October 20, 2025 – Board of Health – Video & Transcript

October 20, 2025 - Board of Health

Autoscroll:

Follow the meeting, 6.30. One may watch and may participate remotely with the meeting link that can be found at www.wayland.bass.us public body meeting information virtual in-person and hybrid. Pursuant to chapter 2 of the Acts of 2025, this meeting will be conducted in-person and via remote means in accordance with applicable law. This meeting may be recorded, which may be made available to the public on WACAM as soon as after the meeting, as is practical. Let's do a roll call. Dr. Genevieve Annan is not here tonight. Dr. Brett Mordas is not here tonight. John Stoyer is not here. Catherine Stiff is here. And Dr. Bob Defrancesco is here. All right, let's start with public comment. Have anybody waiting for public comment? No, no, it's going to be online. I don't have to look quite good. I don't know. I don't believe there's another person in the panelist, but not in the attendees area at all. Okay. Yep. So let's move on to, all right, introduction to the book with Laura. We have our new public health nurse here. Very excited to introduce you. Welcome, Laura. Hi, y'all. Thank you. So I started on 9-22, and so we're coming up to just about a month now, and we are well on our way. So my style of reporting is a little different from Michelle's, but if you have any requests, that's some certain things you'd like to see, I'm happy to hear about that. I did put a list of the diseases that came through MAVEN during the month of September. There was one case of pangulobacteriosis, one of Lyme disease, or excuse me, three of Lyme disease, nine of COVID-19, one latent tuberculosis infection, and one baricella lab that was likely a zoster infection specimen. And I generally have gotten into the habit of reporting all confirmed probable and suspect cases, just with the exception of suspect hepatitis B cases, as advised to me by the state. And then in terms of community outreach highlights, we've had one flu clinic so far with the flu clinic for seniors 60-plus happening last week, where we vaccinated 134 individuals, and we have a clinic coming up in just two days for much of the rest of the community, so ages 12 and up for a community clinic this coming Wednesday. So if anyone needs their flu vaccine still, we encourage you to register, and registration can be found on that web page. And then school health services report, I will just read here, over the past month, the school nursing team has remained actively engaged in several important initiatives to support student health and maintain compliance with state and local health mandates. A primary area of focus has been ensuring immunization compliance, particularly among new students enrolling in the district. Nurses have been reviewing student records, following up with families, and coordinating with health care providers to ensure all documentation is current and in accordance with Massachusetts immunization requirements. In alignment with TPH mandates, we have also begun our annual health screenings for vision, hearing, and body mass index. These screenings started in the preschool population and will continue progressively through the older grade levels in the coming weeks. In addition, to these poor public health responsibilities, the nursing staff continues to provide vital support for school field trips and care of medically complex students, ensuring both safety and continuity of care during the school day and during school-sponsored activities. To help strengthen capacity and provide more reliable coverage, especially during periods of high demand, we've recently hired additional substitute nurses. And this expansion of substitute nurse school enhances our ability to maintain consistent health services throughout the district. And we appreciate the Board's continued support of school health initiatives and remain committed to promoting the health and well-being of students in our care. So that from Heather Yates, the school nurse leader. And then lastly, I will follow up with an email to the Board members, too. We've had a long-time physician resident in town who has served to, at times, sign standing orders for vaccination, but license is expiring at the end of this year without a plan to renew. And so my request would be to see if any of you would be willing to sign those standing orders for continuation of the vaccine program for residents and non-residents as this is introduced. So I'll follow up with an email about that. Are you happy to sign anything? A couple of questions for you. I'd love to hear your background, where you came from as well. Sure. So I have a background in quite a few things. I've been a nurse for over a decade and did work as a family nurse practitioner, still unlicensed as one, and worked as an FNP for over a decade, but was looking for more quality of life, not rushing from patient to patient and taking notes home. And so I did end up doing COVID-19 management for the Suffolk University student population for a few years during COVID, and then that piqued my interest in public health. So then I got into a role serving the municipalities of Concord and Maynard for a couple of years and recently came on to support Wayland. Yes. Yes. Thank you. One other question. On COVID cases, there was nine Wayland. What's the breakdown? Is it children, adults? Just curious. Yeah. So I didn't see them all come through. Usually it's a combination in general, and I didn't do a breakdown of ages, and I wasn't here for the majority of those cases when they did come through, may have been, but I've seen at least some adult and pediatrics. For example, a pediatric case just came here today. So generally thanks. Great. Thank you. Well said. Since I don't remember, I probably should remember, how the substitute nurses were. Like, do you have them on retainer or they actually come in and they're here in the town? So my understanding from our school nurse leader is that there are a number of substitute nurses that will then come in for a shift if called upon. So technically, among the full-time staff, there is a float nurse. And so that float nurse is best positioned for need at any of the particular schools and will float from school to school depending on the day and the need. And then the substitute nurses are called upon for a variety of reasons, whether it be sick coverage, whether it be professional development, day coverage, whether it be vacation day coverage, so a variety of reasons. And but those nurses have their own schedule and ability to fill certain days. Right. And so not everyone's always available. So the larger pool then allows for more, greater ability to fill that gap when someone calls upon the need. So when it says hire, do you have to pay them something to be on the list so that they're available? Or is it just like a feature that you could just call and sort of... It's like per diem, you know? So whenever we find a nurse who's willing to be on our sub pool, then, you know, we typically rein them in, you know, do the interview. And then if there's someone in our pool, we, you know, go through the hiring process so that it's easy to call upon them, you know, especially if there's like a long-term leave for some reason, you know, whether it's medical or maternity leave or, you know, just different things that come up. So, you know, basically, it is as needed, you know, unless there's a long-term assignment. Just in a number. Any other questions? Just one quick question. Sure. Are you able to write orders for vaccines of the FMP? Okay. So I am, but I, at least in my previous role, tried not to blur those lines because this is still a registered nurse physician. And so I tried to keep it within that role and stick to that role, and I feel like it likely could snowball if we're talking about going outside of that role. So we've had a good month, you know, under our belts at this point, you know, where, you know, Warren has been great. She jumped right in and got, you know, I did a lot of the logistics, but we've got the flu clinic up and running in a short period of time. She learned color and brushed up on that and we pulled a pretty smooth flu clinic together and we have another one on Wednesday. So those were, you know, kind of the most urgent things to get underway. And, you know, I think we're, we'll be jumping into other things as time goes by, but, you know, it was a little hairy at the beginning, you know, coming in at that time, you know, in September or so. But it's an easy season to come into, but it is. So I'm sure that Dr. Arnon and maybe Brett might have questions, but, you know, don't. Yeah. Great. