4.27.26 Board of Health

Good afternoon to everyone in the land of Zoom and welcome to the board of health virtual meeting on Monday, April 27th, 2026 scheduled for 3:30. My name is Thomas Corey. Present with me via Zoom is Michael Coughlin, Dr. Steven Gagyotti, Tess Curran, the agent of the board, Sandy Nato Soua, secretary of the board, various guests and participants in today's meeting.

Pursuant to the open meeting law, any 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 unpersceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible.

Thomas Corey, yes.

Michael Coughlin, here. Steven Gaggliardi here.

Okay. Next, we have the approval of the minutes from the meeting of Monday, March 23rd, 2026.

Are there any additions, deletions, or corrections to be made to the minutes of the meeting as printed? Uh Sandy, you did a great job on the minutes. They're a long set of minutes this month.

Move to approve.

Second, Tess, can we have a roll call?

Thomas Corey.

Yes. Michael Coughlin.

Yes.

Steven Gagliardi.

Yes.

Next, we have the request for variance for the keeping of chickens from Yousef High. Is that the way that's pronounced?

I apologize. 1598 Locust Street, Fall River, 02723.

Uh, Mr. Fernandez. Jay, where'd you go?

There you are, Jay.

I'm here.

Okay. you you're presenting on this this uh application, correct?

Okay. If you would, sir, Jay, yes, I'm here.

Okay.

Usually the uh the inspector comes on board and tells us everything's okay or everything's not okay. So, what's uh what's your opinion on this?

Yes, I am representing Yousef. Uh yeah, I did a few inspection uh last week and few days ago. Uh his yard seems to be very pristine looking. He did uh had some uh overgrown from my last inspection. So I order I ordered him to um see if he can cut it down a little bit, which he did. So now it looks um pristine. Uh ready to go.

Okay. Uh, Yousef, you have 10 chickens and five goats.

Yes, sir.

Uh, and and just for the record, um, I don't remember a goat request to the board in in at least 15 years.

So, this is new new territory for us.

So, bear with us. Um, I saw that you had the all the proper contracts in place. Um, you know, you know, we the rules are for for the keeping of animals, you you must have a rodent contract.

Yes, sir.

Uh, never are there to be roosters on on the property.

Yes, sir.

And whatever you ask us for the number of chickens, we will set that number and you're never allowed to exceed that. Is that understood?

Yes, sir.

Same thing for the goats.

Yes, sir.

Okay. Gentlemen, do you have questions?

I I I just want to clarify something if I could.

Yes.

That he doesn't have the animals yet.

He does not have the animals yet. Okay.

And one other thing that I don't know why I'm hearing an echo. I hope no one else is.

Um so we received a letter today from an abut.

Okay.

Too late to give to you. So I guess I'm to read this in.

Yes, please.

Okay. So as dated today, um I am John C.

Reese from 38 Hill Street, Fall River, Mass. I'm opposed to the variance at 1598 Locust Street and Fall River. We have had chickens and goats on that property before and in the summertime leaves an awful smell in the neighborhood and it is uh signed.

Okay. We also received two other letters. Um, one was in favor thereof, one was opposed and one we received, but it's an unsigned letter.

Uh, I have lived in for ever since 1971 and at 366 Sherman Street, and it's signed the owners of 366 Sherman Street. Um, generally, um, we don't entertain letters for or against unless they're signed by someone. Okay. Um, FA, how many letters went out about?

The usual 50 or so.

Yeah. Um, probably a little bit less in this neighborhood. I don't have Jay, do you have the uh the list in front of you? I would guess about 30 on this one.

Okay. on 30. Um, there are several guests on the on the call. Is there anyone here to speak for or against this application?

Yes.

Okay. On my screen, you're you're recognized as Zoom user. Sir, would you say state your name and address for the record?

John Santos Jr., 33 Hill Street.

Okay. And Mr. Santos, if you would, your objections please.

Yes, I have several issues.

Okay.

Probably none that you've considered and one is the traffic on Locust Street.

