Okay, it is now 6 o'clock on Tuesday, October 7th, 2025. I'd like to open the board of selectman meeting for the town of Halifax. Uh we are in the selectman meeting room. I am joined by selectman Bill Smith, Selectman Thomas Pratt, myself, selectman Jonathan Celig, town
administrator Bob Fennessy, and our assistant Pamela McSherry. Uh, this meeting has been posted in accordance with the provisions of Mass General Law, Chapter 30A, Section 20B, and pursuant to chapter 30A section 20F, notice being made that this meeting is being recorded
and will be posted on Area 58 Community Access Channel. The board chair, that's myself, reasonably anticipates that the following matters posted on this agenda will be discussed and/or voted on at this meeting, and the agenda items may be taken out of order for time management considerations. And if you
guys will all join me, we're going to start with the pledge of allegiance. Please stand if you can. 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. Thank you very much. All right. We want to start with the uh affirmation, the approval of abatements, bills, commitments, and warrants. Bill, you got it. No, I got it. All right. I move to affirm approval of the following warrants and commitments.
Vendor warrant number 30 for 271,98742. Ambulance commitments 91525 to 92125 for 42,331.30. Second. All right. All those in favor? I I passes unanimous.
I move to approve the following warrants and commitment. Payroll warrant number 29 for $480. Payroll warrant number 31 for $451,734.25. Vendor warrant number 32 for 102,922. Withholding warrant number 33 for
157,65456. School warrant number 34 for 262,33842. Mobile park fee number 10 for 5,16 cents. Second. All those in favor? I I opposed passes unanimous. All right, we'll jump down to A on your
agenda if you're following at home with agenda bingo. We'll start with our Plymouth County outreach discussion on opioid funds. I believe we have a presentation here, Chief. Um, so this is Vicky Butler. She's the uh administrator, executive director, executive director. Okay.
Of PCO and this is Chief Kane from Rockland. Okay. The executive board of Clinton County PCO. So they'll be giving a presentation on uh what how what PCO is, how PCO uh helps all the the communities in Puna County. Okay.
And uh kind of uh you know kind of make a request the board like to uh to consider taking some of our opiate funds that um we've been getting from the state or we'll be getting from the state to allocate a contribution to uh the BCO
great Halifax. Okay. And you can come over here if you'd like to see the presentation. Yeah, I'll take her seat while she's um thank you so much for having us here again. My name is Becky Butler. I'm the executive director for county outreach.
been with the organization since 2017. Um we're actually coming up on our 10y year anniversary in December um since we started doing this work. So um we're a collaboration of the 27 municipal police departments in Plymouth County as well as BSU PD. Uh we work
closely with the district attorney's office, the sheriff's department, and really any kind of um community organizations and coalitions that are looking to make a difference. Um, we partner law enforcement with recovery coaches, people in recovery themselves, uh, to make treatment resources, harm
reduction tools more accessible to people who use substances as well as their loved ones and family members, um, with the goal of reducing overdose fatalities, which we have been able to do. I have um, some data slides in here that I'll show you next as well. Um, I don't have time to go over all of this
tonight, so we've been here for a while, but um, these are all of the different things that we do uh, throughout Plymouth County. So, we started as a post overdose follow-up program. So, someone overdoses any um where within the county and we're going to go out and offer services and support uh to both
the person who experienced the overdose as well as the family members. Um a kind of spin-off from that was the atrisisk referrals. So, if we know proactively that someone is using substances, if they're at risk of overdosing, we can go out again proactively and offer them services the same way we would had they
experienced an overdose. The at risk referral also allows us to help people who are struggling with nonopioid substances. So people with alcohol use disorder or really any kind of struggle that they're having with substance use um we can help through that at risk referral. All this information is being
um documented in our critical incident management system um through Kelly Research Associates. So all of our police departments have access to that system. Um it allows for easy communication uh across the jurisdictions. So if um someone from Halifax were an overdosing in Hanover,
Hanover would enter that information and with a click of a button, Halifax would have that information so that they could do that followup and that individual wouldn't fall through the cracks. So prior to this program existing, that cross communication wouldn't happen. So Halifax wouldn't have known that that resident had that incident. Therefore,
you know, missed opportunity to get that person some assistance. Um you know, hotspot outreach where everything we do is is free of cost. The other thing that I think is really important is we're not insurance based. So someone not having health insurance or having the wrong kind of insurance isn't going to be a
barrier. Um but with that being said, we do have staff members who will help them with applications. You know, uh housing applications, health insurance, um you know, SNAP benefits, really any of those kind of applications that people might need help navigating. We'll do um local dropin centers. So, we've went to, you
know, police department uh training room, set up, had a recovery coach there, um with resources, Naran, train the community on kind of how to use that Naran and distribute those materials free of cost. Um we do family peer support, uh grief support after a fatal
overdose has occurred. Um and really kind of anything in between. So, we try to identify those gaps and bridge those gaps. Um and we also have I'm sorry, one thing I missed. I think I have a slide on it later on as the drop in. Um the
other thing that we launched in 2020 was the situation table. Um so it aims to bring together multiple service providers to address the needs of individuals andor families who are at acutely elevated risk. Uh so substance use doesn't have to be a factor. You know, oftentimes it is, but it operates
on a four filter system. Um there are over 105 different risk factors in 27 different categories. Um and intended to be proactive rather than reactive. So, let's say we have a um a family, one of the parents recently lost their job, they received an eviction notice, the
car broke down, the kids aren't getting to school. We know that if we don't intervene, something bad is going to happen. Um so, knowing that proactively, we can get together a team of people from housing, uh from the school system, from um you know, employment services,
and we can wrap services around this family and hopefully prevents that eviction from happening. And that's just kind of one example. Um and so we have four of these tables throughout the county. It's broken up by court district. This is just looking at our our fatal trends throughout the county um over the
last few years. So in um 2024, we know the 32% decrease in fatal overdoses over 2023. Uh we have seen um significant decreases in fatal overdoses since starting this program, aside from 2020 when we did see a slight increase with
that pandemic. Um, so with the data we collect, we're able to do mapping. This is a county map, but certainly we could do individual community maps as well. It helps us to be able to see where incidents are happening, compare those trends from year to year, so that maybe there's, you know, a neighborhood or an
area or something where we're seeing high rates of overdoses happening. Um, if we if we know that, we can go into those areas and proactively offer um support, place no locks boxes, um, you know, provide assistance and training that way. Um and so those the red is um
our fatal overdoses throughout the county. Uh this is looking at our non-fatal trends. So again seeing that decrease 36% decrease in 2024 over our 2023 um numbers. And then these are those non-fatal overdoses.