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks for coming. All right. A little bit earlier. So, I can, you know, give you an update on 10 Shore Drive because we do have a presentation and they're probably looking at the clock, but 10 Shore Drive is a housing and hoarding situation that we've been working on with a group of staff, people who work for the town, including myself, the outreach coordinator, the fire chief, the, you know, a number of individuals who work here. That we're working with the resident and we have a meeting set up with her. So, which was encouraging, you know, to work with her on her situation, which, you know, we're looking at as sort of a harm reduction plan. And so I'm hoping to be able to do an inspection of property sometime in the near future and hopefully in cooperation with the resident. We also got the letters from the Turkey Hill condo, unless anyone had any questions about that. We have letters from the Turkey Hill condo residents regarding concerns for the Coptic Church expansion on Rice Road. So, although when I looked at the letter, there's nothing on here about septic systems. So, I don't know. There's nothing really Board of Health related. I can tell you that I believe we do have plans to review. There's a couple of huge projects that Darren has on his desk. So, I'm helping with some other smaller reviews while he's doing the big reviews. One of them is the Carroll School and the other is the Coptic Church. And then Veritas had just some stragglers from a prior, you know, there's nothing new on that. But, you know, these big projects can really take a lot of your time. So, also, so I'm not sure where, you know, what will happen with that project. But, you know, it sounds like the neighbors are upset that there is a very large expansion planned there. But really the most that we are involved with would be septic, you know, and any related reviews associated with that. Which I think would be groundwater mounding. I don't know about pressure dosing, but whatever we would require. We would make sure that that's being covered. And then we've got the update on the community pool and then the update to the violations related to the leach field clearing and maintenance of that area over the leach field. I did go over to check on how things were looking over there. And they did end up clearing additional space, which looks like it's the entire leach field. However, it's already growing back with the invasive plants that you've mentioned. So what are those called again? Well, is it not? I think so. Yeah. Yeah. You can't get rid of that. And their roots will go under a five lane highway and come up on the other side. So they could be really bad for septic. So I don't know what they're going to do, but they did get a legal order to maintain that area, keep it cut down. You know, it was starting to grow back a little bit, but they did tell me that they were going to be, you know, working on it again. So I just figured I would give you an update on that. And, you know, about the flu clinic. I don't have any minutes. They're almost ready, but we were a little behind. Darren was out sick for a number of days and Patty was on vacation. And so our usual push before the board meeting got a little delayed. So I don't know if you want to. I don't have any bills. Sorry? Bills. Sorry. They don't have any bills. That's also delayed because we have someone who is out in the finance department who processes them and they've asked to hold off. So we're probably have a good amount of bills at our next meeting. I'm just looking at anything else that we can do appointments after because that'll probably take us a few minutes. Sure. I mean, it has been fairly busy. We had a lot of jobs that were closing up the week that Darren was out sick because of the weather. You know, we had that rainy weekend. Now we've got rain again. But so we had a number of jobs that were, you know, closing up and I'm sure jobs that will be starting out to try and get those completed before the, you know, snow hits. So usually it's a little bit of a push this time of year with construction work. So just trying to get, you know, caught up on building reviews and septic reviews. So that's what I'll be helping out with, you know, just to kind of push everything through that we can for weather changes. I don't know if anyone had any questions about anything. I didn't see the cyanobacteria from the child's river. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I saw that too. Did they lift it before the... No. I was wondering if they were going to lift. No. I mean, it is that time of year and, you know, honestly, I haven't really been down to our lake. I usually go down there and take a look at the water, but I haven't been down there recently. So as far as whether there's a balloon there or not, typically people report it though, either to us or to the state. So I haven't heard from anybody, but... There's less people in the water too. Yeah. Less people down there. Yeah. So. Ready to make sure that people can get in. Let's see. Trying to figure out how to move them in. Does anyone know? Let's see. Last time it seemed like there was a way to do it that was... We can hear you, but you need to allow us to unmute. Okay. All right. I think we're all set, Julia. Everybody? Okay. Great. Okay. Excellent. Sorry. Can everybody hear us? Yes. Okay. Great. Can Katie speak too? I don't know if I have to change anything. You can. Okay. Great. Excellent. All right. I think we're all set, Julia. Everybody? Okay. Great. Great. Can Katie speak too? I don't know if I have to change anything. You can. Okay. Great. Thanks. Are you guys ready to get started? Sure. Awesome. All right. Good evening, everyone. My name is Brandon Golnick. I'm the program manager for the contact tracing and case investigation grant through Wayland for the Great Meadows Public Health Collaborative. Just a brief summary of our grant. Back in the fall of 2021, the town of Wayland applied for a COVID grant, basically, to do contact tracing and case investigation. And they were awarded that grant. And that grant serves the seven member towns across Great Meadows. Since that time, the scope of services for our grant changed. And we were authorized to work on other core local health activities. So we discussed that at the advisory committee back in October of 2023. And they authorized our team to do a health equity needs assessment covering each of the seven municipalities. We recently completed that work. And we're here tonight to share our findings with you. Before we get started, I just want to confirm, did everyone get a paper copy of the report? Awesome. Yes. Thank you, Brandon. Yep. If anybody would like an electronic copy, just let Julia know, and we can pass that right along to you guys. So this was a regional effort to better understand the health experiences, challenges, and disparities across the towns of Bedford, Carlisle, Concord, Lincoln, Sudbury, Wayland, and Weston. The purpose of this report was to identify key health inequities, listen to community voices, and analyze data so that we can guide future strategies to improve population health and well-being. Our work highlights not only the barriers residents face, such as access to care, mental health needs, housing insecurity, and food insecurity, but also the opportunities we have to strengthen collaboration and build a healthier, more equitable region for everyone. So I'd like to introduce our team who led this work. Kimberly Garcia. She's our regional epidemiologist. And Katherine Rines, our regional public health nurse. Together, we've built a report that not only identifies needs, but also lays out recommendations and strategies that can inform action moving forward. So tonight, we're excited to share those findings with you and start the conversation about what comes next. Okay, thanks for having us. So I'll talk a little bit about the methods to start. So for our report, we used a mixed methods design, a mix of both quantitative and qualitative data. Our data sources came from MassDPH and the CHI survey, which was the Community Health Equity Survey, the CDC, the U.S. Census, and Emerson Hospital. We also did a strong community engagement on surveys, key informant interviews, focus groups. We had people go and do the survey in person at two of the shelters that were in the collaborative as well, the emergency shelters in Bedford and Concord. And our focus was really on the inequities in preventative care, chronic disease, social determinants of health, while also aligning with DPH's foundational public health services model. And just so you have a little snapshot of the survey topics, it was ranging from COVID-19 experiences to where they get their information sources, education, basic needs, access to healthcare, employment, mental health, substance use, safety and social context, their demographics, and their living situation or neighborhood. Hi, everyone. Thank you for your time. Now, this project aims to assess the public health landscape of Great Meadows following the initial waves of COVID-19. So we used MAVEN data to report case counts and deaths. The cases from MAVEN were from January of 2022 to May of 2024. And the death count is from January 2020 to June 2024. And just keep in mind that case numbers from January 2022 to May 2024 were likely underreported due to widespread at-home testing. Next slide, please. So vaccination rates for the primary series are high across all towns. This vaccination series was first released in early 2021. However, booster uptake is lower. Only about half of residents have received a booster since 2022. And that data is from April of 2023. Current public health guidance from Massachusetts DPH recommends COVID-19 vaccination for children from six months to adulthood, all adults, high-risk individuals, pregnant or lactating people, and those who are immunocompromised. Immunocompromised individuals should receive two doses of the 25-26 vaccine spaced six months apart. As COVID-19 continues to circulate, long COVID remains a key concern. Long COVID refers to a range of nonspecific symptoms that can appear up to