The Halifax Board of Selectmen met in-person on Tuesday, Sept. 21,  joined by town counsel. They began with a review of articles for the special town meeting to be held later that evening, and recommended or passed over all articles discussed.

Following the recommendations, the Selectmen turned their attention toward the fiscal year 2022 budget. Speaking of Town Accountant Sandra Nolan, Town Administrator Charlie Seelig said, “Sandy reran the numbers so that the articles for the raise and appropriate do pass so we’re at about $229 left on the table – something like that.” Selectmen Chair Gordon Andrews noted the remaining amount was less than recommended by the Finance Committee.

There was then a discussion over a proposed insurance settlement offer related to an insurance claim made by residents David and Laura Gibbons of Oak St. Specifics were not relayed as they were not in Executive Session but the Selectmen did vote to approve moving forward with the settlement.

Finally, the Selectmen discussed the 5G cellular “small cellular” general by-laws, zoning by-laws, and municipal permitting. Town Counsel Paul DeRensis said that there were four options available to the community. The first would be to adopt some regulations, the second would be to adopt a zoning by-law at town meeting, the third would be to do both numbers one and two, and the fourth option is to do nothing. “I got an email from Charlie saying he thought the third option is the best,” DeRensis said.

Seelig explained saying, “Zoning can obviously handle to a limited extent, where and how 5G can be installed; basically, the feds have said that the town really doesn’t have much authority over 5G; there might be reasonable permitting restraints we can put on it, but basically, the rule of thumb is they’re going to be allowed.” He continued, “But they could be setup through a special permitting process… most 5G cellular is going to be within the right of way of our streets and roads so that the Board will have the right to essentially issue permits for use of the right of way so we’ll have zoning, but we’ll also have regulations.” He noted that zoning would have to wait until May but regulations could be done sooner in the event that a 5G company came into town prior to then.

DeRensis called the third option the most “elaborate” and said the concern would be running up legal fees on these projects. “You do need something to protect the community against distasteful looking 5G installation.” He said the question, however, would be whether that is where you want to spend your legal costs. DeRensis said that they have drafted by-laws approved from the Attorney General in other communities and said it would be possible to adapt those to Halifax. Andrews recommended reviewing it further with some other committees before trying to implement something at the moment saying they should shoot for trying to get something implemented the second half of the year. The Board agreed.

Put a win on the board for the Silver Lake High football team.

The Lakers took down the Norwood Mustangs 20-7 at home last Friday night for their first win of the season. The win put them at 1-2 on the season.

Norwood struck first in the game, but the Lakers played tough defense as things progressed and were able to prevent it from happening again. Norwood scored a touchdown in the first quarter and made the extra point to take a 7-0 lead, but the Lakers would go on to score a touchdown in each of the next three quarters; this gave them the points they needed to win the game.

In the second quarter, they got a one-yard touchdown run from John Dickerson. Seth Wakefield’s extra point kick was good, tying the game at seven apiece. In the third quarter, the team got a touchdown in the air. Ryan Carroll caught a 10-yard pass from quarterback Jacob Barnett. Wakefield’s extra point kick was good, putting them up 14-7.

And in the fourth quarter, Barnett took it in himself. He had a 15-yard touchdown run that put the Lakers up 20-7. The Lakers went for two instead of kicking an extra point, but their attempt came up short. Carroll also performed well defensively with three sacks.

Additionally, Austin Smith had 90 yards on the ground for the Lakers.

The win marked the final non-league game of the regular season for the Lakers. Now, they will kick off their Patriot League schedule. Their next game will take place this Thursday, Sept. 30 on the road against the Plymouth North Eagles (7:00 p.m. start time).

Northfield, MA – After months of hearings and deliberations that led to special permits being issued for 10.5 Megawatts and 26,000 solar panels by the Northfield Planning Board, an appeal was filed in Franklin Superior Court in Greenfield asking the Court for preliminary and permanent injunctive relief prohibiting the landowners and developers from taking any action to begin construction of the project.

