[MaryAnn O'Connor]: I thought it was would you like to open the meeting?
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah, let's open the meeting for acceptance of the minutes from last meeting. Look pretty good. No issues, motion to accept. Glad what says I?
[MCM00001745_SPEAKER_07]: Genesis second.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Oh, good. So let's start with the agenda. You go ahead.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: All right.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Number one.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: I have number one. Okay, we have a couple updates that were on the minutes from last time that we just wanted to follow back on the 30-day stay of condemnation for 40th Century Street. I believe Raven, does he have to give an update on that?
[Raven]: Yeah, I can provide an update. So that complaint has since been closed and all of the violations were corrected as of August 3rd. So, we did close the or sorry, not August 3rd. We did close the complaint, though all of the violations had been corrected by the owner. So.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Excellent and then a similar update on the tool. Main street apartments. Yes, yeah. Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, so most of the violations were fixed. There is still 1. Active rodent borough and. There are some rodent droppings in the basement storage area, but. not nearly as many as before. There also, there weren't any flies when I did the re-inspection. And last time there were flies in the laundry room and some other areas. And yes, that's pretty much it. I sent a follow-up email to Attorney Towler just to give her an update on everything and let her know that we're still waiting on like a more recent past control report.
[Adam Hurtubise]: It sounds like a lot of progress has been made, though, so that's great. Yeah, that's good.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Okay, and then I'm going to ask that we move the monthly portable disease report and update on the mobile health fan higher up on the agenda because Jill's with us, but she has to leave for an appointment soon. So that's okay with everyone. I'm going to move that up on the agenda a little bit.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Go ahead. Let's do it now.
[MCM00001812_SPEAKER_07]: So for the communicable disease report, so as I mentioned last time, we have a new epidemiologist who's going to be doing the reports for us, as well as the other municipalities in our PHE grant. So she suggested doing quarterly reports going forward, just because with the overall numbers being so small, it seemed to be more meaningful if we did them on a quarterly basis. So with that, the next report would be in October. And she's still monitoring the cases and can provide you know, reports sooner if she sees that cases for a certain disease are increasing in a month. And then for the community care vans, that's what we discussed last time, the partnership that we have with MGB. So we had our first van visit last month, which went well. It was kind of overall light turnout, but the organizers were, I think, happy with, you know, the turnout that they did have. So the next visit will be Tuesday, September 29th, and that will be, again, in the Clippership lot. And we've been heavily promoting it with the Senior Center, Riverside Towers, Salton Stall with the residents in those buildings. So we're hoping for more awareness and better turnout from them for this month, too. And hopefully, since it's going to be running on a monthly basis, people will know that we're going to be there every month. you know, have the awareness to turn out.
[MCM00001745_SPEAKER_07]: And then lastly, sorry not to interrupt you. Does it get included in the city newsletter that goes out? I don't think I saw it in the last edition. So just wondering if there's an opportunity to put it in there to maybe even get some more promotion for it.
[MCM00001812_SPEAKER_07]: Yeah, that's a good point. I think it might have been missed for the last newsletter, but our community communications team has all the info so we can make sure that it gets included in the newsletter. And I think they're going to do it in the robocall that goes out to the city as well.
[MCM00001745_SPEAKER_07]: Perfect.
[MCM00001812_SPEAKER_07]: Thank you. And then lastly, an update on our flu and COVID vaccine clinics. So we're once again offering our flu and COVID vaccines. So we have a bunch of clinics planned at the senior center, library, city hall. We go into the public housing sites. police station, West Medford Community Center, as well as the in-home vaccines as well, which we started today. So the city website has all the clinic dates on their event calendar with the registration info. And then our first big clinic coming up is at the senior center. That's on Friday, October 2nd from nine to 1130. So we're hoping for good turnout for those clinics. Please spread the word.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Are you going to have any other vaccines besides COVID and flu available for those clinics?
