Last week, June 1, Halifax Selectmen held an energetic hearing on remote dispatching for the Police and Fire Departments from the dispatch center in Duxbury, which handles Police and Fire emergency calls for both Duxbury and Plympton, and wishes to expand.

According to Selectman Kim Roy, contracting out dispatching to Duxbury would represent significant savings, in the realm of $175,000, if the talks proceed for the 5-year contract. She also noted that the state is encouraging towns to regionalize with grants and that the end “product” would be the same or even better.

Plympton had a very smooth transition to regional dispatch, according to Selectman Tom Millias, who works as the Building Inspector in Plympton. “It has been outstandingly run well,” he said according to the Police and Fire Chiefs in that town.

Some residents were concerned about the police station “going dark” because the dispatcher is at times the only person at the station in the evening when officers are patrolling, although there are very few walk-in emergencies a year, according to Police Chief Edward Broderick, and even then a dispatcher “following the rules” cannot let someone into the station past the lobby until an officer arrives.

There are plans to build a “safe-room” at the station, where someone could lock themselves inside, communicate with a remote dispatcher, and take shelter in an emergency until an officer arrives, said Chief Broderick, in the rare event someone needs refuge.

Broderick noted that might be safer than the current situation, where the lobby door is unlocked.

Another concern expressed is that dispatchers at a regional center might not be familiar with roads or landmarks in Halifax. Yet, already two Halifax dispatchers have been hired by Duxbury and if Halifax joins, there is a possibility that they might hire others. Roy also noted that when Halifax hires a new dispatcher, they have to learn the streets, too.

“If there’s a place for obscure streets, it’s Plympton,” said Millias to much laughter, referencing the smooth transition Plympton had to dispatching from Duxbury’s center. “I have trouble finding streets in Plympton.”

Both Roy and Selectmen Chairman Troy Garron stated that the board was obligated to look at this proposal because taxpayers are demanding efficiencies, and selectmen serve at the will of the townspeople.

The high-tech facility located on Tremont Street, in South Duxbury, is able to not only take 911 calls and dispatch the appropriate personnel and assets, but monitor their status in real-time. Video feeds from the schools and other town surveillance cameras allow them to give very specific details about an emergency to first-responders. Cameras from Plympton will be coming online shortly, and Halifax is demanding them upfront in their negotiations, according to Duxbury officials.

Selectmen have made it clear many times that they have not made up their minds yet on the issue, and that this is not a “done-deal”. They say they are working with the departments, not “looking down on them” and imposing a change.

“There is no good reason to do this if it is not something that the Police Department and the Fire Department are comfortable with,” said Roy. “There is no way we would give you a service that would harm you or your family.”

HALIFAX– No, despite what may be going around on social media, the Halifax Police Station will not be moving to Duxbury. Neither will the fire station. But, just as Plympton has done, and many other communities around the state, including all of Barnstable County, Halifax officials led by Selectman Kim Roy have furthered discussions with Duxbury officials and state 911 officials to contract-out dispatching of Halifax emergency personnel to Duxbury, which was the focus of the discussion at the BOS meeting on Tuesday, May 24.

Duxbury already contracts this function for the Town of Plympton, and the addition of Halifax would officially upgrade Duxbury to a regional emergency communications center (RECC), making them eligible for further grant money, an incentive for them to assist Halifax.

The state would also assist Halifax during the transition period to Duxbury dispatching and with upgrades to technology needed for the project to work, Roy estimated the savings, with an initial 5-year contract, would be in the realm of $175,000 per year.

The decision makes sense on a variety of levels, says Roy. There are incentives from the state –  the savings are significant – but not only that, both the police and fire departments are supportive. “If you had said you’re crazy, we wouldn’t even be talking about this,” said Roy to the chiefs.

Furthermore, Halifax simply cannot afford to attract new dispatchers, and has had high turnover rates in the past. Roy says one dispatcher has already tendered his resignation and will leave for Duxbury anyway, and that Duxbury may be able to hire the remaining Halifax dispatchers, if the deal moves forward, as they will need a larger staff at their RECC.

Both chiefs stated that the “end-user” experience would not change. Police Chief Broderick furthered that most people would never know the difference. Plympton authorities have previously stated that they are pleased with their arrangement and that for the most part, the transition was smooth.

Officials were quick to point out this is not a done deal. At least one public hearing will be held, currently scheduled for June 1 at 7 p.m., Town Hall, and that further due-diligence is needed to hammer out a fair agreement for the town and work out the finer details.

In other public safety news, in what has become an almost routine announcement by the selectmen, the Halifax Fire Department led by Chief Jason Vivieros has received yet another large grant, this time to replace 27 aging portable radios with new digital-capable radios that meet current communications standards. The grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency is a 95%/5% split, meaning the town will have to match a small portion of the $62,100 project.

• The Halifax Board of Selectmen will next meet on Tuesday, June 14 at 6 p.m.

• The Halifax Board of Selectmen will hold a public hearing on Tuesday, June 14 at 7:45 p.m. on an application from Morse Brothers, Inc. to remove 41,600 cubic yard of fill from their property. This material is on an elevated portion of their property and they seek to remove the material in order to increase cranberry yields on other portions of the property, according to town officials.  The 41,600 cubic yards of fill are equal to 1,665 truckloads of material. Morse Brothers, Inc. proposes transporting the material along Lingan Street to Route 58. The complete application is available for viewing in the Selectmen’s office.  Those with questions should contact Town Administrator Charlie Seelig, at 781-294-1316.

PLYMPTON– Plympton will hold a Town Election on Saturday, May 21, 2016, at Plympton Town House, 5 Palmer Road. Polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. There are ten available elected positions up for grabs, but only one, the race for a seat on the Board of Selectmen, is contested.

The other races with more than one name listed on the ballot are for two seats– on the Finance Committee and the Library Trustees– and allow the voter to choose two candidates.

Brian Cherry, of Trout Farm Lane, a facilities director for the Town of Duxbury, and John Traynor, Jr., of Crescent Street, who has been the Town Moderator for several years and is retired, are facing off for a three-year term on the Board of Selectmen for a seat which is being vacated by current Selectmen Chairman Mark Russo.

Richard Nordahl, of West Street, is seeking a three-year term as Assessor.

Chairman of the Board of Health Arthur Morin, Jr., of Granville Baker Way, is seeking another three-year term on the Board of Health.

Four candidates are seeking seats on the Finance Committee. Marilyn Browne, of Elm St, and Eric Hart, of Marie Elaine Drive are seeking three-year terms. Browne is a candidate for re-election. Nathaniel Sides, of Winnextuxet Road is seeking a two-year term on the committee. Susan Ossoff, of Upland Road is also seeking re-election, but for a one-year term.

Miranda Anne Boyles, of Spring Street, and Christine Winslow, of Brook Street, are both seeking three-year terms as Library Trustees. Both are candidates for re-election.

Brian Wick, of Winnetuxet Road, is running for a three-year term as Town Moderator.

Deborah Anderson, of Elm Street, is seeking re-election to the Planning Board for a five-year term.

Stephanie Dome, of Pope’s Farm, is seeking a three-year term on the Dennett School Committee. She also is a candidate for re-election.

HALIFAX– With 15 elected positions open, only 384, or 7%, of 5,344 registered voters took to the polls in Halifax on May 14.

Only three races on the ballot were contested, and no candidates filed papers for several of the seats, including both three-year terms on Holmes Public Library Board of Trustees, a five-year term on the Halifax Housing Authority and four-year and five-year terms on the Planning Board.

Thomas Millias, of South Street, who also is about to begin the second year of his first term with the Board of Selectmen, was re-elected to the Board of Assessors against Michael J. Schleifff, of Paradise Lane, 238-118.

Schleiff,  who received 144 votes, also lost his bid for Constable, the two seats being won by Thomas Hammond, of Paradise Lane, and Thomas Shindler, of Ninth Avenue, with 227 votes and 168 votes, respectively.

Schindler was also re-elected in an uncontested race as Parks Commissioner with 291 votes. John L. Weber, of Cranberry Drive, was re-elected, in an uncontested race, to the Board of Health, with 286 votes.

Kim Roy, of Plymouth Street, was re-elected as Selectman, unopposed, for a three-year term, her third term on the board.

Kimberly Cicone, of Highland Circle, won a three-year term on the Halifax Elementary School Committee, 203-108, besting Robert Baker of Holmes Street.  Paula Hatch of Oak Place was re-elected for a three-year term to the Silver Lake Regional School Committee.

Patricia McCarthy, of Parsons Lane, was elected to a four-year term on the Halifax Housing Authority, unopposed.

Karlis Skulte, of Rye Meadow Lane, won a four-year term on the planning board with 17 votes, but the seat for a five-year term resulted in a “failure-to-elect” sitation where no candidate is elected.

Robert Baker, of Holmes Street, and Madeline Flood, of Twin Lakes Drive, were both elected to the Board of Library Trustees for three-year terms as write-in candidates, but two open Planning Board seats resulted in  “failure-to-elect” situations, leaving them vacant.

First Saturday at the Plympton Public Library brought many patrons to hear a classical guitar performance by Glorianne Collver-Jacobson, a recent Plympton transplant, whose considerable education in music entertained many at the library for more than an hour.

Collver-Jacobson grew up in California and received her B.A. in music from the University of California, Berkley.  She took her junior year abroad in France, and summer in Spain.

