time to you guys right but I have no update from the management
051whatsoever on those cases you know so can you please uh in my email where you was copied I have three Pro three units you know that had like bad bad roads problem you know can you please update me on that please okay I am sorry I I have not seen that email and I'm not aware of those cases so I apologize I can't give you an update on those um Brian might be able to I I can give you my email address if you would like to copy me on it going forward that'd be great yeah I'll include you on the email and yes um in my apologies I should have updated you earlier all three of the apartments that were issues before all three of those tenants have have vacated so I I'm curious
052if they if you've received anything else from them um they moved out you know one of them moved out two months ago four months ago and six months ago so none of those people are are here any further and I did forward you all of our pass control reports last week so I'm not sure did you receive those I did receive that Mr Brian but um you know for in my end the cases are open you know and those cases by law need to be reinspected before you can rent them out again you know so how sure we are that those problems were solved when they were sitting there for two almost two years so that's your duty to to inform us you know if there is any anything going like that right that I
053should come out and reinspect it before you can you can have somebody else there right okay and I apologize for us that's that's on me that's not something that we typically um do with other towns and stuff um so I apologize with the transition of the management probably got lost in the shuffle if if it's been dealing with for two months so I apologize for that sorry you're saying the other towns you don't don't need to do that was that not NE not NE necessarily have people we kind of give the paperwork and stuff with the with what's been done on the um with the Exterminator and stuff so we don't necessarily have to have people come out and reinspect if we have an issue like that my question was right so if I I
054have a letter out order to correct letter out right on the violations you know like how do you decide that the violations was corrected or who clears it before you can rerent the apartment you know like who decides that because I have a legal document sitting in my office right that this this property was in violation or this unit was in violation right unless I come verify that you know but like how do you clear that who proves that that this unit is okay to be rented you know we we'll do that and we'll have that and I again I apologize it was not something that we did deliberately it was just overlooked and other thing was I was informed by by our Building Commissioner right that some of the units was flooded you know
055I have nothing on that you know so can you please inform the board what's going on with that you know with the with the flood what happened with it I was informed some of the units was flooded you know like so what what are we doing with that you know so because lot of these problems right at least the three cases I have in 14 building was because of chronic moistures from the leaks you know and like now if the units was flooded what what you have done to prevent any any sort of these PS you know to be there sure well we did full remediation we we work with third party vendor to come in clean everything off um and re rebuilding them essentially so yes we we work third party vendors through full
056remediation and everything I guess I don't really understand exactly what you're asking for on that end so so I I I think I can chime in here a little bit um I've been on the board for a long time um and I understand you're a new new management company but no matter who it's been at Chestnut place the lack of communication is just very frustrating for Raj and our board um you know listen an email goes a long way you know to keep people updated and just it just seems like we're always just chasing everything at just a place and we don't have these issues at other apartments with communication in in the town yeah no and and then we're here to fix it and maybe this was a conversation we should have had six
057months ago um and I apolog you know what I mean something that maybe is just overlooked we're happy to provide you with whatever we want we want you know we want to make sure that we're running it smoothly not just for us but for our residents for you guys um so we're happy to provide you with this information again you know I will say there's different towns who require different stuff I usually don't have to go to the Board of Health if there's if I have a pipe burst or something like that I understand your issues and concerns because there was stuff so maybe we we do have to have a little bit more communication and we're open to that same thing with there I think there was a fire the other day and I
058think you brought up that you weren't notified again that's not something that we typically do on our date on our procedures if there's a fire obviously we don't want a fire but if there is something that happens it's not necessarily that we bring it to the Board of Health everything yeah I mean I think too you know just Raj is very um very engaged with everybody you know in the community so you know so with kind of almost become an expectation you know that people will just have conversations or emails with Raj keep them up to date what's going on okay all right but I I also don't want to get penalized so if something happens and we don't you know right well right well again right I mean this is this is a great
059conversation where we can clean up the communication and you know this see just just to let you know from my side I'm sorry Chief you know with these two three cases is a legal requirement from you know me to come out to do a reinspection I'll be very surprised of out of 351 communities in Massachusetts if somebody's not doing that you know that's a legal trouble for me if I don't reinspect the property you know uh just to let you know I would like to know which communities don't ask for it you know when you you have some some tent leave and you know not be cleared by Board of Health it's it's sitting on my head and those cases are not going to get closed you know it's going to be sitting there till