This is looking at um our fatal overdoses since the the program started. So we started kind of unofficially in 2015, but 2017 was our first year of solid uh data collection. So as you can see, you know, we are trending down, but
75 fatal overdoses is 75 too many. So we still have, you know, a lot of work to do. This is our um drop in center here or some pictures from our drop in center. So we opened up a physical um drop in spots. It's probably 15 minutes from
here. Um, we're open for walk-ins Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. Um, any other day or time by appointment, but we have people walking in for all sorts of needs. We've had people walk in looking for immediate placement and treatment. We've had family members walk in looking for, you
know, Narcan or or questions, um, supports for themselves. Um, we have, you know, an extensive book library. A lot of books on how to talk to youth about substance use. Uh we do know that our hardest hit age range for overdoses is 30 to 39 which we know would be
parenting age. So there are a lot of um youth who are being impacted by this as well. So again really trying to help and fill in all of those gaps that we're seeing throughout uh the county. Um the other thing I you know really wanted to highlight so we are a um
national um model uh for the Bureau of Justice Assistance. So we have police departments from around the country that will come here to Plymouth County to learn from us to bring that information back and replicate it um in their own communities. We have been um fedally
funded since we or actually first we didn't have any funding but in 2018 we got our our first grant and have gotten uh a few other grants since but unfortunately those are startup funds. They're not sustainability funds. Um and so our time is running out in September
um for those federal funds and so we're looking for opportunities to make this program sustainable to keep it going. Um we've done a lot of great work. I have a really great team uh and I think it's been a great tool for our law enforcement to be able to go out and and
help the community. Um and then you know probably you've seen this uh released I think it was February February 21st um just about you know the opium abatement funds that are coming into the communities that have yet to be spent. Um I think this is you know a really
great way to you know spend some of those funds. Um and yeah I'm happy to answer any questions you guys may have. Now, does excuse me, does Plymouth County connect with Northol County and the other counties on that that database?
Yep. Yeah. So, um all the programs look a little bit different. So, we have like a really robust great countywide approach led by, you know, civilian outreach workers. Not um all of the programs have that. So, sometimes it's communication with um you know, other police departments. Most of the state, I
think, aside from Suffach County, is using that critical incident management system. So, let's say one of your residents overdose outside of Plymouth County, we would get that information in the same way because they're uh documenting stuff like that. But certainly, we get um calls to for people kind of outside of the county. We always
try to direct people to resources within their community and they have a like I said a really great team, very knowledgeable um of all of his resources. Now, is Brockton part of this? Yeah. Yep. Okay. curious, has Halifax ever contributed in the past and part of this or would this
be our first venture into the PCO? So, um, Halifax has been an active participant since the program started. There's never been where we've gotten the grant funding, it's been 100% funded by the grants. So, there's never been a need prior to this. Sure. Yeah. Um, well, there is, I should say,
there's yearly dues. So, so not not nothing, but there are things that um you know are unallowable expenses through our federal grants that we've um the police departments have paid dues into, but it's been a a very small amount. So, this is this is the first time we're coming to you guys um and and
asking for support for the program. No, I think it's fantastic. And I think your numbers kind of that out that it's working. So, kudos to you guys. Awesome. Thank you so much. And I have this folder that I'll leave you with. I only have one, but I can email the information um in here. there's, you know, a little bit more about our
mission statement, our history, um our full 2024 annual report. Certainly when our 2025 annual report comes out and we'll make that information available, but there's like a ton of information that we um collect that we're able to, you know, accurately help the community and what the needs are. So, I'll leave
this with you guys. Yeah, just a quick thing. So the federal funding, the grants are ending in September, but do the towns are those are the towns receiving those on an ongoing basis or we have those in the kitty from prior years that need to be spent before we lose them or both.
