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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1982-01-11 309 BOARD OF HEALTH MEETING JANUARY 11, 1982 The regular monthly meeting of the Board of Health was held Monday, January 11, 1982 at 7 15 p m. in the Recreation Office (Room G-1) of the Town Office Building Members present were Mr James W Lambie, Chairman; Dr Linda Roemer, Ph D and Mr George A. Smith, Director of Public Health The minutes of the December 9, 1981 meeting were approved as read Mr Lambie asked what the special agents for Met State Hospital were SPECIAL AGENTS AT MET STATE Mr Smith said that the secretary, Mrs Smith would explain it Mrs Smith told the Board that there are suppose to be two employees at Met State (section in Lexington) that can sign burial (removal) permits when a dies at the hospital They have to be appointed as a special agent by the Board of Health The Board approved Acting Supt Melvin Tapper and Steward, Stephen Wright as special agents to sign burial permits at Met State Hospital Mr Smith said "Speaking of death certificates, we have had a hard time lately with the death certificates that we take to the Town Clerk The Town Clerk does not accept anything less than perfection It causes a lot of extra work for the Health Office help Mr Smith told the Board that the funeral directors are in the process of setting up a new death certificate with a burial permit attached so that they would not have to come to the Health Office at all Mr Smith said some towns are charging now to make out burial permits They get $5 00 for each burial permit The Board was not in favor of putting this charge into operation at this time Mr Smith reported to the Board that he received a letter (with an application) this week requesting to increase the animal permit from four to six horses from Lisa Fitzgerald He said Lisa has received two letters from the Board making it very plain that she can keep four horses only She only has four stalls in her barn and four is all she can handle right now Mr Smith said that borrowing land is really not the way to go about increasing the number of animals on these permits Mr Smith also told the Board that Lisa does not seem to cooperate or adhere to what she is suppose to do in regard to her animal permit Dr Roemer said she had reviewed the Fitzgerald's file in the Health Department and Lisa never had permission for six horses before She said she is against "borrowing of land" for these animal owners, also Mr Smith said if she waited to come back in when her permit was due to be renewed and did not, in the meantime, have more than the four horses on her property the Board would probably give her the four on the permit As it stands now, the Board feels a permit for three horses with a variance for one more is what she should have Mr Smith feels that Lisa is going to try to intimidate us He recommends the permit stay the same and does not recommend six horses The Board thought that leaving the permit at four until it expires would be all right and at that time they will discuss it again Mr Smith said her mother, Virginia, takes the permit out and then tells us it is her daughter Lisa's problem. He said if Lisa did what the Board asked, in regard to the animal permit, then he could see the Board looking at her request Mr Lambie said he disagreed, if they don't have enough of their own land for six horses the Board should not even consider it The Board agreed that Lisa should go by the rules and regulations with regard to the number of horses on the property Mr Smith said Lisa is doing an ample job right now with the horses she has but there were times she paid no attention to what the Board or the animal inspector told her to do to correct violations The Board has given her a permit for three with a variance for one more Dr Roemer said Lisa doesn't seem to understand "grandfather" clause Mr Smith said,"She understands all right Those other people that Lisa refers to on occasion are different cases altogether" Mr Lambie asked, "Why not six? Mr Smith said, "It is hard to answer that" Dr Roemer said the Fitzgeralds do not have the physical requirements She said we shouldn't have given her four Mr Smith said, "We gave her three with a variance for one more" Dr Roemer wanted to know on what basis would we make an exception for Lisa, when we don't for others Mr Lambie said that we have, on occasion, done this for others but not very often Mr Smith said Osgood on Marrett Road was the only one he could remember He was given a variance at the time to use some of the Lawless land Mr Lambie said that it never bothered him to give the variance but he guesses he was the only one it didn't bother Mr Smith said we have turned down others on Robinson Road and on Blossom- crest Road 3 1,1 The Board decided to stay with three horses, plus one, with the variance for the Fitzgeralds - NO SIX HORSES Mr Cataldo and his daughter came into the meeting at 8 00 p.m. to report how his land reclaimation program has progressed since it started several years ago Mr Lambie said the Board wanted to get an idea of how it was coming along It must be near completion at this time and the Board would like to know what the future plans are It was granted originally so that it would be used for agricultural purposes The Board wondered if the project will be winding down soon Mr Cataldo said they have taken all the greenhouses down except one that they are using for storage He said they are no longer in the "wet lands" and that they are progressing right along He said he has been planting outdoors every year and this year they have put down more loam except for the area they need for the road to get in and out The Town of Arlington has put their engineers on it because it has started to slope Mr Cataldo explained thoroughly the progress of his project from the "master plan" Some land is going to go to Conservation The Town of Lexington decided to clean out the brook Arlington had completed the slopes and then Lexington decided to clean the brook and ruined it Where the sewer intercepts the brook it is the end of the wet lands After it snowed, the Town of Lexington brought in a piece of machinery to clean the snow and knocked down all the stakes, now it has to be done all over Mr Cataldo explained to the Board how the land was filled, the rats exterminated and how he called in mosquito control to get rid of the mosquito problem Mr Cataldo explained that Arlington cannot bring in fill at the pace they did before because their projects have slowed down because of 21, they do not have the money to work with except for emergencies Mr Cataldo said he had intentions of farming the land until his re- assessment They have reassessed him for one half million dollars and he has applied for an abatement He said he