[MCM00001812_SPEAKER_07]: Not at those clinics, but we do separately in the office as well as for homebound have RSV, pneumonia and Tdap. And then of course for the children, we have all the routine school vaccines as well. And for the children too, I forgot to mention, I do weekly school vaccine clinics in my office here. So I'll be offering the flu and COVID vaccines there as well. So the kids have an option to come into the office rather than a large clinic setting as well for them.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Thank you, Jill. Next on the agenda, update on alcohol and nicotine tobacco compliance check activities. I know the last meeting we talked about, we had upcoming alcohol compliance checks that were going to happen, and those did take place. uh, all of the outlets, both retail and restaurant, um, checks were completed and out of all of them, only two establishments, um, sold to minor. Um, so good at that. Uh, unfortunately we also conducted a, uh, uh, round of tobacco compliance checks as well. And sadly to report nine out of our 51 outlets sold to miners. Six of them were second offenses and three of them were first offenses. We have Maury Busby joining us as well to answer any questions or give more information, but we did have two establishments request hearings. We have McSheffrey's Mobile and NK Convenience both requesting hearings today. They were both second violations which incur a $2,000 fine each and a seven-day suspension period. John, I see you here. I don't know if your clerk is here as well, but if you wanted to, unless the board has questions for Maureen first, we can continue with the hearings.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Are these state mandated fines?
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Yes, they are. Okay. Is the suspension also state mandated as well as up to the board's discretion?
[Maureen Busby]: That, you know what, that's a good question. The wording in the state law is may instead of shall, but I don't have your local, I should have them. I'm sorry, I don't. I don't have your local regs in front of me. Some boards put shall in place of may, and obviously shall is more restricted than may. So the local reg would trump the state reg in that case.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: And I know the first offense, they have an option of choosing any amount of time, one day to one to 30. Yeah. OK.
[Unidentified]: Hmm.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: OK, so let's move forward, I guess, with our hearings done to.
[SPEAKER_06]: see yeah there you are uh would you like to start um yeah i appreciate the um the opportunity to speak here um i you know uh i was not on duty i was one of my employees um they do know all of my employees know The protocol and procedures of not denying that this did not happen. You know, we are airline pilots. Essentially, we have to be perfect every time. And that being said, I'm going to put my employee on and let him. have his his time and again this I wasn't notified for 2 weeks. After this violation. So I have 0. Video of it. So I can't verify anything but not again not denying anything I'm going to put my my employee Joe on let him have his time. If that's OK.
[SPEAKER_07]: Hello. Hi, my name is Joe DeFranco. I'm a Medford resident. I'd like to thank you for giving me a moment to voice my concerns. This transaction happened about a month ago and I really can't recall it. So from what Don has put in front of me and reading the conversation, there's a reasonable amount of doubt in my mind. that the conversation went like that. It just feels like part of the conversation is missing, or half of it's missing. The conversation itself raised concerns for me, and it just doesn't sound right. And I would just like to make sure, because this is an offense that someone can get fired from, I would just like to make sure that no one's being misled into completing the sale, because I feel like I was misled. Um, I really want to thank you for the opportunity again to speak my concerns. That's really my concerns is that the conversation just doesn't sound correct and it feels like it was misleading.
[Adam Hurtubise]: And that's really all. How, how was it misleading?
[SPEAKER_07]: If you, if you read the conversation, it just doesn't sound correct. Uh, we all make mistakes. You know, I make mistakes. People make mistakes. You make mistakes. You know, maybe when I asked this, I asked this individual again, I can't remember this, so I'm just interpreting, but I asked this individual for ID. He said, no, I think he told me it was at home. The way the conversation reads was I said, where did, uh, where's your ID? Did you leave it at home? And he didn't answer. If you read the conversation, it literally sounds like a half a conversation or an incomplete conversation. Like I said, we all make mistakes. Maybe he made mistakes when he came in. I just want to make sure that the process is correct and that nobody's being fooled. Because as an employee, I feel horrible. I put a financial burden on my employer. So again, I really appreciate the time to just voice my My, my concerns again, I can't remember the car. I can't remember it. And we all make mistakes as myself included.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah, the state is pretty strict on asking for ID verification.
[SPEAKER_07]: Yep.
[Adam Hurtubise]: So if it's not there, then no seal can take place, you know.
[SPEAKER_07]: Right. But he should have left.
[Adam Hurtubise]: I think you can't sell it to him. Right.
[SPEAKER_07]: Oh, no. Well, there was, there was a lot. It just seems like there was a lot of conversation. I feel like I was misled. He gave me false information.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_07]: I want our system prompts us for an ID. If I didn't have an ID, which I asked for, then I would have asked for a birthday.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_07]: It looks like I went out of my way to do this. I would have had to bypass and enter in a birthday. I just, there's no proof of the conversation. So I feel like I was tricked. It doesn't feel genuine. It doesn't feel like a genuine sale.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Well, Let me just back up a little bit. Entering a birthday is not getting an ID.
