January 5, 2026 – Board of Health – Video & Transcript
January 5, 2026 - Board of Health
All right, I'm going to call the meeting at 6.33.
Okay. This location support in-person meeting is in wheelchair accessible. Pursuant to Chapter 2, the Acts of 2025, this meeting will be conducted in person and by remote access in accordance with applicable law. If this meeting has only remote access, no in-person attendees by members of the public will be permitted. If the meeting has remote access, one may watch and participate remotely with the meeting. A link that can be found on www.wayland.massus public body meeting information, virtual, in-person, and hybrid. When required by law or allowed by the chair, persons wishing to provide public comment or otherwise participate in the meeting may do also at the meeting location in-person remote access as applicable. Public comment should be limited to two minutes per person. All right, let's do a roll call. Dr. John. Yes. Yes, John Stoyer is here. Yes, Catherine Stiff. Dr. Bob DeFrancesco is here. Dr. Genevieve is not here tonight. And Dr. Brett Mordas is not here tonight. Okay, let's start off with public comment. Okay, so we do have someone here. All right. Let's just...
Hi, Jane. Can you hear us? Yeah, actually, it's Tom, Julia. Oh, hi, Tom. The computer reports me under my wife's name, and I don't see how to change that. But anyway, yes, I have a comment. I don't know if you guys have... I'm Tom Siak of Rolling Lane, past and current member of a bunch of committees, but speaking for myself here. I don't know if you guys have been watching what's the investigation of PFAS at the Main Street old Highway Garage site. But as I predicted a number of months ago, the consultant Ben Gould has now found that the major source of PFAS there is the middle school bleach field. And the reason why I predicted that is because I was involved with the DPTW in their investigation of PFAS around the Happy Hollow Well site, in other words, around the high school, and pushed them to sample the observation wells that I had helped install in 2010, when I was a member of the Wellhead Protection Committee. And what was found was that the hottest of hot spots at the high school were the old leach fields from the old high school. So, to my somewhat amazement, all of the interest in this seems to be with regard to the effect on the Happy Hollow Wells, and that's certainly a concern, and the developability of the old highway garage site. And no one seems to be concerned with the fact that there's now proof that Wayland kids were exposed to PFAS in the schools, and maybe still are, because we don't know what that PFAS is coming from. Now, I've heard people wave their hands about it's being cleaning stuff, and, oh, we don't use that cleaning stuff anymore. But I haven't heard any actual proof of that. And it seems to me that you guys, at least, should be interested in, again, whether our kids were and possibly still are being exposed to PFAS. And, by the way, I have a strong suspicion, two minutes isn't enough to explain it, that the Happy Hollow School is, the leach field is also contaminated. So, I'm asking you to take an interest in this and look into it. And, if you want, I can meet with you, you know, under an actual agenda item, and I can expand on this. But, basically, that's my message.
Okay. Thank you, Tom. Take it into consideration. Thank you. We have another person. I don't know if you're here on the comment, but if you want to announce, and we're still taking public comment. If, Connor Cavanaugh, are you interested in making a comment?
Can you hear us, Connor?
Connor?
No, I'm sorry. I just, the settings weren't set correctly. No comment. No comment. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. We're going to public health nurse update. And, yep, so here we have a report from Laura. She is not here tonight, but she has provided a report.
So, I can go through the report like I've done in the past. Sure. Other nursing reports. This is from Laura Carter, our public health nurse. And, um, her report for, since our last board meeting, which was in December, uh, regarding, uh, December for communicable disease report, um, number of cases for, uh, enter, uh, enter a virus, one influenza, 89, coronavirus, 12, and latent TV, two. Um, we, or actually Maura was looking at some of the numbers, um, from last season, uh, specifically for influenza because the, the cases are really high right now. And we just got an alert this afternoon from the state regarding, um, the cases being at a level that, you know, they're encouraging, um, people to be aware, you know, and take preventive measures, you know, reminders to get your flu shot. Um, and, you know, protecting, um, those populations that are, um, most vulnerable with the flu, anyone who's immunocompromised, um, you know, young children, seniors, many other populations, wash your hands, you know, stay out of large groups. If you're, um, worried about getting sick and, um, you know, mask up if you're exhibiting some symptoms and you're not sure, or, you know, get tested. But, um, compared to last year in December, we had, well, it's January now, technically, but in December of 24, we had eight cases of the flu. In January, we had, and these are just reported cases, you know, so there's many other cases that aren't reported where people may not know they have the flu because they haven't been tested. So this is just what we know. January of 25, we had 57. And then February, we had 75. And then in March, we're down to 28. So we don't know exactly what will happen this year, but, um, you know, the trends could continue to go up or it could come down or it could go up and then come back down again. It's, it's really hard to say, but she provided, um, a little bit of a trendsetter, um, grid, um, if you may, from the, um, Mass Department of Public Health weekly influenza update. And so, um, you know, it just gives you an idea of what the history of reported cases has been over the past, since, um, from 2020 to 25 and now 26.
