The Fall River Board of Health convened on January 23, 2024, with members Thomas Corey, Michael Coughlin, and Dr. Steven Gagliardi present. The meeting began with the unanimous acceptance of the minutes from the October 24, 2023 meeting. Two requests for variances to keep chickens were then addressed. The first, from Nita Marin at 165 Blackstone Street, seeking to keep 12 chickens, was unanimously tabled due to the applicant's absence, an incomplete application, and concerns from abutters about the congested neighborhood and improper coop placement. The second request, from Jokam Das at 1144 Mariano Bishop Boulevard, was unanimously denied after the applicant failed to appear for the second consecutive meeting, and an inspection revealed more chickens than applied for, along with rodent harborage issues on the property.
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good afternoon everyone welcome to the Board of Health meeting scheduled for Tuesday January 23rd at 3:30 my name is Thomas Corey I'm joined by Michael coflin and Dr Steven Gagliardi our agent for the board test current pursuing to the open meeting or any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that
0:41such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible Tess can we have a roll call please thas Corey present Michael Coughlin present Steven gardy present first item on the agenda is the acceptance of the minutes of the meeting held on uh October 24th 2023 are there any additions deletions or corrections to be made to the minutes
1:12of the meeting as printed no move to accept second can we have a roll call Thomas Corey yes Michael Coughlin yes Stephen gagley Hardy yes okay next we have the request for variance for the keeping of chickens B Nita Marin 165 Blackstone Street who's presenting I am on behalf of Lisa golden okay the sanitation department we have I've been to the property a couple of times now and in fact I went this morning again they
1:54never followed up with the uh application process and the coupe is not in a spot that's accepted by the building department and it hasn't been completed so at this point there's we have nothing for this property is there anyone here representing the the applicant no once again the applicant is not here I know we did receive in my packet two letters uh from a concerned abutters who were
2:26um who were against okay and I said at the last meeting when we were together that's kind of a congested neighborhood so if there's no if there's no one here to defend I I would ask that we just move it again or we can either outright deny it based on what we have now or just move it to the next meeting again are there any are there any chickens on the property at present there are no
2:52chickens uh there's nothing out in the back I mean it's the winter time could they be hiding them somewhere I have no idea but I see no signs of any uh chickens back there did you go there unannounced yes okay then they they wouldn't have known to hide no no and we have letters of opposition there were more than two uh we had some that were in email so it it's not a practically
3:15speaking it's not a good space for those chickens you it's a ra it's a congested neighborhood you know it is and she her in her mind she thinks because she owns the property next door that it's okay to have that which she doesn't recogn that they're two separate lots and it's just way too congested MH they're definitely separated there is a fence there how many chickens is she looking for uh a good
3:48question that was I don't think we got that far with her to be honest with you well let's just table I apologize 12 12 oh yeah lot of the the coupe was too big it was right up against the fence and the building department told her that she couldn't do
4:14that if we table the applicant come can come back if we deny outright she'd have to file a whole new application all right let's table it motion to table second that's fine can we have a roll call Thomas Corey yes Michael Coughlin yes Steven Gagliardi yes okay next we have a request for the variance for keeping of chickens from jokam Das at 1144 Mariano Bishop Boulevard is there anyone here for for Mr
4:53das's anyone here for Mr dases for the chickens no oh yes yes oh okay I'm Brandon Burns I'm um I'm the property manager for uh 73 nationville 116 black Zone on behalf of uh Paul Michelle Fitzpatrick trustees oh okay sir uh for yours we we just tabled the the chickens on Blackstone Street oh you just tabled it okay yes okay so what what does that mean sir I'm sorry that
5:20means the uh the the applicant is going to have to work with the building department and see if they can get their situation straightened out but we have received several letters of opposition and we we uh it's kind of a congested neighborhood um in my opinion it's not too promising no no it's we we really are are highly against it okay thank you for your input um but no one's come from
5:45the applicant today so it's just been tabled for for the future okay all right very good so we'll get a notification on a future hearing uh I'm sure you will yes sir okay thank you sir you're welcome all right have a nice day bye thank you getting back to Mr Das nobody here from Mr Das any report from Mr Das I went to the property again today because Lisa had gone but it it had been
6:15a little bit of a while and while I noted they had six chickens on the application there were a lot more than six in that Coupe um I don't see an issue with a coupe it was clean the chickens looked healthy uh the only issue I have with him is he's got a little bit of wood and some brush going down the slope of his property which he needs to get rid of because that's
6:37definite uh rodent Harbridge but I can address that with him either way uh I so I just wanted to correct I mean either supposed to chime in but they have more chickens than one he's applied for which I don't I still think they fit in the coupe so how many did he apply for he had six and I noticed at least 10 of them why do they have chickens if they're not approved yet that's a good
7:07question so I believe he didn't get cited because they were working on this and I know there was a problem with the uh one meeting got cancelled the other one they just didn't chime in like they like today everything was ready to go but they don't they don't come in to the meeting the applicate didn't attend the last time we met I'm sorry I said the applicant did not attend
