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Home My WebLink About191205 - Minutes, Community Health Adv.Washington County Community Health Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes December 5, 2019 Opening This meeting of the Washington County Community Health Advisory Committee was called to order at 7:30am by Michael Reyka, Chair, at 100 West Washington Street, Suite 1115, Hagerstown. Present Commissioner Randall Wagner, Rich Eichelberger, Jennifer Foltz, Heidi Kendall, Cyndi Powell, Michael Reyka, Earl Stoner and Dave Chisholm Approval of Meeting Minutes from 11/05/2019 Jennifer Foltz made a motion to approve the Meeting Minutes from 11/05/2019 as presented, motion was seconded by Cyndi Powell. With all in favor, motion carried. Old Business • Chair, Michael Reyka reviewed the upcoming schedule of meetings. o Thursday, 12/19/19 from 7:30am-8:30am o *No meetings between Christmas and New Years o Thursday 1/9/20 from 7:30am-8:30am o Thursday 1/23/20 from 7:30am-8:30am o Then, begin meeting monthly on the third Thursday of the month. o *No meeting in July for vacations (will reassess frequency of meetings at June meeting) • Chair, Michael Reyka reviewed Information Flyer that was created for the Community Health Advisory Committee and discussed ideas for distribution. It was suggested we involve Danielle with the Public Relations (PR) department to develop plan for inclusion on website and social media outlets. • Chair, Michael Reyka reviewed committee goals discussed at the last meeting and asked if anyone had any additional thoughts or goals to share. Commissioner Wagner shared his notion that once we get more input from the public and what their primary concerns are, we can take our direction from the public. No further discussion but Reyka asked that members continue to think about our goals, mission and vision as we move forward. o Mission — Why do we exist? o Vision — What we want to be and/or do New Business • Access to Water o Earl Stoner gave a recap of a recent meeting with Maryland Department of Environment (MDE). City and Community regulatory agency stakeholders met with members of MDE to discuss the current/general environmental landscape in Washington County and identify key areas that need to be addressed. The goal of the meeting was to try and get all parties at the table and on the same page. Stoner feels the meeting went well. The main themes discussed were water/sewer capacity concerns in relation to the current growth plan for city/county and updates needed for the existing water/sewer plans. o Much discussion was held regarding current geologic study in use is dated 1981. The group created an action plan to form a work group to address this outdated study. The plan needs updated because currently, we are making blind decisions based on old information. Likely the MDE and Maryland Geologic Society will take the lead on updating the study. The hope is that the study will be fully or partially funded by MDE. Once the study is updated, the group feels they will be able to make better comprehensive plans related to growth and economic development. o Rich Eichelberger asked how this work group will get started and what are the next steps. Stoner replied, MDE and MD Geologic Society will have to develop a scope of work for updating the study. o Commissioner Wagner asked what the perceived timeframe is. Stoner hopes the study update will begin in early Spring/Summer and take -6 months - 1 year to complete. However, depending on cost and funding sources, this timeframe could be much greater. o Cyndi Powell offered to discuss this news with her geotechnical engineers and get their insight into what they think will be needed to update the study. She also asked Stoner to share the minutes from their MDE meeting with the Committee members. • Access to Sewer/Septic o No further comments on this topic. • Review citizen's complaints and offer solutions to the Commissioners o Chair, Michael Reyka held discussion wanting to establish a structure for how citizen's comments will be received and addressed. o Currently, most comments come to the commissioners or the health department, but the goal would be to divert those through the committee. o Earl Stoner said generally there are 2 kinds of complaints: 1. Situational (mostly related to environmental health) and 2. Overarching, systemic, long -running issues. o Results of Discussion: • Invite Danielle with PR to next meeting to discuss webpage for committee • Have a place on webpage for citizens to leave comments. • Jennifer Foltz suggested having a drop -down menu of population health themes for the citizen to select to help better direct their complaint to the right party. • We will have to discus with Danielle how the comment will get from the website to the group and then develop procedures for response. Some comments will be urgent in nature, but all should be addressed within 1-2 business days. • For longer standing issues or unique situations, it may be valuable to invite citizen to a committee meeting to have them educate us on the issue. • Economic Development o Infrastructure • Polystyrene ban notice was emailed to the group. ■ Chair, Michael Reyka asked when we get these types of notices in the future, what do we want to do with them? Do we read them on our own? Discuss them at the meetings? ■ Results of Discussion: • Each notice will be discussed at meeting, but our discussion and/or actions pertaining to the notice will depend on the nature of the notice. • The polystyrene ban is one that we should discuss further as a group because of the legal implications. o Health of workforce ■ Flu — Chair, Michael Reyka reports that so far, the flu season is going well with few occurrences. He is hopeful it will be a good year/good vaccine. ■ Statewide diabetes plan • Reyka shared the State of Maryland is due to release a statewide plan to address diabetes —January 2020. • —52% of Maryland residents are diabetic or pre -diabetic. • People who are diabetic suffer other health issues that can be a drain on resources and weaken the workforce. • The draft of the plan is out for comment. Reyka will email the draft to the group to review. ■ Traumatic brain injuries • Reyka shared new evidence that brain damage caused by opiate overdoses present in a similar fashion to patients with traumatic brain injuries from a motor vehicle accident. Anoxic Brain (damage from lack of oxygen). This information is newly spreading in the medical field and will impact how these patients are treated/managed. ■ City and County Revitalization • Rich Eichelberger shared rumor that the planned construction of a plaza behind the newly renovated BISFA/MD Theatre may not happen or may be put on hold due to lack of funding. • Cyndi Powell shared the City of Hagerstown multi -use stadium project is moving forward. The Maryland Stadium Authority recently solicited bids for the next phased study. Work on this study will likely begin in Jan/Feb 2020. Next Meeting • Thursday, December 191h, 2019 from 7:30am-8:30am Adjournment Cyndi Powell made a motion to adjourn. This motion was seconded by Heidi Kendall. Meeting adjourned at 8:25am. Minutes Submitted by: Approved by: