By Journal Staff
The Revere Board of Health held its regular monthly meeting last Wednesday evening, July 25, in the City Council Chambers. On hand for the session were chair Dr. Drew Bunker, members Kathleen Savage and Viviana Catano, Director of Public Health Lauren Buck, Health Agent/Director of Inspectional Services, Michael Wells, and Board of Health Clerk Paula Sepulveda.
The session was a brief (20 minutes) one. Buck presented the Communicable Disease monthly report. She noted that the city has an overall low incidence of disease, though the COVID-19 figures remained high with 87 confirmed cases in the city in July, a figure that does not take into account the unreported cases.
“Massachusetts is seeing a spike in COVID and upper-respiratory diseases,” Buck said.
She also noted that the Mass. Dept. of Public Health confirmed that a Worcester-area resident who had returned from overseas travel was confirmed with measles in July, the first such incidence in Mass. since 2020. Buck suggested that individuals who do not know their measles vaccine status should consider getting at least an initial dose of the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine.
Wells presented the Inspectional Services monthly report. He noted that inspectors issued 121 Certificates of Fitness and 38 certificates after reinspection. They also responded to eght interior complaints and performed a pool and spa inspection.
In the food department, inspectors performed 36 routine inspections, eight reinspections, six inspections for food complaints, two pre-opening inspections, and 35 temporary food inspections.
The ISD issued 127 citations for improper accumulation of trash and garbage, four for carts (barrels) out at an improper time, 76 for overflowing dumpsters, 343 for improper storage and placement of trash, and 75 for unclean/unsanitary land (which is for overgrowth of weeds, etc.), and one for an unsafe structure.
The members approved issuing a Body Art Individual Practitioner license to Katherine Peguero and a Body Art Establishment license to Kat Beauty Co. after Buck told the members that her department had inspected the premises and that the establishment met all of the required criteria for issuance of a license.
Buck noted that a request for a chicken-keeping license has been submitted, but that the applicant still has to resolve some issues before the board can vote to issue a license.
With the formal conclusion of the items on the agenda, Revere resident Wayne Rose addressed the board regarding the issue of overflowing dumpsters throughout the city, which Rose said “is a big problem in our city. We also have thousands of rats in the state yard. When I say thousands, I mean thousands.”
Wells also noted that his department has issued many violations for overflowing dumpsters in the past few weeks after hiring a person specifically for that task.
Wells said he had contacted DCR the day before to address the problem in the state yard. “I agree there is a huge issue down there,” Wells said. “There is overgrown vegetation, trash, and debris in the yard, and overflowing dumpsters from the trash coming off the beach.”
“We have to have a solution there because the rats are running from the marsh across the street into the new buildings, and also by the Markey Bridge,” said Rose. “There had to be a hundred rats running around there, and they’re all from the dumpsters there.”
Rose added that dog owners who do not clean up after their dogs contribute to the problem because dog feces is an attractant to rodents.
Wells noted that the city has done a lot in recent years to control the problem, with other cities contacting Revere to ask about the city’s success in controlling the ordent population, “but it’s never going to go away.”
