Tom Massaro was unanimously voted to be the new chair of the Board of Health Monday night.
Following Board of Health member Tom McMahon’s nomination of Massaro for chair, McMahon looked at Massaro and joked, “(Do you) graciously accept?” After some chuckles, Massaro nodded and agreed that he was, in fact, graciously accepting the role as chair.
“Well, I am very grateful,” Massaro said. “Thank you very much. I think this should be a very important and interesting year for the Board of Health.”
He added that this year would be impactful because “we’re on our way to (being a) five” member board and he has begun considering what a transition plan would look like in regards to finally adding two members to the board.
One of Massaro’s goals for the Board, which will be officially discussed and solidified as an agenda item at its next meeting, is to encourage community engagement and allow for more public input regarding what they would like to see from the Board.
This comment from Massaro stemmed from the fact that Marblehead has never fully adopted Robert’s Rules of Order, which could provide some more flexibility in the format of Board of Health meetings moving forward, should the Board choose to adopt different formatting rules regarding how its meetings will flow.
“When the community thinks about the BOH, what additional services, what explanations, what can we do to make life a little simpler in the health space in this environment?” Massaro asked the meeting’s audience members.
Massaro mentioned that there is a Board of Health email address that he recommended community members use to ask questions and share their thoughts. According to Health Department Senior Clerk Martin Flanagan, that email address is BOHemails@marbleheadma.gov.
Later in the meeting, McMahon explained that he still has unanswered questions regarding the transfer station settlement. He has two questions in particular: Why did we feel the need to enter into litigation with the engineering firm over the transfer station project? How did we determine we were due the original amount, and why did we settle for the lesser amount?
McMahon added that while the lawyers have given some form of responses to questions, they are in legal jargon, which is frustrating for non-lawyers to decipher.
“They are lawyers. The settlements are written in ‘lawyer,’ but these people do go to barbecues, and they speak English, so they could write it down in normal English,” he said.
He added that if these questions are answered, “I mean, the amount of trust that would flow in from the town being like, ‘Oh, they did it. The new board is getting everything we need.’”
Massaro asked the Board for a motion to request Town counsel to answer the two aforementioned two questions, and it passed unanimously.
In Andrew Petty’s director’s report, he addressed community concerns regarding Japanese knotweed, an aggressive, invasive species of plants that is native to Asia but has been found in Marblehead.
Petty also warned community members that it’s now tick season. “With all this rain, the ticks are out like crazy,” he said. He recommended everyone do a tick check every day and reminded community members that there are informational pamphlets they can pick up from the health department.
Petty added that “other big pests we see during the summer are mosquitoes.” Since Marblehead is a pesticide-free community, the Board would need to authorize a blanket spraying in certain areas; otherwise, community members are advised to “take precautions, use bug spray, go in after dark, all the standard procedures.”
Community members with wetlands in their backyards or other mosquito-related concerns can contact the Northeast Massachusetts Mosquito Control program, which uses natural deterrents to address mosquitoes.
To wrap up the meeting, Petty warned board members that, since the laborers for Republic Services are with Teamsters, and the two are currently in contract negotiations and have not reached an agreement, the employees may go on strike July 1. This could potentially delay trash services by a day or maybe two. If anything were to happen, Petty said a reverse 911 message would be sent to all Marblehead homeowners who are part of the Code Red system.