Um so you want me to take Yeah. So the town's um basically what we're receiving now is um funding through the opiate settlement abatement okay decision. So every town is, you know,
there's a calendar of what funds are being released to each community, what the amounts are, you know, when that's taking place. So, that that's actively taking place right now. So, Halifax is getting money for that. And along with that is these very specific criteria
that that you can't just spend this on anything you want. And you know, there's even in discussions with people in my own community and apologize. My name is Tim K. I'm the chief of police on the town of Hanover. Um, but people have had some great ideas, but they don't check
the boxes. This is really very specific. And it's great from my vantage point. This is one of the reasons why I I come to these meetings with uh Vicki here is to show that uh advocate for law enforcement. Um why it's this program
basically keeps me from having to reinvent the wheel. We have a program that is data driven, shown to work, proven to work. Um I also like to and give my own personal take on this, why this is so important. I started my career in the early 2000s right as this
opiate epidemic was really starting to take over. I was responding to overdoses on a daily basis on the community that I worked in at the time and it was very difficult as especially as a very young patrolman at the time to walk away from those scenes
and really leave a family disheveled in disarray. They had nowhere to turn and I didn't really have any answers for them. Uh back then our approach as law enforcement was we were trying to arrest our way out of the problem and it was not productive and nobody
else was doing anything. Uh so this collaborative effort that has been undertaken by all 27 communities, Bridgewwater State, the DA's office and our privacy here county outreach has really been a tremendous answer and fantastic response to do something above
and beyond just arresting our way out of a problem. uh you know I think what PCO really does and it really enlightened law enforcement opened our eyes is uh to the importance of eliminating that stigma that goes along with drug addiction. Um, so you know, our officers
today, they respond to an overdose. They have tools at their disposal that can now ensure that this family has some level of support, whether it's an overdose uh that led to a fatality or we were able to revive that individual. Um, just to make sure that they're not just
taken care of, but their family's taken care of. Uh, you know, in my community, we were just speaking your question um about do we counties work with one another? PCO was in my own community yesterday for an overdose that took place outside of our jurisdiction actually outside of
the count of that communication. It just speaks to an example of that where you know we we were at their door the next day offering some level of assistance. So it's very refreshing. It's very eye opening. I think this is the right approach. It would be a shame to watch PCO go by the wayside. It's been a lot
of turnover with uh leadership in law enforcement Plymouth County over the last five years, especially since they took that collaborative effort together. All these past chiefs that they got together and now they've all started to kind of retire, you know, the last few years. So, I think
it's a good thing. Keep him around for a little while. Trying to chew through the rope, though. But I think we have a a real responsibility here to keep this going and not just uh you know look the other way. So I I think that we've done a
really good job um in Plymouth County, Plymouth County Chiefs Association of really uniting, sticking together and trying to approach our communities to to take this head on and really commit to the the mission of Plymouth County Outreach. So we would really appreciate and support that town of Halifax would offer in that effort. Oh,
absolutely. Again, I think it's a it's a very worthy cause here. Just a question as far as our funds would is it a percentage you think of our or chief? So just to answer Tom's question. So Halifax began receiving payments in
March 15th of 2024. Um up to date the we received $84,1984. um that money that amount um was uh put into a revolving account at town meeting this past town meeting. So it's it's in
a revolving account that's specifically made um for you know for for issues with with double uh use. So the money is there now. The money is going to be payable to to Halifax until 2039. We're going to be getting uh federal
monies uh for the for this over of an undetermined amount or that amount or undetermined. I don't know if that's so I can um I don't have it with me, but uh there is there is a determined amount you're going to get money each year. It's not the same, but I can definitely um get back to you. Yeah, I might my
numbers could be wrong, but according to my notes from our meeting, it was $280,000 total from now until 2039 allocated for Halifax. And so, if we don't allocate it to the PCO or otherwise, what is the what is
the plan? Change for anything else, right? So, is there there's nothing locally that we do? No, nothing. This isn't this No, no. I mean, you can use it you can I'm sorry. You can use it for PCO or other programs in town, but at the moment, we don't have anything. No, we've had so we've had meetings with the fire chief council on
aging and water health and we've come up with with with um you know some idea some items that we can utilize it for that will not you know uh hamper the PCO there's plenty of money there for for some of the programs like the um the
motor health was talking about installing these sandboxes basically um like the fire department has those those knock boxes where somebody like a member could go in there and grab some n can well p provides that as well. So, so you know it kind of all works together in
you know cooperation. So, so there's some overlap. Okay. Yeah. And that was my question too like if and when these funds are all allocated and we're out we're not as a town on the hook to continue to um you know keep making don I don't say donations but
keep making payments to you guys if that funding is no longer there. That's correct. I mean that's really the ask right now is really hoping that you would consider directing those funds specific funds to this effort. Um and and hopefully this buys us more time
to become more self- sustaining into the future beyond 2039 gives us a lot of time to kind of game plan. And chief I'm going to guess you're behind this program. Uh wholeheartedly I understand. Yep. I just sent another guy for the train
that Vicki was talking about. It's I have two officers that already do, you know, the clinician follow-ups with it. They all speak highly of it. I I was actually um you know co-responder in when I was in New Bedford. We started the program kind
of similar to to to a PCO. Um, you know, so we would go with a a clergy member and a uh outreach worker to visit, you know, homes with um overdoses and it it worked out well, right?
Really can speak, you know, great. We do have data that supports like what happens when we go out to the homes, how many people accept services versus how many people decline. So in that annual report like all that data is broken down as well. Great.
All right. So what are you looking from us? Do we need to make any sort of vote tonight, Bob, or um Well, the vote has to come out of town meeting. Okay. to So just a recommendation maybe from the We'll have a we'll have a article hopefully, you know, for Tom meeting to
allocate, you know, however the the amount is going to be right now. I mean, again, it's not it's not official. Yeah, but uh it's uh $9,896. Um that would be Halifax. So what happened is I think Vicki is the one
that created basically a kind of a working um database on on the percentage and I think it's still a working document because because they're trying to figure out you know the like like so like right now
we're in the hook for 1 1.5% of of of the total total budget budget for public rock is 20% right you know so so they're trying to you know break down the numbers $10,000 would be taxes contribution to
for for this year for this year. Yeah. Of the 841 199 that was allocated the 84 that's in there currently right now. Yeah. So we still have you know 79. We're still in good shape. Makes sense. Great. So for all the communities participate it'll stay in the program. Yeah.
Yeah. Makes sense. Thank you for coming. Great. Yeah. No seems. So do you do any other fundraising other than the municipalities contributions? So, we've never done fundraising right now. We're not um our own end state. We're not a nonprofit. Um we were applying for all of our grants through
the town of East Bridgewater and then that was just being used to serve the entire county. Um so, our plan is to be able to continue to do that. So, um again, this is all kind of we're going to all the town meetings and trying to work out all the details and make it sustainable for everyone. Um but the
plan would be to just uh send the funds there into a separate account and we would continue kind of operations as we've been doing. One more question. So what is your budget for the fiscal year? So I think um
I think that budget was about 700,000. Yeah. 65977. Yeah. So that was kind of cutting out all of the extra stuff that we've done over the years and really um you know sticking to what our what our data supports that we most effective. I think the grant
provided Vicki and her team a really uh a great opportunity to try things that have never been tried before too and they're not effective. I think he makes a very honest assessment on that. Sure. And she eliminates that from from the program where you know that the
money is going to be very u responsibly used. There you go. So we like that. Y just one quick followup question. Make sure I understand the federal grants started in October of 18 but are being sunseted in September. Um so the so those funding opportunities are still
available but they're for startup programs. Okay. So they've let us let you go out to pass. So the ongoing the ongoing contributions are being received by the towns in Plymouth County the 842 up to 239 or up to 2 whatever it was through 2039. Those are state or federal grants. So that the
opioid abatement fund um it's a a settlement um it's part of the settlement from Purdue Pharma uh that all thearmacies are all so nothing to do with state fun no great well I thank you guys I mean it's a need you're showing that you're making
inroads with the need and I would hate to see that stop so I'm all for it that's a problem it's not going to go away y no way chief thanks thanks cheap. Thanks, Vicki. You guys to email the information over as well.
Any follow? Thank you. Thank you very much. I'll leave that with you. Okay. Sure. Thank you so much. All right. Next up, uh letter B, we have uh Halifax energy manager, uh Kathy Stanley. Well, is I don't think is
joining us tonight. No. But we have Daniel Cooney. I'm guessing you're right there. uh from New Gen Capital Managing D uh director and it's regarding the presentation and possible vote for the net metering purchase option. So and Laura Frasier and Laura. All right.
Laura Frasier showed up. Do you like Do you like Dan or Daniel? Dan is great. Dan. Okay. We met you a few months back in the in the big room. That's right. When you helped us stay on a project. That's it. Yeah. We don't like to brag. Yeah. Yeah. And as we promised, we would come
back and talk to you once we kind of got everything sorted out. Um, so start with an update. We were able to secure the last net metering in the state of Massachusetts for the National Grid Territory. Um, we were actually able to make the project a little bit larger
than we we had to shrink it. We're going to be able to make it a little bit larger. still under what it originally was going to be, but it is the net metering program gives the largest benefit to the towns. It it reaps the largest benefit. So, we're able to
secure that. You um we're proposing per our um our letter to you that if you do this for us, you get first dibs on the power. Um so, we worked with Kathy and Robert to kind of um figure out what the electricity use is here conservatively.
uh making sure that we were conservative in that so we don't over buy. Um and Kathy and myself, we actually lowered it just a smidge just to make sure that um you know we're being fiscally responsible. Um and that's about 750,000
kilowatt hours. Um so there's still, you know, uh 2/3 left to sell. I'm not worried about that. I can take care of that. That's not your problem. Again, as we said before, this is at no cost to the town. is pure savings. Um, but we want to secure that because we still
have a lot of work to do selling the rest of the power and we want to make sure that Halifax is taken care of first. Right behind this, we're also going to go to the housing authority just to make sure because they're outside of your budget. We're going to make sure that the housing authority, if they want credits, they can take advantage of them as well.
Um, but we'll sell the power. The the hope is to have this thing built in 26. It is to our benefit to have it built because of um everything going on with the big beautiful bill. The project will re we re reap the best reward for us as
the owner and operator to have it built in 26. Sooner the better. Yeah. Yeah. Um so our goal is to kind of rev up and close as soon as you know the project is cleared. We have to get it cleared through a smaller size through the utility. We're just going to go and
do an update with the town. is already fully permitted as a reminder. Um this is just to make sure all paperwork matches across the board. So once we do that, um we'll start getting ready to build it in the spring. Um we won't do it when it's winter because the cost
will just skyrocket and we're trying to give the town the largest value we can uh based on the net metering. Um we proposed and this was in the letter before, but we proposed a 20% net metering credit for a town this size. Usually you'll see 10 to 15, but that 20
is the LAR towns, city of Brockton. Those are the types of of discounts that we do give. Um, and it was a 25 year um PPA with two two extensions, two five-year extensions. Um,
other than that, it's a savings about 42 should be about $42,000 a year savings. Yeah. in electric costs for the town. That's correct. Yeah. And that's annually. Yep. Annually. Okay. So, it's a million dollars in the first 25 years, give or take.
Yeah. Um, when you say the scope of the project has changed a little bit, can you give me a ballpark on Yeah. how how much the project has increased size-wise? Oh, well, it's shrunk actually from what it is that you're permitting right now.