Her classical guitar studies began when she was 14 and continued in Barcelona, Spain with Renata Tarrago.  She took international Master Classes with Julian Bream, Antonio Laro, Alirio Diaz and Manuel Barrueco, augmenting her training.  She also studied lute with Eugen Dombois and Hopkinson Smith at the Schola Cantorum Basilliensis in Basel, Switzerland.

Glorianne lived in Europe for some time, continuing her studies in music and also teaching.

After returning to the United States, she and her husband moved to New England in the 1980s, and moved to Plympton last July.   

She has performed in concert in Europe and the United States, both as soloist and with other artists.

Glorianne is a Senior Music Performance Faculty at Wellesley College teaching guitar and lute, and coaches ensembles for the Mather Chamber Music Program at Harvard University.

She promises to keep us informed of other concerts planned in the area.

HALIFAX– Halifax Selectmen met on Tuesday, April 12 and two major items dominated the meeting: an attempt to negotiate with Scott Clawson and Fieldstone Farms regarding an update to the 1993 legal contract with the town to give him more flexibility with his horseshows, and some bad news for Robert Bergstrom, who found out that due to zoning regulations, his planned “music event” to be held at Fieldstone Farms was not an acceptable use of the property in an agricultural zone, effectively ending the project as conceived. MudFest, held at Nessralla Farm, is also now in question, as the board may have erred in providing permits for the event previously, according to Robert Piccirilli, Halifax Building Inspector on advice of Town Counsel. The news was also not great for Clawson, who has been looking to diversify the events held at his farm.

Fieldstone Farms legal agreement

Scott Clawson, proprietor of Fieldstone Farms, was again before the board with his attorney, this time attempting to negotiate modifications to a years-old legal agreement that he and the town entered into in 1993 allowing him to hold commercial horse shows. The legal agreement was necessary because commercial horse shows were not considered an allowable agricultural use of the property at the time, which is in an agricultural/residential zone in Halifax.

Clawson wishes to add to the total number of shows per year that he can hold, but claims that for at least a few years they will not increase drastically. He also wants to allow more RVs to house staff –  (up from 5 to 25) that often accompany the valuable horses on show days. His attorney also debated with the Fire Chief, Jason Viveiros, over the type of medical personnel necessary at the shows, at one point even questioning Viveiros as to who he had spoken to at the state-level for his information.

Viveiros took the questioning of his authority in stride, but appeared visibly surprised at the remark. Selectmen Chairman Kim Roy made it quite clear that speaking for herself, not the whole board, that she would take the advice of Chief Viveiros on that matter.

Clawson, who was recently called before the Board for advertising more horse shows than were in his agreement, did not escape a rebuke from Selectman Troy Garron during the negotiations, who reminded Clawson, “You do remember how we got here, right?”

Two neighbors were present, and another who was not present wrote the board, all with noise concerns, as well as a concern about trash after the shows. Clawson stated that he will do more to control noise in the future and will work with neighbors on any issues they have.

The board will continue to negotiate the draft agreement with Clawson, but is seeking input from abutters, neighbors and the public before approving any changes and moving forward with the legal process of changing the agreement.

Bombshell Dropped On Bergstrom

Charlie Seelig, Halifax Town Administrator, delivered some bad news to Robert Bergstrom, who is known for his MudFest truck-racing event and more recently for planning a large-scale two-day concert to be held at Fieldstone Farms this summer.

Seelig and Building Inspector Robert Piccirilli had done some further zoning research, and consulted Town Land Counsel, and all agree that commercial or entertainment events cannot be held on property in an agricultural zone.

Thus the concert will not happen without a change in zoning by-laws, which require both the planning board’s approval and a 2/3 vote at Town Meeting, which cannot happen this year given how quickly town meeting is coming up. Seelig said that zoning by-laws are notoriously difficult to change, even for a future year.

MudFest, held at Nessrella Farm, is now being called into question as well. Seelig stated his belief that the board may have erred in their decision to permit that event previously, as they didn’t have that information at the time.

Selectmen Roy and Garron expressed that they wished they had had this information earlier, and Piccirilli stated, “This was not my intention. I was really looking for a way to fit you in [to the zoning by-laws].”

The only hope for MudFest is if the area of the property where it is held happens to be in a “conservancy zone”, but other zoning challenges exist, such as crossing differently zoned property to get to the event.

Bergstrom has worked diligently with the board for several years to put together the MudFest event that the board was initially skeptical towards, but has been increasingly popular and well-known, and the board did come around to support it in the past. Sadly for Bergstrom, it may need to find a new home.

In other news:

Town Clerk Barbara Gaynor is requesting that all Town Census forms, which were due in late January, be returned to Town Hall as soon as possible.