3.25.2025 Board of Health

good afternoon to everyone on the land of zoom and welcome to the Board of Health virtual meeting on Tuesday March 25th 2025 scheduled for 3:30 my name is Thomas Corey present with me via Zoom is Michael Coughlin and Tess Curran our agent of the board various guests and participants in today's meeting pursuant to the open meeting War any person may make an order 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 are deemed acknowledge and permissible can we have a roll call please thas Cory present Michael Coughlin present next item is the approval of the minutes of the meeting of Tuesday February 25th 2025 are there any additions deletions

or corrections to be made to the minutes of the meeting is printed V to approve I'll second can we have a roll call Thomas Corey yes Michael Coughlin yes next item on the agenda is the appointing of Katherine cabal as a health agent Katherine where are you he seems to be waiting to be let in um waiting to be wet in yeah I'll tell you what Katherine why don't you come over here and use

this no no you can just well you use this sh that's right come on we don't bite it's all right

Katherine good afternoon welcome good afternoon thank you okay we're appointing you as a health agent today Michael any questions um well I mean I'd like to know a little bit about Katherine okay Tessa you presenting who's presenting C you can present okay I can I can present and then and C you can feel free to to chime in and introduce yourself as well um but Katherine started about two weeks ago or three

weeks ago now um and we're really excited to have her on board again she is going to be the regional inspector um so she'll be working not only here in Fall River but also in the other communities that are part of our shared service agreement so seon Swansea and now sumerset um so um uh Katherine um has not necessarily direct um uh she has a lot of skills that translate into this

work so she's currently getting trained um but has some experience in Fall River um in you know Housing Authority properties um in other areas that um kind of make her transition here into a regional inspector um you know a seamless one so the team is getting her on boarded she's doing all of the trainings through the um train Ma portal um and you know we're really excited that um that Katherine is here um

Katherine if you want to introduce yourself or share any additional information you certainly all right K tell tell us your life story this is your moment on TV so um I do have a background in housing I worked for the Housing Authority um I worked alongside Fair Haven Housing Authority Mansfield Housing Authority oversaw mans um I'm sorry oversaw Adel bar seon and and um Norton um as a grant um also alongside

Fair Haven that was also a grant position I also used to be a protective worker um for Bristol Elder services so definitely a lot of problem solving um with all three of those jobs um or employers and um I'm very excited to be here okay so C is Katherine going to be doing the full range of environmental health inspection or or yeah yes so we'll be training Catherine um to be um

handling food minimum housing you know sanitation pools tattoos um all of that so um you know again it it's a lot to learn um but um she'll have that capacity moving you're GNA get all the certifications for all that stuff that's that's a lot for wimpers we'll be we'll be checking off those is when when we're we're able to so um again she's doing a lot of the online trainings now and is we're we're

looking to register her for some of the upcoming um in-person trainings as well okay all right I move to approve Katherine as an agent of the board I'll second can we have a roll call Thomas Corey yes Michael Coughlin yes Katherine good luck thank you okay next we have the request for approval for of a tat tattoo practitioner application for Colin gilmet of 785 Madison Street here in

Fall River to work at Up in Flames tattoo located at 228 South Main Street yep there's Colin up there on my screen okay Josh you're presenting uh yes I am um I've reviewed all his paperwork and uh he has everything he's actually been in an apprentice for almost let's say about three years now at least um so he's pretty much ready to become a practitioner he's got all this training and he's has enough practice I

feel that he should be a practitioner now okay Michael any questions no questions all the paperwork is in order yes sir okay move to approve I'll second can we have a roll call Thomas Cory yes Michael Coughlin yes okay Colin congratulations thank you so much okay next we have a request for approval for a tattoo practitioner application for Alisa konia of 696 Locust Street Fall River to work at up and Flames tattoo

located at 228 South Main Street Josh I presume you're presenting again oh yes I am I've reviewed reviewed all her paperwork um she actually has a current license in Swansea X body art so she has all of our paperwork she's all set to go on my end okay Michael any questions no questions move to approve I'll second can we have a roll call Thomas Corey yes Michael Coughlin yes all right Lisa good luck thank you thank

you next we have a request for the variance of keeping of chickens with M and for at 281 Kennedy Street mine was here on my screen there she is she keeps moving Josh you're presenting no I am oh okay F welcome okay okay um well we have not received any uh Communications from any of the abuts I don't know if there's anyone here but we haven't got anything and writing um this is a a fairly large

yard for for the city of Paul River uh it's Immaculate um they have a their Coupe is it's a coup and run in the center of the property um very conscientious about their chickens they they put it there because there's a shade tree there or will be soon um to uh keep the chickens cool um they have a they have a very nice Coupe um and they've they this is like the the nicest

