Minutes of the Meeting of the Board of Health
Monday, May 15, 2006 - 7:00 p.m.
Large Basement Conference Room
Town Office Building
Attending:
Philip J. Driscoll, Chairman
Roxanne Musto, RN-C, ANP, Secretary
Timothy J. Lowney, Esq., Member
Michael J. Blanchard, Director
Mary A. Whitney, RNC, Public Health Nurse
Nelly Browne-Janga, Health Inspector
Deborah M. Manning, Principal Clerk
The Board’s newest member, Timothy J. Lowney, was introduced and welcomed to his first meeting.
The reappointment of the following staff members was conducted as follows:
Linda M. Grant, MD - Medical Advisor
Michael J. Blanchard - Director
Mary A. Whitney, RNC, - Public Health Nurse
Nelly Browne-Janga - Health Inspector
Deborah M. Manning - Principal Clerk
Morton Wolf, DVM - Inspector of Animals contingent upon a positive override vote on an upcoming ballot
A motion to accept these reappointments was made, seconded and unanimously approved.
A motion to accept the minutes of the April, 2006 Board of Health meeting as written was made, seconded and approved. Mr. Lowney abstained since he was not a member of the Board at that time.
One outstanding bill was signed for payment.
A public hearing on proposed changes to Chapter 5 - Regulations Affecting Smoking in Certain Places and Youth Access to Tobacco was held. Mr. Blanchard summarized the proposed changes with the Board and two tobacco retailers who were in attendance. These regulations were being updated in order to bring local regulations into closer compliance with state tobacco regulations.
The new regulations follow the state model regulations with the exception of the changes noted below:
Section E - 2. The addition of training conducted by a combination of Board of Health staff and tobacco coalition staff once a year for all tobacco retailers or their appointed representative as a condition of receiving a tobacco sales permit.
Section E - 8 A tobacco sales permit is non-transferable. A new owner of an establishment that sells tobacco must apply for a new tobacco sales permit. No new permit will be issued unless and until all outstanding penalties incurred by the previous permit holder are satisfied in full.
Section F - No person shall distribute, or cause to be distributed, any free samples of tobacco products.
Section J - 1B The violation suspension period was increased from seven (7) to ten (10) days in the case of a second violation within twenty-four (24) months of the date of the first violation.
Section J - 4 For the duration of a suspension, all tobacco products shall be removed from the retail establishment or be placed in boxes that are sealed and moved out of the public area of the establishment to a separate room that is accessible only to employees.
Following the Director’s remarks, Ms. Musto asked if these regulations covered chewing tobacco. She had been approached at Town Meeting by a parent whose seventeen (17) year old son had purchased chewing tobacco at a local store.
Ms. Musto was assured that these regulations covered all types of tobacco products, including chewing tobacco.
Next the retailers posed their questions to the Board. One asked if a retailer could be informed in person immediately following an illegal sale rather than a day or two later by letter. Ms. Janga stated that when the Board of Health conducted these compliance checks themselves, this was the procedure. Once the underage youth came out of the establishment after being sold cigarettes illegally, very detailed information on the transaction was recorded. This information included the time and date of the sale; a physical description of the clerk who sold the cigarettes; the age and physical description of the youth who purchased the cigarettes; the amount of money used to purchase the cigarettes and the amount of change received. However, certain aspects of the process are different now that the
compliance checks are being conducted by representatives of the tobacco collaborative to which Milton belongs.
Mr. Robert Hannigan, engineer for the septic system work being done at 120 Hillside Street, attended to address any concerns the Board might have concerning his request for a local upgrade approval. During his presentation, Mr. Hannigan advised that the prospective buyer, Mr. Florence, anticipates increasing the footprint of the home. Therefore the existing septic system would need to be relocated. Based on soil evaluations conducted on November 29, 2005, high ground water conditions prohibited the performance of percolation tests in any of the observation pits. Instead three soil samples were collected and sent for sieve analysis. The results of the analysis showed the material in each pit to be either sandy loam or loamy sand. Based on these results, Mr. Hannigan was requesting a local
upgrade approval for the Title V Alternative to Percolation Testing for System Upgrades having presented evidence that he satisfied the six necessary criteria.
Following questions addressed to Mr. Hannigan by the Board and a brief discussion of the matter, Mr. Lowney moved to approve the request for a local upgrade approval. This motion was seconded by Ms. Musto and unanimously approved.