You know how critical that traffic is on Locust Street. If a goat ran out or a chicken ran out, we would have a catastrophe.

Number two, I've had a exterminator contract for probably five or six years.

just for the general rodents in the area, which I pay every three months. So, there's already evidence of that.

And three, it could be the noise. And Mr. Reese is right. I've been here about 30 years, and I remember when the other uh people that lived there had them. It was a nuisance. But, you know, I moved in after them, so there was no recourse.

And lastly, the valuation of properties do not go up when you got goats and chickens running around the neighborhood.

And I'll just leave it at that.

Okay. Is there anyone else to speak for or against this this application?

Uh, yes.

Okay. You you you Yes. But identify who you are, please.

Yes. Um, Barbara Santos.

Oh, okay. M, we can just barely see you.

Okay, we hear the voice, but we can just barely see. There you are. Okay.

Yes. And I am also against it for the same reasons. And, you know, uh, they do attract rodents, and not not into that.

Thank you.

Okay.

Well, it sounds like, you know, as long as you follow the the rules that the city sets, um, you know, the rodent contract um is part of that. Um, as far as, you know, animals running out on the street, someone's dog can get out of the yard and and do the same thing. So, can a cat, um, a ferret, anything could get out of the house. Um, you know, the the the city sets the the

ordinances and if someone, you know, is in is consistent with those, you know, there's um they're doing what they what they need to do to to get the animals.

The the other uh thing we always reassure the abutters is is that if we do approve the the uh request uh and then later there are reports of additional problems that can be traced to the the the new animals, you know, we we can reconsider. Uh but generally if everybody is if an applicant is has everything in place, we we generally approve them. Uh again with the uh caveat that if we do hear problems

later, we can reconsider.

Yeah.

What's your recommendation for Mr.

Reese's issue with the odor?

I mean, that's a previous um previous owner. Uh maybe they didn't keep up with Excuse me. But what would be the recourse if it happens again?

Well, then you'd call the inspector.

They would come and see if just like if someone's dog was barking con, you know, constantly in the middle of the night, they would send the dog officer out and they would sit in front of your house and listen for a dog. Um, if there's an odor that, you know, is supposedly bad enough that the neighborhood can can smell it, it wouldn't be, you know, a subtle thing and any inspector would be

able to come by and identify that. So, if that's the situation, uh, gener, you know, and this, this isn't the only set of chickens and goats in the city. Um, we have a lot of experience with other people with chickens and goats. Um, and some of these places are pretty tight in the city. So, you know, if there is a problem and someone complains, then we address it. And if if it's not remedied,

then we have um, you know, then we take recourse.

The only reason I bring it up is so it can be documented in the minutes. That's all.

Yeah. And that's understandable.

Thank you.

Gentlemen, do we have a motion?

Motion to approve.

Second.

Second. Tess. Can we have a roll call?

Thomas Cory?

Yes.

Michael Coughlin?

Yes.

Steven Gadliardi?

Yes.

Yousef, good luck with the chickens and the goats. Keep them in the yard.

Thank you, sir.

Okay.

And thank you for your service.

It's an honor, sir. I appreciate you guys.

Take care.

Okay. Next item is the request for the variance of the keeping of chickens for Karen uh Chason 501 London Street in Fall River. Jay, you're presenting again.

Yes.

So, this one same same thing as Yousef.

I went there me and um actually false um the yard wasn't that bad of a condition. She just had a few uh minor cleaning to do, which she did uh did do reinspection uh last Friday. Uh it appears to be a lot better. So, um I'm okay with it.

Okay, Karen, you understand again for for the record, you must have a rodent contract in place.

No roosters ever. And I think on your application, you asked for uh 10 chickens. So, we're not going to have more than 10. The week before rooster, you're not going to have all these chicks running around, things like that.

No roosters. I don't like roosters.

Oh, we don't like roosters either. Okay.

No, we had chickens when I was a child and roosters are not nice.

Okay.

Without without roosters, we don't have any hens either. So, we have to keep that.