[SPEAKER_07]: No, I understand that. I understand. I understand that. But what I'm saying is the conversation that's presented to me raises a reasonable doubt in my mind that that conversation went that way. And we have no proof of it. I just want to voice my concern. I want to make sure that that process is done correctly. I want to make sure that that person didn't make a mistake. and put my job at risk and put my employer in a position where he's in a financial burden because of it.
[Adam Hurtubise]: I'm just trying to- Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I understand your concerns. Rest assured, this type of process has been going on for many years, so it's well established.
[SPEAKER_07]: This is my first. I just want to make sure that that process is- Yeah, it is. We want you to- Listen, just like when I get a speeding ticket, I want to know that that gun that got me with the speeding ticket is calibrated accurately.
[Adam Hurtubise]: And rest assured it is. It is. We watch it closely and we take it seriously. We want to make certain it is like a lack of a better word. They said they get volunteers to come in and try to buy that. That's it. You know, you just have to be 100 percent vigilant every time. And you're right. You know, everyone might let their guard down and That's not a good answer anymore, unfortunately. We have to be 100% correct, not giving tobacco products to kids. You know, that's the ultimate. Whatever it takes, that can't happen. And I know it's a lot of, it's burdensome and you gotta make sure the processes are right. We try to, we try, we don't make it up. We sent someone in and I understand the angst and everything, but we watched it. I would never let that happen at the Board of Health meeting if I had any control. None of us would. So it is, the process is pretty fair. Just so you know.
[SPEAKER_07]: Absolutely. I got you. Because I feel like even after this conversation, I still feel like I was. That's right.
[Adam Hurtubise]: No, I understand. If it didn't happen, we didn't put all that work into it, I'd go crazy because I live in the city too and we would never let that happen.
[SPEAKER_07]: I think it raised concerns for people when they read the conversation.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah. The bottom line is we got to prevent sales of tobacco products to kids. That's the ultimate goal. And how we get there, everyone can have an opinion and stuff, but that's the ultimate thing that we got to try to prevent however we can. And people are going to give you 100 stories to try to trick you to get it, as you know, but you can't, you can't leave. I got kids too.
[SPEAKER_07]: You can't, you can't entrap a person.
[Adam Hurtubise]: No, I understand that. I understand.
[SPEAKER_07]: Okay. I appreciate the time. Thank you very much. Okay.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Okay. Also with us is Mr. Patel. Hi. Uh, NK convenience. has also asked for a hearing. It was also a second offense with a $2,000 fine and the associated seven-day suspension. Mr. Patel, if you'd like to, I know you.
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_04]: Thank you so much, the board. Good afternoon. My name is Love Patel. I represent Anarchy Convenience. Unfortunately, this is our second offense and given that nine out of the 51 stores, you know, one of them happening to be mine is discouraging. And first and foremost, I want to apologize that we even made this mistake. Given that said, you know, this was a temporary hire that we've done and again, no excuses to be made. You know, all of our registers have air chief verifications because after the first offense we've got, we started mitigating the process of how to prevent this. I own three other locations in Medford, and to say that both those other locations did not get these violations, because we are very strict. Being raised in Medford, went to Medford for middle school and high school, and then stayed in Massachusetts for college, I do understand the representations that we have being a Medford communist. Um, you know, my mom, who's also on the line, she's 1 of our managers, um, at the locations and, you know, this, the same person that went to NK Communions to buy Zin, um, went to the other location, West Medford Spa, which was also awarded, um, an award for checking IDs, um, by you guys. So we do appreciate you guys, um, letting us know when we do a good job as well as, you know, letting us know when we, are missing and unfortunately we missed this circumstance a little bit. We are asking for the seven-day suspension to be reduced or mitigated at this time because we've, as store owners, we try so hard and we drill it down to our employees like this has to be right at every single time. This being missed again is unfortunate, but I feel like the store owners are being punished a lot more. And we're trying our absolute best, putting in systems and processes. We actually even ordered a scanning device that scans the ID to make sure it's not a fake ID as well. And so we're doing our absolute best and trying our hardest to get this right every single time. Thank you for your time.
[Adam Hurtubise]: OK. You're still frozen on the picture. Oh, I'm frozen. I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah. They won't go to the big screen with everyone. Marianne, are you there? Oh, there she is.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: I just want him to grab our regulation.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah. Yeah. We don't know what it says. Chalamet, right?
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: in the case of a second violation within 24 months of the first violation a fine of 2000 i think It does say, and the tobacco product sale permit shall be suspended. Shall for 7 consecutive days.
