Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout1977-06-06 41 BOARD OF HEALTH MEETING JUNE 6, 1977 The regular meeting of the Board of Health was held on June 6, 1977 at 7 00 P.M. in the Health Department Office of the Town Office Building. Mem- I '.BOP".TCRv bers present were Dr William L. Cosgrove, Chairman James W. Lambie, Dr "'TEP T^"T" Michael S Erdos, and George e Smith, Director of Public Health Mr Smith reported that he had been checking out the implementation of the laboratory analysis prior to the E P '1 Safe Drinking "iter ct. He went en to explain he had met with Mr Gerald McCall regarding the certifica- tion of our laboratory but in going over the requirements it was agreed that et the present time the Tcr'n world stay with the State grogram because of the limited man power in the Health 1ffice A meeting with 'illiam Green of the tit D C and John 'c°'•'eeney to discuss the i.mplementetion of this pro- gram was held on May 15th. It will be un to Mr. McSweeney's department to establish the sampling sites and else train the water personnel to collect the sc 1e- The State lehor,tor.' 'i'' de che"'i.c"1 and becte- Lelegio"1 anal**si, The F P " Safe Drinking Meter ".ct noes into effect on June 14th M- "mi th reported that 'e did hey- eempl - i nts 'her the i n r enner-ee,1 thev hae9 pet an additive 1" the salter ls_pl<r to combat correei en in the nines --erne thronghout *t n r 'rater supply, this "dditive is also being used hecaese of the fluoride 'Which is e.ntirin ted in the neer futlp . ?'r Felts' reported that C'a ry me-oriel T ih*--rn• h^d beer having -lrohlems ,lith the to ete and oder of the t-ap ',ester T`ri or to the 1Sth of mc- some of. the '7erl'err had beer ill but they r-'tionali-ed it by the fact thet tl"'e. -ter heater lyes been out of or-ler and the water cooler 'le- out et t1'e rare time. orsn odor 't that tire f'-or thr ' 'ter -le eirila- to enti-freeee. The --ter n 't 'Feel -lick or el.i--mere, 'e have t-l'on e miller and in the r'eeeti'ae they ere noi_nc to have the it e'nditioner cheesed. This could be a cross- connection problem hecense they do nut anti-freeee in the air conditioning system during the winter We have nothing certain at this tine hut wn keep on this proble"' mr "-lith explained that in '-aril the nepertment had ' letter from the MEASLES State wealth Department regardina the high incidence of measles throughout the 'tate particularly in the teen age boys and girls. ` survey of these children showed that most of them had been inneculeted prior to one year of age A. review was made of the school records and statistics showed that a number of children were lack- ng in the immuniention reeeired for schorl attendance Most of the surreunding towns have scheduled i.mmuni cation clinics for this inneculation 's soon as 'e herr from all the schools, if the need is here, we will also have clinics This near Acre it is so late in the school year we will just do the junior high and high schools, the elementary schools will be done in the Wall . 2't these clin. cs the girls -*ill receive the single virus dose of measles vaccine and the boys will receive measles, mumps and rubella (MmR) . At 7 45 o m. Mrs Jane Tapia came before the Board to discuss the Tri- TRT-COMf-StTh1IT' Com"unity Health cervicee to date. She reported that the re-visits at the HFnLTA "'FP17Tre~ Well Elderly Clinics are staying stable and she •could like to suggest a joint meeting *ith the Board, Council on :ging end the Tri-Community Health Services so that they may do more with the educational. program. 4 It was suggested that the joint meeting could be held in the early Fall Mrs Virginia Collard of the Red cross was expected to attend this 'T "`-'RTMNSION meeting to discuss a hypertension nrogran Dr Cosgrove explained that the Rotary Club was interested in assisting with the financing of a Hypertension program and the Red Cross was definitely going to start some sort of a program for blood pressure n+r. Smith said he attended that workshop conducted by the State re- garding Feneral grant money for Hypertension Programs Basically what they are interested in is to implement programs in the elementary schools and go un to 50 years of age In order for these programs to be of any use at all they must be on-going with a good follow-up In order to he eligible for funds the Department would have to work out a very comprensive plan. Dr Cosgrove said if the funds were available maybe the Red Cross could come up with a nlan and then they could run the program He suggested Mr Smith talk with Mrs. Collard Mr Smith reported that the May snowstorm on May 9th and 10th created SNO;^- some problems with power outages etc The power failures made it necessary "TORN to contact and inspect every food market and every restaurant to make sure every precaution to protect the public was taken, Because of the conditions here he did contact the State and they did send an inspector out to assist him for the two days The larger markets were able to get either dry ice or a, refrigerator truck to hold their products Most of the things lost were dairy products Mr Smith explained that a Mrs Paul Hilcoff on Lowell Street, opposite the greenhouses owned by Lexington Gardens has been complaining about the ' r,rnFF, use of r`esticides in the fumigation of the greenhouse She sees signs on To 'r r ST the door warning of gas and sees the men in masks, etc , which really has convinced her that they are discharging poisons from this operation out into th the air by way of the greenhouse ventilators Mrs Hilcoff is so distraught that this has become quite a problem I have had inspectors from the State Pertic3de Board, the 'lir Pollution Committee and the rass Dept. of Public Health people to check this facility and they have all assured her there is nothing wrong hut nothing seems to satisfy Mrs Hilcoff me will con- tinue to work this problem out The Board discussed the letter to the Board of ^electmen by Manfred MOSQUITO Freidman suggesting that the mosquito control program be stopped. The CONTROL Board said they would go on record as being in favor of the mosquito con- trol program not for comfort reasons as Mr. Friedman stated but for disease control reasons, (eg Encephelitis, Heartworm in dogs and pro- tection for people allergic to bites) . Mr Smith said he would like Dr. Erdos to write something on the medical aspect of the mosquito control program. LANDFILL Mr. Smith reported that today he attended a show cause hearing held OPERATION by the Department of Environmental Quality Engineering relative to the closing of the Land Fill The Town Manager has requested some time so he might take corrective action In the meantime he had delegated Mr. Smith to make a weekly in- spection of the Land Fill and write him a written report 43 The State said that the problems with the landfill had been going on for at least 3 years and to date Lexington had not done anything about the prob- lems nor had they met any of the requirements set down by the State at least 3 years ago At this meeting Town Manager has taken ful responsibility for this operation. The State has given them some time but if they do not follow through this time then further action will be taken by the State through the Attorney General's Office. The Board agreed there was not much they could do at this time. Mr. Smith said he thought the letter written by Mr Lambie regarding the SEWER sewer surcharge was excellent and if it was aggreeable with the other Board SURCHARGE members this letter would be sent to the appropriate departments. Mr Lambie said he thought the Town must come up with a good plan to correct this problem if not we should put a hold on any more connections to the sewer The Board discussed this surcharge problem further and felt that with the new construction by Mark Moore and other builders there could be quite a strain on the M.D C. lines Mr. Smith reported that he had heard from the Mass Commission Against PEWTER POT Discrimination regarding the Pewter Pot employee and he had supplied the com- mission with all the information they requested. Mr. Smith explained to the Board members recommendations made pertaining to the definitive plans for the Thymewood Subdivision, a three house subdi- TYMEWOOD vision, planned for the Tymewood Farm (Davis Farm) off North Street. The SUBDIVISION plan was submitted by Mr. Ralph Hall (S & A Realty Trust) , 1656 Mass Avenue, Lexington on March 14, 1977 In as much as municipal water is available to the site and subdivision drainage is not of significant consequence in this area no unusual problems can be expected in these areas of concern. Sewage disposal is another matter. No municipal sewerage is available to this site consequently sewage disposal must be by on site disposal Deep test hole observations and percolation tests showed that the site was acceptable for on site disposal. However, because the Board of Health has recommended municipal sewerage be constructed in North Street the recommendation was made to the Planning Board that a requirement be made of the developer to install dry sewer from North Street to the approximate limits of a common driveway between lots 4, 5 and 6 with the minimum invert elevation at North Street to be determined by DPW/Engineering. This recommendation was made because of the unusually long run from lots 4, 5 and 6 within the subdivision to North Street, also of these lots Lot 5 appears to be the most disadvantaged in respect to making a sewer con- nection as the subdivision is proposed at this time. In addition, it was noted that the Town is rapidly nearing the end of it's new sewerage con- struction program and North Street is one that will be sewered although sewerage construction is not imminent 46 ment is a 300 page book regarding the after the fact statements of the spraying done in 1973-1975 because of the encephalitis outbreak. He said you could in- terpret this statement any way you want to The statement deals with the use of malathion as the pesticide. Mr. Lambie asked if they felt the spraying really did the job. Mr. Smith said they were not 100% sure Mosquito Control does a lot of winter work. The drainage and larvae work is all done during the winter months. He also said the Town Manager would like a statement from the Board regarding the mosquito work Mr. Lambie said he was sure the pesticides used were thoroughly checked out and he agreed that the comfort part was probably more important to most people than the health hazard. He agreed and