[Music] This is a joint meeting with the accused soul board and the board of health.
Today is Wednesday, October 1st, 2025. We are located at council on agent 59 and a half south main street town of aushnet. I as chairman of the soul board will declare at 550. Is there a motion to call the joint meeting to order? >> So move second. >> All those in favor?
>> I. >> Mr. Chairman, >> um I'd like to um entertain a motion to open the board health meeting. >> Motion. >> I'll second. All in favor? >> I I now open >> the first order of business. Um well, first we'll stand for the pledge of
allegiance. I >> pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The first order of business under the
open meeting before we open up the public hearing is I just want to make an announcement that the soil board voted what we refer to as a host community agreement on August 26th, 2025. We did that in executive session.
So I'm just making that public announcement because it's required under the law. Mr. Chairman from the board of health, would you like to make a statement? >> Yes. Uh thank you, Mr. Chairman. On August 27th, the board of health held executive session and voted to resolve the board's suit against PJ Katy
regarding order from its plant on South Main Street. The board voted to enter into an agreement with judgment incorporating an alternative dispute resolution process as found in the host community agreement entered into by the
town and Keading as a resolution to the matter. >> Very good. I will now declare it 6 pm to start the public hearing. Is there a motion to open the public hearing? >> So moved. >> Second.
>> All those in favor? >> Notice is hereby given that the Aussia saw board will hold a public hearing on Wednesday, October 1st, 2025 at 6 p.m. at the council on aging at 59 12 South Main Street. Kushion at Mass 02743. This is regarding PJ heating saw removal
permit application for the property located at 72 South South Main Street at Kushner Mass 2743. Review of matters presented. Votes may be taken. Public hearing is now open. So what we have is a saw board permit gentlemen in
front of us. We've had time to review it what this is. So most of you can see it. I will hold it up real quick. This is a two-page which hopefully we can condense it but it's actually two pages. This board permit is much more comprehensive
than what the town and what PJ Keing has seen in the past. It goes through a whole host of different compliance issues that I'm not going to read through everything that's on here. But what I will say is there are some waiverss that were recommend recommended by our peer review
goint. Um they did post a instead of a $1 million bond they posted a $3,000 $3 million bond after negotiations and the waiver section 3B of the bylaw
requires a vert vertical banks be no greater than a two horizontal one vertical slope a standard which is not practical or necessary to meet the hard rock quarry. This section of the bylar is waved for those portions of the hard rock quarry. If other soil excavations
are performed, eg utility trenches, stock piles are in place, the bylaw remains in effect. The applicant shall reveate, stabilize all disturb areas that are inactive for more than 90 days except as otherwise provided herein.
Number 11 of the soil permit is section 3B of the bylaw requires a setback of approximately 1,000 ft from the quarry to allow its continue operation. does not account for existing conditions on the property and would not fit the with PJ Keiny's proposed reclamation plan.
Therefore, the requirement is waved. Number 12, section 10 of the bylaw requires regarding reveation planning of disturbed areas which does not account for existing conditions on the property and is impossible for BJ Keing's hard rock quarry. Therefore, this requirement
is waved. Section 10 of the property. The bylaw prohibits earth removal within 4 ft of the high spring water table which does not account for existing conditions on the property as impossible for PJ King's Hard Rock Quarry. Therefore, this requirement is waved.
Section 10 of the bylaw requires removal of mounds BMS which would be counterproductive of the existing BMS mounds along PJ Heading's property lines mitigate noise, dust and visual impacts. Therefore, this requirement is waved. Section 10 of the bylaw requires sloping
grading and receding of the disturbed area of 300 every 300 ft during operation which is impossible for PJ Keing's hard rock quarry. Therefore, this requirement is waved subject to paragraph 9 above and to the conservation commission orders eg
addressing of a silt pile along the eastern edge of the site. And it goes further on for further terms and conditions of this permit. See the host community agreement between the parties incorporated herein in reference. Hours of operation shall be those provided in the host community
agreement between the parties. It's in here as an exhibit. Um blast and procedures that's all inside the host community agreement as well. So nothing else has really changed. Again it's just a bit more comprehensive um explaining what the objective is for compliance.
>> Mr. Jim, there was some additional documents that you might want to save that were added to this record. >> Yeah. So, they did they did submit in the application where dust monitoring, noise monitoring would be water level
monitoring, vivometer, I believe it was Mr. Hill. >> Is that correct? >> Yes. >> Anything else, Mr. Liilo? We're talking about this. Uh the only other thing that was submitted was just a copy of the D air permit which I think the town already had but uh just to make sure the board had that.
>> So the air quality permit is attached. They also submitted um a check for the soil removal permit which we determined would be prrated for the last 3 months of the year. Um what else they got?
Oh, and a copy of the bond and they they provided a copy of a $3 million bond that's outlined as well. Mr. Lang, if you want to come up here. >> Is there a chair over there? >> Yeah, there's two chairs over there. So, the gentleman that's walking before all of us right now is attorney Scott Lang.
