TOWN OF MASHPEE
BOARD OF HEALTH – PUBLIC MEETING
Minutes of the Meeting of Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Board Members Present: Members Absent; Also Present;
Glenn Santos, Vice Chairman Lucy Burton, Chairman Glen Harrington, Health Agent
Dr. Lewis Mantel, Clerk
Vice Chairman Glenn Santos called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM.
APPOINTMENTS
7:15 PM – Anthony Ross – 401 Nathan Ellis Highway
Anthony Ross was a “No Show”.
NEW BUSINESS
1. Sign Warrants. There were no warrants.
2. Approve Public Session Minutes of 9/12/07. The following corrections were made to the 9/12/07 minutes:
Page 1, under 7:30 PM – Cape & Islands Engineering, in lines 1 and 6, change the spelling of the name Klaminsky to Slavinsky.
Page 3, under 6. Request for Extension to Repair Housing Violations, line 5, change the word below to above.
Page 3, under 7. Trial Flu Vaccine, in header and lines 2, and 4 change the words flu vaccine to trial drug.
Page 3, under Dino’s 401 Rt. 151, line 2, change the word and to Dino’s engineer
Page 4, under Meeting with Mashpee Water District, line 1, delete the word boiling.
Page 4, under OLD BUSINESS, 38 Shorewood Drive, line 2, change the sentence to read “Sheriff was notified to deliver notices to the owner but now notices will be sent to the attorney and the bank to that effect”.
The above corrected 9/12/07 Public Meeting minutes, as well as the Executive Session minutes of 5/30/02, will be approved at the next Board meeting when all Board members are present.
3. Request for 2007 Food Establishment Permit - Mashpee Pop Warner
Glen Harrington stated that he had inspected the concession stand for the Mashpee Pop Warner home games to be held in Sept. and October ’07. Catherine Kyros has a Serv Safe Certificate, which was posted at the concession stand.
Lewis Mantel made a motion that the Board grant the Mashpee Pop Warner their 2007 Food Establishment Permit and waive the permit fee. Glenn Santos seconded the motion. All approved.
4. Request for Temporary Food Establishment Permit - Oktoberfest Vendors: Mashpee High School Student Council, Kiwanis Club, Cape Cod Children’s Museum, Rotary Club of Mashpee.
Glen Harrington stated that the Kiwanis Club as well as the Children’s Museum had sent in checks to cover the fee for their permits. Glen also stated that there was a Serv Safe Certificate on file for the Rotary Club.
Glenn Santos made a motion to approve the temporary food establishment permit for Rotary Club for Oktoberfest, subject to inspection by the Health Agent. Lewis Mantel seconded the motion. All approved.
Glenn Santos made a motion to deny the request by the Rotary Club to waive the permit fee. Lewis Mantel seconded the motion. All approved.
Glenn Santos made a motion to approve the temporary food permits for the Oktoberfest for the Cape Cod Children’s Museum, and the Mashpee High School Student Council, subject to inspection by the Health Agent. Lewis Mantel seconded the motion. All approved.
Glenn Santos made a motion to grant the request by the Mashpee High School Student Council to waive the fee for their temporary food permit for the Oktoberfest. Lewis Mantel seconded the motion. All approved.
5. Request for Extension to BOH Decision: Papermoon.
Glen Harrington stated that the Board of Health had received a letter dated 9/19/07 from Masa Oyamada at the Papermoon Restaurant, requesting an extension of the deadline for Serv Safe certification for the remaining members of their kitchen staff.
Lewis Mantel noted that the letter does not indicate how many of their kitchen staff, or whether any of their staff, had received their Serv Safe certification to date. Also, the letter does not indicate the length of the extension they are requesting.
Glenn Santos made a motion that the BOH grant Papermoon a Serv Safe certification extension until the date of the next BOH meeting, on October 10, 2007. At that meeting, the Papermoon Restaurant must provide the names of the kitchen staff who have completed their Serv Safe training, as well as a schedule of the completion of the training by the remaining kitchen staff. The Health Agent will conduct an inspection prior to the next BOH meeting to determine whether the restaurant is in complete compliance with BOH regulations. Lewis Mantel seconded the motion. All approved.
OLD BUSINESS
1. Innovative/Alternative (I/A) Septic Systems in Mashpee
Glen Harrington referred to a recent article in the Mashpee Enterprise, in which Andrew Gottlieb, the Wastewater Collaborative Director and former head of the state Office of Commonwealth Development, suggested that town officials and environmental groups on the Cape should re-think requiring denites because residents who pay the extra money for them will not likely want to pay more money to build sewers in the near future. Town and county officials have said they are wary of being able to convince taxpayers to cover the estimated hundreds of millions of dollars to install sewer systems and wastewater treatment facilities.
Lewis Mantel stated that the Town’s current requirement of quarterly monitoring is only for collecting information on the systems, and stated that if something is required to be done, it should provide a useful purpose, especially when the monitoring process is so costly. The Town’s quarterly monitoring requirement does not carry with it any regulatory power.
A report released this summer by the County Dept. of Health & Environment found that only 60% to 70% of the systems in use on Cape Cod bring nitrogen levels down to the state standard. The standard nitrogen level for regular septic systems is about 30 mg /L of water; the state standard for denites is 19 mg/L. Lewis Mantel questioned whether denites are worth the cost, regardless of when sewers will be built. The issue is whether the investment we are asking homeowners to make to install denite systems is worth it for the mitigation they provide.
Glenn Santos wanted to make it clear that the BOH stand on requiring denites has always been considered on a case-by-case basis, and was not a blanket requirement for all situations brought before the Board. Glenn Santos stated that he felt that the BOH should continue to require denites even if they will not ultimately solve the problem because they are better than the regular septic systems and therefore better for the environment. He further stated that in all reality, it will be 10 to 15 years down the road before we get state Environmental Policy and Cape Cod Commission approval, and sewers become a reality. If it is going to be 15 years before sewers are built, and denites have a 20-year life, then they may make more sense in the long run.
Glen Harrington asked the question as to whether there is going to be a cost/benefit ratio considered: should the Town require the denites, or should the residents be allowed to put money into an escrow account to pay for the expense of future hookup to town sewers.
Lewis Mantel suggested that the BOH, a member of the Conservation Commission, and perhaps Andrew Gottlieb as well, form a small work group to collect more data, to explore the possibility of making changes, and look into coming into compliance with the State monitoring system, which requires general monitoring once per year, and remedial monitoring twice a year. Lewis Mantel asked Glen Harrington to draft a new bylaw for the BOH to consider, to bring the Town monitoring requirement in line with the state’s once per year testing standard.
2. Boston DPH’s US Postal Service Delivery of Medications Exercise
Lewis Mantel reported that the Boston Postal Service conducted a trial delivery system of empty trial drug boxes to 23,000 residences in two zip codes. The Postal Service volunteered to do the delivery on a Sunday, which they completed in six hours. Lewis Mantel suggested that the BOH explore this distribution system for the Town of Mashpee. He met with the Mashpee Postmistress on an unofficial basis, who liked the idea, and plans to contact her District Supervisor to have him call the Boston District Supervisor to determine what is entailed in the project. Lewis Mantel also talked to the Mashpee Chief of Police, who said that he would definitely provide the necessary support for such a project. Lewis Mantel’s thought was that this process possibly could be used for distribution of the town’s supply
of potassium iodide. The one issue raised by the BOH was the question of the liability of the Town to do this by mail.
The next meeting of the BOH is scheduled for Wednesday, October 10, 2007. As there was no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:00 PM
Respectfully submitted,
Ina G. Schlobohm
Recording Secretary
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