The Kingston Board of Selectmen met on Tuesday, March 14 and heard an update on the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant decomissioning.
Vice Chair of the Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel (NDCAP) Pine DuBois attended the meeting virtually to provide an update on the decommissioning of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant. DuBois said, “Pilgrim is in active decommissioning… that means that the reactor is not and never will run again. All of the fuel has been taken out of the reactor and is stored on the top of the hill… the reactor itself is being segmented so they cut the parts apart and they put those parts in the spent fuel pool… spent fuel, in my mind, is a misnomer since probably eighty-five percent of radioactive capacity is still in those canisters on the hill making them a very hazardous material and generally speaking we can’t count how many years it will be that way … right now the decommissioning plan is to remove that fuel by 2063… there is no place for it to go; for me the biggest issue we face is what to do with that and I am committed to figuring that out.”
The current plan for the site decommissioning is to complete the work by 2027. According to DuBois that is contingent upon Holtec Pilgrim moving through a modification of the current NPDES permit. “NPDES stands for non-point discharge elimination system permit that EPA and DEP jointly administer for the release of any polluted, contaminated or otherwise not pure water into the water of the United States and in this case Cape Cod Bay,” DuBois explained. DuBois said that there was “a lot of concern abut the Bay.” In late March a trust fund report from Holtec will show how much money is left in the decommissioning trust fund in addition to a schedule update. “I plan to have a site visit this week… our State delegation is going out there on Friday [March 17]… There’s a lot of eyes on the site… I would like to put everyone’s attention to the huge amount of fuel that is stored on the hill so that’s 45 years of waste fuel from the reactor – highly radioactive in dry cast storage – a fairly new technology – has 24-hour security; don’t go near there… we need to figure out where it is going to go ultimately,” DuBois said. DuBois shared some interesting tidbits such as Finland buries this kind of material in caves far under the sea surrounded by clay and copper. “France reprocesses all their fuel and has for 45 years so I would like to find out more about that,” DuBois said. DuBois said that Holtec has provided what is called an environmental site assessment. DuBois explained, “that includes what contaminants were there from when Boston Edison ran the plant, when Entergy ran the plant… not anything Holtec did, not anything that’s been part of decommissioning… there have been decontaminants found.” According to DuBois a public meeting will be held on March 27 at Plymouth Town Hall with zoom information available as well.
Upcoming Town Events
Selectmen Chair Kimberly Emberg provided some updates on upcoming events in town. Books in Bloom is sponsored by the Kingston Public Library and will run from April 5 through April 8 at the Library during regular business hours. Emberg said that those interested in submitting something for the event could complete the registration on the town’s website by April 1. Emberg also announced that the annual town election is scheduled for Saturday, April 22. The last day to register to vote for the election will be April 1.
The annual rabies clinic will be held on April 1 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Kingston Animal Shelter and the cost will be $10 per pet. Emberg also had a note from the Agricultural Commission that anyone interested in raising chickens in their backyard or currently raising chickens can attend a two-night seminar on April 18 and April 25 from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Kingston Council on Aging. While the event is free, you must register.
Selectman Sheila Vaughn also took a moment to implore parents to get their children registered for kindergarten as an accurate head count is vital.
“Spring is almost here which means it is time to start counting the herring,” Emberg said. She further said that anyone interested in doing so could visit Jonesriver.org/ecology/fishcount.
Vote on the Warrant
Town Administrator Keith Hickey said that they tried to include all articles that they were aware of in the warrant even if they would have to remove some later. The Selectmen voted to close the warrant.
Razor Clam Licenses
The Board also dealt with the issuing of razor clam licenses. Emberg said that typically the licenses are granted to those that held licenses in the previous year and are still interested in maintaining them. She said that the Shellfish Constable recommended that they grant the licenses to the 11 individuals requesting them. The recommendation is that the fee remain $300. The Selectmen confirmed that there was a waitlist for the licenses. Tyler Bouchard said that while he wasn’t entirely sure, he believed that the State is the one that recommends capping the licenses to 11. Vaughn pointed out that the 11 licenses appear to be spread across just three families. Bouchard said that most of those families are involved in commercial fishing. Vaughn then asked for and received confirmation that these licenses are just for commercial purposes and recreational fishermen do not need them.
Appointments and Town Administrator’s Updates
The Selectmen made several appointments including some to the Board of Registrars, the measure of wood and bark, an alternate member of the Zoning Board of Appeals, and several members to Kingston’s Three-Hundredth.