This is attorney Jeff Blake. I'm going to turn it over to either one of them right now to describe and inform the public and everyone how we got to a host community agreement. Um, I'm since Scott just got here, attorney Wayne just got here, I'm happy to jump in and, you
know, then I can turn it over to him. I I think a lot of I see a lot of familiar faces here. You've seen me sit here. You've seen me sit at the the select board chambers. You've seen me sit at a at the fire station. Um, we've had an awful lot of negotiations. We've had
complaints. We've had a lot of back and forth. You also know that there have been a number of uh cases uh between the parties either the town suing Keing or Keing suing the town and we've spent the last 3 to 5 years either litigating or
negotiating. Um at some point um we all got together the select board which is the soil board the board of health and kading and said you know what we can't go on like this we need to sit down and we need to figure out a way that we can
coexist and we did just that after I want to say it's probably been a year and a half two years of negotiation back and forth we came up with a what is known as a host community agreement a host community agreement is not required by law. Um, I do an awful lot of
transfer stations and uh landfills and they are very common in that context. They're common in in marijuana uh uh uh uh establishments as well, but they are essentially an agreement between the two parties as to how things are going to go
move forward. Um, we were able to after much negotiation, we were able to come to a host community agreement that we're going to go over in more detail. The chair of the soil board is going to summarize most of the sections. There's a lot of boiler plate in there that he's
probably not going to summarize. Um, but I do want to say that in my opinion, having negotiated many, many of these, I think that this is a host community agreement that is fair and reasonable for both parties and and and as a result
beneficial to both parties. >> Mr. Lane, anything? What I would simply say is that it's a situation where you either went dayto day and tried to figure out using all the different breaks, all the different permits as to whether or not there was a
dispute or if there was a dispute, who you would call, how to how to try and resolve it. And we spent actually the better part of two years going through different scenarios trying to put things into a a perspective from both the town town's people standpoint and also a
business trying to operate within strict confines of uh town regulations, local rules and then state law, state regs, federal regs and permits and and statutes. And we tried to come up with a
host agreement that would be something that would guide both parties, keep us out of court. Uh keep us in a situation where the municipality is able to exercise its authority. Uh but also do it in a way where there was uh due
proced due process afforded both the uh uh the entity which in this case is Keading and the tenants. So we feel that we came up with an appropriate balance uh given the fact that uh you know the alternatives are not like any other type
of uh industry. Uh we can't move the quarry. We can't ask them to relocate. Uh we have to figure out a way that we work together for the betterment of the uh citizens of the town. And then also recognizing that uh we have a business
entity in town that has certain uh uh certain contracts and different expectations that they have to meet as well. So that's what we tried to do and as as uh uh later as as Jeff said um I think we've done that. I think it's a
it's a very fair agreement. Makes a lot of sense I think versus where the way things were going up until now. Mr. Boy, just one thing and and I'm I'm sure everybody knows this, but there were millions of dollars worth of lawsuits out there as a result of our
issuing this and this host community agreement. Um, I can I can happily say that probably by the end of the week, there will likely be zero dollars worth of lawsuits out there. >> Anything else? >> Nope.
So I believe you're at different time frames, a year, two and a half years. We sat in this room probably two and a half or better years ago. And as chairman of the soil board and with my colleagues that are sitting alongside of me, we told you in
the end we will have a playbook for the town of Accush to operate by and the corporation PJ Keing to operate by and abide by. That's what I believe this host community agreement's done. The board um had their full faith and
confidence in myself and my two attorneys, Mr. Scott Lang, Mr. Jeff Blake. They set me off to go and negotiate this agreement and come back with something that we could live with. Um I spent a lot of time with the with the attorneys negotiating this. Um the
attorney spent a lot of time negotiating back and forth with PJ Keing's council. Um when they needed me, they called me. So basically what we have here is what we call the host community agreement. What I call it is the
playbook now for the town of Kushner and PJ Keating to abide by moving forward. What this basically does is just a breakdown of how we're going to move forward without simply saying and cease and desist. You're out of business. Stop
functioning. Do this. It's not fair for the corporation. It's not fair for the town. Most importantly, it's not fair for the taxpayers of Kushinet to be footing hundreds of thousand dollars worth of legal bills because somebody wants to get them. And that's basically what it comes down to. We have we had
some significant problems. Obviously, I'm not going to deny that. Um, but what we've been through as a community and what we've been through as town officials, um, this should put an end to all of that for all of us and all of the taxpayers funding hundreds of thousands
of dollars in legal bills. So, what I've tried to do to the best of my knowledge, and this will become a public document after we're done tonight, we will post it so everybody can read through it thoroughly, but what I've tried to do is just break this down into a much compact, more things. So, I'm just going to read a couple of the whereases cuz
the first couple of pages is whereases where they describe everything. Um, two of my little stars near. It says, "Whereas the parties have agreed to resolve the pending lawsuits described in article 14 below and all claims brought there or could have been brought there on the terms and conditions set
forth herein." The next whereas says the parties mutual and express intent purpose and and objective is enter into into this agreement are to resolve all the parties pending disputes and to have this agreement governing all operations of the real property located at 72 South
Main Street a cushion in Bristol County Mass. Then the other whereas on page three says whereas the terms and provisions of this agreement have been negotiated at arms length and have been agreed to the parties in good faith. Now therefore, in
consideration of mutual promises and covenants set forth herein, and other good and valuable consideration, the receipt and sufficiency of which I hereby acknowledge, the parties agree to as follows. I'm not going to bore everybody with the next several pages. It's basically all definitions. You can
go through it at your leisure once we post this online. Um, but that's basically pages 1 through 7 are mostly whereases um and definitions. On page eight, we get to section two, the terms of the agreement. Basically, the terms of the agreement,
what we've done and the lawyers have done on behalf of the town is they've negotiated this terms of agreement. It's broken down into three 10-year terms. Automatic renewal every 10 years unless they are not in compliance with the HCA or the soil removal permit, but they
have 90 days to cure through article 11 known as dispute resolution procedures. Section two known as article 3 operational requirements. This agreement governs all operations of the property to read in conformity with all alpha state and andor federal state or federal
regulations and or state or federal permits and all town rules, regulations or bylaws that pertain to the operations. Number four in that again I'm skipping through. I'm just trying to summarize to give every a basic idea of what this document does. Hours of various operations on the property shall be
conducted in accordance with exhibit 3 attached. We did make an exhibit that we have attached to this document and have them been filed with the courts. Talks about blasting number seven PJ Keing shall file an annual report with the board of selectment on or before October
1st each year. The annual report shall provide for a period of September 1st of the prior year through August 31st of the current year. the reporting period. The annual report shall contain the details of summaries and monitoring analysis recommendations and expected changes for the following season,
including an overview of PJ Keing's operation, the reporting period. B a topographic plan of the property prepared with LAR equipped drone for the end of the year evaluation elevations at various points in the quarry. C. A a calculation of the amount of earth removed in the prior year. A proposed
plan. D. A proposed plan for the upcoming 12-month period projecting the area of the property reasonably anticipated by PJ Keating to be subject to blasting, drilling, and excavation. E is a description of any unresolved complaints made by residents during the previous year and PJ Keing's response
and or suggested responses. summaries of all results from for monitoring air, noise, groundwater levels during the reporting period and G any proposed changes to PJ Keing's operations from the prior year. Section four gets into
blasting. I won't bore you at all. Basically, it's all the same thing that you know, but number two, I just briefly again to summarize. Staging for blasting is Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday beginning at 5:00 a.m. There will be no blasting on Saturday, Sunday, or
holidays. Number three, blasting shall occur on regular business days of Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday between the hours of 11:00 a.m. and 2 pm and when weather conditions permit. PJ Ke will endeavor to include conclude blasting by 1:30 p.m. whenever possible.