Yeah. Everything must be in balance.

Um you've heard the discussion on on the previous applications. You know, uh we didn't to the best of my knowledge, we didn't receive anything for or against in the in the mail.

Okay.

And Okay. So, uh, again, if you, uh, keep everything clean and tidy, whatever, whatever, whatever. Um, yep.

We, uh, we expect never to see you before the board. Okay.

I hope not.

Karen's location is away from everybody.

Her where she lives, she doesn't have much uh neighbors.

No. You know, in in full disclosure, yesterday I took a tour of the city to check out the the locations of these and I never found the house.

Yeah. It was hard to find.

All of a sudden, the street ends. There is no Yeah. And I had to get my binoculars out and a satellite to see up on the hill.

Yeah. So if at the end because uh London Street was supposed to go all the way up to Eastern A and they um ran into Ledge after my house was built here. So they had to stop. So my driveway is really London Street. It's a paper street.

Okay. Gentlemen, can we have a motion?

So moved to approve.

Second.

Yes. Can we have a roll call, please?

Thomas Corey, yes.

Michael Coughlin, yes.

Steven Gagliardi, yes.

All right, Karen, good luck.

Good luck.

Thank you very much.

Next, we have um request for a variance for the keeping of chickens for Sarah Conrad, 1945 Fifth Street in Fall River.

Um I just have a question on the application. The permit holder says 194 Fifth Street, but the I hereby apply for license to keep animals at 178th Street, which is the adjacent property.

Yes.

Okay.

Okay. Jay, where are you? Where'd you go? Everyone keeps moving on my screen today. There you are.

Yeah. So, it is 178. That's the property I did inspection for Miss Karen.

This is by far the best coupe I ever seen. Very clean, brand new. Um the yard is it's just amazing. This one is a no-brainer. Um she kept it really well.

Uh she just had a a pallet against the the fence there, which I think you did remove, right, Karen? I'm assuming?

Uh Sarah? Yeah. Yep, I did. Yep.

Yeah. So, um I don't have an objection.

She's good to go.

Okay, Karen, for the record, the usual three stipulations, no roosters, the contract for the rodents, and you asked for 10 chickens also. Let's keep it at 10 chickens.

Yes.

Um, any gentlemen, any other questions, comments?

I'm opposed to this.

I'm sorry. Hold on. I didn't ask that question. Mr. Cabraw, would you state your name and address for the record?

Yes. My name is Nicholas Cabraw. I am uh on the board of trustees 85 John Street Realy Trust which consists of 85 John Street, 95 John Street and 91 John Street at a property.

Mr. Cabraw, could you repeat that again?

You you're kind of fading in and out.

Yes. Uh I am uh I'm I'm a property owner at 85 95 and 91 John Street for the 85 John Street Realy Trust.

Okay.

and your your your your objection, please.

Sure. So, I have a I have a prepared statement uh me and my firm have uh put together. So, um you know, good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. My name is Nicholas Cabraw. I'm going to butter um and a neighbor to the subject property.

I respectfully request that they deny the request to allow chickens at this location. The request fails the legal standard required under Massachusetts General Law, Chapter 4A and Section 10.

Under that statute, a variance may only be granted where there's substantial hardship related to soil shape, topography of the land itself, not personal preferences of the property owner. As far as I'm concerned, there is no such hardship here. Um, it's not used for food or what have you. The property can be reasonably used as a residence without chickens. The request is based entirely on a lifestyle choice.

Massachusetts courts have been clear about this. Um, and there's been several precedents. personal convenience or desire is not a legal hardship. If this standard's not strictly applied, then any prohibited use could be simply could be approved simply because someone wants it. Secondly, granting the variance would undermine the intent of the city's zoning ordinance, specifically fall

river zoning ordinance chapter 86. That ordinance separates residential uses from agricultural uses for a reason to protect neighborhood character, density expectations, and compatibility between properties. Chickens are a form of livestock, and livestock is not intended for typical residential lots in this city. Approving this request would blur that line and set a precedent for

similar requests moving forward. Third, there's a clear risk of detriment to the public good, which is also prohibited under chapter 4A section 10. Chickens are not a neutral use. They bring odor from waste as we've heard before. Noise often early in the morning. Um attraction of rodents and insects.

