Public Health and Public Safety Committee

All right, and now declare this meeting of the Public Health and Safety Committee to order. Please note pursuant to Acts Chapter 2 of the Acts of 2025, this meeting Remote participation. There will be an audio recording transcript to other comprehensive record after the meeting. Please call the order, clerk. All right.

This is roll call. Councilor Strezo. Councilors Clingan.

Clingan not here yet.

There we go, thank you. Chair McLaughlin?

Here.

All right with that we have two members present out of three so we do have quorum.

Okay, thank you everyone for attending. I see people in the audience who are most likely here to talk about the Warman Center. Unfortunately there's a serious fire happening in Ward 7 right now in Teal Square. Square, and city staff who were coming here to speak about this are not going to be present tonight. So I apologize to everyone who's here for that. This just happened very within the last hour So city staff are not going to be ready to talk about the warming center, but they did tell me that they do plan on coming to the full council to discuss a woman center. So there will be more opportunities to hear about this and to testify and let counselors know how you feel about this. I apologize to everyone in the audience, but we'll get back to you at a later date. Can we read the first item?

Yes, item number one ID number 26-1212 approval of the minutes of the public health and public safety committee meeting of July 1st 2026 I see no discussion this item will be laid on the table for approval

Well, let's place it on file.

All right, next one.

Item two we're going to keep in committee. I'll lay on the table and no vote taken. Okay. and it looks like item three is the same. Item two and three both pertain to the Warman Center, and I see more people attending showing up in attendance just want to let everyone know There's a serious fire happening in Ward 7 right now and city staff will not be present to talk about the Women's Center, but we will be having a meeting about it at a later date. So items 2 and 3 will be laid on the table with no vote taken.

All right, next up item number four ID number 26-0914 Christopher Rosel submitting comments regarding off leash dogs.

On that item, we have Director Nigel Williams here. Is there anything to discuss about this or are we just placing this on file?

Do you, Mr. Chair? Director Amanda Nigel-Williams here. I believe this is just a place in the file. There's no additional comments from the administration listening.

All right, thank you. Councilor Clinton, do you have any thoughts on this before we move forward?

No, Mr. Chuel. Yeah, I guess I could just say, Mr Chair, through you that, um, you know, I hear the residents concerns. I do see many people abuse like unlawfully allowing their dogs off leash in public parks. That is not allowed, there are dog parks for that I know I've had issues in Falls Park, which is actually state property and I've contacted them. But as far as the city, all we can really do is put signage I don't know if there's really, the only enforcement body is the Somerville police. So I guess an animal control which is out of Somervill police so I guess I would just say to folks if they see this and they want to do something about it I guess they'll have to just reach out to the police. People should respect the rules of the city but they often don't so here we are.

This item will be placed on file.

To confirm, we're marking that work complete?

Work complete. Thank you.

Alright, next item, item number 5, ID number 26-0708, that the Commissioner of Public Works invests in trash barrels with latches to address rodent issues.

So this is an item that I placed in previously and the reason I put this item in, of course everyone knows that we have a major rodent problem in the city but also across the country. And one of the things we've done in Ward 1 We, through the city, have a pilot program for composting. And the belief is that first of all rodents eat compost materials more than non-biodegradable materials. and they're chewing through our trash barrels but they don't seem to chew through the composting barrels where the natural food is. The reason behind that is because of the latches on top of the barrel itself. So if you have holes in your trash barrel, it's most likely because a rodent crawled into the barrel and then chewed his way out. They were generally not and many more.

are fairly expensive, but considering how many trash barrels get eating through on a regular basis maybe this would be a cost-saving measure as well. So that's my train of thought. I see DPW Commissioner Eric Weissman here with this camera on. Did you have any thoughts you wanted to share?

Thank you, Chair. Eric Wiseman, DPW Commissioner. So we did try this. We had a pilot for some rodent Intensive areas where we offered barrels with with rubber latches to hold the barrel and plate, or the lid in place. One of our... The important requirements for us Latches is that they need to be auto-released when the barrels are tipped because we can't have the hauling companies messing with screw top barrels or anything like that. So we did, I think about 50 addresses provided them with barrels that had a rubberized latch that would be automatically released when the barrel was tipped through on the Trash Truck and it was a mixed success.