However, blasting may be permitted from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, such exception based on public safety issues approved by the fire chief. The number of blasts per week shall be limited to two unless the fire chief or his designate grants written permission written waiver based upon
public safety issues. A copy of such waiver shall be sent to the board of selectment upon issuance. Number five in the year notification of blasting shall be given to the town by 12 p.m. on the day before blasting is to occur at the property. No exceptions by electronic mail from PJ Keing or its blasting
contract to the Kushnet fire chief or his or her designate and the town of Kushnet town administrator. If blasting does not move forward, PJ Keing or PJK and or Keading shall basically the same thing shall notify the town, the fire chief or his designate the list of town
of town residents on the call list. It shall be the responsibility of PJ Keing and or Tilcon to ensure that any residents on the call list which shall be developed by the town and given to PJ Keing are given advanced notice that blasting is to occur or is not moving forward as scheduled. Notwithstanding
any other terms regarding hours of operation, PJ Keating employees and personnel from MD and B or another qualified company licensed and authorized to perform blasting for PJ Keing's quarry operations may enter the property beginning at 5:00 a.m. between Monday and Friday excluding state or
federal holidays to prepare for blasting that day. Section five, expansion of operations. Operator and owner agree that if they are intend to seek separate from current permits or approvals from local, state, federal authorities a new permit or
permit or approval to allow for an expansion of the operator's facility or use therein beyond the size and scope of the operator's facility as of the date of this agreement that they will notify the office of the town administrative board selecting the soil conservation board in the town in writing at least 45 days prior to filling any such
application with governmental or regulatory authority. The parties agree to discuss any potential concerns with any proposed expansion and to consider whether this agreement will be amended to include such proposal. The provision shall not be interpreted to limit the operator and owner's ability to seek
local, state, and federal permits approved to allow for an expansion of the size and scope of the operator's facility except as agreed to this agreement. Section six is basically truck bed coverage rules. Truck bed coverage rules. All trucks
exiting or entering the property with a load shall be covered. If any anyone sees a truck loaded and un uncovered, please call BJ Keing immediately. Describe the truck color or name on it or plate number and ask if that vehicle left Keing's facility. Keeping this is
my language. It's not actually in the host community. I I'm breaking this down for you people just because I know what some of you mentioned. Keep in mind that all trucks on the town roadways are not going to are not going to or from Keading property. So just because you see a truck without a cover on it
doesn't mean that it came from PJ Keing's facility. PJ Keating has received complaints. I've seen trucks leaving PJ Keing's facility in the last several months. I've gone back to PJ Keating, ask for video footage and that truck did not leave PJ Keating. So some of us are just going to think
automatically you see a big dump truck or whatever it may be that has a load in it and it's not covered. It doesn't mean it came from BJ Keing. So, let's not yell and scream. We're there to just ask a question. And if you don't feel happy with the response, you can then call the town of Aushnet. We'll put in an inquiry to look into that vehicle via foot video
footage and confirm the vehicle did not come from PJ Keating. But I just don't want PJ Keing being harassed because there's a lot of trucks that go through this town and spill stone on the other end of town and it's PJ Keing's fault. I've done it many times. I've called the company. I've worked with Rob Robinson
standing right here. I've called him on numerous times and I said, "Is this truck left?" And he's absolutely not. It wasn't from here and it's come from across the street. So, a lot of times PJ Keing is being blamed for things and it's not necessarily their fault. Peritting requirements
section 7 PJ Keating and or Tilcon or solar transfer. Owner operator of the property located at 72 South Main Street agreed to obtain a soil removal permit for all operations at the property included but not limited to the readymix plant hot mix asphalt plant and the quarry will obtain all necessary permits
and approval from local, state and federal government entities and agencies for any of the operations conducted at the properties to expedite the permitting of soil removal from the property. The town agrees that if the op the operator and owner propose no expansion of operations, the operator may submit with its application for a
soil removal permit a sign affidavit stating such fact and indicating that as no outstanding violations on record if expansion proposals are presented. This will require following procedures indicated in the sole conservation general bylaws. Number three of that again if PJ Keing
and or Tilcon's permit under the sole bylaw has been suspended or revoked or if the suspension of PJ Keing or Tilcon's permit is lifted or reversed or if the revocation of PJ Keing or Tilcon's permit is reversed and the permit is reinstated or reissued then the solo conservation board and the
board of selectment shall grant the permit renewal filing within 7 days thereafter. If operations have been suspended by either the state or federal agencies or the town, the reason for the suspension must be addressed by the parties prior to the issuance of a new permit. Section 8, post community
compensation. Upon the execution of this agreement, the town shall establish the town of a Kushner infrastructure account pursuant to Mass General law chapter 44 subsection 53A for the purpose of paying for infrastructure improvements to address the impact of operations on the town.
The town shall have the complete discretion to use these funds deposited into the town of Lushna infrastructure account for any infrastructure related projects such as road roads, bridges, water, sewer systems, storm drains, and associated engineering costs. However, at no time shall the town commit more
than 30% of the annual payments towards capital bonding payments which shall obligate the town for over 10 years. the town shall establish the and the fund shall be deposited into the town's infrastructure account solely dedicated for the purposes listed above.
So I want to give you a quick breakdown on how host community compensation works according to what I just read and I left some of it out. It's broken down to two two bianual payments. What we call refer to as a summer bannual payment runs January 1st to June 30th called the July
calculation. the winter by annual payment July 1st to December 31st known as the January payment. The town will be receiving 50 cents a ton for the purpose of clarification. As a example only if PJ Keating sold 300,000 tons of material the town would receive $150,000
in a bianual payment. That's 300,000 tons in the bianual period which would equal 150. So it could equal $300,000 for the full fiscal year or more depending on how much tonnage they sell.
