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HomeMy WebLinkAboutBOH 06/13/2024Board of Health June 13, 2024 Minutes '{' `'� `'`'� OFFICE 12 A 10: O S Mission Statement: The mission of the Mansfield Board of Health is to protect, prgsefve and I 1. �) improve the public health, environment, and wellbeing of our citizens through the enforcement of federal, state, and local statutes and regulations, education and promotion of sanitary living and working conditions, and protection of the environment from disease and pollution. Present: Antonia Blinn, Chair, Ryan Maxwell, Melissa Almeida, Graham Wilson, Amy Donovan -Palmer. Absent: Kasia Frenette Guests: Stephania Quinonez, Student Liaison, Allison Noronha, Student Intern. The meeting was called to order at 7:00pm on June 13, 2024 by Antonia Blinn. There was no correspondence at this time. Motion to approve the consent agenda made by Ryan Maxwell, seconded by Melissa Almedia. Passed unanimously, 3-0. Motion to approve the May 9, 2024 meeting minutes by Ryan Maxwell, seconded by Melissa Almedia. Passed unanimously 3-0. Ms. Donovan -Palmer explained that over the past few months Ted Monahan, Manager, has all the systems in place with the help of Mojin, and the inspections have been changed to once a month. Kevin Duquette did a re -inspection last week, and said all the violations he had seen on his last inspection had been corrected. Ms. Donovan -Palmer will check in next week with any updates they might have, and will report back to the Board. Ms. Donovan -Palmer started by giving a brief recap on the opioid funding. The Government settled with Pharmaceutical Companies that were pushing these very addictive drugs, knowing the issues that come out of it. Each Town is receiving this fund to address the issues that focus around the Opioid crisis. The Attorney General's office would like to see us include people who are living with and who have lived these experiences in the process and in conversations. $170,000 of the Opioid funds is going to a POP team (Problem Oriented Policing) which focuses on hands on, one on one with people who are dealing with the Opioid crisis at the time. Ms. Donovan -Palmer met with Antonia Blinn, Board of Health Chair, Kevin Dumas, Town Manager, and Matt Violette, Assistant Town Manager, to talk more about what we can do from the Health Department perspective. Mr. Dumas was in favor of the Health Department taking an active role in determining options on uses for the Opioid Abatement funding. Ms. Donovan -Palmer and Christine Dooling, Director of Health Services for the Schools, attended a Regional meeting and learned about the SAFE Coalition, which is a group of people who help with resources for families living with addiction. Ms. Donovan -Palmer will have a virtual meeting in July with SAFE to start the process of having discussion groups with people who are living with and have lived addiction. Ms. Donovan -Palmer is looking into what we can do at the local level to figure out a free way to use the opioid Abatement funding to best serve the community. Ms. Blinn then stated that she looked up and there are many Pharmaceutical Companies that have started a payment schedule but doesn't mean it's being followed. She stated we will be conservative and only rely on the funding we have received. Ms. Donovan -Palmer stated that the three major changes of these regulations in any Title 5 inspection a cesspool automatically fails. The second regulations would be to remove the criteria, that wet lands have to be 75 feet away from the leaching field. The third is that within Mansfield we have alternative and innovative systems which require operations of maintenance contracts and certain testing throughout the year. Ms. Donovan -Palmer will need to monitor those, making sure the contract is held and the testing is done. Ms. Donovan -Palmer stated that Barnstable County has a service where they will take on the Towns Innovative/Alternative (I/A) contract monitoring and what it does is they would bill the Operation and Maintenance Contractors $60.00 per household, and then the Contractors would pass it on to the household as part of the contract, which will help centralize all the data and relieve the Mansfield Health Department of maintaining them. There are approximately 12 to 15 IA systems in Mansfield. Mr. Maxwell made a motion to approve the amended regulations as presented. Seconded by Mr. Wilson. Passed unanimously 4-0. Effective August 1, 2024. Ms. Blinn mentioned that the Board of Health has had discussion about Bodyworks Regulations, including questions sent to Ms. Donovan -Palmer, and received answers. No one attended the Board of Health Public Hearing held at the June BOH meeting. The Health Department sent out certified letters to each Bodywork establishment with ample notification informing them of this change. Ms. Almeida asked if any of the Establishments had questions or reach out and Ms. Donovan -Palmer responding no, for the three locations here in Mansfield, and noted that Town Council went through the regulations and made some grammatical edits. Mr. Maxwell stated that once this regulation goes into effect the local establishments will need to fill out the application. Ms. Donovan -Palmer asked if the Health Department could have a few months to give us time to get the application where it needs to be and allow time for the establishments to fill out the application, since there is a lot that needs to go into it. Ms. Almeida made a motion to approve the Bodyworks regulations as presented and amend the effective date as October 1, 2024. Passed unanimously 4-0. The Board of Health reviewed the proposed increases in the Schedule of Fees. Giving the existing fee structure we have approximately a revenue source just under $66,000. There is a proposed increase fee of $23,355.00 if we decide to support additional hours for the staff in the Board of Health. Ms. Blinn states that we are coming more in line with the fee structure of other towns, if not a little over in some. Ms. Donovan -Palmer noted that the last time we increased the fees was 2019. Ms. Donovan -Palmer and Ms. Faria can