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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1977-10-17BOARD OF HEALTH MEETING OCTOBER 17, 1977 The regular meeting of the Board of Health was held Monday, October 17, 1977 at 7:00 P.M. in Room G-15 of the Town Office Building. Members present were: Dr. William L. Cosgrove, Chairman; Mr. James Lambie, Dr. Michael Erdos and George A. Smith, Director of Public Health. The minutes of the September 13, 1977 meeting were approved as typed. Copies of the proposed budget for fiscal year 1978-79 were discussed. BUDGETS Mr. Smith said that all departments and accounts were requested to file a short statement as to the effect that a reduction of 5% (percent) would have on the budgets. It was noted that most budgets under the jurisdiction of the Board of Health had either been reduced or stayed the same. Mr. John Brucchi, 63 Paul Revere Road, had requested to come before the JOHN BRUCCHI Board to discuss the transfer of his permit to keep eight horses. HORSES. Mr. Brucchi had been before the Board in September of 1976 to object to the words "Not Transferable" on the animal permits. Mr. Brucchi explained to the Board that it was a matter of life and death that he be able to have the permit for 8 horses transferred to a new owner of his property. He explained he had a chance to sell his property but it was based on the owner having 8 horses. Dr. Cosgrove again explained that Mr. Brucchi's permit was issued under the "Grandfather's Clause" in the regulations. There was no way the Board could grant a new owner permission to keep 8 horses on 2k acres of land when our regulations specifically call for 2 acres for one horse and an acre per horse up to 5 acres. Dr. Cosgrove went on to say, you were in before trying to ge the "Not Transfereb1 !off your permit and we told you at that time you were operating under the "grandfather's clause". If your buyer wants to make application for horses he has a perfect right to do so but he will not be under the same clause as you are. Mr. Brucchi said that without the permit for 8 horses he could not sell out. He went on to say he had this chance to make enough money to retire on - he referred to his land and house as his retirement fund. Dr. Cosgrove said he was sorry but the regulations were very explicit and the Board could not do anything but refuse to transfer the permit. Mr. Brucchi insisted that the horses were not a health menace. Dr. Cosgrove said he didn't see how Mr. Brucchi could be assured that a new owner, he did not even know nor had ever met, would keep this place clean and not have a health menace. Mr. Brucchi said that because the Board took this attitude he would have to take this problem further because he felt that this was a hardship case. Mr. Brucchi retired. Mr. James McKee, Director of Replace, came before the Board to discuss the Budget for fiscal year 1978-79. b REPLACE He explained that there was a cost of living increase for personnel and a small increase in expenses to cover the cost of a new typewriter and some paint. Mr. McKee explained that their income source, they anticipate, will remain the same with about 50% being paid by the Town. The other sources will be from the State Mental Health and C.E.T.A. Dr. Cosgrove asked if there was any reason why RePlace could not come under Mystic Valley Mental Health Association. He went on to say that where the M.V.M.H.A. had received the million dollar grant from the State and Federal givernment for salaries it would be beneficial to the people of Replace. Mr. McKee said "No" there was no way for them to be under M.V.M.H.A. and he felt that if this did happen RePlace would loose it's effectiveness. Dr. Cosgrove said the reason he asked that was because Dr. Cook of Region III Mental Health Division said he wanted to consolidate all the Mental Health projects in the area, this included the budgets of these projects. Dr. Erdos asked if the M.V.M.H.A. was an adversory to RePlace. Mr. McKee said "No" on the contrary he felt that there was a marked improvement over the years. Dr. Erdos asked in what way? Mr. McKee said Mary Samantino of the crisis group came to RePlace every 2 weeks to go over any problems. Because of this relationship with M.V.M.H.A. it has enabled us to spped hospitalization in a couple of emergencies. After further discussion regarding the functions of RePlace Mr. Smith asked Mr. McKee if he could give the Board of Health a short statement of what the effect a 5% cut in the budget would have on the services given. The Board thanked Mr. McKee for coming in. Mrs. Jayne Tapia, Director of Tri Community Health Services, came before the Board to discuss an educational program to be given in co- operation with the Council on Aging. Mrs. Anne Jackson and William Siene from the Council on Aging also attended this meeting. Mrs. Tapia introduced Jean Woods, a graduate student working with her. Mrs. Tapia said that basically the education programs they have been offering at the elderly clinics have been interesting and well received at Vyne Brook Village. The programs last year were not well attended at Greeley Village. She said she would like to revitalize this program and thought if they could work in cooperation with the Council on Aging it would be good and they would reach more people. 1 1 TRI COMMUNITY HEALTH SERVICES Dr. Cosgrove said he felt that people 65 years and over were not too interested in educational programs. 