The Halifax Board of Assessors has conducted a comprehensive reassessment of all classes of properties in the Town of Halifax as mandated by the Massachusetts Department of Revenue.

The Assessors have received Preliminary Certification from the Massachusetts Department of Revenue.

The proposed assessed values reflect the estimated market value of properties as of January 1, 2021, based on sales in calendar years 2019 and 2020.

The revaluation resulted in typical Residential value increases of 10% to 14%.

As part of the Public Disclosure Period the proposed Fiscal Year 2022 valuations will be available for review beginning Monday, August 23, 2021, through Friday, August 27, 2021, in the Assessors’ Office in Town Hall daily from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Friday.  The valuations are also available online at https://www.halifax-ma.org/PRST.

Taxpayers may contact the Board of Assessors with questions regarding the proposed assessments at (781) 293-5960.

The Halifax Board of Selectmen met in-person on August 10. Fire Chief Jason Viveiros met with the Selectmen to discuss COVID. “Obviously things have not gotten better, they have gotten worse during the last few weeks,” Town Administrator Charlie Seelig said. He further said that the number of cases in Halifax have increased to the levels last seen in April. He said the Board would need to reconsider whether they wanted to review policies related to COVID including the masking policy in town buildings. Selectman Chair Gordon Andrews updated the Board that the schools made a decision to follow the recommendations of DESE, the CDC, and the DPH in requiring rather than mandating masks.

Seelig provided vaccination statistics for Halifax youth saying that for 12–15-year-olds the rate stood at 38 percent and 49 percent for ages 16-19. The rates tended to increase with the age of the residents. “A quarter of the population of Halifax is not vaccinated yet,” Seelig said. Andrews said he was not comfortable making a change to the masking policy at the moment. Viveiros said he was watching different towns that were starting to implement mask mandates. “I think waiting another week or so and reevaluating it is fine,” he said. Viveiros also discussed the possibility of receiving tests from the State to be administered. The Director of the Council on Aging said that as of today they have begun recommending masks as they are meeting in small quarters. She said everyone was very receptive of it and masks were available on site.

Andrews recused himself but the rest of the Board unanimously voted to appoint Chris Carmichael as Alternate Building Inspector for Certificates of Occupancy. The Board also voted to appoint and reappoint the list of election workers through June of 2022.

There was also a continuation of a discussion on the Zoning By-Law Review Committee from a previous meeting. It was agreed that the Board would like to see as part of that Committee, the Building Inspector, a member of the Finance Committee, a member of the Board of Selectmen, and two members at large.

Andrews recused himself from the rescheduling of a new public forum for a Host Community Agreement (HCA) with Green Earth Cannabis. Andrews’ father owns land within close proximity to the proposed site. The Board had previously voted in June not to enter into an HCA with the company but agreed to rescind its previous vote and hold a new public forum to avoid litigation against the town. The Board agreed to hold the forum on Monday, August 30 at 7 p.m.

Seelig told the Board there was a petition article submitted by August 10 with more than 100 signatures. The proposed zoning by-law amendment would restrict the number of marijuana dispensaries in town to one. Seelig said the Selectmen could submit it to the Planning Board that night but noted it would still need a public hearing. “It’s doubtful it’s going to be voted on at the Town Meeting on September 8,” Seelig said. The Selectmen voted unanimously to send it onto the Planning Board.

Seelig told the Board that the Council on Aging (COA) was interested in potentially increasing its number of members. Seelig also told the Selectmen that he had received a talent bank form for Ivy Matheny who was interested in working with the Council on Aging and potentially as the Veteran’s Agent.

Town Accountant Sandra Nolan and Recycling Co-ordinator Sue Johnston met with Selectmen to discuss the recycling fee process including abatements. Nolan said that one of the big issues is that they want to ensure that residents are recycling. Nolan said that this year they had at least 12 households who had their recycling fee abated and then tried to use the recycling center halfway through the year. “I think that people don’t understand that that recycling fee is not just for curbside; it also supports the whole functioning of the recycling center,” Nolan said. She continued, “It is really a huge benefit to the townspeople as far as having a place you can go with your old couch.” She called the fee “nominal.” Andrews summarized the conversation saying it would be a $50 recycling bill for FY2022 with a 60-day abatement window.

Library Director Jean Gallant and the Library Trustees had an appointment with the Selectmen in order to vote to fill a vacancy on the Trustee Board. There were two candidates interested. The Library Trustees made a motion to appoint Susan Hill. Both the Selectmen and the Trustees voted unanimously to appoint Hill to fill the remaining vacancy.