Some of them would immediately be chewed through once they you know we would have to replace them within a few days like in spite of the lids or the latches so yeah it is something that can be done They're not terribly expensive to add them to the barrels that we have. I think we got a quote for... It's like $10 a unit installed on a 46-dollar toter. So, you know, like... Thank you for joining us. Plunger,

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm just curious where we are with barrels in general. I saw a post recently someone in Medford pointed out which I know the mayor is aware of and we've talked about They just use a different grade of plastic that isn't as easily chewed through. So latches aside, I do hear you on the whole safety thing. It's probably like a refrigerator if a kid gets locked in it. but what I will say is that I don't know if it's a definite chewing in or chewing out um probably mostly chewing out but I think there probably is some chewing in to the barrel as well and uh So I just was curious, in terms of options and moving towards a different barrel. I heard you say something about an add-on to the current barrels

And I know money's an issue, but I'm just curious if there's been any movement on just different barrels, better barrels. with a plastic that's not as easily doesn't lend itself to chewing in the way that Somervilles do right now. The type, the way they compose the plastic it seems like The teeth really like to go through it.

Yeah, through the chair, thank you for the question. I think what you're referring to is like a higher density plastic where, uh, like the previous toters we've been using were a medium density plastic. We have switched over the past year to a higher-density plastic barrel so he will start to see those Rollout. One of the complaints about the higher density barrels is that they are more prone to cracking one of the things you might see if you're in Medford is cracked lids and things like that so that's something we're keeping an eye on But yeah, like anecdotally I've also heard that the higher density plastic barrels are more chewing resistant. As I'm sure most people from Somerville or who live in Somervill know that rodents can chew through concrete. There's not a barrel, I think, that is truly rodent-proof, but...

We're trying some new barrels that we're hoping will slow them down.

Okay, yeah. Thank you. They really missed a cheer. Yeah, I mean if you say it's higher density or if it's Because a lot of people talk about the composting barrels too. They don't chew through those. I didn't know if it was more of a slippery factor. Like they can't, you know... Get their teeth into just the type of material it is or what. But I know this is something that a lot of people are definitely focused on and concerned about. So whether it's latches or new barrels, certainly until we get a... Robust composting program in place. I think we need to figure out if there's a better barrel.

Yeah, thank you. Through the chair if I may, I think another benefit of these nude barrels we're trying is it's like a smoother plastic whereas the older barrels almost had A pebbly texture to them that maybe gives them some purchase with their teeth. So we're hoping that we'll get some nice results with that. I will say that like, I think one of the The key elements of this is making sure that people put their trash in bags and not just put... Food waste directly into their trash container because the rodents will be attracted to food debris that sticks to the container.

Dr. Weissman, have you noticed any difference with the composting barrels? Are they getting chewed through? Are people properly using them? Is it helping with the rodent issue at all?

Sorry, there's a fire engine going right by so I'll try to answer quickly. We are not overseeing the rollout of those barrels. The vendor is actually directly distributing those. So I haven't heard that but I'd be happy to check in with OSC on that.

Yeah, I'd be really interested because I have a composting barrel myself and it's the only barrel that does not have a hole in it. So with that simple anecdote, I'm hoping It proves that the compost and barrels are working to deter rodent activity. So it does sound like you are looking into the latches a little bit, but you yourself might not be totally convinced that this is going to be a solution.

Yeah, thanks, Jared. I don't think it's the total solution, but it's certainly a tool we could add to our quiver. It just does come with a cost.

Okay. Yeah, I would love to see because like I said, I looked into the cost myself just a Google search not an expansive search but you know most barrels in my neighborhood get holes I have to think that the cost of constantly replacing a barrel must exceed adding 20% more to each barrel. So maybe we can discuss this at a later date when you've had a chance to check it out, because I do think that, at least in my neighborhood, this is a real serious problem with the holes being chewed up. McClungan,

Yeah, I just think that in addition to looking at new barrels, I think there should be some, and this is probably for the health, you know, for the Red Sox. that just education around barrels in general. I often think like when you see some of the perfectly circular holes, These barrels, if they're stored in a really dark area, I don't know, maybe light it up. Maybe spray some peppermint. The different things that will hopefully... There's other... like natural things that permit rodents because once they do have a hole you're right and we've moved to a pay program now where you get your first one for free I believe unless I'm wrong commissioner Director, rather. Commissioner, yes that's correct. I thought we changed from commissioner to director.

