Agricultural Commission, November 17, 2017
AGRICULTURAL COMMISSION MEETING
MINUTES
November 17, 2017
Attendance: Steve D’Aquila, Jim Dunn, Eileen Charbonneau, Chris Hugo, Maleah Gustafson(@7:39PM)
Absent: Tim Ethier
Others Present: Mike Mendez, Mr. Koty (Worcester Public Health Division)
Meeting called to order @7:36 PM
This was not an official meeting due to a problem with posting. No votes were taken and no formal business was conducted.
Mr. Koty and Mr. Mendez from the Worcester Division of Public Health were present at the meeting. They are public health officers assigned to the Central Mass Public Health Alliance. “The Central MA Regional Public Health Alliance is a coalition of seven municipalities: Towns of Grafton, Holden, Leicester, Millbury, Shrewsbury, West Boylston, and the City of Worcester, working cooperatively to create and sustain a viable, cost-effective, and labor-efficient regional public health district.” Mr. Mendez works in Holden and Grafton. Mr. Koty works generally in Shrewsbury.
The officers gave an overview of their work, mostly related to kitchen and vendor inspections with emphasis on how the Holden Farmer’s Market is regulated and answered questions from Ag Comm members.
Some items of interest from the discussion:
Any state license is for wholesale selling. Another Town license is required for retail sales.
Barn inspections are still done by Holden personnel; the Animal Control officers Sendrowski
and Walsh.
The recent permit fee schedule increase approved by the BOS was initiated by the Worcester
agents with the intent of recouping costs associated with their services.
There can be exceptions to the fee schedule. These are approved by the BOS.
Inspections are required only annually, but are actually done more often based on perceived risk.
The Farmer’s Market is treated as a ‘Special Event’ for regulation and permit fee purposes.
Holden Days is treated as a ‘Temporary Event’ and has different fess and requirements.
Potential changes to the inspection requirements (depth and breadth) may be coming when the State adopts the new 2017 criteria vice the current 2013 criteria. This may require vendor training.
Any vendor with “prepared” food gets two inspections; one for their kitchen and one for the selling location.
Chairman D’Aquila thanked Mr. Mendez and Mr. Koty for coming and providing much information and insight.
The minutes of the October meeting were reviewed and edited. The acceptance vote was postponed to the next meeting.
Ryan Mackay (Lilac Hedge Farm) has been contacted about the possibility of becoming an Ag Comm member, but could not make this meeting due to other commitments.
Rachel Ross’s talk is set for Jan 16, 2018 at the Gale Library. We will publicize it the same way as for other recent events.
No inputs relative to the Community Garden project were received.
Jim reported that he asked the Town Manager to allocate $1,000 in the FY19 Town Budget for Ag Comm activities. The proposal was favorably received. The budget will be published approximately Feb. 15, 2018.
There had been no response to Steve’s reaching out to Mr. Whitmore at WRHS regarding the High School Agriculture Club.
Several people had heard that the Heifer project in Rutland will be closing in Jan 2018. The property and livestock will be sold. There may be opportunities for similar or new agriculture-related activities there if sponsors can be found.
Central Mass Grown has their membership renewal program available until Feb. 1, 2018.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:12 PM.
Respectfully submitted;
James Dunn
Acting Secretary