The Kingston Board of Selectmen met Oct. 10. During Open Forum, Ronnie Litif of 119 Three Rivers Dr. in Barrows Brook Village took to the microphone. “I want to bring up a longstanding issue that has been neglected by the town, the builder, and people that have lived in my neighborhood before me; I’ve lived there for three years… I’m asking the Board to help us get the builder to finish the remaining items that were part of the comprehensive permit to build Barrows Brook Village,” Litif explained. He said that they have a full list of items needing finishing and can provide it to necessary parties. He noted that there is no HOA and that many people who moved there were falsely told that there was an HOA. He mentioned severe potholes as well as a lack of streetlights. “I’m concerned for my neighborhood and the future of it,” he said. Emberg explained that while there can’t be a conversation about the issue during open forum, if he left his contact information, someone would help him “navigate the situation.”
Resident Danielle Dennison of 176 Main St. spoke next. “I don’t know if this has been brought up before… I have two small children and we like to walk to school, and we like to walk to the cemetery, and the sidewalks are kind of in a crumbling situation in a lot of spots. There’s not a lot of curbs, and I think if someone was in a wheelchair, I don’t think they can access it very well,” Dennison said. She mentioned the number of joggers and babies in strollers and said she felt it was just a matter of time before someone gets hurt. She also brought attention to the traffic light where Main St. and Brook St. meet saying she felt it would be useful to have a walk button there.
Emberg said that a member of the Planning Board resigned over the summer. She said that they received one letter of interest from Alexander Graham of 22 May Ave. Graham, who said he has been a resident for five years, attended the meeting. “I’m interested in joining the Planning Board primarily because I’m from Western Massachusetts originally; I’m from a small town like this and I was heavily involved with the community when I was growing up and I’ve been here for, like I said, five years. I commute in and out of Boston nearly every day, I do a lot of going to work and coming home, going to work and coming home. Not that I’m not busy enough with work and my family but I really am missing that sense of community and I think this is a good opportunity for me to get out and meet people,” Graham said. He also said he takes a lot of pride in where he lives and hopes to raise his family in Kingston long-term. Graham is a senior commercial project manager that does business with the MBTA. He noted that they are actively working on fixing up the Green Line. A member of the Planning Board asked if he planned to run for the position during the election. Graham said, “that is my intention.” He was unanimously appointed. Mary Harriman was also unanimously appointed to the Council on Aging Advisory Board.
During the meeting, Town Administrator Keith Hickey told the Selectmen, “I want to come to the Board tonight to make sure that the Board is supportive of applying for a Community Compact Grant to study the regionalization of the Kingston, Halifax, and Plympton school departments with the Silver Lake Regional School Department.” Currently the towns are regionalized only at the middle school and high school level while each of the three towns’ elementary schools act as their own school committees. He said that the Halifax School Committee and Halifax Board of Selectmen have approved the proposal as well as the Kingston School Committee. He said that the assumption is that the Plympton School Department will not be supportive.
Hickey said, “One of the topics that the grant money is available for is regionalization and I’m not sitting here tonight suggesting that it is a good or bad thing to fully regionalize the schools… I’ve heard from a number of people that there is some potential, significant savings and elimination of duplications of effort that currently go on now because there are four separate school boards that the Superintendent has to work with.” Emberg asked if it required all three towns to apply for the grant. Hickey said that it did not but noted that the Superintendent is concerned about supporting the grant while one of the three towns is not supportive.
Kingston Selectman Eric Crone, who spent many years on various school committees, noted the difficulties associated with the Superintendent reporting to four different school committees. Crone noted that Kingston and Plympton often have more money to spend on the school budgets than Halifax. He said that regionalization could potentially aid with some of those issues. The Selectmen agreed to approve the grant application.
Selectmen Tyler Bouchard and Eric Crone provided an update on the Police Chief search. Bouchard said they had a good meeting with the working group the previous Friday. “The posting will be going out this week… we will reconvene in 30 days… we’re waiting for those applications to come in,” Bouchard said. Emberg mentioned that they had agreed upon a wide range for the salary and asked if they narrowed it down or kept it broad. Bouchard explained that they felt that keeping the salary range wide would provide for more applicants. Crone said, “we will be doing a survey… we got some sample survey questions… from towns across the State from their searches… we should be able to gather some good information from folks in town to get a wide range.” Bouchard added that the survey would be available on the website. Paper copies would also be available at the Town Clerk’s office. Bouchard also said that they were advised as a Board not to talk to anyone who may be applying for the position to avoid any claims of favoritism.
Bouchard spoke regarding the MBTA Zoning Task Force. He said, “Kingston did receive a waiver… one of the biggest controversial [things] was that everything had to be within 0.5 miles of an MBTA station… Kingston got a waiver that allows a certain portion to be outside of that.” He continued saying that the new owner of the mall was approached regarding some multi-use including housing. “There’s a potential that we could come into compliance with this thing while having housing that’s possibly inevitable… while also satisfying the needs of the MBTA zoning… that mall fits into the category,” Bouchard explained.
Hickey provided a financial update saying that an indicator of financial strength is the town’s excess capacity levy on property taxes. He said that it has averaged around $1 million to $1.5 million and noted that it is now $2.5 million. Crone brought up that the excess levy capacity is taken into account by the State when deciding how much Chapter 70 funding the schools will receive. He asked if the doubling of the excess levy capacity could end up being a bad thing since the schools could be “dinged.” Hickey said that he was unsure but would find out an answer.
