ORDER-2016-193 : Transfer of $11,000.00 From: A/C #015111-511000 - Health Salaries & Wages To: A/C #015112-530501 - Health Exp Misc Supplies - $10,000.00; and A/C #015112-524500 - Health Exp Pest Control - $1,000.00 as set forth herein.

Transcript (~11 min @ 17:20)

Speakers identified by voice; unnamed voices are numbered within this recording. Auto-caption text — verify against the video.

▶ 17:16 Scott M. Forbes: got a motion to recommend made by alleman mortimer second second by alleman's werco any um any more in discussion all those in favor aye aye any opposed what will be recommended our next full board meeting you know the drill you don't have to be in attendance for that vote thank you very much for coming this evening next order on the agenda is two zero one six dash one nine three a transfer of eleven thousand dollars from account number zero one five one one one dash five one one zero zero zero health salaries and wages to account number zero one five one one two dash five three zero five zero one health expense miscellaneous supplies for ten thousand dollars and account number zero one one uh zero one five sorry about that one one two dash five two four five hundred health expense pest control for one thousand dollars as set forth here in

▶ 18:15 Scott M. Forbes: see we have a representative here good evening coral how are you just like to give us a roundabout

▶ 18:19 Speaker 2: uh summary of this order that would be great sure um so we've been working in the city with ehs which is a pest control company who's been going around the city with us and looking at target areas in the city plus residents homes one of his recommendations was to replace the barrels that we have in our parks with big belly barrels they are 3 200 a piece so we're requesting for three of those at the moment and hopefully eventually at some point we will be able to

▶ 18:51 Peter D. Mortimer: add more throughout the city i was going to recommend for passage mr chairman got a motion

▶ 18:54 Scott M. Forbes: to recommend made by alderman mortimer second seconded by alderman Tramontozzi on discussion

▶ 19:01 Michael P. Zwirko: alderman's worko please thank you mr chairman so i just um i know that the the line item here is for the purchase of the three big barrels and then a thousand dollars to pay for the consultant that we've been using can you just give me a little bit of a background and maybe explain to folks at home about the plan that uh so what happened there's been an increase in um norway rat activity i mean could you just provide a little bit of background you know what the what the plan is to attack this in addition to these big belly barrel purchases um just a little bit of an

▶ 19:32 Speaker 2: overview and some background information well in the past couple weeks we've been getting phone calls from the community um saying that they've seen an increase in rats in their areas so what What we did was we hired a company along with myself, Ruth Clay, and Jen Kehoe, one of the other inspectors, to go around to all the houses that requested us to come, check their properties. We had EHS come with us. EHS gave them recommendations on what to do with their property, whether it's to be cutting back brush from their homes, cleaning out their homes. We worked with DPW. They actually allowed a bigger pickup for trash last week, and for recycling, and for yard waste, so we could get some of those trees and things that were down in people's yards. We also went around and passed out flyers. We had a community meeting. The community meeting turned out great. We had a lot of people come. We have a lot of community members working together in neighborhoods, cleaning each other's yard, working with elderly people. If they can't get out there and get their yards cleaned, get their yards cleaned so ehs has really worked hard with us and is making a plan to go around to parks public places and to see if there's things that we can do in the city but also working with the public to try and diminish or help with the rodent problem i won't say eradicate i will say

▶ 21:00 Michael P. Zwirko: lessen the problem and thank you for that i did attend the public hearing last week i think it was last wednesday so it was very informative so appreciate that the um the one thing that i was just wondering maybe it's a factor of both but um in at least my neighborhood i've noticed a a lot of um bunnies this year so i'm wondering and the consultant brought it up that we did have a mild winter so we actually may have because juveniles generally pass in colder more harsh winters so along with squirrels chipmunks bunnies and rats we've seen a population increase and i'm just curious if that's due to the mild winter or is it due to access of food that may be around lack of predators is it a mixture of all of these things i'm just wondering if you know maybe there's in certain areas there's too much trash or maybe there's just an abundance of food in people's yards i i'm just i mean so it seems you know this could potentially be an anomaly that we're dealing with but it also could just be due to the weather so i'm just wondering you know where did all of a sudden this how did this just all of a sudden balloon it didn't all of a sudden

▶ 21:59 Speaker 2: happen it kind of goes in waves every few years you know rat population goes up this population goes down it is because we had a mild winter anything small that normally wouldn't make it through a harsh winter made it through plus bred early so we see a lot more rabbits with rabbits come rodents anything that's in the ground that would have passed away during the winter did not so there is an overabundance of it and it's it's not dirty property it could be beautiful mulched property with beautiful gardens and flowers um they're not just a dirty animal they're they're an animal that eats what we eat they live where we live and we feed them we feed them very well and we give them beautiful places to hide so um it's not that it's an increase all of a sudden it's not that there's a change or something has occurred like construction that has made this happened but there are targeted areas where there is an abundance of them and there's a reason for that if you go to those places which we have you can see there's an overabundance of things and taking care of those problems plus not feeding them is the biggest problem and and people aren't weren't aware and aren't aware of what actually feeds them you know what properties they desire and so going around to the public going door-to-door handing out these flyers the meeting it's given the community and awareness of what's going on and I think just by doing that alone going back to the places we've already been there's already been a decrease in activity and I just have two other questions and you

