The Halifax Board of Selectmen met Tuesday, March 28. Representatives of Thorndike Development, including President Lloyd Geisinger, appeared before the Selectmen to discuss the development of the property at 265 Monponsett St. Geisinger said they also purchased 266 across the street. He said that they were considering a senior housing alternative that would be a much smaller project in scale than the one originally presented. Geisinger said it would require town meeting action. He said that each building would be three stories and have 36 apartments.
Geisinger said that one problem was that projects of this scale require an on-site sewerage treatment facility and they run $2.5 million to build. “They push these types of developments into that 200-unit range because to do any less… winds up making the projects uneconomic,” he explained. He said if they were to go the senior housing route, they could make it work financially to reduce the 200-unit affordable housing option that would not be age-restricted to a 72-unit senior, over 55+, housing facility. The units would be “for sale” condominiums that would go for $400,000 and up. Geisinger said that Thorndike Development would consider donating some of the land and assisting financially in the development of a new Council on Aging building in close proximity to the residential building. He said that they would even potentially consider gifting the town the land as well as paying for the construction.
Selectmen Chair John Bruno said, “I’m enthusiastic about it; I’ll say that right up front.” He continued, “I know that land is going to get developed eventually; it’s just sitting there too long without being developed so to make it fit in the character is really my biggest concern. I don’t know, with two buildings in that one big area is much better than those 200 units you had in there before.” He noted that Lydon Lane was over 100 units. “I would love to move forward with it,” Bruno concluded. Selectman Jonathan Selig said, “I don’t think we should shut it down; I think it’s definitely worth kicking the tires on.” Selectman Naja Nassralla agreed saying he liked the idea of the Council on Aging being placed nearby.
The Board of Selectmen voted to approve a contract with American Thunder Fireworks in the amount of $12,500 that will be covered by donations. It was announced during the meeting that MacDonald Industries had recently donated $10,000 to the Halifax Fireworks Committee.
The Board of Selectmen voted to sign off on and approve a Municipal Employee Disclosure for Margaret Selter. Selter will be working two separate jobs now as an administrative assistant for the Board of Health as well as Conservation.
Town Administrator Cody Haddad told the Selectmen that the twenty-first annual Harbor to the Bay bike ride will take place on September 23. They plan to make a pit stop in Halifax at the Halifax boat ramp. The Police Department had previously signed off and the Selectmen voted to approve it.
Haddad told the Selectmen that after going through the procurement and receiving bids for the Pine Street bridge work, they “actually came in lower than expected.” He continued, “This has been a project that has been in the works for quite some time.” The Selectmen voted to approve the contract in the amount of $984,500 with Kenefick Corporation. It had previously been approved by Haddad and Highway Surveyor Steve Hayward.
Bruno talked about holding the Selectmen’s meetings at various locations throughout town. “It gives us the opportunity to have people on tv see some of the town buildings and departments; we’ll emphasize that department when we go there… places that will work… the Library, the Fire House, the Recycling Center, the Town Barn, maybe the School… it gives the town the opportunity to see some of these things,” Bruno said. He said that it would give recognition to some people that might not ordinarily get it for the jobs they do well.
Haddad said that at a previous Selectmen’s meeting, the Parks Department had requested utilization of some earmarked funds. The Board had asked for some more defined uses. They also asked that Parks reach out to Youth and Recreation Commission Director Dick Steele to see if he had interest in the funds. Haddad said that Steele has presented several projects that he would like to have completed with half of the funding which is $25,000. Haddad said he is looking to do a turf area, install batting cages, some fencing behind the elementary school, and some field work. Haddad said he has not heard back from Parks regarding their intended uses though he noted their preference was to use the bulk of the money since they don’t receive the same funding as Youth and Rec.
Bob Kniffen and Robert Hodge appeared before the Selectmen on behalf of the Friends of the Library to get permission to place two small, little free libraries on town property at HOPS under the gazebo and another on the Route 36 beach area. He said the books would be donations from the Friends of the Library book sale. The Selectmen voted to approve the request.
Haddad addressed the ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds that were received by both the Town and the County. He said that while much of that money was earmarked for water, sewer, HVAC, etc. he noted that some of it was for lost funds. He said that the money would need to be spent by 2024. He asked the Selectmen for approval on these projects saying that it would leave about $100,000 in ARPA funding available. The first project was HR services as the Town doesn’t have a dedicated Human Resources department. He said that another project, that he was still waiting for a final number for, was the school HVAC. Another project was $50,000 for replacing town furniture that was badly worn. There was also $50,000 for upgrading the Great Hall to make it better for meetings. There was another request for adding a separate sleeping arrangement to the Fire House. There were a number of other requests including an IT consultant for $30,000. The Selectmen agreed that all of the projects felt necessary.
Members of the Planning Board were in attendance to discuss support staff. Haddad said that both the Planning Board and Zoning Board were in need of a 15-hour per week support staff member. Haddad presented the idea of combining the positions to create a full-time Planning and Zoning Administrative Assistant. Haddad said that the Planning Board did not recommend moving forward with his plan, so he asked them to come to meet with selectmen to discuss. Bruno acknowledged that the job has changed significantly since the days of it consisting of mostly secretarial work like minute taking. He said that this is particularly true for regulatory Boards like Planning and Zoning. After much discussion, the Selectmen voted to combine the position.
The Selectmen voted to approve the closing of the annual and special town meeting warrant.

The Halifax Finance Committee met on Monday, March 13. Town Accountant Sandy Nolan and Town Administrator Cody Haddad met with the Committee to go over their recommendations for the town budget. During the meeting, Haddad told the Committee that Nolan would be retiring at the end of the year. Finance Committee Chair Todd Dargie called it a “significant loss to the town.”
