Okay. Uh it is 5:31. I would like to call the uh board of selection meeting for the town of Halifax to order. Uh it is Tuesday, December 16th, 2025. It is 5:31 p.m. according to my computer. We are in the great hall here at town hall. Uh the
meeting has been posted in accordance with the provisions of mass general law chapter 3A section 20B and pursuant to chapter 38 section 20F notice is being made that this meeting is being recorded and will be posted on area 58 community access channel. The board chair
reasonably anticipates that the following matters will be discussed and/or voted on at this meeting and agenda items may be taken out of order for time management considerations. All right. And I will ask um to start the meeting as we start all our meetings. For those that can, please stand. Speak
the flag. >> 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 everybody.
All right. Um I think this is my microphone here. Sorry. Just to kind of go over the agenda really quickly. Um I know we have all of our stuff is important here, but we have two kind of big big items here on our agenda. Uh one being the interviews for the uh possible
candidates for our building commissioner zoning enforcement officer and the other being um our water commissioners and water superintendent coming in to discuss the water situation here in Halifax. Um, I will say we had our scheduled interviewees on the agenda
first um and then afterwards uh added the water commissioners and superintendent. So, we won't be taking that stuff out of order. So, for any folks that are here uh for water situation stuff um that will not start before 7:00. I know we are live
streaming tonight. So, if folks are home live streaming, making dinner, um you know, busy, I can assure you there will be no water discussion before 700 p.m. Uh just to give you guys the heads up because again, we had already scheduled our candidates for our building
commissioner position uh at the beginning of this meeting and we couldn't, you know, move that around. So, just to give everybody the heads up on uh our schedule for tonight. So that said, our first candidate is not scheduled to start until 5:45.
Um, so I guess we can start with the usual agenda items here. So if Bill, if you would like to affirm and approve the following warrants and commitments. I move to affirm approval of the following warrants and commitments. School warrant number 53 for $279,4898.
Vendor warrant number 54, $270,899.77. Ambulance commitments for 41,000, excuse me, ambulance commitments 1124 to 11.25 from 11:30 to25 for 41,994.50.
Ambulance commitments 12125 to 12725 for $112,73041 cents. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I I opposed. Passes unanimous. >> I move to approve the following
warrants. Payroll warrant number 55 for $462,497.98. Vendor warrant number 56 for $273,92422. Withholding warrant number 57 for 163,3210. >> Second. >> All those in favor? I
>> I passes unanimous 30. All right. And before we get on to I just wanted to announce too to the crowd um this meeting I believe according to our IT u director is being livereamed. So again, wanted to get that out there to the public that this meeting is being livereamed as well. I should also do
roll call. We have Pam McSherry here, our assistant. We have selectman Bill Smith. We have selectman Thomas Pratt, myself, Selectman Jonathan Celig. Uh I apologize for the voice. Been under the weather a little bit, but on the other side of it, so I assure you I feel
better than I sound right now. Um I won't be hugging anybody just in case. Deal. >> All right. All right, let's go down to A. So, we're at the end of the calendar year and it's time for license renewals for our businesses here in town. So, as part of our selectman duties, we have to
go uh and inspect our our businesses that have um alcoholic licenses to sell. So, we divide them all up. I had some, Tom had some, Bill had some. We go in and we uh we uh inspect the premises, make sure everything's great. So, we
have uh a laundry list for those of you guys that see the um see the agenda in front of you. It's quite a few. Um so, what I can do here, guys, is I'll entertain a motion to approve. We'll go uh kind of in order of, you know, down the line. And if anybody has a hold,
otherwise we'll just go right down the line. Pam, does that sound good to you? >> Right. >> All right. Great. >> Great. So, I'll entertain a motion to approve the 2026 license renewal alcoholic beverage license for Unit 5 Bar LLC, Subam, Inc., Halifax Lake
Street Incorporated, Genesis Convenience Incorporated, Omhari Corp. DBA Lindy's General Store, Dragon Lake Village Incorporated, DBA Happy Dragon Restaurant, DE's Grill 58
LLC, DBA DE's Grill 58, Halifax Investments INC, DBA Country Club of Halifax, Mont Ponzent Events LLC, DBA The Lakehouse, and Lionville Tavern and Restaurant LLC, DBA Nani's Italian
Grill. >> So moved. Second. All those in favor. I passes unanimous. I will also entertain a motion to approve the class one license for Halifax Mobile Home Estates Association
Incorporated and Morgan Power Equipment Incorporated. >> So move. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> I will entertain a motion to approve our 2026 license class 2 for 1734 Auto
Brokers LLC. Allen's Automotive Service, Alli's Auto Repair and Sales LLC, Davis Automotive, and Ellis Auto Body. >> And then there's more. >> There's more. >> Oh, and there's another page. Sorry.
