Board of Health

CITY OF GARDNER OFFICE OF THE BOARD OF HEALTH ROOM 29, CITY HALL GARDNER, MASSACHUSETTS 01440 (978) 630-4013 FAX (978) 632-4682 To: Jennifer A. Susen-Roy, BA. - Health Director Dr. John Mulqueen, Chairperson Susan Avallone, Member Atty. Geoffrey Tobia, Member Board of Health meeting held on Monday, December 18, 2017 __________________________________________________________________________________ 5:07 Meeting called to order 5:08 Minutes dated November 27th, 2017. Reviewed and signed. 5:12 Emergency Dispensing Site. Discussion on site EDS Drill. Jamie Terry is Gardner’s consultant for region two emergency preparedness, Jamie replaced Forest. Jamie informed Jennifer that the Department of Public Health has changed how they do their drills now. DPH informed Jennifer, she and the board members, those that have signed up, will be doing the drills now. Jennifer explained to the board that it’s a three part Drill. The first part is…they call down the people that are on the 24/7 emergency call down list. Those people that are called, then confirm that they received the call. A call down was done, Jennifer, Susan Avallone, and Dr. Mulqueen received a call today. The second part is… the call down is discussed at the Board of Health meeting, which will be reflected in the board meeting minutes, the minutes are then supplied to DPH that all members were present. The Third part is… An actual mock drill will be performed at the Emergency Dispensing Site. Gardner’s EDS is Waterford Street School. DPH would like the drill to happen during the school day, the Mayor does not want it done during the school day. This drill will involve the Fire Department, Police Department, principal, facility’s manager, school nurse as well as Jennifer and a board member. This may be an issue with having people coming in after hours and not getting paid. Jennifer is going to try to come up with a solution that works best for all. At this drill, everyone will learn what their part will be and practice it. The deadline for the mock drill is the end of March 2018. Susan asked if the Board of Health has refrigeration for vaccines that would be needed in an emergency situation. Jennifer explained that the refrigerator that the board of health had was no longer working. She was looking to see if region 2 would pay for a new refrigerator. The board wanted to know if EDS was just for medical situations. Jennifer explained that it could be for medical or mass power outages, like during the ice storm 2008. 5:20 Old Business. Jennifer will be meeting with John Flick, the city solicitor, regarding the Getty BP issue that was spoken about in November’s meeting. Jennifer will be in Worcester court on 1/4/2018 with Attorney General’s office regarding the receivership of 142 Pleasant Street. In November the board voted to extend Jimmy Buccaroni’s probation period for another six months. Eugene Guerra, owner of Main Street Tattooing, has agreed to supervise Jimmy and document his work for the next six months. Geoffrey wanted to make sure that Dr. Mulqueen was fine with the extension of Jimmy’s probation. Dr. Mulqueen was fine with what the board decided to do. 5:25 New Business. Tobacco control conducted a cigar inspection in Gardner on Friday 12/15/2017. There were six sales of cigars to minors in the city. Jennifer pointed out that this was the first time we had sales to minors in several years. Anthony’s Liquor sold a cigar to a minor, they received a warning. Short Stop sold a cigar to a minor, they received a $100 fine, and this was their second offense. All the Shell stations sold cigars to a minor; Pearson Blvd, Timpany, and Oak Street, each received a $100 fine, this was their second offense. Stop and Buy also sold cigars to a minor and received a warning. The new Smoke Shop was also a part of the cigar inspection. It was reported that when the minor entered the smoke shop he was carded and was denied entry. Jennifer was glad to hear that. The smoke shop on Central Street has been opened for a while now. Jennifer informed the board that she has heard a rumor that there is another smoke shop that wants to open at 2 Parker Street. Then another party came in to the office to get the paperwork to open a smoke shop in the area of 24 Parker Street. That would make three smoke shops in eye sight of each other. Jennifer reported to the board that the Mayor has some concerns regarding all the smoke shops opening up. The Mayor wanted to know if there is anything that the Board of Health could do to stop all these smoke shops from coming into town. After discussion between the board members, the board feels that this would be a zoning issue and it should go before the City Council. Jennifer will check with other Cities and Towns and see if they have already experienced this and have any guidance. Jennifer reported to the board that she sent letters to 13 establishments for suspension of their food permits for failure to re-new their food licenses. Most have come in since the letter was sent out, but Café Edesia as well as West End Beagle Club have not yet. The due date for the food applications was November 14th. Dr. Mulqueen reported to the board that he got his certificate of Master associate of health. Dr. Mulqueen wanted to know if we have a needle exchange program in Gardner. Jennifer reported that we do not. What we have is sharps containers, the public can come to the office to receive a container to put their old needles into. They then can bring the container to the kiosk at the Community Health Center on the corner of Knowlton and Connors Street. The board discussed some locations where dirty needles have been found. Dr. Mulqueen reported to the board information, per the cannabis law, how they will limit the amount of recreational marijuana stores. You cannot have more than 20% of your alcohol stores. This would mean if Gardner had 25 liquor stores/establishments, they could have no more than 5 marijuana stores for recreational use. The board is unsure whether the law meant liquor stores or liquor establishments for marijuana recreational stores. 5:35 Set next meeting for January 29th, 2018, adjourn. ________________________ _______________________ _________________________ Dr. Mulqueen MD, Chairperson Susan Avallone, Member Atty. Geoffrey Tobia, Member All conversations are documented on recording identified as B.O.H December 18, 2017