New board member
New member Jack Spero attended his first board meeting. He takes the place of Sean Doocey, who recently resigned.
Building permit brochure
The Harvard land use boards—the Conservation Commission, the Board of Health, the Planning Board, and the Zoning Board of Appeals—have collaborated on a draft brochure that will go to anyone asking for a building permit application.
“Are You Applying for a Building Permit?” lists for the first time in one place the various requirements of all four boards.
The draft is presently being circulated among the boards for their approval. Comment will be solicited from Building Inspector Gabe Vellante as well.
Head lice at HES
Ira Grossman, Nashoba Associated Boards of Health sanitarian and consultant to the BOH, reported that he had received a complaint from a concerned citizen needing assurance that “a policy is in effect” and that the health board would take “a stronger hand” in dealing with what she perceived as a serious lice problem at the elementary school.
The health board received a second call from a nurse in Boxborough (a former HES nurse), saying she had heard there is an “epidemic of head lice in Harvard” and would be calling HES.
“This is a typical back-to-school experience in the first month, and then it tapers off,” said Chairman Tom Philippou, who is also a pharmacist. “It has nothing to do with soap or cleanliness. They [the lice] need to procreate, and when they get ‘crowded’ or caught in a comb or brush or hat or scarf, they will relocate.”
BOH administrative assistant Shanna Large visited HES, talked to school nurse Linda McInnis about the complaint, and was assured that there is no epidemic, but only “a few nits.”
Philippou noted that lice are becoming resistant to Quell, the standard treatment for head lice.
“The nurse is on top of it,” he said. “The school is sending letters home as necessary. This has been going on since February, and got higher in June.”
The Harvard Public Schools’ website, www.psharvard.org/HES/element/index.html, lists HES protocols for the handling of lice, posted Sept. 17.
