The Fall River Board of Health convened a virtual meeting on Tuesday, January 28th, 2025, at 3:30 PM. The meeting was led by President Thomas Corey, with Dr. Steven Gagliardi and Agent Tess Curran also present. Board member Michael Coughlin was noted as absent. The board began by unanimously approving the minutes from their previous meeting on Wednesday, December 10th, 2024. A significant portion of the meeting was dedicated to a public hearing regarding a second tobacco violation by Cumberland Farms, located at 64 Steven Street in Fall River. Agent Tess Curran, presenting information on behalf of Jennifer, reported that on December 27th, 2024, a youth buyer successfully purchased a pack of Camel Blues without being asked for identification. Linda Lewitz, representing Cumberland Farms, acknowledged the violation, attributing it to a new employee who had been with the company for less than 30 days and failed to follow established training protocols. The board decided not to impose a 7-day license suspension for this second offense, but stipulated that a $2,000 fine must be paid and issued a clear warning that any future violation would result in a 30-day license suspension. This decision was approved unanimously. Additionally, the board formally introduced Hannah Ragazzino as the new epidemiologist, who started the previous Tuesday and will be responsible for bi-weekly disease surveillance reports for Fall River and its collaborative communities. Agent Curran's director's report touched on efforts to inform immigrant populations of their rights amidst federal transitions and provided an update on the Avian Flu (bird flu) situation in Massachusetts, specifically mentioning 30 wild geese found in Plymouth. Hannah Ragazzino is actively working on public messaging regarding the avian flu. No citizens' input or other agenda items were presented. The next Board of Health meeting was scheduled for Tuesday, February 25th, and the meeting adjourned unanimously.
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good afternoon to everyone in the land of zoom and welcome to the Board of Health virtual meeting on Tuesday January 28th 2025 scheduled for 3:30 my name is Thomas Corey present with me via Zoom is Dr Steven gagliotti and Tess Curran our agent of the board various guests and participants in today's meeting Mr Michael coughin has notified the board that he'll be unable to attend pursuant to the open meeting a
0:29any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting and may transmit the meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible can we have a roll call please Thomas Corey yes Stephen gardy yes the first item of business on the
0:59agenda is the approval of the minutes of the meeting of Wednesday December 10th 2024 are there any additions deletions or corrections to be made to the minutes of the meeting as printed no motion to approve I'll second can we have a roll call Thomas Corey yes Stephen gardy yes okay the next item is the a he we're opening a hearing on Tobacco violations it's the the second offense of an act to modernize Tobacco
1:32Control involving the cumber in farms at 64 Steven Street in Fall River uh Tess is presenting on behalf of Jennifer yes thank you um Jennifer sent me information regarding this violation um this is the second violation it took place on 12 2724 at approximately uh 10:09 a.m. uh our youth buyer went in and was able to purchase a pack of camel Blues no ID or age um was asked um the
2:04individual paid with a $20 bill and the product was 1425 um the first violation at this location was uh took place on May 12th of 2022 and that was again for sale to a minor okay who's here from cumbo and Farms so I'm on I'm Linda lewitz all right Linda could you state your name and your address for the record Linda l i n d lewitz LF k w TZ um
2:40I live at90 Hancock Street in Dartmouth Mass okay so what uh what happened unfortunately it was a poor judgment call by the the team member that was on the register she was a brand new hire less than 30 days um and she didn't follow what her training had taught her um it's not typical that you know we do this we make sure we ask for IDs we have a monthly um compliance shop
3:12that um comes through our stores to make sure that we're doing what we're supposed to be doing which is asking for the ID U making sure obviously to keep the tobacco out of the hand the REM miners um but she made a poor judgment call that day okay I I I have employees too I understand how this works sometimes but but you you have an in place training program we do so when they're hired we
3:37put them through the we card program which is an e module on the computer um and then they have to take a small test at the end of it um and then we also have a um external compliance shop program it's called bars be a responsible Shopper I think other convenience stores use it as well but they come around and uh they try to purchase a tobacco item to make sure that we're asking for the ID
4:05okay Dr gagu any questions what um subsequent training has this employee been put through since then so if we have a tobacco fail on the bars it's not again the team member just didn't follow the steps they didn't necessarily sell the tobacco product um we put them through retraining and they have to go through training every 30 days um as a refresher and a reminder um if it's an
4:39external um tobacco fail the team member is immediately terminated so this person was terminated unfortunately well not unfortunately but this person because she was under 30 days of hire and she hadn't gone through the training um we didn't did not terminate her but she has since gone through that training okay now the the board of course um if it so desires has the opportunity to to suspend the license for seven
