We're being recorded. Okay, continue. I just have to click continue. Okay, today is March 10, 2022. And pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021. This meeting will be conducted via remote means members of the public who wish to accept access the meeting may do so. Following the link or the dial in instructions on the board of health agenda that is on our website. No in person attendance will be permitted but every effort will be made to ensure that the public and adequately access proceedings in real time via technological means. And the event that we are unable to do so for reasons of economic hardship. And despite the best efforts, we will post on the emmer sport of health website, an audio recording of our of our meeting as soon as possible. And the minutes will be posted after they are accepted. So with that, I open tonight's board of health meeting. I'll have a roll call. So Steve. Here. Tim. Here. Maureen. Here. Lauren. Here. Nancy here and Jen is our health director who is here. And we have Ed Smith from inspectors. So the first article of business is reviewing the minutes from our February 10th meeting. Anybody have any comments after reading them. If not may have a motion to accept them as presented to us. I just want to say I have a new email. So I wasn't able to read the minutes. So, I don't know. And then you don't, don't just abstain from voting. Okay. Okay. So may have a motion to accept the minutes and then make sure you get get the email to us, Lauren. Okay. Okay, I can make a motion to accept the minutes of February 10th. Okay, so it's moved and seconded. All in favor. Aye. Tim. Aye. Maureen. Aye. Aye. And Lauren. Okay, great. Okay. So now we are going to have a 20 minute public comment. Let me just say a few things before. So residents are welcome to express their views for up to two minutes. At our discretion based upon the number of people who wish to speak. The board will not engage in a dialogue or comment on a matter raised during public comment. During the public comment period. Either I or Jennifer. We will be reserving the initial comment period to town residents and business owners. First. So thank you. And with that, I'm going to open up the public comment. Period. All right. So town residents. So we're going to ask people to state their address. And please, if you can say your full name. So Amherst residents. So I'm going to start with a sold out or take a boost a month. And please correct my pronunciation. And you're able to talk, please. Good evening. Thank you. I'm a district five residents of Amherst. And I want to thank all of you for your work on behalf of all of us. Residents of Amherst. I emailed you a full letter. Which hopefully you all received. If you did not. As Brown has copies of it. And I'm only going to refer to a couple of highlights in the time so that others will have an opportunity here. I appreciate that the town. Felt the need to produce its own. Recalculation of local vaccination date for age group by excluding local college students whose vaccination numbers were said to have been reported in their hometowns. And that this took time and effort. What I'm wondering is what are the next steps. For the Massachusetts department of public health. To certify this local recalculation. And to start including it in its own official. Municipal vaccination reporting, which it currently does not do. And in particular, what are the plans for updated reporting. On the local vaccination rates by race. And ethnicity, because. I won't cite the ones from the state. As I want to respect the work that you did. And pointing out that the state rates were lower because they included college students. But we don't have an update on that. And given the national and state trends, which do show disparities. On the one hand. We would, you know, love to know that given our stated commitment to equity. On the other hand, there are state funds available. For targeted campaigns for education, vaccination. And our board of health, like any local board of health is really stretched. Trying to meet all of its work. And we have wonderful elected officials like representative Mindy Dom and Senator Joe Comerford. Who are champions on these issues and could work. With all of you and our elected officials to tap into more state funding. For this kind of work. I will skip on down. As I don't want to take up too much. Two minutes or up the sold. And I just add that. Let me just add that this is not the time to change the vaccine mandate because college students will be spreading all over the nation to low vaccination locations. And returning at the end of the month. And so we really should expand. We should continue the mask mandate until at least the end of the month. So the college students have a chance to come back and recover. Given the number of cases that Amherst college and UMass in particular. Thanks again. Thank you. All right. Stick to two minutes. Okay. Next in line. We have Darcy Dumont. If you can state your name, your address, please. And please unmute yourself. Hello. About vaccination. About masks, right? Can you hear me? Yes. Great. Thank you. I'm Darcy Dumont. I live in South Ann. I live in South Ann. I live in South Ann. I live in South Ann. I live in South Ann. I live in South Ann. I live in South Ann, I live in South Ann. Thank you. I'm Darcy Dumont. I live in South Amherst. And I'm a member of zero waste Amherst. As you know, I've been working with others on the proposal to transition our waste, Haller system to one of a contract with the Hollow, which includes. Compost pickup. And costs residents, much less. This is just a brief update on the actions we've taken in the last month. for some parts of my written comment about what's happening globally and just focus on what we have been doing locally. This month's CWA workgroup again met with staff from other towns to learn more about their services and costs. We have an appointment next week to meet with Louisville, Colorado's EcoCycle to find out more about their compost pickup program rates and costs. And I just want to point out an example of the difference between Louisville and Amherst is that if I lived in Louisville, which has a contract with Republic Services, I would be paying $16 a month for trash recycling and compost pickup. Here I pay USA hauling and recycling $55 a month for exactly the same service, including their optional curbside compost pickup. So CWA also started to meet with top counselors to educate them and gain their support. And we're having good success in speaking with them. We also spent time meeting with Susan Waite, former Amherst Sustainability Coordinator and current DEP, Western Region Municipal Assistance Coordinator to delve deeper into a whole array of different related issues. And again, CWA is promoting this proposal because it will dramatically reduce our waste and help achieve our climate and zero waste goals. The fact that it... Darcy, can you summarize that quickly and your time is up? Absolutely. Yes. The fact that the proposal will save residents money is just an added big benefit. So we'd be glad to answer any questions and otherwise, we will see you next month. Thank you very much. Thank you, Darcy. All right, so the next person I'm going to call on, if you can state your name and your address please. And Gabrielle Gould, can you please unmute and you have two minutes. Good afternoon. I'm Gabrielle Gould. I am the Executive Director of the Business Improvement District and I'm speaking on behalf of the majority of small businesses throughout Amherst. Our high vaccination rate is incredible compared to other small towns. Our small businesses have suffered greatly through this pandemic with their businesses dropping to as low as 20%. They have rarely seen close to pre-pandemic numbers in their businesses since the start of this. It is time our businesses need a sense of normalcy to return. I cannot be, they have been policing themselves the mass mandates since the beginning. It is very difficult for them. 70% of the businesses in Amherst are minority LGBTQ plus or women owned. Large percentage of those are English as a second language. This has been a very, very difficult time for them and they are not the ones that should be policing these issues. As we look at every town around us dropping their mass mandates, it makes it that more imperative that our mass mandate be lifted for these small businesses.  The great thing is that we can all make personal choices to wear masks if we are concerned going forward. And I'm sure because of the town that we live in and what I've seen, people will continue to wear their masks long after this mandate is lifted, including many of the business owners themselves. Please understand that we respect and know that you have done the work and the research and that the decision you make today, we will support fully as we have since the very beginning of this pandemic. But it is time, our businesses need this. We need to return to normally our vaccine rates, show that. And so do the colleges and our public schools and the university's vaccine rates. We can do this. Thank you so much for everything you will do and have a wonderful evening. Thank you. So I'm trying to take people in order and I'm sorry this gets shuffled around. Marissa, Axel, you were at the top of the list and somehow I moved you to the bottom. You can say your full name, please, and your street address and please unmute in just two minutes. All right. Hi. My name is Marissa Axel and my address is 237 Meadow Street. I live in North Amherst. I was going to say a lot of what Gabriel just said, so I'm not going to repeat myself, but I am here to advocate for you to lift the mask mandate. I have sent many emails to Jennifer. So you can see a lot of the articles and scientific information I've sent in regards to that, but I have a son who is five years old in kindergarten and he is struggling with having to learn to read other kids emotions and everything that comes along with being a student in elementary school. So if anything, this mask mandate is really hurting our younger population that is not as affected by COVID. So they should have the choice of what is doing, what is right for their family and they can choose to wear a mask or not choose to wear a mask. So I don't have much more to say. I won't take the whole two minutes up, but please consider the youngest members of our community with the mask mandate today. Thank you. Thank you, Marissa. Kristin Ori Gemma, if you can please pronounce your name correctly where you live and you have two minutes. Kristin, if you can unmute. OK, don't count that. Do you hear me? Hello? Hello, now we hear you. OK, don't. OK, my name is Kristin Ori Gemma and I am an ADA person during this pandemic and I think it's like super, super creepy. I got screamed at on the top of people's lungs and I believe it's the hate that comes with the mandates. I believe that it's all about perspective and people I believe that the Board of Health which places with the the restaurants and the restaurants is places with the Board of Health for one month, they would understand each other. It's all about perspective and it's just it's just wrong and people should just do what they think is best and I don't know how much longer you think you can get away with punishing people because when people are not scared of punishment anymore, what are you going to do?  