has been growing some Christmas trees and wants to go to Pennsylvania to get different sized Christmas trees to grow on his land He cannot spray himself or get a license to spray but he can always contract out to have someone come in and do the spraying He has been reclaiming his land for 13 years and told the Board he has appreciated their professionalism in handling the situation How long before it is finished cannot be answered now as it will depend upon money from the State (given to Arl ) to complete their projects Arlington has the machines but not the manpower Mr Cataldo feels this will be the last permit he will need from the Board It will then be a matter of bringing in clean fill Mr Smith asked if he lets anyone else besides Arlington in with any fill Mr Cataldo said, "It is only Arlington that dumps their fill in the land" There are 15 acres there, Mr Cataldo said Five are for Conservation Mr Lambie told Mr Cataldo to renew the permit on a yearly basis, one year at a time Mr Cataldo said the "master permit" is for a five year period The yearly permit is renewable every September He wondered if it could be renewed in December to coincide with the "master permit" The Board agreed to have the yearly permit renewable each December Mr Cataldo thanked the Board and retired DOG BITES Mr Smith told the Board that he has been quaranting dogs after a dog bite is reported If a dog has bitten people three times, then there is a re- quest for a hearing to have the dog removed from Town Mr Lambie felt that three bites was rather generous Mr Smith said, "Not really, but if a dog becomes vicious and bites, we can remove the dog and put him in our shelter and quarantine it there He said there was one dog in Town that had bitten two people badly but they didn't want to make any fuss over it because they were friends of the dog owner The joggers have trouble with loose dogs running after their legs and on occasion a jogger will give a dog a little kick and the dog bites them PREMATURE Mr Smith told the Board that the State sent us a letter stating they were BABIES not funding any more premature babies payments that they are to be trans- ferred to Medicaid We had always sent out a visiting nurse when a premature baby was reported to our Department They investigated to see if the parents had any kind of health insurance Most cases were covered by some kind of insurance and it was always suggested that they contact Medicaid if by chance they were unable to pay the bills BUDGET Mr Smith told the Board he had his meeting with the Town Manager in regard to our budget for 82/83 Everything passed that he had asked for Our budget is relatively small and we do not overspend HEALTH Mr Smith said he had hoped Dr Erdos was here tonight to discuss the up- FAIR coming health fair with him Mr Smith told the Board that the health fair here in Lexington will be May 15th This will be strictly a local effort and will not be run in conjunction with Channel 5 He said he is working a couple of things now and he is hoping to get the Hearing Aid Dog Society and the E P.A to come up with something in their fields of health work GUENTHER'S Mr Smith said Guenther's had some work done on his outside filters The RESTAURANT stores that had been involved think there is improvement, but it is still somewhat noticeable, it is still not ventilated well BORA BORA An inspection of the Bora Bora showed it was in terrible shape Mr Smith 31 has gone back two or three times to see how they are progressing, to abate the nuisances stated in a letter to them He said he sometimes stays a little later in the day to go out and check them out when they don't expect to see you A re-inspection has shown some improvement Mr Lambie discussed the sewer overflows in the Grant Street, Saddle Club Road area with the Board He wondered if the Board of Health shouldn't get a status report from the Public Works Department He said it seems as if they are dragging their feet on this issue Mr Smith said he had been to the Frawley's on Grant Street after the recent rain and she had sewer backed into her basement level She had brand new carpet down She hasn't cut back on any basement activities Mrs Frawley has a litigation against the Town at this time The Board discussed this situation briefly and thought the best thing to do would be to invite Mike Hanlon, Town Engineer to the next Board Meeting Mr Lambie said he is familiar with this problem and knows what has to be done It probably would be a good idea to have Mr Hanlon come into the next meeting Mr Smith said a lot of water is coming from Bedford As the water level drains, the surcharge rises in some areas Dr Roemer asked if we should have Public Works/Engineering in or just ask questions in a letter to them. Mr Smith said he would talk to Mike Hanlon, Town Engineer in the morning Dr Roemer asked Mr Smith if he had been to Rollins on Grove Street lately Mr Smith said that he had not; that he had other problems, dog problems lately Mr Lambie said - Dogs' That's a priority How to get rid of the dogs He asked Mr Smith if he had spoken about it to the Town Manager Mr Smith said that he had and he was going to see Susan Adler, the new Assistant to the Town Manger about it He thinks a decision will be made in 30 days, but he plans to meet with Susan Adler soon The Board said if they could be of any help, they would be glad to speak up The following permits were signed by the Board Rubbish Disposal Permits Browning-Ferris Industries, Inc Corenco Corporation 170 Market Street, Brighton, Ma Woburn St , Tewksbury, Ma Charles Lee Disposal, Inc Mass Disposal Service Company 1 Ellery St , Boston, Ma 109 Shade Street, Lexington, Ma Miller Disposal Services Reddish Disposal Service P 0 Box 365, Bedford, Ma 25 (rear) River St , Dedham, Ma *414 Food Service Establishment Permits Goodies To Go, Inc 1734 Mass Ave , Lexington, Mass Dunkin Donuts 373 Waltham Street, Lexington, Mass Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream Shop 1729 Massachusetts Avenue, Lexington, Mass Sheraton-Lexington Motor Inn 727 Marrett Road, Lexington, Mass Friendly's 60 Bedford Street, Lexington, Mass Temple Emunah, Inc 9 Piper Road, Lexington, Mass 02173 Grace Chapel Worthen Road, Lexington, Mass Servomation Corp for Raytheon Executive Building 141 Spring Street, Lexington, Mass Servomation for D C Heath Company 125 Spring Street, Lexington, Mass Servomation for W R. Grace Company 53 Hayden Avenue, Lexington, Mass Servomation Corp for Ginn & Company 191 Spring Street, Lexington, Mass Lexington United Methodist Church 2600 Massachusetts Avenue, Lexington, Mass Church of Christ 319 Lowell Street, Lexington, Mass Countryside Bible Chapel 480 Lowell Street, Lexington, Mass St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church 17 Meriam Street, Lexington, Mass