The plan would span across 124 acres of farmland located in land zoned as Residential Agricultural, all lying outside of the Town’s solar overlay district. The developer is BlueWave Project Development, LLC, with offices in Boston. The landowners and developers proposed the project as “dual-use”, a category of solar project in Massachusetts that maintains its use as agricultural land under the solar panels and is able to get higher ratepayer subsidies. The Massachusetts legislature had to vote to release the properties from a ten-year agricultural covenant so that the solar panels, otherwise not allowed, could be built on the farmland.

“If I had known that the farm fields across from my house would be covered with acres and acres of solar panels, I never would have bought this property,” said Chris Kalinowski, one of the plaintiffs in the complaint. “Now I have to think about my property values and constant noise. And I am really worried about what happens if the lithium batteries leak or catch fire. This whole area is where my well water comes from.” Also listed as concerns are light pollution and glare, noise, dust, and vibration during and post-construction, and the loss of scenic value of his property. “We have a solar overlay district. It’s land that’s not much use for anything. We all voted and said to put solar panels there. I never agreed to have them at my house.”

A key issue for the plaintiffs is whether the concept of ‘dual-use’ is even a viable concept. “This project is being marketed as building a solar array but keeping the land in agriculture. That looks to me like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole,” said Michael Kellett of RESTORE: The North Woods, the other plaintiff. “You can see in the documents that the Clean Energy Center at UMass Amherst had many questions about this idea. There are studies that show things don’t grow nearly as well in the shade of solar panels as in wide-open fields. This developer came up with the idea of part-time sheep grazing on the property as a way to claim that the land will remain in farming. In fact, there is even mention of using these same sheep to graze at other nearby properties to help other solar projects qualify as ‘dual-use.’ This rent-a-sheep idea is creative, I suppose, but can we really call these industrial-scale solar arrays farms?” Kellett’s organization decided to join the complaint to help protect a healthy environment for members of his organization who live in Northfield.

Attorney Margaret Sheehan of Plymouth, who filed the complaint also questions the dual-use policy, not just in Northfield, but on cranberry bogs in Southeastern Massachusetts. “Unscrupulous developers are exploiting taxpayer and ratepayer subsidies for green energy. Dual-use solar is an unproven experiment. Developers are mounting solar panels in cranberry bog wetlands on telephone poles treated with copper chromated arsenic. Is this how the cranberry industry is going to grow food for 30 years? On bogs covered with telephone poles leaching arsenic? Over 1,000 telephone poles are being installed on a bog on Route 58 in Carver by a Canadian multinational corporation with our state green energy dollars. AD Makepeace is installing a mile of solar over an agricultural canal that was once a stream. Some systems are installed but there are no crops growing under them such as the REDP project on Gate Street in Carver. How well can crops grow shaded by solar panels sited to use the sun on a plot of land? Common sense says not very well. This is a waste of our money and farmland. We are in a climate crisis and it’s code red. We shouldn’t be wasting the public’s money on ridiculous schemes like this. The state’s Department of Energy Resources needs to pull the plug on this subsidy program,” says Sheehan.

Climate scientist and former IPCC report author on climate mitigation, and Emeritus Professor of International Environmental Policy at Tufts University, Dr. Bill Moomaw, supports solar energy, but only in the right places. “We need solar panels to replace burning fossil fuels and wood to make electricity. Solar panels belong on rooftops and wastelands. If we are concerned about regional resiliency, are committed in Massachusetts to buying local food, and know we need forested land to sequester carbon to mitigate climate change, how much sense does it make to weaken our farming land base. Wouldn’t that mean we either import more food or cut forests for farming?” Dr. Moomaw also cited a Mass Audubon report that calculated that we can get 80% of our electricity by putting solar on rooftops, parking lots, and brownfields.

Mr. Kalinowski added, “I am all for solar energy, just put it in the right places. Why is this even happening in my town? Because someone convinced someone to give money for it. That’s really the story here.”

