001okay okay all right great I'd like to welcome everybody to the Ashlin Board of Health meeting for November 21st 2023 like to call the meeting to order at 6:06 PM um as always first thing is Citizens participation Mark you've been absent for a while I was hoping you were okay so I'm glad to see you what's going on even Mar Sony 49 hoton Road gobble gobble gobble still taking care of my dad he's still alive and kicking 98 years old nine years now taking care of him in bed loves his classical music 98 hotbeat hot oxygen 116 over 80 blood pressure no wheezes in the breathing clear wrot clear hot with the with the stethoscope readings and he's do he's doing well just shaking off little cold little cough and stuff like that and basically
002home is here me me my dad and later on the um Thanksgiving Day Afternoon my brother and his and his family brings all leftovers and we have leftovers here that's what's going happen Thanksgiving okay my question is either to Raj or to uh you who are can answer this is about the comprehensive plan committee my question is is there any representative from the Board of Health on that that is correct Mr Burman is part of it you know Mr ad Burman so he he's on the committee okay and um just wanted to make sure because I've seen a couple times there I just wanted to make sure that they're having little tiffs and TS and little thing that that that handles with groups and again over little little Buffs in the road but that doing
003okay um to miss to miss French from the division at every turn how's it how does it feel to be be a good coordinated good coordinated all around to be together with any age groups oh I mean we're really fortunate to be able to I think first and foremost work in the community of Ashland um of all ages for sure so it's just a really privileged position I think that I have being welcoming by the to in the role that I have to work with a lot of great people and to do great work regardless of the age so um so yeah I mean thank you for the question and um I'm just really happy to be here but um I know that there was another woman that was that was basically Ru in this
004that you took the place from sure so I mean I could talk a little bit about that during my little segment here but I you might be referring to Jennifer wolfing the Director of Human Services is that correct that correct and and part the um being with the high school right um so at the high school we've had a little bit of a turnover with our coordinator position but it's currently being served by Eliza Dodge eus she's our youth um and and Community coordinator doing the work directly with the um primarily the middle school and high school okay I that's enough for me being a inter room chairman thank you you're so welcome all right thanks Mark thanks Chris okay and um with that um doesn't look like there's anybody else online so Kristen you
005want to take it from here um agenda itum three uh Kristen's the director of prevention and Human Services um you're going to discuss the fall Retreat so just because some people you know may not know in case you know people end up watching this can you kind of give us a little bit of an overview of what dat is just so if people aren't informed and then whatever want to talk about for the retreat is great sure so thank you very much and I wanted to thank um Raj and Laura as well who have been asking me um to come on to a Board of Health meeting for a while and um I think at our first invitation we had some conflicts and it was difficult for me to be here and then um we
006were in a little bit of a state of flux and I didn't really have a really good update to give but I feel that now we're in a good position and some really great stuff has been going on so I think this timing feels perfect um so for anyone who is unfamiliar with decisions at every turn um we have been a federally funded community-based Coalition that works to prevent youth substance use um and we've been in the community um prior to but really fly friended since 2013 so for for 10 years we've been working collaboratively with parents and youth and schools and town departments the police um businesses so on and so forth to really put together a comprehensive plan like I said to um reduce and prevent youth substance use but also um really
007to promote positive Behavioral Health um part of what I wanted to talk about um tonight is sort of the the shift and we talked a little bit about this at our Retreat um just the other day we've been fortunate to be able to host an annual Retreat where we bring together such stakeholders and such groups um to reconnect as a community but then to also think about the work that we're going to do over the coming year so we just met um last Thursday and one of the the leading um parts of the introduction was that um our federal funding we we had 10 great years of drug-free Community funding which allowed us to do so many um wonderful things including um reducing rates of semar of substance use which is really the goal of
008the grant um but that funding ended in in September and so we're sort of now at this um transition part where we were really focused on how do we sustain prevention how do we continue to do the work with um without this large grant that has been supporting us for so long um so I wanted to just you know take a really quick step back just to say that there was a lot of um foresight um with one of the um the leaders of several leaders of the Coalition prior to me coming on um that had approached the town when we were applying for the second round of funding and um we wanted to see if they would serve as our Fiscal Agent and um and they agreed in 2018 when we applied for that
009Grant and in doing so um it was sort of cementing their um their investment in prevention by saying that we believe in the work that the community is doing um to help support youth so we'll serve as a f Fiscal Agent and part of that conversation was once we know when the grant ends what what do we do in so many coalitions when the when the funding ends there's no money to support programming and there's no money to support staff um so in a lot of communities the the work just falls apart um but one of the things that the town managers and through the select board and different groups agreed on was that it was really important to maintain a staff role that could oversee prevention one the funding ended so over a course