So, you know, we're at a pretty high rate right now. I know that there's been a lot of, um, neural virus as well, and other viruses going around. I've had all of them, I think, in the past few months. Um, you know, I feel better, but I have, I think I'd have sinusitis, like a chronic thing now. So I get to figure out what to do about that, but it's just, I'm not sick, but you know, it's just this sinus thing that just doesn't go away slowly suffering here. But, um, you know, Maura has done some messaging regarding, you know, a few simple things to do that can help protect you during the holiday seasons of, you know, now that they're over, I'm sure everyone's gathered all those lovely germs and we'll bring them back to school or wherever they're going back to, if they've been away. So, um, you know, encouraging people to take action, to slow the spread of germs. And, you know, if you're sick, stay home, wash your hands, get vaccinated, all the things that, you know, we've sort of touched on already. Um, Maura was doing some, um, in office vaccinations. I don't know how much vaccine she has left at this point, but we've had been continuing to provide vaccinations. So up until as recently as last week to, um, you know, those stragglers that hadn't evented, um, attended our, uh, clinics, um, seasonal vaccination update. We've, um, vaccinated 470, um, vaccines have been administered, 413 flu, 57 COVID-19 administered through the health department between October 15th to December 31st and, um, November 10th through the 31st for COVID-19. Um, last call for the, uh, regional survey to be completed on the opioid related needs in the community. It's, um, I believe it's still on the website. It closes on January 16th. Anyone who lives, works, or engages in Wayland can, um, provide their input and fill out the survey, which would be helpful to, um, our group, which will be looking at what the survey results are. And, um, hopefully finding ways to address some of those needs that were identified. Um, uh, school health services, Wayland public schools were closed for a holiday break, um, through January 2nd. So now back in school, community health nurse, um, at the children's way preschool. Um, we had a, um, nurse resigned from that position and we have identified a new person who will be replacing her. And so we're excited about that. She will be starting later this month. Uh, there's an upcoming school committee meeting, including presentation from Dr. Randy Schuster on January 7th at 6 PM. The presentation of recent data and discussion of year three of the study. Um, and, um, um, I think she provided a, uh, specific link describing the study, um, which if I can, if I send you a hard copy of this, you can probably access it. But, um, I believe that meeting will be recorded for anyone who's interested in, um, viewing it on Wacom, which I was planning to do. So, um, we were able to, uh, do an inspection over at 10 short drive, the owner agreed and consented. And so we had our regional health inspector in Marie, our fire chief and our building inspector and go over and do the housing inspection on, I believe it was June, uh, December 18th. And so as a result of that, I put together our, um, findings and a legal order. And so, you know, basically next steps would be usually we hear from the person. I haven't heard from her yet as far as if she's interested in having a hearing before the board, typically that does happen. You know, if people want to come and have a conversation about what has been asked for either timelines or violations and things like that, we haven't heard from her. We haven't received confirmation that she received the letter, although it was sent regular mail as well. So living there full time, right? Yep. That looks like a difficult situation. Yeah. So, you know, right now we know that there was a, we're pretty sure that there was a major electrical repair done recently. So that was a good thing, um, that she had, we believe a new panel installed. So that, um, using, I think some funding from a grant in the council on aging. And so, um, you know, a lot of the things that we would look for in a situation are, you know, she has running water, she has electricity, she has heat, she has, you know, a lot of the basic things that you would need. Water coming through the roof is a very bad thing. It is. So there is, there are some serious structural problems with parts of the house. And so, you know, um, the heaters, electrical boards on the rug, those are right. Yeah. But sometimes people will do that to just to save on oil because they can make just the room they're in warm much easier than just not trying to heat the house with it. Probably it's just trying to make that one room warmer. Um, so, um, yes, there are some serious concerns about certain, um, items identified in the inspection report that have been outlined in the legal order. And so, you know, we are waiting to hear from Jean and, uh, if I don't hear from her, I'll be getting back in touch with our, um, counsel, uh, Jeff Blake at KP. Law to consult regarding what potentially our next steps will be on this situation. So we wanted to give her the opportunity to respond, you know, that is her right to come before the board and talk to the board. Um, and so, you know, that was, that's part of the legal process that, um, may or may not happen if she chooses to take a different route, um, she can take us to court. That's another possibility, but I will, um, find out what happens next as soon as I talk to our legal counsel again. Do you have any questions? Okay. All right. We want to, uh, help department fees follow-up. Yep. We didn't go around this recommended increase. I did make a couple of channels that I will, nothing major, but a couple of things I will be, um, all out, so on page, well, technically page three on the back of page two, the well permits for a potable well, after talking with Darren about that, we decided to increase those, increase the recommended amounts to 300 for a potable well and 175 for a irrigation well. And, um, also, we wanted to add, which isn't really, there is an existing fee for change of use, and we wanted to just call out that we'll probably, um, after discussing it, ADUs really fall under that definition, change of use, so we were planning on using the change of use fee of $75 for our ADU reviews. Where is that? Yeah. It's not, actually, it's not on them. Oh. We just were talking about this. So I wrote it on a sticky note, and I wanted to just make sure that I remembered to, um, bring that up. because it wasn't talked about before. And so, um, that would be, although it's not, it is in our fee list already. It's not specifically described as for ADUs, but ADUs are a change of use, really, for a property. We thought that that was something that would be fitting. What's the fee? I'm sorry? Change of use. Change of use. So it's actually on our, um, building review form. And so it's not listed on, um, this specific Excel sheet, but if you looked at our building review form, when we do a review for our building permit, we have it called out change of use. It's not very often used, but it is on there. So, um, I could actually add another line here and put change of use as, you know, existing and then just add in ADU, which I'll probably do after, before I, um, send this to anyone else. But I just, I don't know if anyone had any questions about anything or comments. I did put on here, uh, John, I suggested that we delete the $200. I would agree that that's really not, first of all, it's not very often that that happens. And second of all, what difference does it make? It really doesn't make any difference when you renew that it should be $200. It should be $50 more. It doesn't really, there's no extra work involved in it is what I'm saying. So I propose to delete that. Yeah. I just spent $200 in car lab today. Oh, wow. Okay. So. Wouldn't, uh, uh, on retail food add in squares, those down ones and stop and shot. Right. So I wasn't able to get that information. Sure. What I was trying to, what I was trying to figure out is based on square footage, which is a little more complicated than I thought. Um, it's something we probably could look into another time, you know, but they're really pushing to get this to the select board so they can vote on it. So, you know, I can still look into it, but, um, it's not red information that was readily at, at my fingertips. Okay. So do we need to go down? It would be great if the board voted to, um, if the board agrees to recommend these fee increases. And then it will go to the select board, um, through the assistant town manager, Kelsey's power spirit. She will be bringing this to the select board for their, uh, boat. So we need a