Sheehan is collecting signatures on a petition asking Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker to put a temporary hold on subsidies for clear-cutting forests or using farms for large-scale solar. It can be found on the Save the Pine Barrens website.

Failing to meet its quorum of 100 voters, last week’s Special Town Meeting had to be rescheduled to Tuesday, Sept. 21, at 7 p.m. in the Elementary School when it is hoped that the business of the town can be completed.

As with previous meetings, both the Gym and the All-Purpose Room will be used and due the continuing pandemic, COVID protocols will be in place – https://www.halifax-ma.org/moderator/files/what-expect-town-meeting-september-2021.

Warrants have been mailed out or a copy can be downloaded – https://www.halifax-ma.org//town-administrator/files/special-town-meeting-warrant-september-8-2021

If you have any questions, please contact the Selectmen’s Office at 781-291-1316.

To begin with, please do not attend the meeting if you have signs of a fever or a measured temperature above 100.3 degrees, or greater, and/or any symptoms of COVID-19 including fever, chills, shaking chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat, or new loss of taste or smell, persistent cough or trouble breathing within the past 24 hours or if you have had “close contact” with an individual diagnosed with COVID-19 during the last fourteen days.

Close contact” means: living in the same household as a person who has tested positive for COVID-19; caring for a person who has tested positive for COVID-19, being with six (6) feet of a person who has tested positive for COVID-19 for about 15 minutes, or coming in direct contact with secretions (e.g., sharing utensils, being coughed on) from a person who has tested positive for COVID-19, while that person was symptomatic.

• OR

• You have been asked to self-isolate or quarantine by your doctor or a local public health official or have been told by a medical provider that you probably have COVID-19 even in the absence of a test.

Many talented Silver Lake High athletes ended up extending their sports careers after high school is over, many of them end up competing in college athletics. Sometimes, they end up going to the same schools as one another. There have been instances of athletes who played together in high school being teammates at the college level as well as instances of both the girls’ and boys’ team at a respective school having Silver Lake alum on their rosters.

Although the two played on different teams–the girls team and the boys team at Silver Lake–Allie Crawford and JJ Devine both have something in common: they’re college soccer players at UMass Boston (NCAA Division 3) this season.

Crawford is a key contributor to the women’s team. As of the start of this week, she had started in each of the team’s two games so far this season. She was tied for the most minutes played (190). She had an assist and led the team with 10 shots taken, including seven shots on goal. Although there was no season last year, Crawford was a key player in the two seasons before that. She had 4 goals and 13 assists in 22 games in 2019. The year before that, she had four goals and 14 assists in 22 games.

On the men’s side, JJ Devine is new to the program. The Halifax native is a freshman goalkeeper for the team. Devine has performed well early on in the season. He got a shutout against Salve Regina in his college debut on September 1. He made two saves in the game. Additionally, he played half of the game on Saturday, September 4 against Springfield and didn’t let up a goal.

Devine was a Patriot League All-Star in soccer last year. He also had the opportunity to play football as a kicker for the Lakers because football season was pushed back to the spring.

The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association has adopted a temporary indoor mask mandate for fall sports in hopes of mitigating the spread of coronavirus. It will impact at least two of the Silver Lake High sports programs this fall: girls’ volleyball and cheerleading. Those are the two MIAA teams that the Lakers have in the fall that have their competitions indoors.

The mask mandate will also apply to any of the other fall teams, if they were to have an indoor practice. However, none of the other teams in question have their competitions in indoor venues.

This mask mandate will apply to athletes regardless of their vaccination status and will be up and will last until at least October 1.

“These are minimum required safety standards that are consistent with the practice of indoor and outdoor recess and indoor and outdoor physical education classes during the school day,” MIAA executive director Bob Baldwin said in a statement issued on August 26. “These standards will be reviewed prior to October 1.”

This marks a change in policy from the previous fall sports season — which also took place during the coronavirus pandemic. That time around, athletes also had to wear masks outdoors. Now, masks are optional for coaches and athletes competing outdoors.