plot plan I've ever seen they're very organized people they're only uh at this moment um they have three chickens at an undisclosed location I did advise them to put in for a few more you know as as has been stated here before if a chicken passes away sometimes it's difficult to you know just get a a couple of chickens so uh but the the U the coupe is plenty big enough the run is plenty big enough

certainly the yach is plenty big enough for for more chickens but right now really what they're looking for is what they're going to have is three um and and you know they they fulfilled all the requirements you can see uh you you all have these packages right yes so they've provided illustrations of um you know a food storage container that's designed just for this that's all R proof we have

uh the Exterminator contract and and all of requirements have been met so um I think this is a very good candidate and see no reason not to approve it now now Maddie you understand that the board usually insists upon three things no roosters okay the uh the rodent contract which we see is already in place and setting the number of chickens um I saw on the application was only for three if

you ask for three if you ask for 10 if you ask for 12 we usually grant that if you want to amend that now but if you put if you put down for 12 the inspector better not show up and there be 14 or 15 I think I put I was meant to put down seven it is seven on my copy it is again just in case they wanted to replace some chickens they have more

than enough room for uh for additional chickens and yeah they understand that if they went above that they'd have to amend their uh okay and and you're not going to have extra chickens for for Easter Sunday to give out or anything like that or no that that's you know that has to do with the rule if you if you ask for seven there's no problem with seven but don't show up with all of a sudden five

dozen chicks for Easter okay that's okay um Michael any questions no questions move to approve I'll second roll call Thomas Corey yes Michael Coughlin yes okay congratulations and good luck with the chickens thank you very much okay next we have the request for a variance for the keeping of chickens from caros abdad of 289 Blossom rad and Fall River he was here a second oh there he

tidy we we do you know just as a matter of cost check on these properties from time to time but everything's in shape now the um coup is um a really nice Coupe um this is another situation where he was talking about more chickens he has room for more but I suggested that we start with 25 and see how things go and then either on renewal or at some

point he can amend that but it's uh I believe he made the coupe himself and it's really nice one it's up against the wall it's away from the property line again it's in the city the uh not quite the center of the property but it's it's it's set back well um it's the kind you see almost in a commercial operation very well done and and again all all the paper requirements are there um the um

he does he he doesn't have the birds yet either so we will be checking again uh when he gets the birds um but he wanted to get everything in shape first which is good because you as you know a lot of times people have already um you can see the um you can see the plot plan and so that little box there is actually built into the garage it's a very fastidious

property I believe he does Contracting for a living everything is house is newly remodeled everything is just sort of um kind of picture perfect on that property so again I see no reason why we shouldn't uh move ahead with the variant okay Kos you understand once again no roosters the rodent the rodent contract must stay in place and if if you set the number at 25 25 is fine don't go to 26 okay Michael any

questions no questions do does is there someone in the audience who who wanted to make a comment looks like iPhone wants to speak yes sir come off mute you're on mute we we can't hear you sir come off the mute I'm not just listening um I'm glad about you guys think that we are doing right and I appreciate that okay oh that's that's the applicant's son yeah oh okay yeah he

knows me oh okay he's all right you're you're the the son who's speaking in the and okay got it all right move to approve okay I'll second can we have a roll call Thomas Corey yes Michael Coughlin yes all right good luck with the chickens next we have a local upgrade approvals for 81 Green Leaf Street B River out by the pond um Mr agar is usually the presenter on these

matters um the engineer is here for the consultant I mean for the property owner so maybe we want to let them start is that is that uh Niles it be Niles yeah okay sir sir if you would if you um I've been very bad today I usually ask you to state your name and address for the record I haven't done that all day I'm GNA get a call from somebody well for the record n zga from

Zenith Consulting Engineers and um on behalf of the owner of 81 Green Leaf Street um and we're here before you for a septic it's a septic upgrade or septic repair um currently um currently there's just a tank uh with we actually don't know what's beyond uh beyond the tank that's underneath the patio right now but essentially what's going to happen is all the existing leaching field or what's there is going to be

decommissioned and we are proposing a new 1500 gallon um septic tank with a what's called a microfast 0.5 treatment unit um as well as a 1,000 gallon pump chamber and that will ultimately be pumped up into a stone and pipe leeching field um we unfortunately I mean it's actually a fairly good siiz lot in the area um but there are wells you know all around us um so we had to ask for some