Enforcement actions. This article shall not pertain to cease to desist order specified in article 10 prior prior to the issuance of any enforcement order, fine, suspension, revocation of permit or license, denial of permit or license, including but not limited to
denial of blasting permit or other enforcement action against PJ Keing or Tilcon or any other tenant regarding operations at the property. Collectively action the town entity shall provide PJ Keiny and or Tilorn or any or the tenant with written notice of any action or
alleged violation within 48 hours of receipt of the written notice of of any action in or alleged violation from any of the town entities. PJ Keing or Tilcon of the tenant shall submit a written response. The response to the town that sets forth following any actions taken by PJ Keing
and or Tilcon and or the tenant to investigate and or address issues underlining any action or alleged violations. B the findings of PJ Keing and or Tilcon and or the tenants investigation into any other action or alleged violation. C. Any actions taken
to address, resolve, or mitigate any action and or alleged violation, or whether those actions have been effective. And D, any plan to address, resolve and or mitigate any action and or allege violation that will take longer than 7 days, including an explanation of why it will take longer
and an estimate of how much time will be needed to implement said changes. I got a little note that I wrote here after that. If the town is not satisfied, just to give a summary of what else um follows through with this after that, if the town is not satisfied with the response of a meeting, a meeting will be
scheduled with the representatives from the from both parties to try and work out a solution. If that can't be done, it would go to article 11, dispute resolution, immediate cease and desist, article 10. The parties agree that immediate cease and desist orders may be issued by the
town under certain circumstances which involve substantial threat to life or property including fire dischar discharge of toxic materials into the waterways or water table or atmospheric discharge of toxic materials. In addition, substantial or persistent nauseous odors, noise and or dust coming
from the operations as verified by the health agent and or the majority of the board of health or the soil conservation board may be subject to an immediate cease and desist order as well. In the event of an immediate cease and desist order, PJ Keing, Ian or Tilon andor the tenant will have up to 10 days to cure
any circumstance or event that has led to immediate cease and desist order. In circumstances where cure is not possible, the parties will utilize the dispute resolution procedure under article 11, but the time frames will be expedited to provide for a decision from the referee within 5 days of the close
of evidence. Dispute resolution is article 11. Mr. Lang or Mr. Blake, would you like to go through dispute resolution? >> I mean, I'd be happy to. And I'm going to give you a much broader uh brush than Kevin did. What we've done here in the dispute resolution is we've set up a a
situation where we would have a cease and desist order or some other order um issued to the to the to the company. Um as a result that would trigger the them having to move forward with certain
actions. If uh if after a certain amount of time and back and forth with the with the company and the town um we are not satisfied, we then have a process by which we would go before what is known as a referee and we would get a third we would all agree on a third party
referee. Third party referee would come in and would hear the dispute and make a determination. Ultimately either side could end up going to court um if they're not happy with the determination. It it I I will tell you that it's a
process that that won't take uh you know a week or two there. It's a it's a it's a it's a it's a it's a wellestablished process that allows both sides to flesh out their case and ultimately in my opinion it'll likely allow for us to
come to a resolution and keep us out of court like we have been for the last four or five years. So, so when uh Jeff says it's a lengthy process, it's a highly it's a lengthy process, but it's highly compressed. So,
your first enforcement action process can take as little as 14 days plus two, so 16 days, or it could take an extra seven, so as long as 23. And it has a definition there saying that all parties
will act in good faith. So, let's assume even if you roll it a little further, it's about 30 days before you know that you can't resolve it or it can't be resolved. It's got to go to a referee. A referee basically within a month uh has
briefs from everyone, sets up a hearing date, and then makes a decision within 30 days after the close of evidence. So, that could be a few more months. You file a complaint, you get an answer, there's a motion to dismiss, you start discovery, you're on a path to two or
three years of litigation. So this, while this takes a little bit of time, although in in article 10, it gives the town plenary powers. So the town, if there's an immediate cease and desist, everything everything stops. There's a
there's a cure period of 10 days after it can't be resolved. if it can't between the parties, then it immediately goes to the referee. So, while it takes some time, it is time much different than if we were litigating >> and it has a tremendous advantage
because uh a judge and Jeff has done a great job. Luke is here today. Luke represents Keing. Uh they're two wellskilled litigators in environmental law and these type of issues. If they're lucky, they get a judge that's seen a
case like this before. The referee that we would choose, both parties would agree, would be someone who is well schooled in this and moves it along quickly. It's designed either to resolve cases or to get quick decisions on cases. If it's anything that has to do
with immediate harm to life, property, environmental harm, everything stops dead under article 10. And and that's for the benefit of both parties. Heating doesn't want to be running something that we feel is causing tremendous harm. The town certainly doesn't want that to
happen. The citizens don't want that to happen. So, they're built-in safety valves here to to have people get their say and perhaps not their way, but their say and and everybody understands exactly where they're coming from. So it's so I think it's a good tool to get
out from under litigation which to give you an example one of the cases two years ago that I first became aware of uh still uh was in the discovery stage. It would have taken another two or three years before discovery was
done. So this is a way to rapidly resolve issues. And then and then the last thing I'll say to you Kevin's not done. There's more. Yes. >> There's more to the HCA. So Kevin, back to you. Right. So, now that we're through that dispute
resolution, before we get to the next big news that I think a lot of the residents want to hear, what we've also identified through enforcement actions, cease and desist, immediate cease and desist and dispute resolution, if there's a problem with dust that's
coming from the quarry, the whole facility is not shut down. Just the quarry would be shut down. If there's an issue coming from odor from the asphalt plant, the whole facility doesn't shut down. Just the asphalt gets shut down until we can cure that issue. If there's a problem with LNS concrete, LNS
concrete gets shut down. The asphalt plant in the quarry doesn't get shown shut down. In the past, the facility got shut down. And that's not fair to anybody that's working there, right? You have a lot of employees. A lot of them I hear from the town of Aushet and the next thing you know, we they the place
gets shut down and the company's losing employees. And now they got to go figure out how they're going to bring back employees. So there is sympathy, at least from my side, for the employees, but there's also sympathy. When we were negotiating this, we it was kind of a
double-edged sword. You're negotiating on behalf of your constituents first and foremost, but you're also looking at it from a business perspective and say, how do we make this fair to both sides, which is the corporation and the employees, which some of those employees
are our constituents. So it it's it was it's it was a hell of a balancing act trying to negotiate what we thought would be fair and also when PJ Kei was negotiating back what they thought fair and that's where I give a lot of credit to the to the lawyers.
