Members Present: Sarah Scheinfein, Gerry Gleich, John Wentzell
Members Absent: None
Others Present: Dennis Costello (Sanitation Agent)
Recorder: Melanie Rich
GENERAL BUSINESS
Vouchers were approved.
Sarah made a motion to approve the Meeting Minutes dated September 26, 2011 as amended; John seconded; all agreed.
November 28th was confirmed as the date for the next BOH meeting.
AGENT’S REPORT
Regionalization – Dennis provided the regionalization agreement documents for the members. There are pros and cons to this plan. Under the proposed plan, Boylston would potentially gain more public health services, but the tradeoff would be loss of local control. The City of Worcester would appoint the Public Health Director for Boylston and public health policy would run through the Worcester office. Regional prioritization could possibly concentrate services in Worcester and pay less attention to Boylston's issues and funding from year to year would be uncertain.
If unsatisfied with the arrangement Boylston would be able to opt out of the agreement with a 30 day notice, and Worcester could exercise the same option but this would be a little more difficult to accomplish if wholesale changes are made to annual health department budgets and staffing levels. The original grant was intended for five years, but it has been cut back to four with uncertainty of what will happen after the fourth year.
The board was unanimous in deciding to not enter into the regionalization agreement at this time. The board is open to continued talks, but our board felt the current agreement is not acceptable to meet the public health needs of the Town of Boylston.
Flu Season – The senior flu clinic was held on October 25th with approximately 80 doses being administered. The town wide flu clinic, to include municipal employees, will be held tentatively on Saturday, December 3rd at Tahanto. Dennis will confirm this with the school and the VNA nurse. Once confirmed, it will be posted on the website and advertised in the Banner.
Dennis and Sarah attended the MHOA conference in Springfield last month.
PLAN REVIEW
313 Main Street (Phoenix Communications) – Previously approved. The company has since withdrawn all applications with the town.
6 Underwood Avenue (John McMaster) – Previously approved.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:00 p.m.
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