[Adam Hurtubise]: So, that's a state rule, right?
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Well, it's yeah, it's the state was may, ours was shall. Um, I, you know, I have, I have talked to other store owners who have also stated that the seven days is going to be a hot chip. Um, it does say Shelby's for seven consecutive business days. Um, well, one thought I had was, uh, breaking it up. Even though it does say consecutive days, I think the board has the discretion to do that. If that would, you know, if that's something you think would consider, Maureen, I don't know if you have another opinion on that or not.
[Maureen Busby]: I'm fine with the board's decision on whether to do consecutive or, you know, breaking it up somehow.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: That alleviates some of the hardship, maybe. The fine is still a fine, the $2,000 still is a fine. Go ahead, I'm sorry.
[MCM00001745_SPEAKER_07]: Sorry, just asking a question about the breakup. Would it just be still within the same month that they get the seven days done or?
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: I would think so.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Okay. I have a question for you. The state says May. Should we change it to May to give us some discretion? just throwing that out there. I know we can be more restrictive than the state. However, we give up any leeway for special circumstances. And I'm sort of questioning why be more restrictive when we don't have to. In the sense that it puts us in a box for special circumstances or other influences that may be special to a certain circumstance. So one option is to change us from Shell to May, and then we can adjudicate some of the, see that everyone knows we're all on the same page, that it's not right, and systems are going in place, and it's not like anyone's fighting the bigger picture here. Taking into account with small stores, smaller city, the seven-day onus of it all. I would think the third offense is what, they can't sell anymore?
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: It's 30 days.
[Adam Hurtubise]: even more. So you know, I think the second is sort of okay, well, we can we in appropriate circumstances, be a little more lenient, they're mindful that the third offense is sort of the second shot is the biggest one, you know?
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Yeah. And the third offense is a $5,000 fine.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I would if Mr. Vitale's agreeable we could make a motion to change our own wording from yeah to may and then get a little leeway and maybe because of temporary employees getting in the mix here and and to me the owners of both places are sincere and not selling tobacco products to kids and You know, they're trying their best not to. I just don't want to penalize good efforts because one thing snuck by it too, which we, you know, we want a zero error rate. But I think we've got to also be mindful of the people that are bearing the penalties here and the hardships, et cetera.
[Maureen Busby]: Could I ask a question?
[Adam Hurtubise]: Sure.
[Maureen Busby]: So, doctor, are you suggesting that in another board of health meeting, you discuss the regulations that you currently have and someone makes a motion to change them, and then you vote on changing the current regulations that are in place, because these regulations are what you have right now. So going forward, not for today.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Well, I was going to do it right now, right for today.
[MCM00001745_SPEAKER_07]: Marianne, is there an issue with us doing it for today? Can we do that?
[Adam Hurtubise]: Because I think where the state is our sort of leading party here, I think we're just aligning ourselves with the state. That's what I would like to see. I don't think we should, in this particular arena, have a more restrictive language than the state.
[Maureen Busby]: A couple of thoughts I have. One, you might want to check with city council on this because you do have a regulation on the books. And there were other violators, and they didn't appeal. And maybe had they known that they could come here and appeal and get a different decision, They might have chosen to do that. Instead, they knew that they were. Yeah, that's fair.
[Adam Hurtubise]: So, so what we could do in the, in the meantime, realizing this is a break up 7 day suspension to make it less onerous, maybe, and then we can revisit. This at a later time, like you had mentioned.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: And I guess we can make that same. Offer to to the others as well.
[Adam Hurtubise]: So, yeah, that's that's great idea.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Yeah.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Okay.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: We can move the regulation for changing it and then.
[Adam Hurtubise]: You know, there's like, a 30 day wait period when we do have to do public notice on the just to make it a little less restrictive than the state for this particular thing, just to be more aligned. And sometimes, you know, the states do wishy-washy, and it's a great thing that we're more restrictive. But I don't think that that's the case in this particular situation.
[Unidentified]: All right.
[Adam Hurtubise]: So like SOAR overflow. I think we should be much more restrictive in that than the state is.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: The combined SOAR overflow.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: All right, so the motion right now is to take the seven days and break it up.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Yeah, if the store owners prefer it that way, if they want to do it all at once, I mean, they can do it that way, too. I'd give them the option or breaking it up. You know, one day, I remember one time one guy asked to be on Sundays because the sales are a little bit less. It's part of the penalty that day. You know, that kind of stuff. So yeah, there's some price to pay, but trying to mitigate some of the impact, mindful of the business concerns that are local city businesses. You know, usually not talking about big chains here.
