In the Lyme light
Board of Health Chairman Jack Spero is arranging to have the film Under Your Skin, a documentary on Lyme disease, shown on the local cable television station.
Bob Douglas, a Harvard resident who is employed by the town of Andover, will speak to the Harvard BOH on how Andover is managing its deer population as a measure to reduce the incidence of Lyme disease.
Smell emanating from Devens
Still River Road resident Deborah Skauen-Hinchliffe told the board that she had spoken with Neil Angus of the Devens Enterprise Commission to voice concerns about a “starch-like” odor coming from the Bristol-Meyers Squibb plant at Devens. Angus notified the board that he had contacted Bristol-Meyers and the Department of Environmental Protection and said that the DEC would join them in investigating the complaint.
Dam down
After a review by the Conservation Commission, the Department of Public Works last week breached the beaver dam that had been responsible for flooding the Ryan playing fields on Depot Road. Water levels are reported to be back to normal, except for what this week’s rains have brought.
A change of heart
The Mass. Department of Environmental Protection has notified the Board of Health that the House and Senate are working on a budget amendment that would repeal the change passed in 2010 to transfer permitting of transfer stations in small towns to the local boards of health. Proposed by the governor and passed by the legislature last year, the change was expected to be a cost-saving measure for the Mass DEP that would give towns greater control and knowledge of their transfer stations. If the amendment passes, the permitting will stay with the state agency.