local upgrades to some of the abing properties um as well as our own Locust well um and um we have notified the ab ERS uh regarding those anything within 100 feet we have um notified those Butters and um you know I can go through each uh local upgrade if you if you wish or I can just I'd be happy to answer any questions that you know the board has however you'd like to do

it well I'm not really qualified to ask the questions on this one yeah I'd like to hear from Mr agar yes don't think we need to go through ABC you know as long as Mr agar has looked at it all and the sure as it's in order so I was able to give it um curs review I sent out some comments this morning um to Sandy Barby as well as Niles um and

some other clerks that are in my office as well as uh the Board of Health office so um this is a tight location um there are many homes in this area that are much worse off land area wise um than this part it's an existing two-bedroom home that currently has a a failed SE septic system the existing system appears to be already within the 100 foot radius to the Locust well as well

as to the well at 111 Greenleaf Street so we went out we did the appropriate soil testing ground water determination and the soil consistency actually is is fairly favorable for sighting and onsite sewage Disposal system so uh Niles after the soil testing came up with a proposed design and again always needing some level of local upgrade approval uh through your office that that you need

to either Grant or not Grant the only concern that I had with regards to any of the relief was there is a provision in Title 5 when you're using a secondary treatment unit that you can request up to a 50% reduction in the size of the leeching facility that's normally if you can't fit it so I think with some creative twisting and maybe a little bit of retaining wall we can fit the full uh

100% sized leing facility on this lot being only a two-bedroom home and I'm sure it's going to be occupied um greater than 220 gallons per day I wouldn't want to reduce the size of that leeching facility I did get these comments over to Niles earlier in the day we did have a conversation about it um and I believe he is in agreeance with um complying with the full size of the leeching facility

as he stated they have proposed a microfast system so it's basically a little treatment unit that gets installed in the septic tank itself and it provides some level of treatment for effluent before getting to the leeching facility and I feel that that's an appropriate method of treatment when we're asking for reduction in well setbacks from the required 100 ft down to 53 feet in one instance and then I

believe 63 feet in the other and then as far as the Locust well I think we actually meet the setb to well currently we meet the set back to to the Locust well uh so it will just be 111 Green Leaf Street as noted in the cover letter and then also at 29 judge Street which is actually across the street from the Locust parcel so I think the engineer has done a great job of

trying to get everything in here that he could complying with all of title 5 that he could um and I think this would be a successful installation I don't know if my email was forwarded to you from Sandy but I'll I'll mention a couple of my other comments that I that Niles is aware of one I asked him to provide a leeching field cross-section another one with regards to the toe of the slope should be set

back 5et from a property line and then the utilization of retaining walls may be needed at the souly end of this system anytime that we're dealing with systems that are deficient for a number of reasons um there are certain conditions of approval that need to be placed on on the approval the first condition approval should be the recording of a two-bedroom deed restriction and that should be recorded

at the Bristal County registry of deeds a notification document alerting the potential owners to the existence and requirements for secondary treatment units should also be recorded at the registry of deeds and that document should be reviewed by the Board of Health and my office prior to recording what happens is these systems are great but they do require periodic maintenance annually um so it's very important that

the new owner understand that they're they're getting into this uh thirdly well testing should be performed on the two adjacent properties that we are seeking well setback relief to to ensure that there is no existing uh contamination uh and then for a period of two years after to make sure that nothing has occurred since this new system was installed again the existing system is far is a far greater detriment

to those we than the proposed system but it doesn't mean that we still shouldn't record the information and then lastly a whole harmless agreement should be executed by the owner indemnifying the city of Fall River for any claims with regards to the approval that that you may give uh at this point in time and again that document should be reviewed by both the Board of Health and my office as well

before that gets recorded that's all I have n you're willing to agree to all those terms uh yes sir we are uh we looked at Mr agar's comment that we receiv received this morning um and I did as he said I spoke with him um just generally about really the only one that was even a question was the the sizing of the leeching field um because as he stated it does there is an allowance to

go with the secondary treatment you can go to a 50% reduction which I have done in the past but I do understand the concern because of the proximity to the you know to the Wells um so we're going to uh we we a we are able to size this beaching field to meet the 100% capacity by just making a little bit of a tweak in the rotation of it um and placing

retaining walls around it um and it will also not affect any additional Wells uh which was always a concern um so that we we are in agreement with it and we will if the board you know sees fit uh make it a condition of the approval and we'll get a revised plan to the board so this is going to be a provisional approval pending those five items that how I understand

it it it would be it would be an approval of the requested local upgrade of approval variances with the exception of the sizing of the system so that would be one vote two it would be conditions of approval would be the bedroom Fe restriction the notification document the well testing and the hold harmless agreement but those are all items that would need to be completed prior to us giving a