[Maureen Busby]: And then just for the business owners, in terms of breaking it up, I would just want to remind them that all products have to be removed from the store, at least from store shelves during a suspension. So if they do break it up, they'd be taking products out and then putting products back and then taking products out and putting products back. I'm fine with that, but just a reminder that it's extra work.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Correct. Yeah, make good point.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Any comments from either Mr. Patel or Mr. Schaffer on that?
[nqVIJ3wsDWg_SPEAKER_04]: Well, I just want to say thank you for hearing us out. Breaking it up does help a little bit. And to Ms. Maureen's suggestion of we have to take them down, honestly, I'll make sure the temp hire that we had is working that day and making sure he's putting the products down and making sure he's putting the products back up. There you go. Because I mean, honestly, like, you know, we're a community and to see my own community get hurt is isn't something that I'd like to see. That's right. So it's, it's only fair. And so we do appreciate that. And so thank you so much for this.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Okay, so can I have the motion or a non consecutive 7 day suspension?
[Adam Hurtubise]: Motion so made. Yes.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Yes, let's do a roll. Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. All right, thank you very much for joining. And next on the agenda. We have a presentation from Tufts University Bioinnovation Lab. They have a BSL-2 permit application with us right now for a pretty new, interesting program that they're developing. But as part of our permit application, we do require a presentation to include kind of a general introduction. of the institution, the mission, its research, or production plans, a timeline of the use of the rDNA, a regulated biological agent, and an overview of the applicant's biosecurity risk assessment and program, and then a general discussion of the facility. So from Tufts with us today, we have Adam Jenkins and Caitlin Kraslowski. I believe Adam is going to Give us the presentation and I'm going to allow you to share your screen. And why can't I do that? There you go. So Adam, you should be able to share now if you have a presentation to share.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yep, I just got it. Thank you.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: So this is a BSL two lab application. So folks, I spent a BSL one, um, but not a BSL three, but I'll let, I'll let that.
[SPEAKER_05]: All right. Can everyone see my screen? All right. Fantastic. Um, thank you everyone.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Um, I can't wait. I can't see it. Sorry. Can anyone see the screen? Yeah. No, Josh can't. Me neither. All right, let me go back.
[SPEAKER_05]: I have a secret screen. I can see. I just might not be able to make it full screen. I can just go. Yeah, there it is. Yeah. All right. All right. I want to do a full screen and that'll make it a little simpler. Um, great. So, uh, thank you, Marianne. So, as we said, uh, Tufts University and biolabs is opening up a new, uh, innovation hub for food and materials based at 200 Boston half. Um, real quick, so, you know, who's representing the facility today. So myself, Dr. Adam Jenkins, uh, regional director for biolabs overseeing the Northeast. Uh, I'm also the chairman for the IBC committees for our sites in Medford, Boston and Watertown. So, uh, know a fair amount of the Eastern Massachusetts regulations in terms of what we're doing. And then we have Caitlin Kozlowski, who's the lab manager for Boston facility and is our acting lab manager currently for the hub, which is what we call it colloquially. And she right now has supported over 150,000 square feet of lab space and over 100 startup companies across BioLab. So a lot of work with startups kind of between the 2 of us. So, as Marian said, a quick site overview, safety operations, chemical and biological tracking, some of the company overviews, so the type of companies we're going to see, experimental overviews, and then some safety checks and limitations on those companies as well that we have in place, and then just some time for some general questions. So, the hub in itself will be around 12 and a half thousand square feet. It is on the 3rd floor of 200 Boston Ave. So, the blue is the area, which the incubator will sit. It holds about 46 slab benches in total with 2 private suites. It is leased by Tufts University, but operated by BioLabs. So we are the operating partner for the site. This builds on, so Tufts and BioLabs, we have had a similar site in downtown Boston. We just completed our 9th year in operations. We have had over 100 companies come through. It's been very, very successful. For this site, though, we're only looking to house around 10 to 15 companies at its maximum capacity. The companies also have access to a cell bank and a core facility, but those are operated by Tufts separately. And it is note that these are only R&D companies, nothing that is production scale, nothing that is going out for sale to individuals, only R&D at our site. The incubator in itself has equipment and space that is geared towards this research area. So work that's geared towards food research and materials. The goal of this site is to have companies to succeed, grow and move into their own production space, hopefully within the town of Medford. It is not to stay with us long term longer than necessary. So the average stay for any resident within the BioLab space is between 18 to 24 months. And that's enough time to create proof of concepts. maybe their first batch to prove that something works, get their next round of funding. Once they get that tranche, then they leave. It is not for them to stay with us long-term for the entirety of