6 22 2023 Fall River Board of Health

oh good afternoon to everyone and welcome to the Board of Health virtual meeting on Thursday June 22nd scheduled for 3 30 p.m my name is Thomas Corey present with me via Zoom is Michael Coughlin Dr Stephen Gagliardi Tess Karen our agent of the board various guests and participants in today's meeting pursuant 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 such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and I deemed acknowledged and permissible Tess can we have a roll call please Thomas Corey present Michael Coughlin Stephen Gagliardi president the first item of business the approval of the minutes of the meeting from

Thursday October 18th are there any additions deletions or corrections to be made to the minutes of the meeting is printed move to approve the minutes we have a second all in favor say it well roll call Thomas Corey yes Michael Coughlin yes Stephen Gagliardi yes next item is the request for a variance for the keeping of chickens and Ducks by Stephanie Enloe 2551 North Main Street Fall River Lisa

are you presenting on this one yes okay well Mr also said he was coming in but every time you're not Mr Fiore is a little late well he told me he was coming that doesn't mean that okay um okay this we've been going uh to Stephanie's house for quite some time Stephanie and John Enloe okay I did get a letter um Michelle Opera I don't know if she's here today

but it's a you know protesting it's uh you've got a copy of that yes we did okay so you have that you have the abutters um we we've had some issues over there um minimum housing went there I guess because there were people calling the mayor's office um that there were roosters over there okay I initially started I guess I was out sick so I didn't go but when Alene

and post I believe went they found a problem in the yard but they also had chickens and roosters and Ducks two ducks um so she was issued tickets um that they are two of them are paid um when we checked today they said two of the tickets were paid totaling I believe three hundred dollars um the one Faust wrote is not paid that was the 50 ticket okay um we've had a lot of issues with

neighbors calling um one woman down the street who is she's calling everybody in sight Animal Control I mean I guess she's involved in the case for Stephanie um Stephanie said she was trying to get rid of the rooster um when I went initially I was told that there were no roosters now I'm not sure if she didn't know at the time um that it was a rooster she said it wasn't

crowing when when she got rid of one and then the other one started growing um so it's been multiple times we've all been there um for different reasons but I'm talking about the chickens now this is you know she still has a rooster there is still one there she has a new chicken that has four chips that I found that today um and then she has another chicken and the two ducks so okay Stephanie

all right thank you very much um I'd like to clarify um when I uh was first visited by Mr Fiore and Elaine there were three chickens on my property one of them was a Rhode Island Red rooster and I explained to them that I would be rehoming him to a farm in Middleborough I did so the following week and in the meantime was working on getting my application in um and once I re-homed the Rhode Island

Red rooster I have a white chicken and a black chicken there are currently only two chickens and two ducks my black chicken did have babies three days ago however the the roost the white rooster just began crowing right after I got rid of the Rhode Island red um I spoke with Cynthia at animal control and she agreed with me that because the dominant rooster had left the property that this

one probably is now trying to assert his dominance and Cynthia offered to help hook me up with um someone that she knows in the Dighton animal shelter to try to see if they could find a home for the rooster this this white rooster that is currently still at my property um I spoke with Cynthia today and she told me that she was going to give your office a call to clarify that I have

been working with her to try to find a home for this rooster um I actually made arrangements with her today to bring this white rooster to Forever pause first thing tomorrow morning even though they have not yet found a home um I have once this one white rooster is gone remaining at my property is the black hen that's been there all along that just had chicks three days ago and two

ducks the ducks make absolutely no noise they don't fly they're not capable of flying so I have will have three but one chicken two ducks and the little babies that were just born that Miss golden saw when she went to my house today I've tried very hard to be up front when I discovered that this other white rooster began crowing I actually emailed MS Golden on May 15th to explain

this to her and and told her that I just recently recognized that one of these others is a rooster and that I was working on rehoming him I still am working on rehoming him and Cynthia is going to take him tomorrow morning and I'm sure she'll clarify that with you um the original problem with my yard you know someone this this neighbor that lives not even in a butter to me called

saying that my house was my yard was messy however it was March it had been the winter time we had a lot of rain storms yes my yard was a mess I hadn't done my spring cleanup yet I have cleaned up my yard I've relocated the pile of wood that Mr Fiore and his staff said was a problem I got rid of that I've done everything I can to try to follow your procedures and your laws

trying to cooperate with your office you know I've had people sitting in front of my house watching I've had numerous people show up unexpected I had someone that actually showed up at my place of business yesterday um I'm trying very hard to cut you know to follow what you're asking me to do and I'm just asking that you please understand that I'm actively working on this and I have no intention