Everyone deserves to be healthy. No one deserves to be left behind. The future except everyone. And I think and it's not about what I think it's just if it's the hate that came with the mandates. And I see this as if this is how we treat each other, are we really existence worth saving? So anyway, people can look on my YouTube channel, Kristen Ori Gemma simply spell that I also have a bibliography on on what it was like during the pandemic for a disabled person. I lived off peanut butter for a long time. I forgot what it was like to be inside. But the homeless community saved my life. It's only because of them that I'm still here today. Thank you, Kristen. Susan Lowry, if you can please unmute state where you live, please you two minutes. Yeah, hi. My name is Susan Lowry. I'm a retired physician and I live in South Amherst. And I am here to ask you to hold on to the indoor mask mandate through the end of the month until the students have returned and also had a chance to recover from the viruses that they will no doubt bring back from the many places that they go. The problem with lifting the mask mandate in my opinion is that people will also forget about the other two legs of the stool that help to keep us safe. And I believe that social distancing will also stop as well as large gatherings will resume. And that will not serve our town well and will cause further delays in businesses recovering. Thank you. Thank you, Sue. Oh, I'm going to go to I see a name without a full name. So Peter, if you can please state your full name and if you're an Amherst resident where you live and you have two minutes. Yes, my name is Peter Kent Stahl. I'm an Amherst resident, an Amherst employee. Yeah, I just want to say that I agree. What? Disappeared. I am so sorry. Can you raise your hand again? Things just got shuffled around and I was cleaning up and I started. There it is. OK, I see it again. Peter, I apologize. OK, no worries. Can you hear me? Yeah, and I'll start your time over again. OK, no problem. So I just want to say that I do I agree that we should maintain the mask mandate for now. COVID continues to be a leading, if not major, cause of death. There are numerous places where people can, you know, can choose to not wear mask, but just maintaining the mask mandate in public spaces, I think will keep us safe. I agree with the last comment from the physician and the first comment. No one wants to, of course, wear a mask forever, but we just have to also be. We have to be we have to be sensitive about local dynamics, right? And realize that there is I there's massive people moving in and out of the town because of the college, right?  We just have to be realistic about that. We can't. Federal guidelines are important, but we also have to just be specific and be realistic about what we know is going to happen when people move in and move out of town in mass, right? And again, that doesn't mean that that anybody wants to have to do this forever. But I think that we do need to be safe and maintain it at least for now and continue to try to push the curve downward. And this will give us more time as well to make sure we are on guard and to make sure that the B.A.2 variant does not cause an additional spike. And this gives us this gives us, I guess, buying time is the right order. This just gives us an additional layer of protection to hopefully ride that out and to make sure that that doesn't cause an additional spike. So I think keeping these public health precautionary principles in place right now will serve us best. We know that two-way masking works better. There that the science is clear on that. It's masking is not about it is it's a public health policy, meaning it's best when it's collectively practiced. That is a fact. One-way masking depend asking people who are more vulnerable to one-way mask for their own choice. That's just doesn't, that does not work as well as two-way masking and that is clear. Thank you. Thank you. Hey, Alicia Reed, if you can please unmute and state where you live in your two minutes. Sure, so hi, I'm Alicia Reed. I'm a resident of South Amherst. And the main thing I wanna say is that I sincerely hope that these decisions in terms of the mask mandate are not being based on personal views or kind of feelings about what the people would like to happen. I really hope that we're looking at CDC guidelines and simply deciding that we are gonna go with what the experts have said. And when we look at the new county tool that they have put out is clear that despite being in a college community, despite cases among our students, we are still in what's considered a medium risk community, right? And one in which we should not be requiring masks. And so that's really all that I ask is that people have individual choices. I'll also add that I'm UMass faculty. I am around these students day-to-day even with the mask mandate having been with them a couple of days ago, they all walked into my lab meeting with masks on, right? They're still being very responsible by and large. And so to expect our youngest children, I have two elementary school kids to continue to mask while my husband teaches in a school 20 minutes away that is not masked. I think the time has come and it's really time for us to stop being extra conservative rather than simply following the guidelines that others have said. Thank you. And thank you very much. Nancy, how are we doing with time? Okay, let's see. We could probably do three more. Okay, so we have Cora Fernandez Anderson. Anderson, if you can unmute yourself, state where you live and you have two minutes. Hello, yes, I'm Cora Fernandez Anderson. I live in Echo Hill in Amherst and I also have two children in Fort River and elementary school. And I would like to support the position of keeping the mask mandate until for now, probably until at least mid-April, late April. I think particularly because of the impact this will have on the public schools, I am concerned that our children are spending six hours inside a classroom and that if we have no mask mandate and there is some positive person within them, it's like even if you wear a mask, it's such so much exposure that there might be risk of getting infected. I would really appreciate if we can wait until the weather is a little warmer so classrooms can be held, classes can be held outside, there can be opening windows because of warmer weather, things that like now I don't really see possible. So just like postponing it like some weeks, I think it will give teachers a little bit more access to other measures to have better ventilation and more activities outside so as to be more on the cautious side. And as somebody else said, also I think it's important definitely even if you decide to live the mandate, at least to wait until after spring break and all college students are back, maybe for a week. So if there's A is an increase in cases because of traveling and moving to other places, we still have the protection of the masks and see how the cases evolve. So I'm not saying we have to keep masks forever, but I think just waiting some more, at least weeks can make a difference to face it with better protections and warmer weather. Thank you. Thank you. Brooks Ballinger, if you can state your full name of where you live. And I think you're the last person to talk, you have two minutes. Hi, Brooks Ballinger, I live in South Amherst. And I just wanted to thank the board for what they're doing. I feel like I've been protected because you guys did this important work. And it makes me understand where I should go and where I shouldn't go. If there are businesses that just think that it's their individual choice, whether they follow the rules or not, that's not a business I wanna go to. And I know that the board has been screamed at and probably worse, I don't know all the details, but I know it's a very difficult position that you're in. I just really appreciate what you do. And I think you make me and everybody else in Amherst safer because you are careful and take this seriously. So thanks. Thank you very much. We can do another one we still have. Okay. The Matthew Lackner, if you can unmute yourself. Where do you live? And you have two minutes. Hi, thank you for letting me speak. I appreciate it. I live in district five. I'm the parent of a seven-year-old, a five-year-old who go to Port River and a two-year-old who goes to Woodside. I'm here to advocate for the mask mandate to end immediately for three reasons. First of all, there is no data showing that mask mandates actually impact community transmission rates. Masks of course work, they protect the wearer if it's a good mask. But if you look at counties with and without mandates, there's no difference in transmission and there's no data to back that up. Even without the data, we can use common sense. This is my second reason. Right now in Amherst, I can go to a restaurant or a bar and I cannot wear a mask while I eat and drink. I can teach a class at UMass, which I do to 300 undergrads, none of whom are wearing a mask. I can go to the UMass hockey game, which I did a week ago, where there's 5,000 people who can take off their masks to eat and to drink. So the mask mandate defies all common sense from the perspective of actually slowing transmission. Now, as an adult, you know what?  I could wear a mask when I go to big Y, it's fine. The problem with the mask mandate is that it's punishing the people in town who have the least amount of power, which is children.  They were discussing the other day which of their friends faces they could pick out and which they forgot which they looked like. It's not a discussion that five- and seven-year-olds should be having with each other. So to me, the mask mandate, you know, it's impact on adults, whatever, but the impact on children is simply unacceptable. And I think it's time for the town to end the mask mandate, let children get back to having a normal life at school. They've been spending two years bearing the brunt of this pandemic despite the fact that they're the safest people from this disease and it's time for this end. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay, we're exactly at 529. Okay. So thank you to all the public comments. And now we're gonna move on to all business right now and the recombinant DNA regulations. We, because of tonight's meeting, we have put those off until our April 21st meeting and we've moved the meeting. We'll discuss to the 21st because Thursday is, holy Thursday and people like to go to services. So to keep it open for the public on the next day is Good Friday and there's Passover in there. So we've just moved it for a week. And I hope that's all right with you and with Maureen and Georgia and Steve, I mean. Okay. Because community assessment update, I met yesterday with Lillian and our two UMass students who are doing an amazing job. Right now they are really focusing on health data because the demographics are not being released by the Census Bureau until March 17th and not all of them will be even released then just some have been released. So they are using data from 2010 and 2018 and 2019. They're making graphs. They're making graphs by some chronic diseases by Census tract and it's very impressive what they're coming up with. They're going to be moving to demographics after the 17th. We met with Michelle Miller from the African Heritage Committee and they are doing a community assessment very similar to ours with demographics and then more qualitative material in phase two. And we're trying to get the okay because they are using the Donahue Institute. The town is paying for that for us to pick back on some of that data that the Donahue Institute can generate. I also met with Haley Bolton from the Senior Center because they are doing a community assessment but they're really not focusing on demographics or health status. There is more qualitative what we might be collecting in phase two. So they'd be happy to for us to share our demographic data with them and they will share their qualitative data with the older population with us. So that's where we are now. And if you have any questions, I'll answer them. Okay. So next on the agenda is Ed Smith with the Mission Cantina update. Hi, I'm just going to read some notes. So since the last meeting, which was I think the 10th of February, our office has received no further complaints for Mission Cantina. On the 23rd of February, we have received documents that comprised a complete renewal application for the food service license for that establishment and a 2022 permit was issued. Today, at March 10th, there was a show cause hearing of the Eastern Hampshire District Court. The clerk magistrate heard testimony from the town and the restaurant owner who had appealed the tickets that we had assessed. And after due consideration, the magistrate directed the owner to obey regulations and to seek appropriate avenues when in disagreement with them. And with the town's assent, the fines were dismissed. Thank you, Ed. Does anyone have questions for Ed? Thank you. So we'll move on. And you'll be on this, Ed. The geothermal well permit application for 124 Linden Ridge Road that we've all received in our packet. Yeah, the geothermal wells are fairly straightforward.  The locations are clearly marked. They are, there's a little bit of flexibility. One of them is near the front property line. It's still 10 feet off by my best, you know, guess and there's enough, well, that's not a guess. The pins are visible, the sort of air stakes. And the driller, which is Connecticut Valley Artesian, wells has the ability to adjust things a couple of feet one way or another in order to maintain a 25 foot separation between the two boreholes. This project has two. And I really don't see any issues with the siting. And so I am supporting the location. Thank you. We have a motion to accept the application for the well construction. So I have a question before we make a motion. I think usually for the wells, we need to know the flat plain. I don't know if it should be 100 feet from the flat plain. So I'm just wondering if there is a bank full type of a location from the wetland and the distance from that location to the well itself? There is a wetland to the rear of the property. Let's not sure of the direction without looking at the map to the Northwest. And there's a 100 foot wetland offset that's shown on the map. And that is quite a ways from the back of the house. And then the first well is at the front of the house. Does that answer your question? To some extent, we need to, I mean there is a wetland regulation on private water wells should be at least 25 feet from the high water mark. And the water mark is very difficult to assess with the 100 feet distance. So that's why I'm asking if there is any high watermark mapping or anything, you know, overlaid on the top of this. Oh, okay. It's a steep hill down to the stream in the back. So do you mean high groundwater or high mark for the stream itself? High watermark on the surface water, not for the ground water. Usually for the flat plain maps, it's 100 feet, I mean, 100, you know, event, you know. So I don't know if 100 year return period type of a mapping is overlaid and checked on that. I didn't look at that. I said that we can. Yeah, I think it's good to check that one. The high watermark, I think from that high watermark, it should be within, I mean, it should be beyond that 25 feet limit by the wetland protection. So another one concern I have is the distance from the property line at the front, it's very close to 10 feet, or 10 feet, I think. I'm just looking at this rough numbers here, 40 feet, and so if I deduct the distance from that property to the well itself, 25 feet, you know, four inches, I'm just curious, you know, if it is 10 feet or around 10 feet, you know, so it might be very close. So, but you can check that one. Yeah, and that's why I did ask the owner if he had, you know, leeway to change the location and he will shift that, the market, the front marking pins are still quite visible. I have a question, this is a more general question than feels my ignorance, but are the same rules that apply to water wells apply to geothermal drill, you know, drilling? The board of the Amherst Board of Health local regulations for wells are gather more information and there's notification for neighbors when you're drilling a water well and there's a follow-up process to issue a water supply certificate. And that looks into the testing that's done for flow rates and capacity for the well and water quality. So those things all get reported back to me when I'm closing out the permit. And then if everything is there, then that would lead to the water supply certificate. Also, when you're applying for a water drinking well, then you notify your neighbors, you have a statement that describes the history of the land, the past uses, but also has, includes any possible threat to the water supply in the sense like, say there's a utility building with fuel storage within 10 feet or something, that would certainly be something that you wanted to indicate. But the geothermal well application is more like an agricultural well. It is more of a, you know, present the details of the contractor that he's licensed with the state, the location by mapping, that's the bulk of it. Thank you. So the sighting is the same, but there are other things about water well, which in 3D water that are more complex. The sighting is, I believe, the same. Thank you. Other questions for Ed? Is it possible for us to approve it subject to the watermark criterion? I'd be happy to operate on that sort of an approval that I can, in fact, communicate with Tim and answer his question or answer it to the whole board, whatever your pleasure is. Okay, with you, Tim, does that seem good? Yeah. Well, how about I'll move that we approve it subject to resolving the issue about the high water criteria? I can second it. That's the move in seconded to approve this, ending the answer to the high water mark. Fallen favor? Tim? Aye. Steve? Aye. Maureen? Aye. Lauren? I'm going to have Steve. Okay, Nancy? Aye. Okay. So thank you very much. Now we will have the director's update. All right, so I'm going to start out with item A's. I've labeled it communication to the health department and I just want to take a few minutes and talk to the board and everybody about the communications we've been receiving here. A lot of emails and phone calls regarding the mask mandate, very strong opinions on both sides and these comments are very appropriate. They're very welcome. I think it's really important that, you know, as someone who works for the town that I know how our decisions and our policies affect the people that live here and work here, go to school here. I think it's especially important for the mask mandate. Every message regarding the mask mandate, I've read them, I've heard you and I really take them into consideration, you know, as we examine all the data in the CDC and the DPH guidance. But there have been emails, physically mail butters, phone messages, calls that I've been taking that have been aggressive and hostile. So these are not just angry or hated calls that these are using expletives, name calling, anti-semitic symbols and threatening. I know these intense statements are from a very few small minority. And I also, I want you to know that when I hear these strongly worded comments, they don't represent people with similar views. I really keep these separate. And none of these comments have come from anyone that has a business in town. Business owners, we've had very good communication throughout the pandemic. But I just did believe that I wanted to identify this and let the board know it's been hard on the staff in the health departments, affected the way we've worked, the way we've interacted at times with the public. And we've even been worried about being identified as being working for the health department. So I just want to say, I don't think this communication is acceptable. I don't think anyone here thinks that. I don't think the health department should tolerate that. And I don't think we should tolerate this as a community. So I believe we are moving into a different time now and this is passing and we're moving beyond this. So I was trying to sort of think of something just to sort of summarize this and sort of finish on a positive note. And I did find a quote and it is from Mindy Dam. Mindy, I don't know if you want to read it because I asked permission. Mindy, do you know what quote I'm talking about? I do, but you should go ahead. I don't have it in front of me. Thank you, Jennifer. Oh, okay. So this is from Mindy. Let's recommit to our connection and responsibility to each other. Recognize, not minimize harms or communities and vulnerable neighbors may face from the ongoing pandemic. Let's care for ourselves and others and be kind in these stormy times. Breathe in and breathe out. So thank you, Mindy. I thought that was a great way to sort of cap that. Thank you so much, Jennifer. You honor me by meeting with this meeting. Thank you. All right, thanks everybody. Thank you, Mindy and Jennifer. I did go to the health department and witnessed on February 23rd and I know he's been there several times. There's been a truck parked outside the health department and I went in with the UMass students that was very derogatory to the health department and to people in town. And I'm also very much aware that in Massachusetts and around the country, many public health employees and directors are resigning because of the