The decision came shortly after Massachusetts Commissioner of Education Jeffrey Riley was granted the authority to mandate masks in all public schools across the state by the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

The coronavirus vaccine is available to anyone ages 12 and up in the United States. 

The Town Properties Committee met on Wednesday, August 18. It was a joint meeting with the Plympton Selectmen. Members of the Plympton Finance Committee were also in attendance.

“The Town Properties Committee has spent the last year plus working on sort of a vision overall for the campus,” Chair of the Town Properties Committee Jon Wilhelmsen told those assembled. One of the main objectives for that campus plan is figuring out the placement of the new fire station. Wilhelmsen shared what he referred to as a “high level, notional drawing of the grand plan if we are able to put that in place.” The new, proposed fire station would be behind the new police station on Palmer Rd. The drawing also showed a proposed fix for the parking area for the library and Townhouse. He said the main entrance would convert from two to one driveway. Wilhelmsen said the existing fire station would remain and over time be converted into a community center that would include the Council on Aging (COA). Regarding the ball fields, Wilhelmsen said they are looking into doing some work to Harry Jason Park that involves working with both PAYS and the Recreation Committee on a long-term plan.

The new fire station was described as being a 3-bay, drive through, modern facility that would provide an appropriate space to house, maintain, and provide for a number of things. Those things include the safety and security of fire personnel and visitors, apparatus, supplies and gear, administrative and personnel space, and community interaction. Included in that community interaction would be a space to be used as a public medical room where vaccines and other medical services could be rendered. The hope would be to also have a public conference space that could be utilized for many things including a public cooling/warming area.

Also addressed within the meeting was the why behind the building of a new fire station. The current building is non-compliant with current OSHA regulations and poses physical and occupational safety concerns due to significant space and facility constraints. Fire Chief Stephen Silva pointed out that while previously they were not, the State is now mandated to be OSHA compliant. He said that regulations specific to carcinogens off gassing from gear have changed greatly since the building was first built. Supply management challenges also exist as supplies are spread across four different buildings, containers, and trailers across three different locations in town. “You’ve entrusted me with millions of dollars of equipment that we cannot properly house and that is just not right,” Silva said.

The timeline was also discussed with architect selection, programmatic and schematic design, infrastructure assessment, and cost estimates outlined to occur between October 2020 and April 2021. Final design, bidding, construction, and occupancy is tentatively scheduled between July 2021 and December 2022.

Regarding cost, Wilhelmsen said the goal would be to utilize existing funds and said they were not intending to do an override. The hope would be to use modular construction and/or leverage existing design plans. The town would also hope to take advantage of lower interest rates and intends to limit the impact of future increases in building costs. Plympton may also be able to potentially take advantage of Federal infrastructure funds with the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA). The total project cost is estimated at $6 million.

Selectman and Town Properties Committee member John Traynor said that the Committee has had two financial team meetings the most recent being that morning with the Town Administrator, the Town Accountant, the Town Treasurer, and the Assessor. Traynor said that as of June the amount in the Capital Stabilization Fund was $1,078,800. A Mass Municipal Depository Trust (MMDT) was established in 1996 and has never been used. The MMDT currently stands at $207,600. There is $803,500 in the Regular Stabilization Fund. The use of the funds must be approved by a two-thirds majority at town meeting.

“If we were to take a 30-year bond for $6 million at current interest rates it would give us a bond repayment each year of $324,000,” Traynor said regarding the new fire station costs. The current police station debt is set to run through 2040. “We’re in pretty good shape financially. The question is can we do a fire station that we can do and still have money left over because we know there will be things like new roofs and other issues we’re going to have to address as we go through the years,” he explained. Selectmen Chair Christine Joy asked, “So you’re saying that based on the $6 million number that we would be able to afford this just on the additional monies we’re getting for Capital Stabilization; we wouldn’t have to dive into it; it would basically just be self-sustaining from what we’re taking in?” Traynor confirmed that understanding was correct.