010of five years they increasingly um put the role of the director into the budget so now my position the director position is completely funded by the town um and there's some funding shifts with regard to um with our programming um that have changed a little bit but I did want to first and foremost say say that um because the town believed so much in prevention that was step one um the second part is um through some of the conversations that we've had and really tying into the community's goal one of their goals is to promote community health started thinking about how do we take what we do and know about prevention and kind of expand that so um really over the summer if you might have read some of the Articles and some of the
011announcements that have been made um the Human Services has now expanded into the department of prevention and Human Services and that's allowed us to do I think a couple of things things um we can now look at prevention across all ages so now we can look from like birth through you know 100 you know we can look at prevention across all of those ages now um and we can also expand our definition of prevention so rather than the strict focus on um youth substance use we can now look at all aspects of health so physical health social health substance abuse you know um prevention um mental health um that the social connectedness P so really looking at being able to expand what we do and and apply those you know um prevention strategies um the
012third thing that we're able to do is to connect that work to what's already happening in the human services department which has done amazing work um for the residents of the town for such a long time with case management and referrals and resources and the holiday program and the Thanksgiving meal program um and just being able to support residents with any need that they have so the this it's all that that part is all very new so I just wanted to um say we sort of laid the foundation for this work that now we can look at Community Health in a very different way and hopefully by the bridging of prevention in human services will be able to um support residents even more um one of the ways that um I'm hoping to be able
013to do this is to put it in the community's hands to tell the department what what you want as residents um so we have put I'm going to promote it a little bit more but there is um we put together a a simple three question survey that um was in the town manager's newsletter and it's on our web page and I will continue to promote it that basically says um what is your you know what what age group do you want to have programming on what topics do you want to have programming on and how would you like this programming and services to be delivered um and I'm hoping to collect as much feedback as possible from the community we can start to think how we build um these broader services that in programs that
014we're hoping to do so I guess so I guess maybe my final thing is I know I didn't really talk too much about decisions at every turn but um now the decisions at every turn is no longer a federally funded Coalition it's it now sits very very nicely Under the Umbrella of the prevention and Human Services Department so the work that decisions does will still continue to happen is just under the town and then there's a and the Human Services will still operate as it always has and then there's this piece in the middle that we're building to provide prevention to all the other ages all the other topics and then bridging prevention and Human Services so that that was a lot of information and just a couple minutes but I just I I'm just
015so excited about um I'm just so excited about the opportunities we can do a lot of great things um and that's that's sort of I guess that's sort of the long and short of it that was great I didn't realize that more recent history you know of the town I think that's awesome yeah so yeah yeah that that's that's nice that they included it you know I know that you guys you know when I used to sit on your meeting sometimes with Diane and you know it was uh you really are an integral part of the Board of Health you know and especially you know trying to keep these kids away from you know to me you know particularly tobacco you know um that probably has a more Delirious you know or detrimental effect than
016alcohol not that that's good either but um so I was looking at at some of these Norms at least for one of the questions you asked it what research you know have you gotten that really tells you the age when these kids start experimenting I'm shocked to see that you know in the past 30 days of these things from 2012 to 2021 n over 96% of middle school kids have tried alcohol and that might be non-us almost 100% like tobacco um that might be non I think it's nonuse oh that's Oh that's nonuse oh am I the wrong Norm survey positive community no so are non-us okay so all right that's awesome which is which is great which is which is like I yes so so not so use at the middle school for all
017substances are fairly low um if you're looking at high school rates and I I um I will say even though I don't have the numbers in front of me across the board most high school students are not using in any of those main um category substance substance categories so alcohol marijuana vaping yes yeah right so is it is it you know do you think that by the time you get to high school that a lot of those kids have already made up their mind and they're going to do it and it's better to focus on middle school or even even lower than that even in grade school right so yes I absolutely so what the when particularly through like the drug free communities Grant which is how we which is where we sort of collect
018and use the data there age population is sort of like this I guess it's like 13 to 18 or whatever that age group is which is middle school and high school because that's where we can collect data in order to be able to measure the ups and downs and the trends through the years but which is f which is fine but I do think and and there's certainly work to be done in that space of preventing and or reducing so there still prevention work that can happen even if someone is us and we would want to reduce the use as well but what we've learned is that we do need not just Ashlin but across the board we need to prevention needs to start so so so so so much earlier so even work in