060till we we close it without verification I cannot you know if you tell me the tenant moved out doesn't help me I still don't know if what is the condition in your unit you know I guess what I'm what I was trying to say is more so when we provide the information about what the Exterminator has done it's cleared at that point for it to be open two years is not something we T we would have done anyway so we'll we'll make sure it gets right and whatever you need from us you need want to schedule it they may have been rented they may have new people in there but whatever we need to do we can we make sure it's right may I make a suggestion for these uh new managing team yeah it
061may be a proactive step if you probably uh look at review the record that uh the Board of Health has about your properties that way you can pick on things that have happened in the past and avoid getting into the same loophole again it may help you better and also it will be a easy proactive step for you to work with rather than trying to find somebody complaining and then acting on it of course of course and like I said we we want to fix these problems this is not something you know that we want we want to run this building smoothly not just for us but for the residents especially and stuff so we understand the importance of it and everything so we want to make sure that it's corrected and work hopefully you
062hopefully you clear those pending cases with r y yep Raj have you seen any improvement with the trash and stuff like that that we have been working hard man I I am with you you know last time we met Brian you know when you guys took it over I told him last time the company or the you know Apartments was in front of the board uh the board asked them to you know at least maybe you know bi-weekly send me pictures that stopped you know um and then I had couple of bad ones that's why the board wanted to see you guys you know like it's not my intention right that you guys be here but I had very little communication on whatsoever you know about these cases too you know the gentleman was in
063one of those cases I mean I I did that that case was pending for year and a half you know I know you guys came here six months back you know but there are certain duties I need to do too you know like now if this one of these cases ended up in court I'll be asked this question as well you know I mean you in fact yes but I'll be asked like hey why was not this close you know like I mean so and these are three units not one even you know right that we have order letters out and not closed you know so yes I mean if if you ask me yes there was Improvement when you took it over but like now again I had bad inspections you know okay are
064there any pending fines that they have to pay in my system sir I checked my with my clerk's office yesterday I mean uh Friday you know there's two tickets that i' I've written to the them in the email today that the tickets pending you know so we have $200 tickets that are pending that not been paid mention real quick that for so when we sent the checks out I went and I checked with I believe your tax collector and apparently they wouldn't cash the check because there were two separate things paid to the town of Ashland so they never cash the check so the the check was reissued last week I I will check with them again but you know it goes to our cler's office and I I inquired about it Friday and it
065was not cleared you know so just to let you know okay well when I spoke to your clerk she said that she didn't cash it because they were going to two different funds so I apologize but it has been reissued sure thank you so if I may so Raj so there's there's the three um pest in pation Cas is still open at at the Chestnut Street Apartments is that correct along with other violations so yes you know so what ex I hold on yep so what exactly is required for you to to clear and close those cases I need to do a reinspection you know okay so that's what's required it's not just a pest uh a report from a pest agent uh vendor to Roger's office he has to come out and inspect and
066that is what's required to clear the cases so I think that's what you need to arrange with him yep we it whenever yep but I I guess my other question is what are the other violations besides those three I don't know if this is something we want to talk about now you want to send those to me absolutely those been sended to you guys but there was multiple other issues on all the order letters you know so uh I I can reate it but it your office should have it you know so it was just not the past issue there was like other leaks you know other structural structural things on all the three cases now okay and those are still open and pending yes I I cannot close a case without a inspection you
067know until I have verified that yes those violations been corrected I legally cannot cannnot just close it you know it's it's a legal document you know once it's issued by Board of Health hello it becomes a legal issue you know it's a legal document well y're we're willing to work with you get these straightened off and fixed and everything thank you you're welcome oh good oh true kg can you mute can you mute yourself kg kg can you mute y give me one second sorry sorry for that I thought okay all right um so I think we're all set Raj with this for now yes sir I just I'm just for you know better communication you know close these things that's all thank you thank you thank you three of you for coming tonight yeah
068nice to meet you guys you um so next thing on the agenda is a variance request keeping of animals regulations um can't sorry I can't read this it's all smudged um Milton Samba 507 Main Street Raj you gonna yes Chief so uh we've been out couple of times you know this property with Donna last week right uh last time uh board have some questions you know we have sent the measurements uh with all the calculations we did I've sent it to the board they've been uh uh they allowed 24 chickens you know with with the with the structure uh other than that we we have sent the distances uh of for the board you know from from the butters uh as well as uh from the wetlands and I guess uh all the questions I