certificate of compliance the actual plan approval um he needs the the relief vote first so that he can finish up the design of the system gentlemen that sound all right it sounds reasonable to me it sounds it sounds fine to me I'm I'm uncertain of how to to put that into the form of a motion uh but I'm ready to to go forward I think I think the best thing

to do would be make a motion um complying with the email that I sent earlier in the day agreed to by the consultant Sandy you have a copy of the email we'll make the motion and you put it in the proper language when you do the minutes and Mr agar is it available for consultation with the wording right yes absolutely y okay all right so moved I'll second tesy we have a roll

call Thomas Corey yes Michael Coughlin yes stepen Gagliardi yes okay now for the second motion that would just be the recommended conditions of approval as noted in the email okay and Sandy you can work out the proper wording for the for the minutes for us motion accept second can we have a roll call Thomas Corey yes Michael Coughlin yes Stephen gaglardi yes okay Mr ragar and Niles thank you

very much for your time this afternoon thank you all talk to have a good night okay Tess do we have a director's report so my my report is really that we are um almost fully fun fully staffed for our shared service um agreement um and so we're really happy about that again um Katherine's a regional inspector um we we have offered a a position our REM our one you know vacant

position for the group um has we've extended an offer um and are just awaiting um some paperwork back um so hopefully we have it's a public health specialist role um so really we kind to be like a comprehensive um position that we'll be able to do you know community outreach and engagement um and work with our epidemiologists to help share information um across the collaborative so we're really excited um about that

role um again hoping to fund uh hoping to have somebody in the office by mid April for that position and at that time that Grant will be fully funded um and again I think gives us an opportunity to do a lot more proactive work um in the community and so we're um we're really happy about that um again Hannah has been on for um a month or two um as our epidemiologist and is um really diving

in um and is doing some things that we'll be able to um to share with you in the near term she's just um kind of pulling some some new data sets and reports for us to to take a look at um so we're really again happy about that um otherwise um you know the department is continuing on um and you know again happy that we have more staff to kind of

alleviate some of the stress that um some of the team members have been feeling just in terms of the capacity that they have to do their day-to-day um day-to-day work um so that's really um our update and I also have extended a position for the mass and motion Grant so um uh that should also be filled by mid April um and we're looking forward to that team member coming on as

well this is Somerset part of the collaborative yet yes they are part of the collaborative so um they've signed our most recent IMA um and are a part of that collaborative officially so we're excited to have them on board questions for the director gentlemen nope sounds good was anything received for Citizens input no I did not receive citizens input uh following our our past procedures the next meeting we we

usually use the last Tuesday of the month but in April we have the 22nd and there's a fifth uh Tuesday the 29th and I thought if everyone's free on the 22nd then we would go with May 20th and that way it wouldn't inter interrupt anything around the Memorial Day weekend is that uh okay at this time or not or I might have uh conflicts on Tuesdays starting April and going forward I'll

be doing some work in Newport on Tuesdays so um is anybody okay with Wednesdays or is Wednesday not good or Monday this this semester I'm teaching on Wednesdays and Thursdays late afternoon on Monday is almost always free I can do Monday how about everybody Monday I can do Mondays yeah that's fine do Mondays um Alex what about

you okay so you want to go with Monday it would be the 21st of April I think technically that's um is that Patriots Day Patriots yeah so yeah that wouldn't yeah well we'll go with the following Monday which would be from my calendar 28th sure sure isn't Patriots Day usually around the 14th or no it's always on the Monday it's the Monday of school vacation week yeah the Monday of the

third week yeah all right all right so we we should quickly note that that the the current allowance for remote meetings expired expires this month the legislature P the most recent update I the mass Municipal website was they they passed an extension for another two years through June of 27 but the governor hasn't signed it yet I expect she will I don't think there'll be a problem uh but it it's not formally it's

not official yet that that we're allowed to have remote meetings is in April I can I can keep a pulse on that and then we can maybe just schedule it and then follow up whether or not I mean I think it's likely it'll be fine but it's not official yet they didn't get it done in a timely fashion and they still won't make permanent still two years at a time they they won't make it permanent

I don't know why um so why don't we try and schedule it for then if for some for some reason we have to Pivot and do in person um I'll in the meantime just check what the availability is within the building for um for space and we'll go from yeah sounds good all right can we have a motion to adjourn no moved second roll call please Thomas Corey yes Michael Coughlin yes

Stephen Gagliardi yes all right thank you all very much for your time this afternoon have a pleasant rest of the day thank you