Okay. Um, so it was originally cited to be a about a 2 megawatt 2 megawatt DC 2 megawatt DC site. Um, originally when we came to you, we thought we were going to we were going to have to shrink it to
get that net metering um allocation. We thought we were going to shrink it to 1.3, but we ended up being able to get it to 1.5. Um, some there are projects that can drop out of the net metering because they didn't meet their deadlines. Um, so while that we were working everything out, somebody dropped
and we grabbed it just in time and Bob was amazing in helping us do that. Um, the developer there has actually so we're going to kind of step in as a co-developer to kind of hold the hand and make sure that this is done right moving forward. Um, so we are working
with the current developer. We're the owner. We're the one that's buying it. We're going to co-develop it. We're going to actually take the lead all the way to the end just to make sure it gets done to how we manage projects. Um, as a reminder too for those that weren't here, we own the largest or not the
largest, I take that back. The oldest solar site in town. Um, we actually own the land underneath it as well. This is not the big on the big one. You guys are on river. No, this is on mass ma. Uh,
oh my gosh. Mapo matis miso I think it's no mitapon m something m something okay okay um so 2015 that project turned out I know there was another one behind us
that wasn't us there was some issues there but um we've always had a great relationship with the town we've always worked very closely with the town and we just thought it was a great project to step into because we saw it was struggling there were two developers prior to to us stepping in. This project has been I
since 2015. I could not believe it when I heard I was like no wonder the wind's losing his mind. I was like all right then let's step in as lead. Let's take it to the finish line and do it the new way. So that's part of the deal with the developer is that we're just going to take it from where it is. They
originally wanted to register this thing as a smart project. They weren't able to um because of certain qualifications. So that's when we've stepped in. We realized we could add value. we could, you know, buy it, take it off the developers hands and get it to the finish line. But now with the big
beautiful bill, we have we have to be clock is ticking a little bit. Yeah. So, we want to make sure the town Halifax is taken care of and then we're going to do what we do best in the back. And just to remind myself, this is on Summit Street over on Summit Street. Yes. And you said you're going to the project's going to start in early 2026.
Is there anything going on there now? No. There's no there's nothing no heavy machinery, no clearing of anything. No. Mm-m. Nope. Not not us. I mean, if the landlord's doing something, but No. No. There's no activity for us.
Um, so but you say that you're the owner of the land, but the developer leasing the land. We're going to be leasing the land. So, could the current owner be doing something? What? Could the current owner or developer be doing something with that land? The current owner of the land might be
um that owns the land in the house, but not to work on the solar site. There's no land clearing or anything of the nature being done right now. That would be done when permitting's done like when we get permitting updated and just make sure that our tees are crossed and our eyes are dotted. And just to to circle back and I know we
said before all of the regulatory boards have you guys have all been through with those guys and nothing you're presenting to us tonight is changing any status with any of those regulatory boards. The only thing we're going to do is make sure that the revised solar site
if for the size, which is smaller, is going to be submitted to the planning board as a site update. Okay, that's it. But it's been fully permitted and we could build it today if it was a part of the smart program. It's not. Originally, there was also going to be a battery. There's no battery on this this project.
Okay. So, which is which is better. It's safer. So, okay. It's 25 years with two fiveyear extensions. Okay. Okay. All right. Any other questions from the board or anything? So, I do have some verbiage here, Bob.
You gave this to me here. So, uh, I will entertain a motion that the board move to vote to authorize the interim town administrator to negotiate, finalize, and execute on behalf of the town a power purchase agreement with New Gen Capital or its affiliates as assigned
for the purchase of approximately 80% of the town's municipal electric load at a 20% discount on the public net metering rate with National Grid at a floor of 11 cents per kilowatt hour for a term of 25 years with up to two 5-year extension
options set agreement to be subject to review and approval as to form by town council and the interim town administrator is further authorized to execute any related documents necessary to carry out this vote. I should have asked before that sounds
great. There was there was something uh that you mentioned earlier about uh good news for us. Remember you you started to say something about uh maybe donation or part of our agreement. Yes. Part of our
agreement that we signed is upon the commercial operation of the system that we're going to donate 2500 $25,000 $2500. Sorry, you're making me look bad. It was 200. That was 250,000. It was No.
Um but and we also are going to open up the um the solar monitoring system for the communities. So the local schools can use it for STEM initiatives if they want in the classroom. Um so they can see real life um solar sites in action. We've already opened up and you might need the access again because we did
give it to Cody right away. You already can access the Hellifax say that we have in operation. We did that as just an add-on to just kind of help the community figure out how you want to use that resource. Happy to meet with the schools as well if if it's something that they want to understand. Um, did we
also have in there that there was going to be a site visit? Yes. I I believe there is also site visits to that as well. Schools, we can schedule a school visit to the to the sites to the sites as well. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Back to Jonathan.
Yes. So moved. Second. All right. All those in favor? I I opposed. Passes unanimously. Thank you guys for the update. Good luck with everything. Absolutely. forward to saving you guys the money and helping the schools. We appreciate it. Have a good evening. You too. Thank you guys.
Take care, guys. Sorry, Laura. Oh, no. That's okay. Send me a new PPI. We're going to send PDA. And you know what? I'm really thinking we're going to put that in the PI. That way, we just have it all over the place. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, no problem. Thank you, gentlemen. Thanks, L.
All right. Next up, we have C uh we have Sarah Tumi with the possible appointment to Holidays in Halifax committee. You guys want to come to the hot seat? Come on up. Come on down. How am I pronouncing that right? It's actually Tormy spelled wrong.
