The Fall River Board of Health held a virtual meeting on Monday, April 28th, 2025, chaired by Thomas Corey. Board members Michael Coughlin and Dr. Steven Gagliardi were present, along with Tess Curran, the agent of the board. The meeting began with the approval of the minutes from the March 25th, 2025 meeting, which passed unanimously. The board then approved a tattoo practitioner application for Michelle Gowette of 36 South Street, Taton, to work at the Fall River Tattoo Company located at 1412 South Main Street. Josh, an inspector, confirmed all necessary documentation was in order, and the application was approved unanimously. Following this, the board considered a request for local upgrade approvals for a septic system repair at 440 Captain Circle. Mr. Aguar presented the request, explaining the need for an alternative sand filter system due to wetlands on the property. He recommended granting three waivers with specific conditions, including a revised plan for no more than 439 gallons per day (to reflect a three-bedroom dwelling as per assessor's records), a hold harmless agreement, a deed restriction to a three-bedroom dwelling, and the recording of documents at the registry of deeds. The request was approved unanimously with these conditions. Tess Curran delivered the Director's Report, announcing that the department is now fully staffed, including the new regional inspector, Katherine Cabral, a filled Mass in Motion position, and a public health specialist position funded by a shared service grant with Secon, Swansea, and Somerset. She noted the increased capacity for community outreach and engagement. No citizens' input was received. The board confirmed its next meeting date for Monday, May 19th, 2025, and the meeting was 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 Monday, April 28th, 2025 scheduled for 3:30. My name is Thomas Corey. Present with me via Zoom is Michael Coughlin, Dr. Steven Gagui, Tess Curran, our agent of the board, various guests and participants in today's meeting. Pursuant to the open meeting law, any person may make an audio or
0:28video 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. Tess, can we have a roll call please?
0:49Miss Corey, yes. Michael Coughlin, he giardi. Yes.
0:56Next item is the approval of the minutes of the meeting of Tuesday, March 25th, 2025. Are there any additions, deletions, or corrections to be made to the minutes of the meeting as printed?
1:10No. Motion to approve. Second. Jessica, we have a roll call. Thomas Corey, yes.
1:17Michael Coughlin, yes. Steven Gaggliardi, yes. Okay. Okay, next we have the approval of a tattoo practitioner application for Michelle Gowette of 36 South Street, Taton, Massachusetts, to work for the Fall River Tattoo Company located at 1412 South Main Street, Fall River. Josh, I assume you're presenting.
1:40Uh, yes, I am. Um, I reviewed all our her documents. She's actually been previously t tattooing in Taton and she has all of our documentation, her blood pathogen, CPR, first aid. She is ready to roll.
1:55Michelle, do you have any questions?
1:58Nope.
2:00All right. Motion to approve. Second.
2:04Yes. Can we have a roll call? Thomas Corey? Yes. Michael Coughlin? Yes.
2:09Steven Gagliardi? Yes. Michelle, good luck. Thank you. Look, record time.
2:16We have someone who's pushing. So, we're working hard here. We have a request for a local upgrade or local upgrade approvals at 440 Captain Circle for Mass out on the south end of Watupa Pond. Uh we have three items here. Mr. Aguar is with us. He has provided the recommendations for the for our consideration. Mr. Raguar if you would.
2:43Nice to see you all and I will be quick.
2:45So this is a septic system repair at 440 Captain's Circle. The home was only built in 2001, but apparently they've been having some issues. The site is surrounded by bordering vegetated wetland. So there's not much we can do other than implement some alternative technology and utilizing a um sand filter type of a system. So the applicant went out, we had done some soil testing, too wet to test, sent it
3:11out for a civ analysis. That is one of the requests for for a waiver is the use of a civ analysis and they were able to fit in the system the best that they could. This has gone through conservation commission permitting already as the system is only 25 ft away from the wetland, but it's a wetland across the street. Uh the wetland on our site is about 50 feet away. So, what I
3:33would recommend is that you grant the three requested waiverss. There are a few conditions that I would um ask you to include. The first one being that the proposed design was for a fourbedroom dwelling, 440 gallons a day. The original design for this was for three bedrooms. The assessment assessor's records shows a threebedroom. So, you are not able to allow a system for a fourbedroom home because of the amount
3:59of waiverss. If they were going to increase flow, they would need to comply with Title 5 completely, which they cannot do. So, one of the conditions would be to have a revised plan no greater than 439 gallons a day. That would put them below a four-bedroom home. Um, some of the other ones would be the standard hold homeless agreement, deed restriction to three-bedroom dwelling,
4:22and then also the recording of documents at the registry of deeds that alert potential homeowners that this is alternative technology and that there are maintenance requirements that go along with it. We had just completed this process, if you remember, for 81 Green Leaf, and that one went very well.
4:40They were able to record all those documents and had just recently pulled a permit for that. So, very similar to this uh just a little bit closer to a wetland than than that system. I have nothing else to add unless you have some questions. I I had assumed that the applicant was going to be on the call today. They said they were going to be.
4:56I don't know if Sandy has heard anything different from them. Um but I I think you can proceed without um without their attendance unless you would like to table the matter until they are here.
5:09No, I think that sounds good. Good to go. Motion to approve.
5:15Second.
5:17Chess. Can we have a roll call? Miss Corey. Yes. Michael Coughlin. Yes. Even Gaglardi. Yes. Okay. Thank you, Mr.
5:27Aguar. Thank you. Good night. Bye. Bye.
5:30Bye. Tess the director's report. Hi. Um, so thank you. So, um, I'm I'm happy to report that we are, um, fully staffed in the department. Um, so we again have um the new regional inspector who you all met last month I believe, Katherine Cabral. So she's been doing trainings and getting up to speed um with both housing and food um training. So really happy with with that. It is it is a lot
6:03um but she's she's taking everything in stride. That's been great to have her on board.
6:10Um we also have um a mass our mass in motion position is um is filled um and we have our public health specialist which is again part of that shared service grant with Secon and Swansea and Somerset um is also filled. Um, so we have a lot more capacity within the department, um, and plan on on, you know, being able to do a lot more outreach and engagement um, with the
6:38community as we are fully staffed at this time.
6:43Yeah, it's a it's a good thing. It's been a long long time coming, but um uh you know, I think we really again have a great team and um are excited about the opportunities that some of these new grants have presented to us.
6:59Sounds good.
7:02Any any questions for Tess?
7:07Okay, Tess, was anything received for citizens input? No, we did not receive any citizens input. Okay, gentlemen, we have to confirm the date for the next meeting. If we go four weeks out, that would be May 9 Monday, May 19th. The following Monday is, of course, Memorial Day. And if we want to wait till the week after that, that would be Monday, June 2nd.
7:32We could do May 19th. Yeah, fine. All right. Is that all right with you, Tess?
7:37That works. Okay, then. We'll go with May 19th. Um, is there any other business to come before the board of such a nature that it couldn't make the agenda? No new business. Very good.
7:49Gentlemen, can we have a motion to adjourn? So move. Second. Can we have a roll call? Thomas Corey? Yes. Michael Coughlin? Yes. Steven Gagliardi? Yes.
8:03All right, everyone. Have a wonderful rest of the afternoon. Enjoy the beautiful weather this week. Thank you.
8:08See you later. Bye.