recommendation. Everybody agrees here. I make a motion to approve the recommended fee increases. I second. Okay. That's good to a roll call. Uh, Catherine stuff. Yeah. John star. Yes. Dr. Bob Defrancesco. That's approved. Great. Thank you. You're welcome. Thanks for all your harm. That's a lot. Thank you for looking at it. All right. So next up is health director of the. Yes. So we have been very busy with working on this very large document. All hazards, public health emergency response framework. This is, if you saw it, you may suspect that. After the COVID 19 pandemic, something would happen related to a public health response. Framework. Well, that's basically what this is. The template was created by the state. And, um, you know, it's been. Discussed at various emerging emergency preparedness meetings through region for a, which we are part of that group. Um. Um, so basically to meet the requirements and participate in an exercise that were also required to do. We had to go through this document. And tailor it to Wayland. And they will have. And we have done that. We met with chief McPherson, Maura Carter, and I met with him last week. And we went through the whole document together, which was fun. Actually, you know, once we went through it, I've been through it at least three times at this point. And so I went through it once beforehand and then again with chief McPherson and then again afterwards. And so we're pretty comfortable. I'll share the final document with you all. We're pretty comfortable with what we ended up with. But, you know, it's basically a framework for specifically public health related responses and how we would interact with other resources, town officials, you know, towns within our shared services, state agencies, um, all, you know, volunteers. All the different layers of emergency response and processes that are in place for incident command structures. However, I must say that during the pandemic, we did all these things without this document. And, you know, we, we did successfully held clinics, had an emergency dispensing site, you know, had a mobile clinic outside from a trailer. We did it from a church. We did it in this, you know, venue, but, um, most of the time it was not favorable to do indoor clinics. So we were doing them outside. We did a lot of things that were outside our wheelhouse and we made it through that. So I'm very proud of how we got through it, you know, working with everyone else in the town, public safety, the front office, the department staff, all the volunteers that help us. And, um, you know, we're interested to see how the tabletop will go, which is what they call, you know, it's like a tabletop exercise to give you a scenario. And then you're sitting at a table with people from your town, Chief McPherson said he would be joining us. I don't know if, um, our new police chief will be joining us or not. He's probably very busy, but, you know, they'll give us the opportunity to talk through some scenarios or probably one scenario, perhaps. Um, but it's sort of a mystery what it will be. So that's happening, um, later this month. And, uh, 311 Boston post road, which, um, I had received, or we rather have received a couple of letters from DEP regarding this property at 311 Boston post. What was the spiller of the hazard? It didn't say that. So basically, um, what happened is this is related to the, um, dry cleaners across the street and a plume of contamination that's come across from the dry cleaners onto this property. So, you know, basically after I received the two letters, um, and we had been aware of that too, because, you know, we received letters from the state on, on things similar to this over the years. But, um. So is 311 on the hook for this? Well, they have to do certain, they, they've done some work on this property. So, you know, basically they have to respond to, and, um, based on these letters received from the state, they have to hire an LSP, which they did do. And then respond to the letters from the state. That's kind of awful. That's just merely by proximity. It's how it works, because once something moves from one property to another, it's not technically on their property anymore. They have, they're responsible to clean up their own property, but then, you know, there's mass contingency plan. And, and, you know, a process through the state where the property owner has to, you know, look into and prove, you know, in this case, they're doing a plan, what's called a RAM plan, a release abatement measure plan. Yeah, I've seen them. And so, you know, it's probably very expensive, I would imagine, to do all the work. And this is just a fraction of what I found on the state's, um, site, which is, you know, the, um, RTN. There's this whole, um, website on the state that is like a portal that you can look up contaminated properties in Wayland, in every town, anywhere. So you can go on this site. It's sometimes a little clunky to look up, but you'll eventually succeed if you get on there. So I had the tracking number here and, or here rather. And so I went in and I pulled it up and then there was this long report and I was like, oh my God. And so I went through and I just pulled out the pages that, cause I mean, there's like hundreds of pages. So I pulled out the pages that described what happened and what was doing, what was being done, which is basically, um, you know, this, um, the history. It starts with really the history, um, from the dry cleaners at 298. And the contamination from that business that was creating a, what's called a downrage in property status at 297 Boston Post road parcel, which is associated with 311. Um, are they still a dry cleaner? Um, I believe it is still a dry cleaner. Yeah. So we have seen reports from them in the past, as I mentioned. Um, and then I went through the plan. And then I went through the plan on the DEP portal and pulled out pages. Um, ultimately the RAM plan that they put together details, their response actions proposed. Um, they're installing a vapor abatement system and abandoning the septic system and septic tank, which is no longer in use. They have town water and sewer and, um, actions involve removing fluids from the abandoned tank. And filling the tank with global fill and installing the vapor abatement system to abate the, um, TCE, TCE, and or chlorinated compounds that were detected in the soil or groundwater. But not associated with background at the site below, you know, so they put that in there, this certain language, but basically they'll be putting in the subslab vapor barrier and sampling analysis. Um, even though they're saying that there's no compounds that were above a certain level that they have to prove that it's, you know, not above a certain level, they'll be putting in the barrier anyway, because it's likely present. Um, with the subslab vaporization system. This is at the 311 property. It gets complicated. It's kind of confusing, but, um, this is all about 311 where the old dentist office was. But it's now when we buy that new. So they bought that property. I don't think that they bought, um, 297. I think they're leasing that property, but there is a, like a, an arrangement between the new, it's not leased by fresh city anymore. Uh, or fresh market rather, because it used to be leased by fresh market. Right. And now there's a new company leasing it that works in partnership with terrain. So they didn't buy it. They just bought 311 and they're leasing 297. So that can interfere with the project. Uh, I don't think so. I mean, they had to do this research to buy this property. Right. So they knew about this problem. It's all on the state's websites. Um, so anyway, groundwater testing was done, exceeding standards for PCE. Um, the highest concentrations at the property boundary for hydraulically up gradient of the tank and leech field near Boston Post Road, with a decrease in concentration in groundwater with distance at or near Boston Post Road, consistent with groundwater flow direction. So, you know, to the main source, which is where the cleaners are over at 298. Soil borings were done with some contamination found, um, and VOCs and groundwater from 298. Also, they will test the liquid in the old septic tank and fill it with felt flowable fill. And then, you know, dispose of any waste according to what's required if they find contamination. Um, and then in the partial basement, VOCs were detected above groundwater standards, but not above levels protective of surface water. So, you know, there's all these different, um, levels that they're looking for, you know, there's ones in surface water, there's ones in groundwater, there's ones in soils. So, sump pumps in the partial basement that discharge piping west of the