>> Uh J&J Motorsports, Pet Auto Sales, RG Automotive Incorporated, and TLC Companies Incorporated. >> So moved. >> Second. All those in favor? I >> I passes unanimous. All right. Class three. I'll entertain a motion to approve the 2026 class 3 license for
Steve's Auto Recycling. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I I I'll entertain a motion to approve the 2026 Common Victoria license for the following businesses. ASNVP Corp. DBA Subway, Cape Cod Halifax LLC, DBA Cape
Cod Cafe, Dragon Lake Village Incorporated, DBA Happy Dragon Restaurant, DE's Grill 58 LLC, DBA De's Grill 58, Family and Friends Enterprises Incorporated, DBA Santoro's Pizza, Gen 2
LLC, DBA Dunkin Donuts, Halifax Investments INC, DBA Country Club of Halifax, Mont Ponzit Events LLC, DBA the Lakehouse, Lionville Tavern and Restaurant LLC, DBA Nani's Italian
Grill, Rodney's Kitchen, and Unit Five Bar LLC, DBA the Tea Box. >> So moved. >> Second. All those in favor? I oppose. Passes unanimous. I'll entertain a motion for an extended hours New Year's Eve for the following
businesses. Dragon Lake Village. INC DBA Happy Dragon Restaurant and Mont Ponzet Events LLC DBA The Lakehouse. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? I opposed. Passes unanimous. Now to public entertainment on Sundays.
Uh I'll entertain a motion to approve the following establishments for a 2026 license for public entertainment on Sunday. Dragon Lake Village Incorporated, DBA Happy Dragon Restaurant, Halifax Investments Incorporated, DBA Country Club of
Halifax, Montzant Events LLC, DBA the Lakehouse, and Unit Five Bar LLC, DBA the T- box. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I passes unanimous. And then finally, I'll entertain a motion for uh renewal
of the uh 2026 permit for public entertainment on weekdays to the following businesses here. Dragon Lake Village Incorporated, DBA Happy Dragon Restaurant, De's Grill 58 LLC, DBA De's Grill 58, Halifax Investments
Incorporated, DBA Country Club of Halifax, Montanzant Events LLC, DBA the Lakehouse, Lionville Tavern and Restaurant LLC, DBA Ni Italian Grill, and Unit Five Bar LLC, DBA the Tea Box.
>> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? I >> I opposed. Passes unanimous. >> All right, we still have about 5 minutes before our p our first uh candidate comes in. We're going to jump down. Um I
don't see Dick Steel here. U but we're going to jump down to C on your agenda, which is the 2026 Selectman meeting schedule. Um simply, we like to get the meeting dates out to the public before the year starts. Traditionally, they're the second and fourth Tuesday of every
month. We do switch it up for November. In December, you'll see because the second and fourth Tuesdays of those month uh collide with some of the big holidays of the year. So, in November and December, they are the first and third Tuesdays of the month. Otherwise,
they're traditionally the second and the fourth. So, uh if the board has had a chance to take a look at those, does anybody want to vote to entertain a motion to accept those dates for selectment meetings? So moved. I'll make that motion to accept as printed.
>> Second. >> All right. All those in favor? I opposed. Passes unanimous. Again, sometimes if if the unforeseen comes up, we may have to move a meeting or two, but uh overall that will be the schedule for 2026 uh for the Halifax board of
selection. All right. What else can we get done here on this list? >> F. >> Uh you guys want to do ambulance abatements? >> Yeah. All right. Um I'll entertain a motion um to approve the ambulance abatement for October 2025 for
$161,834.85 and for November 2025 of $73,80.51. >> So move. >> Second. >> All those in favor? I opposed. Passes unanimous. Um yeah, we can do F as well. We're cooking here. Jumping down to F,
you guys. uh we have the appointment of Michael Bennett to the override study committee. So as part of the override study committee that we've established the charge there is one member of finance committee that is on that committee. Uh the finance committee met
they discussed and Michael Bennett was voted by the committee to be the representative for the override study committee. We just have to give him our seal of approval that uh we are okay with Michael being on that committee. So, I'll entertain a motion to approve Michael Bennett to the override study
committee. >> So, move. >> Second. >> All those in favor? I >> opposed. Passes unanimous. >> Oh, G. >> G. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Mark Dylan, we can squeeze you in real quick. Mark, do you want to come down really quick? Put you on the hot seat.
Uh, so we're moving down to G guys on the agenda, which is we've re received a talent bank form from this guy right here, Mark Dylan, to be a possibly a part of the government study committee. Uh, Mark, can you just for the record say your name and your address? >> Yeah, Mark Dylan, uh, I live at 30
Lincoln Street in Halifax. >> Awesome. Um, and Mark, for those that don't know or don't know, have met Mark. He's been a rock star lately. He's really jumped in and helped Halifax. Uh, I know you're part of the wershed currently. you're part of uh the override study committee that I just
mentioned. Um and now you're looking at throwing your name in the ring for uh government study >> and also the >> town administrative screening committee. Right. The guy's doing everything but emptying the trash. >> So um so Mark, what uh why the government study committee in a couple
words if you could? >> I you know I know there was couple vacancies that came up. Um, I have the time right now. Um, based on my background with my degrees in political science, I figured hop on, help out however I could, uh, and see what I
could do to make things go as smooth as possible. >> Yeah. No, I I appreciate your approach, Mark. You're always very levelheaded. Um, you know, and you're willing to listen, which I think is great. Uh, any input or anything from the board? This is your baby, so >> Oh, I'm not sure. I'm not sure.