So yeah, there's other methods that we can use to also just assist in trying to keep these barrels with a longer life than we're currently seeing now. Yeah.

Alright, so if there's no further discussion I'll mark this work complete and we can just discuss it at a later date. Thank you. Next item.

Next up item number 6 ID number 26-0493 Gilman Square Neighborhood Council submitting comments regarding McGrath Boulevard

Clark, can you pull up these comments? And while you're pulling it up I'll just remind everyone in attendance if you are here to talk about the Warming Center we won't be discussing that item tonight. Due to a major fire happening in Teal Square right now city staff were unable to attend this event. but there will be an update to the full council in the future and we can bring this back to this committee as well. So I unfortunately was going to offer people an opportunity to speak on this, but since city staff are not present We won't be speaking on it. And while we check out this communication, I will just give my two cents as someone who represents this neighborhood I see this is a Ward 4 resident, but McGrath in particular divides my neighborhood. Let's see...

Okay, we did not need to send this to committee. I don't know why this was. There we go. Thank you. That's more like it. Director Nigel Williams, do you have any updates for us on this? Particularly I see Virginia Street and Aldrich Street which are both in my neighborhood residents are looking for to prevent traffic from getting pushed onto this very small side street.

Okay.

If there's no updates on this, I'd like to leave this one in committee and we can discuss it later. And what I'd is one these concerns addressed I have requested speed bumps on Virginia Ave as well as Jasper Street in the past and the current plan for the grounding on McGrath Highway is apparently going to send a lot of traffic down these roads, which are very small side streets. I don't want to see that happening and then I'm also very concerned about the loss of the pedestrian footbridge that connects the east and west side of the highway. While also the state is basically going to add a Hawk lighting system. rather than a full stoplight there. So I think that's my concern and the concern of many residents is that we're going to have no footbridge while at the same time, have a lighting system that people really don't respect and pass through

So I would like to either have the footbridge or have a stoplight there. Do you think you can come back to us with some notes for that for our next meeting?

Yes, sir.

Thank you. This item will be left in committee.

Next and final item, item number 7, ID number 26-0106 that the administration provide monthly updates to the Committee on Public Health and Public Safety on progress towards addressing homelessness in Somerville.

Director, is there anyone here for this or are they also tasked out to deal with the fire right now?

We used to chat with Dr. Robinson here, and we also had a different staff, you know, who was testing us to see if something's going on.

Okay, I will whoever wants to lead on that please proceed.

Good evening, so thank you for having me. My name is Director Robinson I'm the director in the Division of Community Wellness which is a relatively new for this fiscal year. Unfortunately, Director Carroll cannot make it but I'm here also with Director Lose so i will do my best to represent all the work that's being done and to give you a good report on what we're doing to help the unhoused community and I'll just say you know I've been learning a lot it's been really amazing to hear all the good work that's happening. Mostly what I'm going to mention is about the report that we shared just a few hours ago, so I can walk you through it if you probably have not had time to review it. It is... Serving the same template that Director Carroll used the last time you guys met. So I'll just run through it and then pause for any questions you may have.

So some new updates is that, some new services or changes to service is that Somerville Homeless Coalition has their shower van that's operational. So that has been providing showers, you know, to on a house population, providing dignity and sanitation. And you know great way to start their day the As you alluded to, we are working really hard to prepare for opening the warming center. And we are really using the after action report to guide updating our scopes of work and our contracts for this year. and the Engagement Center, Somerville Homeless Coalition is up and running. Thank you so much for joining us.

in a week where usually they said on average, they're seeing like two to three intakes in a In terms of the weekly huddle that is still a weekly meeting that happens every Friday among mostly city departments. and then SHC joins. So for example, many HHS folks are there DPW library representation fire police corps Many other folks, we come together every week just to sort of make sure we're all on the same page and aligned and coordinated and able to respond quickly to any issues that are arising for the homeless population. The number of unhoused in Somerville, oh sorry backing up. There is a campaign that has come out of the huddle called Caring Is Calling and you'll be seeing more of that but that has been put on Instagram and hopefully, you know, you'll

sort of summarizes what you can see in the Together in Public Spaces webpage just talking about if you do see somebody in distress how to respond, how to help them and not to be intimidated um to help Guiding everyone on how to be good neighbors. The number of unhoused people in Somerville has not changed since the last time Dr. Carroll was here, again that is just summarizing Count, and then a month or so ago the Somerville Collaborative held a community meeting to address Extreme Weather Planning for the Unhoused, also address that included for warm weather as well as cold weather in the warming center. Director Fisher and Carol were there to sort of address any concerns and talk about some plans again addressing the Mormon Center there.

