Merrimack Valley Public Health Alliance

By City Clerk at 3:34 pm, Feb 13, 2025 NOTICE OF OPEN PUBLIC MEETING Merrimack Valley Public Health Alliance Date: October 15th, 2024 Time: 2 pm - 3 pm Meeting Location: ​ Virtual: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88294190778 APPROVED AGENDA FOR VIRTUAL MEETING Voting Attendees: a.​ Chris Berrube, Merrimac b.​ Frank Marchegiani, Rowley c.​ Paul Sevigny, West Newbury d.​ Deb Ketchen, Amesbury Non-Voting Attendees a.​ Meghan Russell, BME Strategies b.​ Erika Syokau, BME Strategies c.​ Carol McLeod, Merrimac Finance I.​ Call to Order a.​ Chris made a motion for the meeting to be called, Deb seconded. Meeting was called to order at 2:08 pm with a quorum of 4/7 voting members present (Amesbury, Merrimac, West Newbury, and Rowley) II.​ Approval of October 8th Minutes a.​ Chris motioned for the meeting minutes to be accepted as written, and Deb K seconded. Meeting minutes were approved with a vote all voting members present in favor. III.​ Community Updates a.​ PHWINS Survey  NOTICE OF OPEN PUBLIC MEETING Merrimack Valley Public Health Alliance i.​ The training hub is participating in PH WINS, a survey asking questions on workforce standards and training needs. This survey will help identify the current needs of our organization and highlight opportunities for improvement. ii.​ Survey deadline is Friday, November 8, 2024. b.​ Notification of municipalities i.​ Annual Notification Memorandum for Municipalities Participating in the Public Health Excellence for Shared Services Grant is due Oct 31st. This is a reminder to your municipality that you are participating in the grant. Still waiting on contacts from Groveland and Georgetown. 1.​ Confirmed that Chris sent contacts to Meghan previously 2.​ Erika will follow up with Groveland and Georgetown on the select board, board of health, and chief financial officer contacts. c.​ Opioid Settlement Funds i.​ Cheryl Sbarra will be attending our October 29th meeting to give a presentation on opioid funds. d.​ MHOA i.​ MHOA is holding a Title 5 conference on 10/29/24 . This conference will be held at The Log Cabin 500 Easthampton Road Holyoke, MA 01040 registration ends 10/22/24. Erika will send out a flyer for those who may be interested. ii.​ For those attending the MHOA conference in November let Erika know if you don't plan to attend any breakfast, lunch or dinner meals to limit any food waste. IV.​ Budget Review a.​ Share with group review of overall budget: i.​ We previously adjusted our iPad budget from 30,000 down to 10,000, per guidance from DPH, leaving us with 20,000 that we put towards strategic planning (this is added into the Consultant line item, which also includes the $96,000 for BME)  NOTICE OF OPEN PUBLIC MEETING Merrimack Valley Public Health Alliance ii.​ We pushed back our hiring date to January instead of October leaving us with about 30,000. iii.​ Based on our 1:1 conversations I had, we also adjusted rodent education down to about 5,000 rather than 18,000 leaving with 13,000 iv.​ We have reduced the original amount of tobacco funding to about 7,000 to look and see if we could have someone do compliance checks while we wait for MHOA to assist in the following year. And adjusted the travel for attendance to 5,000. v.​ Leaving us with 50,000 to allocate on top of the 24,439 originally left over with a grand total of 74,439 left over to be re-allocated accordingly. We have enough to move forward with strategic planning, a hazardous waste day event that the town of Merrimac brought forward to us, and still be able to adjust line items as needed. 1.​ Erika and Meghan recommend putting additional funding towards strategic planning and leaving the $24,439 for hazardous waste day funding. b.​ Hazardous Waste Day event i.​ Municipality partnership. Minimum cost of $7,000 with a $15 charge per car and a resident charge per amount of items dropped off. We will have to post three quotes. We can look into other third-party vendors to compare costs if the group is open to using the grant funding to host this event. ii.​ Chris mentioned it can be held at Pentucket Regional High School as a more central location for municipalities. iii.​ Overall what do folks think about hosting this event? Possible re-allocation of overall budget if interested. iv.​ Paul mentioned that West Newbury and Groveland worked with Newburyport to do a Hazardous waste event in September, but always good to keep doing it.  