069know I know Dr J you reach out to Laura U everything else you know than the manure plan we we have it you know from from them U Donna is here Donna have uh some concerns about the health of the health of the birds you know Don know if you want to put any inputs in then we can uh uh if any questions for for the for the owner we can ask you know okay uh go ahead joh Donna go ahead um I have some concerns there's quite a few chickens um believe 28 um they did do they did we recommended that they see a bet um which they did do um but my concern is that uh the vet recommended that the chickens be separated the smaller ones from the bigger ones and that
070hadn't been done yet these the smaller chickens have very few feathers which is not going in my opinion they're not going to do very well over the winter um so I have some concerns about that and Al there was food still on the ground um after we had asked them to not leave any food out for the chickens so you know I just we've been there three times and it's concern it's a little concerning right and we do have a letter from a vet um Michelle nand who's also making the recommendation that the smaller um Birds be um moved um so that they're not um in contact with the larger Birds correct and that had not been done yet when we visited last week right so again um we have it from a vet so
071you know we're going to go with by what a vet is telling us in this particular scenario yeah hi I'm Mariana I want to trust late for my uh brother and sister-in-law U but uh this is a bed that you bring from the Ashan town a different bed that you brought to the house because the bed that we paid for it and she came over um they call it static p and they came over they look at it they send you the report to all of bir that were healthy and there were no problem the f because they play the chickens play each other and they were they little so the fathers came out he didn't see any problems with that well we we have the letter from the vet who's recommending that the smaller
072birds be separated we which which B what what we from Michelle neand from exotic pet yeah okay we didn't got that letter so the the the report the letter that to us according to this it was sent to you on October 11th to 507 Main Street no I haven't seen that letter I I just got the first report that she gave us and the first one I sent you la can you I think that was in an email that you sent to me Mark okay you on that email too maybe but they they are separated um the last visit I think you talk about that to have been separated so my brother-in-law is going to do that he already removed some other chickens out um they were expecting to see you were going to show
073up today because you said you were going to come back to the house before the meeting I don't know if you guys did this morning Johnny did you go there today no no no we we had no plan to go back there today so so I'm gonna I'm gonna um if anyone else please chime in everyone else but I'm going to say that this is going to have to be pushed off to our December 2nd meeting um until we have another inspection based on the veterinary report of what's being recommended okay and can I just um I'm going to read aloud the second paragraph because it's I think there's I think there's some disagreement about what the exact conclusions are so it says physical examination of the broiler chick showed that they were in good
074body condition with no external signs of disease or parasites I think that is what the what uh uh M Martinez um or the the Martinez are are are referring to however it also says that the feather loss is likely being caused by damage to the new PIN feathers molting due in due to bullying and pecking from the larger birds and that uh we discussed strategies with the clients again that would be the martinz is to minimize bullying in the flock such as separating the larger hens while the broiler chicks are growing so maybe then the the the next inspection before our next meeting should be should pay specific ATT ATT to that issue and make sure that there is a strategy in place to address that concern yeah well I said right now the bigger
075chickens are not there anymore they just skip the little ones they're gone so Maria how many chickens was removed you know can do you have the number I don't know if she's is she still there she's still there yeah well milon are you there I think my inlaws are there sure can you can you please confirm [Music] move for [Music] okay they they say they remove some so as right now they should be 18 chicken T yeah they remove the big ones so Chief last time even Don was there right we counted kind of 28 to 29 chickens and because they was allowed only 24 we have we have asked them to remove the bigger chickens that was troubling the little ones right yeah thank you as as you said right uh I mean we
076we we can have another inspection and then the board can decide you know we have to we have to we we cannot move forward on this till another inspection happens sure okay and Mar another thing you know we don't have uh anything updated for the board for the manure plan when I was at the inspection we asked you know that you want to update your manure plan you know so that's another item that's spend that you want to update uh on the application or in an email to us what is how you going to take care of your manure you know what is your manure plan uh what is the the manure I don't understand that part the the chicken bird waste okay um as of right now there are say is that is separated
077in containers um what my uh brother-in-law is going to do it that that's what they used to use I mean he work in the farm before is for [Music] um this compos composing for his plan sure so you want to please update that in an email to us you know or put that on your application right and as raj I think it just to be crystal clear it has to be in writing sure we understand what you said but it needs to be written down for us okay did did the did the Conservation Commission allow the composting on site for that within their limitation did they believe they did yeah so that's I think a a very good point is that we need to know not just that the waste will be composted but where