>> It's not your baby. It's your adopted baby. to be >> uh departed uh departed selectman John Bruno put me in charge of this if you remember >> that was his priding gift. >> Thank you John. >> Um no happy to help off h happy to have any volunteers that would like to help.
Um Mark's you know Mark's involved and invested >> and informed and I appreciate anyone who's willing to volunteer put their time in and you know see see what comes out. So I appreciate the effort Mark. >> I do too. Thank you. >> All right. Do we have Pam? Is there a set date or is it open? >> It's an open date. >> It's an open.
>> Okay. No other discussion from the board. >> Nope. >> All right. I'll entertain a motion to appoint Mark Dylan to the government study committee. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Passes unanimous. Mark, thank you very much. >> Appreciate it. >> Not my baby, just to be clear.
>> Well, adop I will say adopt a child. >> Yep. All right. So, we are now here at 5:45. Uh, and I'm hoping Michael is here. Michael. Yeah. Come on down. Nice to meet you. I'll shake your hand first. Sir,
>> Jonathan Cely. Nice to meet you. >> Tom Pratt. Pleasure. >> Bill Smith. Nice to meet you. >> Nice to see you. >> All right. We're not going to get out the spotlight or anything, Michael. We're not going to grill you or anything. So, um, I guess my first question is, uh, tell us about yourself.
Tell us why you're interested in being the building commissioner here in Halifax. Um, I'm tip uh I'm a contractor by trade. I've been in the HVAC business and plumbing business for 30 years. Um, I
became a local inspector in the town I lived, which is Noralkk, a small community like this. uh finding out that I had to get a building officials license to become the mechanical inspector, I proceeded with the classes, moved on, got my um inspector's license,
continued and moved on to get my commissioners. Um I've been a general manager for a company called Municipal Code Consultants. So towns like yourself that don't have a um commissioner, you would
hire us. I in turn had five inspectors that I would send out on a daily basis, cover your ground until you could find someone. I did that for a few years and then CO hit and um inspectors weren't working and and we weren't working as
contractors. So, I got back into construction. I've done I've had a contract for five years. I've just finished that contract and I'm going to get back into building inspectors. >> Okay. So, >> all right. Um, as part of this, uh,
position, you also are zoning enforcement officer. Do you have any, um, I guess experience being a zoning enforcement officer yourself? >> Yes, I have, um, a a lot of experience as a zoning officer. Um, I'm also a
building commissioner in the in in Rhode Island. And in Rhode Island, I was the zoning officer exclusive for 6 months as a fill in. Um, I sit on the zoning board in my town, so I'm very involved with zoning. I think the zoning end of the
job is the um a little bit more of a challenge than it is the building official job >> to be honest. >> Yeah, >> building officials, you have a set of rules. Zoning, every town's a little different. >> So, >> Mhm. >> Um, you have all your your required
paperwork. You said you have your commissioner's license and you're keeping up you're keeping up to date with I mean I know that stuff is constantly changing and evolving. >> You're keeping up with >> I was at a meeting this morning in Grafton for 4 hours. I I'm very up on my um hours.
>> Okay. >> Yes. >> Can you describe your your style um of being a building commissioner? I know that uh you know it can run the gambit. um how do you approach the job and uh maybe share some past experiences that uh kind of off the beaten path and how
you handled either um a situ a tense situation or a situation of conflict or um how you resolve issues that are going to arise in this position. >> Okay. Um a lot of questions. >> Sorry, I got tea and it's caffeinated so
I apologize. Um examples of um inspections, we'll say um you handle every inspection as a professional. Um you know, whether I'm inspecting somebody's kitchen that's remodeled or I'm doing 420 apartment
buildings in in Amherst. All right. Um or if I'm doing a uh biomed center in Waltham, I mean, huge differences that I inspect. Huge differences. Um, act professional. Um,
you know, you you that person has a job, you have a job. Uh, be fair. >> Mhm. >> Be fair. >> Yeah. >> Uh, as far as um conflicts, um try try not to have conflicts um obviously and
work them out um with that individual. um you can usually get by if you you take some time and sit and talk with the person, you can usually work it out. >> Okay. >> You mentioned uh 420 unit um structures.
