Board of Health

CITY OF SALEM BOARD OF HEALTH MEETING MINUTES March 7, 2023 MEMBERS PRESENT: Jeremy Schiller, Geraldine Yuhas, Datanis Elias, Sara Moore, MEMBERS EXCUSED: Paul Kirby OTHERS PRESENT: David Greenbaum, Health Agent, Luong H. Nguyen, Your Neighborhood Market, Thu Ngan Han, 44 Roslyn Street TOPIC DISCUSSION/ACTION 1. Call to Order 7:01pm 2. Approval of Minutes S. Moore motioned to approve the minutes. G. Yuhas 2 nd. (January 10, 2023) Roll call vote: J. Schiller – yes G. Yuhas - yes S. Moore – yes D. Elias – yes Motion passed by a vote of 4 to 0. 3. Luong H. Nguyen – Your Mr. Nguyen appeared before the Board to appeal a recent violation of Neighborhood Market, Appeal of Board of Health Regulation #24 where a minor was sold tobacco on violation of Regulation #24 of the February 1, 2023. Mr. Nguyen apologized to the Board for the incident in City of Salem Board of Health his market and stated they always check IDs. Mr. Nguyen stated that he Restricting the Sale and Use of Tobacco Products and Nicotine and his wife both had the flu at the time of the sale and feels that may have Delivery Products. caused them to be less focused resulting in the sale. They have placed a sign at the register to make sure this doesn’t happen again. J. Schiller asked Mr. Nguyen if he disputed the sale and he indicated that he did not dispute the sale but reiterated that he thought because they were sick, they weren’t as focused as they usually are. J. Schiller explained that he appreciated Mr. Nguyen’s honesty but explained that he understands that this is a significant fine, but the Board doesn’t have any discretion in the enforcement of the regulations. He further explained that there is no mechanism for the Board to provide any relief from the penalties as prescribed in the regulation. The Board understands this was a mistake but there is nothing they can do to alter the penalties for the violation. J. Schiller further explained that the Board has adopted the State regulations, the City is in line with the State of MA and there is no opportunity for the Board to alter the regulations. Mr. Nguyen again asked the Board to provide him with another chance and should this happen again he will accept the penalty. G. Yuhas stated the Board did not have a choice with regard to the enforcement of the penalties. 1|Page  G. Yuhas motioned to deny the appeal of the violation of Board of Health Regulation #24. Second by D. Elias. All in favor. Roll call vote: J. Schiller – yes G. Yuhas - yes S. Moore – yes D. Elias – yes Motion passed by a vote of 4 to 0. Mr. Nguyen asked what the penalty was for the first offense. D. Greenbaum advised him that the penalty is a $1,000 fine and a 3-day suspension. Mr. Nguyen asked if it had to be both the fine and suspension and he was advised that it must be both. J. Schiller advised Mr. Nguyen that a 2nd offense would be a $2,000 fine and a 7-day suspension and the Board had no latitude to change that. Mr. Nguyen asked if he could choose the 3 days, J. Redford advised that the 3 days must be consecutive. Mr. Nguyen requested that the suspension be served on March 20 th, 21st and 22nd. This was agreed upon and D. Greenbaum informed Mr. Nguyen that a written notice would be sent to him. 4. Thu Ngan Han, 44 Roslyn Street Ms. Han appeared before the Board to appeal an order issued on February - Appeal of the Rodent Order 1, 2023 requiring, she hire a licensed pest control operator to exterminate dated February 1, 2023 her property for rodents. Ms. Han read a statement regarding the issue of requiring licensed extermination rodents in the neighborhood and agreed that an exterminator was needed of this property. for her property. She wanted to highlight the lack of response to her requests for information and the lack of a comprehensive plan to address rodents throughout the City. Ms. Han further highlighted the construction of the bike path on Canal Street and fire that occurred at 29 Hancock Street as possible sources for the rodent activity on her property. Her research showed there was information for property owners to address rodent issues on their property, but she was unable to find a plan to address the issue holistically across the City. Ms. Han emphasized that she did not see an issue with rodents on her property until the outside factors she mentioned had happened. She explained that the cities of Lynn, Revere, Chelsea, and Cambridge all offer programs and services to residents in an effort to assist residents, without penalty to them, with addressing rodent issues on their property. Ms. Han stated that she believes the rodent issue on her property is not an isolated incident that is connected to multiple properties and will not be resolved with a single extermination of her property. D. Greenbaum explained that what the City does in regards to rodent control may not be defined as a comprehensive rodent control plan but the City does have procedures in place for conducting rodent control. He further explained, that when the Board of Health receives a complaint of this nature the Board generally has their extermination contractor bait the sewers in the area of the complaint. The City only exterminates on City property, they don’t do anything on private property and that has been the policy for the 17 years he has worked in Salem. Mr. Greenbaum informed 2|Page the Board and Ms. Han of new technologies he hopes to deploy in the City as soon as possible but warned that these would be on public not private property. Ms. Han stated she appreciates the efforts made by the Board around rodent control but that she thinks if there is no required rodent control measures applied to construction projects in the City then the property owner should not be held solely liable for the extermination if the rodent problem was not caused by the homeowner. She