8.27.2024 Board of Health

good afternoon to everyone on the land of zoom and welcome to the Board of Health virtual meeting on Tuesday August 27th scheduled for 3:30 my name is Thomas Cory present with me via Zoom is Michael Coughlin Dr Steven Gagliardi and Tess curan 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 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 Tess can we have a roll call Thomas Corey yes Michael Coughlin yes stepen gardy yes okay the next item is the approval of the minutes from the meeting of

Tuesday July 30th 2024 are there any additions deletions or corrections to be made to the minutes of the meeting is printed no move to approve second can we have a roll call Thomas Corey yes Michael Coughlin yes Stephen gardy yes okay next we have the request for variance of keeping of chickens Evan Banga 35 Jefferson Street Fall River um ladies and gentlemen who's presenting I am B if you would yeah okay

so um they have a they have a pretty standard uh management plan as you can see um they do have they have they have room for the 12 chickens in the Pres Coupe but they are going to they have plans and they have I guess uh most if not all of materials on hand to expand the coupe they're going to expand it frontwards so it's not going to get closer to their neighbors's property line

um but the the the coupe is perfectly adequate now um and is the number of chickens going to change not I'm aware no okay no just want some more room for them um the uh yard's in very good shape they have a very nice water feature that I don't if the chicken's going to be able to enjoy um yeah um but it's uh you know the the the yard is clean

um the uh the cou I think is I pretty much ideally suited because it's it's really facing the you know it's closest to the street on the other property line um they do have right now and I I don't know what I did with my photograph but you have it uh a temporary um Arrangement because the gate doesn't fully close but that's going to be corrected when they expand the coupe so

I thought I'd present it to you because the the the gate is secure just doesn't look pretty right now the yach F the yach's fenced in also yeah oh yes yeah I found an escape be today at another address see oh yeah I seen something on Facebook that there was a chicken yeah but there no Chi No chickens getting out of y a six foot stocking fence standard thing yeah well not Stockade but a vinyl

fence okay m m Mr Banger we uh we usually insist on the rodent contract we see that you have that yes we the board does not allow nor will grant permission for a rooster right correct okay yeah and the I think the the application called for 12 chickens yes that's correct okay so 12 chickens it is if we if we Grant okay the week before the week before reer you can't have 24 chicklets running around

something like that we're going to hold you to we're going to hold you to the 12 okay okay gentlemen do we have any questions or comments or no motion to approve well we did get one letter of opposition oh yeah is that the own is that the only was there anything else that came in the only other thing that came in was someone just scribbled on the bottom of

the letter we that was sent uh that they had no objection but there was only one objection that I received okay yeah Mike I think you're muted no other objections uh came in from that person who wrote that letter we all we have is that very simply stated letter saying they oppose it they they didn't call or leave any additional information no we didn't get any phone calls on the property yeah

yeah uh to the applicants do you have any knowledge of of why there's opposition from one of your neighbors I I do um if I'm correct it's the neighbor that had um I had some issues with5 uh at 25 Jefferson um so she had originally called um about she didn't like how I was doing the rat traps but we had issues prior to that so I knew when the applications were going to go out it was

most likely going to be her to be honest my neighbor in the back I know he's the one that approved like he said he had no problems with the chickens yeah danam um he's a great guy he's lived in here I don't even know how many years um as to the other neighbors I highly doubt they even knew I had chickens because it's on the they're on the opposite side of the fence where the

coupe is too they wouldn't really hear anything yeah and I know that that's the longest list of abutters I've seen in a long time for an application so yes if there if there was only one objection all right motion to approve second can we have a roll call Thomas Cory yes Michael Coughlin yes Stephen gagleard yes all right M Mr Banger and Lady Sheffield good luck with the chickens thank you so much you ever

want any eggs you know how find them okay so I'll be in touch with you Mr blanger about the there is the permit fee and issuing actually permit okay okay okay thank you so much I appreciate it thank you okay now we're um we're appointing F fiori Joshua Pico and aen gono as health agents um we're just appointing I assume Tess will swear them in or the city Quirk will say swear them in yes so

we're just um yeah I you know the board is considering to um make a motion to to appoint them as health agents they haven't um been sworn in as health agents um so to ensure uh that when they're out in the field and um you know doing the work that they they are doing and putting forward any um you know violations and such that they have kind of the full power of the board um behind