What are some of the larger scale projects you've worked on? I don't know if you've driven through Halifax. We have a I did >> we have a lot of we a lot of stuff going on right now. Um so kind of share with me some of your history as the the varying scales of projects that you've overseen
>> in AM Amhurst alone. Um we did do a 420 unit 40B project right down the street from the college. The town can't handle that inspections. So I would go out there three to four days a week, do inspections, go back, do my reports. Um
again, uh on 128, ton of mechanical inspections because I'm a a specialist in mechanicals. So any of the compounding centers for the hospitals and things like that, I'm in I was
involved um highrises. I do plan reviews for the city of Revier, um because again, they don't have the time. So they would give them to the company I work for. We do all the plan reviews for Reier because of the project with the casinos. I just
did the high school there. So that high school's over 100,000 square ft. Two levels of parking garage under it to keep the teachers cars. >> So >> okay. >> Um plenty of high-end stuff. I like that down to >> I just my last project was building a
$10 million house in Newport um down there. >> So >> that's Tom's vacation home. you know that. >> Yeah, I did build a house in castle. >> Wow. >> Um, so we have I don't know if you you're familiar, we have an online system. Uh, are you familiar? How are
you familiar are you with our own online permanent? >> So, there's three major companies and I deal with them all because I I deal with different communities. So, a little bit of each. >> Okay. >> Um, they're all pretty much the same. You just got to navigate your way
through a little different. >> Okay. Um but yeah, we've been dealing with that for 10 years in some towns. >> Great. >> Okay. To >> be honest, that's >> that's not an issue. >> Great. Um I've been kind of dominating
things here, guys. Any any other questions from the board here? >> Um well, I just I was pleased to see on the Sunderland project, 150 apartment uh complex, 150 units. Uh like Jonathan said, we have a couple of large for us large scale projects here in Halifax. uh kind of in the middle, maybe infancy
stages in the middle here. Um it'd be beneficial in my opinion to have somebody see that through. Um my big my big question I and I just, you know, I don't want to speak for anybody else up on this stage, but I think we're looking for some consistency, some longevity. Um somebody who's willing to put the time
in for long term, not looking for quick turnover. Um you know, is I'm I'm not concerned, but Norolk to here, the time commitment in travel, not a problem. um the investment in in town to be a long-term fit would be okay with you. >> Yeah, I plan on staying 10 years. I got
10 years before I retire. >> Okay. Good. >> I'm going to be very honest with you. >> And it's it's 45 to 50 minutes and to me that's time when I think about things and write things down and you got to have some downtime between here and home.
>> Yep. >> And what about uh history with the support staff? you know, administrative staff worked worked with others in the past in in a in a clerical sense. >> A lot. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah. When I was in Mthuan for quite a while, we had four girls in the
office there and a lot of time spent with permitting a lot. >> And so when you left uh the building inspector in 18 and you kind of jumped away to a 5-year commitment when CO hit, had you always planned to come back? Was that did you know that >> this is what I want to do? >> Okay.
>> Yeah. I I'm going to tell you, I I I I built and remodeled all the new car dealerships on Route One in Norwood, and it's just uh run run constantly. It's a lot. And uh
it's time to step back a little to be honest. >> Sure. >> You know, I mean, to be honest, that's >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Stole a couple of my questions. Um, have you in the past or in the future do you have any projects in Halifax that you
did in the past or you plan on doing in the future with your company? >> No. No. The only only thing I ever knew down here was Almonds Motorsports. >> Yeah. A lot of people knew >> I I've been here to be honest. And that's again why I like to have a little
bit of travel because it separates you from the people that you're friendly with, contractors. You need some separation. >> And how do you ensure that buildings meet the accessibility requirements for
people with disabilities? >> How >> how Yeah. How do you ensure that? Just >> uh you make inspections and yeah, you spot check. Yeah. You check for handicap signs. You check for you know guys are getting the parking lots striped. You make sure those spots go back.
That's a very important aspect of the job. Yeah. >> Um mostly it will come in through through complaints through the office, but you have to investigate those as a priority because the the ADA is calling you next. >> Okay. Thank you.
>> Yep. >> Michael, do you like Mike? Michael, what do you like? >> Whatever you want. >> What do you go? Okay. Um there's probably been an instance where you've had to issue a stop order, I would guess. How would you handle uh you know you find somebody in non-compliance
what's your process there? What's your approach on something like that? >> You when you say stop like non-compliance correct as far as going in to give a a certificate of occupancy. >> Yeah. Occupancy or it could be a zoning uh you know a zoning infraction or
>> it it it all motion stops. >> Okay. >> Yeah. There's no there's no around it. There's no workaround. There's no uh especially if it's fire related, life safety related. If it's landscape related, we can have a discussion. But
if it's life safety or getting out of that building, >> there's no there's no discussion. >> Fands or butts. >> If it's a handrail out on that walkway because it's got 30in stepping stones, that's something different. >> But you could give a temp seal for that and then move forward.
>> Yep. you know, that's how I would, you know, handle. There's no waiver on life safety. >> Yeah, I agree. >> Anything else, guys? >> I just want to follow up on one quick thing. I I think you touched on I just want to confirm, you know, there's some emerging trends, green codes, all that
stuff. Your experiences, you're up to date on all the education and and classes and so forth on green sustainable stretch. >> Yeah. Today's today's seminar was on commercial um IEC regulations which is
international energy code that's we you know we had a speaker come in and had a two-hour seminar and then uh further discussion no >> well versed no no questions no problem >> no questions no question I do I do major
plan reviews so yeah >> excellent all right I I kind of checked all my boxes, guys, unless you have any others. >> I'm okay as well. I'm okay. >> Okay. Um Yeah. So, if you don't mind, uh Mike sitting down there. Um >> Thank you, Mike. Appreciate your time. >> Appreciate it. >> Yeah.