building based on concentrations of chlorinated VOCs nearby wells. Direct, direct discharge of chlorinated VOCs via the sump pump is well below. So, so they had a sump pump in there pumping water out with this contaminant in it. Still not great. It's not, it's going right into that area that goes into the Sudbury river. So, it's not, you know, um, but, you know, I mean, basically, this is my summary of, you know, and I'm not an LSP, but, you know, I can get a basic understanding of what they're talking about by looking at, you know, they have maps and things in here. If you're interested in seeing where some of the information was found and borings that they did and monitoring wells and whatnot, it's, um, it's probably very expensive to do all this work. So, um, but this, these letters were. Yeah. So when in November, something they were doing, you know, trips, this letter, and then it trips this and that, you know, so it's part of the process that they have to, you know, based on the 21 E chapter 21 E. And mass contingency plan and may CP MCP governing the assessment and cleanup of disposal sites. So that was that. And, um, I do have, I did watch, um, just going to, uh, Tom's comments. I did watch the, uh, recording of Ben Gould's most recent, um, findings that he was describing. And so I put, I put some notes together just regarding what I understood Ben to be explaining. And then I was going to talk about it at our next meeting, but you know, I mean, it's not on the agenda. It was brought up a public comment. And then my understanding is that the PFAS is in the water, the groundwater. I don't know, you know, where it came from. There were comments that were made regarding, you know, it could have been from wax that was, you know, disposed of improperly through from the school because it has a septic system there. So, you know, I don't know what they're going to do. They talked about digging it all up and just removing it, but now it's all, you know, it's in the ground already. So I don't know if that would do any good either. And that's, you know, Ben Gould was, he mentioned that, but I don't know that that was an actual suggestion that he was making, you know, to like remove the whole. Leach field area that I'm sure that would cost a fortune, then they'd have to build a whole new Leach field. So I don't know what will happen or what DEP will even require. It's, it's probably going to be an ongoing thing for quite a while. But, you know, if they can, I mean, I can ask Ben, you know, what he did mention that he thought it was from waste getting into the septic system from wax. I don't know if that's true or not. I don't know, you know, what they do now with wastewater and what kinds of waxes they use or things like those. Those, those questions could be something that I could find out about, you know, for some insight into what's happening now as opposed to what happens before and hopefully isn't happening anymore. If there's, you know, if there's, you know, if there's a correlation between the wax possible waste going into the septic. So, and then we have two seats open in our board. And so hopefully, John and Katie will be running for election this January. Well, not January, but papers will be ready to be pulled as of today, I believe. And so other board members could probably assist with getting signatures. So we can pull papers now? Yep. Judy put out a note that they would be available as of January 5th. So it might be a great week for it because it's going to be in the 40s. Before it rocks down again. Well, I know. It's great. Give me a sheet now. Okay. Katie's going to need some help too. Yeah. Just give me a sheet. Oh, thanks. And I'm sure that Dr. Anand and Brett would be willing to help as well. So that's great. See, I don't know if anyone has any questions about anything else that I just went over. It's kind of a lot of information. No, but another topic. Mm-hmm. Any follow up on China Rose? I believe there was follow up. I can find out what the situation is. Yeah. Yeah. That's very good. Did they have an issue? I don't think so. Oh. I think. Remember, they were supposed to go through training. Yes. Mm-hmm. I think there was a delay in things actually happening. So I think, you know, there was a window of time where nothing happened. And then finally, you know, so, but. And they were supposed to go from what they have to sushi too. That was a big, I'll agree on that. I'm curious. Yep. Yep. And Jenna, who does all our renewal permits, is working with Beth Grossman, our food inspector, on all our farmers market vendors. Because the farmers market's actually opening this Saturday. So they've been very busy working on that. And getting all the permits squared away for anyone who's selling food at the farmers market. And these fees, this is the same fees around here. They, we changed them. So those fees. They different. Unfortunately, they're not going to be ready for that. Yeah. But they will be for the next round. Let's go. So. Can we have another meeting this month? We do. Yeah. We had some. We have. To this month. A few things that potentially could be on the agenda. Yeah. But originally we wanted to have this meeting so we could talk about if we, if our resident and Tenshore wanted to have a public hearing, but we knew that the fees, they wanted us to get that squared away. So we decided to just do it, you know? Yeah. Yeah. We'll try not to schedule during the playoff game. If there is one at that point. That's why. It's not my name. No. It could have been. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Is it economics that is making the house in the state that it is? Or. Is. I believe there's a combination of things, but that would be part of it. And that was why I mentioned receivership because that is a program that probably the owner wouldn't be interested in, but it does help the owner in the long run. So, you know, if we go that route, you know, it is a lengthy process, but, and I believe we'll have a lengthy process anyway. You know. Some people just choose to. I mean, I've known people that just choose to live that. Yeah. Yeah. It is tough. We we've been working with this individual for a long time, you know, helping to try to be supportive and assisting in any way that we can, you know, and once we got to the point where Lynn Fouts from clear path, who was assisting her with, you know, addressing some of those concerns with her, the condition of the inside of the house in the outside, you know, she put together what we called. What she called the harm reduction plan, which highlighted a lot of the things that basically initiated us to push to get an inspection because I hadn't been inside the house in a long time. Actually, I still haven't been inside the house because she preferred that someone else would do the inspection on behalf because. You have a relationship. Right. So, but I think and did a good job. She, you know, was able to get a lot of information enough for me to put together, you know, along with the meetings with the fire chief and the building inspector, the building commissioner really to, you know, just get a full understanding of what the findings were during the inspection. So do you have anything else? We built a real bad. So I'm just not going to finish on her hour. Are we got anything else? Nope. Yeah, I think that's it for me. I don't have anything else. I mean, we are working on a lot of stuff, but yeah, we'll be talking about the peer review for Rice Road at the Coptic church, probably at our next meeting. There's another property that has a septic thing going on that might need a waiver. Um, there's, there's a few other things that the budget with the budget, we, um, we'll have a draft budget, which is, um, already sort of been reviewed by the finance director, but officially we can discuss it and see if there's any suggestions or, you know, requests that we have. The, um, Veritas Academy is going right at it, huh? Yes. And the butters are very upset and they have complained to building commissioner because I believe that it's considered a ZB, a zoning board issue at this point of construction. And so, um, they're pushing, but I don't know what's going to happen with that. It's a school. It's a school. So they have certain, um, the Dover amendment. Well, it's like the Coptic church. They're going to have issues with that too. Yeah. And reading about it, it didn't seem like they were amenable to doing any sort of a additional testing or flying balloons or anything. They're just kind of like, Nope. Right. Yeah. So. It's tough. All right. We're all set. Many of you should rejoin. Hold your hand. Yes. I second. All right. Catherine Steph. Yeah. John Stone. Yes. And Dr. Bob Defrancesco. We need to join.
