001okay everybody like to welcome everybody to the uh Ashland uh Board of Health meeting for October 17 2023 uh just like to read this disclosure this agenda is subject to change and includ is subject to change and includes those items reasonably anticip the chair to be discussed at the meeting not all agenda items May in fact be discussed and other items not listed may be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by law um so call the meeting to order at 6:04 as always citizens participation um anybody anybody out there no no Mark Dy tonight right probably not enough of an interesting meeting so we'll get on to uh agenda item three which is 61 Valley Road septic system variants I think we all have those um those uh plans and I guess it's
002for Eric yes yeah how you doing good how are you guys yeah good um you want me to share my screen yeah pleas yeah Mar can do that and okay let's see this guy sh okay can everybody see that yes yes okay there we know so this is 61 Valley Road um Valley if you're not familiar with it it's located off Ramblewood Drive which is a Road off of High Street um it's a subdivision the homes are built in 70s I think this one was 1973 um it's 61 Valley Road um it has an existing septic system in the rear of the property there's the tank I didn't show the leech field but it's right in this area right in this area here can you hear me can you hear me same yes we again
003okay the rear of the property has the MBTA uh Rail lines um and on the uh the western side of the property is a drainage easement um it's a fairly nice backyard it has a inground pool which and it has a patio around it and some Shrubbery which isn't shown in the survey but it's a it's it's a very wellmaintained backyard um the homeowner did not want to look at a mound um and no having some familiarity with the soils in this area and which was reinforced by the soil testing which show in this test pit redo at 24 in in test pit two redo at 24 in and water coming in at 84 and 52 um and then this test pit down here I'm not sure I think it was it might have been
004the spoils from the dig out when they put in the inground pool because or it could have even been from the MBTA um there were such things as uh lone there was sand and there was even a tire buried there um so I wanted to keep this system away from that area I don't know what the extent of that fill is um going up here like I said he didn't want a mound um with groundwater that high about the lowest profile system you can use is this it's called it's an IA system it's a fast geoflow system this is a micro fast um treatment tank then it goes into a pump chamber and then up to the it's called the geoflow which is like a garden hose this is a pressurized type system which drains
005back once the it it Cycles it drains back into the uh the pump chamber um this system is approved to go two feet to groundwater because it's has very Advanced treatment I don't know if you've been following any of it but in the cape right now there's a big um push to remove nitrogen from the waste water and this is one of the preferred systems um I think it eventually it'll probably spread to the rest of uh Massachusetts but it's starting down there um like I said the system can go two feet to groundwater and it can be sized up to 40% smaller um I didn't design the system with a with a um to comminate a garbage grinder he does not have one and um I don't think it's a good idea for this
006type of system in general um and other variance is like I said four from 4 feet to 2 feet to groundwater um and then the tanks given the high groundwater you can't really control this but once you put the tanks in the ground if you have redo at 2 feet the inlets and the outlets of those tanks are going to be within 12 Ines of the the high the groundwater the redu so that's the last variance um that's about it um there won't be much of a mound at all I think it's only a 6 inch change in grade along the property line here oh there there will be a d notice two D notices one for the alternative system and um the second for the uh the prohibited garbage grinder oh I can't hear
007you I can no sorry Ron we can't hear you yeah I can't I still can't I can hear you Eric I can't hear um Ron though okay oh oh that's we just heard you Ron you did there you go now or no okay y all right I'm sorry I just any board members have any questions no all right anybody like to make um I I guess we we usually can't do these as a single unit so anybody like to um you know make a motion to accept Section 30311 the local board um Health variance I can take crack at that one okay um so I make a motion to Grant a variance from ashin Board of Health regulation section 303- 111 to allow the subsurface sewage Disposal system to be designed without a garbage disposal
008with the conditions that no garbage disposal be installed within the house and a deed recording be placed on the property stating no garbage disposal shall be installed in the house while the subsurface sewage Disposal system is in use and this is for 61 Valley Road Great good um um any seconds for that I'll second that r that great thank you all right seconded all in favor I I okay great all right that should be four you know passes four to nothing and then the um the title five local upgrade approval sections uh 310 samr1 15 . 405 and section 310 CMR 405 I guess one's 1 H2 and one's one I anybody like to make a motion to approve those I guess I will uh continue okay with the Motions um so I make a
009motion to Grant a waiver from Title Five regulation section 15 405 H2 to allow reduction from 4 feet to 2 feet separation for soils with percolation rates greater than 2 minutes per inch between the bottom of the soil absorption system and the seasonal High groundwater elevation okay I'll second can we do these as a unit I'll second it okay okay all right we'll just go right to the all right thank you all in favor I I okay all right second Dave you're doing a good job you want to do the last one sure um and I make a motion to Grant a waiver for Title 5 regulation section lii or one I excuse me to allow a reduction of the to allow a reduction of the requirement of the 12in separation between the inlet and