1 Dr. Cosgrove asked the people from the Council on Aging if they had $30,000 dollars to work with. Mr. Siene said "No" their operating budget for fiscal year 1978 was $17,420 dollars. They did not receive money from H.E.W. Dr. Cosgrove asked Mrs. Tapia that after the work done at the Well Elderly Clinics if there was a need for more educational programs. Dr. Erdos said he had just attended a meeting of an open forum regarding adequate health and functions extending into the healty years of middle life. This forum is more than just a discussion group, there will be 3 sessions and anyone can attend. There will be meeting dealing with different health pro- grams, and they do have a Grant to work with so they should be able to come up with some good educational programs. Mrs. Tapia said that the forum would be able to provide a lot more than they could but she still would like to see an educational program for the elderly offered 3 to 4 times a year. Dr. Erdos asked what topics they had in mind for these programs. Mrs. Tapia said they had offered one on exercise, one on Medicare and another on diet. They said they would like to get some topics that are un- iversal and they thought if they worked through the Council on Aging they could reach more people. Dr. Cosgrove suggested that Mrs. Tapia and the Council on Aging get to- gether and discuss this program. He thanked them for coming into the meeting. Dr. Erdos said that he had received a complaint regarding the use of dumpsters behind Peking Garden Restaurant and Manuder's Market; also the complainant expressed concern about cooking odors eminating from these businesses and others in the immediate area of the parking quaddangle. PEKING GARDEN RESTAURANT MAUNDER'S MARKET Mr. Smith said that the condition of the dumpaters was not much different from that of others found throughout the Town. These rubbish containers do by virtue of their bulk have a certain nuisance value that prompts a variety of complaints about their use or mus -use. When we receive complaints about these units inspections are made and violation notices are sent where appropriate. Inspections and notices have been sent in the past to abuttors of the quadrangle area and in general they usually have been co- operative in correcting nuisance conditions when asked to do so. The matter of the odor problem exists today as it has for sometime in the past. This problem has been reviewed by myself and personnel from the State Department of Environmental Quality Engineering. It has been deter- mined in the past that these odors are not a serious health hazard per se, but do represent a real nuisance situation. The Peking Garden Restaurant is an obnoxious contributor to the problem due to the types of food pre- pared and the manner or preparation. The Peking Garden Restaurant has hired an engineer to help assist them with this problem and some progress has been made in this respect. There are some problems, however, that technology may never be able to be cor- rected in so fax as this particular situation is concerned. Some of these problems include the geographical layout of the center of the town, and the quadrangel and restrictions put on the Peking Garden with respect to exhaust stack height, etc. Bids are presently being obtained by Peking Gardens relative to a new and improved ventilation system. Never the less work is proceeding and a further inspection has been scheduled for October 18 or 19 with the Peking Garden and engineers from the Air and Hazardous Materials Division State Department of Environmental Quality Engineering Division. Dr. Erdos said that the complainant felt this problem would lead to the "decay of the Town". Dr. Cosgrove interjected saying that these dumpsters presented the dame nuisance condition on the other side of Massachusetts Avenue as in the as in the area of the parking quadrangle. He felt further that some of the problems were created by the people who drove up and put their own rubbish into the dumpsters so they would not have to go to the landfill. He said he had seen this happen more than once. Mr. Smith indicated that while inspecting markets and restaurants rubbish handling and disposal practices are checked and problems have been noticed with dumpsters. Mostly store owners are somewhat lax in policing the areas where dumpsters are maintained. At 9:30 p.m. people interested in Ridge Estates II subdivision came RIDGE into the meeting to hear the discussion regarding the subdivision being ESTATES II presented by Mr. Dennis Lowe, Attorney for Mr. Theodore Freeman, the developer. NOTE: A list of names of residents from the Brookwood Road, Saddle Club Road attending this meeting has been filed in the folder entitled "Ridge Estates II." Mr. Dennis Lowe speaking for Mr. Freeman stated that they had come before the Board to discuss whether it would be possible to tie 56 ad- ditional homes into the trunk line sewer near Brookwood Road. If it is not possible to connect these proposed homes to the public sewer would the Board if proper percolation tests were done agree to grant a variance so that these homes could be built with individual septic systems. Dr. Cosgrove said there was a. study being conducted by the Department of Public Works and Engineering of the Flow and Infiltration of the sewer line in this area. This study would be done in 3 phases. Phase I should be completed by June, 1978. This study should give us some answers to the sewer problems in this area. He said he felt that there should be at least a year and a half before any building is done in this area. Mr. Lowe said he understood there was a study going on but the de- veloper would like to get started on these houses now. He said he won- dered if they could acquire a variance from the Board which would permit individual sewage systems on each lot. Dr. Cosgrove said if on site sewage systems were permitted each lot would have to have percolation tests done and then plans for each in- dividual system would have to be submitted before any approval could be made. Mr. Lowe said if on-site systems were used Mr. Corbin, Engineer for Joseph Moore Co., Bedford, Mass. would do the "perc" tests. He went on to explain that a few tests were done on a few of the lots a few weeks ago and the tests were satisfactory. 