Sanitation and runoff concerns.

These are exactly the types of issues that local regulation through zoning and the board of health is designed to prevent. Once introduced into a residential setting, these impacts extend beyond the property line and affect neighbors quiet enjoyment of their homes. Finally, approving this variance would create a dangerous precedent. If there's no hardship here, but the variance is still granted, it

becomes difficult to deny the next request or the one after that. Over time, that erodess the zoning protections that every homeowner relies on. This is not about being unreasonable or opposing a neighbor personally. It's about applying the law consistently and protecting the integrity of the zoning ordinance that governs all of us equally. For these reasons, lack of hardship, conflict with zoning intent,

risk to the public good and precedent, I respectfully ask for the board to deny the variance. And I I appreciate your time and consideration.

Thank you for your comments.

Yes, sir.

All right. As we previously discussed, these ordinances are put in place and as as long as people follow the general rules that are outlined and you know precedent is that many people have chickens, many people have well not many people have goats but many people have chickens. We have three applications today. So the precedent is that people can have goats and I mean people can have chickens in Fall River as long as

they follow the rules and we outline those rules. um having chickens is not an agricultural um endeavor. Uh people can have chickens without being a farm.

So as long as someone follows the rules that are set out in Fall River's codes, um this is not setting a a new president. It's following a current president, which we did three times in the last 10 minutes. Um, so motion to approve.

Second, but someone has their hand up.

We should I'd like to say something myself.

Who? Uh, someone has their hand up. Oh, uh, it's identified as M. Piver. I have no picture.

If you'd like a video, I video.

Oh, for the record. Yes.

I'd like to I'd like to uh echo my Hey, Mr. Mr. Py, could you state your name and address for the record? Uh I own the properties 41 and 43 John Street. Uh I'm an owner.

I've owned the properties for many years, been the residents of the the city for over 50 years. And I too want to echo what Mr. Cabral indicated as to that's a highly congested area. Um rental properties everywhere. Um, I rent several properties there and it is very um testing to have to speak to someone in regards to smells and rodents that this may cause. We we're already dealing

with many issues of that nature in the area to the local restaurants in the area and some other incidences. I've made new calls to the health board uh that's on record in those regards. Uh so I would like to echo Mr.'s 's uh statement as to uh rejection of this uh application.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else to speak for or against the variance request?

We have a motion. We need a second.

I I did second it. Second.

Okay.

Tess, can we have a roll call?

Thomas Corey.

Yes.

Michael Coughlin. Yes.

Steven Gliardi.

Yes.

Okay. Thank you. Well, thank you for your participation today. Okay. Next on the agenda, we have the tobacco mapping presentation by Hannah Ragazonio, regionable regionable regional epidemiologist, and Jennifer Doixera, our tobacco control coordinator.

Ladies, if you would listen, I I read the report. Good job. didn't understand it all, but but good job.

Thank you.

It was a Sunday afternoon of reading.

Good afternoon. Uh thank you for reading that report. I'm sorry it was so dense.

Um there's a lot of information. So if it's all right, I'd like to share my screen just to quickly go over highlights of the report.

All right. So you guys can see the correct screen, right?

Uh it's it starts off South Coast Public Health Coalition Tobacco D retail density.

Perfect. So this is a more live version of the report that you guys received over the weekend. Um unfortunately with the agenda we the link is harder uh to send out than a PDF version. So I'm just going to quickly go through some background so we can jump into uh why we're actually here. How how old is this picture?

Um to be honest, I don't know. I found it.

Well, you just said I saw the price of the cigarettes and I was wondering if that was current or not.

It is not current.

Many when I started about $10.

When I started in the pharmacy business, it was 27 cents a pack.

Wow.

It's gone up a lot.