Hickey said that the Board had previously asked for an update on where the Town stands with ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) revenues. Hickey said they had just over $855,000 available for use. “We also expect to receive through the County an additional $1.185 million dollars in ARPA funds,” he told the Board. He said that Kingston’s share of the project to add HVAC units to Silver Lake Regional High School is $376,000. Hickey said that he would like to see ARPA funds used rather than raising and appropriating the money at Town Meeting. He also suggested to the Water Superintendent that they use ARPA funds for one of their purposes in the amount of just over $530,000.
Hickey told the Selectmen that the water damage to the Town House had been repaired. He said that the fiber project that is going to connect the Town House to all of the town and school buildings is ongoing. “The running of the fiber, I believe, is nearly complete,” Hickey said. He also told the Selectmen that the Health Agent and the Payroll Coordinator had resigned. Finally, he told the Selectmen that the Old Colony Planning Council had installed some traffic counters to be used in assessing things like the request to put a three way stop at the intersection of Maple St. and Landing Rd.

The Halifax Elementary School Committee met on Monday, March 6. Superintendent Jill Proulx went over the budget with the Committee. Earlier in the meeting Director of Business Services Christine Healy told the Committee that the shared cost budget represented an overall increase to Halifax of $58,778. Proulx told the Committee that the version of the budget before them did not include the 0.4 instrumental music position or the part-time math interventionist. The overall increase in the version presented was 1.97 percent. If the music position were added, the increase would be 2.2 percent and if both were added, it would represent a 2.5 percent increase to the total budget. Committee Chair Summer Schmaling said that she would like to see the instrumental position added to the budget. “I don’t think it’s a tall ask to put in $21,000 for our kids to have band, frankly. I think it is a great opportunity for us to share that position with the other towns in the district,” Schmaling said. She also said that she was reticent to use ESSER grant funding to fund any portion of the math interventionist position as those funds may not be available again next year and would instead like to see it added to the budget as a full-time position. Schmaling went on to say that her impression of “the tone of the town” is that 2 to 2.5 percent is a reasonable increase.
A motion was made to approve the 2023-2024 Halifax Elementary School operating budget of $6,359,846, the out- of-district special education tuition budget of $1,962,047, the out-of-district special education transportation budget of $797,759, and the out-of-district vocational education budget of $156,500. The budgets passed and included the full-time positions as discussed.
Schmaling told the Committee there was a request from Silver Lake Youth Cheer to have a flyer go out in the backpacks of students. Committee member Lauren Laws asked for clarification on the origins of the organization as they are not a school sport. Proulx clarified that this was a private rather than a school organization. Proulx explained, “Town organizations that are non-profit – we tend to send those out. This is not a clear-cut town non-profit organization because it is not just Halifax… it was approved last year by this Committee,” Proulx explained. She further said that it is brought before the School Committee for approval due to the policy on advertising. The Committee did vote unanimously to approve.
The Committee voted on the same two policies that were previously voted on by the Regional School Committee and Plympton Elementary School Committee. The first policy was about parental options for opting out of student surveys and the second policy was regarding who has access to security footage from school grounds. Regarding the former, Schmaling said that she vehemently opposed the policy as presented because she would rather the option be opt-in, rather than opt-out of student surveys. Schmaling said, “I just don’t like that they’re not in-house… because they are coming from MGH, Harvard, MPH, I’m good. I don’t think that other entities should have their tentacles in our kids’ brains.” Laws said that she would assume the administrators wouldn’t administer a survey if they didn’t approve of the questions. Another Committee member said that she would like to see there be at least three emails sent out providing opportunities to opt-out. Only Laws voted in favor of the policy and the policy failed to pass.
The security camera policy allows for security footage to be released to first responders in the event of an emergency as well as allowing for parents to come into the school to watch footage provided that student faces are blurred. The policy failed to pass as well. Schmaling told the Committee that she would share any feedback they might have with Jason Fraser, who chairs the Policy Sub-Committee.
Halifax Elementary School Principal Kayne Beaudry provided an update. He said that the Halifax Police Department has been doing safety presentations with each of the grade-levels to discuss different safety drills including lockdowns and fire drills. “Just sharing the overall message that the school is a safe place and what do we do when we come into those kind of emergency situations,” Beaudry explained.
He also told the Committee that they just celebrated Read Across America week with many special events including dress-up days centered around Dr. Suess. He said that the School Council was planning a survey to get feedback from parents during parent-teacher conferences. Those conferences will be held on March 23 which is also an early release day. A book fair will also be held that week.
Assistant Superintendent Ryan Lynch said that in February the elementary school principals in the Union along with Curriculum Coordinator Melissa Farrell attended an OpenSciEd curriculum training. “We learned about the new science units – the two science units that are being adopted in line with OpenSciEd; it’s about helping students learn about phenomena-based approach,” Lynch explained. He said the sixth-grade teachers also went to a training on it. He said that the hope is to eventually expand the program beyond sixth grade.