59 Dr. Cosgrove asked Mr. Corbin how the "perc" tests were? Mr. Corbin said that he had tested 8 lots and the worst was an drop for 1 inch. The deepest test hole was 42 inches. 8 minute Dr. Cosgrove asked Mr. Martin, Assistant Town Engineer, when he thought the sewer study would be done. Mr. Martin said it could be 1 year or it could be longer. The first phase of this study should answer a lot of questions. Actually as it stands, the sewer line is only operating up to about 26% capacity but there seems to be a heavy inflow, infiltration which could be causing the problem. One of the residents said that he had raw sewage backing into his home each year and he would certainly object to anyone building until the problem was resolved. Mr. Lowe said the viable alternative would be on site sewage systems. An abuttor to this property said he would object to on-site sewerage systems because of the possibility they could leach into the Vine Brook. Dr. Cosgrove said he had seen too many of these on-site systems and when public sewer was available the people did not tie into the sewer. He went on and mentioned several sub -divisions that had been problems in the past. Dr. Erdos said that this infiltration and correction study should be com- pleted by June 1978. The Town Meeting will have to fund the study for part 2 and 3, if the Town does not fund this study then it could be a problem and take a long time before it is completed. A resident from Saddle Club Road said he had a septic system which gave out in six years because of the high water table in that area. Mr. Smith said there was no guarantee to any septic system. Mr. Corbin said that when on-site systems were installed each lot would be tested individually and then they were carefully checked by Mr. Smith. Dr. Erdos called on Mr. Martin to make any comments he would like. Mr. Martin said he anticipated that this study would give them a good handle on a solution to this problem. He said it could also be 3 to 5 years before a viable solution would be made. He said he felt the optimum solution was for the developer to wait and use the public sewer. Mr. Corbin said he felt that most people did not understand the operation of the on-site sewer systems. A garbage grander could shorten the life of a septic system by at least five years and also on-site sewer systems must have proper care. A great deal of concern was expressed by the residents of the area re- garding the run off from these lots into Vine Brook and also their concern of the leaching of sanitary sewers into Vine Brook. Mr. Lambie said he felt that the cost to the developer could be prohibi- tive if he put in on-site systems and then also put in a dry sewer line for future use. 60 Mr. Lowe said that was a risk the developer would have to be willing to take if the Town required a dry line. He went on to say that he would not be buiding on 56 lots at one time, he probably would only be using one or two lots at a time. Mr. Lambie asked who would pay the cost of connecting these homes to public sewer and hw long would a home owner have. Dr. Cosgrove said they would have to connect to public sewer within a reasonable length of time after the sewer was available. It would be up to the home owner to pay the costs to connect to public sewer. One of the residents asked if these on site sanitary systems could be guaranteed not to affect the brook area. Mr. Lowe said we can't deal with guarantees. The developer will install a sanitary system in accordance with the Health regulations. If a place is "perc'd" properly and a good engineer designs the system nothing can go wrong. Dr. Cosgrove said he would like to know what happened to all the places in Town that have had so much trouble with septic systems de- signed by good engineers that had so much trouble they had to have em- ergency public sewer installed. You must admit that those on site systems can and do go bad. Many of the abuttors in the Saddle Club Road area said they had to put in a second system to carry them over until public sewer was available. They also indicated that this subdivision had a lot of low wet land. Dr. Erdos said in this area this land was used for farms but the low wet area would not be good for septic systems, he went on to say that as far as he could see the Board would have to consider the suit- ability of the lots for septic systems and then the capacity of the land to absorb and drain especially near Vine Brook. Mr. Martin said what would have to be done in this area is to est- ablish a base line of flow of the ground water, a study of this type is very costly and time consuming. He went on to say that it may be hard to settle these on site systems because of the State and Federal Agencies involved in this surcharge problem. I would think you would have to come up with a set of standards and a good rule of the thumb would be how good the system was going to be. Dr. Erdos asked if the system didn't have to be at least 4 feet above the water table, the leaching lines that is. Dr. Cosgrove said that according to law the Board had 45 days to act on a subdivision preliminary plan, our concern is with drainage, water and sewer. He went on th say that if those three things are okay the Board goes no further. Mr. Smith said his interpertation was that the sewer lines would be coming out on Grant Street from the Mark Moore Condiminums but as he looks at the plan again he can see that some of the lines will also be coming out on the East Street side too.