So, article 12, I think, is the news. You know, the host compensation money. Great. We're going to fix a bunch of roads and infrastructure and things like that. The the big news here is article 12, relocation of the HMA plant,
the rock crushing operations. The operator and owner agreed to re relocate the HMA plant, the HMA relocation and the rock crushing operations, the rock crushing relocation to the rear of the property together. The relocations to eliminate impact of
the HMA operations and rock crushing operations on a budding resident and the community. BJ Keaney will relocate the HMA plants to the location indicated on exhibit 6 attached here too. pursuant to the to the timetable and conditions set forth
below and contingent on all the following. A hon or before September 30th, 2025, the feasibility study commissioned by BJ Keining approved by the town of the feasibility study confirms that physical conditions allow for the relocations of the HMA
operations in the rock crushing operations to be accomplished. However, additional studies are required to further study the soils and the access to the utilities. said further study shall be conducted >> October 31st >> October 30th sorry >> 31st 31st
>> October 31st All entities support all PJ heings after B all town entities support all PJ applications for permits and or authorizations related to either or both of the relocations and or to operating the HMA plant after the HMA relocation
and or to operating the rock crushing operations after the rock crushing relocation including but not limited to all state air permits, all building permits, all authorizations from the town's fire chief, and all authorizations from the state fire marshall collectively the permits. C.
All of PJ Keing's application for permits and or all the terms set forth in those applications are approved and have been fully and finally affirmed through the exhaustion of any and all appeals and the time for filing and appeals has expired.
If the feasibility study confirms the HMA relocation and rock crushing relocation can be accomplished in the process of preparing the application for permits, the per application process would commence within 30 days. If all PJ Keing applications for permits and our term set forth and those applications
are granted and approved, the HMA HMA relocation and rock crushing relocation will begin within a 12-month period. The actual relocation of the HMA plant rock crushing operation will be done during the next seasonal shutdown period November 26th to April 2027.
All nighttime hours and all weekend hours of operation will expire if the HMA relocation and the rock crushing relocation has not been completed by April 1st, 2027. The completion dates, however, shall be equitable and extended to address any
delays caused by regulatory agencies. So there you have it. What most people in his community were looking for in the past was and were angered and the town was as well as moving that asphalt plant out front to South Main Street. Not only has PJ Keating agreed to move the
asphalt plant further out in the rear of the facility, which is roughly 1,500 ft east of the old HMA plant location. >> Correct. somewhere in that vicinity into the woods further away from our residents. So, I've heard from a lot of
people that the odor wasn't that bad when it was out back. It's really horrible now. So, now that asphalt plant should be relocated, if all soil conditions permit, it'll be relocated somewhere between 1,00 and,500 ft
further into the woods. So, good for us. And also the rock crushing rock rock crushing facility will also be done with a portable crusher outback as well. Is that correct, Miss Nell? Correct.
>> So that's uh that's in a nutshell. And Mr. Lang, if you want to go to if you want to talk about article 13, if you think that's something that we should discuss, we can. Just happy to do it now. I'll give Jeff 14. I have to say that the
town is going to commence a uh route 240 study because we also understand that there is an issue regarding trucks being on town roads, state roads within the town, Fair Haven, New Bedford, uh Rochester,
Freetown. We'd like to see Dartmouth. We'd like to see if we can reroute the uh the truck traffic, especially if there is a uh and it looks like they're going to be projects that hopefully Keing will be involved with regarding
the Cape. And if we can find an easy way on and off 19 I 95, it would be a lot uh a lot better for the residents. So, we're going to see if we can't uh get that moving. I I know many of you
remember when originally 240 was built, they had thought about punching it through uh to the north and uh you go by you see it stopped. There's still uh a footprint there that uh we may be able to utilize. Uh but that is going to take
some planning. It's going to have to be looked at closely. We've done uh a map study. We've also done a drone uh fly over by Keading that was shared to us. It looks like that's a real possibility uh to
for you to move to the back then have the uh the truck traffic going towards the back. And then the next piece of this that's extremely important uh Jeff worked on uh with the attorneys for Keing and I think he uh he's touched on it but he might just flush that out a
little bit. Sure. Happy to. As as everybody knows, part of the reason this has all been brought to a head because there were numerous lawsuits. I I think if you follow this at all, I've spent a lot of time either defending the town or
prosecuting u for the town against PJ Keat. Um we had, as I said earlier, millions of dollars worth of suits against us. We had uh suits in court uh trying to uh go after Keating for some regulatory issues. They had appealed
some soil board issues that we had. And as Scott pointed out, well, as you can see, it's uh it's been like four years later and we still had no resolution. as a result of the agreements that we've made here tonight and outlined for you tonight. Again, I I I'm I'm
extraordinarily pleased to say that two of those suits have have been resolved through an agreement for judgment which would incorporate the alternative dispute um resolution portions of the host community agreement. That would be
the soil board, Keing v. Soil board um which was an appeal of a cease and desist order and board of health v Keading which was our order going after them for odor. I think you probably remember we had a preliminary injunction
uh granted for us. Then the court um uh uh uh found that we didn't have the that that uh the order was no board. We appealed it and we won. But there was still a residual case down below that was resolved. There were some civil rights
cases and a regulatory takings case that both of which will be dismissed. So um as a result of this not only is the town and Keading um as Kevin said um now have a playbook with financial compensation
to the town for operate that for possible you know wear and tear on its road. Um, but we also now are starting with a clean slate with all of our all of our lawsuits. >> Mr. Lia, do you have anything to speak on? >> Uh, thank you, Mr. Gas. No, I think that
was really well summarized. Uh, I have nothing to add. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Lier. So again, I think soil board did its job with support from the board
of health in town council. Um we did we did everything we could to end litigation, save the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, bring in revenue for the town of Aushnet, so badly needed infrastructure repairs.