of having a rooster at my property I think that's you know that's my my point and I you know I this is what I've said all along I've been completely up front I only just found out about this hearing two days ago because I received an email um I I'm I'm trying to do the best I can to follow the laws I'm a good citizen of the city I'm a Horner I'm a business

owner I founded the Fall River Farm as an Artisan's Market I'm a very good citizen and I'm trying very hard to continue to be a good citizen and I just ask that you recognize that and please work with me I do understand the rooster can't be there and I acknowledge and I'm I have every intention of bringing him to Forever pause tomorrow and I'm sure Cynthia will confirm that for you if she hasn't already

thank you very much for your time can I clarify something sure Mr Fiore Hi how are you uh so man it was it was me that was sitting in front of your house one day yes but that was that we've been getting repeated complaints about a rooster okay you may recall that I was there with Miss Geronimo uh once yes and you told us you had two roosters and

then we we learned it's been a long time that one new school is gone but they represented to miss golden that you didn't have any more roosters we still can't kept getting these complaints about rooster so I was sitting in front of your house uh seeing if I could hear a rooster which I did while you were observing me yes growing right but the reason I went there was that you have represented to

us that you had two hens left and no roosters and I I had to verify this because the the complaint and it's incredible to me until I went there so I I I I was not supposed chicken I was not sure what sex the white chicken has been well you had I only started hearing him crow once I rehomed the Rhode Island red well when Mr John when I were there

we've had all three birds you told us that you had two roosters and only one left the property so doing that math you would still have a rooster based on your plane that you originally had two roosters it seemed to be conflicting stories that I was hearing so that I'm just trying to clarify why I was sitting in front of your house because I presented that there were no roosters left yet someone

was hearing a rooster well my email of May 15th to MS Golden did say that I recognized that one of the other ones has just started growing and that I would be re-homing him and you know I spoke with Cynthia multiple times and she's working with me to try to help me to find somewhere for him to go so he doesn't end up on someone's dinner table your Avenue in Middleboro no longer open

to you because you told us well because I because I brought several you know to her in the past I feel I feel badly you know calling this lady and bringing you know it's not her problem you know and that's why I reached out to Cynthia to see if she could be of help okay and one one other thing you do have an outstanding fine the ticket that I wrote and sent you yeah you understand

you still owe uh the city 300 unless you want to repeal the ticket I think it's probably past that time but I I actually paid the 300 sir um I spoke with Mary at the city hall at the city clerk's office last week and she explained that um I wrote a check for 310 and I guess my my numbers were Incorrect and she said that they would apply the remaining balance of my check toward

the other citations that I had received and if I do still owe fifty dollars I'm happy to pay that and I will gladly bring a check to City Hall tomorrow that's why we checked our Municipal Financial system software today and no amount of the ticket that I issued Miss golden issue two I issued one and no amount of that has been uh uh has been reduced there's no nothing there's

nothing paid on the ticket that I issued to you I've only been that up because I perhaps you you just didn't realize it but you still do owe for a ticket okay I I'll um clarify that and I'll get a payment out to your office I you know like I said I spoke with Mary in the city clerk's office last week and she explained that I had I had paid what I thought was 310 but

she said it was actually only 110 and that they would apply the additional amount rather than giving me a refund to the other tickets that you had given me because I thought I was paying one but there actually were through that three there and she explained that they would apply that money call me tomorrow and we'll go of course and I'll I'm happy to pay whatever it is that you say I oh I'm trying very hard

to cooperate Michael yeah Tom I I was going to suggest that we table this and and let Ms Enloe and the uh inspectional staff work this out and uh bring it back to our attention next at the next meeting I don't know how the other members feel about it but we're hearing a lot of back and forth but we are hearing a lot of back and forth but Stephanie I have to

remind you of a couple of things um the board always insists no roosters the rooster's got to be gone tomorrow yes it will be the board always insists on annual rodent inspections not annual monthly Road inspections there was no evidence that there was any kind of a contract so we have to have the contract in place the next few days okay okay okay I I thought that and we

we just would notify me of that I didn't realize that that was something when you picked up the application all these things are laid out in the application and the number of the the number of animals we usually set if you ask for two chickens and two ducks you're already telling us you have a chicken and three chicks now those chicks don't happen they don't fall from the sky so the chicks gotta go okay um