three months post-infection. And these issues include sleep issues, stomach pain, joint or muscle pain, tingling sensations, and dizziness while standing, and some other symptoms which are listed on the slide. A New England Journal of Medicine study showed that vaccinated individuals are less likely to develop long COVID when compared to unvaccinated individuals. So given Great Meadows' high vaccination rates, it's unlikely that this statewide 5.3% long COVID prevalence applies here. Still, we must remain aware as the booster uptake is low. Some individuals with long COVID experience chronic symptoms and report difficulty accessing care. So this highlights the need for continued investment in chronic disease surveillance and further probing of the community to see if something like a long COVID support group would fulfill a need. COVID-19 also reshaped work patterns across the region. So according to Qi data respondents, hybrid work is more common for about two-fifths of Weyland respondents. Remote-only work continues for a portion of the population, about a fifth of Qi survey respondents in Weyland. And meanwhile, about a third of respondents in Weyland work exclusively outside of the home. So these shifts have implications for mental health, social cohesion, and access to services, which are important to consider for public health planning. Next slide, please. Brandon. I think you're muted, Brandon. No. Brandon says he can't unmute. There we go. Okay. All right. So as we all know, the pandemic reshaped the Great Meadows economy. Jobs, income, housing, taxes, and cost of living all shifted significantly. Some indicators are showing recovery, but residents are demonstrating a loss of purchasing power. Equity remains a critical challenge. Gains have not been shared equally before and after the pandemic. Next slide. Back in 2019, the unemployment rate was at 2.22%, which was indicating a thriving economy. And then in 2020, that spiked up to 6% due to business closures and layoffs. In 2023, we started to see signs of recovery down to 2.77%. And then in 2024, it rose again up to 4.36%. Next slide. So this shows property values, equalized valuation per capita. So in 2019, it was 308,000. And then jump forward to 2024, it increased by 68,000 to 376,000. The total EQV is 3.97 billion back in 2019. And then it went up by 797 million to 4.77 billion in 2024. Home values on average across Great Meadows back in 2019, the average property value is 886,000. And in 2024, that jumped up by 458,000 up to 1.3 million. Rising property values boosted equity for homeowners, but made housing less affordable for renters and first-time buyers. Next slide. We also looked at income and taxes. So the per capita income across Great Meadows was 149,000 in 2019. And that jumped up by 45,000 to 195,000 in 2024. We calculated the basic take-home pay based on what the average person's take-home pay would look like. And back in 2019, that was just under 100,000 at 99,000. And that jumped up by 34,000 to 134,000 in 2024. But inflation eroded real purchasing power. An example of that is tax rates. They did fall by 15.46% in 2019 to 13.21% in 2024. But the average tax bill increased by $4,000 annually or $338 a month. So that's one example of the reduced purchasing power. Next slide. Housing affordability. This is a big one. Mortgage rates were 3.94%. And those jumped up to 6.81% in 2023. So the impact, even though the numbers are, I mean, it is double the interest rate. A lot of the times when people see, you know, four or five or 6%, they don't think too much of it. But that significantly impacted the long-term interest that someone would pay when they purchase and borrow money to purchase a house. In 2019, the down payment on an average house for 20% down was $177,000. So their monthly mortgage rate would be $3360,000. But in consideration of the interest rate and the rising cost of housing, the down payment increased to $249,000. And the monthly mortgage payment actually doubled almost to $6506,000. So the result, homeownership increasingly out of reach. Next slide. Cost of living. We looked at gasoline, food prices, healthcare, and transportation. Gasoline was $2.66 a gallon in 2019. And then that peaked to $4.10, which right now I think our gas prices are falling a little bit. Next slide. So recovery has definitely favored property owners more than renters or low-income families. Rising costs disproportionately affect vulnerable groups. And without interventions, economic divides we believe will widen. Some of the policy priorities would be to address housing affordability. Activate and expand on housing affordable housing trusts. Adopt a housing production plan or update an existing HPP. Incentivize small-scale affordable infill and accessory dwelling units. Down payment assistance for first-time home buyers and counseling. Rental stabilization and landlord partnership programs. Align wages with cost of living. Mitigate inflationary pressures. And center equity and policy design. So post-pandemic studies have shown that mental health indicators have worsened since the pandemic. This is occurring amongst those who were infected and directly impacted by COVID-19 and those who did not directly experience the effects of the disease. A study done by CDC places indicated that on average 18.2% of adults in Great Meadows reported experiencing symptoms of a depressive disorder. This is a little lower than the Middlesex average of 19%, but still something to be aware of. Survey findings from CIVIS survey in 2023 revealed variability across Great Meadows in individuals' access to support systems. Among White and Hispanic respondents, a notable proportion reported lacking one or more key components typically associated with a functional support system. The criteria being like I have a friend or family member who I can count on to be there for me. I have a community that cares about me. I feel I have a sense of belonging to the community where I live. Many people indicated missing at least two aspects of what makes a strong emotional support system. A positive is that a large majority of youth risk behavior survey respondents, the ages being 6th graders, 8th graders, and high schoolers, from which 30% of respondents are from the Great Meadows area, indicated that they felt supported by either their friends or their parents, family, and caregivers. However, those who did not feel supported were more likely to feel depressed and reported engaging in self-harm and contemplating suicide. So according to that survey, those who identified as transgender, non-binary, or non-heterosexual, and certain racial or ethnic groups reported not feeling like they belonged in school, being bullied, being depressed, and engaging in self-harm at a higher rate than their white classmates. The racial or ethnic groups survey identified especially at risk are Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students, Middle Eastern American students, Black or African American students, and Southeast Asian American students. According to the U.S. Census, 25% of older adults in Great Meadows live alone. This can be especially concerning for older adults with chronic conditions or developing conditions, as there is not a strong community presence to identify if someone is deteriorating mentally or physically sooner. A key informant noted that the community is just not gathering the way it used to pre-COVID. And something that came up during a key informant interview that is important to note is that when we talk about mental health issues, we really need to remember the complexities of mental health care. A key informant reported that when they made use of funding to offer mental health services, people who reported interest in receiving mental health care did not show up to participate. So we really need to ask ourselves, what stopped them? Is talk therapy the service they needed or is it another type of therapy? We really need to glean what the community is looking for exactly and what the barriers are that prevent them from showing up. And if it is possible for us in our roles to remove those barriers. Next slide, please. And from 2021 to 2022, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health estimated that about 23% of Massachusetts population aged 12 and up engaged in binge alcohol use in the last month. The survey also estimated that 32% of the Massachusetts population aged 18 to 25 had the highest proportion of binge drinkers. CDC estimates that in 2021, it was about 16.8% of adults in Great Meadows engaged in binge drinking, and specifically in Wayland, that number is 16.7%, which is lower than the Massachusetts average. Alcohol can compound emergency visits, which makes it a problematic substance. According to the youth risk behavioral survey, high school students have reported consuming alcohol within the past 30 days decreased from 27% to 13% of students over four years. However, the number of students reporting using alcohol increases as the grade level increases. The number of students driving under the influence of alcohol dropped by half from 6% to 3% over four years. Older adults can have substance use disorders and are less likely to be screened for it. There are misconceptions that older adults with a substance use disorder has had it for the duration of their life a long time, but a substance use disorder can develop at any time. Stressful life events were