5:16days in in the past we've been giving everyone we're trying to use this as an educational step uh to reinforce with your employees and anyone else who's watching um train the employees there are reason is why we don't want the cigarette sold to children but the idea of suspending the 7-Day suspension comes along with the U the uh what's the word I want here um if you should appear before us again it'll be a 30-day
5:47suspension is that understood yes Dr gag you want to add to that that sounds reasonable is there a mandatory fine on this one or is it there is a $2,000 fine do we know if the fine has been paid I do not I Jennifer did not indicate that the fine had been paid okay well as long as we uh confirm that the fine has been paid um I would move
6:18that we suspend we not suspend at this time for the seven days U but certainly uh you should be on notice that if you appear before the board again uh it'll be a 30-day tobacco suspension okay is is that agreed and understood yes so I just want to make sure that we're clear so I'm just I'm going to call our um corporate office to make sure that the fine was paid and if not
6:41that they they send they pay the fine but if we pay the fine then you're not going to suspend our license for the seven days correct that's correct okay I just want to make sure but again if we if we are before you we understand it'll be a 30-day suspension okay all right motion to approve second Tes we have a roll call Thomas Corey yes M oh sorry Stephen Gagliardi yes I'm on
7:10autopilot okay thank you for your time and good luck with the training thank you very much we appreciate it thank you okay next we're introducing Hannah ragazino is that correct or close correct me that's correct you got it very good Hannah welcome aboard uh Tess is going to introduce you today and tell us all the great work you're going to do for the city yeah we're really excited that
7:39Hannah is on board um so our previous epidemiologist had moved on to a different position and we were really fortunate to find Hannah um as our epie um who is now on board Hannah started last Tuesday um so she's just really um kind of in the onboarding process and getting all of her um credentials in place for the online portals and some of our um local software that we use um but Hannah's
8:07going to take um some of the same projects excuse me that we had been working on in terms of um some kind of bi-weekly disease surveillance reports um for Fall River and the communities that are also um part of our collaborative um she brings a lot of great experience from um her previous positions as a epidemiologist um and we're really happy that she's here and um excited for all the work that she'll do for
8:36us Hannah would you like to say anything um I'm excited to be here and looking forward to working with you guys all right very good so moving forward Hannah will kind of come into the board meetings um similar to our previous EP when we have um data to share or relevant information um if there's anything that um is of interest for you you for us to look into then um we can try and incorporate that
9:03into Hannah's work um work plan as well very good okay Tess anything for the director's report we really don't have much of an update you know I think we're um taking um you know some information day by day um due to um the the transition um at the you know Federal level um with President um Trump coming in but just trying to make sure um that our immigrant populations are informed
9:34of um of their rights and making sure that our information is as um streamlined and updated as possible to keep people um informed of what's Happening locally um with data and uh information so otherwise we really don't have um too much of an update um this month with in the health department okay anything in Massachusetts about the bird flu so there has been some information coming from from Plymouth um in terms of
10:04a number of um wild beasts that had been found um I think it was 30 uh wild Gees that were found in in Plymouth that were of concern in terms of Avan flu um that's messaging that we will be sending out um Hannah's actually been working on that um today um so we do plan to send information out to uh our um residents who have um uh keeping of animals license um to make sure that they're
10:31aware to you know report any um any chickens that have pass and or how to handle those um any sick chickens as well should be reported so we're going to be sending messaging out there um but I don't know Hannah if you happen to be able to join the dph call that took place at 3: I wasn't able to join if they happen to mention anything or if you have any other information you'd like to
10:55share um I didn't make it onto that call but um I know a couple other cities have reported just handfuls of birds here or there um so I was in a meeting with um other epidemiologists and it kind of seems like we're all kind of in the same boat of birds are starting to show up and we're all trying to push out messaging so I know that's not much of an update but okay very very
11:23good okay was there anything you receive for Citizens input we did not receive any citizens input was there any other items of such a a a such a nature that they couldn't make the agenda no no other okay uh following our usual procedure uh the next meeting would be Tuesday February 25th uh does that look okay Doctor looks good okay we we'll check with Michael Coughlin yes I we can confirm with him
11:55okay then can we have a motion to adjourn so moved I'll second can we have a roll call Thomas Corey yes uh Stephen gardy yes all right thank you all for your time this afternoon uh have a lovely rest of the day and stay warm over the next few days thank you you too Tom Take Care thank you