Board of Health

CITY OF GARDNER OFFICE OF THE BOARD OF HEALTH 95 PLEASANT ST, ROOM 29 GARDNER, MASSACHUSETTS 01440 Members Present: Lauren Saunders – Health Director Susan Avallone, RN - Member Atty. Geoffrey Tobia – Member Michele Parker, MD – Member Also Present: Tina Rusak, RN Minutes for Board of Health meeting held Monday October 19, 2020 ________________________________________________________________________________ *Pursuant to Governor Baker’s March 12, 2020 Order Suspending Certain Provisions of the Open Meeting Law, G.L. c. 30A, §20, and the Governor’s March 15, 2020 Order imposing strict limitation on the number of people that may gather in one place, this meeting of the Gardner Board of Health will be conducted via remote participation. The transcript of proceedings will be posted on the City’s website as soon as possible after the meeting. 4:34 Meeting called to order. 4:35 Minutes of the August 17, 2020 meeting were reviewed, discussed and approved. 5:40 Old Business: Body Art Regulations – The last draft of the proposed regulations are reviewed and discussed, some legal language and grammatical changes were made. Language for sharps disposal and biological waste was added. The Board votes unanimously to approve the new Body Art Regulations with an effective date of January 1, 2021. Flu Clinics – The Health Department ordered a new pharmaceutical grade vaccine refrigerator. Gardner Public Schools has a student clinic planned for October 28th with Walgreens. A potential public flu clinic at City Hall with Chair City Pharmacy was being discussed, potentially to be held in November. Chair City Pharmacy did a clinic at Heywood Place and was working to schedule clinics with Senior Housing. Chair City was doing in-home flu vaccines for home-bound residents. Sue was recruiting nurses to administer vaccine for us if we have a public clinic. Lauren and Dr. Parker are scheduled to do a segment about flu vaccine on GETV on Thursday October 22, 2020. Angela in the Health Department completed the MIIS training to enable the Department to order vaccine once the refrigerator arrives. Gardner Community Health Center is working to vaccinate their clients, Heywood Hospital is working on a community clinic for November. Residents can get flu vaccinations at most of the local pharmacies. Dr. Parker offered to be the Medical Director for the Board of Health to meet the State’s requirement for ordering vaccine. The State notified the Health Department that if we host a flu clinic we can use that as our EDS Drill requirement for the year. A potential drive-thru clinic at the High School was discussed. 5:10 New Business: Open Gov Software – The Health Department recently purchased the same software that the Building Department started using last year for permitting. Angela is meeting with their team and working to develop all of the permit application forms electronically. The first 4 applications went live October 17, 2020. A computer kiosk was added in the office for applicants to use if they  don’t have access to a computer elsewhere or need in-person assistance. More of the permit applications are to be available online shortly and we were hoping to be able to also do food and housing inspections with this software as well. Inspectors would use a tablet in the field. Prevention Coordinator – This is a new position in the Health Department which was approved by City Council. In the surrounding communities there is only one other dedicated prevention person, who works in Fitchburg. License Commission Clerk – The person who had started in this position had to resign for personal reasons after 2 weeks; this position is vacant again. There was additional discussion about contact tracing and procedures. 5:23 Next meeting set Monday November 23, 2020 at 4:30. Adjourn. ___________________________ _______________________ _________________________ Susan Avallone RN, Chair Person Atty. Geoffrey Tobia, Member Michele C. Parker MD, Member All conversations are documented on ‘You Tube’ identified as B.O.H October 19, 2020 Meeting