and we do have someone who who wrote a letter um objecting to our granting of the variants okay if I'm willing to let it go no we'll put it on the table for the month unless his objection from from the committee members but all these things have to be in place the fines have to be paid the rooster gone two chickens no more than two ducks we want to see evidence

of a rodent contract okay and then we will discuss further your neighbors is that agreeable gentlemen yes that sounds good okay um we put it on the table I guess we need a motion to make it legal Michael's motion Mr gagley Steve yeah Dr Gabrielle you second second okay Sandy if you put this in the proper wording and test if you'll give us a roll call Thomas Corey yes Michael Coughlin yes Stephen Gagliardi yes okay

we'll expect to see you here back next month with all good news did I have the date of that meeting if you don't mind please it hasn't been set yet but you can check with the office in the morning okay thank you thank you for your time okay next we have a keeping of chickens uh for Mark Falcon 51 Edgewood Drive in Fall River Mr Falcon is with us Lisa are you presenting yes yes

okay I have Mark uh is that is says Zachary sorry it's my son my son's a calculator okay because of college and schools and stuff okay um 51. MS MR Falcon I just want to say this you're the German with the tractor the chicken tractor yes okay I got the education over the last few days you know chicken tractors and how they work that's all thank you for that I have another you know we actually have

another uh animal uh license holder that has one of those and it looks really nice along the yard he's had it it looks interesting it looks like an interesting it does the paperwork that that was submitted um to us um I went to the odd the beautiful yard uh plenty of room for a tractor or um traveling chicken it's it's nice it really is nice um so you know I I spent some time on

Google afterwards you know they run from about 500 to about four thousand dollars really yeah I believe it some of them are rather elegant yes so um I didn't know if he wanted to explain further um you know a lot more about it than I do um but all the pictures that you you know you saw are in um his plot plan everything is here that you probably looked at and so on so

I didn't know if he wanted to speak Mr Falcon did you want to say anything uh probably easier if I anybody has questions so that way I don't just glad they're on I mean I can explain I took this process or it's totally up to you okay well again the usual thing uh we ask you how many chickens and then we set the number of chickens if you tell

us two four six or eight you could tell us 30. but once we set the number of chickens that's the women on the chickens there can be no chicks for Easter um no rooster at all and we we will insist upon on a monthly rodent inspection contract and of course our inspector will go out a couple times a year um to inspect anyway so how many how many chickens because it doesn't say on your application maximum

number five seven seven all right we're gonna go with seven and no rooster of any kind okay and hey yeah we usually we insist on it on a road inspection contract okay so that's what I wanted to talk to you guys about I contacted cnk Pest Control I contacted affordable uh wildfire and then I ended up on on the Fly Pest Control and they're all confused of what I should be getting from them to give to

you because when I kind of explained to them that I needed a kind of an inspection I'll call it an inspection they were kind of um well do you have rats and I'm like no do you have skunks every now and then I I didn't have anything so they were all very confused and they were not uh familiar with the photo process and uh Barrette at on the Fly was what form

does he need to fill out so that way he can do it properly um I I have because I have a business and we have food we have to we're required to have a a rodent contract an inspection contract I happen to use Flynn uh Pest Control out of Rehoboth um I have a standing contract they come once a month and even though I don't have mice or rats or ants or anything at

this time they come and look around because I'm also adjacent to a to a restaurant next door and uh they always come in and they just check to make sure we don't have anything and that's what we all ask all our animal holders to do because we don't want this to become a um a problem for the neighborhood it's not really a form that that they fill out saying monthly that there's no

rodents it's a contract that says they come out to inspect every month so you just give us the monthly contract I mean the yearly contract saying they're coming out once a month to look they're not treating they're not they're just coming out to look at if there's signs of rodents they'll recommend appropriate measures so basically you're going to enter into a yearly contract with them

and and we just need to see the contract okay it's an inspection contract okay so that because that's what all right and it's funny because cnk actually called two other places and was like have you ever dealt with this before and they were all very confused probably because they just never got what the Fall River process so yeah what'd you say it was a what contract just an inspection contract the contract that they

but I mean I had a I had a yogurt store in Dartmouth and you know we had a monthly contract with uh Terminix or something like that I mean you can pick any company and they just come once a month they look around but we don't need we don't need a report we just need to see that you have a contract that someone's coming oh see okay see all of them are kind of like

what do I report when I go there no yeah yeah because they're all asking what's the form so that way because they were worried about putting their um I guess they all have numbers for them doing their business and what license numbers they have so they would so basically I could call the guy back from on the Fly Pest Control set up a yearly contract and let you guys know