their company's lifeline. It is just for them to get their R&D space in a capital-efficient way. So they come to us because we are cheap, we are efficient, we are permitted, so they can come and get their space done relatively quickly. Um, and then a little bit more in bio labs, if anyone doesn't know, we've supported over 1000 companies since since exception about 15 years ago. Um, so working with startups in these types of spaces is kind of what we do and is what our moniker is. So, um, any questions around that feel free to ask. So a little bit on kind of the space security overview, just so everyone can kind of think about the operational security. So all of our labs, of course, have badge points. So our facility is a dual badge system. You need a badge to get into the building, and then a second one to get into any of the laboratory facilities, whether they are BSL-2 or BSL-1. We treat them all as they should be the highest risk. So everyone has to badge in twice to get into the laboratory itself. As well, we also have physical keys for points such as getting into a compressed gas room, a biohazard containment zone, or a chemical safety area where we're holding chemicals. So we do have physical keys as well. The building, as I said, does have badge points. The main entrance into the building is open between 9 and 5, but any of the auxiliary badge access points on the north side or the south side of the building, those are badge access points that you have to badge in. You can't just walk into the facility unencumbered by anyone else. So it is relatively safe and difficult to get in our facility and into our laboratories. Emergency equipment, just if we want to know, so we do have fire extinguishers, fire pull stations, AEDs, and first aid kits strategically put around the facility. So you are always within sightline of a fire extinguisher and quickly to an AED within 60 seconds if anything were to occur and you were to have to find access to one. In terms of our chemical hazardous material storage, compressed gas, acids, bases, and flammables are really limited in terms of where we store them. So acid and bases are only stored in two different places, and that is to reduce any type of having to traverse a common courier or common corridor of any site. So in the east side, which is the top portion of the slide and the west side, which is the bottom, no resident would have to ever go across a corridor to get to an acid base or a flammable storage. So they will stay there. Our entire facility is drainless or there are no drains. So if there is any type of spill, chemical or biological hazard, or someone has to pull a any type of eye wash or shower station. Everything is contained within the facility, so nothing will be entering the water system unencumbered in any way. So it is a drainless facility. And just so everyone knows, we have been granted fire registration. The space is we put in for 50 gallons. Technically, we are able to have 80 gallons of class 2 flammables based upon the actual site size. So we only put in for 50 and that has been granted by the fire department. So we do have our chemical storage permit. As I intimated before, we have eyewashes, showers, and spill kits located across the facility, and then extras in storage if any of these were to be utilized. These are looked at monthly by our team, so everything is always up to code and always working appropriately. We also keep all the necessary notes on anything that has been tested in case anyone from any of the companies or any government agencies would like to look at those. Waste storage, that's a big one. We have 2 satellite accumulation areas on the top and bottom of this facility, the way it's oriented. And then we have 1 biowaste storage and 1 main accumulation area. The biowaste and the MAA are all behind a physical key lock door, so you have to use 3 different locks to get in front of it. It is a single stream when being disposed of, so it is When you take it out, it is always out by our vendor. It's never being transported between different areas within the facility. It's being stored and then being taken out immediately on the day of disposal. It never has to traverse the site in any other way than the single passage through the facilities. And that goes through a freight elevator, which is not used by the general public at all. It is a controlled disposal area. In terms of the safety vendors that we use, while we do do a lot of things from an H and S standpoint, we do use multiple vendors to take care of our safety and mostly for our waste products. So, chemical and biohazardous waste are taking care of triumvirate and stereocycle. Our lab coats and the washing of those lab coats are all done by a company called Northstar. AD fire extinguishers and first aid kits are handled by Cintas. EH&S application, which is done by Biolabs, is utilizing a platform called Media Lab. And we'll go over kind of our EH&S application in a second. And then pest control is taken care of from Waltham Pest Services for our space. In terms of EH&S, all residents that come on site, companies, individuals, all have to go through an EH&S program that is administered by BioLabs. So all safety training modules are controlled by us. We know who has completed them, when they have completed them, when they're up for renewal. No one is allowed on site unless they have performed these tasks. The nice thing is because we also control admission into the laboratory via that badge access system. If you haven't done your HNS training, you are not allowed in the lab. That's a full stop for us. But we do provide things such as biosafety, bloodborne pathogens, potent chemical handling and BSL 2 plus safety manuals for those who are doing BSL 2 work. PPE is provided by bio lab. So all lab coats, goggles, gloves, we provide all of those. And then, of course, we do have quarterly meetings with the lab teams to make sure that everyone is up to date on anything that needs