7:29correct the last time we met and so we tabled it because there was no one here because there was no one to speak for the applicant and here we are with the same issue do we know if there's a language issue I I uh no Mrs D speaks English I spoke to her okay apparently there's a disregard for the process yes so they didn't show last time they didn't show this time
8:00correct and if we deny it they have to reapply and do everything over yes motion to deny second we have a roll call Thomas Corey yes Michael Coughlin yes Stephen gagley Ary yes okay next we have um we have a this will open a tobacco violations hearing on the 3D of offense of an act to modernize Tobacco Control for East Coast Wholesale at 559 South Main Street Fall River Jennifer you're
8:39presenting yes um so on December 14 at approximately 246 PM I conducted a follow-up reinspection uh on that day Mr vitel was working and during my inspection I found um a bag of Menthol flavored cigarettes at his establishment um this is the third time that they violated within a 36-month period prior to that he had a violation on February 23rd of last year and April 25th which
9:10were both for um having flavored tobacco products uh since we're at the third violation uh the fee is $5,000 in a 30-day suspension and to appear front of the Board of Health um currently the fine is not paid and is due on February 29th so were we somehow not clear by the time the second one that he wasn't supposed to have flavored tobacco did we did we misspeak in some way saying that it was
9:45okay um no I don't believe so because they did receive like fines that they had to pay for the first violation and on the second one and also uh on their second one they had a 7-Day suspension with it is there anyone here to comment I I don't see anyone here no um Jennifer what are the dates of the two previous within the last year uh yes so February 23rd and then April 25th So within 11
10:20months this is the only hearings we've had in the last year I do believe right um and it's well established that Menthol is flavored tobacco right it's doesn't have to be like bubblegum or anything everybody knows Menthol is flavored yes so what are we on to I mean it is this a mandatory the $5,000 fine is already in place and or what are we voting on here we're we're voting on a
10:51suspension because the the the um the fine has already been established so I mean 8,000 and we closed them down for a week because really if you don't have tobacco sales I don't know how much you can do and now we're going to close them down for 30 days to get the message across well there's always there's always milk and eggs they can sell T true T true they probably have a lottery
11:24license I would be in favor of the suspension the 30 days well I I don't think that it's there's really an option right I mean that that's what you that's what you're were expected to do does it say up to 30 days or 30day suspension uh 30day suspension okay so that's Choice there so motion to um suspend for the 30 days second do we have a roll call Thomas Corey yes Michael Coughlin yes Stephen gagleard
12:02yes okay U Jennifer can you make the arrangements for the uh the removal of the tobacco products and everything yes okay now what happens if they don't pay the fine within the the time alloted uh so typically um I would continue to keep following up and then it could go to qu eventually okay there was one more item on the agenda for a septic system but that has been withdrawn at the request
12:34of the city engineers at this time um Tess do you have anything I don't um at this point I think um you know uh I haven't been here in a in a few months but uh we do continue to try and expand on the department with the grant that we had received through the shared services Grant um so we're continuing Network um we have the epidemiologist um who's really started to dive into some
13:04projects um in terms of data collection um we are getting a new software for the food inspectors um and that will also be rolled out to um to minimum housing um and sanitation as well um that we'll be able to utilize and be able to pull reports in ways that we hav't done previously um so that Grant has really given us the opportunity to expand the department and um have some technology
13:33um and data um software utilization that we haven't just haven't had um which I think in the you know in the long term will help us kind of inform um and do more um you know Outreach and um interventions um that we haven't done previously so um so we're continuing that um that effort and trying to look for additional funding opportunities to supplement some of that um that work um
14:02that that's ongoing um so that's really um all I have at this point in times in terms of um an update from the Department okay was there anything received for Citizens input no we did not receive citizens input I just want to throw something in here um when I start to work over here on Quarry Street I get here about quarter past 7even in the morning and there is a rooster just east of here
14:31somewhere where is that uh well I'm on Corry Street we're at the health first building 387 Quarry Street and if I come in between 7 and 7:15 I can hear that rooster crowing someplace a little east of here I'll be checking on that okay very well you know we we roosters have been our number one complaint when we allow chickens so I I'm surprised that no one has complained about the rooster
14:57crowing well when the I guess we're not the Health Department police I guess we just gotta wait for someone to complain right all right gentlemen uh following our usual procedure for the next meeting February uh Tuesday February 20th or the 27th either one yeah either one I mean 20th is fine 20th is fine that's school vacation week I think not going to disrupt anybody no okay all right then we we'll go with February
15:3620th is there any other business to come before it of such a nature that it could make the agenda no no okay very good we have a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second do we have a roll call Thomas Corey yes Michael Coughlin yes Stephen gley Hardy yes all right thank thank you all have a pleasant weekend welcome back thank you all right see you later bye bye