He also told the Selectmen that the new playground is now open. “The slide I’ve heard… is a great slide,” he said. Hickey also told the Selectmen that the Town has contracted with Old Colony Planning to perform a study on traffic patterns to help decide how best to redevelop certain areas of Route 3 from Duxbury to Plymouth. He said that the Jones River and sea river rise would also be incorporated into the planning. He also said that he and others attended the Duxbury Highway Safety Committee meeting to discuss ways to reduce heavy truck traffic on Landing and Bay Roads.
Chair Kimberley Emberg said there were several openings on various Boards and Committees. She pointed interested residents to the town’s website but drew special attention to an opening on the Old Colony Elder Services Board. “Their purpose is to support the independence and dignity of older adults and individuals with disabilities by providing essential information and services that promote health and safe living,” Emberg explained.
Emberg also said that new water rates take effect on November 1 and noted that those increased rates would be reflected in the March 2024 quarterly bills.

The Halifax Board of Selectmen met Tuesday, Oct. 10.
Chair John Bruno led the meeting saying, “I would like to begin the meeting tonight with just a brief comment and a recognition of the passing of John Campbell. For those of us who have had the pleasure of knowing Mr. Campbell, he was a wonderful gentleman – lived in Halifax, I think somewhere around the order of 60 years and was involved in projects for 60 years. The Council on Aging, and in particular, I don’t think there is a building in town that he doesn’t have his name on… he helped rebuild all the buildings in town.” Selectman Jonathan Selig echoed the sentiments and said that during the playground project, he was willing to print anything that was needed through his business and never charged the town. Selectman Naja Nessralla said that Campbell was a family friend and that he would “give you the shirt off his back.”
The Selectmen’s first appointment of the night was with Ed Bryan for an appointment to the Finance Committee. Bryan would be finishing an existing term that would end in 2026. “I have looked at your talent bank and it is impressive,” Bruno said. Selig said that he knew Bryan personally and thought he would make a great addition to the Finance Committee. Given his personal relationship, however, Selig did abstain from the vote. The Chair of the Finance Committee also spoke recommending Bryan. Bruno and Nessralla voted unanimously to appoint him.
Cam Russell also appeared before the Board to discuss his proposal for his Eagle Scout project. He was proposing to make a board that will go by the flagpole on the town green, explaining different elements of the flag, including the folds and the ball at the top. “I’m excited and I wholeheartedly support this project,” Selig said. Scout Master Peter Burgess spoke saying it would be “high-quality, weather-proof, no maintenance to the town.”
Health Agent Bob Valery spoke to the Selectmen regarding a public health excellence grant. Of the grant, Valery said, “There is a distinct goal that is prevention through education, disease tracking, enforcement of existing sanitary codes, and then what’s the exact inspectional process… the grant itself, funded through the State… establishes a minimum public health standard for communities, it increases capacity and effectiveness by incentivizing shared services, create a uniform data collection and reporting system, and increase, near to my heart, equity.” He continued saying that the State would fund them to do anything above and beyond where they currently are at least through 2027. “We are trying to hit anybody that has been historically left behind,” Valery said. “I appreciate you guys and the work that you do,” Selig said of the Health Department. He continued, “This is going to give us more coverage as far as the level of service for health in this town and I think residents should be excited that this exists and that, like you say, it’s not going to cost us anything extra but we’re going to get extra services which I’m all for.”
The Selectmen also met with the head of Halifax Youth Baseball and Softball, Pete Barone regarding a proposal for a new scoreboard for the field near the Police Station. “Basically, we are paying for everything,” Barone said of the plans. He said that they hoped to have it up by the spring. Bruno asked if it would be considered a donation to the town and was told that the town would own it. Selig said that Halifax hosts the biggest town tournament in New England for softball every year for the last two decades. The Selectmen voted unanimously to approve the scoreboard.
Town Administrator Cody Haddad addressed the property at 265 Monponsett (Halifax Trails). Thorndike Development has proposed a development on the land which includes a senior center. “We’ve been working since the Board authorized me to negotiate with them on a Master Development Agreement and draft zoning; we actually met earlier today and with the assistance of Town Counsel, we were able to nail down the zoning language to be proposed at the Special Town Meeting in December… we’re hoping that at your Oct. 24 meeting, we will look to have Thorndike in to present their Master Development Agreement,” Haddad said. Haddad also went over some of the zoning changes that would need to pass in order to allow the development to continue. He asked the Selectmen to recommend it to the Planning Board so they can start their process and eventually it could be voted on at Town Meeting.
The Selectmen also discussed the salary range for the Building Commissioner position. Bruno said that they have been searching for candidates to fill the position since March. “It seems to me, our pay scale is just out of whack for what we would be able to get,” Bruno said. Haddad said, “We’ve been actively recruiting for this for some time; we really have not gotten a significant number of qualified applicants.” Haddad said the average salary for neighboring communities is around $92k while the range Halifax is hiring at tops out around $79k. Haddad asked for a salary adjustment. The Selectmen agreed to increase the salary grade.
In other business, Haddad said they did receive an application for earth removal for Morse Brothers and are in the process of scheduling a public hearing. He said the date would be in the newspaper. Regarding Board and Department trainings, Haddad said they would be doing a three-part training for Department heads in November. Regarding staffing he said that they are currently conducting interviews for the Outreach Coordinator position for the Council on Aging. He said that they have also scheduled interviews for the Conservation Agent. He also said that he started taping “Cody’s Corner” which is a segment with Area 58 on different things going on in Halifax.
Before adjourning, Selig thanked Scott Materna and his department for lighting the Town Hall pink for the month of October.