Something new for opportunities to assist, so some of the usual stuff is people can volunteer through the MRC. There's the SHC page and housing families that they can directly support. but there's also been many trainings on many in September for until help arrives as well as overdose prevention trainings and again just pointing everyone's attention to together in public spaces website In terms of outreach programs, the community health workers that fall under the Community Wellness Division are doing great work. They're out in the field Every week, specifically for this topic, the CHWs are in Davis Square in the morning and then they go to the Engagement Center in the afternoon working in partnership with SHC Working with specifically MassHealth and SNAP applications.

We also have renewed a contract with Healthcare for the Homeless that works at the Engagement Center as well as doing outreach on the streets. And we will be getting our first invoice soon, and so I look forward to providing a little more detail of their services and data. at that time. And then finally, just the public health vending machines we sort of switched from warm weather items to cooler weather items so obviously in the Summertime and there was more sunscreen and bug spray that was being dispensed. And now, you know, we're seeing more or putting more warm weather items in there but in the meantime from July to September you know you can see it here Narcan has been dispensed 72 times total 31 just in the month of July Probably due to uptick in the area of just people with the warm weather.

And then bathing wipes are still really popular, then followed by safe sex kits, hygiene kits, baby wipes, sunscreen, naloxone and insect repellent. The sharps box that's right next door or next to the public health vending machine, it has been Wade at 250 pounds in a month. And we think that a big part of this increase in weight is actually due to GLPs and people disposing of their sharps there. We're working with the vendor. Sometimes sharps get caught or disposed of improperly, so we're working to have a campaign to properly dispose sharps. And then finally, the ISD group that's now under health. They do daily sweeps in the morning

and they also have been doing sweeps particularly around the summertime of needles and sharps before any events so appreciate all their work

All right, we appreciate your work as well. Councilor Clingan do you have any comment?

Yeah thank you Mr. Chair through I don't think i asked this the last meeting but just a couple of basic questions um so in terms of tracking it says Unhoused, unsheltered, 31 people that we know are sleeping on the streets of Somerville. Is that accurate?

That is my understanding, yes. Not in a car or not in the warming center.

And then 148 is like because we have, we still do have some emergency shelters and so on. We have like St. Patrick's I think in Union Square. Is that where that number comes from?

Yes, that includes anyone that's sheltered at those locations as well. I was just going to say Director Lowe's please correct me if I'm wrong but yeah

Yeah, the only reason why I'm asking is because just in terms of tracking purposes and like the chair mentioned you all are doing great work. All of our partner organizations are doing very well One of the major challenges is we know that you can't force somebody into a shelter to change the lifestyle. And I think about... Gilman Square, because that borders my area. Gilman square is part of my ward but The public, what do you call it? The Pullman site isn't actually mine but I know that there are concerns about the unhoused folks that are in the tents down there. And I also know that we've had numerous interactions with those folks and made offers and tried to get people off the streets and maybe towards longer term shelter. Housing.

And so I just want people to understand that there's a lot of challenges when you're dealing with people that are out there. So even though you guys are doing great work, I am curious to know if there's been any If you guys are tracking any success stories since we sort of have a number and we kind of know the same people are out there, has anybody... And again if you don't have the answer now it's fine but just for... Have we been able to successfully get anybody to enter a more permanent housing solution and work towards getting off the street?

Thank you for the question. I will do my best to answer. I think that they're definitely in speaking with SHC and CHWs, there are success stories of getting people into more permanent housing. I know that it does take a long time specifically people who when you were referring to in terms of, not taking resources. I'm not sure about those cases but I do know that there are success stories I'm happy to try to collect more. I was prepared to give you some information from CHWs about stories that they've had from helping unhoused folks connect to more services like MassHealth or SNAP in collaboration with SOYA and SHC. but don't have a specific example of that story for you.