Seelig went over some of the articles on the upcoming Town Meeting warrant including one by the Chief of Police to take the town out of civil service. There is another for additional money needed by Silver Lake in the amount of $130,890. Seelig said it was the difference between what was appropriated at Town Meeting and what is needed. The Water Department also needs to put more money in their return line item. Article 17 would remove the buffer between marijuana establishments and liquor pouring establishments. Article 19 is in regard to traffic safety. Seelig said he would need to speak with Highway Surveyor Steve Hayward to find out what exactly the article would and would not cover with respect to things like sidewalks.

Tyler Nordgren met with the Selectmen regarding his application to be appointed to the Historical Commission. Asked by Selectman Ashley DiSesa why he wanted to apply, Nordgren explained, “I like historical sites and I would like to help preserve them as they are important to the community.” Nordgren, who has lived in town since he was 8, said he hasn’t recently attended Town Meeting but plans to attend the next one. The Board voted unanimously to appoint him to a three-year term.

The meeting ended with the official swearing in of Michael Boncariewski as a full-time Police Officer.

The Halifax Board of Selectmen held a brief meeting on Friday, August 6 to reconsider a previous vote. Selectmen Chair Gordon Andrews and Selectman Troy Garron were in-person and Selectman Ashley DiSesa was participating remotely.

Aside from Executive Session, on the agenda was the reconsideration of a vote from their June 11 meeting not to enter into a Host Community Agreement (HCA) with Green Earth Cannabis, Inc. Andrews recused himself from the initial vote as well as the reconsideration as his father owns property within close proximity to the proposed lot. On June 11, Garron said that he had heard from many residents who opposed the establishment.

Director of Operations for Green Earth Cannabis Robert Maker had appeared before the Board of Selectmen during their July 13 meeting to plead his case and ask them to reconsider their decision. Maker said he has lived in town for 27 years and asked the Board to consider his ties as well as his contributions to the community over those years. Maker had also said that they hoped to create jobs for local Halifax residents. “We are preparing to mitigate whatever impact the facility may have on the neighbors,” Maker had also said at the time.

Town Administrator Charlie Seelig explained at the Friday meeting, “If the Board rescinds its previous vote from June 11, we’re basically starting from that point where the Board has not made any decision. A person or entity is entitled to appeal an action taken by a municipality within 60 days of said action. As the 60-day deadline is this week, Green Earth Cannabis does not need to file suit against Halifax as long as the Board of Selectmen vote to rescind their decision not to sign the HCA. This saves on legal costs for both sides.

DiSesa confirmed with Seelig that if after going through all the motions, they could still decide against entering into an HCA with Green Earth. Seelig assured her that they could. A public forum/ hearing on the HCA will likely be scheduled for later this month. If, after that forum, the Selectmen still decide not to sign the HCA, Green Earth will have the opportunity to appeal the decision. Garron made a motion to rescind their previous vote and DiSesa seconded making it unanimous.

MILTON — Curry College congratulates roughly 1,000 students who were named to the Spring 2021 Dean’s List including:

Kayla Knudsen of Halifax, Samantha Duffy of Kingston, Trevor King of Kingston, Bruce Nobles of Halifax, Valerie Willette of Kingston, Allyson Colanino of Halifax, Sarah Busby of Kingston, Rachele Bouchard of Kingston, and Melanie Stoltz of Halifax.

Curry College, founded in Boston in 1879, is a private, co-educational, liberal arts-based institution located on 131 acres in Milton, Massachusetts. The College extends its educational programs to a continuing education branch campus in Plymouth. The College offers 22 undergraduate majors in specialized and liberal arts programs, as well as graduate degrees in accounting, business, education, criminal justice, and nursing to a combined enrollment of nearly 2,500 students.

The student body consists of 1,700 traditional students and nearly 800 continuing education and graduate students. The College offers a wide array of co-curricular activities ranging from 15 NCAA Division III athletic teams to an outstanding theatre and fine arts program. Visit us on the web at www.curry.edu.

MIILTON — Curry College is proud to announce that Allyson Colanino of Halifax, has been inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society.

Curry College’s Chapter, Theta at Large, began in 1953 when it was chartered as only the seventh Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau. A group of nurses attending Boston University set out to establish an organization that would represent the best of what nursing offered in this part of the world. Boston University would stand tall for the ensuing 37 years, as the “institution of record” for the Chapter, until 1990 when it was re-chartered to include Curry College in Milton, Mass., and Simmons College in Boston – thereby establishing an “at-large” distinction.

