Page 287 - BOXFORD

BOARD OF HEALTH

The Board of Health regulates private septic systems, food service establishments and
summer camps, waste disposal issues for horse stables; provides approvals for
construction of private water supplies; manages town trash collection, and hazardous
waste collection day; funds elderly health care and immunization clinics; and handles
issues of contagious and reportable disease. Our meeting place is the Boxford Town Hall
at 7A Spofford Road at 7:30 pm. We invite you to attend and contribute to our
meetingsemploys Kendell Longo as Health Agent and Kristin Kwiatek as the assistant to
the Board of Health Department.

Kendell Longo is a participant in the continues to serve on the Committee for the
Massachusetts Public Health Emergency Preparedness, Region 3A of the Northeast
Public Health Coalition and attends meetings which support local public health
authorities in the development and expansion of their existing infrastructure by providing
resources to be used as determined by the coalition for public health preparedness and
response needs. Activities undertaken by the regional coalitions with these funds must be
in accordance with the Critical Capacities outlined in the Cooperative Agreement, and
would include:

• Preparedness planning and readiness assessment
• Surveillance and epidemiology capacity
• Communications and information technology
• Risk communication
• Education and training

I am pleased to submit the annual report totals for the Health Department for the year
2015. The Health Department is staffed with Kendell Longo, Director of Public Health
and Kristin Kwiatek, the Assistant to the Board of Health Department. Our office hours
are Monday thru Thursday from 8am-2pm.

In 2015/2016 Kendell commenced working behalf of the Town of Boxford with
Topsfield and Middleton to develop a Tri-Town Regional Emergency Dispensing Plan.
The primary role of government is to provide the welfare of its citizens. The welfare and
safety of citizens is never more threatened then during disasters. The goal of emergency
management is to ensure that mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery actions
exist so that public health, welfare, and safety are preserved.

Although Boxford, Topsfield, and Middleton have their own individual Emergency
Dispensing Site Plans, the Centers for Disease Control and the Massachusetts Department
of Public Health are encouraging us to create regional plans in order to optimize the use
of federal, state and local resources during an emergency. We acknowledge that this
project is no small undertaking; however, if we can accomplish it, we will have
developed the first Regional Emergency Dispensing Site in Massachusetts, which will

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