Health board approves Lanterns lifeguard waiver

Board of Health · Meeting of June 2, 2026

Ashland's Board of Health renewed a two-year pool lifeguard waiver for The Lanterns at Warren Woods and tabled its ninth annual Mary Mortensen Public Health Award until a full board can vote. Chair Ed Burman, Vice Chair John Byrnes and Clerk David Kinsman voted 3-0 on both items; member Maurice Krasner was absent and new member Barbra Sekesogundu Simon had not yet been sworn in. Three finalists, Amy Turncliff, Diego Low and Kirsten Quern, remain under consideration.

Kinsman called the choice difficult, saying "I don't relish having to make a decision here." Health Director Rajit Gupta reported 30 permitted Farmers Market vendors, a June 10 Stop the Bleed training already full, and 300 new tick kits bought with department funds after the state declined to fund them this year. The board also heard that Massachusetts has made alpha-gal syndrome, a tick-linked red meat allergy, a reportable disease, though no Ashland cases have surfaced yet.

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Source: the Board of Health meeting of June 2, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.

Checked against the record: before publication this article was automatically compared with the meeting transcript.