>> So, uh just to keep things going, guys, I think we can do we want to jump back in. I know actually Rob, I just saw you walk in, but we don't have them till 610. So, maybe we can jump back into >> um the rest of our agenda, and then at 610, just so we can stay on time, guys,
we'll we'll go back to our um our candidates if that's okay with everyone. >> Yeah. >> Jonathan. >> Dick's here. >> Jonathan. >> All right. Jonathan. Yeah. >> Dick Steel. >> Dick Steel. >> Yes. >> Come on down. >> Yes, sir. >> So, we're going to jump to B on
everybody's agenda, which is the Halifax Youth and Recre after school recreation program. Dick, I understand we got some changes coming. >> Yeah. I saw myself on TV and I wasn't here, so I jumped in the car and made sure I got here. Uh,
>> good. Good. Good. We like when you >> Somebody's out there watching. Uh >> long drive. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> We were uh uh we've had these at school programs going for almost 20 years and uh it was suggested that uh this past
summer before we get into the uh the fall uh that we go through the uh ethics commission, make some phone calls and make sure that we we are doing everything the right way. So, I uh took care of that as well as some of the teachers and we made the calls to the
ethic commission and the uh lawyers and made sure that uh everyone's doing everything they're supposed to be doing. Uh you I think have uh in your possession the 20B uh um right the exemption forms. >> Yep. >> Uh and uh I think all they're looking
for uh on your end is it says uh I wrote down must have written 20B exemption approved by the selectman and kept in the clerk's office. So, that's what we're looking at uh doing. We we've made sure that we followed all the rules that the ethics commission wants us to do and
um we're we're hoping that we can get these programs going. Parents really miss them. Uh we're hoping to get them going after uh vacation. That's >> So, essentially, Dick, not to boil it down, but um we just have to disclose that uh a school employee or a town
employee will also be working at Youth and Wreck as well, >> right? and during non school non school hours the you know specifics that we had and that's and that would be the case. >> Uh another one is that they can't collect any of the money so either I
will collect or a non-teer working uh we have a couple already set up uh that'll be able to do that also. So it can't the teachers can't collect money they can't really push the programs uh while they're in school. >> Also there's an hour there's a certain
amount of hours that they can work and they're way under that. We're talking about programs are going to be working um one or two days a week. We have a we have a great STEM program, a great art program, an unbelievable uh after school sports program. Uh and they're not, you
know, it's not like a babysitting duties. It's really, if you've had kids in the past that are in them, we uh the teachers do a great job. So, >> yep. And I see a lot of the usual suspects here in the paper. So, uh essentially not much is changing. We're
just essentially getting in compliance with the state. >> Make sure that we're doing >> to make sure all our tees are crossed and eyes are dotted. So, >> I don't want any phone calls. >> Yeah, I get it. Um, do we need to do these individually, Pam, or do we >> I have I have no idea. >> You have no idea. >> Let's do them individually. >> Individually. Let's pick the the night
that I have the worst voice to do the most talking. All right, let's go. >> Do it right the first time. >> Yeah, that's right. All right. Um and uh my word as you think is I will entertain a motion to um acknowledge what what's >> acknowledge and approve the 20 >> the 20 exclusion.
>> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Um I will entertain a motion to acknowledge and approve the 20B exclusion for Halley Mansfield. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I I will entertain a motion to acknowledge and approve the 20B um disclosure for Devin Morse.
>> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? I >> I will entertain a motion to acknowledge and approve the 20B um municipal employee financial interest and municipal contract as required by master law to Steve Ruizi. >> So moved >> second.
>> All those in favor? >> I >> I will entertain a motion to acknowledge and approve the uh acknowledgement of um municipal contract as required by general law 20B for Jennifer Ready. >> So move second. >> All those in favor? I
>> I I will entertain a motion uh to acknowledge and accept the disclosure form 20B for Jacqueline Tibo. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? I >> I unanimous. I'll entertain a motion to approve and acknowledge the conflict
form 20B from Madison Collins. >> So move. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I I >> I make sure I get them all up. I'll entertain a motion to acknowledge and approve uh the 20B form for Elizabeth Anton. So moved. >> Second. All those in favor? >> I.
>> All right. I don't want to miss anybody here. I'll entertain a motion to acknowledge and approve uh the 20B form for Elaine Frier. >> So move. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I I passes unanimous. And I think finally I will entertain a motion to
acknowledge and approve uh the 20B uh disclosure form for Devon D. Martino. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor? I passes unanimous. I think I get everybody. Did that sound like everybody? >> It sounds It sounds good. I I would guess that if another teacher wants to
come forward, then we'll go through the same process. Sure. I'll go in front of you guys and then uh and so they won't do any kind of work until that happens. Awesome. >> I think that's the way it will probably work. >> Dick, what's the cap on the students that can attend? >> Uh the cap is a a classroom size. uh
probably 25ish and we've never really gone over that. Um with with sports it's a little bit bigger than that because of the gym. >> Yeah. >> So we you know we run anywhere between 30 and well anywhere between 20 in the
gym 20 and 30 kids and in the uh in the classrooms you know right around 20ish. >> Okay. >> So it's it works out pretty well and and if we if it go it gets any bigger then we just split the grades. >> Yeah. you know, if it's then we'll just have fourth grades and we'll just have fifth grades right now. So, >> okay,
>> that's how we we do it. >> Thank you. Awesome. And great job. Saturday night, another holidays in Halifax. >> A lot of fun. >> Nice work by Youth and Wreck. >> I'm I'm going to memorize the night before Christmas one of these days. >> Yeah, you'll get it right. >> Thank Thank you very much. Really appreciate.