pressure that they've been receiving. So thank you very much, Jen, for working and keeping your spirits up. Yeah. And thank you, Mindy, for what you're doing more on our county and state level to move us forward. So thank you. Yeah. Thank you. But if I can say thank you to all each of you because you're also the community volunteers that make our health policy sort of live for our community. And thank you to Jen and her staff, incredible. But you're right. We live in unnecessarily polarizing times and public health is caught in that. And I really appreciate all of your work. So thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you, our guest that came, Mindy. So I'm moving into COVID-19 and I have items, BCD. What I'm gonna do is start with testing. This is just a brief notice that the Baker-Polito administration is announcing they're shutting down a number of stop-the-spread testing sites. This is affecting UMass. So they're still deciding what we're gonna do with the PCR program from UMass, but Amherst is receiving more rapid tests like we did before, 6,000 tests and they're coming next Wednesday to us as a bridge. So I think that's a topic that'll be ongoing. We'll find out more about the PCR testing at UMass. I don't have much more information. I don't know if anyone else does. I don't know if residents in town know that through federal government, you can order and get four tests per household. Yeah. And that's another way to get. Mindy, did you have something you want to say? I hope it's okay if I just jump in here. Just to let you know that along with other legislators from Hampshire and Franklin counties, Senator Cumberford and I are sending a letter this week to the secretary of health, human services and the commissioner of health, urging them to reconsider closing the Amherst community test site. So in effect, allowing people to continue to pick up self-administered tests, PCR tests and UMass continue to screen those and people continue to get the results. And we're asking them to continue to reconsider it and to continue the test site through the end of the semester. You know, April 1st, quite frankly, I think even though they gave us several weeks notice is not a good time to close a community test site. I want to remind everybody that rapid tests are great except they do not perform a surveillance role. They don't get reported to the department of public health the data doesn't get collected and it doesn't get shared with Jen or anybody else in the local health departments. So the PCR testing is great because it's free and it's available to Amherst and Western Massachusetts residents, anybody from Massachusetts, but it's also really important because it'll allow the health department to identify if there are any potential outbreaks that are happening where they are. So that seems like an important tool to continue to have available to us after spring break through the end of the semester. And I'll work with Jen to make sure that you're aware of what response of any we get. I can't say I'm hopeful, but we're at least going to make the effort to try to get it to stay open. That's great. Thank you, Mindy. Thank you, Joe, everybody.  Okay, so I'm going to move on to COVID-19 statistics. So Amherst, Hampshire County in Massachusetts are experiencing a significant decline in the key COVID public health indicators. We've seen a decrease in the seven-day average COVID case count numbers, incidence rate, hospitalizations, and wastewater concentration. As of today, Amherst active case count is 151. That's down from 536 a month ago. It is now the lowest it's been since late December. Our 14-day average incidence rate is today 70.25. I just want to say that I calculated that myself. So the numbers are about to be released, or maybe they've been released already. So we'll see if that number is right. That's down from 150 a month ago, and it's the lowest it's been since early January. Hampshire County wastewater concentration peaked end of December, and it's now where we were back in August. That data is from a DPH recommended site called iobot. At the same time, we have a high vaccination rate of 88%. Our local hospital bed capacity percentage is improving and is matching ICU and adult inpatient bed availability similar to early December. Right now, our ICU bed capacity is 64%, 64.5, and the adult is 75.3. The CDC now measures COVID community levels by the strain on hospital systems by looking at severity of sickness expressed as hospitalizations, local bed capacity, which I just wrote, and the new case count. Also, I do want to point out that we're moving into warmer weather and better ventilation. In Amherst, we experienced an increase in the case numbers that are now declining. That was about three to four weeks ago. The identified cases stayed mainly confined to the age groups of 17 to 22 mostly and some with 22 to 27 year olds with little spread into other age groups. Contact tracers report that Amherst cases were related to transmission mainly in small groups. So these were social gatherings appropriate for this age group, sports clubs and small gatherings. Lastly, the high numbers were influenced by the availability of PCR testing in the community in higher ed institutions and identifying asymptomatic cases and individuals with mild symptoms. Regarding the mass mandate, taking all that into consideration, I also want to point out that we align ourselves with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and their updated mass guidance and the CDC Restructured Framework that measures COVID community levels and gives prevention strategies and puts us at a yellow median transmission. Does anyone want to add to the numbers or do you want me to go ahead with my recommendation? Maureen. I was, I just checked on the website for the Massachusetts DPH and today's number was released just a little while ago and it's down from 92, I think a week ago to 59.1. Oh, wow. So it has continued to decrease. I think that you're calculating, you know, I think that's the equivalent of your calculation of 70, you know, sometimes I'm not sure which numbers are which, but the previous week was three weeks, two weeks ago it was 150.8, last week it was 92.4, today it's 59.1 and that's the 14-day incident rate. So it's really going in the good direction. Thank you, Maureen. Nancy, do you want me to give my recommendation for the mass mandate or does anyone else want to? Does anyone else have, Mindy, do you have your hand up? No, I'm sorry, I'll lower it. Okay. Does anyone else have any question or comment? One thing you didn't mention is BA2. What do you know about that? Are you asking me, Steve? Well, yes, in other words, I just, you said I'm talking about data and so that's one thing that we might want to have in mind if there is some possibility of a very rapid increase due to BA2, anything we do, if we change things, it's going to be harder to put it back. So I just wonder how, do you have any sense or any predictions that you've heard about what's going to happen with BA2? No, but it's something that we definitely were thinking about back in June. Here we were in June and everything just felt great and then in August we started hearing about Delta. So this is part of what went into the on ramping and then we kept it because of Omicron. Right now, people are talking about BA2. I don't know what percentages is. That's another reason that we need the surveillance. I just don't know if it's 20% in the States. I don't have that data. It's on the radar at DPH, we talk about it, but nothing's really being said where it is. But I agree with, in part what you're saying is like here we are in a lull, it may be a lull. There may be another surge, we may have another variant, there may be another variant other than BA2. So I know I've heard people say it's really hard once you take a mandate away to put it back. I agree, but I think really we've been a great community figuring out how to work together. And if it comes to that and the numbers go up, if we decide to take the mask mandate away, I think if the numbers are there, it'll warrant taking a look at what we need to do. So I don't know if anyone else has more information on BA2. I don't have much scientific, more just what's happening overseas and watching it. Yeah, that's a good point. Jennifer, can I ask one more question? A lot of people express concern about spring break and travel. And I don't have a memory long enough to remember if last year there was any bump or uptick in the area after spring break. And I don't know if you would have any recollection of that or any data to see that. I did look at the curve from Hampshire County. It seemed to have a little plateau, perhaps at the right time to maybe be explained by that, but I understand those concerns. I just didn't know if we had any data to be, to take that into account to, I think anecdotally, it sounds like a nightmare, that people are going everywhere and coming back with all kinds of different exposures and all sharing them again. But I don't know if that's really something we have to fear. Can I, oh, please add us that. I'm just thinking, what is the positivity rate at UMass? So one concern is that it's coming up in a spring break is next week. And majority of the students are vaccinated in the sense that's a very high amount, like more than 97%. And also the positivity rate of UMass was just released. It came in maybe 10, 15 minutes ago was 1.28. It's a very low positivity rate. So I'm just curious and I think Amherst in general has a positivity of three point, I think. Is that Jennifer? Three point, oh no, 2.38 from the mass website, you know, the public health website. And I'm just thinking about the spring break and everything. So we had days which were primarily maskless in a couple of days. And I think people, as I think one of the attendees was commenting that many students still wore masks until they feel comfortable in the end. So it was a really good thing to see, you know, that there is some sort of a effort to self protect themselves. Anything else? So while Mindy's here, I know the state has not been giving us vaccine rates by race or ethnicity. Mindy, is there any way we can get that? Do you know? Joe and I have been fighting for this for a very long time to get lots of the data broken down by race and ethnicity. I'm happy to go back and re-ask the question this week as a result of this meeting and just prod them a little bit more. I don't know if the town has put that request in writing to the department or if it's just been verbally communicated. I'm happy to take this as a sort of a request and I can work with Senator Cumberford to make the request to the state and keep Jen apprised of what the response is. Would that be helpful? Do you want to make a formal vote on it that we would like the state to provide us? I could make a motion that we would like the state to provide us with vaccine rates according to race and ethnicity for the town of Amherst. I'd love that