010Outlet T's On High groundwater provided that all boots and pipe joints are sealed with hydraulic cement or installed with water types tight sleev and the tank is proven watertight great thank you any seconds second all right great thanks J all in favor I I okay that passes all right Eric thanks very much okay thank you we appreciate it okay have a great day thank you thanks thank you okay all right um so um I know um you had spoken about this last time J the ram Clinic you know the potential location for next year how's that going it is going okay um we just got um and thanks to Ed Burman official approval that from ke Tech that they will host it next year uh the dates um are going to be setup day August
0119th and the clinic will run on the 10th and the 11th of August of next year so we're going to go meet with them just to work out some details on Monday um now this I still need to sign an agreement with ram but they have penell it in and said that they um will have staff to do it on that date so I I wouldn't say that this is absolutely official but it's like 99% sure bet so that's the plan that's great thanks Jay and Ed how I'm just interested you know how unusual is this to have the you know backtack years in the same location like this it's not unusual um oh It's Not Unusual no no it's actually pretty common okay um sometimes you they'll be a clinic and it'll run one
012year and then after that first time they might need you know another couple years to really prepare and get into the groove but once they get going um it's not uncommon to have these every year in the same place so we were hoping you know it's tight at ke Tech because they have the summer camp and then they have school starting so you only have a couple of weeks to work with there and then trying to do it during the school year is tough too because there are weekend events and um so you know I I think if if Ram can do it and they say they can then we're lucky to have um the opportunity for the 9th through the 11th yeah just I thought that would be unusual for you know let's say
013a need-based thing like this you know I guess I I figured that with the turnout that we had and probably turning a lot of people away that that that was why but you're telling me that's not really the the bottom line it's you know that it went pretty well and yep yeah and this year I would expect even more I mean I think that our capacity will be about the same which is 400 patient s Dental tents um you know so I don't think that that changes but I think that um more people will know about it yeah um promotions will go a little bit easier just in general I mean the whole process should be easier um there's a couple of things that we need to work out and that is getting getting professionals
014there and uh recruiting for those folks but I think all the other aspects fundraising uh General promotions and planning should be much smoother this time around and maybe we won't have to start so early this time around in in terms of planning so right so as yeah so as we uh get I think you know after maybe end of November December when we really start to get rolling I can update everybody on a regular basis again like we were doing last time okay y that that's great I can't believe you're gon to do this again but thank you and and Ed and and all the other you know people that are you know that you're going to get help from yeah it should it should be good yeah that's great and of course you Raj
015that's for sure y That's right so all right yeah all right all right thanks Jay sure um okay Dave you good any questions no I'm looking forward to getting it on the ground floor on this one yeah um I'll have to uh I wasn't able to attend the last one we we were uh we were on vacation so which I had forgotten but uh this time I'll see what we can do about that yeah I mean this time Dave I may have a special role for you let let me think about a little bit but and we can talk offline about it too and and see what you think about it I don't want to put you on the spot but um you know I think someone helping Ed out in recruitment for professionals I
016think would be really helpful so I'm just trying to figure out how who and how we can uh work that out this time so that we can start a little early we don't run into the same thing we ran into last year which was having some dentists on site that weren't licensed or or weren't really eligible to actually do the work so um but I can talk to you more about that and see how you feel about um recruiting and that sort of thing so no pressure yeah I'm happy to to help uh in any way I can okay great thanks great anybody else Ed you don't have any questions right you already know it okay I think okay all right Raj that brings us to uh item five the your uh your report looks
017like you got a pretty busy report thank you sir so uh first the DAT uh stuff you know we we did had our advisory committee meeting on October 11th uh dat is uh is changing some stuff around you know how they're going to do business uh moving forward you know uh but uh we have another Retreat and they're going to brief everybody uh in the retreat like you know they functioning and all that stuff know functioning is not going to change it's just like uh some stuffing changes and stuff stuff you know so if any board member can attend you know myself Laura is going to be there uh uh in the morning of uh it's a Thursday November 16th you know can attend it be great with the restaurants can I can I chime
018in on that so yeah I so I'm I am the liaison to D and unfortunately and of course the first Retreat that they have I'm going to be out of town um so yeah if anybody from the board can go there in lie of me that would be wonderful so um but it sounds like you you'll be there Raj and Laura um but if anybody else could go that would be great and I'm sorry I can't make it thanks Dr J you know and sure so with restaurants you know Boston paintball uh this was last month you know we had a complain that they're selling some food you know without without permit and they didn't had a permit with us uh and then Tom was out you know doing an inspection uh they had since
019applied for a food permit and Tom did a reinspection we're still waiting for the past control report you know after that we'll be we'll be issuing them a food permit you know and then da Queen still uh going through the change of ownership uh that's another restant with arbes West Nile Virus U 164 water samples positive water samples and four cases so far in the state and with Triple E we have 28 uh water positive samples for Triple E but zero cases that's a very good news housing cases uh Chestnut Place apartment now I guess we have have four Active cases there three three we have done inspection and I got another complaint yesterday that I'll be doing uh the inspection this week uh in two of the units you know the roach activi is