078it will be composted because given the proximity to neighbors and the wetlands that's the concern okay I I I thought I I was one of those meetings that that they wanted it to be offsite that's what I thought so but I don't know but better to check with Becca if you can Raj on that one will I will Mr K thank you all right thank you everyone so we'll see you at the next meeting Mariana thank you do we do we need to make a motion to move this to the next meeting or we just automatically goes to that meeting I I think it just automatically goes kg okay okay because we're not voting on anything all right thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you Donna thank you um Raj your report
079thank you sir we know Raj can do these quick let me do that quick here thank you uh so first 2017 de Road uh this was one of the field systems uh was going on with ever Source you know uh uh there was some easement issue and while I I was away you know I did talk to my supervisor and they checked with the L of me right that the issue was between uh the homeowner and the ever source so at that point we I checked the chief uh uh at that time when I was traveling and we have uh allowed uh the system to be built and the system is built now you know so we are all set on that uh we this year also we we again we got the BBA grant
080for $1,000 uh we use that to provide uh U containers you know for shops U I guess from the time I am here we've been getting this Grant and it's wonderful that we have we are able to provide uh free uh shop disposable containers to our residents I still don't have any update from Mil Pond restroom uh they they was supposed to be undergoing a change of ownership um but no update on that yet uh food establishments uh GB Burgers B on P Street at Axel gas station still uh nobody there you know the last time we checked they out of business another update was Duncan on 41 West Union Street uh couple of weeks back Tom was out on an inspection and he found that there is CH change of ownership and we was
081not notified you know uh the owner owner applied for for it while I was away and today I saw the owner I told him like Hey typically it's uh if you if you do change of ownership that's closer you know uh but uh I was away but we have finally uh today we have granted them permit you know uh so but they was almost about about a month without a permit from us you know even the change of ownership uh housing cases ashin Woods uh we we had a trash issue there road and you know that that been taken care uh at the dumpster area 137 Pawn Street uh I am T I'm in touch with the receiver now you know the court have appointed a receiver for the property U he was in office
082uh last Thursday or Friday I guess Friday uh uh morning um he's working to resolve the dispute now you know or you know resolve the issues at the at the property the first thing will be uh there is there is a van there and there is a RV there he's going to be taking care of uh those uh issues right I mean there are two two individuals living on the property in those trailers U and that he'll be taking care that will be the first thing on his agenda I did get an email from him today we are in touch hopefully you know with we move on this property uh uh 7 join Drive uh September 27 Friday night we we had a small fire incident as the the property manager was mentioning you know
083it was a small fire in one of the units probably uh in in a small refrigerator that that the occupant was using to store makeup you know so um I have responded to that that been that been corrected since uh Statewide brush fires you you I mean everybody knows a lot going on with the fires right now you know uh so what a lot of communities have done they have banned uh the outdoor fire events as for right now and we have similar message out from our fire department you know uh kind of to not do any fire events outside given given the dryness and the fire going out in the State uh our public health nurse and been doing wonderful work with the community outreach uh she had two seminars uh one on Diabetes
084uh in past couple of months at our community center and a recent uh uh event or U you know presentation on snow and ice safety uh last week at the community center uh with with our vaccination program program besides our childhood vaccine program that's that's every Wednesday we've been doing some clinics with the Pine Hill Pharmacy uh on October 22nd we have 36 vaccines and then November 5th we have eight vaccines and total of 119 shots this year with the with the Pine Hill Pharmacy and last thing with the disease investigations uh uh not much uh right now with with our food born illnesses or anything like that but we have three TB cases uh currently that we are we are working on and I'm I'm open for any questions for the board any questions
085anybody no all right so the next thing on the agenda is the consent agenda do I have a motion to approve uh question first actually so go ahead if you look at the um at the minutes from that meeting that we are approving I I think the time was wrong when you says you called the meeting at 7:00 Ed I don't think we met at 7 no we met at 6 yeah just minor Laura can you fix that yeahor so do do we approve it am okay do I have a second okay so right so kg you so you moved in now I need I'll second I'll second okay all right all in favor all all all right um and then uh let's see here uh let me see review and approve 2025 board of
086health permits pending receipt of all required documentation and 108 West Union Street chicken permit variance request those will be on next agenda text agendas okay great um anybody have any new business or anything that they would like to bring up yeah uh no maybe for the next meeting um I can give folks an update on where we stand with the next Ram Clinic I think we should discuss so yeah and um you guys if if I was hopefully I was not out of line pushing the um um blight bylaw moving forward because otherwise we would have just continued um it would never would have it just would have continued we would have been going on for over an hour and we had a lot of people waiting that's your job I know I just I
087felt bad after but I'm like okay I got to do this I think it made sense y I need a motion to adjourn don't move my friend okay and I'll second it everyone thank you very much and if have a great oh Raj um just on behalf of myself and the board um condolences about your dad thank you sir I appreci