to be updated. And then we also have an IBC committee, which we provided with the permit that is run in house by bio labs and that includes both. uh, community representatives from the city of Medford, but also through multiple different lab heads from across the United States. So we have a lot of different views, viewpoints, safety concerns, and people insinuating those. Any uncertainties with EHS through those companies that are coming in are always discussed with residents as they arise. With that, we always kind of like to talk about our BSL 2 plus safety points. Anyone who's working with the BSL 2 plus protocols, anything that's viral in nature, fresh samples, or even unfixed samples that are coming from rodents, they must read and acknowledge additional manuals. These are assessed and updated Fairly regularly, the last major change that we made was in July of 2025, but we have had minor changes to that over the years. The nice thing about having about 400 companies within our walls is that we see the earliest research that is going on. So we can change our manuals in real time as we are seeing research that. we have never seen before or that has never been performed. So we can look at, assess the safety and make those changes to the manuals that will keep everyone in a safe environment. And then any type of primary cell line that comes on site, we tell this to everyone, always has a paper trail and a risk assessment performed for pathogens before they're ever on site. So regardless if it's a known primary cell line or a new one, we treat them all the same for safety standpoint. From a BSL 2 plus safety manual, in terms of what that looks like, those include personnel requirements, good laboratory practices, hygiene, exposure risks and assessment, the procedures for working with those materials, anything with lentiviral, spill protocols, and then also example scenarios. So regardless of who the company is that comes into our space, they follow our protocols. So they have their own experiments that they're running, but they follow our protocols for how certain standards need to be met. So whether it is through a biological or a chemical hazard, we control those protocols, whether it's disposal, good laboratory practices, procedures for those materials, we take care of all that they have to be adhered to. The question always comes is how do we know what's coming on site from a biological and a chemical tracking standpoint? All of the residents use an internal procurement platform that we control and manage called Marketplace. So all residents are required to purchase all laboratory goods from this system, and that is all chemicals, all biologics. So if it's a known group like ATCC or something like that, we always know what's being purchased and we have to approve of it before it's even allowed to be purchased. The only time that that's ever circumnavigated is when they are getting academic samples from an academic collaborator or something of a sort. In order to do that, they have to let us know and it has to be approved by us in writing prior to it coming on site. Because we know it's being purchased, if anything arrives on site and we log that package that we don't recognize, we can kind of alert that company and find out what that is, why it's on site, why they didn't come through us, was it a mistake? We can kind of find that. And then sometimes there are some ex-US-based materials from CROs that come in that can't be done through the procurement system. But it is always a real-time, up-to-date list that we have from a biological and a chemical list standpoint. So at any time, at any date, we have this list readily available because it is real-time in nature. So in terms of kind of what the residents look like for this overview. So the companies that are going to be utilizing the space as our food and material based companies. So the big one is the first one is cellular agriculture that includes cell line immortalization scaffold building think. can I build a steak in a petri dish, that type of work. So agriculture, food material creation, material and packing from agricultural products. It will be said that there will be no active agriculture of any way being performed on site. This is all through agricultural products, think cornmeal and downstream products, not raw materials coming in from that side. alternative material creations, like can we create alternative leathers and the like, precision fermentation, ingredient compound research, food processing and prolongation of the food, food safety and diagnostics. And then there is a small chance of human cellular companies utilizing the space for human scaffolding. So similar to, can we make a steak in the Petri dish? Some people are also saying, can we make bone in a Petri dish? Or other similar works that are in the space, they do work very similarly, but we do take care of them in the same way. But we are looking mostly at cellular agriculture, precision fermentation, food safety diagnostics, and then, as I said, a small chance of those human cellular companies coming in. In terms of the RDMA and experiments that we see coming on site, there are three big ones that we think are kind of pertinent to this group. The first one is CRISPR-Cas4 cell line immortalization. The first step for any of our food tech companies are to make cell lines that are immortalized in nature. So an example is can we take bovine cells and turn them into so that they're forever cell lines immortalization so that they can use them to grow in various different scaffolds in various different ways and they don't have to get primary cell lines every single time. This requires cell lines that are primary in nature. So all companies who will be doing this will have to let us know where they're getting their cell lines from. Tufts Veterinary Clinic are letting companies have access to the animals that are in there. testing facility to utilize to get those cell lines. So the