>> Thanks, Dick. >> All right. Uh I'm going to jump down. We still have a little bit of time just to keep our schedule here. Yeah. 610. So, we have a couple more minutes. Um, we're going to go down to E, guys. I think Lakeville Animal Shelter Agreement. Uh, this is an agreement we've had in place
with the town of Lakeville quite some time. Uh, we get a dog in town. Uh, we hold on to the dog, but after a while, if the dog is not picked up, it is then transferred over um to Lakeville in their animal shelter. Again, it's been an agreement for as long as I've been a
selectman, probably much longer than that. Uh it's a renewal of the agreement. I will say there is something different this year. They are looking um to hit the town of Halifax with an annual fee of $500 um to help cover uh
the costs and expenses of making sure that the facility is up to speed. Um so that is the one difference. Other than that, everything else is essentially the same as in years past. So, uh, any discussion or anything from the board on
the town of Lakeville agreement? >> So, we're we're paying a a $20 drop off fee, too. >> Yep. >> I I would just question what the alternative is. Um, at this point, I mean, $500. I mean, I'm not in the mood to spend anybody else. >> I think I'm sorry. I think last year it
was 500. I think they just use the same cover letter because I asked the chief, I said, "Did it go up for $500?" And he said, "No, it's the same agreement as last year." But I can double check. Well, double check because it says here, Pam, that the new >> Let me see if I can find it. >> It says annual fee. It doesn't say new.
>> Uh, in my in my letter here, do you guys have the letter they sent to me here? >> It says, "Due to increased costs and inspections by the Mass Department of Agricultural Resources, which has required substantial repairs at the shelter, the select board has voted to assess each town that boards with the Lakeville shelter an annual fee of $500."
>> Yeah. >> Okay. So, I don't remember that being in the in the contract prior. So, just want to throw that out there for you guys. Uh, that fee is due July 15th, 26. >> My my quick opinion without knowing whether that was in place prior or not
is it's a $1.25 a day and what's the alternative? >> So, I can't speak to that and that would be a question for our animal control officer. I mean, I can ask the chief tomorrow with the LG. >> Yeah. I mean, if you guys aren't comfortable
>> if you aren't comfortable signing this, we could I mean, we have some time, right? >> Yeah. >> Is it is it an agreement that has to be signed before the beginning of the year? >> Um, >> what are the dates on this contract? >> On July 1st, July 1st. So, I I you know, I had already paid on July 1st, 2025.
I had already paid them. So, um, we can ask the team they're bringing it back at our meeting in January. Okay. >> Okay. >> Yeah, let's do that. >> Chief, >> let's do that. You guys okay with that? >> Yep. >> Yep. That works. >> All right. So, we'll take we'll take no
action on this and we'll circle back to it uh after a quick conversation with our chief and animal control officer and look to circle back in the January meeting. All right. Is there anything we can do
before we go on? We are cooking here. Nope. I think we're good. Um, I know we're a couple minutes early, but Rob, if you're okay starting a couple minutes early, you want to come on down. >> Take my hand, Rob. I'm asking all our candidates to come up here, meet the
board. I know you, but good to see you. >> Yeah, no worries. >> All right. So, for the record, Rob, I know you, but um if you could state for the record your uh your name and um basically your why why you want to be the the building commissioner for the
town of Halifax. Uh my name is Rob Petrilli. Um I'd like to be the building commissioner for the town of Halifax because I think I have the experience to hit the hit the ground running. Uh I'm familiar with the town. I did previously work in the town. Uh I've worked as commissioner in other towns. Um, so I
think I can uh add to the community. I live in the community and um that's why I like to work for town Halifax. >> And um you have all your commissioner certificates. You're keeping up to speed on all the everanging codes and requirements and >> correct. >> Yeah. Um a little bit on your history,
Rob. Some of the bigger projects you've handled, some of the uh zoning enforcement issues that you've tackled in your career. Uh so in the in the town I um I worked as a local inspector for 15 years, a commissioner for six years.