Say that one more time. It's Tormy. T O R M E Y. Tormy. She spelled the name wrong. Uh oh. All right. Tormy. No. No. It's right on the card here, so that's good. But it's just wrong on the agenda. Tormy. I apologize, Sarah. That's okay. Um, first off, thank you for being
willing to volunteer. Uh why do you want to be on this committee I guess is the first easy question for you. Sure. Yeah. So I moved here um at the beginning of the year with my fiance and I really wanted to get involved with the community. I also worked at Rock and Trust. So we involve a lot of our time
helping communities too. Um I'm from Penroke and in Penroke I also did like the Christmas tree lighting. I did the winter lights 5K. I helped out with the fireworks stuff like that. So I thought I could carry that over here and help. And then um Kim also mentioned doing help with marketing. I didn't major in
marketing, but I took marketing classes, so I can totally help with like the website or Facebook or anything like that. I'm just ready to help more. Great. Great. No, it's a great committee. Uh we have all of the a lot of department heads come in and help out. And uh Kim, you you've been a
godsend on the on the committee. So, great addition to Tanya who also does great work. I think it's fantastic that you're willing to jump in. Believe it or not, it's going to be here before we know it. We're already looking at two months away. So, um I' I'm thrilled that you're
you'd like to jump in and help us out. Um anything else from the board? I would just echo that. It's a terrific event with a lot of good people who help out and anybody's looking to volunteer to give their time and effort is good by me. So, thank you very How big is the committee? Five people. No. Well, Sarah will make three official
board members. Is that what we have a lot of I I don't even we call them volunteers. Leaison. You were a liazison. Yeah. Um and then we have several different events going on and we have usually have like someone in charge of each area.
Oh, okay. Yeah. So, more volunteers on top the volunteers. That's great. That's great. Never have too many. No, I know. And you guys uh usually run help with the chili cookoff. I know that's what they did anyway last year. So, yes. And I already got my troops going for that. Excellent. Excellent.
Got a donation. I got everything going. Excellent. We got the official email that Brockton Trust is donating $1,000 towards the event. Fantastic. That's awesome. Yeah. Know the community comes out in spades. It's It's terrific. Um and I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully. It's usually the coldest night of the year or like the snowiest
or rainiest, but uh knock on wood. We have some I run year round, so it it doesn't it doesn't bother you. Okay. Uh we also have a couple of things in the works. You want to you want to promote your your event here, Kim, or do you want to hold off until they're official? Well, we haven't signed a contract yet,
but okay. We're in the works. We um have decided not to do fireworks. Um being fiscally responsible for the town and the volunteers and everything. We thought it best to hold that off for the Fourth of July committee. And we are in talks of having a synthetic ice skating rink for the event
and um a few new things like that. Hopefully kind of a hometown community, you Christmas. Norman Rockwell's Christmas. Yeah, it's great. Right. It's one of my favorite nights of the year. It really is. No, it's a great time. So, thank you. So, I will um
entertain a motion to appoint Sarah Tormy to the holidays committee uh for the term ending June 30th, 2026. Second. All those in favor? I I Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Kim. If you're looking for somebody to
volunteer, I'll help this share. Whatever you need, I would love I would love to volunteer. Wow. Oh, there you go. It's on camera, too. You can't have the chili though. No. No. Somebody Didn't somebody win? I'm retired. I can help. Someone did win last. Didn't somebody win? I forget. Somebody
won last year. I can't remember. I don't know. But he's wearing a pink tie. I forget. Yeah, I did. Did you? Yes, I did. You did? I don't think you found out until the next day. No, I didn't. I didn't. So, we have your car at Wendy's. No, I did not.
It's an old family recipe from great grandpa Google. So, Very. It was the hit of the night. So, we'll have your card here signed and um I'll get it down to Sue tomorrow morning and I'll I'll just contact you via email and let you know. You can come in and
get sworn in whenever you know you can get over here. Okay. All right. Thanks, guys. Good luck. Thank you. You need us need to say for the approval of the permit for light green or we Yeah. Um go ahead. Yeah, we want to jump down. That's a good idea.
All right. So, we will go down to uh F on our agenda, which is the approval of the use of the town green for holidays in Halifax. We'll kill two birds with one stone while you're here. Um, so this is for use of the town green. It is Where's my date here?
13. 12:13. 12:13 and it's beginning set up at noon. The event will go from 5 to 8. Uh, there'll be an opening ceremony. We're still working on getting the elementary school for their uh chorus performance. Uh it's
an awesome time. We'll have a tree lighting. Um it'll be a camp miss event. So I will gladly entertain a motion to approve the holidays in Halifax use of the town green for December 13th, 2025 um for holidays in Halifax. So move. Second. All those in favor?
I opposed. Passes unanimously. Thank you guys. We have approval for a rain date if necessary or is that Well, it's not on the form here, Kim. Well, I don't know. Well, it's not going to rain, but it's not going to rain. Actually, it's going to be beautiful. No, Tom put it on there. You just put it
in like six font, so I I couldn't see it. So, yeah. No, it's in there. You just got to zoom in. Uh, all right. So, I will also entertain a motion to approve use of the town green for the rain of 121420. So, second. All those in favor? I I. Thank you.
Thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, back to it. Okay. Uh, okay. Uh, we are down to D. Consider
lifting of hiring freeze for building commissioner, zoning enforcement officer, wiring inspector, and recording secretary for finance committee. So, basically, uh, you guys remember we put a hiring freeze on to help with our financial situation. We're in a little bit of a tough stretch like most
communities around us. Um, and basically in my understanding it was that we couldn't add any new positions to the books in an effort to try to keep our cost down. Uh, I will say that these u positions here that we are looking to fill uh folks have left and I would
argue the three of those are are crucial and we really can't function as a town without those three positions. So, um, Bob, I think you're looking for us to make a motion to authorize the hiring of those three. No hiring freeze.