quite. Personally, I'd love that because I have a bill and legislation around vaccine equity with three other legislators which would require that ultimately for the entire state. But I mean, I think I'm gonna go ahead and do it even without you passing a resolution. I think we'll pass a resolution up to you. I'll make the motion that to look at equity in vaccination rates that the town of Amherst would like the state to provide us with vaccine rates according to race and ethnicity. Would you like them to be overall or would you like them to be by age? Oh, by age. Okay, and if they do it by census tract, I'd even love it by census tract. Put it in the resolution and we'll consider it. Okay, so we will. I don't think they do it by census tract but I think, Jen, correct me if I'm wrong. I think they do collect vaccine data by age, right? Because they're able to tell us what school age children's rates are. I wonder what I can get from my databases with the MIIS and color is our scheduling platform, what I'm able to pull. I think that's a great idea. We look at these numbers. Okay, well, I'll add to my motion by age and if possible by census tract. I think that the age piece becomes really important, right? Because we're going to move to the age, race, ethnicity and if possible census tract. I just have a question, sorry. With this motion and asking the state for this data, where would it come from? Like from the data that we already have, how would it be different? Where would it come from? So right now we just have vaccine rate. So we don't have it by race and ethnicity. We don't have it by age group. So that's what we're asking for. And then if we could get by census tract, we could know if there's certain areas of town that have lower vaccination rates or higher vaccination rates. Did that answer your question, Lauren? Or Mindy, can you just- I'm just trying to clarify from the data that we already have and the update that was just given. How would, where would the information come from? Would it come from the schools? Would it come from the hospitals? I'm just a little, it seems like there's a lot of places to retrieve data. And I'm just wondering, where would this new data come from? I think, well, Jen might be able to answer this better, but I think that I, Lauren, it's good to see you. I'm glad you're on the board. I think that the state collects this data already. They just, because they collect it when people get vaccinated. It's just that they haven't kind of separated out and shared it in a way that's usable by the board. But it wouldn't be coming from the school, it'd be coming from the Department of Public Health. And I think that's why Jen is suggesting that she has access to the vaccine database as a health official. So she may actually be able to tease it out and then separate it out by age. But I still think it's worthwhile asking, but it's data that's already been collected that's voluntarily provided by people who are getting vaccinated. So for kids, it would be their parents or guardians have voluntarily shared that information with the state. And so that's how it gets then ultimately into the database. Yeah, I can take a look at the MIIS, the immunization information system and try to get that information. I can tell you, it doesn't seem to cross, or maybe I'm wrong about this, but well into MAVEN, which is the Virtual Epidemiological Network.  So I can't get per se breakthrough cases in that data. But let me see what I can do. It's a great idea. So there is a compilation by the county, Hampshire County, by race and by age groups. Is it something, I mean, we wanted to have for that town, but I'm just curious if that county level data can be used by us in terms of assessing where we are in terms of race and age groups. We don't have access to other towns. But there again, it doesn't give us what's happening. In our town and what we could possibly do or act on with that data. It's too general. So the more specific data, the more, so if we saw a certain age groups or certain something have high vaccination rates, we wouldn't want to set up more, do clinics, but we could also do very spot clinics or do more exploration on education and providing vaccines to any specific group if the data tells us that. You know, I just want to give a shout out to Northampton and the Public Health Excellence Grant and how we're talking about more regionalization. They have an immunization team there that I'm speaking with. So we're already talking about even though we're doing clinics, but how can we do it regionally and really go to places that we haven't been able to. So it's something that we talk about, but I like the momentum and getting it going. So we'll see what we get for next month. We'll get it. Anything else, Jen? Are you actually making a motion, Nancy? Oh yeah, I want to make, yes, I made the motion. We didn't vote on it. Why do we have a second?  I'll second the motion. Okay. The motion's been made and seconded to get increased data on vaccine rates. So Steve. Aye. Tim. Aye. Maureen. Aye. Lauren. Lauren. Aye. And Nancy, aye. So it's been moved and voted on. So there, Mindy, take it to the state. I love it. Thank you. I'm a big believer in, we don't know unless we see and data helps us see. So it's key to our ability to actually be responsive. So thank you so much. Thank you. Okay. Back to you, Jen. Okay, so mask mandate update I'm gonna continue on. So I gave the data and I'm gonna make the recommendation to lift the mask mandate in Amherst. That's my recommendation. I'd like to hear from the board. I would ask that be lifted immediately. Today's March 10th, 2022. And this would result in the Amherst regional public schools and their mask may mandate being lifted Monday, March 14th, 2022. Presumably the schools can do what they want to some extent, right? They can. They're are they okay with March 14th? It's quite soon. I would want to give them all the flexibility they might need. Mike Morris, the superintendent and I have spoken throughout the weeks. I just, you know, plural, just back and forth with this, you know. Thank you. I appreciate that. It's true. That's my recommendation. And I just want the board to, you know, weigh in and wanna hear. Maureen. Hi. I support the recommendation, but I have some concerns for those who are at risk, either elderly or immunosuppressed or both. And I wonder what resources we have to support those folks in terms of testing, access to treatments, which are now available like Paxlovid, because those things have to be done in a timely way. You need to test quickly. You need to treat quickly. And I don't know what's available in our community to help us to do that, whether it to Cooley Dickinson or the pharmacies or whatever, but that's a really important piece. The other thing I think is that people have better access to higher quality masks and maybe with some help than even choosing one that fits well because they're gonna need to protect themselves. And I don't, I think there's gonna be a long time that COVID will be with us and that will be necessary for people. It's not a matter of weeks. I think it's a matter of a long months or more. Who knows what's gonna happen? But I think whenever we pull back on the mask mandate, we're gonna have this issue. I just wonder how prepared we are. I think these are great points, Maureen. And I wrote about this. I just wanted to say what I was recommending, but I think it's really important that we acknowledge that a lot of people are gonna be very concerned about their health, immunocompromised, other health issues. They're worried about their health. They're worried about bringing it to somebody else. They're protecting their loved ones. Wearing a mask might just be comfortable. But we know that well-fitted high filtration masks are very effective. And I agree, how can we talk about making sure people have those? I have some access. I know there's other programs that can get them. I think ventilation is a huge topic we need to talk about. Is there a business or anybody that wants us to come in and actually speak about that? Other thing, Maureen, I was gonna talk to you another time. I don't think this works, but I agree with you about the testing. Some people are calling it test-to-treat. So let's say we have these 6,000 antigen tests. So don't come in the building, but we can... I mean, I don't know if this is gonna work. Test people outside, if you're positive, let's talk about what needs to be done. You have to wear a mask still. But who can be a prescriber to get people the prescription to get the Paxilovid remdesivir? Yeah, that's one of them. Quickly, it's free at CVS, but you need a prescription. So I don't know how we can do this, but I know we can figure it out. Yeah, I think that's important in this transition period. That's smart. Does CVS have a prescriber through their minute clinic that can prescribe, but then that adds a cost? Yeah, and... Sorry, I didn't mean to over-talk you. I really like the CDC new guidance, but they say somewhere, and I'm not gonna be able to find it, but it says something like, talk to your provider if you feel like you should still be wearing a mask, but not everyone has health insurance, not everyone has a provider. So let's really make sure these populations that are really hard hit, let's make sure that they're really supported. So I think looking at the vaccine, that's the real beginning. But right, so Nancy, I mean, I like your thinking, how can we get these meds into people's hands? Yeah, and if you use that minute clinic, whoa, that's a big box. I had a question, a clarifying question about if the mandate is lifted, the mask mandate is lifted, how that would affect the schools, which a lot of the public has concerns both ways. And so you said you spoke to the superintendent, have they made it clear as to what they will be doing? They'll be making a decision for their community based on what's going on there and our decision affects the town, yes. So will the schools give the choice for children to either wear masks if they want to or not wear masks? Yeah, I mean, Lauren, that's another thing that, oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to over talk you again, I've been doing that. That's another thing that, I think it's really important that people are pointing out, we're really moving into this different phase, it's personal responsibility, but also it's community and how do we support each other? I really think this is a great town community we live on and just be really considerate of people's choices of wearing masks. So people can continue to wear masks, businesses can continue to make more strict decisions for their population, but that answer, the question that, yes, children can continue to wear masks. I'm asking, how is that going to be communicated? How is the schools going to communicate that? You know, I don't know, they have newsletters, I know they're great communicators, I just specifically, it'll be multi-channels, I'm just confident we'll