Okay. This location support in-person meeting is in wheelchair accessible. Pursuant to Chapter 2, the Acts of 2025, this meeting will be conducted in person and by remote access in accordance with applicable law. If this meeting has only remote access, no in-person attendees by members of the public will be permitted. If the meeting has remote access, one may watch and participate remotely with the meeting. A link that can be found on www.wayland.massus public body meeting information, virtual, in-person, and hybrid. When required by law or allowed by the chair, persons wishing to provide public comment or otherwise participate in the meeting may do also at the meeting location in-person remote access as applicable. Public comment should be limited to two minutes per person. All right, let's do a roll call. Dr. John. Yes. Yes, John Stoyer is here. Yes, Catherine Stiff. Dr. Bob DeFrancesco is here. Dr. Genevieve is not here tonight. And Dr. Brett Mordas is not here tonight. Okay, let's start off with public comment. Okay, so we do have someone here. All right. Let's just...
Hi, Jane. Can you hear us? Yeah, actually, it's Tom, Julia. Oh, hi, Tom. The computer reports me under my wife's name, and I don't see how to change that. But anyway, yes, I have a comment. I don't know if you guys have... I'm Tom Siak of Rolling Lane, past and current member of a bunch of committees, but speaking for myself here. I don't know if you guys have been watching what's the investigation of PFAS at the Main Street old Highway Garage site. But as I predicted a number of months ago, the consultant Ben Gould has now found that the major source of PFAS there is the middle school bleach field. And the reason why I predicted that is because I was involved with the DPTW in their investigation of PFAS around the Happy Hollow Well site, in other words, around the high school, and pushed them to sample the observation wells that I had helped install in 2010, when I was a member of the Wellhead Protection Committee. And what was found was that the hottest of hot spots at the high school were the old leach fields from the old high school. So, to my somewhat amazement, all of the interest in this seems to be with regard to the effect on the Happy Hollow Wells, and that's certainly a concern, and the developability of the old highway garage site. And no one seems to be concerned with the fact that there's now proof that Wayland kids were exposed to PFAS in the schools, and maybe still are, because we don't know what that PFAS is coming from. Now, I've heard people wave their hands about it's being cleaning stuff, and, oh, we don't use that cleaning stuff anymore. But I haven't heard any actual proof of that. And it seems to me that you guys, at least, should be interested in, again, whether our kids were and possibly still are being exposed to PFAS. And, by the way, I have a strong suspicion, two minutes isn't enough to explain it, that the Happy Hollow School is, the leach field is also contaminated. So, I'm asking you to take an interest in this and look into it. And, if you want, I can meet with you, you know, under an actual agenda item, and I can expand on this. But, basically, that's my message.
Okay. Thank you, Tom. Take it into consideration. Thank you. We have another person. I don't know if you're here on the comment, but if you want to announce, and we're still taking public comment. If, Connor Cavanaugh, are you interested in making a comment?
Can you hear us, Connor?
Connor?
No, I'm sorry. I just, the settings weren't set correctly. No comment. No comment. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. We're going to public health nurse update. And, yep, so here we have a report from Laura. She is not here tonight, but she has provided a report.
So, I can go through the report like I've done in the past. Sure. Other nursing reports. This is from Laura Carter, our public health nurse. And, um, her report for, since our last board meeting, which was in December, uh, regarding, uh, December for communicable disease report, um, number of cases for, uh, enter, uh, enter a virus, one influenza, 89, coronavirus, 12, and latent TV, two. Um, we, or actually Maura was looking at some of the numbers, um, from last season, uh, specifically for influenza because the, the cases are really high right now. And we just got an alert this afternoon from the state regarding, um, the cases being at a level that, you know, they're encouraging, um, people to be aware, you know, and take preventive measures, you know, reminders to get your flu shot. Um, and, you know, protecting, um, those populations that are, um, most vulnerable with the flu, anyone who's immunocompromised, um, you know, young children, seniors, many other populations, wash your hands, you know, stay out of large groups. If you're, um, worried about getting sick and, um, you know, mask up if you're exhibiting some symptoms and you're not sure, or, you know, get tested. But, um, compared to last year in December, we had, well, it's January now, technically, but in December of 24, we had eight cases of the flu. In January, we had, and these are just reported cases, you know, so there's many other cases that aren't reported where people may not know they have the flu because they haven't been tested. So this is just what we know. January of 25, we had 57. And then February, we had 75. And then in March, we're down to 28. So we don't know exactly what will happen this year, but, um, you know, the trends could continue to go up or it could come down or it could go up and then come back down again. It's, it's really hard to say, but she provided, um, a little bit of a trendsetter, um, grid, um, if you may, from the, um, Mass Department of Public Health weekly influenza update. And so, um, you know, it just gives you an idea of what the history of reported cases has been over the past, since, um, from 2020 to 25 and now 26.