work with Permit Eyes to figure out how to charge that with the permitting system. Ms. Almeida asked what is the Risk Category 5, and Ms. Donovan -Palmer responded that if you have a P/PF violation on a previous inspection and Kevin Duquette our Health Inspector has to come back to do another inspection and the violation was not fixed then you get bumped up a risk category. We have two Establishments that have moved to a risk category 5 (New York Pizza and Trattoria Romana). Ms. Donovan -Palmer would love to get a comprehensive Food Protection Program in Town so we can educate the staff members on all levels of food safety. Ms. Blinn recapped that the proposed increases will be $100 for Tobacco and nicotine delivery products and all the other proposed areas are between $25 and $50. Ms. Almeida pointed out Funeral Homes on the schedule of fees, and Ms. Donovan -Palmer stated that we will be permitting funeral directors, so that will be enforced in the near future. Ms. Donovan -Palmer stated that if the Board if comfortable with these changes we will notify all permit holders that we are working on the increased fees and we will hold a meeting in July or August for anyone to come and speak on it, with an August vote on the increase of fees. Ms. Blinn stated we will put the schedule of fees back on the agenda when Ms. Donovan -Palmer and Ms. Faria have figured out a realistic timeline. Ms. Donovan -Palmer stated that there is a new tick education tool called Fulton. The Health Department used Grant Funding to buy a mannequin and dressed it appropriately for tick education. The mannequin shows how you should dress to prevent tick bites. Fulton will be visiting around town including the Health Department, the COA, Senior safety Day, and Family Fun Night. Ms. Blinn referenced the Public Health Nursing Report and stated that there has been an increase in numbers with the blood pressure/sugar screenings for March /April / May. The Bristol Norfolk Public Health Partners has hired a Public Health Nurse as a shared service. She will be a great asset and will be able to support the Community EMS program. Ms. Donovan -Palmer explained that Radon is a gas that comes from the ground and there is no way to stop the gas other than to mitigate it by getting it out of your basement and out of the house. The State is now offering free Radon test kits and on our Health Department webpage there is a phone number you can leave a message to order free test kits. The Health Department Webpage offers all the information you need to order the test kits. It is also advertised in the Town Newsletter and at Senior Safety Day. Ms, Blinn suggested to create a OR code to display at Family Fun Night. Ms. Donovan -Palmer mentioned that this Monday June 17" there will be an open house for the assessment which includes using the CHII grant money to have SRPEDD go out and asses accessibility in town spaces like Conservation and Recreation areas. They will be going over the plan at the meeting with IHC to get their input on if it makes sense and if anything is missing. Ms. Blinn stated that following that there is an opportunity to hear from an expert on a program that our EMS wants to bring here to Mansfield. That is at Monday June 171h at 6pm — 9pm at the Public Safety Building in the Education room. Ms. Donovan -Palmer stated that they are working on being able to position cold blood in different areas of the state so that if there is an accident and people loose blood, they can stop the bleeding, but they can't get more blood into that person. There will be certain meet up areas, so the people with the blood can meet up with the ambulances, so there is minimal stopping time. Open House / Meet the Inspector • July 911 930am-10:30am at the Town Hall Room 3A/B Free Health Screenings including blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, Hands only CPR and associated prevention information • 2nd Tuesday at the COA, 255 Hope Street • 3rd Wednesday at Town Hall, 6 Park Row Household hazardous waste collection Day — Registration Required • June 22118am —12pm, Mansfield DPW Ms. Donovan -Palmer introduced our wonderful new summer DPH Intern Allison Noronha, who is a student at Brown University with a Master's in Public Health and a concentration in Epidemiology. Ms. Blinn took a moment to acknowledge a student who has been on the Board for this year Stephania who was presented with a certificate of appreciation for her participation. 11 Ms. Blinn mentioned that there is a free program offered to Juniors and Seniors in High School who are interested in Public Health, the program is called Outbreak and it's offered by the Public Health Museum located in Tewksbury Massachusetts, Ms. Donovan -Palmer stated she is working with Ms. Faria on updating Permit Eyes, since many things are not accurate. Ms. Donovan -Palmer referenced PFAS, that it was added that to the Town newsletter. Ms. Donovan -Palmer referenced Housing Inspections, there are none pressing. Ms. Donovan -Palmer referenced that her and Allison met with Diane Legere regarding FDA retail standards, and one of the standards to meet this year as part of Grant funding is around education. This will be accomplished by going to Farmers Market to educate kids about fresh vegetables and food safety with washing vegetables. There were no visitor comments Ms. Donovan -Palmer stated that she was notified from a Minute Clinic Practitioner that she had a patient with a severe allergic reaction, that was thought to be caused by the pool at the Envision Hotel. Mr. Clifford Pierre went out to do an inspection and discovered that the chlorine levels were substantially high. The test showed alarming levels over 6, and they should be between 1 and 3. At that time the pool was immediately shut down, and can't re -open until we do another inspection. Ms. Donovan -Palmer will conduct a thorough follow-up with the Envision Hotel. Ms. Donovan -Palmer has asked that they come to the next Board of Health Meeting in July, and she will keep the Board informed of any more information. Motion to adjourn made by Mr. Wilson, seconded by Mr. Maxwell. Approved 4-0 Clerk Date