get the word out. Could I say, I do support lifting the mandate and I do want to mention another group, that's the kids under five who can't be vaccinated. Now, I know we've heard from parents who say that they want masks requirements eliminated because of what they consider to be social development effects, but also it makes the children vulnerable. And I know that's a legitimate concern. And I know we shouldn't dismiss even a, even any number of deaths, people who've gotten into trouble saying, well, only so many people die. I do think for what I can see, the risk of serious illness and death in very young children is small. I see that since the pandemic started in early 2020, eight times as many kids under five have died by motor vehicles that have died by COVID, every death is a tragedy, but we take those risks, there's lots of things we could do to prevent those 800 deaths. We could ban all cars and trucks or we could have a governor, so no car could go over 25 miles an hour. We don't do that. And I think that although it is true that those kids under age five are going to be more at risk, a little bit more at risk if we eliminate that mask requirement for others, I think the effect of it is very small. The masks don't eliminate all of those cases. And overall, when you see the very great drop in the number of cases locally and nationally, I think that on balance, it's legitimate to lift it according to what you said, Jennifer, in other words, right now. Just to add to Stephen's comments, I agree, I mean, below five, even though in general they have a low impact in terms of their threats or something, but I would like the schools and the parents decide based on individual requirements. So for example, we need that choice made to the parents. So if a parent prefers that, they know that child really well. So I think by lifting it and giving the choice to the parents, I think it's a good thing to do. I was concerned of what was gonna happen to the rates, especially with children after the February vacation week and numbers did not go up. So that made me feel much better. I thought that might have been a possible spreading event with travel, but it didn't come to fruition. And most of our positive testing is in that 17 to 22 age group followed by 22 to 27. And then I did look at the Cooley Dickinson beds and in January and February, December and January, they were having 23 to 26 beds with COVID patients. And since the beginning of February, there were five, four, then three, three, three, two, and three, so the numbers at Cooley Dickinson from the end of January, beginning of February have come radically down for a hospital COVID cases. They didn't have ICU beds and Jen did provide us with the bed capacity earlier. Even the waste water. One other thing that we could do perhaps is to make sure that people are aware of something that has happened in a few other towns. And that is that some businesses have set aside a few hours each day or in certain schedule where the businesses require masks, which of course they're perfectly free to do all the time, but most of them will probably not require them in town if we don't, but businesses could provide an hour or something where everybody will have to be masked if there's a lot of public concern about exposure. Just to put entirely up to them. I was just gonna add, my biggest, I know there's the businesses, there's the public areas like the PVTA, well, people who use public transportation and so forth and other public spaces where people are in close connection with each other. But my main concern is the schools and I just would not want Board of Health to not be on the same page or it doesn't seem like we're on the same page with the schools and the superintendent. So is this something that we are doing together? As you said that you spoke to the superintendent so that there's not a conflict and people don't see it as a conflict. You know, I, so Mike Morrison, I speak and we go back and forth with data and guidance and where we are. And so there's no conflict between us. We, I have to say we work really well together the school system and the health department, the town. So lots of good communication. Most other schools in Hampshire County have lifted it or are lifting it in the next week or two. So I've been watching what was happening to other school districts. If we do continue with lifting it, I know people know that there's still requirements in certain locations. We'll put them up on the webpage. But for example, on the bus, the MBTA and also private lift services, such as Uber, healthcare facilities, the nurses office at the schools, congregate settings and shelters. And also if people are sick, you still need to be isolating with a mask on but we can put the full list up. It is up on DPH. And even if we list it, we will be watching the data. We will be watching for variants. We will keep revisiting it. We'll watch the CDC and we can always have an emergency meeting if it comes before our schedule to put it back in place. Yeah, I think that's really smart. I know it's so mixed. But people, and we have to repeat, respect people who still wear masks and I'll still wear a mask going to grocery shopping. But I don't go out to eat, but when I think of it, I think, okay, you wear your mask into a restaurant, then you take it down so everybody's sitting there with it off and then you put it on to walk out of the restaurant. I haven't been doing that, but it seems like, well, is this mask really protecting you in a restaurant at this point? Is it that I've chosen not to go out to restaurants? But on this or just that we're accepting that my recommendation is the health director. Okay. Can we have a motion to, Steve, making the emotion? No, I was just saying, yes, we do because we've put it in with emotion. We should take it off with emotions for sure. I thought it went- The thing about it is, how is it gonna be with the schools? What do we say in the motion about the schools? I don't know. The schools are, okay, Jen, clarify this, but the schools and the school committee can make their own decisions, correct? Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. But yeah, but like I said, this is the superintendent and I talking about that date. And it's not one he's picked arbitrarily. A lot of communication and people talking. So in our motion, should we just say that we are ending the mask mandate as of today and then not say anything about what the schools decide to do? Okay. I just asked that the mandate went in. I thought the authority was given to me. You voted to give me the authority. I'm fine either way, but I just wanted to clarify thinking back. This is back in August. I know. Yeah. Yeah. That's fine with a vote. I think, you know, I like it's good governments and I see clear. Everyone's contributing, so. Yes, so that's- If you said it, Maureen, what did you say? Yeah. What? I made the motion. What was it? Well, I don't know if I actually did. I was actually asking a question, but I guess I moved to end the mask mandate in indoor spaces in Amherst as of today, March 10th, 2022. I second it. Okay. So it's been moved and seconded to remove the mask mandate. Well, what did it have to say? I'm sorry. Wouldn't have to say public, something about the public spaces. I thought I did. Indoor public spaces. No, he just said indoor space. Yeah. Okay. To be public. Yeah, you had said that morning. So we have the motion and it's been seconded. Correct? Tim, you seconded? Yeah, I second it. It's been moved and seconded. You know, we will vote on it. Tim. Aye. Maureen. Aye. Steve. Aye. Lauren. Aye. Indoor public spaces. Okay. And Nancy. Aye. Okay. So we have lifted the mask mandate. I guess we can only lift it where it was applied. So. Yes. Okay. Anything else? I'm all set. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks, everybody. Good, good input and suggestions and hats forward. Okay. So we will be happy to talk with you more about what we talked about. Thank you. I love I love that idea. Yeah. OK, so now we will open up the public comment once again. Nancy, may I ask you how long are we going to do public comment? I just just to start off with the guide. We did 20 before. Is it going to be. I'm sorry, I didn't disconnect that phone. I. Ten minutes. And if we really have a we could extend it to. Ten minutes. So it's 630. So just 630, 640. OK, so we are opening it up for public comment. So I'm going to call on people. I'd like to hear their full name. I see a website that does not have a person's name. So if I'm going to call them interglow wellness, if you can state your full name. And I think we really need to ask people for their street addresses. OK, so interglow and wellness. Can you please give us your name and where you live? And yes, yes. Can you hear me OK? Yes. All right. My name is Jennifer Larson. I live at 38 Fearing Street in downtown Amherst. I am so thrilled to hear what you just voted, which basically makes most of my points moot because you all agreed. But I will go ahead and share my thoughts anyway. There was some concern over whether people will still feel comfortable wearing masks. I think using the term mask optional may be helpful because lifting a mask mandate doesn't mean everybody's going to take them off. I wanted to comment about PCR testing last year in July. The CDC let the public know that PCR tests would have six more months to be admitted. And then by the end of twenty twenty one, the their determination was that there's a high rate of false positives and an inability to discern between the flu and covid. And it was recommended that laboratories use a different type of testing. I'm very happy that you went ahead and agreed with the support of other major agencies like Desi Department of Public Health and the CDC on lifting these mandates. I moved here eight months ago from a state that does not have mask mandates. I moved here from Florida. They've been doing that a long while already with no spikes in cases. Those who feel at risk have plenty of opportunity to access vaccines and boosters or can participate in one way masking. I'm also going to comment on prevention. There is a study that links low vitamin D levels with severe outcomes for covid. So if people take vitamin D, they have a better chance of having less severe covid. The effects on children have been very detrimental wearing masks, effects on speech development, literacy, social skills, dental issues, restricted oxygen, empathy. The young should not be suffering for the portion of the population that is more at risk. The younger at the lowest risk in being in school, it's a controlled environment. It seems that in this community, the goal is to have zero cases of covid and that is not realistic. Even the vaccine that we have only limits the severity. This is up. Thank you so much for your time. OK, thank you very much. OK, Carlo, Della Paquilo. I'm so sorry. If you can please, let's see. Oh, OK, the hand went down. Col Fitzpatrick, if you can state