them gentlemen questions comments no no I move to I move to approve second can we have a roll call and so we're just gonna do all of them at one time correct yes correct all three motions for all three yeah okay uh Thomas Cory yes Michael coflin Yes stepen GLE yes ladies and gentlemen congratulations on your appointment go forth and do good we shall thank you okay Tess do you have a report for

us so the main um thing I want to talk about today is um mosquitoes um as many have likely heard we do have um there are cases of of Triple E throughout Massachusetts um so there is a need for for you know individuals to take um personal precautions um when Outdoors particularly um during the hours of Dusk Till Dawn but certainly you know all hours of the day folks should be um

utilizing you know um mosquito repellent um wearing long sleeves and pants if possible um and just really being mindful of making sure the screens are repaired you know there's no stagnant water in there um their yards at all so emptying you know um watering cans bird baths and all of that so we're continuing to push out messaging regarding that um there will be aerial spraying not in our area but um in other

areas throughout um the Commonwealth um as we again have seen um Triple E mosquitoes uh samples as well as um West Nile uh mosquitoes in addition to to the Triple E mosquitoes so um again we're just trying to push out that messaging um and are encouraging folks to be vigilant and and being mindful of um their activities outdoors um we did some spraying ahead of the feast last week which we've

historically done um again to just try and um reduce the mosquito population but you know we do want to make make people aware that tripol while as it is rare um is a very serious and potentially deadly um condition um so we're we're continuing n work there um we um are moving towards um again hiring for our um the shared services Grant so more information to come on that but we'll be posting

positions um position soon um in hopes to kind of alleviate some of the um burden on the minimum housing sanitation inspectors as well as some of the other um areas that we need more support in for for the department so again really pleased to have more funding in um the department that allows us to grow um and do more for for the community um we're still working towards um releasing um funds for the um opioid

settlement U money those decision haven't been finalized so I'm not able to share um any real details on on that at this point in time um but that process is continuing um and I'm hoping in maybe the next meeting or or another meeting in the fall we'll have have more of a of an update um on kind of specific details as it relates to um the opioid settlement funds um so those were my

main two updates that I wanted to um to share with you all today unless see anyone has any other questions yeah Tess going back to the mosquitoes we have we had any positive pools tested uh pools tested positive for either West Nile or Triple E in Fall River this season no not not in Fall River in okay in Bristol County there have been yeah right now Fall River is at a moderate um severity level

um in terms of that triple E risk um but but in Fall River not at this time so we're continuing to you know to hear from the state who who's doing uh conducting the samples um and are are just really being um mindful of that so we're prepared provided that that information um comes to us to to you know push more out but we want to get people in the sense that you know they're

the surrounding communities you know around bristell County are seeing um seeing these mosquitoes so we we want to just you know go outside with the with the mindset of um being safe for sure it's unfortunate that you know we're seeing Triple E again um already the Cadence traditionally has been a little bit longer where it would come about every decade or so and last for about two to you know three years give

or take um and so we did see some Triple E mosquitoes a few years back and so that the Cadence um is is unfortunate that we're seeing those those mosquitoes um at this point in time and then it we didn't have a a few years uh more of a break between well I I think there that what I've been reading is that due to climate change we're going to see more frequent

instances of all sorts of vector born diseases you know the tick population is higher this year and Lyme disease and other tick related illnesses are also showing an increase in incidence right and and I was just on a call with with dph you know and traditionally had been Plymouth County even Bristol County seeing more of these positive mosquito samples um more so than the rest you know of Massachusetts

and we're seeing pockets in areas that haven't historically had you know surges of triple mosquitoes so yeah it is a different um you know it's unfortunate that that climate change is having that impact and and you're right that we'll we'll be seeing more of it more frequently um as the years progress unfortunately just need more bats eat the mosquitoes in the balance of we're losing B the bat population is

dropping because of that fungus that that that that that affects them so that's hurting us hting I don't know how big a factor that is yeah Tess thank you was there anything for Citizens input no we did not receive citizens input gentlemen following our usual patent the next meeting would be September 24th fine yeah that's fine okay let's go with that can we have a motion to wait is there

any other business to come before the board of such a nature that it could not make the agenda excuse me no new no new business okay very good gentlemen thank you Tess thank you um can we have a motion to adjourn so moved second do we have a roll call Thomas Corey yes Michael Coughlin yes stepen gley are yes all right everyone have a lovely Labor Day

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