nice thing is that these companies do not have to go externally to unknown farms or procuring these cell lines in ways that we can't trust or know. So that is one way in which we are controlling for this. And then any cell line that's coming in has to be tested for known pathogens that are human in nature. So if it's going to be an avian cell line that you're bringing in, You know, in chicken, it has to be tested for avian flu before it's even coming out on site. And we need to have those test results in hand. So we don't always do that for human nature, because we have human cell lines that we can get from various different facilities that are already pre-tested. But for the food tech companies, they have to go through that. Then anyone who is doing CRISPR-Cas, we normally say after five or seven passages post-transfection, those cell lines are deemed safe, and we no longer have to worry about the CRISPR risk. The second one is DNA and RNA vector creation for fermentation. Just because during fermentation process, some companies do need to produce novel output or novel fermentation, we need to know what that vector map that they're putting into those cell lines, what it looks like. So we know what proteins they're augmenting, in what way, what fusion proteins, what is being created in that way. They don't have to tell us that vector map off the bat, But if anything were to happen where we would request that, we do require that. We don't ask it from the get-go, first of all, because there are IP issues, and a lot of companies don't provide that for various reasons. But they do have to know that if it is a safety request, they have to provide it to us. We do know what proteins they are working with, but we don't necessarily ask how. We do ask though if they are potentially toxic to humans or have any type of exposure risks to us. And the last one is diagnostic control testing. This goes also with the cell line immobilization. There will be companies who are testing animal cell lines for certain diseases or products or, you know, novel scenarios that they want to know. So if they are bringing on samples to test or constructs, they always have to be tested externally first. So we know exactly what they are dealing with and we know what's going to come on site privately. With that, I will tell everyone we are looking at about a month and a half until true opening of the site to come operational. We have procured the necessary permits. We are hoping to get the MWRA permit soon for this site, but we do have the keys. We are moving in equipment to get ready to go. So with that, I want to open it up to questions from anybody.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Are the cell lines themselves, other than the pathogens, checking for them, are the cell lines themselves infectious?
[SPEAKER_05]: Uh, no, no, they should not be. No, they should all be non infectious cell lines.
[Adam Hurtubise]: Great.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's all I have to never be at cell 3 work in our facility.
[Adam Hurtubise]: That's what I that's all making sure. That's all. Good. I'm all done.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Well, you answered my question about the chemical storage limits, some 50 gallons. That's good to know. That's and then as far as the, the biologic storage, does that. each cup they're going to have their own storage space, I guess.
[SPEAKER_05]: Uh, in terms of, like, freezers and yeah, so we'll have multiple different freezers. We know. Each company is assigned a certain storage area in those freezers. So we always know. What companies and which storage or liquid nitrogen so. No, 1 should ever be in a spot that we don't know what it is. So if anything were to ever happen from an exposure standpoint. We know at least what company it is and what as we said, because we know each. chemical and biohazard is for each company, what the potential exposure could be. So we have a starting point for that.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: And then you said no test materials were left on site. Is that what you said at the end?
[SPEAKER_05]: Sorry, can you say that again?
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: No test materials would be left on site. Is that what you said at the end?
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes. Yep. Yep. So if anything's being tested for diagnostics, it's immediately disposed of. It's never tested, kept on site.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Food research sounds pretty, pretty interesting. Any gross steak in a Petri dish? We shall find out, I guess, huh? Yeah, we'll see. And 15, 10, 15 companies? Yeah, at any given time. R&D only 18 to 24 months there in duration. Okay. And you have a fire permit, you said, okay, already, right?
[SPEAKER_05]: Correct.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Great. If you could just send me the contract with Wealth and Pests as well. I think that was missing from the application. Unless I missed it, but.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yep, we are getting that from them now. We had to wait to get the keys to do the permit or to get the walkthrough before they would issue a contract. So we'll get back to you as soon as we can. All right. Perfect.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: And I think the only other thing was missing in the application I had sent was the security plan.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yep, we have that and we'll send it over to you.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Okay. Any other questions, Jenny?
[Adam Hurtubise]: No, almost. Mine have been answered.
[MCM00001745_SPEAKER_07]: No questions from me. Thank you. Thank you.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: All right. Thank you very much, Adam and Caitlin. Be in touch.
[SPEAKER_05]: Thank you. Appreciate it.
[MaryAnn O'Connor]: Thank you. Great presentation.