your name correctly and where you live, your address. Yep. Hello, I'm Col Fitzpatrick. I'm on 32 trillion way. I'll keep this really short because I was happy with the way you voted. Just want to commend you all. It takes courage to make the decision that you did. I really appreciate you guys following the science and following the guidance rather than a motion. So just kudos to everyone. It's been a tough job the last two years. Jennifer, thank you for responding to all my emails over the past couple of months. So thank you. Thank you, Cole. Thank you, Carlo. If you can spell your, say your full name and where you live, please. You have two minutes. Yes, thanks for trying to pronounce my name. Carlo, that's OK. Carlo Della Paquilo. I spell it D-A-L-L-A-P-I-C-C-O-L-A. My town address is 12 Pine Hollow, Amherst. I have two children in the public school system. And like the other commenters, I'm changing my comment because I was going to ask that you consider lifting the mandate, which you've already done. So I applaud you for that. I'm very excited about that. I would like to note I was really struck by the very thoughtful, rational, very reasonable dialogue that you have with each other. I'm very sorry to hear about the the horrible comments you have to deal with via mail, etc. So maybe one thing I could add is I would be a little bit cautious, in my opinion, about the idea of yo-yoing back and forth the mask mandate. I think there will be upticks in cases for a very long time. We're going to have holidays, July 4th, spring break, Thanksgiving, Christmas, the school breaks, UMass, homecoming. And, you know, those things will will generally resolve themselves. I think the main thing is the very high vaccination rates and population immunity levels. And I think it's the right moment to make this decision and to get back, take one more step towards normalcy for our our mental health. So thank you, guys. I think this is a great day for Amherst. Thank you, Carla. All right, Heath Hatch. You can unmute yourself, please. State where you live. You have two minutes. Yes, I'm Heath Hatch. I live at 66 Flat Hills Road here in Amherst. I want to thank you for making the decision. I am partially hearing impaired. And so I can finally communicate better now being able to read this. And it's been a challenge for a long time. They have lost that ability. And so I appreciate it. But I know I'm not doing it, so I appreciate the courage it takes to. And that's all I was going to say. Thank you. Thank you, Keith. We have Claudia Pazmani. If you can state your name where you live, if you're a business owner and you have two minutes. Hi, I'm Claudia Pazmani, executive director of the Amherst area chamber and also at just to rebuild that. And I'm at 47 Emily Lane in Amherst. And I just want to thank you so much for all your hard work. Thank you for this vote. I share Gabrielle's earlier comments on this, the challenge of all of our businesses and what it's been for their employees and so forth. And the ability to just continue, as Tim had mentioned earlier about even in Hadley, when they lifted the mask mandate, people continue to wear masks as they would like and at their comfort level. And it seems like it's such, there just seems to be so much less stress for everyone involved. And it's just been that so much stress. But I also want to commend you and the town because the town has done an extraordinary support through the ambassador program, the Amherst ambassadors. And they have been incredible on the ground and trying to help and keep people informed as well. So they've been great an extension of these mandates and keeping everyone supported and so we are continuing to be here to support but we're also really ready to see our businesses, make that call for themselves and move forward. So hopefully we won't see the spike that, who knows, we've all been learned to pivot but I'm really hoping that this is one last pivot in the right direction. So thank you for all your hard work but I really appreciate you looking at the science and these low cases and some of the data that you shared today continues to inform us that this is the right move at the right time. Thank you so much. Thank you. I think that's the end of raised hands. Okay. I have no more topics. Our next meeting will be April 21st and we will have the hearing. Jen, when will we be able to meet in person? So next month is going to be remote. We're going to keep that, yeah. And then the DA or the Attorney General, I apologize has extended the ability for us to remain remote until July 15th. So this, we're going to be remote next month but the town is making some decisions in that meantime about how we're going to proceed so we don't have that information but I think that was interesting. I think the resident was he, I apologize if that's wrong but I think he commented that this platform was beneficial to him. We sure have had a lot more people participate remotely. So anyhow, I don't know what the answer is. Nancy, how do you feel about Zoom meetings? Pros and cons. Yeah. The pros are it opens it up to many more residents. Also if any board member needs to travel the board member can still participate. The cons are I really like the interpersonal interaction. So after our last meeting, I got several emails so that if there are any comments about medical treatment or what you should be doing or not doing related to any health illness or COVID please check with your provider and the information that's given by individuals may not be accurate. So please use your primary care provider in making a decision on what over-the-counter medication or other medication that you may be taking. Whoops, my two minutes is up. So thank you all. And we'll need a motion to adjourn. Nancy. Quick suggestion. And I'd like to say something after you, Tim, after you, thank you. You mentioned about the Zoom meetings and I would recommend bringing it to hybrid. That means have a Zoom camp right in our meeting so that more people can participate and interact. Just a hybrid methodology. Yeah, I think that's something we're looking at. So hybrid would it be in, if you know the bank center in one of the rooms, is it one camera? So you can see everyone as a panel member or do people have separate? And, but just how to do hybrid. Is it difficult or is it not difficult? But I like that idea, Tim. I have to, there's been a lot of discussion with it over the town council meeting and that that was adequate. So what rooms available in the town that have that ability? And can we access that for use? But yes, that would be very good. So, you know, I just want to say that tomorrow we'll put up messaging on our website first thing with sort of more educational pieces and links to important places. So things that we didn't cover today will be available tomorrow. Any other comments? Thank you, Mindy, for attending. Thank you for letting me speak. Thank you for the attendees. And thank you to the board and Jen and they have a motion to adjourn. I can make a motion to adjourn for this meeting. We have a motion and a second. I'll second it. Steve's second it. So all a vote. Steve? Aye. Maureen? Maureen? Adjourning? She's saying aye. She's saying aye, okay. Tim? Aye. Say aye. Yes, sorry. Okay, thank you. Lauren? Aye. And Nancy, aye. So thank you. And we will see each other on the 21st. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you once again, Jen. All right, good night, everyone. Thank you. Thank you. All right, the record.


Hello everybody and thank you for joining me today. I'm Kim Triton head of student recruitment at SOAS University of London. I'm going to take you through a short presentation to tell you a bit more about SOAS, about our programs, about our staff, about our facilities, but most importantly about our students and see if we might be the right fit for your students. In terms of why students might choose to study at SOAS University of London, we are located in the heart of London. We are a global top 50 for arts and humanities, we have world-class facilities, small class sizes, flexible and interdisciplinary at degrees and we have a very diverse international student and academic population. In terms of our location as I say we're located in the heart of the city in Bloomsbury and if you can see we're close to a number of different transport links but even more so we're close to a number of different historical sites, entertainment areas, academic areas and really at the heart of everything you could want in London. In terms of our world-class rankings, we are ranked as I say in the global top 50 for art and humanities, we have six subjects in the UK top 10, we are fifth in the UK for student staff ratio and we are third in the world for peace justice and strong institutions. In terms of our subject rankings we're first in London for business and management, sixth in the world for development studies, 13th in the world for anthropology, 18th in the world for politics and 19th in the UK for law. In terms of our world-class facilities, we are made up of four main buildings at SOAS. The newest of our buildings is the Paul-Webley wing and this has state-of-the-art lecture theatres, the student hub, careers and student support, well-being centre, formal and informal study spaces. We also have the SOAS library which is one of only five national research libraries in the UK. It specialises in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. It has the largest collection in Europe for East Asian so that's Japanese, Korean and Chinese. It is also one of the largest for the Middle East and Central Asia within Europe. We also have the Brunei gallery which is a gallery that showcases changing regional exhibitions and also has a Japanese reef garden on top. In terms of the subject areas we teach, I've listed them here and you can see there's quite a range. We are a specialist institution in that we focus in on the social sciences and the humanities so we don't teach any of the pure sciences but we are also very interdisciplinary. So students can actually study anthropology but also take classes in media studies or in development studies or in gender studies as they go through their programme and how we do that is that each year students will have at least two elective modules that they can take in any other areas but we also allow a large amount of auditing which is in common in most universities so students can actually audit up to three additional classes per year if they would like to and that just gains more and more exposure to different areas. Each of our academic schools also hosts a range of open sessions so these are open to the public as well as to our students and to other students from other universities and these can be held in the daytime or in the evening and these can range in terms of film screenings to academic debates to networking sessions so there's a range of those that students can take part in and in terms of our academic staff they are leaders in the field their