020still there you know so working with the management uh on that 137 Pawn Street I did get a email from uh the Attorney General's office on that they they're working on it you know we'll soon have another update for the for the board on on that uh mil milpond rest home I have not heard any any complaints from the last inspection I had last month uh they did send me I guess one or two reports and I'm waiting for a another report for probably this time around you know for for for the test control and and I'll keep the board posted as I as I get that uh for the house landfill we did had uh our monitoring on September 28th uh that was last month and the new company Langdon is working on the
021report uh once we have that out we'll clear it uh doing strong with the flu coid clinics uh we did had a clinic today and we did like 34 34 vaccines today we did had one last week where we did like 58 uh vac vaccines uh today we order offered flu both fiser and Monna coid as well as RSV vaccine uh we have three more uh clinics that are scheduled with the pineal Pharmacy uh one is on uh next week Tuesday October 24th then we have one scheduled for November 7th and 14 for for the next week on the 24th we're going to offer again flu both coid RSV and we're going to offer shingles uh vaccines as well uh so I encourage anybody who wants any of these vaccines to register with the pharmacy
022so they have ches for anybody you know and if there is any co-pay they they can be sorted out before before they come compl uh with the disease investigation cases you know we was uh past couple of weeks we we had a hbe case and half and another hap a case and a crypto sporis case that was dealing uh hap B the state is looking into it because it was a cute case hapsy we did the investigation and the crypto sporos is also I'm glad again that that was a foreign travel case you the gentleman he traveled to Europe and probably so that's a good news that it was not not here the last item is the performance standard for local public health last week I sent a email to the board that uh the
023state uh dph has come out with uh the local uh Public Health standards performance standards that it's going to include that they're going to have like minimal expectations for local Board of Health for services you know and what all we provide to the community so there are performance standards on that as well as some standards on Staffing uh like how much staff you need for for the population you serve so uh this is from couple of years right from when the state started the shared services that we are part of like met shared services they've been doing this you know so they've been collecting a lot of data from us you know all 351 municipalities and finally they have come up with this first version of the performance standards and it is going to include
024like you know the workforce need to be trained and they're going to need to have these minimal credentials to practice Public Health at the local level Raj and also am I right it sounded like that they there would be a requirement for Boards of Health to get a particular training that is correct sir so trainings credentials right like U we have some credentials like uh RS registered sanitarian right CH like certified health officer stuff like that so the they're going to come up with minimal you know credentialing for for the for the staff to to practice public he MH um more more stuff do come you know so these are the first performance standards that they have come up and I'm I'm open for any questions please Raj I just have one quick question um
025are there still any residents at mil Pond yes sir so to my understanding yes you know but I don't have the exact number I can find out for you uh but yeah yes because didn't they plan to close by the end of this month uh end of year sir you know so end of the year okay yes but I can check you know like with them like how many residents are still there you know okay yes' Raj regarding regarding the new performance standards um seemed like some of the findings in the report were that there were a lot of the municipalities that weren't um they weren't able to meet the statutory requirements and so I just uh I'm assuming that ashlin's not one of them but I am uh ready to be educated on that
026H how would you feel how do you feel that that that Ashlin is going to hold up against the the newer higher standards no sir I guess we we are all good you know so with with the credential and all that stuff you know all our staffing is fully credential you know uh myself I have all the credentials needed are provided by state you know uh uh similarly Mr curan you know our food inspector have uh he he he don't have one you know but that's not like everything is not mandatory he have RS you know that's the basic like that's the most important one then he have is credential in the food safety so we're good both are public Health nurses you know they fully credentialed as well you know so I guess from
027that angle we we are very good you know uh is is that free of check so if we wanted to get RS certified is that a free certification free course no sir there is there is cost involved with exam exam as well as there is a yearly fee you know that you need to keep up and then you need to get some continuing education credits that I that's why like I go to the conferences and all that to have that going in so yeah but if any board member is interested we can look at you know like if you want to get it but yes there is definitely a cost to to getting to get credentialed and you know to continue continue have it yeah is is that part of our budget to have the
028board uh receive any sort of Education like that we can definitely look at look at it so you know um I guess we we have good good amount of money for for that you know for education and all that you know and I don't think so there will be any any potential issues but we we can we can check with the I can check with the Jen you know on this but we do have monies for training and all that for for the staffing and the board members yeah all right so Raj are these being created brand new or there templates from from other states that you know that they're pulling from because it seems like if you're going to try to educate everybody with these minimum standards I don't are they're going to be