Today, the chapter has over 900 active members linked among three unique institutions. Theta at Large has many reasons to be proud as it forges into the new millennium.

We are active in supporting local nursing scholars through our ongoing research and academic awards program. Our fall and spring programs offer members an opportunity to connect with each other and engage in scholarly educational discourse. We are thrilled to routinely send members to destinations around this country and abroad, to leadership conferences, academic events, member forums, and the biennial convention during which representatives from all chapters from around the world gather.

About Curry College

Curry College, founded in Boston in 1879, is a private, co-educational, liberal arts-based institution located on 131 acres in Milton, Massachusetts. The College extends its educational programs to a continuing education branch campus in Plymouth. The College offers 22 undergraduate majors in specialized and liberal arts programs, as well as graduate degrees in accounting, business, education, criminal justice, and nursing to a combined enrollment of nearly 2,500 students. The student body consists of 1,700 traditional students and nearly 800 continuing education and graduate students. The College offers a wide array of co-curricular activities ranging from 15 NCAA Division III athletic teams to an outstanding theatre and fine arts program. Visit us on the web at www.curry.edu.

The Halifax School Committee met in-person at the Halifax Town Hall on Thursday, July 1. They began the meeting with a reorganization of the Committee. Summer Schmaling was nominated to serve as Chair and the vote was unanimous. Schmaling then went on to nominate Gordon Andrews as Vice Chair. New Committee member Lauren Laws asked for a brief description of each of the roles before nominating herself to serve as Vice Chair. She cited Andrews’ many responsibilities including his role as one of the town’s Selectmen as a reason. Both Andrews and Laws received seconds to their nominations so the Committee then voted. Andrews narrowly bested Laws for the role of Vice Chair. Laws was instead nominated and voted in as secretary. Jim Keegan was named to the Pilgrim Area Collaborative.

Schmaling opened the floor for public participation. A member of the audience expressed frustration that she would not be allowed to speak later in the meeting during a discussion on a particular topic. “I’m here because I’m extremely upset with the climate and I don’t want to add to the negative climate within town and I have a few requests of the Board that I would like you to take with an open mind and would like the community to take with an open mind,” the resident said. She went on to say that Superintendent Jill Proulx was aware of the situation.

She continued, “I have requested all of the public documents and emails regarding the practice.” After being asked for clarification, she said she was referring to the dispute surrounding the peace flag being hung in classrooms. She said, “I thought the Pride event was wonderful; I look forward to it next year, but with the Peace flag, I have two children in the school, they were currently in second and fourth grade this year. I don’t believe the administration handled it very well and I requested, as I can, everything publicly available… there was over 1,000 emails.” She said that the price tag for obtaining all of this documentation is over $1,000.

“What did come to my attention, and I think that the public deserves to know, is that although individuals may not personally wish to have litigation or sue when they contacted the Attorney General’s office; the Attorney General can bring litigation and lawsuits forward to the town. I believe that is something that the general populace of the town of Halifax deserves to know…. As a parent I can tell you that my own son attempted suicide on April 7 of this year and it was in regards to what was going on at the school; it wasn’t another student, it happened to be the way the administration handled something incorrectly over the years and a staff member at the school.” She identified herself as a Girl Scout leader and said that half of her troop self-harms or has suicidal ideation. “This is a problem that we need to address,” she said. she also went on to urge understanding, inclusion, and appropriate accommodation of those that identify as LGBTQ+.

“I know that there are multiple staff at the school, teachers, paraprofessionals, administration that in the past have taken the youth mental health first aid course. I would like to request from the Board that the paraprofessionals be required to take it and if… you guys need to have negotiations with union staff and other things to have step raises as they do at Town Hall and other things for those that have different certifications and such, that those discussions happen.” She cited an unfortunate incident between her own son and a paraprofessional at the school as her motivation for wanting to see them all trained properly. She mentioned the mental health challenges that are sure to be seen once school resumes in late summer saying, “We have wonderful staff at the school… but I don’t think the district is ready; honestly I don’t think any district is ready.” She also requested that those on recess duty have their simple CPR training.

Before concluding her remarks, she added, “I’m also really bothered, as a parent in 2021, that students that have invisible disabilities are not addressed more… I never should have had to hire an attorney to get my kid what he needed.” She also criticized the behavior, particularly on social media, of some of those currently sitting on the Diversity and Inclusivity Subcommittee.