research impacts what is happening now a lot of them are practitioners in the field so they will have and will be working on various different policy boards working with various different NGOs working with various different government offices. In terms of our programmes as I say there's over 300 different singles slash joint honours degrees that they can take with us and those will range between three and four years we have over 150 different postgraduate degrees which range from one to two years foundation programmes online and distance learning and also what we call MOOCs which are massive open online courses and are free for any students or anybody to take they are online taster courses that last about four to six weeks and take up about two hours of your time each week. In terms of languages SOAS offers one of the largest language offerings in the world not just in the UK and we are a very non-traditional language university in that we do teach the modern languages but you can also learn a range of languages from around the world and this can either be the focal part of your programme and it could be your your major if you like or it could be an additional class that you add in each year and so or up to two classes each year that you add in. The students could actually study a range of different languages on their undergraduate programme. In terms of what our staff and our students say I think this is the really good comment by Dr Sean Hawthorne from our School of Philosophy Religion and Politics and she said if you're interested in the wider world different cultures and new ways of thinking come to SOAS. I'm proud that people are impressed I work here SOAS is considered a world leader it really marks you out if you've been here it's an accolade and I think that's something we really want to focus on so SOAS is a specialist in terms of the social sciences humanities but we're also a specialist in terms of our regional focuses so we focus in on the Middle East and Africa on South Asia on Southeast Asia on East Asia and in terms of all of this what we're doing is looking at different subject areas from different lenses and different perspectives but also we want to be thinking about tackling the global challenges of our time from the perspective of the most disadvantaged. In terms of our entry requirements we look at A star AA to ABB if you're looking at A levels we have an IB of 35 to 37 if you are looking to take one of our finance or management you would need to think about possibly taking an A level math we don't require the L NAT and we do recognise a range of qualifications from all around the world and you can either check these with our international managers or through our website in terms of our tuition fees we've set them out here in terms of home slash EU and international but obviously bear in mind with this year in terms of EU it would be pre-settled or settled status if not they would be paying the same fees as the international. We do have a range of scholarships to support our students and those can be found in our scholarships part of our website. In terms of student accommodation we do so have student accommodation within walking distance to the campus and this can range in size and price but some of the cheapest accommodation is some of the most affordable both in London and outside of London and this just showcases how close those accommodations are to our site. Now the main thing I want to talk about here is our diverse active and international student community because this is really what makes so us. So we have students from over 135 different countries we have 6,300 students on campus and around 4,000 distance learners. In terms of the makeup of our student body we are 54% international and EU students and 46% UK students. We also have 51% undergraduate and 49% postgraduate so you will be meeting students from all around the world if you come to us and part of that approach that we take to this interdisciplinary learning is that what we're hoping is that because we are a specialist in the social science of the humanities you could walk out of any lecture that you found particularly interesting and stop another student on the campus and they would be able to have a really good dialogue with you even if they weren't in that session themselves. And I think this is summed up very well by Gavin here who says it is not just doing a degree it's about those experiences. I'm not just learning about different things that have happened in the world and different crises going on now I'm supporting people and doing something about them. So SOAS is known as a University of Activists and what we mean by this is yes it does mean protest and we do actually support our students in taking part in peaceful protests. However it's also about building dialogue and it's also about educating people and it can be educating people from all walks of life at all ages and all stages of their lives. And it's really about talking about uncomfortable areas but thinking about it from someone else's perspective and they're not being necessarily a wrong or a right way of looking at things but really just understanding why people approach things the way they do. So we have over 200 different societies but what you will see is a number of them if you go on to our Students Union page are very much focused on this kind of social change aspect of our student community. So just to name some that we have there we have the Spoken Words Society, the Upreach Social Mobility Society and then we also have Salish SOAS so it's a bit of everything. We also have a common room shop and bar for students, live music, film screenings, cultural events, campaigning and fundraising and we're also very closely located to the University of London Student Central. In terms of London life well you know there is so much for students to explore in London and we are easy reach of everything. There are over 300 different languages spoken throughout London, a number of them you will find on our site. There are over 17,000 music performances that happen at London venues, there are over 250 different festivals, there's 170 different museums so there's really something for everybody and there are also 350,000 students in London so they're going to meet lots of students from other parts of the world and other parts of the UK and other parts of London and I think it's really summed up very well here. When they say it was a comfortable environment I could see people of all cultures, ages and backgrounds it seemed very inclusive and when I started I was right. It was more than the people though, it was a real diversity of thought there too. In terms of our alumni we have a range of alumni and what you will find is there are a lot of common themes in terms of what our alumni go on to, a lot of them go to work in government sector, in NGOs, a lot of them go to work for the UN. If you trace back a lot of the ambassadors too you'll find that they came to SOAS so I've just listed a few here in terms of our alumni and it showcases that they are over a range of different areas from the arts to international relations to music to journalism in the media and to sports and in terms of career support at SOAS we have country specific careers information and advice, we have access to jobs paid internships, volunteer opportunities through our career zone, we have in student ambassador jobs which are very flexible way of students earning money and then we operate a number of different careers fairs and workshops throughout the year and these are just some of the employers that we interact with throughout the year in different areas. Lastly we are part of the wider University of London so that's over 18 different member institutions and basically students get to share sites and facilities of all of these and be part of a larger student group. It is the largest student centre in Europe and as I say you just get to meet more and more students from around London. So in terms of when you apply to us what to expect it normally takes about four weeks to review an offer and make an offer, you will get a conditional or unconditional offer and then you would need to select your firm or your insurance. So I hope that's given you some insight into SOAS and if you have any other questions please do feel free to email me at k.tritton at soas.ac.uk. Thank you.


Novak Djokovic vs Holger Runa is the quarter-final for the men's Paris Masters for 2023. Both guys have had different roads to get to this stage. Runa started the tournament off as the number 6 seed and would get a buy in the first round. In the second round he'd take on Dominic Teem, who had just beaten Stan Vavrenka. But there's no problem for Runa getting through in straights 6-4, 6-2. In the third round he'd take on Alpmayer and again no problem for Runa getting through in straights 6-3, 6-3. Djokovic entered the tournament as the number 1 seed and would get a buy in the first round. In the second round he'd take on Etcheverry, there's no problem getting through in straights. 6-3, 6-2. In this third round he'd take on Grigsbor, who'd been having a pretty good week. And after dropping the first set, Djokovic would fight back to win 4-6, 7-6, 6-4 to get to the quarter-final. This would play 3 times a fall with Runa actually holding the head-to-head record 2-1, including winning their last 2 victories with the last hard-court match being this time last year when he played the Paris Finals beating Djokovic in a third set. Djokovic hasn't beaten Runa for 2 years so it's going to be really interesting to see if Djokovic can finally get that win over Runa over such a long time. If Runa's going to win this one, he needs to listen to Boris Becker. Becker used to coach Djokovic, almost coached him into what he became and what he has become so he's definitely got to listen to his coach because Boris Becker is going to have some insights. It's not like Runa reads it anyway, he already beaten Djokovic a couple of times but he also needs to get off to a good start and put pressure on Djokovic early because Djokovic might still be feeling fatigued. Djokovic is going to win this one, he needs to figure out what went wrong with this fatigue issue. We said he had a stomach issue, he needs to get that sorted real quick because he might be able to get through that match against Griggs Bohr with a bit of a stomach issue but he can't play like that against someone like Runa. This is going to be such a great matchup. One of the only players in the competition that has a positive record over Djokovic but I have to go with Djokovic to beat Runa here. Runa's been good the last couple of weeks and with Boris Becker he seems to be kind of getting back to where we expect him to be but I think Djokovic is going to sort out his stomach and he's going to come out and prove a point because I think a lot of people might be doubting Djokovic after his last round. Let me know down in the comments below, who do you think is going to win this one?