Yeah. Okay. Any discussion? Lift the hiring freeze in general or specific to those three? To these three. To these three. Just these three. Yep. So, if there's no discussion, I will entertain a motion for lifting the hiring freeze for our building commissioner, zoning enforcement officer, our wiring inspector, and
recording secretary for our finance community. So, move. Second. All those in favor? I I opposed. Passes unanimous. All right. Next up is E, which is a possible appointment to the wiring inspector of Dennis Mcmanis. And he was supposed to be in tonight and
he was all He must have forgot. Okay. But he he was We have a letter though, don't we? We do. And he was the assistant, right? Okay. Cuz you have a gentleman who passed away. So, I have I have a letter here from our um building commissioner Joe Braga that says, "As building
commissioner for the town of Halifax, I am recommending the appointment of the following individual to the following position with a term to expire June 30th, 2026." And that is wiring inspector Dennis McManis. Um and he says if you have any questions, we can ask.
So, um he's got Joe's approval as Pam said he was our assistant. I said you want to do it and he says, "Oh, yeah, most definitely." So he was so he was the prior assistant. He was the assistant. Yeah. Yeah. So he's already kind of in the system familiar with the operations. Uh and
this would just be moving up the ladder as unfortunately our our wiring inspector had passed away. So we were looking to fill that position. So kind of wish it was here. Yeah. Me too. Okay. I mean I mean
I don't know. I mean, I don't know if he's been, you know, if he has to do any inspections. Yeah, I think if we can move it tonight, we know him and Yeah, I get it. The only problem is here we're not a building inspector and his letter is dated prior to his working here. He's not working here anymore.
He's recommending someone who didn't show up tonight. He's still working here until until Friday. Okay. Duly noted. This is um we have a number for him, Pam. Um I'll call him. Oh, wait. Is it um No, it's not there. I can go look it up in my Give me two
seconds. No. Uh, do you want it again or No, I'll I can entertain a motion to appoint and we can see how that goes. I'll entertain a motion to appoint uh Dennis McManis as the wiring inspector for the
town of Halifax with a term expiring June 30th, 2026. So moved. And I will second. All those in favor? I I opposed. I All right. Passes by majority to one.
All right. Next up, I'm not good at going back to the over like the overview of this thing here. Here we go. All right. We've done E F. We're down to G. We're down to the approval of minutes. So, guys have all had a chance to read them. I will entertain a motion to approve the selectment meeting minutes
for August 7th, 2025, August 26th, 2025, September 9th, 2025, and September 23rd, 2025. So moved. Second. All those in favor? I I opposed. Passes unanimous 300. All right. Now, without further ado, down to
H and our town administrator update. Mr. Bob Fennessy. Bob, you have the floor. Best part of the meeting. And it's the highlight. We saved the best for last. Okay. So, you may have gotten your letter or a card from the um insurance from the uh national grid. Yes.
On the aggregation rates and they're going down, which is amazing. Which is great. Uh it's going from 15 point so 0.1517 per kilowatt hour to 0.14166
kilowatt hour. So if you're part of the aggregation, it you'll go to that automatically. Now you can opt in, you can opt out anytime if you think you can get a better rate, which right now you can't. Y, you know, you're just staying with the
potential grid. Uh, some of the things you might want to know is no action is required for current participants. The new rates will appear on your December bill. So not until December will see it. Okay? And again, you may opt in and opt
out. If you need more information, you go to our website. We have this on our website and also a link to uh the Colonial Power Group which manages this. Great. Okay. Great. Good news. We like good news. So, that's the first thing. Um personnel issues. Uh as you mentioned
earlier, uh the building commissioner has has uh resigned. Uh he is actually retiring. Uh the he was an interim and he been on since I believe May. Last day is October 10th which is
Friday. We want to thank Joe for stepping in handling many building and zoning issues in a quick and professional manner and we wish him well in his endeavors as he goes forward. NAD was placed in the MMA, that's the Massachusetts Municipal Association,
where generally people look for municipal positions uh to have people apply or qualify to apply for this position. I checked it today. Unfortunately, the went in last week, we had zero applicants come in. And a lot
of these a lot of these positions, there's just a lack of people going into municipalities now. So I know there are communities that have been waiting a long time for their building commissioners. So we're also looking for along with that another interim to come in at least
do the occupation occupy permits and so forth. Uh the finance committee secretary job openings been posted and that it's not a it's not it's a four to six week a four
to six hour per week position. So, it's a smaller position. I have to check cuz there's some language that may be in the union, which doesn't make sense to me, but I'm going to check with council on that. Would it be I don't know if we how much we can deliberate here with the update, but
would it be worth seeing if a current uh minutes person would absorb those hours and and take that on as opposed to Yeah. I mean, trying to find somebody for four to six hours is is going to be tough. Yeah. So, and they can apply for that, too. Yeah, you know, if that's what they want to
do. Yeah, pick up extra hours. Okay, that's a good point. Yeah, I just think we might have a better chance of finding somebody if the hours are greater than Yeah. You know, jumping in for just four to six hours. Okay. You recall that town of Halifax
has acting through my office solicited proposals for a request for qualifications for the senior center. The deadline was yesterday at 2:00. Uh we had nine applicants fantastic was
great and I looked at them and man I mean they're great applicants and their proposals are like topnotch fantastic. So it's going to be a difficult uh for Collier's engineering to narrow that down to probably two or three
for interviews but that's that's what we have. Are we interviewing or where's the So So what happens is they narrow it down and it goes to the building committee. Yep. uh municipal and school building committee. They'll set up the interviews and
whether it's a whole committee or they do a subcommittee, okay, to interview, they'll go through all that with colle and I'll be there. Uh and we'll narrow it down to the they'll narrow down to the one or two to bring forward to the selected 20. Fantastic.