associated with alcohol use disorder in those that are middle-aged, so effective screening, social support, and available primary care are some key factors that can help with prevention. Great Meadows overall has a low opioid death rate and opioid-related overdose deaths decreased 10% overall in Massachusetts in 2023, which is trended lower than the nationwide rate. Massachusetts credits local and state efforts in substance use disorder prevention treatment and recovery for the decreased rate. And I'd like to just mention two other substances of concern briefly. So CDC places estimates about 6.9% of the population of Great Meadows are current smokers. E-cigarette use continues on a downward trend among high school students from 8% of high school students to 5% of high school students reporting use over two years. Of the 3% of the student survey population that engaged in e-cigarette usage, 20% identified as Native American or Pacific Islander, which I think is important to note. And according to the CHI survey, 8% of Weyland respondents reported non-medical cannabis use in the past month. The difference in non-medical cannabis users across the towns can be explained by demographic differences in the surveyed population by town. Since 2020, the rate of high school students driving under the influence of marijuana dropped from 14% of survey respondents to 4%. And marijuana usage is also on a downward trend among high school students, dropping from 10% to 6% over two years. Of the population that used marijuana recently, which is within the past three months, 25% identified as Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 11% identified as transgender, 10% identified as Middle Eastern American, and 10% identified as American Indian or Alaska Native. So, while keeping in mind that identities can overlap, we can estimate that about 45% to 56% of respondents that answered that they do engage in marijuana use are from a minority population. So, I think it is worth considering if prevention messaging is effectively reaching these populations. Next slide, please. And so, moving on to built-in natural environment, some of the strengths of Great Meadows is that residents are appreciative of the safety of their towns. The crime rate is low, and CHI and YRBS respondents both confirm feeling safe in their community. The area also features a significant amount of green space, which is good for mental and physical health. However, the area is very CAR-dependent, which has been linked to obesity, high blood pressure, and mental health issues, and CAR-related fatalities. Reducing car dependence decreases air pollution and greenhouse gas output. Community car dependency has an unbalanced negative effect on those who have limited income or those with physical or mental limitations that prevent them from driving. Waiting for a free car service can be inconvenient, as the schedule of the day may force a resident to wait hours for a ride, which may affect other aspects of their life. Residents also report seeing and experiencing signs of climate change. The past nine years have been the warmest on record, and residents are seeing an experience. Oh, sorry. According to the CHI survey, about a quarter of respondents from Wayland reported feeling unwell due to poor air quality, heat, or allergies in the past five years. More ticks and mosquitoes in the past five years was reported by about half of Wayland respondents. So encouraging green initiatives that strengthen environmental resiliency in the region will be essential to meeting the evolving needs of residents. Next slide, please. And so the median home price in Massachusetts is $587,875. So monthly mortgage payments are the third highest in the nation. The average rent in Massachusetts is a little over $1,800, making it the fourth highest in the United States. According to the U.S. Census, the median rent in Great Meadows was a little over $2,000 in 2022. A common budgeting tip for renters is to spend no more than 30% of their gross monthly income on rent. However, as you can see from the slide, half of renters from Wayland are spending over 30% of their income on rent. Elevated rental costs contributes to financial strain, which is associated with adverse health outcomes. When compared to populations not experience housing affordability stress. Moreover, housing insecurity often intersects with food insecurity, compounding the challenges faced by vulnerable households. Positive is that the majority of CHI survey respondents did report that they had someone that they could count on to help them find housing, suggesting residents have a good support system either interpersonally or in the community. Local health departments do dedicate a significant amount of time to housing-related challenges. Unfortunately, homelessness is on the rise in the state of Massachusetts. There has been a 54% increase from 2023, according to the Massachusetts Office of Housing and Livable Communities. Next slide, please. And now moving on to food insecurity. In the state of Massachusetts, 34% of households reported experiencing food insecurity in 2023, according to a survey conducted by the Greater Boston Food Bank. So if you drill that down to only Middlesex County, 27% of survey respondents identified as food insecure. Studies have shown that people will opt for food of lower nutritional quality if the food is less expensive. An unhealthy, highly processed diet has been linked to mental disorders such as anxiety and depression. Poor diet has also been linked to physical diseases like Alzheimer's, obesity, diabetes, and other negative health outcomes. Farmers markets do increase community access to fresh nutritious foods and can also promote awareness of sustainable farm practices, foster stronger social connections within the community, and contribute to local economic growth. Produce from farmers markets doesn't have to travel as far to reach the consumer, which has a positive environmental impact. That produce has higher nutritional value than produce shipped from a distant farm. There are three farmers markets in Great Meadows, and only the Wayland farmers market accepts SNAP. Recently, federal government food assistance programs have either rolled back or have expired. An example of being school lunch programs that were expanded to hope child hunger did expire and there hasn't been a renewal from the federal government. Local food pantry volunteers who work in Great Meadows report experiencing more demand than pre-pandemic. Lonely adults are vulnerable to food insecurity. With the cost of living rising, many will go without addressing their basic needs just to make it to the next day. Studies have shown that educating key vulnerable residents on better nutrition can reduce household food insecurity. Older adults are just as capable as any other demographic to changing ingrained habits and adopting a healthier lifestyle. Next slide, please. Oh, I muted and did not change the slide. Oops. Oops. I don't know why I was stuck on that, so let me just stop sharing and I'll go back to sharing. I'm sorry about that. It's fine. Okay. All right. And so we found these maps on the Massachusetts population health information tool. The map on the left is population with limited food access. The USDA categorizes over 50% of the population of Wayland as having lower limited food access. Limited food access is defined as living more than one mile from the nearest supermarket, super center, or large grocery store. The total percent of the population in Great Meadows with low food access is 46.13%. So this is concerning combined with the number of fast food restaurants in the area, the rate of which is 79.29 fast food restaurants per 100,000 residents. This is higher than the rate in Massachusetts, which hovers around 75.31% and in the United States, which is 61.86%. So creating environments that promote and support healthy eating habits are foundational to empowering communities to make informed food choices. Next slide. So moving on to access to care, Great Meadows actually has pretty high rates of preventative service use and low uninsured rates, which is great. For Wayland specifically, the amount of men that are up to date on their preventative services for ages 65 plus are 55.5% and women is 49.9%. And the rate of uninsured adults ages 18 to 64 for Wayland is 2%, with the mass average being 2.4. Overall, Great Meadows being 2.2. And so some key points when it comes to access to care. Mental health is a big challenge, largely due to the shortages in mental health providers and the geographic disparities in care. And something to note was during a focus group for this assessment, participants had mentioned that the pandemic had further reduced their provider availability, which isn't just seen in Great Meadows, that's seen nationally. So that's just something to be aware of. And then for telehealth, that seems to be utilized by some residents of the towns. We know that a lot of people choose to do that for mental health. And then based on the CHI data for Wayland, which the sample size is around 33%, the usage rate ranged from 53.5 to 61.8%. And we did find in the assessment that around 11% of the Great Meadows population does not have internet or has internet that doesn't work too great. And then for some CHI data from the survey, around 20% of the Great Meadows population felt that their mental health needs were not