That means I'm old. That's what that means.

Or prices are going up very quickly.

Uh so a little bit of background just before we jump in. Um we all know tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death across the United States. Um and Massachusetts is not an exception. Um and historically tobacco affects certain communities uh more than others. So we can see certain people across Massachusetts uh have higher rates of smoking versus other people.

So, part of these groups are black, non-hispanic people or Hispanic people, individuals who have mass health insurance, uh, individuals lower income, lower education, people with disabilities, and people um, experiencing poor mental health are all more likely to partake in tobacco products than those who are not in those groups. Um, and locally, we see a lot of tobacco retailers. So, within, and

unfortunately, this report is for the whole coalition. So uh the data does include Secon, Somerset, and Swansea, but I will say most of the uh the bulk of the data is from Fall River just because the nature of the size of the city. Um so within those four cities, there are 195 tobacco retailers.

Comparing to Dunkin Donuts, there's only 30 Dunkin Donuts. Um that's all.

That's all. Right. I was shocked. We're in New England. Like uh so comparing those, that's We have a lot of tobacco in our area. Um, another graphic looking at there's 20 times more tobacco retailers than there are McDonald's. Um, so and looking at tobacco retailers, most of our retailers are convenience stores. Um, and we we know I'm going to skim over the health effects because um,

I'm not going to be too repetitive. We all know smoking's bad for us. We have a high population who smoke here. We have high rates of lung cancer and asthma um, adult asthma in all four cities. Um, ecigarettes. I'm just briefly skimming over all this so we can get to the the interesting part. Um, most of our stores in Fall River and the other towns do sell ecigarettes. And out of high school

students across the whole Massachusetts, uh, 70% were exposed to ecigarette advertisements, which they these advertisements, they really try to target the kids using, you know, fun colors, flavors, the smoke tricks that they do. um all try to get them to come in and start smoking.

So the point of this report is to look at retail density within our communities. So retail density is the amount of retailers in any given geographic area per 10,00 people. So the geographic area we're looking at is census track because uh to be frank that is the easy smallest area that I have population data for. Um, so looking at census tracks, we can see how many tobacco retailers there are per 10,00

people. So looking at this map, the darker the area is more retailers per people. The lighter is less. So we're going to focus on Fall River. Um, and we can see down in this area right by 95, we have a lot higher density than say out here where, you know, we have less population up in this area, but there's less density there. Um, and as we scroll down, we can look at just youth density.

So, this is looking at only children 18 and below. Um, population by census track. So, how many retailers are there per 10,00 kids? So, on average in the whole coalition, I'm going to round to seven. There's seven retailers per 10,00.

Um, versus overall, if we include adults, um, on average, there's 1.3 retailers per 10,00.

Um, so we can see that the youth density, there's a lot of retailers per youth in our community. Um, so 1.7, that's just that number again. So looking at Fall River specifically, um, I looked at which census track had the highest density. So this is the most tobacco retailers per people. And then looking at where schools are compared to that, um, we can see that the census track right in here, it has the highest

density of retail of tobacco retailers.

And, uh, our office is right about here.

So we're we're smack in the middle of it.

So which should make Jen's job easy. She can just walk over there for at least those. So looking at density compared to schools, this is what we really care about uh with the youth. So 1/5if of all retailers within the South Coast Public Health Coalition are within a thousand ft of a school. So this map shows us every black dot is a school and then the little colored dots are all different

tobacco retailers. Yellow is greater than 1,000 feet away. Orange is within 1,000 feet. And red is within 500 feet.

So if we look down to again this area near our office, we can see it's three red dots, a school, some orange. There's a lot of orange dots down in here. Um so we don't want to see that. Just in Fall River about onethird are within of retailers are within a thousand feet of a school and a fifth sell ecigarettes.

So we know that the youth are more likely to smoke ecigarettes than traditional tobacco cigarettes. Um so that's why we care about are the schools closer or the stores closer to the schools selling these ecigarettes.

