Salem Board of Health
Minutes of Meeting
Date & Time: Tuesday, January 27, 2009 7:00pm
Meeting Location: 3rd floor conference room, City Hall Annex, 120 Washington Street
Members Present: Chairperson Paulette Puleo, Martin Fair, Marc Salinas, Larissa Lucas,
Carol Rainville, Noreen Casey, Barbara Poremba, Councillor Steven Pinto, Tracy Giarla, Public Health Nurse, Janet Mancini, Acting Health Agent
Paulette Puleo called meeting to order @ 7:00 pm
Approval of Minutes
The minutes of July 8th were reviewed, no corrections.
The minutes of December 9th were reviewed. Correction on page 2 middle paragraph, add specificity of letter: The letter in packets was regarding 183 R Federal St, Willis Tuttle Condo Association, for a semi-public swimming pool. The Dept of Public Health, Bureau of Environmental Health, denied it. Interested parties need to write another letter.
A motion was made to accept the minutes of July 8th, and to accept the minutes of December 7th with corrections, all in favor (8-0).
Public Health Nurse’s Report
Tracy Giarla gave the nurse’s report:
They are finishing up flu clinics: had employee clinics, a total of 149 were vaccinated; held clinic at Salem mission and vaccinated 49 clients; held some home visits; 3 cases of TB; only had one salmonella case, source of infection unknown; 1 strep. Tracy said added to the packet is a list of reportable diseases, there are revisions to isolation and quarantines, procedures are different. Some new diseases have been added to the list, and two were removed; some language and definitions were changed. This can be viewed online at: mass.gov/dep/epidemiology online. Larissa Lucas thought the total of 149 seemed low but Tracy said they had a good turnout, a bit better than last year. She also said they were asked to start vaccinating the second week of November, not any earlier.
Review and approval of Board of Health Trash Regulation #7
Paulette Puleo stated because the Board already voted and approved the Board of Health Trash Regulation #7, it just needs to be reviewed and signed by the Chair. Martin Fair suggested repaging bottom of page 1 to top of page 2. A brief discussion regarding trash complaints took place. Councilor Steven Pinto said Northside Carting is coming out next week for a meeting. All the councilors have been bombarded with complaints. The meeting date will be posted in the newspaper. Councilor Steve Pinto will bring these issues to the joint meeting. Everyone agreed that Paulette could sign the regulation, and the BOD can make an amendment if the City Council and Northside Carting come up with other agreements.
Final interviews for Health Agent position
The Board of Health interviewed candidates for the position of Health Agents:
7:30 pm interview with Heidi Porter
8:00 pm interview with Dr. Paul Etkind
8:30 pm interview with Noreen Burke
Discussion and selection of Health Agent for potential vote
Martin Fair suggested getting together with Peabody BOH; Janet Mancini spoke with Sharon, they are meeting on Thursday and she will suggest to Sharon for both Boards to meet. It was discovered that Larissa Lucas hasn’t been sworn in yet as a member and Martin Fair wasn’t sworn in when he was reappointed, so it is unclear if their votes would count legally. There was some discussion on this issue. This issue will be investigated.
Marc Salinas suggested discussing the qualifications of the candidates for health agent position at the next meeting and rank the candidates in order of qualifications, but will not offer them a position until the Pilot Program has been investigated.
Board members discussed Janet’s upcoming meeting with Sharon Cameron of Peabody, suggesting some quantitative data to gather and questions to ask. Paulette continues stating that the data collected must be sufficient enough for the Board to make an informed decision regarding participation in the pilot program. There must be a strong indication that public health services would improve and that there would be a significant cost savings to the City. Carol Rainville suggested getting a comparison of how inspections are done, compare our checklist versus theirs, is one more comprehensive, how many they do a year? Barbara Poremba said that the Peabody school nurses are under the Health Department; they work as public health nurses when not in school, and would like to know how they augment their staff. Marc
Salinas would like to know what services Peabody and Salem have or don’t have, find where the overlaps and gaps may be. Someone suggested finding out what services they contract out as well.
Old/New Business
Paulette Puleo announced that the annual nomination and election of Chairperson, Clerk of the Board and the reappointing of the Acting Health Agent will take place at February’s meeting.
Adjournment
There being no further business to come before the Board, Larissa Lucas made a motion to adjourn, seconded by Carol Rainville, all in favor.
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