The Committee voted unanimously to recommend all level-funded budget items. They also made a blanket vote to recommend all budget lines that were decreasing.
ADA Compliance projects were listed with a placeholder of $500,000. Dargie explained that the Building Department was working to finalize a list of actual projects and costs that the Committee would need prior to voting to recommend or not.
Regarding the schools, Haddad said, “quite a significant increase here in the elementary school; Sandy and I did express our concern to them that we can’t sustain a six percent increase.” He noted that the Silver Lake assessment was only an increase of $1,000. The debt for the fire suppression system at the elementary school is increasing by $10,000. “We’ve really just started on that debt… we still have about 18 years on the fire suppression,” Nolan said.
Haddad explained to the Committee that the schools would have a capital item for HVAC upgrades at Silver Lake Regional High School and that Halifax’s share would be $202,458. Haddad said, “we have a stabilization fund that was made back in 2016 – basically, Silver Lake had excess funding and they had to return it to the towns – a little over $300,000. Last year we appropriated $110 [thousand] for the tennis courts…. It’s certainly something we can handle, and it makes sense to pull it from the stabilization fund – that’s what it was created for.” Dargie said that the only downside would be that it would “wipe out that account.”
Haddad addressed the changes to the legal budget saying that last year, they voted to recommend a figure of $124,500. Haddad said that they have come in over that number for the last couple of years. To account for that, Haddad increased the budget for legal expenses to $139,500. The Committee voted to recommend the new number.
There was an increase in electricity rates for Town Hall which was recommended by the Committee. “We feel good about getting another good rate,” Haddad said of the small increase. There were some other smaller increases addressed including the audit, website and music expense, and barn maintenance. The Committee also approved a $7,699 increase to the water supply, a $4,000 increase to the water insurance, and a $15,700 increase to water retirement. A gas and oil increase was also approved.
There is a $29,764 increase in the IT expense budget. “A big part of it is that multi-factor authentication; it’s required by your insurance company… so that’s about $15-$20,000 of the increase just in having to implement that software,” Haddad said.
There was a $2,500 increase to recruitment and employment costs that Haddad said would be used for advertising open positions as well as providing adequate training for the staff. The Committee voted to recommend the increase. There was a new cost of just over $40,000 to add a Conservation Agent. “You’re seeing more and more projects come forward that are involving conservation; Halifax is one of the only communities in the area that doesn’t have professional staff for conservation,” Haddad said.
The position was estimated based on 32 hours per week. The Committee asked for more information before voting to recommend.
Haddad also addressed an increase to regulatory clerical. He said that they are looking to make the positions more of an administrative assistant rather than a secretary. “The skill level required for these is far beyond what we consider a secretary… they’re working with engineers, attorneys, the applicants regularly,” Haddad explained. He said that they are also looking to combine the planning and zoning positions to create one full-time position. Haddad noted that these positions have been vacant for several months and said it is very difficult to recruit someone for a 15-hour per week position.
Haddad also explained about the contracted-out animal control expenses. The budgeted amount of $29,952 was the maximum as it was a not to exceed contract. Police Chief Joao Chaves called it a great deal. The Committee voted to approve the increase.
Haddad addressed trash collection/disposal increases. “There’s going to be some significant changes coming overall, the trash pickup as well, the existing vendor has stated that them and others are going more toward the totes – it’s easier for them; they’re not getting out and getting a bag so we’re going to be doing a procurement to get a best price and we’ll likely be switching to totes so there will be a cost associated with that,” Haddad said. The Finance Committee said that they would schedule Recycling to come to a meeting to discuss.
Haddad also told the Committee that Health Agent Bob Valery was recommending $5,000 for beaver remediation. The Committee voted to recommend the increase. Haddad asked the Committee to hold off on voting to recommend the Council on Aging (COA) increase as he said he wanted to sit down with COA Director Darlene Regan to go over it first. The Committee voted to recommend mild increases to both veterans’ affairs and library.
The Park Department is looking to increase their expenses and wages. Committee member Frank Johnston said that the $4,100 was to pay someone minimum wage to act as a parking attendant for Memorial through Labor Day weekends. Chief Chaves said, “I think if we had an attendant there that would deter non-residents from trying to park there.” The Committee approved the increases to the Park Department. They also approved an increase to Plymouth County retirement.
The Committee voted to recommend the group insurance town share with an increase of $73,819. Haddad told them that other insurance including liability, property, and auto would be increasing by seven percent. “I think you heard me mention earlier about our risk management; we need to do a better job of mitigating risk; we haven’t been the best at it recently and as a result our policy is increasing quite a bit,” Haddad said.
Finally, before adjourning, Haddad acknowledged that it has been “standard practice” to try and leave $300,000 of the levy available. He said, “Speaking with Sandy, this was done in an effort – it was anticipated that our retirement costs were going to increase significantly and we’ve reached that time; our retirement costs are increasing significantly and I think you can see in the budget here, there really aren’t significant changes. Most departments did a nice job of level funding and I think any of the changes that are being requested – at least any of the ones that I’m recommending… they’re vital to operations. When you get down to it, this budget doesn’t include any across the board increases… in conjunction with the large increase in retirement, we’re getting to the point where it’s really not going to be feasible for the town to leave that $300,000 in the levy.” He continued, “I think it’s done what it was meant to do and it’s covered us… our staff is underpaid and we really need to do right by our staff and our budget here doesn’t include that.” Haddad said he has five different unions that he is currently bargaining with while noting that he doesn’t anticipate having those negotiations complete by Town Meeting. “We would create a stabilization fund or an article or something along those lines that we would raise and appropriate from the upcoming levy,” Haddad told the Committee.

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.