So, and then when we look at violations in our communities, most of the violations are in convenience stores, which makes sense because most of our stores are convenience stores. Um, but then looking at the violations themselves, most of our violations in 2023 were sales to minors. Um, so going back to looking at how many schools are close to tobacco retailers, I bet we could figure out pretty quickly

where the kids are buying these these products.

So again, looking more into violations, we're looking at 30% of tobacco retailers are within a thousand feet of a school and 70% of violations were sales to minors. Um, some of not many of our violations occurred within 1,000 ft of a school, which is a good sign. Um, but we still see a lot of retailers near our schools. Um, and then looking at other just social determinants. Um, real

quick, we're going to look at median income. So, this is the same graph, same style graph that we looked at earlier.

The smaller and lighter dot is the less amount of tobacco retailers. The larger the darker dot means there's more. And then that's overlaid with median income.

So, the darker the area, the higher the income. The darker the blue. The lighter the blue, the lower the income. So, we can see here that there's a correlation.

uh between the darker red and the lighter. So lower income, higher tobacco retail density, lower higher income, lower density. Um so that's just another measure that we look at. I'm going to skip through um a lot of this stuff and if you guys have any questions and want to look through on your own, you can feel free. I'm more than happy to yap about this for forever. Um I just want

to be respectful of your time today. Um, so again, social vulnerability. Um, a lot of this stuff is really telling us the same thing at the end of the day is that areas of higher need in our community have more tobacco retailers.

Um, so why am I talking to you about this today? Um, there are certain regulations that are set by the state that we have to follow. So we do a pretty good job with those. Um that includes like smoking excise tax, smoke smoke-free workplace licensing laws, no sales to minors, no flavored tobacos.

That's all required by the state. Um but then the state has local regulations that are recommended that we can impi imply enforce um we can have these additional regulations, but they have to be approved by the board. So that's where me and Jen are here today to ask that we're requesting uh five additional restrictions on tobacco uh permits going forward. So uh this is where Jen could probably talk more on

specifics, but the five that we're requesting are no new permits within a determined amount of feet from a school.

So that could be 500, 1,000, 2,000, however many feet we want. Um, no new permits within x amount of feet of another retailer. So this is something that uh we've seen retailers are actually complaining about losing business because if there's three retailers on the same block, they're all competing with each other. So if we can spread them out a little bit, that's a win-win. You know, we get less less

tobacco retailers in our community and then they have less competition. So they're not worried about, you know, who has to have the best sale to get more people in. Um, and then a cap or a reduction of the number of permits. Um, a lot of our neighboring cities do have caps on, uh, the number of retailers that they're allowed in their city. And this is something that we can work progressively towards. You know, say we

want a cap of 300 permits, but we have 500, we can work down towards that over the years. Um, and that's something Jennifer can definitely talk more about.

Um and then the last request that we have is to um do suspension periods. So after the first violation, second violation and third violation enforce permit suspensions of however amount of time we want. So either the first violation, your permit suspended for a day, 3 days, seven days, on and on, you know, more the more you violate, the longer you're suspended. Um, and then we have just have some information

for the other towns and some glossery.

So, if anybody I know I kind of just blew through this. Um, I really want to respect your guys' time. So, if anybody has any questions or want to see anything else or if Jennifer if you want to hop in at all.

Um, so actually I just want to mention something um just so the board can kind of keep in mind. Um, after reviewing our current like tobacco regulations and kind of going through this whole presentation with Hannah, I do think that um, right now would probably be a great time to probably look into updating our regulations because the last time we did it was back in 2022.

And by adding a lot of these, uh, retail density policies, it will help reduce uh, youth exposure. It'll bring more compliance with um, the other stores, and it'll bring more value to the permits. Um, and then also like the suspension portion that we did mention, um, our regulations isn't showing it aligning with the state law. So, I do think that that's also another thing that we need to look into, um, updating

to make sure we're, um, we're aligning with them.

We we we we would need to hold a public hearing, shouldn't we, before we pass anything.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yep.