I worked in Howitch for 6 months. Uh and I worked in Whitman for three years. Um I've worked in Whitman. I dealt with a around $und00 million DPW, $138 million middle school that was going in. Uh so I
um was on the start of that. um had some zoning issues down in Howitch where we had a um a corrective uh issue of water on a uh building that was currently under repairs. Um so that was a a zoning
issue that I had to deal with down there and I've had some zoning issues in Halifax that I had to deal with. um an example, Rob, of uh either a stop order or conflict or I guess your your style is as building commissioner. How do you handle each and every case? You
know, I know everyone's individual, but is there a an approach that you try to use with your all your stuff? >> Sure. And again, it's each one's individual, so it depends on what's going on. Um I usually try to approach it um fairly. Um I'll I'll send a letter out and say they're potentially in
violation. please come see me within a certain amount of days so we can correct the issues. Uh I want to hear their their side of the story. Um and then go from there. If it proceeds from there, then I'd have to take um issues where it would need to go to a stop order where
there may need to be an injunction put on it or whatnot and go to court. So been to court in Whitman, had a mediation um that worked out fine and didn't have to go to court. So >> great. Um and then as well in the last year we've we've developed an online permitting uh program. How familiar are
you with online permitting softwares? >> So I had online permitting at Whitman. We had permit eyes. I dealt with that for three years. Uh that was pretty seamless. And when I was in H which I had I helped implement uh open gov. >> Okay. >> Um it was just starting when I was in there. So but I helped implement it and
put it into process. >> Great. All right. I kind of flew through my questions. Guys, do you have any questions you'd like to ask? Yeah, I have a couple. So, I just want to extrapolate on one of those points. You're familiar with stretch code green emerging trends with, you know, uh, new energy, sustainable sources and so forth. Correct.
>> Up to date on those things. >> Halifax is in the stretch stretch zone. So, I'm familiar with was in the stretch zone. >> And then, you know, not to get too deep into the weeds, but you mentioned some zoning issues in Haritch. That that looked like a short-term thing. Was it a distance thing for you? I know you're local here to Halifax, but um
>> uh so it was it was a try to summarize it. Uh the previous inspector had given a permit um on a fairly um large remodel on a um restaurant, nightclub, pub type of thing that was on the water. It had
issues with conservation, had issues with the flood zone, um fire department and whatnot. The builder for some reason decided not to go forward with the project. Um so the owner came back to me for another permit. um I couldn't grant
that permit based on the fact that there were other issues in town and it didn't meet the building code. Okay. Uh so it was fairly substantial, but it was able to be taken care of upfront. >> Okay. >> And it didn't didn't go into >> And then lastly, I I asked a previous uh candidate about travel and commitment uh
time-wise. Obviously, the time thing is not a the travel is not a consideration for you, but I think I don't want to speak for anybody else here, but I I think we'd like to see somebody here for a number of years, not a short term, and be back right where we sit here 6 months from now. The plan would be to commit for a number of years. And >> I'd like to commit for at least a
minimum of 5 years. I mean, I'm 60 years old. If I can go to 70, God willing, health being, then that that would be the case. But >> but the plan this is Yeah, the plan is this is not a stop gap. is that this is the hope for foreseeable future for >> if Halifax is willing to have me and we can come to an agreement. Yes. >> Okay.
>> Okay. That's what I had for the moment. >> Bill, have you in the past had any construction projects or you planning any future construction projects in the town of Halifax? >> Have I in the past had any construction? So, I was in business for 30 years. I have my own business. Um, when I was a local inspector, I worked for the town
of Halifax for two hours a week. Um, so yes, I I've had some uh projects. I no longer have a business. So I'm now no longer looking to do projects. >> Okay. Um how do you ensure the building meet accessibility requirements for people
with disabilities? >> Okay. So part of the building code obviously is is 521 CMR. That would be part of the permitting process. So when the permits come in that would have to be looked at to make sure that meets that requirement. >> Okay.
>> Um All right. >> I just had one more just to follow up. I mean you you have obviously with your experience in Harwitch and and or Whitman you have experience with clerical staff a staff working under you and supporting you and working together in collaboration. >> Yes. I I I had uh two uh admins in
Howitch and I worked under a not under but I worked in tandem with a planner. So I'm familiar. >> Um a little bit different scenario here Rob as where you live in the in the town here. Do you find that as a a help or a
hindrance as far as being able to um separate church and state a little bit? You know, you're seeing folks around town or um you know, some folks might think it makes the job easier, some folks might think it make it a little more challenging. So, I wonder what your approach is on that. >> I've seen it both ways. Um I've dealt
with it both ways. I I think the good thing about living in town is, and I don't know what how it's been addressed recently, but um you know, it's it's basically 24-hour service job. Um you know, I've worked very closely with the fire departments in in Howitch. I worked closely with the fire department in
Halifax and also on Whitman. Uh I still get calls from the Whitman fire chief um just to pick my brain. But when there's an emergency, uh, under the building code, um, I am the individual that needs needs to deem a structure, uh, unsafe.
So, I worked in tandem with the fire department. If there's a fire in a house, um, usually the fire department calls me, I go out to to deem it, whether it's safe to for the people to inhabit or not. Um, and things along those lines. I don't know how that's been done in Halifax in the recent
years, but um, so, you know, how is it living in town? It's good and bad. Um, you know, there's there's a lot of um, you know, people people don't take kindly to this job. It's, you know, when when you have to tell somebody they can't do something or tell somebody no,
they take offense to it. So, it's the nature of the beast. >> Yeah. All right. I appreciate that answer. >> Uh, anything else from the board? >> All right. Thank you, Rob. Anything else for us? >> No, I think we're good. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you.