he felt that the Board should stand firm that the encephalities and diseases presented more of a hazard than the spraying. LANDFILL Mr Smith reported that since June 6th he had been making weekly inspections at the landfill. Things seem to be going well. They have to put up a litter fence yet but they have done well covering up. Right now they are working on the elementary conditions. The Town Manager at the Show Cause Hearing took full responsibility for this problem. Right now the Town has 45 days to submit preliminary operational plans and also closure plans. The Town Manager has also asked if the Board would give an opinion about putting garbage into the landfill along with rubbish. The engineering firm of I Whitman & Howard are now making a study of what the impact would be if garbage and rubbish are mixed. The Board said they felt that this would certainly contaminate other Towns water supply. They also felt we were not in a position to make that decision as to whether garbage could be put into the landfill, they said they felt that was up to the Department of Environmental Quality Engineering to decide what could or could not be done The Board said they would, at this time, go on record as being opposed to this type of program. Mr. Smith said he would check with the State and then if it was necessary would contact the Board members. Mr Smith said he had met with Tom McLaughlin regarding the implementation of Title 5 Mr McLoughlin has to approve the site for the dumping of seepage by the licensed disposal personnel. The Bow Street site was checked and now according to the new regulation the Board of Health will be respinsible for issuing single permits for the use of this manhole. Mr. McLoughlin feels a closer watch should be kept on the manhole than is now being done. Mr. McLoughlin also met with John McSweeney and Jerry Martin at this time to discuss the sewer surcharge problem The Mill Brook sewer construction is now 18th on the priority list but things can change a lot faster than anyone expects. Bedford does have a plan for a direct line from the M.D C. line to their town line When this is completed all sewage from Bedford will by-pass the Lexington pumping stations and go directly into the M D C Lire. Mr. Lambie asked where the letter regarding this problem had gone. The State said that the problems with the landfill had been going on for at least 3 years and to date Lexington had not done anything about the prob- lems nor had they met any of the requirements set down by the State at least 3 years ago At this meeting Town Manager has taken ful responsibility for this operation The State has given them some time but if they do not follow through this time then further action will be taken by the State through the Attorney General's Office The Board agreed there was not much they could do at this time Mr. Smith said he thought the letter written by Mr Lambie regarding the SEWER sewer surcharge was excellent and if it was aggreeable with the other Board SURCHARGE members this letter would be sent to the appropriate departments Mr Lambie said he thought the Town must come up with a good plan to correct this problem if not we should put a hold on any more connections to the sewer The Board discussed this surcharge problem further and felt that with the new construction by Mark Moore and other builders there could be quite a strain on the M.D C. lines Mr Smith reported that he had heard from the Mass. Commission Against PEWTER POT Discrimination regarding the Pewter Pot employee and he had supplied the com- mission with all the information they requested. Mr Smith explained to the Board members recommendations made pertaining to the definitive plans for the Thymewood Subdivision, a three house subdi- TYMEWOOD vision, planned for the Tymewood Farm (Davis Farm) off North Street. The SUBDIVISION plan was submitted by Mr. Ralph Hall (S & A Realty Trust) , 1656 Mass Avenue, Lexington on March 14, 1977 In as much as municipal water is available to the site and subdivision drainage is not of significant consequence in this area no unusual problems can be expected in these areas of concern. Sewage disposal is another matter. No municipal sewerage is available to this site consequently sewage disposal must be by on site disposal Deep test hole observations and percolation tests showed that the site was acceptable for on site disposal However, because the Board of Health has recommended municipal sewerage be constructed in North Street the recommendation was made to the Planning Board that a requirement be made of the developer to install dry sewer from North Street to the approximate limits of a common driveway between lots 4, 5 and 6 with the minimum invert elevation at North Street to be determined by DPW/Engineering This recommendation was made because of the unusually long run from lots 4, 5 and 6 within the subdivision to North Street, also of these lots Lot 5 appears to be the most disadvantaged in respect to making a sewer con- nection as the subdivision is proposed at this time. In addition, it was noted that the Town is rapidly nearing the end of it's new sewerage con- struction program and North Street is one that will be sewered although sewerage construction is not imminent.