The Halifax Board of Selectmen met on Tuesday, Feb. 28. They began the meeting by going into Executive Session to discuss the possible discipline or termination of the Building Inspector James Perry. Selectman Naja Nessralla recused himself from the hearing and deliberation. Upon returning from Executive Session, Selectmen Chair John Bruno said that they voted to terminate Perry, effective immediately. According to the town’s website, Steven Solari has been named as the interim Building Inspector/Commissioner.
The Selectmen also held a hearing to determine if they will be opting-out of mail-in voting for local elections. Town Clerk Sue Lawless gave a brief description of the purpose of the hearing. Lawless said, “typically, these elections are low-interest and given the increase of unfunded mandates from the State, it would be a cost-savings for the town to opt-out. While I understand that the idea of vote-by-mail has become popular by many, I do not feel that the Town has made the changes necessary to support it. My office is currently a part-time office and the vote-by-mail process is very labor-intensive.” She went on to say that many residents did not return their mail-in ballots. Lawless also clarified that absentee voting will still be available. A new hearing would be held annually to determine whether to opt-out of mail-in voting.
The Selectmen opened the hearing to public comment. Resident Frederick Corrigan inquired what the cost was that made it prohibitive. Lawless said that while she didn’t have a dollar amount, the real issue was a staffing one. Corrigan responded saying, “I can’t see where we can take 437 people in this small town and say just because you’re old and you don’t have a car or you have a disability, you can’t vote.” “As stated previously, anybody with a disability or a reason why they cannot go to the polls, has an option to absentee ballot,” Lawless answered. Selectman Jonathan Selig said, “I can see both sides of the issue; I’m not into limiting voting access, if there’s a way, we can get creative to get people there – I have a minivan, I can drive folks there.” The Selectmen voted to opt-out of mail-in voting. Bruno noted that come May, if there’s an issue, they will make a different decision for next year.
Bruno said, “Just in case this crowd is here for the Morse Brothers part of the agenda, those four things are kind of standing things on our agenda until we get them resolved so we were supposed to have an inspection of the property today but because of the storm, we weren’t able to do that. We intend to get it done this week and we will report back to the Board this week… if anyone’s here for that, that’s all we’re going to talk about tonight is that part of the update.”
Town Administrator Cody Haddad asked the Board if they would like to reevaluate how reappointments are handled. Selig said that he would like to see the Boards and Committees become part of the appointment process since they have more expertise on the specific subject matter than the Selectmen. Bruno said that he is usually in favor of reappointments and noted that in his career as a Selectmen, he can only recall maybe one time where he didn’t vote in favor of reappointment. Bruno said that if a Board has an opinion on a reappointment, he would certainly be in favor of hearing their input.
Haddad addressed getting specialized training for Boards and Committees including 40B training for the Zoning Board of Appeals. He said that they have reached out to necessary parties to setup the trainings. He said he is also working with the Attorney General’s office to set up some open meeting law trainings including some that are specific to Halifax.
Haddad also addressed a grant application for Halifax Mobile Home Estates to have trees removed at a cost of $750,000. “I have been working with the State to draft an application… but ultimately my recommendation would be… to vote to allow the Town Administrator to submit it… if we are awarded it, then you would vote to approve it.” The Selectmen need to oversee the project. The Selectmen agreed to pursue the grant on behalf of the Mobile Home Estates.
The Selectmen also dealt with a live entertainment request for Halifax Pride. Authorization has already been granted for use of the Town Green on June 17. The entertainment would include Silver Lake Regional High School students, a family-friendly drag performance, and a DJ. The request was already approved by the Fire and Police Chiefs as well as the Board of Health. The Selectmen voted unanimously to approve the entertainment request. The Selectmen also fielded a request for use of the Town Green on Saturday, April 22 by the Boy Scouts for a bottle/food drive fundraising event. The Selectmen also approved this request.
Haddad told the Selectmen that they had a team formed in town to work on the Council on Aging project which had some funding approved during Town Meeting. He said they would need to come into compliance with Massachusetts procurement law which requires that a building project projected at over $1.5 million must bring in a project manager to oversee the whole process. The Selectmen approved Haddad moving forward as necessary.
Haddad addressed the MBTA Action Plan that had been the subject of much debate during recent Selectmen’s meetings. The Selectmen had ultimately voted to approve moving forward with the Action Plan. Haddad said, “On Feb. 17, I received a letter from the State under Secretary of the Department of Public Housing and Community Development… notifying us that they have accepted our Action Plan and that we are in interim compliance through December 31 of 2024.” He further said that he had a meeting with Old Colony Planning Council for technical assistance moving forward.