So, you know, we're at a pretty high rate right now. I know that there's been a lot of, um, neural virus as well, and other viruses going around. I've had all of them, I think, in the past few months. Um, you know, I feel better, but I have, I think I'd have sinusitis, like a chronic thing now. So I get to figure out what to do about that, but it's just, I'm not sick, but you know, it's just this sinus thing that just doesn't go away slowly suffering here. But, um, you know, Maura has done some messaging regarding, you know, a few simple things to do that can help protect you during the holiday seasons of, you know, now that they're over, I'm sure everyone's gathered all those lovely germs and we'll bring them back to school or wherever they're going back to, if they've been away. So, um, you know, encouraging people to take action, to slow the spread of germs. And, you know, if you're sick, stay home, wash your hands, get vaccinated, all the things that, you know, we've sort of touched on already. Um, Maura was doing some, um, in office vaccinations. I don't know how much vaccine she has left at this point, but we've had been continuing to provide vaccinations. So up until as recently as last week to, um, you know, those stragglers that hadn't evented, um, attended our, uh, clinics, um, seasonal vaccination update. We've, um, vaccinated 470, um, vaccines have been administered, 413 flu, 57 COVID-19 administered through the health department between October 15th to December 31st and, um, November 10th through the 31st for COVID-19. Um, last call for the, uh, regional survey to be completed on the opioid related needs in the community. It's, um, I believe it's still on the website. It closes on January 16th. Anyone who lives, works, or engages in Wayland can, um, provide their input and fill out the survey, which would be helpful to, um, our group, which will be looking at what the survey results are. And, um, hopefully finding ways to address some of those needs that were identified. Um, uh, school health services, Wayland public schools were closed for a holiday break, um, through January 2nd. So now back in school, community health nurse, um, at the children's way preschool. Um, we had a, um, nurse resigned from that position and we have identified a new person who will be replacing her. And so we're excited about that. She will be starting later this month. Uh, there's an upcoming school committee meeting, including presentation from Dr. Randy Schuster on January 7th at 6 PM. The presentation of recent data and discussion of year three of the study. Um, and, um, um, I think she provided a, uh, specific link describing the study, um, which if I can, if I send you a hard copy of this, you can probably access it. But, um, I believe that meeting will be recorded for anyone who's interested in, um, viewing it on Wacom, which I was planning to do. So, um, we were able to, uh, do an inspection over at 10 short drive, the owner agreed and consented. And so we had our regional health inspector in Marie, our fire chief and our building inspector and go over and do the housing inspection on, I believe it was June, uh, December 18th. And so as a result of that, I put together our, um, findings and a legal order. And so, you know, basically next steps would be usually we hear from the person. I haven't heard from her yet as far as if she's interested in having a hearing before the board, typically that does happen. You know, if people want to come and have a conversation about what has been asked for either timelines or violations and things like that, we haven't heard from her. We haven't received confirmation that she received the letter, although it was sent regular mail as well. So living there full time, right? Yep. That looks like a difficult situation. Yeah. So, you know, right now we know that there was a, we're pretty sure that there was a major electrical repair done recently. So that was a good thing, um, that she had, we believe a new panel installed. So that, um, using, I think some funding from a grant in the council on aging. And so, um, you know, a lot of the things that we would look for in a situation are, you know, she has running water, she has electricity, she has heat, she has, you know, a lot of the basic things that you would need. Water coming through the roof is a very bad thing. It is. So there is, there are some serious structural problems with parts of the house. And so, you know, um, the heaters, electrical boards on the rug, those are right. Yeah. But sometimes people will do that to just to save on oil because they can make just the room they're in warm much easier than just not trying to heat the house with it. Probably it's just trying to make that one room warmer. Um, so, um, yes, there are some serious concerns about certain, um, items identified in the inspection report that have been outlined in the legal order. And so, you know, we are waiting to hear from Jean and, uh, if I don't hear from her, I'll be getting back in touch with our, um, counsel, uh, Jeff Blake at KP. Law to consult regarding what potentially our next steps will be on this situation. So we wanted to give her the opportunity to respond, you know, that is her right to come before the board and talk to the board. Um, and so, you know, that was, that's part of the legal process that, um, may or may not happen if she chooses to take a different route, um, she can take us to court. That's another possibility, but I will, um, find out what happens next as soon as I talk to our legal counsel again. Do you have any questions? Okay. All right. We want to, uh, help department fees follow-up. Yep. We didn't go around this recommended increase. I did make a couple of channels that I will, nothing major, but a couple of things I will be, um, all out, so on page, well, technically page three on the back of page two, the well permits for a potable well, after talking with Darren about that, we decided to increase those, increase the recommended amounts to 300 for a potable well and 175 for a irrigation well. And, um, also, we wanted to add, which isn't really, there is an existing fee for change of use, and we wanted to just call out that we'll probably, um, after discussing it, ADUs really fall under that definition, change of use, so we were planning on using the change of use fee of $75 for our ADU reviews. Where is that? Yeah. It's not, actually, it's not on them. Oh. We just were talking about this. So I wrote it on a sticky note, and I wanted to just make sure that I remembered to, um, bring that up. because it wasn't talked about before. And so, um, that would be, although it's not, it is in our fee list already. It's not specifically described as for ADUs, but ADUs are a change of use, really, for a property. We thought that that was something that would be fitting. What's the fee? I'm sorry? Change of use. Change of use. So it's actually on our, um, building review form. And so it's not listed on, um, this specific Excel sheet, but if you looked at our building review form, when we do a review for our building permit, we have it called out change of use. It's not very often used, but it is on there. So, um, I could actually add another line here and put change of use as, you know, existing and then just add in ADU, which I'll probably do after, before I, um, send this to anyone else. But I just, I don't know if anyone had any questions about anything or comments. I did put on here, uh, John, I suggested that we delete the $200. I would agree that that's really not, first of all, it's not very often that that happens. And second of all, what difference does it make? It really doesn't make any difference when you renew that it should be $200. It should be $50 more. It doesn't really, there's no extra work involved in it is what I'm saying. So I propose to delete that. Yeah. I just spent $200 in car lab today. Oh, wow. Okay. So. Wouldn't, uh, uh, on retail food add in squares, those down ones and stop and shot. Right. So I wasn't able to get that information. Sure. What I was trying to, what I was trying to figure out is based on square footage, which is a little more complicated than I thought. Um, it's something we probably could look into another time, you know, but they're really pushing to get this to the select board so they can vote on it. So, you know, I can still look into it, but, um, it's not red information that was readily at, at my fingertips. Okay. So do we need to go down? It would be great if the board voted to, um, if the board agrees to recommend these fee increases. And then it will go to the select board, um, through the assistant town manager, Kelsey's power spirit. She will be bringing this to the select board for their, uh, boat. So we need a