019uh like the elementary schools um is still is sort of the a common practice style um but I would say it it looks a little bit different so when you're talking about prevention with like kindergarteners and first graders and second graders you may not necessarily be talking about any particular substance but you're laying a foundation of a strong social emotional um you know Foundation you're talking about healthy choices you're talking about um self-confidence and the kinds of things to build strong characters and those those are all these like protective factors that will help keep theoretically kids from um making a choice to use as they get older so um a lot of the but again like you said a lot of the data does focus on that middle and high school because that's just sure
020those are the surveys that we have but I would 100% agree that prevention can start when that would say like prevention starts at Birth like you can you can start the foundation really early yeah which which I think is awesome and I don't I don't want to hog all this time I just have one more question I know that you know previously um you know there was the the huge vaping issue especially with kids with you flavored things and then those were banned have you seen a increase in use with the band that it's not so flavorable or that doesn't matter they're still doing the nicotine thing anyway so I would so because I'm I'm sort of isolated in a space where I'm not with with with young people I don't have like a lot
021of access to young people personally I know maybe if you talk with the schools you might get a different perspective what I would say has been for me what I think has been a real um variable in use up and down has actually been Co and sort of like during that time young people didn't have as much access to alcohol or or ecigarettes and also the social opportunities to do a lot of the um a lot of the lot of the drinking and or vaping in sort of a social setting so for me like the co and the pandemic was a big like eyeopener in terms of in terms of use because it did go way down during that time um what will be interesting to see is that um the middle schoolers and high
022schoolers just took the um 2023 adolescent Health survey in the fall the results will not be available until the spring but it will be interesting to see the rates of not just vaping but alcohol use of tobacco use um as of a current use because um 2021 which is the last time of the data was available it took place in this very very weird time in all of our lives that can't necessarily may or may not actually represent a true like a true pattern so um so it'll be really interesting but I think overall I think the research does show that by Tak a lot of the flavors um I was you know was helpful as well to answer that question yeah thank you for that that's great you know Barbara Jay you guys you
023know want to ask some questions yeah I've got a couple um before the questions though Kristen first of all thank you um the survey that you're talking about you said that was in Michael's newsletter oh I think so I think it was it might be a couple issues back um but I can tell I can tell you where to find it um yeah if on the um so on the um town website ash.com if you go I think to the government tab you can find the department of PR service okay and we have a and I like right up at the top um the link to the survey okay all right great thanks uh just two two questions about funding so um did is the town now covering everything that the drug free community Grant
024covered or just part of that budget so it covers um foring I guess I'll say like programming operations that's actually um being covered by a couple of different Pockets but not currently through the town budget budget um we still um have been very very fortunate to be recipients of funding through the state atmer the Senate President Sila um has been really great about putting money that goes to the town specifically for prevention so we have funding um for that to do like the um for um like programming and operations so the state nark does not allow um Personnel um we are also the recipient of um a couple Regional grants basically agion Grant is overseen by the city of Hudson and um we're commun so they provide some direct funding to town specifically and using
025some of that money in order to keep our coordinator on um and then I should say even though the drug free community Grant has ended we have a no cost extension so we can actually use some of that money through the end of June to complete some projects that we were not able to complete um but but currently no aside from um Staffing there is no of my job opportunities you know kind pull all the different like pieces together yeah you you cut out a little bit there Kristen at the end but um you you answered my question that uh the second question which was so it sounds like you're going to be looking for different funding opportunities in um going forward to okay sure yeah okay all right all right great thank you welcome
026and Dr Ron if I may you know I just want to add on on your question you know on the flavoring part right the ban on Flavor tobacco in Massachusetts mg is actually leading a study they're doing uh in Massachusetts uh about that you know like what impacts uh the ban on flavoring have uh you know and I was actually part of that study so when the data comes in I will provide it to the board you know so that's great thank you thanks Barbara anything no but I just want to say Christian you know thank you so much for the work you're doing in the schools and um you know I don't know where it would be without your help like from just what I hear from the students you know it's very helpful
