Board of Health

CITY OF GARDNER OFFICE OF THE BOARD OF HEALTH 95 PLEASANT ST, ROOM 29 GARDNER, MASSACHUSETTS 01440-2630 Members Present: Micah Blondeau – Agent for the Board of Health Susan Avallone, RN – Chairperson Geoff Tobia, Esq. - Member Absent: Dr. Michele Parker – Member Attendees Present: Board of Health meeting held February 26, 2024 ________________________________________________________________________________ 4:36 Meeting called to order. 4:37 The minutes from December 4, 2023 will be reviewed at the next meeting. The minutes from January 22, 2024 were reviewed and approved. 4:38 Old Business: Micah left a message with the Westminster Health Department regarding coordinating efforts with migrant housing and waiting to hear back. 4:51 New Business: The Health Department received a public information request regarding past testing for the landfill leachate water. Testing for PFAS is not a requirement at the landfill; results have been sent over to MA DEP. Veolia and Gardner DPW may test for PFAS at the water treatment plant and the sludge landfill. MA DEP came back with a few concerns. First, the landfill has two groundwater monitoring wells that have been broken since 2017, they need to be fixed. Then there’s more erosion on the south side of a landfill. And the last concern was a chemical called 1,4-Dioxine. The lab is not testing it at the proper lower reportable limit so our environmental consultants have reached out to the lab that will be changing it immediately for the next tests. Rough estimates would be around $5,000 for well repair, and somewhere near $50,000 for erosion control. The housing inspector position is vacant. Angela is completing her MA PHIT certification. Last week the Health Department met with the Assistant Attorney General regarding abandoned properties in town and went to look at five abandoned houses that Micah had picked out to do inspections on. The Neighborhood Renewal Program evaluate those for suitability to either put them into a receivership or get the property owner to come back into compliance. Growing Places will be starting up in Waterford Street School and we have a tentative inspection on Wednesday to get them open.  Micah submitted the budget, and the highlight would have been the money for the transfer station improvements. At the last meeting it was mentioned that the Health Department should be trying to get more people to use the pay as you go bags rather than requesting extra totes if they have a lot of trash. The biggest issue the Health Department has seen is that we've had complaints of E.L. Harvey dumping recycle bins that are full of trash, so the residents are throwing trash in the recycle bin and then Harvey is enabling that by just dumping it right into the trash truck. Residents want more space, so they use the larger unit which is for recycling. What E.L. Harvey is supposed to do is tag it and mark it and not pick it up so that the resident knows they can't be doing that. Micah has been talking to E.L. Harvey about the concerns and if the BOH receives complaints, an inspector will go look and if needed will write a letter and send a notice to the property owner and a lot of times it’s been enough to fix the problem at specific individual houses. 4:57 Next meeting: Monday, March 25, 2024 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 February 26, 2024 Meeting.