029making up new tests and those type things or so I to my understanding everything is in place you know uh what what the state is trying to do you know they're there are some senior Public Health members right like they started way way back you know and like didn't had that proper cening or some education right to to be there though they are very experienced they know everything right so can be like you know if if a requirement is for a bachelor's degree or master's degree they probably don't have it but what state is trying to do SL slowly you know uh bring this on so people who are practicing Public Health have proper credentials right yeah for the credentials you know all of them are are already in place you know like from from
030uh from one side right for for as I mentioned for the food you know it's called cpfs is certified professional food safety yeah then for RS or RS what we call as is registered sanitarian or registered environmental health specialist right that's that's in place uh CH is certified health officer you know that that is in place then we have credentialing for Title Five you know you you have to be a Title Five inspector and then you need to be a spoil valuator so these are the five main ones I guess you know for for the work we do you know uh similarly with with the nursing staff right you need to be an RN you know and all that stuff right like but Jess is RN you know and then K is RN and she
031she's Al she also have an mph you know so so I guess the credentialing is in place it's just about like you know the the state is trying to get all the work force with the local public Public Health to get credential so they're looking for this to become you know some kind of standard by 2025 or 2026 or they I don't know the timeline but they're saying they're going to give them opportunity and time you know to to have their staff uh get these trainings and all that but it's going to be very good you know at least you know uh if more and more people are trained right and the the state have resources right now you know and that's why they're giving us All the Monies right that coming through the shared
032services and right now they're setting up something called training hubs right so they're going to have specialist and our area right Ashland is under need them actually for a training Hub so in case we we need any sort of training in in the department they're going to be a specialist or two who be going to be at a training Hub in Needum that they going to come out and train us you know so that's what the state is doing I guess they they have made 10 hubs you know in the whole state that's going to cover the whole state they're going to be like two specialist you know who going to be their full-time jobs is going to just to train the other municipalities or their staff okay so but like for for public health
033prospective I guess this is a very good initiative you know or the work that you know that I I'll take training any day you know like so there's a lot to learn every time we go out for this so yeah it's going to be helpful uh in that sense you know okay right great everybody good yeah thanks Raj anything else no that's yes thank you yeah we can move on to the consent agenda anybody like to motion to approve the consent agenda as written uh Ron did you see my email about um the minutes that I put on the agenda were the previous meeting so we'll have to wait till the next meeting I apologize but not but the September 5th one those are good already approved we already approved those so those are okay
034okay so just the um the budget just the budget okay sorry so no it's fine I I didn't see that one today so okay anybody want to make a motion to approve the budget for today yeah I I'll make a motion to approve uh fiscal year 2024 um year-to dat budget report um on the consent agenda okay great any seconds okay great thanks said all in favor I okay right so um you know I don't know if the you know Raj usually has a pretty good agenda and Laura anybody need anything on the agenda for next time I'm sure we'll we'll keep on the uh the ram clinic on all year um I don't know if there's anything else anybody wants to talk about no no okay dat would you prefer um usually in November
035um I mean you can do one uh the first week or the third week or there's Thanksgiving is um the third week but um I think in the past we've just done one meeting in in November and December okay is anybody anybody going to be out of town you know either the the third week I am not but if we're going to do one meeting um the seventh works for me I don't know about anybody else just in case oh does it is that election day my calendar says election day oh that's a good point okay I don't know what but um it doesn't matter to me either way but if I were to pick I'd say the seventh okay yeah if it is election day I we won't be able to do the meeting
036right won't be able to be that day okay do we does ashon have an election on the 7th no I'm sorry I should I don't know you know but like I need to check you know okay okay all right I can do either can we the meeting we don't oh we don't okay um there's an election day so it's we can just plan on this we we can find out tomorrow and send out an email to everybody okay great Dave you GNA be my calendar also lot of says election day you know so I don't know why but you know it's okay but we we can get back to the board you know unless uh uh as we go CL closer to it if you want to decide today we're totally fine you know but
037if you want to do that you know we can we I can check with Dr Ron Mr Burman and then go from there you know but up to the board you know whichever no you can leave it you can leave it open-ended you know I I can make either one you know or if we have to change it even if it's not televised we can you know we can do it on a different day we have to so Ed you're going to be around Dave yeah okay all right so we'll make it work all right thank you all right great all right anybody like to make a motion to adjourn I guess I will make the motion to adjourn okay great second okay great thanks said all right all in favor I right all right
038thanks everybody