There's one other part that I would like to talk about and put it on air for everybody that's watching at home is article 15 miscellaneous provision pertaining to the host community compensation and it's number one the modification clause. This agreement may
be modified only by writing sign consent of the parties. No modification can pertain to article 8 host community compensation which will not be subject to modifications for the entire terms of the host community agreement. I was a stickler on that for the town of
Kushnet residents for a simple reason is you might have seen me on TV plenty of times before talking about excise tax and what the Commonwealth and what government has done to us with that tax. When it originally came out it was for use for use in roads and improvements of roads and bridges. Now it says for any
lawful purposes the town of Aush is using $ 1.5 million of excise tax to balance the general government fund bomb budget. We're not. We only used $100,000 for what I put in with the board of selectman a couple of years back into the DPW's budget of $100,000 and we
label it road paving. It's a shame that government's done that to all of us people in the Commonwealth of Mass. And I made sure that when this was being done that that host compensation could never be taken away from the residents of this community and it will only be used for infrastructure money only that's so desperately needed in this
town. It's not, it might not be pretty what you see, what you don't see underneath of the roads, but it's survival. It's called your water mains, sewer drains, storm drains, and the pavement you're driving on. We haven't done a good enough job. This will
provide us a little extra money along with our chapter 90 money to boost us along and get the community moving forward and try to beautify some of our areas of town that so desperately need it. So on behalf of the soil board, I I as chairman of the soil board, I'd like to thank my colleague David WA for his
unconditional support, selecting um soil board members, selecting Robert Inkley for his unconditional support. I've gone back to the board a couple of times in executive session with the lawyers. you know, uh it wasn't an easy going back to and there was times where I wanted to
give up on negotiating this host community agreement, but with their their hard work and their words of wisdom, I kept pushing forward with the attorneys to make this happen for the town. I'm glad that I never gave up. I'm glad that I've had my board's support for the last two and a half years to
continue the fight to bring this host community agreement to the town of Aushnet. without their support honestly I probably wouldn't have achieved this goal um for the town of Ausha with my members of my soul board so to you select Mona thank you very much to you selectmanley thank you very much and I
would also like to thank the board health agent Joe Korea and two members of the board of health to Mr. Tommy Fordon and Mr. to Dave Deinion for their unconditional support throughout the last 2 and a half years. And I'd be a fool not to recognize
rockstar attorney Scott Lane, rockstar attorney Jeffrey Jeff Blake, where when we spent hours, sometimes eight hours a day negotiating this thing. Um, and I've gone really pissed off and aggravated and they've taken me outside and cooled me off and said, "Let's go back in and
let's start renegotiating again." If it wasn't for them two and the negotiations, um, I don't know what would happen. But I can also say this, the first few meetings sucked. Okay? I didn't get to know some of these faces that I would negotiate with right out of
the gate. But after I got to know these faces, and I've heard this side of the story, and I watched some of these workers look at me the way I was looked at when I would step foot on that premise to go in inside and negotiate with my attorneys. I knew right away something had to be done. And that's what we did. We negotiated. We
negotiated. We negotiated. And I know a lot of you folks that work at PJ Keiny is when the LS is going to be finalized to get me back to work. I'm happy to say you're back to work. So congratulations to all the employees of PJ Keating. And I say this, congratulations to the
taxpayers of Kushner. Mr. Hinkley, Mr. WA, anything you want to say? Yeah. Uh Kevin, I mean, we've come a long way, right? And I think you highlighted a few things, but there were really three watershed moments for me to give me a comfort level to engage in
this process in a meaningful way. Is one, this board suggested that we disband the previous soil board and it was spread out and we said if we're going to be asked to cook the dinner, we're going to be able to shop for the groceries. And we had the board of selectmen own this issue, right? We were
we once we did that, we were fortunate that Mr. Gasper was willing to step up because the way we were going to do this was whoever the chair of the board of selectmen would be the vice the the person who would be the incoming chair would serve as the chair of the soil
board but the board felt uh confidence Mr. Gasper because of his institutional knowledge to to stay with that and stay the course. And so for that I think was really important. We talked about hiring Scott Lang uh and the work that Jeff did. But for those of you who don't know
Scott Lang who's the mayor of Bedford, one of the toughest negotiators out there and it kind of felt like with his stamp of approval, it gave us a comfort level uh to go forward. But most importantly, I think really was Derek Hilton. Um and Derek, we met for the
first time. I think it was three years ago. I was the chairman of the board. We brought you in. You were a little s little skeptical of what that was all about, but we said, "Look, you'll be treated as you treat us." Um, and I think we've come a long way. I mean, under your leadership and your approach with the town, I think, has been um,
again, giving me a comfort level. I I I'll just tell you, it's come a long way from when my 10-year-old son was served papers on my behalf um, of the lawsuit. And I don't know if you remember that. You you probably heard about it. wasn't done on your watch, but it was done with
your predecessor. So, for that, thank you for what you've done to change to take the temperature down. Greatly appreciated. So, with that, uh Kevin, again, um thank you for your work on this. Um it was really a master class
and trying to get this thing done. And you know, time will tell. We hope that we can coexist. Um but the our mission of protecting the residents will not go away just because we have a piece of paper here. So with that said, thank you very much for all of you guys. >> Thank you,
>> Mr. Chairman. >> Mr. Hley, >> um even before I was on the board, the most common thing I heard was we just want them to be good neighbors over and over again. This document forces everybody to be a good neighbor
and it puts accountability in not only PJ Keing's hands but our hands. Anybody that sits at this table here whether it's board of health, soil board or select board has a responsibility to follow through with an active agreement, a live document that's in place for the
next 30 years. And to be able to do that, knowing that some friendly relationships have developed now with PJ Keading, and knowing that we went from butdding heads to laughing and working
together is a huge, huge accomplishment. And to double down on what Dave said about um putting our faith in Mr. Gasper. Um when it came time to switch the chair and the soil growing, both myself and selecting owner said, "Absolutely not. You stuck with it, Mr.
Gasper." Um he had the momentum and he had his foot on the gas and like you we did see some frustration, but um we had full confidence that he could get in a room and get this done and I'm very appreciative to that and to everybody else involved.
>> Thank you, Mr. Mr. Deian. Mr. warning you on anything, Mr. Korea. >> Um, well, it's been a long process and I I'm truly happy that there was uh a fair agreement worked out. I thank everybody
that were interested in getting, you know, getting it done. Thank you, >> Mr. An. All right. Anybody got any questions? >> Just one. Uh, is that HCA going to be
available to the public to view? >> Yep. We'll post it online. >> Sure. Will. It's now an official public document, so you can read through it thoroughly. Do what you want with it. We do have um some exhibit, some hours of operation
and things of the like, but it's basic hours. It's nothing extraordinary. It's no Sundays. They do have some Saturdays in there. They do have nights while they're out front. There's a section of out front hours. There's a section of our back hours. Obviously, we gave them more nights when they went out back.
