Board of Health

CITY OF GARDNER OFFICE OF THE BOARD OF HEALTH 95 PLEASANT ST, ROOM 29 GARDNER, MASSACHUSETTS 01440-2630 Members Present: Angela DiPrima – Agent for the Board of Health Susan Avallone, RN – Chairperson Geoff Tobia, Esq. – Member Dr. Michele Parker - Member Absent: Attendees Present: Board of Health meeting held July 17, 2023 ________________________________________________________________________________ 4:31 Meeting called to order. 4:31 The minutes from 9/26/22 are approved and will be signed at the next meeting with a correction to a date listed in the minutes. The minutes from 6/12/23 were approved and signed. 4:34 Hearings: Eldorado Canyon Properties Violation Hearing (39 Graham St): Property Owner called today to ask to postpone the hearing, states that he was on vacation and that he did not get the notice for the hearing until this weekend. The Tobacco Violation Hearing (A-1 Mart): Postponed until August meeting at the request of the establishment owner. Both will be added to the August meeting’s agenda. 4:35 Old Business: The work on the pumps at the Transfer Station was unable to begin, there was some confusion over the status of the contracts, and it’s still in progress. We’re working with Purchasing and Chris from CEC. Lauren left on 6/6/23, Angela has been functioning as the Agent for the Board, overseeing the staff and office business during the vacancy of that position. Micah Blondeau was offered the position of Director and is scheduled to start on 7/24/23. The City Solicitor along with Angela & Eric appeared in Housing Court Case on 7/14/23 against one of the multi-family properties in the city. The property has had several significant violations which the property owner has failed to bring to compliance. The Solicitor and Angela met with the property owner and a Housing Specialist at court and came to an agreement on a timeline for repairs to be completed; there are 14 -day, 30-day and 60-day goals which will need to be met. We’re currently waiting for the Judge to sign off on the Order. There have been some City events with Food Trucks recently; the Summer Kickoff Concert and Annual Food Truck Festival. Between the two events there were twenty-six food trucks. All trucks were inspected on the day of their event and passed. This weekend is the Summer Celebrations at Mount Wachusett Community College on 7/22/23 with 6-8 food trucks scheduled.  Household Hazardous Waste Day was on 6/24/23 and 67 households dropped off items. The Gardner Senior Center had a public shredding event on 7/2/2023. There were 14 volunteers and they shredded just over 3 tons of paper. 4:38 New Business: Lauren Saunders was contracted with the City as a Title 5 Consultant to approve septic applications, review plans, and inspect systems during the absence of a certified inspector on staff. She will continue this until the new Director begins next week. Angela has signed up to take the MA Title 5 Soil Evaluators certification and MA Title System Inspector Certification this fall. This will help ensure that we have 2 inspectors circumvent delays in repairs construction of new systems in the event of an extended vacancy of a certified inspector again. Eric and Angela have been diving into Housing Code Pro software for Housing Inspections. There are some challenges and limitations that we have been trying to resolve, we are hopeful that it will improve the ease of documentation and record keeping as well as consistency. Eric, Micah, and Angela will be registering to attend the MHOA conference in October, we may need to ask for additional funds for Personnel Development as there is now a new staff position that will require training throughout the year. Last Wednesday (7/12/23) a call was received from the HR Director about an incident at the Greenwood Memorial Pool. Glass goggles had shattered, and glass was in the pool. After a discussion with a CPO instructor and a review of the State Pool Regulations, the decision was made to close the pool to the public so it could be drained, cleaned, and have the chemicals rebalanced. We belong to Region 2 Emergency Preparedness and every community has a vote. Lauren was the primary person to vote for Gardner. They’re now looking for a letter for the new primary contact so we’re waiting for Micah to start, and Sue will be secondary contact. There is also a HAN Alert for notifications about the weekly Arbovirus testing to check for West Nile Virus and EEE and they would like someone designated as a primary and a backup from each community. They would be coordinator for the city and need to check MAVEN for cases. Sue will follow up on this. Angela informed the board members that the property of 39 Graham Street has just requested a hearing for a Property Standards violation; this will be scheduled for the August meeting. 4:59 Next meeting: Monday August 21, 2023 at 4:30 PM here at Gardner City Hall in the Mayor’s Conference Room; adjourn. ____________________________ __________________________ ____________________________ Susan Avallone RN, Chairperson Atty. Geoffrey Tobia, Member Michele C. Parker MD, Member All conversations are documented on recordings identified as BOH July 17, 2023 Meeting.