Joy asked about whether the Assessor had been brought into the conversation regarding the incoming funds into Capital Stabilization. “If they were to go down significantly, we could get ourselves into a pickle,” Joy pointed out. Traynor said they had, noting, “In fact, Sysco is currently assisting at $52 million… and they upped it to… over $60 million.” He did note that some of that would be abated but said that there should be an uptick, if anything. “One of the things that is troubling to the Finance Committee from time to time is there’s no guarantee that Sysco will be there in twenty years,” Chair of the Finance Committee Nathaniel Sides said. “But somebody’s going to be there Nate,” Traynor said. Sides insisted that you can’t know that and pointed to plenty of empty buildings up and down the East Coast. Silva countered saying, “We are the fastest section of the State of Massachusetts that is growing – the South Shore and the South Coast area and Massachusetts is one of the fastest growing economies nationwide despite everything that is going on.” Traynor furthered that all they were looking for at the moment was the go ahead to move forward with a feasibility study. The money for the study would have to be approved at special town meeting.

Joy said that she would rather see something like this handled as part of the annual town meeting rather than as part of a special. Wilhelmsen said the push to put it as part of the special had to do with concerns over price increases. Town Properties Committee member Ross MacPherson said, “What I’m seeing in construction right now is, forgetting the COVID related things, we are seeing a ton of money come into the infrastructure space and that is just going to tap the existing resources and like we had with the police station, what we really need to find is the contractor that needs this project more than would like to have this contract… if we wait too long, we may not have a bid that we can take.” He further said that while material prices are starting to level off, labor prices are increasing. Town Administrator Liz Dennehy added that if they at least had a design in the works sooner rather than later they may be able to at least partially fund a new septic system with ARPA funds. “There is kind of a larger scale benefit to having some of this feasibility and design work done and out of the way,” she explained.

“This is kind of ten years in the making, I have sat in on the various permutations… I think we’ve kind of been spinning our wheels. We know that sooner or later we’re going to have to do something with the fire station. I’m in favor of moving ahead with this,” Selectman Mark Russo said. He continued, “We are gaining nothing by just sitting and waiting.” He called it “amazing” that it could potentially be possible to build a new police station and a new fire station in such a short amount of time without increasing the tax rate. “I think we have to make clear that this is not committing to a new station; it is committing to spending some money to see if this will work,” Russo said.

MacPherson took a moment to address why the option of rehabbing the current station was not being explored. He said there are always unknowns when rehabbing and said that the town would have to commit to those. He also noted that the Fire Department would have to be moved elsewhere for the duration of the construction.

Joy made a motion that the Selectmen support the efforts of the Town Properties Committee in committing to a feasibility study on a new fire station. The Selectmen voted unanimously to approve the motion.

Following the discussion on the Fire Station, the Committee then turned their attention to the Harry Jason Park. MacPherson said he met with Plympton Athletic Youth Sports (PAYS) who expressed to him some general needs and wants. “They thought that having everything centralized at Harry Jason was a great end goal,” he said. MacPherson told the Committee that currently U-10 and U-12 share a soccer field at the Dennett that has to be striped differently depending on which age level is utilizing it. He also said that the youngest players are using the outfield of the baseball/softball field for their games. When asked what they would like to have in a perfect world, PAYS said they would like to have a major/minor league field, a larger sized little league field, a U-14 size soccer field that would also serve U-12, and a second soccer field for the U-8 and U-10. MacPherson said he believed there could be some repurposing done as well as some tweaks to the fields at the Dennett. Wilhelmsen pointed out that any new fields would require bringing in electricity and water. Colleen Thompson asked about the possibility of incorporating some adult facilities such as tennis courts at the park. “I think that there can be, in the grand plan of Harry Jason, some better walking trails or things that can be utilized,” MacPherson said. He said that since PAYS is youth related, the Recreation Committee would have to work with them on adult uses.

The Halifax Board of Selectmen met in-person on August 11 with the exception of Selectman Ashley DiSesa who joined remotely. On the agenda was a number of complaints that had been filed.