yeah we just need a copy of the contract that says they're going to go out every month and look around okay and you want a monthly inspection okay I mean the the invoice they give them would be sufficient right they yeah if he gets an invoice for a monthly inspection that's all we need to see yeah I mean most likely they're not going to find anything especially if we have a clean yard

and if they do find something they'll say hey here's how to take care of it we don't need to know about that we just need to know that coming once a month and I bow in your place oh okay okay so that that clears it up because needless to say there was a bunch of not knowing that people sorry about that because we didn't know what to do that's okay nothing to be sorry about so gentlemen

pending the uh the confirmation of the contract motion to approve second roll call I'm scoring yes Michael Coughlin yes Stephen Gagliardi yes congratulations and good luck good luck thank you very much the next item we have the the uh yeah I'm Tongue Tied today requests for variants for the keeping of goats the Alice contribis 1169 Meridian Street Fall River hi that's me Alicia Alicia Alicia I'm sorry okay Alicia

good afternoon good afternoon you've heard you're you've heard our story though for the last two uh participants I promise I am having no chickens no roosters ever okay and it says in your application the number of goats is set at five correct okay um do you have a rodent contract I do not have a rodent contract I did get the initial inspection done and I forwarded that to you I did not realize

I also needed a signed monthly contract I would say it's in the paperwork but I just looked through that paperwork again and as I showed Lisa I actually um got two different sets of paperwork ones different on your website to what is actually handed out and I guess you guys are trying to uh reconcile that a little bit yes but I can call back I had a whoever it was I had for the pest

control I can call back and get assigned monthly contract for monthly inspections no trouble okay Lisa or anything to add um didn't you have the um the inspection I had the inspection they came by and I forwarded that report to you wouldn't that be good enough for us that I actually have the proof like they were asking me oh that they were going to do the monthly contract that I haven't performed in fact not you

know not just that okay that they are coming by and eyeballing it like Dr Gabriel said okay so these pygmy goats or full-sized goats uh one is a Nubian so he's a little bit bigger like German Shepherd size the other one's been Nigerian dwarf the Alpine cross so they're much smaller they're all about 50 60 pounds and then there's a baby we just had baby born so that's why it got up to number five

yeah so she's got a big yard so um if everything is in here you probably I'm sure you still have all that too yeah it's a nice piece of property and good enough for goats she's got some good um uh Butters yeah so uh you can see my property over my shoulder here yes I did a lot of work over the last two years to this property I have put in a um I have just completed

putting in a new roof on both my house garage brand new siding 22 Windows Five Doors I put up a six foot vinyl privacy fence all around my property had my land surveyed trees removed de-stumped graded um I've done quite a bit it looked very nice on Google Maps thank you very much I love my piece of property It's My Sanctuary that's nice one Ray is live in Fall River all my life we're working my

local hospital this is my community this is where I want to keep my goats um it I just plan on having the five my daughter has actually had them for about two years now they've been with her at her horse barns but her most recent Barn cannot accommodate the goats um and the place that they were at Unfortunately they were too many animals and we feel the oldest our Nubian was

actually kind of getting bullied and not getting fed and he lost a significant amount of weight like 40 pounds we now currently have the Empire State of friends uh Donkey Sanctuary in Middleboro um I don't know if they'd take that rooster for that other lady but um so that's where they're staying and while they were there uh we unbeknownst to us when they were at the previous Barn two of our females unfortunately

got pregnant thank God for donkey lady she's going to keep two of the babies that were born and we will take one with us so um so we will have four adult goats two females two males uh the males are weathered they that means they've been fixed um so they do not stink there is no urine odor no musk odor um they're only kind of noisy twice a day for feed time when they see you

coming to the Corral um they start talking to you um the females are not fixed but they all are dehorned um the baby is the male and we do intend on having him debuted and banded so that he becomes a nice weather one too and not a billy goat very good yeah we're all about um just so you know the ages we believe as best as we can figure out between ages of

four and eight and we know they live between 8 and 12 maybe possibly 15 years just so you know okay gentlemen any other questions I think that's good probably motion to accept pending the contract second okay roll call Thomas Corey yes Michael Coughlin yes Stephen Gagliardi yes congratulations and good luck with them thank you very much the next item is the director's report um thank you

um it's really very similar to to last month um but the one update I have is that our epidemiologist has started she started on the ship um so um we're really excited that she's here um she's making um local you know connections right now um and as this is a part of the shared services Grant um is doing um some of the disease investigation for the other communities um and is supporting us as needed