Director of Business Services Christine Healy provided the Committee with a financial closeout. Healy acknowledged that there were some “unusual events” but said, “thank goodness we made it successfully through the year.” She listed some of the savings including regular transportation and homeless transportation. Special education transportation, however, was a deficit of nearly $28,000. Healy said that she requested a line-item transfer to move funds from the regular day budget. “We do have money left in the special education portion of that to offset these costs,” she explained. She acknowledged that they struggled with their Circuit Breaker funds and said that they will be going into next school year with $100,000 less in these funds than usual. Healy told the Committee that the regular day budget will be ending with a surplus of $84,000 before the $28,000 line-item transfer. Healy also said there was a surplus of over $36,000 in out of district vocational.

Before adjourning, the Committee turned their attention to the Subcommittees. Schmaling provided an update on Youth and Rec saying that they did a STEM program through June at the Elementary School. She also said that the gym floors will be re-sanded, re-lined, and refinished this summer and referred to it as a total makeover. “We are very fortunate that we have such a strong Youth and Rec department here in Halifax because they really do provide a lot for our kids in terms of sports which is great,” she said. Schmaling also said that the department will be looking to replace the existing tennis and basketball courts behind the schools at some point as well.

Here is a look at how the Silver Lake High varsity sports teams fared last week

Boys Lacrosse

The Lakers had their season come to a close after facing off against a tough Hingham opponent in the Division 1 South quarterfinal. They lost the game 17-6 on the road on Tuesday, June 22. In the loss to Hingham, Brandon Cavicchi scored a team-high two goals for the Lakers. Other than Cavicchi, a few other players scored goals for the Lakers against Hingham. They include: Jackson Nugent, Chris Broderick (1 assist), Tommy Condon (1 assist), and Will Cronin (1 assist). It was the first varsity goal of Nugent’s career.

Softball

The Lakers picked up a 17-5 win over the Hopkinton Hillers on Monday, June 21. Two days later, the Lakers beat Mansfield 8-5 in the Division 1 South quarterfinal. However, their season came to an end with a 14-1 loss to Bridgewater-Raynham on June 24.

Track

Select Lakers athletes competed at All-States. On the boys’ side, Sam Shirikjian came in seventh in the triple jump and 10th place in the long jump on June 26. On the girls’ side, Riley Paskow had the top performance for the Lakers. She came in 20th in the 400 meter. Additionally, the girls competed in their Division 1 South championship meet on Sunday, June 20.

At that meet, Paskow came in fourth in the 400 meter and seventh in the long jump while Toni Ierardi came in sixth in shotput and seventh in discus.

KINGSTON (June 16, 2021) – State Representative Kathleen LaNatra (D – Kingston), along with her colleagues in the Massachusetts Legislature, passed legislation on Tuesday evening that extends numerous popular provisions adopted during the State of Emergency. The State of Emergency, which was put in place by Governor Baker on March 10, 2020 in response to the pandemic, came to an end on June 15th.

The legislation, which passed both the House and Senate, paves the way for continued remote meetings of public bodies until April 20, 2022, as well as continued remote permission for representative town meetings, nonprofit member meetings, notary services and reverse-mortgage loan counseling. It also included certain eviction protections, flexibilities for assisted living residences, and allowed for medical assistants, podiatrists, phlebotomists, and certain military personnel to administer COVID-19 vaccines.

The House and Senate were able to reach a compromise late on Tuesday afternoon regarding numerous measures that effects restaurants in the Commonwealth.

The legislation permits to-go beer, wine and cocktail sales through May 1, 2022, so long as the takeout and delivery drinks are sold at the same price as those beverages consumed on-site. Special permits for expanded outdoor dining will be valid until April 1, 2022, avoiding an original expiration date of 60 days after the end of the State of Emergency.

“While we are certainly nearing the end of this difficult pandemic, it is not over yet, and it was crucial that we extended some protections for the residents of the Commonwealth,” said Rep. Kathy LaNatra (D – Kingston). “I was thrilled to support this important piece of legislation and see it passed.

Ensuring that our restaurants are able to take full advantage of the economic recovery by keeping outdoor dining and take-out beer, wine, and cocktails. While many are comfortable meeting in-person, many members of town bodies and people who want to attend are not, so this was an important step to keeping people safe.”

 The legislation was signed by the Governor on Wednesday.