The first order of business was dealing with the July 20, 2021 open meeting law complaint from John Day. According to Chair Gordon Andrews the complaint read that a meeting was held on that date and the only agenda item listed was the appointment of the building inspector and a possible appointment of a temporary building inspector. The complaint further read that the Board went immediately into executive session coming back into open session at 7:30 when they entertained a motion to adjourn until that Friday at 9 a.m.

“The lack of any substantive discussion coupled with individual Board member’s collective expectation that they would be meeting at 9 a.m. on July 23 to discuss the building inspector’s position indicated the Board members had discussed the building inspector matter in executive session despite its placement on the open meeting agenda. This violation appears to be intentional given the conflicts of interest by virtue of Mr. Andrews’ pending lawsuits that he has filed against the town and town officials including Robert Piccirilli,” the complaint from Day read. Also included in the complaint dated August 5 was that the Town Administrator Charlie Seelig was on vacation that day and did not attend and the Administrative Assistant was told not to attend as Andrews would handle the minutes.

Andrews said that he would recommend that the Board have the complaint handled by town counsel Brooks and DeRensis. DiSesa made the motion, Selectman Troy Garron seconded it, and the Board voted unanimously to do so.

A second complaint from Day was filed regarding the July 23 meeting. The complaint, which Andrews read, stated that once again Seelig and the Administrative Assistant were not present and the Board went into executive session at 11 a.m., returning to open session at noon. It noted that Andrews recused himself from the building inspector discussion leaving Garron as Vice Chair to take control of the meeting. The complaint described Garron as “visibly nervous and remained so throughout the rest of the meeting.” It noted Garron’s insistence that Piccirilli remained the best choice for building inspector.

Again, Day’s complaint said that there was strong suspicion that the Board had discussed the matter in executive session and had decided on hiring James Perry as the building inspector due to the rapidity in which the events unfolded in open session. The complaint asked that any discussion regarding the position that was had during executive session be disclosed to the public. It also asked that an explanation be given as to why the Administrative Assistant was not the one taking the minutes. Garron made a motion that again, they refer the complaint to Brooks and DeRensis. It was voted through unanimously by the Board.

The next item on the agenda was another open meeting law complaint regarding the July 23 meeting, this one by Barbara Gaynor. The complaint referenced the June 23 meeting during which the Board of Selectmen interviewed five applicants including Piccirilli, who at the time was the current building inspector. The complaint claimed that at no time did the Board explain how they came to their decision to hire Perry into the position and asked that they disclose that information to the public.

The final complaint dealt with during the August 11 meeting was in regard to the June 29 meeting during which the Board of Selectmen voted to appoint Brooks and DeRensis as Town Counsel. The complaint said that Brooks and DeRensis were asked to investigate the complaint but noted that they have a financial interest in the matter. Andrews read a motion stating, “As the appointing official which is the Board of Selectmen as required by Massachusetts’ General Laws Chapter 268a, Section 19 I have reviewed the particular matter and the financial interests identified above by the municipal employee; I have determined that the financial interest is not substantial as to be deemed unlikely to affect the integrity of the services by which the municipality may expect from the employee.” The Board then voted unanimously to have Brooks and DeRensis continue on with the investigation into the open meeting law complaint.

The final complaint to be handled during the August 11 meeting was one regarding the June 29 meeting during which the Board interviewed a total of four applicants including the most recent town counsel. The complaint read, “Considering that the Board of Selectmen chose to advertise, interview, and appoint a new person into this position, should there not have been some discussion from the members of the Board of Selectmen as to how and why they came to their decision.” The complaint asked that the Selectmen explain their decision and the reason behind it. Again, they voted to send the complaint to Brooks and DeRensis to be investigated.

At the conclusion of the discussion on the complaints Seelig said, “Mr. Chairman, may I say something?” Andrews responded, “No, we are going to move on.” Seelig then responded, “I’ll send a letter directly to the Board and to your Counsel.” Prior to adjourning, it did appear that someone in the audience attempted to speak. Andrews responded, “We don’t have any public comment right now.”