recommendation. Everybody agrees here. I make a motion to approve the recommended fee increases. I second. Okay. That's good to a roll call. Uh, Catherine stuff. Yeah. John star. Yes. Dr. Bob Defrancesco. That's approved. Great. Thank you. You're welcome. Thanks for all your harm. That's a lot. Thank you for looking at it. All right. So next up is health director of the. Yes. So we have been very busy with working on this very large document. All hazards, public health emergency response framework. This is, if you saw it, you may suspect that. After the COVID 19 pandemic, something would happen related to a public health response. Framework. Well, that's basically what this is. The template was created by the state. And, um, you know, it's been. Discussed at various emerging emergency preparedness meetings through region for a, which we are part of that group. Um. Um, so basically to meet the requirements and participate in an exercise that were also required to do. We had to go through this document. And tailor it to Wayland. And they will have. And we have done that. We met with chief McPherson, Maura Carter, and I met with him last week. And we went through the whole document together, which was fun. Actually, you know, once we went through it, I've been through it at least three times at this point. And so I went through it once beforehand and then again with chief McPherson and then again afterwards. And so we're pretty comfortable. I'll share the final document with you all. We're pretty comfortable with what we ended up with. But, you know, it's basically a framework for specifically public health related responses and how we would interact with other resources, town officials, you know, towns within our shared services, state agencies, um, all, you know, volunteers. All the different layers of emergency response and processes that are in place for incident command structures. However, I must say that during the pandemic, we did all these things without this document. And, you know, we, we did successfully held clinics, had an emergency dispensing site, you know, had a mobile clinic outside from a trailer. We did it from a church. We did it in this, you know, venue, but, um, most of the time it was not favorable to do indoor clinics. So we were doing them outside. We did a lot of things that were outside our wheelhouse and we made it through that. So I'm very proud of how we got through it, you know, working with everyone else in the town, public safety, the front office, the department staff, all the volunteers that help us. And, um, you know, we're interested to see how the tabletop will go, which is what they call, you know, it's like a tabletop exercise to give you a scenario. And then you're sitting at a table with people from your town, Chief McPherson said he would be joining us. I don't know if, um, our new police chief will be joining us or not. He's probably very busy, but, you know, they'll give us the opportunity to talk through some scenarios or probably one scenario, perhaps. Um, but it's sort of a mystery what it will be. So that's happening, um, later this month. And, uh, 311 Boston post road, which, um, I had received, or we rather have received a couple of letters from DEP regarding this property at 311 Boston post. What was the spiller of the hazard? It didn't say that. So basically, um, what happened is this is related to the, um, dry cleaners across the street and a plume of contamination that's come across from the dry cleaners onto this property. So, you know, basically after I received the two letters, um, and we had been aware of that too, because, you know, we received letters from the state on, on things similar to this over the years. But, um. So is 311 on the hook for this? Well, they have to do certain, they, they've done some work on this property. So, you know, basically they have to respond to, and, um, based on these letters received from the state, they have to hire an LSP, which they did do. And then respond to the letters from the state. That's kind of awful. That's just merely by proximity. It's how it works, because once something moves from one property to another, it's not technically on their property anymore. They have, they're responsible to clean up their own property, but then, you know, there's mass contingency plan. And, and, you know, a process through the state where the property owner has to, you know, look into and prove, you know, in this case, they're doing a plan, what's called a RAM plan, a release abatement measure plan. Yeah, I've seen them. And so, you know, it's probably very expensive, I would imagine, to do all the work. And this is just a fraction of what I found on the state's, um, site, which is, you know, the, um, RTN. There's this whole, um, website on the state that is like a portal that you can look up contaminated properties in Wayland, in every town, anywhere. So you can go on this site. It's sometimes a little clunky to look up, but you'll eventually succeed if you get on there. So I had the tracking number here and, or here rather. And so I went in and I pulled it up and then there was this long report and I was like, oh my God. And so I went through and I just pulled out the pages that, cause I mean, there's like hundreds of pages. So I pulled out the pages that described what happened and what was doing, what was being done, which is basically, um, you know, this, um, the history. It starts with really the history, um, from the dry cleaners at 298. And the contamination from that business that was creating a, what's called a downrage in property status at 297 Boston Post road parcel, which is associated with 311. Um, are they still a dry cleaner? Um, I believe it is still a dry cleaner. Yeah. So we have seen reports from them in the past, as I mentioned. Um, and then I went through the plan. And then I went through the plan on the DEP portal and pulled out pages. Um, ultimately the RAM plan that they put together details, their response actions proposed. Um, they're installing a vapor abatement system and abandoning the septic system and septic tank, which is no longer in use. They have town water and sewer and, um, actions involve removing fluids from the abandoned tank. And filling the tank with global fill and installing the vapor abatement system to abate the, um, TCE, TCE, and or chlorinated compounds that were detected in the soil or groundwater. But not associated with background at the site below, you know, so they put that in there, this certain language, but basically they'll be putting in the subslab vapor barrier and sampling analysis. Um, even though they're saying that there's no compounds that were above a certain level that they have to prove that it's, you know, not above a certain level, they'll be putting in the barrier anyway, because it's likely present. Um, with the subslab vaporization system. This is at the 311 property. It gets complicated. It's kind of confusing, but, um, this is all about 311 where the old dentist office was. But it's now when we buy that new. So they bought that property. I don't think that they bought, um, 297. I think they're leasing that property, but there is a, like a, an arrangement between the new, it's not leased by fresh city anymore. Uh, or fresh market rather, because it used to be leased by fresh market. Right. And now there's a new company leasing it that works in partnership with terrain. So they didn't buy it. They just bought 311 and they're leasing 297. So that can interfere with the project. Uh, I don't think so. I mean, they had to do this research to buy this property. Right. So they knew about this problem. It's all on the state's websites. Um, so anyway, groundwater testing was done, exceeding standards for PCE. Um, the highest concentrations at the property boundary for hydraulically up gradient of the tank and leech field near Boston Post Road, with a decrease in concentration in groundwater with distance at or near Boston Post Road, consistent with groundwater flow direction. So, you know, to the main source, which is where the cleaners are over at 298. Soil borings were done with some contamination found, um, and VOCs and groundwater from 298. Also, they will test the liquid in the old septic tank and fill it with felt flowable fill. And then, you know, dispose of any waste according to what's required if they find contamination. Um, and then in the partial basement, VOCs were detected above groundwater standards, but not above levels protective of surface water. So, you know, there's all these different, um, levels that they're looking for, you know, there's ones in surface water, there's ones in groundwater, there's ones in soils. So, sump pumps in the partial basement that discharge piping west of the