NOTICE OF OPEN PUBLIC MEETING Merrimack Valley Public Health Alliance 1.​ Spring may be a good time to do it as people participate in spring cleaning. 2.​ West Newbury does a mercury pick-up as well v.​ Rowley would be interested as well vi.​ The group agreed that Pentucket Regional High School in West Newbury would be a location that is accessible to most communities vii.​ Good opportunity for visibility of the grant to the communities - something they can see and touch and feel a part of the Alliance viii.​ Group took a formal vote on a general re-allocation of funds towards strategic planning and a hazardous waste day event. Erika and Meghan informed the group that the budget can always be adjusted and that this is a good way to get an idea where funds are going. 1.​ All voting members present voted in favor of the reallocation of the 74,439 towards hazardous waste day events and strategic planning. V.​ Relavent a.​ The group took a formal vote to use the PHE grant funds towards the inspectional software Relavent i.​ All voting members present voted in favor of using the inspectional software Relavent. b.​ What licenses and how many does each municipality need? i.​ Amesbury: one of each, Deb does inspections and Vinny can have office only. ii.​ Merrimac: One of each, no tanning or body art iii.​ Rowley: Does not need office only, Frank does everything iv.​ West Newbury: Does not need office only, Paul does everything, no pools c.​ Erika will follow up with Georgetown, Groveland, and Newbury on the licenses that they need. VI.​ IMA Check In a.​ KP Law reached out waiting approval from their municipalities to review the document.  NOTICE OF OPEN PUBLIC MEETING Merrimack Valley Public Health Alliance b.​ After their review, IMA will move to municipal level signatures i.​ Chris already has it signed by the Board of Health, and was going to bring it to the selectboard on Monday for signatures. ii.​ Meghan informed the group that the IMA is due October 31st, however if we have it signed in November that is okay. We will not receive our next funding portion until it is signed. iii.​ Erika will reach out to Rich to see if he has an update on KPLaw’s timing, and confirm the updated version was sent to Rowley’s legal council. VII.​ Hiring Next Step a.​ Erika made appropriate edits sent by Chris for the nursing job description b.​ Does anyone have anything that they would like to add or discuss in regards to the job postings and descriptions? c.​ If the group is okay with moving forward, Erika can send out the job description to Amesbury’s HR for approval and move onto internal posting. i.​ No other comments. VIII.​ Adjournment a.​ Paul made a motion to adjourn the meeting, Deb K seconded the motion. All voting members present were in favor of adjourning the meeting. Meeting was adjourned at 2:55 pm IX.​ Next Steps BME: a.​ Erika to collect the missing contacts for the annual notification memorandum of municipalities participating in the PHE grant. b.​ Erika will begin looking into comparing cost vendors for the hazardous waste day event and will circle back with the group. c.​ Erika will reach out to other municipalities for their Relavent licenses. d.​ Erika will reach out to Rich to ask about the current timeline on KPLaw reviewing the IMA. e.​ Erika will share the MVPHA job description with Amesbury’s HR for approval.  NOTICE OF OPEN PUBLIC MEETING Merrimack Valley Public Health Alliance f.​ Erika will coordinate with Amesbury on writing an RFP for Strategic Planning MVPHA: a.​ Georgetown and Groveland to provide municipal contacts b.​ Georgetown, Groveland, and Newbury to confirm Relavent license needs c.​ Let Erika know if you don't need any meals if you are attending the MHOA conference in November d.​ Participate in the PHWINS Survey. Please Note: There will be no public participation in speaking at this meeting. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ PLEASE NOTE THAT THE BOARD OR COMMITTEE MAY ACT ON ITEMS IN A DIFFERENT ORDER THAN THEY APPEAR ON THIS AGENDA. ALSO, IF IT SO VOTES, THE BOARD OR COMMITTEE MAY GO INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION DURING THE MEETING. PERSONS INTERESTED ARE ADVISED THAT, IN THE EVENT ANY MATTER TAKEN UP AT THIS MEETING REMAINS UNFINISHED AT THE CLOSE OF THE MEETING, IT MAY BE PUT OFF TO A CONTINUED SESSION OF THIS MEETING, WITHOUT FURTHER NOTICE.