Board of Health

October 2025 BOH draft minutes -Board members participating: Chair Celia Bird, Jenny Tomczak, Jane Seymour and Health Officer Bill Ward Board Chair Celia Bird called the meeting to order at 5:37 pm. Agenda Jane made a motion to amend the agenda to move Item 7 Adjournment to become item 8 and new Item 7 would be Chair report and emerging issues and approve that as an amended agenda. 2nd by Jenny. Vote was unanimous in favor. Draft minutes from September The board agreed to table the draft meeting approval pending staff review of the recording to add board member motions and 2nds. That was made as a motion table the item by Jenny, 2nd by Jane. Vote was unanimous in favor. Public Forum Burlington resident Chris Copp spoke with the Board about his interest in the topic of Fluoridation in the public water supply. He voiced his opposition to fluoridation and left a few news articles on the subject for the board to review. Discussion on Needle Disposal Bill noted that Bianca wanted to follow up on the news story about South Burlington School having a needle stick incident. The board decided to wait for Bianca’s return before discussing it more detail. Bill then gave an update on the great work being done by the BTV Clean UP crew. The Thursday morning clean ups are being led by the Director of Operations for the Peace and Justice Center Kason Hudman and local Community Organizer, Bella Fern. That team is training residents and downtown merchants on safe clean-up of found needles. They also respond to and close out SeeClickFix reports on found syringes. Two of the metal 1 pint syringe drop boxes purchased by the Board of Health are now in place on King Street and Center Street being jointly monitored by business owners, Bella Fern and Bill Ward. Celia and Bill agreed that they would work together on establishing one at the Unitarian Universalist Church. Board Member Vacancy The board discussed the new vacancy created by the departure of Jennifer Zakaras. No motions were made on this item. Housing Inspection update from Bill Ward Bill gave an update on the number of rental units, the Certificate of Compliance system and the current pace of minimum housing inspections. He noted a few recent properties with numerous non-compliant inspections and the resulting housing Board appeals process. The properties discussed were 52-54 Spruce Street and 29-33 South Willard Street. Chair update and Emerging Issues Celia returned the discussion to water fluoridation and asked if the members had any recommendations. Jane asked other board members if they needed any additional information before deciding how to proceed. Celia suggested that members could review the documents supplied by the resident who attended public forum and Bill agreed to scan the documents and send them to all BOH members. The discussion will continue next meeting. Celia asked about getting the cooling shelter process back on the agenda. Once there is a replacement Special assistant to end homelessness hired, Bill will ask them to participate in a future meeting. Adjournment The board discussed possible meeting dates in November but could not immediately decide until speaking with Bianka. Jane made a motion to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Jenny. Celia noted the meeting was now adjourned at 6:56 pm.