met. And that was about a sample size of 45. And 2.4% experienced suicidal ideation within the past year, and the sample size of 293. Around 16% of parents felt that their child had an unmet health need, a sample size of 89. And 45.3% of the Great Meadows community felt that they had medium to high psychological distress within the past month, with a sample size of 291. And so some challenges and barriers when it comes to care. The main barriers that we found were transportation, affordability and language access. Now, in the other towns, there was, you could see in Lincoln, that there was around 14% of uninsured individuals were Asian. And in Sudbury, almost 9% were Black or African American. In Concord, we saw that 1.33% of the male population was uninsured. While in Wayland, it was 1.62. And when we look at Massachusetts as a whole, 2.4% of Massachusetts residents were not insured in 2024. And of those people who were uninsured, almost half of them cited cost as their primary barrier. And 20% were uncertain about how to obtain insurance. So it's really important to focus on that group that is, you know, unsure about obtaining the insurance and how do we reach them. And then for challenges, again, was mental health, some dental care as well, and preventative screenings are areas that we could do better with. And within the survey, residents really emphasized affordability and mental health as their main priorities. And then moving on to communicable disease. So outside of COVID, the flu or influenza makes up the majority of the caseload in Maven. So it is a high burden disease for residents in the area. And part of the problem with preventing influenza and COVID-19 spread is that post can be contagious before symptoms appear. Tick-borne diseases like Lyme and HTA also add to communicable disease burden in the area. Tuberculosis often pops up in Maven, but a closer look at those numbers show no active cases are no cause for concern due to just tuberculosis disease mechanics. It's either latent TB or false positives. And so to prevent some of the higher circulating communicable diseases, regions should encourage flu vaccination, self-quarantine to stop the spread when sick, hand-washing, masking when sick, or when spread is high in the area, or coughing correctly if unable to stay home while contagious. Also educating people on tick prevention like wearing long light-colored pants tucked into socks or boots or long-sleeved shirts. Encouraging insect repellent use. And encouraging people to stay on feared trails. Also using tick control on pets really helps. Also educating gardeners on tick-attracting plants and tick-resistant alternatives. Next slide, please. Next slide, please. So for vaccine preventable disease, as we all know, vaccines reduce the burden of these diseases with polio nearly eliminated and smallpox eradicated. So for Great Meadows, we actually have strong pediatric immunization coverage. Like Kimberly had mentioned, the COVID-19 booster uptake remains low. And we do have some equity gaps within the environmental justice populations and non-English speakers. Now moving on to chronic disease, we'll start with obesity. So within Great Meadows, around 20% of adults are obese, with the mass average being 27.2% and the U.S. being 42%, which you can see there's a large difference there. For the town variations, the highest was in Bedford at 23.4% and the lowest in Weston at 17.7%. And the other towns are mixed within those two rates. So for the disparities, there's higher rates among Black, African-American, and Hispanic, Latino adults, with the lowest among Asian adults. And of course, we know these are linked to diabetes, heart diseases, cancers. But the cost for obesity exceeded $3.5 billion last year in Massachusetts. So that's something to consider. And then in terms of prevention efforts, there's a great program called Mass in Motion for school-based nutrition and physical activity initiatives. But that should be applied to all age groups as well. And now for diabetes, for Great Meadows, almost 8% of adults were experiencing diabetes with the mass rate being 11.7%. And for the town variation, it was actually highest in Weston and Wayland and the lowest in Lincoln and Concord. So again, it was higher among Black, African-American, and Hispanic, Latino residents versus white. And it doubles healthcare costs, of course. It's linked to heart disease, hypertension, kidney failure, and blindness. And the prevention efforts that we could do would be promoting diet, exercise, and stress management as well. And the CDC has a good diabetes prevention program with guidelines to follow. Now for cancer, that's around 20% of deaths in Massachusetts, which is similar to the rate for heart disease. The prevalence rate for Great Meadows was 426.7 per 100,000. And you can see the mass rate was a little higher than that, with the national one being slightly lower than the Massachusetts rate. So for the variation, it was the highest in Wayland and Bedford, and the lowest in Carlisle and Sudbury. And the most common cancers were breast and lung for women, and prostate and lung for men. And then, of course, Great Meadows has really good screening rates, but there are gaps that remain. And in terms of disparities, the white residents had the highest incidence, but black residents faced higher mortality in later stage diagnoses. Whereas Hispanic and Latino and Asian residents faced barriers in screening and treatment. Now for heart disease, it was similar to cancer with 20% of deaths in Massachusetts. So those two are leading the charge. Heart disease affects around 8.3% of adults statewide, with the Great Meadows rate being 33.8%. The mass rate was 37.3%. And then it was highest in Wayland and Sudbury, lowest in Carlisle and Weston. And while the white residents had the highest hypertension rates, black residents, again, had worse outcomes. Hispanic prevalence was 28%, and Asian, the lowest at 22%. And so when we talk about the white residents having the highest hypertension rates, but black residents and other marginalized groups having worse outcomes, that just, we need to look at the social determinants of health and their access to care. So for prevention efforts, I would just say increased screenings, lifestyle changes, of course, diet, exercise, and smoking and alcohol reduction, and community partnerships as well. Now for asthma, almost 9% of adults in Great Meadows noted that for prevalence. And then in Massachusetts, it was almost 9.5%. So for town variation, it was highest in Sudbury and Concord, and the lowest in Bedford. In terms of pediatric cases, Sudbury, Concord, and Wayland were the top three, with the rest of the towns following. So again, the white residents showed the highest prevalence, with black and Hispanic residents facing higher hospitalization and environmental risks, and Asian residents at the lowest. And some causes to consider, of course, are air pollution, indoor allergens, and the housing conditions that might disproportionately affect black and Hispanic communities. So some significant disparities that we observed as a whole in creating this report. And in Massachusetts, black and Hispanic or Latino households were disproportionately impacted by the COVID epidemic. A report released by DPH in 2023 revealed that black non-Hispanic birthing people consistently experienced the highest rates of labor and delivery complications. followed by Hispanic or Latino birthing people, followed by Hispanic or Latino birthing people. Black and Hispanic or Latino people with asthma had higher hospitalization rates, as Katie just touched on. Older people with comorbidities who were infected with COVID had an increased admission rate to the ICU and increased risk of mortality. Katie also covered the disparities when it comes to access to care, and the minority populations of Great Meadows. So for communities to implement equity improvement measures, there needs to be an emphasis on the education around the why, and how ultimately the whole community would benefit from equity measures. Next slide. So for our recommendations for this report, there's a strong focus on chronic disease prevention, so promoting healthy lifestyles, improving access to primary and preventative care services, and really prioritizing mental health services and social supports for everyone. Another aspect was community design. Another aspect was community design, making sure that there's transportation, inclusive public spaces, and walkable and bike friendly environments. And so for health equity, I think it's important to expand culturally competent outreach. So increasing language access, like translation and interpretation services, improving representation in the healthcare workforce and leadership, and making sure to have these community voices heard in program design, policy making, and decision making as well. And then really for environmental health is monitoring the air pollution and climate related risks in Weyland. For social determinants of health is very important as well, making sure that we're addressing housing, transportation, and food access for residents. And really just using data-driven policy, so using the data at the zip code level to guide your programs and initiatives, and making sure that we have community trust, so making strong relationships and partnerships with residents post-COVID, which I know is difficult. And then strengthening regional public infrastructure, which Weyland is already a part of. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You guys have any questions for us? Good. Very informative. Thank you. Yeah, great job. Great job. You know, looking at the finished product is pretty impressive. They've been working really hard on this for quite some time, and I'd really like to give a copy to the select board as well. I don't know if they want hard copies or electronic, but I might need a few extra ones, Brandon. Okay. No problem. If that's possible. I don't know how many each town is, you know, allowed, but it's hard to wrap your mind around all the data and information, you know, without a hard copy. I'm a hard copy person. Yeah. Yeah. When it comes to something like this, I really like to sort of dive in. And so I'm very happy to have this now where I can, you know, really look at some of the information that's in there that, you know, is pretty broad, you know, going over each town and stuff like that. So there could be questions that come up after, you know, people have more of a chance to look at things. And we do. Unfortunately, we had two board members that were not able to join us this evening. One's out of the country. The other one had a conflict. So sorry about that, you know, but at least we have the recording so I can share it with them and, you know, give them a copy of the report. So if they have any, you know, follow up questions, we can put them together and reach out and we'll have this recording for other folks that, you know, might be interested as well. I'm sure there's a number of other boards and departments that will be interested in the information. Awesome. Yeah. Thank you so much, Julian. Thank you for all the support over the years. Yes. Thank you very much. Yeah. Great job. Yeah. Have a good night. Have a good night. You too. Thank you. Thank you. So we're a little ahead of schedule, which isn't necessarily a bad night. There's a lot in this. I know. It's incredible. Is it? We just got these hard copies today. And I was like, it's amazing. How they analyze all of this. Yeah. Yeah. Very hard on that. And, you know, all the formatting and the graphics as well. The graphics designer was, was not part of the presentation, but she, there was another person who actually did, you know, the design work, which came out really nice. So very nice. Right. Appointments. That's not bad here. These are all the appointments. So the board does need to vote on those and then we just need a signature. Um, so if you want to, I think we did this last day that each one went to vote on each one. Or if you want to do it as a poll. Uh, I mean, if you, if someone makes a motion on the appointments and then you read them out. Or if you read them out and then someone makes a motion on the appointments, that probably would be the way to go. Okay. So like say individual that, so you can't. Yeah. We're not. Probably better to do it. Individual. Okay. Everybody want to just look at them and then we'll. Okay. I think they're listed on the agenda. They are. Yeah. Just read these in it. You can, you can have to. Although I'm listed in here as health agent, and I really am supposed to just be health director. So just kind of cross that. Read them off and so you can make an emotion. All right. So we need a motion for Julia. Or speckner of milk with the board of health. So we need that. I like to motion to point. Uh, Julia. Gentleman to, uh, the position of inspector milk. Right. Right. Now, can we just say another one? And then just. Ann. How third is it? Or is it a friend? Well, I think they should be separate. Unfortunately. Yeah. Just to make sure. All of law. Then. So, yeah. So the next, we need a motion for a sanitarian agent, the board of health and Lori. Yeah. I motion to appoint Ann Lori to the, um, sanitation. Health agent. Health agent. Sanitarian. Sanitarian. Sanitarian. Okay. Ann's our regional inspector. So that gives her the ability to, to work under the umbrella of the board of health. So then we need a, another motion for Julia Jungin for the director of public health. I motion to appoint, uh, Julia Jungin to the, uh, director of health. Okay. Then we need another motion for Darren McAfee for the sanitarian health agent for the board of health. I motion to appoint Darren McAfee to the board of health, uh, sanitarians. Health agent. Health agent. Yep. A motion for the food inspector for the board of health, Beth Grossman. I motion to appoint Beth Grossman as the food inspector. Need a motion for the animal inspector for the board of health, Donna. Oh, those ones are actually not part of this. So just, sorry, that was in there. So both. So I can second all those motions. Right now. So I was going to say. Yeah. So these two are out. Right. So we need a second on all the, all the motions. Okay. So then we have to vote on it. Okay. So John Stoyer. All right. Catherine still. Yes. That's about the franchise group. So all the. Great. Oh, yes, please. You're in for another year. I mean, it's technically, you know, the board gives us the authority to do our jobs on behalf of the board, any enforcement we do or legal letters, things like that. It's important to make sure that we have that appointment on the record from the board. Thank you. And as far as the health, I'm sorry, the animal inspectors, I'm not sure exactly what statuses of where we're at with the current animal inspectors. So that's why I figured I would hold off on that or like your brother on track and where that's going. Um, see very covered a lot of the stuff. Um, we did have a person who was going to join us. I don't know if she is just check and see if she's available. Rachel. I didn't know she was going to attend the select board meeting. And I don't know. I'm sorry. I believe remotely. So she's not on here. I don't think it was in person. Do you know what? The forum would like what that means. Um, that's why I was hoping that she could be here to sort of explain that a little bit. So I was wondering myself and, um, I wanted to talk about it, but I thought it was helpful to have a little more information about that. Um, we're also still, um, waiting for some guidance from the town council regarding the EU policy or guidance that we were talking about. And I reached out. We did get permission to be in touch with town council, but I don't have any response yet. So hopefully we'll have something more from, uh, council before this forum, you know, as far as I'm guessing it's probably, I don't want to guess that, you know, cause it's kind of a big deal, but I mean, DEP had, you know, their own guidance document and policy. So I don't know why towns wouldn't be able to, but it's sometimes frowned upon to have policy as opposed to a regulation, depending on how you follow it. You know, and as long as it's treating, you know, each case fairly and how do you maintain that, you know? So just anything else, uh, any questions or, I mean, I really want to take a deep dive into this, you know, now that I have a hard copy, it's just fascinating. The information that's in here and, um, you know, some of the work that we're already doing related to prevention, you know, the, the tick problem and the Lyme disease, there's actually a report that we have from the, um, group that was just presenting that we use money from the CTCI grant to contribute towards tech testing at each town and people actually used it. And we have, uh, I mean, it's not a huge report, but did I share that one yet? It's recent. So Okay. Yeah. I'll make sure that I send it. Um, along so that you can see, we did talk about this. I was, uh, I'm on the executive committee for the mosquito control project now. And so we talked about ticks. We just had a meeting last week and, you know, they were asked, you know, how can we help with the ticks? And I mean, it's such a complicated issue. I mean, we know the ticks are everywhere, but we're not going to spray, you know, pesticides everywhere. So it's really more about prevention. And, you know, one of my suggestions was to, um, they do these tick drags to find out, you know, maybe do a tick drag just to see what kind of ticks are you getting in each town? You know, that way we have an idea. If we wanted to look and wail and we might be surprised that on the types of, or we might not be surprised, but you know, something like that. And then continue on with these programs. If they're able to kick a little money in to pay for tick testing. So that if people find a tick, they can have it tested at, you know, um, a supplemented cost. And then we had those tick kits. I don't think that I shared them with you, but I can show you, um, I do have several to go grab them. It's a tick removal kit. Nice. So these we also got through the grant, but it was, um, the other, the public health excellence grant. And they put together these kits that are pretty cool. You can have them. We had a large number of them that they shared with us. And I gave them out at the festival, the Wayland festival, which was quite a success. I had a little table with a lot of those, um, tick kits. People went crazy over them. They were like, they really did like them. So, you know, it's an, an option to have more, you know, down the road. If we have, um, the ability to somehow, but it's a cool little thing to have on. Yeah. You know, just to, in the event. They've been, um, they'll take our