Three, Mr. Chair. Last thing is I know that these numbers are somewhat fluid even though they may sort of stay the same. I mean, I'm not like what I'm I understand the challenges. I guess I'm just trying to figure out or have a sense of what's going on out there in terms of Because like I said, these numbers can fluctuate. And even if we know the people but meaning for you all to be able to sort of drill down on the data regularly with the different street teams that are out there It may not be that simple, but I know that like you said, I've seen SHC post some success stories. It's really great to see that. I guess what we're hoping is that we'll see the number go down, but we do what we can as a team, as a community, and it's really challenging.

Thank you for the hard work you're all doing. Appreciate it.

Thank you and I'll just add that unfortunately, you know, I'll work to continue to get clarity for these meetings but also unfortunately I think we're going to see go up with some federal changes to housing policy so I think Really trying to brace ourselves to prepare for that as well with SHC, OHS folks partnering as well.

I'm curious, so the ISD part of them is now reporting to the health department. When was that change made?

to the chair that was made during the restructure. Okay, so officially July 1st.

Okay and how's that working out?

To the chair, I guess I'm speaking from personal opinion but I think that's working out really well. There is a lot of overlap in their work and HHS teams so speaking to this and other Health-related issues that come up. So I think it has allowed us to work in closer collaboration with Director Ziegler and his team.

Very good. That's the only question I had because I do appreciate all the work and the updates, and I wish we could roll it up into a greater conversation about the Warman Center, but there is a serious incident going on right now. Councilor Clingan?

Yeah, last thing on the Sharps just because when you re-brought up. Just for anybody watching and listening... Is it still... I know we can turn them in at the police station. People can't. I mean, this is great if it's a convenience for people and they're bringing their GLP-1 devices. I don't know how much that's... You know, overtaxing the containers that we have in the system and whether that affects the budgeting for it, like whatever the company is that takes them away. But can't people... Also turn these into pharmacies like CVS, Walgreens. As far as I remember back when I was doing street work and stuff, I thought that's what the case was.

To the chair, that's a great question. And I'm going to have Director Lopes chime in on this because she's been working most closely with this issue.

Hi all through the chair. So we have Like I mentioned, seeing an increase in the GLP-1s. The only issue that this is bringing up is the improper disposal of the needles which causes extra costs for cleanup. So we've been working closely with the vendor and like Director Robinson mentioned, we're working on a citywide campaign to inform people about where the locations are to drop off their medications and how to safely do so. In coordination with that effort, we're working with local pharmacies to give them these pamphlets and information that they can then hand out to folks if they're prescribing medication that requires an injection or a SHARP. Some of the pharmacies do accept those back and some do not. So we're working on outreach in Somerville. to identify those partners and work closely to make sure that we're giving folks all the options possible to safely dispose of their needles. Thank you

Thank you Mr. Chair yeah it'd be great to know which ones because I know it's not necessarily all of the pharmacies but yeah a list of resources places where people can go so they're not just overtaxing ours and then we're ending up with Scarlet Needles on the Grounds. Thank you for that work. Really appreciate it. That's all, Mr. Chair. By the way, this fire is at five alarms now. I'm really hoping everybody stays safe and is okay out there.

And also thank you to all the first responders who are addressing this issue right now and all city staff. If there's no further discussion, I'll leave this one in committee as well for further discussion. Is there anything else on the agenda clerk?

All right, there we go. That is it for this evening.

Okay, so just to remind everyone, we will be addressing the Women's Center at a later date, either in this committee or at a full council meeting. So apologies for that. It did come up at the very last minute, so we have a lot of people addressing this fire right now, so I hope everyone's doing safe over in West Somerville. With no further discussion, Councilor Clingan moves to adjourn. I don't think we have any items to vote on, but clerk you can correct me if I'm wrong.

Nope, you are right.

All right roll call on adjournment.

We didn't vote on the minutes.

We placed them on file.

Oh, okay. On approving the minutes and adjournment.

There we go.

Thank you, Councilor Clingan.

All right.

Councilor Strezo? Councilor Klingen?

Yes.

Chair McLaughlin?

Yes

All right, with that it is 6 37 p.m and we are adjourned all right thank you everyone