The Halifax Board of Selectmen met Tuesday, July 9. Chair John Bruno introduced the general bylaw review revisions. Bruno asked Town Administrator Cody Haddad to draft some anti-littering bylaws for their review. “I think we need to look at a lot of our bylaws, so that’s a good start,” Selectman Jonathan Selig said. Selig asked if police would enforce an anti-littering bylaw and Bruno said he was unsure. Bruno mentioned that it had been proposed to him to introduce a bylaw regarding motorized vehicles, such as dirt bikes, on town property.
Haddad addressed a proposed amendment to the master agreement with Thorndike Development. Thorndike Development is building condominium buildings in Halifax along with a new senior center and pickleball courts. Haddad said that the dimensions of the parcel were amended to more accurately reflect the actual measurements. “The second is we had initially proposed 72 installments for the payment to the town to be used toward the senior center. We are reducing that to 66 installments so it is beneficial to the town, so the amount per unit increases… the total amount is still the same at the $2.3 million, but it increases each payment amount because it is divided by 66 rather than 72,” Haddad said. The third change, according to Haddad, is that once they gift the senior center parcel to the town, up until they start building, they are allowed to utilize that parcel to place construction equipment there.
A representative from Thorndike said that the original language of the agreement talked about having a sidewalk from the entrance to the larger parcel and up to the main intersection near Walmart. He said that the language was incorrect, and it should state that Thorndike would build a sidewalk from the entrance of 265 down to the Housing Authority property. It was asked if there would be further changes and the representative said that they didn’t anticipate that though they noted the enormity of the project. The representative said that the changes were to maybe 1 percent of the total paperwork while Selig noted that the changes are mostly in the town’s favor. Haddad told those assembled that they were “looking to break ground” this coming fall.
The Selectmen discussed a new organizational chart and reporting structure policy. “The thought here is we are organizing the government we’re responsible for, in, what I’m going to call, a CEO structure in that we hire the Town Administrator who’s responsibility… is to handle day to day operations… and what this does, is it makes that clear,” Bruno said. Bruno also said that he wanted to make it clear that although they are an elected board, individually, the Selectmen have no authority to do anything. The Selectmen agreed to take the policy under advisement and revisit it at a later meeting to see if there were any changes, etc. that were thought of in the interim. Bruno clarified that the policy only makes official the way the government is already working.
Haddad introduced the winning bid for street paving with Highway Rehabilitation Corp. in the amount of 50,000 sq. yards or less at $5.72 per sq. yard and anything over 50,000 sq. yards at $5.62. The Selectmen voted to approve the contract which was supported by the Highway Department as well.
Regarding the MBTA Action Plan, Haddad said they got “some preliminary good news from the State.” He said that the meeting between the Department of Housing and Livable Communities (HLC), Town Counsel, the Building Commissioner, and himself “went well.” He said that the draft bylaw that the Zoning Bylaw Review Committee voted to put forward is in compliance pending a few small, technical changes. He said that the hope is to present the plan during an upcoming meeting and eventually prepare for special town meeting in late October or early November.
Haddad also provided a staffing update saying that they were still looking for a Town Accountant. He said that interested parties should apply. He also said that Bridgewater has started the process of finding a shared Conservation Agent.