Minutes
Board of Health · from the Town's website · 1 page · 19 KB
open the file ↗ · original at the source ↗
WINTHROP BOARD OF HEALTH MINUTES, REMOTE PARTICIPATION BY ZOOM FEBRUARY 9, 2021 CALL TO ORDER: 6:53 pm ROLL CALL: Bill Schmidt, Chair; Astrid Weins, Vice Chair, Marianne Dalton, Member ATTENDING: Justin Kopec, proprietor JustInk Tattoo; Wendy Millar; Betsy Shane; Karin Chavis. PUBLIC COMMENT: Justin Kopec has reviewed body art regulations, states they are concise and complete, and easy to understand. He has no objections, as he is in compliance with all of the stated regulations. Email from Keith, proprietor Seaside Tattoo: reviewed regulations, voiced no concerns Vice Chair Astrid Weins to present final draft of Body Art regulations to Town Council sometime next month, public hearing posted for public comment, regulations to go into effect sometime in June Betsy Shane: commended good relationship between Board of Health and town businesses, in the past and at present MINUTES JANUARY 12, 2021: submitted by Marianne Dalton. Edits by Bill Schmidt, Chair Minutes accepted: unanimously accepted COVID-19: TOWN OF WINTHROP, BOARD OF HEALTH, WINTHROP HOUSING AUTHORITY: Meredith Hurley, DIRECTOR PUBLIC HEALTH AND CLINICAL SERVICES Challenges re rollout of vaccine discussed. Biggest issue is supply. No allocation from state yet. Received donation of 100 doses frozen COVID vaccine from East Boston Neighborhood Health Center. These doses will be prioritized for homebound Winthrop seniors unable to access clinic. Plan on 2/20/21 to begin vaccinations at Golden Drive, if state fulfills requests for vaccines. Plan in place to hire firefighters and have 2-person teams, consisting of trained volunteer and firefighter/EMT. EMT/firefighter will wait 15 minutes with resident post vaccine to monitor for reactions, then leapfrog with volunteer to cover neighborhood. Prep Mod, an online clinic management and appointment scheduling system, will be used by volunteers to training ongoing, will be simplified for volunteers, ready to go once vaccines are delivered. Revere has 200 additional doses starting 2/15/21 for 75 and over for Winthrop, Revere and Chelsea residents. Budget of public health department pending, unclear if support will be forthcoming from state and if so, how much. Advising schools ongoing, protocols firmly in place. Presentation on 1/27/21 via webinar to Department of Justice jointly by Meredith Hurley and Sergeant Sarko Gregorian on the Winthrop Recovery Model was very well-received. Outreach made to social clubs I.e. Elks concerning protocols. Al Legee visited town clubs Super Bowl Sunday evening, protocols observed, all in compliance. Vice Chair Astrid Weins relates visiting Nick’s Super Bowl Sunday night unofficially and observing little to no proper mask use of employees in kitchen area, about 30 people. Astrid gave notice to manager that Nick’s needs to comply or possibly be responsible for a spread event. Rob Demarco requests via email to reopen basketball courts on Walden St, replace rings/nets and plow area. Discussion concurs that waiting until more moderate weather is appropriate; tabling further discussion until next month’s meeting. MEDICAL RESERVE CORP UPDATE: Board hopes to discuss vaccination sites soon. NORTH SUFFOLK PUBLIC HEALTH COLLABORATIVE, ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH UPDATE: met 1/20/21 briefly. Discussed grant-based installation of pollution/noise monitors at Revere City Hall, American Legion building in Revere, 1-2 schools in Revere, possible sites in Chelsea, already some monitors in place in Winthrop. Next meeting 2/17/21. MASSPORT LOGAN AIRPORT ENVIRONMENTAL DATA REPORT: extended comment period to March 12. Any member of the public can submit comments to Massport on this report. Link to document is available on Town of Winthrop Website. Libraries also receive copies of this document. Includes Massport-generated data on noise, pollution, flights, what they did to protect the environment, etc. Comments accepted are submitted to Secretary of Environmental Affairs, and included in subsequent data reports. TOBACCO SALES REGULATIONS: Bill Schmidt, Chair and DJ Wilson, Tobacco Control Director, Massachusetts Municipal Association to present final draft to Town Council 2/16/21. Public hearing to be held perhaps sometime in March. BOARD OF HEALTH TOWN WEBSITE: Chair Bill Schmidt points out need to organize website, take away items that no longer relevant, and update more relevant items. Need to add Marianne Dalton’s bio to Board of Health website, she will work on this prior to next month’s meeting. WORKPLAN FOR FY2021: updated by Chair Bill Schmidt to include diabetes education. Desire of board to begin to be more proactive than reactive, will try to do this in FY2022. Mosquito mitigation explained by Vice Chair Astrid Weins: Winthrop is a member of Northeast Massachusetts Mosquito Control District, (NEMMC), which represents the mosquito control and wetlands management interests of those communities that choose to subscribe to its services. Subscription covers surveillance, vector/virus intervention, ground larviciding (interrupting development of larvae or pupa into adult mosquitoes), adulticiding (spraying to eradicate adults), barrier treatment, basin treatment, manual ditch maintenance, tire recycling program, property inspections, mosquito habitat mitigations, research and development, education and outreach, and social media. Adulticiding is done when viruses such as Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) or West Nile Virus (WNV) have been detected either in mosquitoes or in an infected person. and is done only with Board of Health approval. Barrier treatment is by Board of Health and School Department request only. Salt marsh mosquitoes, which are not virus vectors, are the main problem in Winthrop, and while an annoyance, are not on list of need to eradicate. Ongoing is larviciding by NEMCC which controls population. NEMCC/WCAT/Astrid produced public service announcement video to educate public on what mitigation can be done. Second Tuesdays of the month are projected schedule of the meeting 630pm through June ADJOURNMENT: Motion to adjourn @ 7:56 pm, passed unanimously. Respectfully submitted by Marianne Dalton, Member