▶ 23:38 Michael P. Zwirko: alluded to this in the order so in addition to the you somewhat kind of answered it but in addition to the big belly barrels has there been other recommendations by the consultant in addition to just the barrels was it to

▶ 23:57 Speaker 2: your point for our town correct um pretty much just education okay um you know we haven't gone everywhere in the city where we've gotten phone calls we have gone um and in any park even though we were targeting up at the common any park is going to have that same problem if the barrels are overflowing or if they're just not covered if people are throwing food on the ground it's just where they're going to eat so we started up there and we're working from there but that goes along with the whole entire city um so hopefully like i said in time we can get big bellies for all the parks um the community knowing a little bit more about where to put your waste how to get rid of your waste that type of thing um hopefully that will decrease and so the benefit to

▶ 24:40 Michael P. Zwirko: these big billy bears because we do have them on main street um a point of order mr chairman

▶ 24:46 Speaker 1: yes president khan is a discussion of the rodent population in order relative to this order

▶ 24:55 Scott M. Forbes: i mean we are talking about an order for the purchase of barrels to deal with the issue of rodents that are in the community i'm assuming that alderman's work was wrapping up his last

▶ 25:04 Speaker 1: question so the ruling in the chairs this is this line of questioning is in order i believe it is

▶ 25:12 Michael P. Zwirko: in order thank you mr chairman so these barrels um what is the benefit of these versus the other barrels that we have i understand that they're enclosed and that would be they are enclosed and

▶ 25:19 Speaker 2: they are the the only rodent proof barrel okay that they have that's why they're so expensive

▶ 25:28 Speaker 1: thank you those are all the questions that i had is there any other voting member of the

▶ 25:34 Scott M. Forbes: finance committee ask questions non-voting members alderman Boisselle please now you mentioned you've

▶ 25:37 Robert A. Boisselle: been doing a lot of discussions and cleaning up in the area do you find that by taking away the food source for the the rodents and so forth you may be pushing them to other parts of the

▶ 25:52 Speaker 2: community absolutely not no no along with along with taking away their food source we're also trying to take care of them as well whether we're doing dry ice whether they the residents themselves are hiring companies to come out and do pest control the city has done some pest control so i think with doing all of that we should be able to slow down the population not going to get rid of the rodent population anywhere okay it's just always going to happen but to decrease it in certain areas where it is high they're not going to move away we're trying to decrease it by

▶ 26:27 Robert A. Boisselle: removing them completely now what you're saying pest control are you talking about chemical

▶ 26:32 Speaker 2: control some are using chemical control some are using dry ice yes okay and are you notifying the

▶ 26:35 Robert A. Boisselle: residents when the chemicals are being pushed down because some of these animals some of the

▶ 26:42 Speaker 2: itself is not doing that what we are recommending when we go on to a residence property and we look at their property for them the recommendation is yes we see something that possibly could be rodent activity we recommend that you call a pest control company and have them come out and discuss it with you so right now we are just trying to educate people let them know what we see on their property let them know what they can remove to prevent things from coming on their property and if there is something there who they need to talk to to get them off their property thank you

▶ 27:14 Speaker 1: very much thank you mr chairman motion recommend i do believe we already have a motion to recommend

▶ 27:20 Scott M. Forbes: in a second uh alderman mortimer did you have uh some questions very briefly yeah the presentation

▶ 27:24 Peter D. Mortimer: was great thank you alderman inferno was there alderman circle was there and i just would like to let the people know steps are being taken this is nothing to get something to be concerned about but not overly concerned about it's cyclical it was a mild winter this will soon pass and everything is going to be fine correct and because of your good work thank you that's all i have

▶ 27:50 Scott M. Forbes: thank you thank you alvin monomer oliver medeiros please thank you i just wanted to you mentioned a

▶ 27:53 Speaker 2: flyer is that available online or and or can we we actually did put it online and anybody can call the health department i can email it out i can mail it out there is still some residents who wanted it delivered and so we were going door to door in some communities and doing that as well it's on the health department's page I'm not quite sure if it was on the health department's page or the city page itself I can find that out and he blasts that out on the mayor's blog that'd be great sure absolutely thank you you're welcome thank you thank you so we do have a

▶ 28:26 Scott M. Forbes: motion recommend and duly seconded all those in favor any opposed order will be recommended before our next full board meeting we thank you for your presence tonight you do not have to attend that meeting thank you thank you thank you next order is