The Director informed the Board about the current use of non-criminal disposition tickets and their fee limits. He stated that he would consult with Town Counsel to determine if the Town has a $300. limit, and if so, can a fine schedule of $100, $200, and $300 be assigned to all Board of Health regulation violations and not just Tobacco regulation violations.
A hearing was held regarding complaints received recently about Java Jo’s Coffee House’s dumpster. During the last couple of weeks, neighbors have submitted documentation such as pictures and police reports verifying that the dumpster has remained open despite rodent sightings that they feel may be associated with that fact.
Mr. Blanchard welcomed the neighbors who attended and presented a brief introduction on what the Board of Health has done since receiving these complaints and frequent phone calls on this matter. He noted that his first inspection was to investigate for rodent activity and related his findings. He stated that since the area around the dumpster is hardtop and the building’s foundation is made of brick, it was difficult to find burrows or other normal evidence. He found one hole which he covered as best he could with stones and other materials but due to the hole’s size he doubted that it was made by rats. He did find one hole on Ms. Brown’s property which appeared to be from rats. He outlined the number of almost daily site visits both he and the Health Inspector have
made to East Milton Square to check all of the merchants dumpsters. He advised those in attendance that for the last five days prior to the hearing, the dumpster in question was closed each time they inspected it and the area around the dumpster was rubbish free. Therefore, Mr. Welch was not required to attend the hearing.
In response to a concern voiced by Ms. Brown about closing down the establishment after repeatedly finding the dumpster open, the Health Inspector explained that leaving a dumpster open is a non-critical violation and not a reason for which a food establishment can be closed down.
The Director explained that Milton does not have specific dumpster policies in place because there was never a need before this. He continued by stating that the department addresses the condition of dumpsters in conjunction with inspections of licensed food establishments. However, following extensive discussion the Board agreed that new, specific dumpster policies may be needed to help address problems at those business locations not licensed by the Board of Health.
The Board also proposed revising the conditions under which food permit renewals are issued. If the retailer has a major violation, he will first receive a verbal warning. The second violation will result in a written warning and a third or subsequent violation will require the retailer to appear before the Board of Health for a hearing before his license is renewed.
Other concerns that were addressed during this meeting were extermination practices required by the Town prior to major construction. The Director explained that he was unaware of any such requirement but did note that the school building project included a line item for extermination which was used several times.
The Director also said that since the most problematic time for the dumpsters in the East Milton business district seemed to be at the end of the weekend, he agreed that these establishments would be surveyed to determine if their dumpster pick-up schedule was adequate. If not, they would be requested to have either an additional rubbish pickup or obtain a larger dumpster.
Another avenue to be investigated is the vacant movie theater section of the building occupied by Java Jo’s Coffee House. Since this site has been vacant for many years, the Director wants to rule it out as a possible source of the rodent problem.
Following a motion by Mr. Lowney which was seconded and unanimously approved, the Board voted to send a mailing to all of the licensed food establishments outlining the new dumpster policy. Ms. Janga advised that she would visit each of the establishments in East Milton, inspect the dumpsters and hand-deliver the memorandum.
Mr. Blanchard provided the Board with an update on the status of the Volunteer Medical Corps. The organization of the corps is part of a grant Milton has in conjunction with several other towns. Under this grant, doctors, nurses and other medical professionals will be approved to work with town personnel in the event of an emergency. A mailing will go out to approximately 1200 individuals with the hope of receiving a positive response from at least 100 persons per community. The emergency response credentials of those individuals will be reviewed prior to activation.
An update of an ongoing septic system easement situation on Harland Street was provided to the Board. The new owner of the Almgren property filled in one of the cesspools that is not in use and is located on his property.
The Director advised that he will submit a press release on Lyme Disease to the Milton Times. Due to a significant increase in the number of cases in recent years, he and the Public Health Nurse felt this would be an important and timely topic.
The Director advised the Board that the department’s Emergency Preparedness mailing in conjunction with Milton Hospital has been completed and is ready to be mailed.
The Director explained to the Board that he had recently completed the three staff members’ performance evaluations and submitted them to the Town Administrator as requested. He then gave his evaluation form to the Board for completion.
A discussion of goals for a community health assessment series was tabled until June.
The next meeting of the Board of Health was scheduled for Monday evening, June 19, 2006 at 7:30 p.m. in the Small Basement Conference Room of the Town Office Building.
The meeting adjourned at 9:50 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
____________________________
Roxanne Musto, RN-C, MS, ANP
Secretary
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