027to have somebody to even go to talk to in the schools um which I don't know maybe with time maybe we can try to change some policies because the stories you hear is you know the kids vaping in the school like in the school bathrooms so somewhere you know that way they hold responsible if they're caught doing stuff like that so I know so my I keep getting a message that my um internet connection is unstable so I was hearing bits and pieces of that but um but I agree Barbara because um we had the the privilege of hearing for young students at our Retreat the other day they were an amazing group that um just kind of talked about um positive things as well their hopes their dreams but um and but also you
028know what concerns them and how adults can support them and a whole a whole host but one of the things that we did um here was sort of this um uptick a little bit we believe um in in vaping and I have to say but the schools have have been really great about addressing those issues as well so I think um having such supportive schools and having such thoughtful policies as well as having um Eliza who is you know part of decisions um being that person that can talk you know talk with a lot of young people I think is a really good um formula for some really good work going forward um yeah absolutely yeah all right that's great anybody else okay Kristen thanks um you're certainly welcome to stay you probably have a
029few better things to do but you know again you know just like the rest of the board said you you know you do a great job and you really are you know an a a part of the you know the Board of Health in my opinion you know you are even I don't know how many kids you've helped over the years but it's got to be a lot and however many you can keep off of those you know things or at least using alcohol responsibly and not smoking is you know one less kid that's going to have a good chance to have a lot longer healthier life that's for sure and I think it's important that you know that you continue to do this and that at least the kids that are going to listen
030to you you know that have a choice to kind of go either way are going to see that there's an adult that really cares we didn't have anything like this you know you just had your parents yelling at you you know so mine scared me so much I'm 62 I think I just found out about smoking in alcohol like two years ago so you know that's how it was but I I think to have you know this this whole basically community outreach program where parent there's a coalition between the students and the parents and you know concerned adults is um it's really you know awesome and you're you're not going to get everybody but you know whatever you do help it's it's really a you know they don't know it yet because they're that young
031but you know I see it all the time you know I see my my best friend's mom who smoked you know two packs a day for 40 years you know she is COPD she can't walk more than a foot without being winded you can't have enough oxygen tanks and to save any body from from that you know is you know it's it's it's really uh you know a worthwhile cause if you can help anybody so you know thank you for everybody well you the work the work could not be done without everyone I mean really it really is uh prevention is just it it's a it's a community sport really I mean we we need we need everyone everyone has a role everyone has a voice um you know so I'm just I'm just really
032I'm really grateful to be able to sometimes be the um you know the voice of it um but it's really everyone at the table that that makes it work so yeah of course thank you yeah thank you very much have a great holiday with your family thank you so much I am gonna pop off but um yeah absolutely happy holidays to everyone and I know I'll see you all soon thank you great thank you so much bye bye and I don't have to talk because Raj has to talk agenda item for the director's uh agenda that you sir what you got yeah thank you sir you're welcome so first is the house tree landfill the new company langon uh uh was out end of September to do the testing at the landfill uh the results
033was out and I've submitted it to the board also we have sent you a copy uh the results was similar to the last testing we had at the landfill and other than that we also tested the irrigation Wells that that's part of uh the testing you know I handle both the reports uh to the homeowners one is at uh six Dale Road and second one is at 4 Sandstone uh both the reports are good you know they they was happy so that's that's with the house tree landfill uh regarding the VFW uh I I've submitted the report to board again uh we we had a complaint that was on the sixth of the month you know regarding some Anan conditions and based on that I did an inspection and we have to temporarily put a
034seas and assist on their operations and I thank Dr J he was with me for the reinspection uh that uh uh we did on November 14th uh they their operations are back on I still have some few pending items uh that U I'm waiting I did get the pest control report after the inspection and few other items are pending hopefully they they solve them or correct them uh housing cases you know going on at Chestnut Place Apartments you know we have three open cases we picked up one more from last time uh definitely improvements you know but uh still still a lot of stuff going on you know and I'll keep the board informed uh we definitely have lesser complaints you know but some still some activity there still you know 137 Pawn Street uh
035no update from AG's office uh but the Building Commissioner have sent an order letter to the uh to the person who's who's living in that camper and uh I heard you know we had a holding task force meeting this afternoon that there was some activity there last evening you know once I've have the information from the police department uh I will update the board uh I have asked Police Department for that you know uh of one of the officers you know so hopefully get that report and I'll update the board I guess they found one of the brothers sleeping in the car you know but I'm I'm not positive I still have to get the report to update the board with the mil Pond uh I guess board was also copied on that as well