um Linda who is the public health nurse um is either off or and or needs um additional support for disease investigation so she's working out really well um and we're happy that she's here um and I'm hoping to um move forward with potential mous or um so we can have more access to local data from Community Partners and others so that's a bigger ticket item that she's working on

um and we should be getting uh hope we hope to be getting additional funding um through that same Grant and we may have additional Staffing capacity um provided we receive those additional funds for the next fiscal year um so that's that's one of the bigger updates for um the grants in terms of covid things have scaled back in terms of our community clinics we no longer have the

community clinics at the library Health First and at Star um and that's really in partnership with the state some of that funding has been rolled back on the expectations and the capacity has been rolled back so we're encouraging anybody who is in need of a dose or a booster um to utilize the Pharmacy locations that are still offering vaccine in the community and we still have frvx.com

available we're just routing people to the federal site that's now um has all has the listing of all of the available clinics um so those are some of the main uh updates that we have um and we do have a new uh team member for the NASA motion Grant um Sarah was officer who had been in that position has been had resigned um and we have a new team member um in that role okay

I have just a few things did you film The Tobacco position yet yes we have oh okay Jennifer she came to our last meeting I believe Jennifer go text era yes she has um and she's been um I know it's a crazy time of year um she's been out in the field and has been really um just picked up and ran with it so she's been a great addition to the to

the department as well we do not have anybody for the part-time position so that that could be what um you were thinking of um we haven't actually uh posted that position I was trying to get Jennifer up and running before we moved here yes well what's what was your latest what's your latest communication with the water department on on fluoridation I'm just anything at all happening there

so there has not been an update so unfortunately the water at this time continues to be um unfloridated um where I know the water um Department um has uh some concerns in terms of the costs associated with the fluoride um and we're trying to continue to find a vendor um and or look for alternatives and by we I mean the water department is is doing that work I will I can certainly follow up with um

with Paul berland um if you'd like him to come and discuss this at a future board meeting I'd be happy to invite him um if that's a topic that you'd like to add to the agenda well I I would defer I would defer to you if you think that would help I I know um well I uh I think I know uh that I had emailed with Paul regarding the fluoride um status uh last week

um to check in um and he was hoping to have some um some information for me this week or next week based on some of the research that his department is doing um So based on that information I can either add it to the agenda um or or see where we land with that update okay how long have we been up without Florida it's been it's been some time now I I

would have to look back because there had there have been a period um back in 2018 2019 where there was a lapse in fluoridation then they beat due to product um then they were able to receive the product um it was a different type of products but it worked for the feed um so we resumed fluoridation and then in the midst of covid with um some uh you know supply chain uh shortages the

product was no longer available um it's according to the water department it um we need a particular type of product because some of the other Alternatives that they have tried it doesn't dissolve properly when it's being fed into the system um and so that's part of the problem where there was a supply chain issue and the particular product that we needed wasn't available any alternatives didn't

seem to be working according to um Paul Farland but over a year and their their husband a nurse that's been put out I should send a letter to Providers um dental offices um and pediatricians offices um regarding the lack of fluoridation all right I know you'll keep us informed I mean you know I wonder if we should communicate with the water board that Paul reports to I think maybe a little push might might

help yeah that's what I have in mind gentle push so it's not just something on someone's desk communication from from the Board of Health to the water board asking them to to expedite this process I could certainly do that and I could certainly ask Mr Ferlin to to come um for our next meeting yeah and why don't we plan for for that I'll I'll invite him to attend our next meeting

um so he can provide an update sure but but also if we were to communicate to the board that he that he's responsible to in the same way you're responsible to this board it it might also um help move things along okay I don't know I Tom is there any precedent for that sort of thing have we done that no no not uh not in my memory no yeah

it's just a thought I mean we can try talking to Paul first and see how that goes yeah why don't we try that okay I'll plan to have him here for our next meeting okay did we receive anything under citizens input we did not is there any matter that to come before the board of such a nature that it couldn't make the agenda no we need to confirm the date for the next

meeting gentlemen following our usual procedure would be the 20th or the 27th of July anyone have vacation plans or Adventure plans uh I can't do the 20th the 27th is better 27th Good Michael the 27th your test to 27th that works all right let's go with the 27th at 3 30.

okay can we have a motion to adjourn so moved second do we have a roll call class Thomas Corey yes Michael Coughlin yes Stephen Gagliardi yes okay thank you all Sandy thank you Alex thank you everyone have a lovely weekend even in the rain have a good weekend take care