also explained that other construction projects in the area have been completed recently, the development on Canal Street and the current construction on Hancock Street that do not have mitigation effort to be prevent rodents could be factors in the rodent issue on her property. D. Greenbaum explained that the Board of Health does place conditions on all construction projects in the City and rodent control is a standard condition placed ono all projects. Whether the bike path project had a formal or informal rodent control condition the contractor did conduct rodent control mitigation efforts as well as responded to complaints from residents. Ms. Han explained that she is a landscape architect and understands the need for rodent control for the duration of the project. She feels the bike path project affected her property to an extent and asked if the City could look at these situations more closely and assist residents who are affected by these situations. She can hire an exterminator; she feels it is a financial burden on her due to conditions on her neighbors’ property. D. Greenbaum explained that the neighbor did receive a letter as well, he does not know what the status of that letter is but will follow up with the inspector on the status of compliance. He also explained that there was no real way to determine the source of the rodents on Ms. Hans property and that the City had no mechanism to provide financial relief to property owners for the cost of extermination. He also explained that there is no active construction on the site now and hasn’t been for over a year. The construction contractor did employ mitigation efforts to alleviate rodent activity on the site and did respond to complaints from residents during construction. Ms. Han asked if it would be possible for the City to create a program for residents to seek rodent control abatement similar to Lynn, Revere, Chelsea, and Cambridge. D. Greenbaum said that it is possible and he would explore this opportunity through the budget process. D. Greenbaum explained how the Board of Health handles rodent complaints when they are received by the office. Staff conduct an environmental assessment to try to identify what the cause of the rodent activity is. If we see activity on private property an order is issued to the property owner to exterminate their property. We then request baiting of the sewers. S. Moore stated that she thought this could be a slippery slope because how do you determine this work is causing this particular problem but recognizes the systemic problem of rodents in the City. Discussion continued regarding what other communities are currently offering for rodent control and what the City of Salem is exploring to employ in terms of new rodent control measures. 3|Page  D. Elias motioned to deny applicants request for the City to cover the costs of extermination. Second by G. Yuhas. All in Favor Roll call vote: J. Schiller – yes G. Yuhas - yes S. Moore – yes D. Elias – yes Motion passed by a vote of 4 to 0. J. Redford spoke to the Board regarding Delta-8 and Kratom proposed draft template regulations. She will forward these to D. Greenbaum, he will forward them to all Board members. The City of Lynn has a marijuana paraphernalia ordinance that he is providing to Boards of Health. D. Greenbaum advised the Board that the budget is written and submitted, 5. Budget Update the two big requests in the budget are a new department vehicle, the current vehicle is reaching its useful life, so a new car has been requested. The second request is to hire a PT Code Enforcement Officer to take over enforcement of the Short-Term Rental Ordinance. All other requests are very standard. J. Schiller updated the Board about the coalition of regional Board of 6. Chairperson Communications Health Chairs are forming a coalition to discuss issues that all communities in the region are experiencing. The pandemic was the impetus for this consortium. As we move away from COVID regional Boards of Health can work on specific initiatives like mental health. Discussion about how the Opioid Settlement funds could be used in relation to mental health. D. Greenbaum discussed with the Board about the importance of having a seat at the table to discuss the expenditure of the opioid settlement funds. Discussion ensued about holding a meeting with City leadership to discuss how best to spend these funds. 7. Public Health Announcements /Reports/Updates On behalf of Public Health Nurse, Suzanne Darmody, D. Greenbaum updated the Board about the recent TB testing conducted for school aged 8. Public Health Nurse children at the shelter at SSU. He also informed the Board that the Report department is running a diaper drive to assist families in need in the community. There will be a ore broad region wide diaper drive in April. Discussion took place about other locations for collection and distribution. Discussion took place regarding the City Council Liaison attending Board 9. Health Agent Report meetings and the desire of the Board to be advised when discussions are taking place around issues that affect public health. D. Greenbaum advised the Board about the upcoming PHE capacity assessment meting on April 13, 2023. Copy available at BOH office. 4|Page  ON FILE 10. Administrative Report 11. Council Liaison Updates NONE 12. New Business/Scheduling of Future Agenda Items NONE 13. Items that could not be anticipated prior to the posting of NONE the agenda. MEETING ADJOURNED: G. Yuhas moved to adjourn. D. Elias 2nd. Roll call vote: J. Schiller – yes S. Moore – yes D. Elias – yes G. Yuhas - yes Motion passed by a vote of 4 to 0. 8:00 PM Respectfully submitted, David Greenbaum Health Agent Next regularly scheduled meeting is Tuesday, April 11, 2023 at 7:00pm At City Hall Annex, 98 Washington Street, 1st Floor, Salem, MA 5|Page