splinter too. Yeah. They're nice tweezers. Yeah. And so, you know, that's just one topic, you know, in this assessment that, um, is something that's important because, you know, the tick problem is just continuing to get worse each year, you know, in the diseases. Does it matter? Does it matter? So you said like, to find out what kind of ticks we might have, if it's a, like between dog and deer ticks, it matters like what kind of disease is they carrying. And the types of ticks that might be starting to propagate or travel, you know. You don't want that lone star. Lone star ticks. Yes. Exactly. Things like that, that, um, and then there's another tick that I can't remember the name of offhand, but it moves very quickly. And, um. Moves quickly? Yeah. It's just not, there's no good. Think about the invasive worms that move quickly. Have you seen those? No. Invasive worms. Yeah. There's, there's, yeah. They move like, it's like a fast snake. Oh God. That's gross. No, they're scary. How fast they move. Where are they? In the ground. No, I know. Like you, you buy, you buy plants and then they'll sometimes be in the potting soil from the plants. So they're local. Yeah. They're everywhere. And they, they, they get rid of the original, the native worm population. Oh. In the back of the soil. Oh, great. Okay. I think she needs to eat. Okay. I think I can use the splinter. It's more intense for me. Okay. We'll book it on. Hi, Rachel. Can you hear us? Uh, you should. Oh, hold on. Right. Okay. I think you're okay now. Good. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Great. So thanks for joining us, Rachel. Um, we were just getting ready to ask some questions. And I think the board had a couple of questions about, um, co-sponsoring. Great. Hi, Rachel. I'm happy to answer questions. I can also give you a quick overview of what we're doing and why we're doing it. Unless Julia, you've already given them that information. We haven't gotten there yet. So that would be very great. Thank you. Well, first of all, thank you very much for having me, uh, join you. The, uh, purpose of the meeting on November 12th is to really provide information to town residents about the new state law that was passed in, uh, 20, 24 that gives homeowners the right to create an accessory dwelling unit with much less, uh, red tape and, uh, complicated processes than in the past. Um, we simply want to inform the residents of what they are able to do under this new state law. And, uh, and you will recall, of course, that we created, uh, uh, a bylaw that now is in conformance with the state bylaw because our original accessory dwelling unit bylaw dates back, I believe to 1986. Um, it was probably never used, uh, according to our prior town planner, Sarki Sarkisian, but, uh, suffice to say that now that there is a state law that makes it quite a bit easier, the homeowners to either, uh, reconfigure a portion of their home for an accessory dwelling unit to perhaps put an apartment over a garage or to perhaps create a, uh, a whole new freestanding unit in the backyard. We want to emphasize to all the residents that this is something they can do by right as long as it's under 900 square feet and that it conforms with, uh, zoning, uh, public health, safety, septic requirements. So it has to meet all of those requirements before it can be, uh, be permanent. Uh, clearly the, uh, the role of the board of health is extremely important in this because of the septic considerations. And, um, I, um, I, I seek your support. We'd love to have Julia participate on the panel that discusses septic, uh, rules and regulations so that folks can understand better the implications of, um, of creating an ADU, what, what they may have to deal with, with their septic systems if they don't have capacity. Um, other parts of the meeting will include basic overview of the steps and processes that the town is adopting to allow people to kind of walk through what, what it would take to actually create, uh, an accessory dwelling unit at their home. There are many reasons for accessory dwelling units, not the least of which it provides another option for housing, which we know is, uh, a huge, a huge problem. Um, particularly smaller units, perhaps, uh, single people or young married couples who'd like to begin to establish a home here or folks who need, uh, extra income, want to use their home to generate some extra income. So there are lots of reasons why somebody might choose to do it, and we're simply wanting to provide, uh, the information that's necessary for them to think about whether this is the right solution for them. I met with the, uh, select board, uh, a little over an hour ago, and I'm pleased to say that they will be co-sponsoring, um, the, uh, November 12th meeting. And we welcome your participation in whatever way you feel it makes sense for you. I'm happy to try to answer your questions. Any question? I don't know what co-sponsoring entails. What does that mean? It doesn't mean very much. It means simply using your name in the publication that we do, which is that the major publication is that we're putting together an article for our brand new Wayland Post. Uh, uh, there have been some flyers already distributed at the Wayland community event a few weeks ago. Uh, the, uh, the Human Rights Diversity Equity Inclusion Committee, uh, put out some flyers, and we simply mentioned who was co-sponsoring it. It's just a way of indicating the level of town support for this informational meeting. So there's no other heavy lifting involved. We would love it if Julia could, uh, speak as part of the, uh, the panel that discusses the septic issues, because that is obviously going to be of paramount importance to folks who are thinking about this. So it really is a, uh, don't like to use the word, but it's kind of a rubber stamp of approval and, uh, support for this, uh, informational meeting. Okay. Do you have any questions? Anybody? I mean, I'm happy to help out, you know, and, uh, join the panel to answer any questions. You know, right now we're still waiting for some guidance from town council. I don't know, you know, how soon we'll have that back, but it's not super complicated. It just points us in the direction of, you know, where we should go with, um, some of the questions that come up to be consistent and fair and equitable as far as how we view these projects. When things come up that are questions that relate to our local risks, you know, and so, um, but in the meantime, I think, you know, based on the report we just heard and, you know, some of the, we just heard a report regarding, um, the health equity needs assessment for, um, the seven towns that were, um, involved with in a public health health excellence grant. And so, you know, one of the things they talked about was, um, housing and the difficulties that people are having, um, with affording housing rental, you know, the whole gamut. And so, you know, this is something that I think would help some people and, um, give them another tool to be able to, you know, either have a family member, you know, live on their property. If they could expand their home or build a standalone, um, ADU or something of that sort, um, those types of things I think would be helpful for people in general, understanding there's a regulation that we have to abide by and, and with policy guidance. And for many of us, many of us have lived in 900 square foot units or smaller, and we can say that it's a good starting point or it's a good opportunity for people to have a, uh, a unit that, uh, that works for them. Um, and that hopefully will be more affordable than what else they might find. So it's, it's, we feel like if it's right for the homeowner, if it passes all the health safety zoning requirements, it's an opportunity. And, uh, that's all we're trying to underscore. Is this an opportunity that people would want to take advantage of? Uh, if not fine, if yes, this is how you begin to do it. Um, I have a question, have you had any discussions with the assessor's office regarding what other, you know, how, how they'll value it or measure it? We've had, we've had discussions and, uh, Rob LaRue is going to be speaking. And I think the, the, the answer is it's, it's going to have impacts and, uh, homeowners will need to have an understanding of that likely impact. I think as with all property tax assessments, as we know, uh, you can never get a, a completely clear answer in advance until the property is built, but it, it will have property tax implications and folks need to know that and be prepared for that and factor it into their overall calculus of what financially is going to make sense for them. I mean, because in the real world, you could be adding kids into the school system with these and everything else. Well, yes, although given that it's a 900 square foot, uh, unit, it's probably not going to add a ton of kids. And these are likely to be just one bedroom units, um, because I think the septic implications for two bedroom are probably not so likely. These are all the questions and, you know, we don't have all the answers, but it's a way for folks to at least weigh the pros and cons for them. But these are great questions. And of course, at this point, we don't have answers and I don't think the assessor can give answers yet. And the implications for the school enrollment and so forth. I think they're good questions, but we don't know yet.