They got up to I think it's 45 nights out front in the next year that when they move forward. Um, and that was part of the agreement to get the asphalt plant moved out back, but it's only again 45. And then when they move out back, it goes up to 65. So, um, I think we all remember the days where it was
24/7, whenever the hell you wanted. Um, we didn't agree to that, that's for sure. So, we'll figure it out when they get that when they move. Yeah, we do have a section of ours when they go out back, Christian. When they move out back, we got to take a wait and see approach, right? We can't go crazy giving them, you know, you know what
they want and what they wanted. Let's put it that way, because we don't know what's going to happen, right? We're hoping that when they get out back things in the neighborhood and it'll all calm down and things will be a lot better for the for the neighborhood, especially the neighborhood off to the not I'm not disregarding the
neighborhood off to the north, but a lot of the complaints came from the neighborhood over here off to the south, right? Um they did come from the north, but not as much as I dealt with the people in the south, right? And I went out there years ago. I was taking pictures of dust and all of that stuff, right? I I I seen it firsthand. I knew
what the residents were going through. Um, I think that's why my board was very confident in me getting out there and doing um with the attorneys and getting this negotiation going and trying to put this rule book in place, right? And that and that's what we've done. I think it's a I think it's a great document. I think
most people, level-headed people read it, they'll agree that this is a pretty good document. Um, and it and most importantly, I think it the most important part for me anyway is it it keeps us the hell out of a courtroom and costing our taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars because I've heard from a lot of different people in this
community and I'm sure my colleagues have as well. How much money you plan on spending on this? I couldn't answer that question. Honestly, I do know that the town has spent several hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to defend itself against the cases. Um, and as Mr. Lon has said,
when Mr. the Hill came in. It was a game changer cuz I'll never forget the day I was with Mr. Blake in superior court with the old president um Jonathan. um that wasn't a very good day in court and I seen the way that man behaved and I can tell you right now this gentleman
right here the new president Derek Hill he's an outstanding individual and all the employees that work here in the town of Kushnet in Lunenburgg Lancaster and in Cranson they should be h be proud to have that man as their president of their corporation because he gives a damn and he cares believe it or not and
some of you might and even the people at home might not know this about him he gives a damn about the people of a cushion I can tell you that right now and that's what being my negot negotiation smoothed out and be a lot easier. Mr. Robinson, Mr. Lia, they all know it. They all understand it and all the workers understand it now as well
under that man's leadership. So, I'd like to give him a round of applause. Mr. Derek Hill, that man deserves it because he never spoke an ill word about my people and that mattered. And I say my people, I mean our people,
but they're my people. I try like hell to represent the people of Aushna. And that man never once said screw them. Never once at all. Matter of fact, that man fed all three of us anytime we met at his facility. What do you guys want
for lunch? Mr. Lane, he's a little bit of a pain in the butt when it comes to lunch, right? >> I mean, he sits for more than two hours. He asked Derek, "What's for lunch? I mean, but why do you think it took two years in a >> We could have got it done in 10 minutes.
>> It It is what it is what it is. I hope the people of a cushioning are proud of what the soil boarders have been able to do alongside of Mr. Lang and Mr. Blake. I know I am. I'm sure my colleagues feel the same. And I and I hope my only hope is that PJ Keing continues their forward
moving progress and tries to work in the best interest of this community as well as their corporation. And if they do that, we'll be in good shape. So, congratulations to everyone. >> I just I just want to say one thing though. This isn't this this wasn't
lawyer driven. This is driven by the leaders in Kushnet and the leaders of Keading. Lawyers just helped put the document together. But the but the people that got in a room and the soil board and board of health and then Kading's team uh was the reason we got
this deal done. It had nothing to do lawyers. We fight, we get along, we we write things up, you know, we're as good as the clients we represent. In this case, Luke had very good clients. We were fortunate to have good clients whoever put it together, but we didn't
uh do anything more than do what our clients asked us to do. So, I I I want to put that clear. Jeff and I are happy to do this work, but it's leaders that get stuff like this done. And good leaders on both sides of David. With that said, gentlemen, I would make
a motion to approve the sole removal permit for 72 South Main Street at a pro-rated number of $4,375 for the remainder of 2025. Is there a motion? >> So move second. >> All those in favor? >> I.
>> There you go. Congratulations. You now have a soil removal permit. Something you haven't seen in years, Belle. And I hope for now on, moving forward in the future, it's going to be a piece of cake for renewal for you folks and for the town's people not to come in and
yell and scream that things aren't okay. Um, I'll be I'll be working with a lot of the constituents. I know that I'll hear from them all. I'll be out there in the neighborhoods monitoring things. So, good luck. I wish you all the best and thank you very much for your cooperation in the negotiations. Couldn't have done
it without your team. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> You all set, gentlemen? >> You all set, gentlemen? >> No further questions. This gentleman, >> you're talking about stripping her off a
blue stone, right? >> Yep. >> Okay. Where does the water go? I live at the end of Lawson Avenue, the very end, and the kids used to come down there and
play in Mrs. Henoric's property, which is next to mine. They can no longer do that. I can't walk across that piece of property because there is a dam down there,
an earth dam that belongs to Blue Stone. And it keeps filling up with leaves and leaves and leaves and trees and branches and garbage and trash. Consequently, the water level on that
piece of property has risen. Now, if you strip off all the dirt, that blue stone, where's that water going to go? So, are you the like furthest east on
Lawson? Like way down at the bottom of the row. So, that's east. >> I'm way down on the bottom of Austin Avenue. >> Left side, I would imagine. Closest to the quarry. >> Top top of Boston Avenue. Not the bottom, the top. >> Okay. So, >> you're calling the You're calling the
bottom that way, right? Cuz Lawson crosses South Main Street. No, no, these these folks. So you go that way. >> They're east. >> Are you taking a left or a right to get on your to get to your uh >> the furthest east? Going south. >> Furthest east on. That's what I'm
asking. So y So y is your property abuing the quarry? >> Yes. >> Okay. So I don't know if you're talking about the drainage spot. There's two different spots that I know about. We tied in some
of the streets into a drainage on off of Lawson over there that that big covert that goes underneath and flows through their property and has been for 100 years. And somebody put some sheet metal across that pipe to make life difficult. And then somebody else told me, which I
never got to go in investigate, but I can go there with DPW director Menard and head to the bottom and I can go visit you folks if you don't mind me knocking on your door. I can show up and look at wherever else this drainage thing problem is and maybe we can get in there and flush that out.