And I' I'd like to see two. Yeah. You know, at that level because you have a choice, too. Yeah. You know, it's not just here it is one candidate. No, it's great. You hear horror stories about one, two, you know, bids and the fact that we have nine is nine is good. Fantastic. Great news.
Um, so at their October 21st meeting, the the committee will meet with Collier again and they'll they'll go through all of these. They'll get them a week before the committee will get all the all the documents. It's now on a flash drive for all of them
and they'll be able to look at them before so they'll have a week to look at them before they meet. they can meet and discuss. Oh, that's great. Building committee will then hold a meeting thereafter. It's either going to be on November 7th or the 15th and send
the number one designer to the selectment to vote for them. Great for whoever it is. And it's anticipated that the the the group would start right after that after the board's approval. Great. So, it's moving along. It's kind of exciting. Yes. You know,
we've been waiting a long time for a senior center. um that that is worthy of the town. So, I'm excited. Uh next thing I have is the town of Halifax is looking for experienced plow truck drivers. Yep. For the upcoming winter season, they
must have the availability to work long hours in emergency snow events. And we know what that's like. We don't get snow. We don't get snow anymore. I don't know what you're talking about. Towns offering increase differing rates depending on the size and the size of the plow and the size of the truck. So
the bigger they are, the more money they they get. Interesting people must complete an a plow drive application packet which is available to download on our website. Upon completion, the packet should be returned to the Halifax Highway Bond at
60 Hemlock Lane, Halifax. And and here's a kind of a a bonus. If an application is returned before October 31st, an early sign on bonus of $400 per truck will be paid out at the end of the season. Great.
And there's a lot of competition to get these truck drivers to come into the town everywhere. Everyone's doing it. Yeah. I mean, you know, do they have to do they have to plow a certain amount for us to get that incentive? I didn't see that qualification.
Okay. Uh for more information, if you have any questions, you can call the highway department at 7812931760. Then next to last. Okay, you're you're cooking. You're good. Last week had a preliminary meeting with the finance committee chair Jim Walters.
a really good meeting regarding the first projections of the revenues of um budget for fiscal year 27 is officially kicking off tomorrow with department head meeting at which the department heads be given guidelines on establishing a sustainable and balanced
budget for the next year. Department heads all realize that it'll be a somewhat lean budget coming up and short of bringing in any new revenue. you know, new revenue could be in in growth or it could be some other way, but we don't know the lot of hope of
getting new revenue coming in. So, correct. So, we're ready for it and we're going to moving on. And finally, just a reminder that the water department will begin flushing water manes on about October 14th. So, you may see that that disturbance in
your water, you know, and and try to it's going to be done at night. So try not to, you know, get involved in doing uh dishes or or doing your laundry at that time. Great. And again, more information, you can always call the water department at
781-2931733. Great. Good stuff, Bob. And that's it. That was a good one. Oh, you know what? I forgot. Um, just a quick update on the Silver Lake Regional Study Committee, which is a mouthful. Uh the committee did vote to go with the Collins Center out of Boston. So they'll be performing
the study for us. Uh it'll take about a year. Uh and it's going to collecting all kinds of data. We're going to need data from uh the administration at school, from town, from all different u kind of players in the game there. um just to look at how we can be possibly
more efficient uh both at a cost-saving level and at an educational level to make sure we're trying to run as smooth a ship as we can. Um so I I don't anticipate any results from that at least I would say for another calendar year but uh at least we got somebody on
the hook to do it. So that's kind of exciting too. So sorry I forgot to mention that. All right. Anything else from the board? You got something? Just one thing housekeeping. I will not be here on a November 18th meeting. November 18th. All right. I don't know what the uh timeline is on
those interviews for senior center. That'll be November November 18th meeting. It could be. The building committee might meet on the 7th or the 15th. Is the 18th, the 2nd? The third. We switched the schedule.
We switched from the 1st and the third. November, December. Yeah. That's for the next three months for 1 and third. I will not be available on the 18th. Well, you want to make it the first and second. Well, we have enough between the first and second. I know. I know.
Don't go by me. This the the middle the second one is the Veterans Day. I believe the 11th is is that right? Yeah, that is. You might want to do it there. So, you could do the first and third as planned or the first and fourth, but I will not be here on the 18th. No matter what. Um, just throwing up. The the fourth. That's the Monday before Thanksgiving.
Tuesday. Oh, sorry. the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Um I'm not saying what to decide. I'm just I'm just informative only. And you would be able to not to pry you would be able to call in or anything. Yep. Okay. Um I mean that's an option. I don't know, Bill, what your schedule is if you're looking to leave town on
Thanksgiving week, but No, we're on. Yeah. So, just food for thought as we get closer. Sure. And yeah, and we'll see where they line up with the building. Maybe we know more in two weeks. Yeah. Just I'm just putting out there. Exciting early. Exciting stuff. We're going to move that up. Yeah.
All right. Anything else, guys? Speak now for peace. All right. If not, I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Second. All those in favor? I opposed. Passes unanimous at I think I got 7:00 on the nose. Thank you everybody.
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