building based on concentrations of chlorinated VOCs nearby wells. Direct, direct discharge of chlorinated VOCs via the sump pump is well below. So, so they had a sump pump in there pumping water out with this contaminant in it. Still not great. It's not, it's going right into that area that goes into the Sudbury river. So, it's not, you know, um, but, you know, I mean, basically, this is my summary of, you know, and I'm not an LSP, but, you know, I can get a basic understanding of what they're talking about by looking at, you know, they have maps and things in here. If you're interested in seeing where some of the information was found and borings that they did and monitoring wells and whatnot, it's, um, it's probably very expensive to do all this work. So, um, but this, these letters were. Yeah. So when in November, something they were doing, you know, trips, this letter, and then it trips this and that, you know, so it's part of the process that they have to, you know, based on the 21 E chapter 21 E. And mass contingency plan and may CP MCP governing the assessment and cleanup of disposal sites. So that was that. And, um, I do have, I did watch, um, just going to, uh, Tom's comments. I did watch the, uh, recording of Ben Gould's most recent, um, findings that he was describing. And so I put, I put some notes together just regarding what I understood Ben to be explaining. And then I was going to talk about it at our next meeting, but you know, I mean, it's not on the agenda. It was brought up a public comment. And then my understanding is that the PFAS is in the water, the groundwater. I don't know, you know, where it came from. There were comments that were made regarding, you know, it could have been from wax that was, you know, disposed of improperly through from the school because it has a septic system there. So, you know, I don't know what they're going to do. They talked about digging it all up and just removing it, but now it's all, you know, it's in the ground already. So I don't know if that would do any good either. And that's, you know, Ben Gould was, he mentioned that, but I don't know that that was an actual suggestion that he was making, you know, to like remove the whole. Leach field area that I'm sure that would cost a fortune, then they'd have to build a whole new Leach field. So I don't know what will happen or what DEP will even require. It's, it's probably going to be an ongoing thing for quite a while. But, you know, if they can, I mean, I can ask Ben, you know, what he did mention that he thought it was from waste getting into the septic system from wax. I don't know if that's true or not. I don't know, you know, what they do now with wastewater and what kinds of waxes they use or things like those. Those, those questions could be something that I could find out about, you know, for some insight into what's happening now as opposed to what happens before and hopefully isn't happening anymore. If there's, you know, if there's, you know, if there's a correlation between the wax possible waste going into the septic. So, and then we have two seats open in our board. And so hopefully, John and Katie will be running for election this January. Well, not January, but papers will be ready to be pulled as of today, I believe. And so other board members could probably assist with getting signatures. So we can pull papers now? Yep. Judy put out a note that they would be available as of January 5th. So it might be a great week for it because it's going to be in the 40s. Before it rocks down again. Well, I know. It's great. Give me a sheet now. Okay. Katie's going to need some help too. Yeah. Just give me a sheet. Oh, thanks. And I'm sure that Dr. Anand and Brett would be willing to help as well. So that's great. See, I don't know if anyone has any questions about anything else that I just went over. It's kind of a lot of information. No, but another topic. Mm-hmm. Any follow up on China Rose? I believe there was follow up. I can find out what the situation is. Yeah. Yeah. That's very good. Did they have an issue? I don't think so. Oh. I think. Remember, they were supposed to go through training. Yes. Mm-hmm. I think there was a delay in things actually happening. So I think, you know, there was a window of time where nothing happened. And then finally, you know, so, but. And they were supposed to go from what they have to sushi too. That was a big, I'll agree on that. I'm curious. Yep. Yep. And Jenna, who does all our renewal permits, is working with Beth Grossman, our food inspector, on all our farmers market vendors. Because the farmers market's actually opening this Saturday. So they've been very busy working on that. And getting all the permits squared away for anyone who's selling food at the farmers market. And these fees, this is the same fees around here. They, we changed them. So those fees. They different. Unfortunately, they're not going to be ready for that. Yeah. But they will be for the next round. Let's go. So. Can we have another meeting this month? We do. Yeah. We had some. We have. To this month. A few things that potentially could be on the agenda. Yeah. But originally we wanted to have this meeting so we could talk about if we, if our resident and Tenshore wanted to have a public hearing, but we knew that the fees, they wanted us to get that squared away. So we decided to just do it, you know? Yeah. Yeah. We'll try not to schedule during the playoff game. If there is one at that point. That's why. It's not my name. No. It could have been. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Is it economics that is making the house in the state that it is? Or. Is. I believe there's a combination of things, but that would be part of it. And that was why I mentioned receivership because that is a program that probably the owner wouldn't be interested in, but it does help the owner in the long run. So, you know, if we go that route, you know, it is a lengthy process, but, and I believe we'll have a lengthy process anyway. You know. Some people just choose to. I mean, I've known people that just choose to live that. Yeah. Yeah. It is tough. We we've been working with this individual for a long time, you know, helping to try to be supportive and assisting in any way that we can, you know, and once we got to the point where Lynn Fouts from clear path, who was assisting her with, you know, addressing some of those concerns with her, the condition of the inside of the house in the outside, you know, she put together what we called. What she called the harm reduction plan, which highlighted a lot of the things that basically initiated us to push to get an inspection because I hadn't been inside the house in a long time. Actually, I still haven't been inside the house because she preferred that someone else would do the inspection on behalf because. You have a relationship. Right. So, but I think and did a good job. She, you know, was able to get a lot of information enough for me to put together, you know, along with the meetings with the fire chief and the building inspector, the building commissioner really to, you know, just get a full understanding of what the findings were during the inspection. So do you have anything else? We built a real bad. So I'm just not going to finish on her hour. Are we got anything else? Nope. Yeah, I think that's it for me. I don't have anything else. I mean, we are working on a lot of stuff, but yeah, we'll be talking about the peer review for Rice Road at the Coptic church, probably at our next meeting. There's another property that has a septic thing going on that might need a waiver. Um, there's, there's a few other things that the budget with the budget, we, um, we'll have a draft budget, which is, um, already sort of been reviewed by the finance director, but officially we can discuss it and see if there's any suggestions or, you know, requests that we have. The, um, Veritas Academy is going right at it, huh? Yes. And the butters are very upset and they have complained to building commissioner because I believe that it's considered a ZB, a zoning board issue at this point of construction. And so, um, they're pushing, but I don't know what's going to happen with that. It's a school. It's a school. So they have certain, um, the Dover amendment. Well, it's like the Coptic church. They're going to have issues with that too. Yeah. And reading about it, it didn't seem like they were amenable to doing any sort of a additional testing or flying balloons or anything. They're just kind of like, Nope. Right. Yeah. So. It's tough. All right. We're all set. Many of you should rejoin. Hold your hand. Yes. I second. All right. Catherine Steph. Yeah. John Stone. Yes. And Dr. Bob Defrancesco. We need to join.