Yes. I mean, I'm certainly open to going forward in that way.

Yeah. I think the goal, you know, today with Hannah Hannah's presentation and and having Jennifer here was to kind of just um take a look at the the landscape as it is currently. um just to kind of, you know, as we have we do have, you know, a lot of our retailers or or some of our retailers coming here for violations to kind of have like what what does that really look like out in

the community? Um and so, you know, it's an opportunity just to kind of for for the board to have a a broader understanding.

um and then kind of get a sense of if there's if there's an appetite in putting forward any regulations then we could um you know we could think about that and then to your point Mike we would have to have a public hearing and um if there's any you know particular information that that would maybe help guide those that decision making we can certainly get more information um to kind of showcase um any specific

specific questions or concerns you have on the information that Hannah's pulled together here.

Do we know how many permits are out there currently?

Uh so for the city of Fall River, we currently have 126 permits and of course we only have jurisdiction over Fall River. We we addressing the regulations in the other members of our coalition, the other member communities.

Are you going to go you you doing this for all four communities?

Um if they're interested, yes. Um so far, Fall River is the only one who has jumped on the author, but Okay.

Yeah, they are. They have expressed interest. The other communities um they're just much smaller. So, their health agents are Yeah, I know.

very very busy. Yeah.

Yeah. And and really, you know, the ask came from, you know, I wanted Hannah Hannah and and Jennifer to work together just so again, we had a better understanding of what was going on. Um, and for Hannah to really kind of showcase her skill set in terms of what types of projects can can we, you know, do now that we have an epidemiologist on on staff. Um and so you know similar to to this if there's

other topics or other um data sets that you're interested in doing a deep dive where we have the capacity to you know pull data and put it together then that's again something that we can talk about in terms of um any concerns or interests that the board has that we can really kind of pull a report similar to this um on another topic.

No, my first thought is like on under the new permits uh within a feet of another retailer.

Oh, this is a tough one. This this is America. America awards performance.

Okay. And if I decide to open up a tobacco shop two doors down from the other tobacco shop, um that's maybe not a wise decision on my part and I should have to pay the price for the failure.

Okay. Um, that that's a that's a business restriction. I'd really have to think about that one. And the new nothing about the new permits within so many feet of a school. I I remember when we were talking about the um oh god the strip clubs years ago, you know, um there was only a place on Rodman Street that we could put a strip club if we so desired.

Um then the and the tobacco people would say well move the schools you know uh I I I don't know um I understand the concept I don't want kids smoking but uh we got to approach this very very um with lots of consideration.

Yeah. And I think, you know, there are um there are some communities that have kind of started with with um essentially like that sunset clause um like reducing the number of permits. So essentially when a business closes, that permit is no longer available. Um so you're kind of slowly kind of, you know, reducing the number of tobacco permits. But, you know, again, there's there's no need to kind of rush and

make, you know, any decisions. It's just kind of planting the seed. This is some of some of, you know, the density. This is what the landscape is in the community. These are our options if the board would would want to consider something. Um, and then we can have, you know, a broader conversation down the line. Um if if the board were to were to consider um you know putting in a specific you know amendment to the

existing regulation beyond um you know fine-tuning some of that language um to to align with the state's um suspension policies which were were kind of unclear as to why that wasn't in um in there when we updated it in 2022. But um but I think you know this is you know we just kind of really wanted to showcase more of the of the data piece with with the caveat of there are

options in the back you know in the background um for any action that wanted to be taken.

Okay.

Continue.

And then to just to kind of piggyback off of what we were saying, if if there are, you know, I think it's really helpful to kind of see things in this way. So again, if there's an opportunity that the board would want to look at um, you know, food retailers or, you know, other other retailers, it's it's kind of helpful for us to have some of that that kind of insider data where we're not

just relying on on state data. But if there's something um that you all have um an interest in and again looking looking a little bit deeper into then um just know that we do have Hannah's expertise here on the team and we can kind of tap her for for projects like this moving forward.