Well, I guess, uh, I'll make a motion to, um, co-sponsor.
We have a second. I'll second. Okay. We'll do a roll call. John Steyer. Yes. Katie Steyer. Yes. And Dr. Bob Defrancesco. We'll approve that. Well, we greatly appreciate that. And, um, we really appreciate the work you're doing and we look forward to working with you on this. It's a, it's an opportunity. It's a good initiative and we'll see, we'll see whether it flies. We don't know yet, but it's a step. Great. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. All right. All right. Good night. Good night. That's everything we had unless there's any questions or topics that are not. It's our next meeting, 11, 17. Yeah.
And I will be after that meeting. Sarah, that's proposed because that's 11, 12. That's right. So, um, I mean, board members could attend the meeting as well. Um, of course we would just have to post a meeting if there were at, um, three members or so. I can't. Well, I will probably tell. Yeah.
Um, during that week. So, you know, we'll probably have a discussion about. If we haven't heard back from town council by then, just some basic information that we can share because every situation is going to be different. And, you know, so having a panel discussion is a little tricky because each person is going to have to have a review of what their project is. And we can't have like a blanket approval for anything, you know, because everyone has a different septic system, a different house, different numbers of bedrooms and some are older, some are newer. So, you know, but I'm happy to try and help, you know, facilitate the conversations. Um, we do have a conference that we'll be attending, um, Darren and I, for, uh, CEUs, for our licenses in, um, Springfield. That's the first week of November. Um, just to tell you the dates. Would we, as a board, require, if you're getting rid of a closet and not increasing the flow, but could we require a Title V inspection? That was one of the things that we put out there, especially given, you know, various ages of septic systems. But Title V is just so in the moment that it's working with the current flow and it, it really doesn't say it's still got the capacity as designed in any way, shape, or form. And so it's so imperfect in that way. Um, yeah, I mean, it's true because you don't know, I mean, we have theoretical flows of what would be expected for adding a bedroom, but actual flows could be different, you know, depending on the use. But you've got a septic system that's 30 years old and it still passes Title V, but it, that's because there's two old people that don't do one load of laundry a week, one shower a week, and then... I mean, the newer systems are much larger and the flows that they use are, you know, even in Wayland's are, you know, expanded based on an assumption that more water would, more waste water will be used. So could there be a, could there be a, what could you do that you could make a disclosure, like I, I would hate for somebody to do a 900 square foot ADU, flip the property, and, and, and not, the new buyer has no idea that the expansion is so expensive on this 30 year old system that just failed because we've doubled the, I'm just, whether there, there should be some... There should be some deed restriction or something that gets disclosed or, um... Well, we did propose that, um, deed restriction idea as well. That was another, and, you know, we typically probably would utilize that. But what would it say? Would it be a different deed restriction, you mean? I mean, we can't prevent someone from selling.
Could you make the buyer amably aware of the... I'm not, I'm just a... Well, they're going to see that there's a, an ADU on the property. But the general buyer doesn't have any idea that the buyer... They're going to benefit from Cambridge and has no idea about the sewer and... They're going to benefit from an ADU on the property if it's already built. Right, they're going to pay for that. And what I, what I would be concerned about is the, the person that puts an ADU then immediately sells it because they just increased the value. And they didn't really have to do anything to the septic system. And it's still an old septic system with now another, um, I don't know. I'm just, uh, the septic guy's worried. That's probably, um, assessing. You know, I don't know how they are going to manage that as a standard. Because as we've seen from the report, values are already very high because of all the things that have gone on. So adding an ADU is just going to make the value go much higher. Anyhow. Well, I got a question for you. For a weekend. Um, what are pods at the high school? There's lots of people complaining about Friday night football games. I don't know if you guys have been there or not on Friday night. But the quarter pods are disgusting. Oh, really? They didn't speak. I don't know about the frequency of changing them, but... Yeah. A lot of people are complaining about it. I will, um... Because we brought them up last year, I think, or the year before. And I guess they were... They claimed it once in a... I don't know. They say it's supposed to be before a football game or whatever, but... Okay. It's been pretty bad.
That's no fun. That's going on. I mean, I can certainly try to find out who would be managing that. It's not us. Exactly. But, you know, someone is. For sure. And they must be on a schedule. Right. Did they have, like, a special event? Where they were going to use more? No, it's just a Friday night. So, fun games. Oh. It's been pretty bad.
So... They need more on the weeks that they're hosting. Exactly. Yeah. That's probably an idea. You know? I mean, you don't control it, but you kind of do control it if it's a helmet. Right. Then... Because the older coming... I mean, I was there. Yeah. It's been pretty bad. I mean, I'm sure we've all been in a port-a-potty, but it's not... It's not... Sanitary. Sanitary. Sanitary. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I mean? They only have one? Yeah. Oh, really? Yeah. Ugh. Are that many people? No. Yeah, that's not... Cool. Are the bathrooms open, too? Or... They were closed the last couple of weeks. Oh, interesting. Yeah. I don't know why they're closed. Huh. Okay. I will see what I can find out. Some sleuthing.
All right. We need a motion. Yeah. The motions are here in the meeting today. I second. There you go. John Stoyer. Yes. Katie Stipp. Yes. And Dr. Bob DiCrochesco. Meeting adjourned. Jay.