>> And up this way when it rains right from the top of the hill all that water comes down up comes a level in the swamp next door because that earth and dam is there.
And now what uh Blue Stone has done is that area where the kids used to play and down around back of my property is turned into what you call wetlands.
You got bamboo cat n tails everything else. We never had that. Okay. >> Until the last 10 years and we've been there 38 years and continues to play.
>> So that water is going to keep coming up. >> Maybe it won't if I go to the house with the DBW director take a look at where exactly you're talking about and we can do some investigation based on where we know storm water is from town maps that we have for the storm drainage system
and we can take a look at it. Maybe there's a pipe that's blocked up all these years. Maybe somebody went in there and blocked up the pipe. So, we'd have to go and investigate the storm. >> One back hole and cleared all that stuff out and opened up that hole so that
water can get out because right now water on this side is here. The water on the other side, the south side is here. Now, when it's hot like it was for a
while this summer, the water's down. Okay. Soon as it rains, you get this >> sounds like a blockage. >> And the place over there fills up with water and where the back of my property is,
right, there's a house back there and the water comes down there. that comes down that hill and consequently the back part of that property >> it's filled up with water and if you
look at the map that they gave us it shows that there's wetlands I used to drive a dirt bike in there >> you know now if I take a fourwheeler in there it sticks up to the wheels and the
axles Again, I would have to go out and take a look at your property and understand exactly where that problematic area is. Then I would have to make sure that it's not identified as wetlands because if it is, then we got bigger problems. If it's identified as wetlands,
um you can't really you can't screw around with wetlands, right? So, I'd have to see what's going on. If we if the town does have storm drainage in that area, we do have the right to go in and clear those pipes without worrying about wetlands. But if it's designated wetlands, we need to be careful of what
we're doing. >> But I just say to this that dam is holding the water back, building it up, and then it takes maybe a week or two to drain out.
>> Is that a detention? >> Is that a detention? >> I don't know if it's I don't I have to go out there and take a look. I don't know if that's a storm water basin from years ago and we just need to get in there and clean it out. We've done the DBW's done, God, I don't know how many
they've done. Let's just call it for its giggles, a half dozen of them in the last 3 years where they've gone in and clean out where subdivisions are, detention basins, right? They go in, clear it all out, replant vegetation um for storm water basins. We we if that's
one that's on record, then we can go in and clear that out and do the same thing cuz it's overgrown and it's not letting water flow the way it's supposed to flow. >> Well, you guys sent us letter, >> right? I read it. >> I just took a walk out.
Uh it was about two weeks ago. I want to back my truck down out of the way cuz I had company coming back down in there. I had a guy uh Smith pull me out with
his fourwheeler because the truck just went the same. >> Well, you're lucky Kevin's your neighbor. >> You know him well. >> Yeah, he's a good guy. So, again, I I can I have no problem going to your
house um and taking a look at what's going on. In fact, I'll be there tomorrow. How's that sound? >> Sounds good. >> Not a problem. I deal with this kind of stuff every day. So, I'll take a ride through the neighborhood. I'll stop by. You want to wait and let everybody leave and you give me a number of your house
so you don't yell it out to everybody. I can write that down so I can make sure I'm knocking on the right door and I'm not getting some somebody else in the neighborhood that comes with, "What are you doing in my yard?" Right? So, I I'll get your address. I'll be there tomorrow. It's that simple for me. We'll take a look at where you are in
relationship to where you are and if there's something that's happening, Mr. If there's something that's happening with flow of water from your property, you would help me out in that situation. Try to mitigate whatever's happening. If it's coming, if the water's coming from your property. >> There you go.
We expected to see somebody, anybody come down and because they were changing the property over there and at least take a look around and you know nobody's nobody's gone down
to look at where the property that belongs to Blue Stone comes to. Who's who you when you say the property that you keep using the the definition blue stone. Are you talking about Tilcon PJ Keating Blue at the time?
>> Oh, all right. >> That's what he's >> Well, he just said that he's been here 30 something years. I've been here 27 years and I've never heard the terminology blue referred to as the quarry. >> I know it's blue stone, but he just keeps calling it blue and I'm like, what's bluest? I don't know if that's a next door neighbor.
>> So, >> that's what he calls Kevin Smith. So, right, you could be calling Kevin Smith Blue Stone. Could be his nickname. So, anyways, you said nobody's been out there, right? And what did I just tell you, sir? I'll be at your house tomorrow. Okay. I promise I'll be at your house tomorrow. I'll look it over
and then I'll have a conversation with Mr. L based on what I can see at your property. If it's town own property, I'll have my DBW look at it, too. And if I if I need to get into PJ Keing's property to see if I can see what's going on with the topography and how it's sloping, if they can do something to mitigate that water from running off,
if it's running off from their property, I'm sure Mr. Hill will help accommodate that situation or stop that process from happening again. He's that good of a man and he just sat there and shook his head to me. So, >> you're going to send somebody down and take a look. Tom, >> I'm coming to send him down. Bob and I got to send it down.
>> All right, we're going to look at it first. I I just told you I'm coming to your house tomorrow >> cuz that's been there. >> So, I'm going to tell you what time I'm going to be there. I'm going to be there at 11:00. So, have coffee on. Okay. >> All right. Okay.
>> Anything else? Nothing else. Top of the 4th 22. Top of the fourth 22 if anybody cares. So, anyways, is there a motion to adjurnn the joint meeting? No. Motion to adjurnn the public hearing. >> So, second. All those in favor?
>> I. Is there a motion to join the joint meeting with the board of health? So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor. >> Is there a motion to adjourn the board of health meeting? >> Motion second motion. All in favor?
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