036right uh that the state uh they have won a party that have was interested to buy it I it seems the state have denied that transaction I I I don't know the reasons so we'll see like you know what they do uh last time I had conversation with them they said like there was eight residents there uh but I'll keep the board informed on that as well uh couple of restaurant changes you know change of ownerships at Las Kus and da queen that we are uh working on uh the uh next item is the flu covid clinic so so far this season we have done nine uh flu clinics uh Barbara been present at couple of them thank you Barbara uh eight of the clinics we did with Pine Hill Pharmacy uh and we have
037done 305 vaccines with them uh this is in addition to what we do our Wednesday clinic and one of other flu clinics we have done with our staff and we have expanded the vaccines we are offering at these clinics uh besides uh flu that we had offering for under 65 over 65 both kind of covid vaccine and now we are doing RSV as well uh shingles as well as tmas so these are five different kind of vaccines we are offering uh we have four more Clinic lined up uh this season uh the next one is on November 29th and we are planning another weekend Clinic that's not final but it's going to be on December 9th you know and once I have full information I'll inform the board but and then there is one for
038December 5 and December 13 so there these are four additional Clinic that we're doing with the pharmacy so overall I guess we're going to have uh 9 + 4 at least 13 clinics uh just for uh flu and covid uh this season along with our wday clinic for childhood vaccines last item westn virus cases uh and I'm I'm just glad you know that we have couple of hard Frost you know yeah uh so far in the whole state of Massachusetts we had 164 positive samples water samples for uh vile virus and six cases this year human cases uh six but no animal case you know similarly with Triple E we didn't had any human case or animal case but we did had 28 positive samples and hopefully we don't see anything more than this you
039know this season given the two hard frosts I guess that's all from me but I'm open for any questions for the board thank great anybody Jay Barbara no great Roger off the hook thank you very much as usual are you um are you happy with the new company for the yes sir so right very very good reputed company uh so but we did have a little bit of time in between you know finding the new company given you know all this Workforce you know Workforce situation going on you know but uh looks like very good company okay all right that's great thank you okay um moving on to the uh fifth the uh item can the consent agenda anybody like to make a motion to um approve the draft meeting minutes for September 19th and
040October 17 2023 um long as everybody was there or they read it as well as the fiscal report 202 Year year-to date budget we can pass both of those so Ron for the 17th yeah it looks like Barb let me just double check I was gonna say Barbara wasn't there I don't know about let me see the other one yeah that means okay hang on a sec uh so so we were all so we could approve September 19 SE 9 okay and the in the budget in you want to do that and I'll just make the motion we'll table the um yeah we can make a motion for that and then we'll I don't know separate motion to you know table the October 17th until we have a you know a fuller panel okay then
041I'll do I'll make the motion to approve the um let's see September 19 2023 meeting minutes um and uh the fiscal year 2024 year-to dat budget reports okay anybody named Barbara want to second that I'll second that okay thank you all all in favor I okay thank you um all right that's great and the uh the October 17th will'll just move that to the the next uh you know the next meeting whenever that is um which is great because we can talk about that I think December 19th you know sounds pretty good that would be is that the third Tuesday already I'm assuming that it is right so the it would be the fifth the 12th and the 19th so I don't know if every if anybody if everybody's going to be around I know
042I'll be around um we can always keep that pretty fluid you know Laura can let us know Raj can let us know any is anybody going away that can't make it I'll be here you'll be here okay yeah you'll be here too Barbara okay all right great so at least it'll be us three again so at least we can have the meeting and Raj will let us know if we need anything you know more urgently if we need to to do something you know in the earlier part of the month I will there's no um you know uh total five things we need to check out or other things um not at this moment so but if something comes along you know we'll definitely do that you know okay all right great I see Mr
043buman yeah Superman we missed you how you doing I don't think you can hear us yet hello Ed yeah hey Ed how are you sorry got stuck I'll fill you guys in after yeah that's okay one of those late ones we we're actually we're actually all set do you wanna you know you know so we appreciate it we waited for a while but yeah sorry that's okay not a problem it was it was uh well I'll tell you guys offline okay I'll text you guys all right all right well um that I asked everybody else what they were doing for Thanksgiving except for you what are you doing uh we made reservations nice where are you going um we we might be going to fireflies oh that's awesome all right yeah well that's great so
044um well everybody have a a great Thanksgiving and uh you know Raj Barbara edj thank you guys all Mark you as well for being an active participant you're uh you're always a good fixture on it nice to see that you know people like to uh you know take a listen and uh be involved in the Board of Health so we have the always the most important um motion we we'll make that for ED ED you want to uh make a motion to adjourn I'll make a motion to adjourn all right there we go now anybody named Jay or Barbara can second that yeah I'll second that okay that's great all in favor I I okay I all right that passes for nothing Barbara I mean Laura you as well have a wonderful Thanksgiving I don't
045know why we can't hear you unless you're good now okay we still can't hear you but you're loved anyway have a great time with your family and we'll see everybody on the 19th all right all right thank you everybody Happy Thanksgiving see you later