Okay. I I um I have a thought and I don't know how feasible it is, but I would love to see if we could get a handle on whether or not the incident of dental carries cavities has gone up in the what's it been five or six years since the city has fluoridated the water or not fluoridated the water?

Right.

It's been that long since we've done it.

Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. I'll talk to Hannah about that and we can um we can see if we can get access to that info and and connect with the dental providers in the community as well.

I think that'd be the only way to do it.

I I don't Yeah, it's I don't know that it's publicly reported.

Yeah, I don't think doesn't collect that information.

Yeah. Okay. Well, we we'll have that list because we've we've contacted them when we were informing everyone. So, we'll we'll try and see what we can do in terms of any of that data. Okay.

just think about Yeah, that sounds like some would have to be like a chart review which would be very labor intensive.

Yeah, we have to maybe think ofus or something like that. So maybe that's but you know still a good project for us to kind of figure out how can we how can we get that information. So Hannah definitely be a project but but I would love to see if we could do it. I I I I have not let go of that issue. I I don't bug you about it anymore, test, but but uh I know

I'm very disappointed that that happened.

Could probably get a grant to that somewhere.

There there had been um yeah, the water department had been had been looking to obtain a grant. Um I'll circle back with with um with Paul Furland.

But yeah, it it is disappointing when we when we do know um you know and you know and the the the uh the atmosphere about flidation has changed a bit in the last year and a half uh for reasons that I think we're all familiar. Uh yeah, it's definitely that doesn't, you know, we're in Massachusetts uh where where it things are still, you know, supportive of of public health approaches. So

yeah, it is unfortunate that it becomes such a Yeah.

divisive issue when the data is quite clear. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Okay, ladies. Thank you very much.

Thank you. And I just want to echo what Tess said. there's anything else you guys want to see a report on or a deep dive. Uh I'm a huge data nerd. So I would love to do it. So you know just putting it out there that it's never a burden and if it's something like the dental cavities u we'll look into it you know what we can do. So okay great very good.

Thank you Tess. What do we have for the director's report?

So um we are still looking for a part-time massen uh motion team member.

Um, so that position has not been filled yet. So, so we're looking for um for someone there um and continue to be hopeful for um for applicants. Um otherwise, the department's continuing on um per usual. Um you know, we we're continuing on with our grants and our are kind of completing all the grant deliverables. It's coming up on the end of the fiscal year, so things get a little bit busy in terms of trying to um

you know, spend down our our grant funding um and uh and are conducting our budget um municipal budget um meetings now. So, um we're all still moving forward, but things in the department are going well.

Very good. Anything received for citizens input?

No, no citizens input. Okay. Um, the board of health is unusual that we always have guests for for not really a formal citizens input, but we always have guests to speak for. And again, so it's a little different than all other boards.

Gentlemen, following our normal practice, um, being the last Monday of the month for meetings, it would be on Memorial Day. I don't think we want to do that.

Do we want to go go with May 18th or with June 1st?

Uh, I would not be available on June 1st.

Okay.

May 18th is okay, Dr. Gagliardi.

Yeah, that's fine.

Okay, let's go with the May 18th if there is items to come before the board.

And just to confirm, you all were all set with your your new emails.

Yes, they work just fine this week.

Okay. So, we'll plan to just I know Mike had a little bit of a hiccup, but we'll plan to utilize that email um for all communications moving forward.

Very good.

Okay.

For for a couple of months, if if if you were saying you could send out a text or something saying check your inbox, okay, just until it comes in automatic. Sure.

I I mean, you know, I I have a lot of email accounts that I check and I'm not I'm not expecting a high volume on this one. So, so yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. That'll probably just be the, you know, the minutes and Right. Right.

Yeah. the links and stuff, but yes, I I'll make a note.

Okay. Can we have a motion to adjourn?

So moved. Second.

Can we have a roll call?

Thomas Corey?

Yes.

Michael Coughlin?

Yes.

Steven Gaggliardi?

Yes.

Listen, thank you all for your time this afternoon. Have a pleasant rest of the day.