>> Thank you. And again, we're running ahead of schedule. Your board of selectman is a very efficient body here. We're flying through things. Um, so I think we have No, I think we have H, right? We have Ten. >> Yeah. >> Oh, yeah. So, uh, as we wait for the the
next window to open up for the next candidate, we'll take care of H on your agenda, which is review and approve time bond proposed amendment number two to the landfill postclosure testing contract in the amounts of $15,000 to perform additional PAS coordination,
sampling, and reporting as newly required by DP in the fiscal year 2026 for a total amended contract amount of $93,500. $100. So, essentially, we have been testing for PAS. I'm sure most of you folks here
in the in the audience have heard about PAS uh and the concerns over the uh the health and safety of folks with PAS. So, the town has entered into an agreement with Ty and Bond to um do well monitoring for our landfill here on
Hemlock, which is behind the town hall. Used to be the town landfill. It's now capped. Um, so this looks like it would be extending, uh, in my reading of this contract, we would be extending into 2026 with the current agreement with Tithe and Bond. Um, and I believe it's
an additional $15,000, which I believe will bring us to summer 2026, >> correct? >> So June, was it June or July? Did you guys see that date? >> It says spring 2026. >> Yeah. So 2026. Um, it's obviously
something that we have to stay on top of. We want to make sure that our residents are safe. So, uh, in my opinion, th this is something that I think the board should should act on and make sure that we're monitoring those wells to make sure all our levels are safe.
>> I just looking for a date. There's no specific date. >> No. Yeah, it doesn't. It just says spring. Spring. Okay. >> Maybe end of the second quarter. Maybe, you know, June 30. Okay. >> Let me see. I swear I thought I saw a date, but maybe it was a signature date. >> We've already paid the fall fee. >> Yep.
>> So, yeah. I mean, regardless, it'll get us into the, you know, late spring, early summer. So, um >> I mean, given the importance and severity of the issue, I'm not sure that we have another, you know, >> Yeah, completely agree. >> Yeah, I would I would uh I'd make that motion. >> Okay. Uh you want to spell it out or
>> Sure. I would uh entertain a motion to uh approve the uh proposed amendment number two with titan bond to the uh to the landfill postclosure testing contract in the amount of 15,000 to perform additional PAS coordination sampling and reporting and required by D
in fiscal 2026 for a total amended contract amount of $93,500. >> Second. All right. All those in favor I I opposed passes unanimous. Thank you. All right. We got time, man. We are cooking with
gas. Um, unfortunately, we don't have Bob tonight for his town administrator update. So, that's normally a standing uh item on our agenda. Tom, uh, excuse me, Bob is under the weather. >> I'm fine.
>> You're Well, for now, give it about a day. You'll be in trouble. Um, but yeah, we're just going to wait, I guess, for uh Mr. McGrady. >> Oh, perfect time. Perfect time. >> There you are. We're running a little ahead of schedule, Mr. McGrady. Is if
that's okay with you, can we take you a little earlier than anticipated? >> Certainly. >> Awesome. Come on down to the hot seat. >> Actually, before you do, >> I'm Jonathan Cely. Nice to meet you. >> Thank you so much for listening to >> Y. Absolutely. I guess my first question you like William, Bill, Will, what's
your preferred? >> Uh William's fine. Bill's Bill's fine. >> Whatever you like. Um I guess your first question is easy one. Tell us about yourself. Uh and why you want to be building commissioner here in Halifax. >> Okay. Um let's see. Uh I have two beautiful kids, two beautiful daughters.
Um I'm a longtime resident of Tibberon, Rhode Island. I now currently reside Fall River, Mass. Um, I've been a building official since 2005. Um, got my commissioner certificate.
Um, fully certified. Um, and let's see, I've worked in several communities. I worked in Fall River, Mass for about 10 years. Uh, I was the commissioner in North Attboro for 4 years. Um, and I've worked in a few
communities around. And as I tell everyone, everything I have I know comes from construction my whole life. I was in the field for oh god 40 years or so and then became a building commissioner. So um you know technically I'm I'm I'm well
schooled on all the updated advancements uh the permit software systems. Uh, I have extensive knowledge in zoning, um, some planning, uh, you know, and I guess, uh, I coached high school football for 20 years, uh,
and now coach semi-professional team on the side, so much less work, believe me when I tell you. Um, in Fall River. Um, that's that's about it, I guess. I guess the reason I'd like want to become a building official in Halifax because you
have a beautiful little community. Um, it's really appealing to have a full-time position be 4 days a week. Um, I know one of your former commissioners very well. He said he's always enjoyed working here, the people, the community,
um, all the all the above. And, uh, I know I have the the strengths and technical skills, soft skills, um, and the office administrative skills to to do the job. talk to me a little bit if you can about um some of the various
projects you've been involved with. Uh we're at a a time here in Halifax, I don't know if you've driven through lately for for Little Halifax. We have a lot going on right now. Um talk to us about this maybe the size and scope of some of the different projects that you've been involved with uh over the years. >> My god, everything from a kitchen
renovation or a shed in a backyard to uh multi-story um 40B complexes. um hotels just many many too many to list. >> Okay. >> My I have extensive knowledge uh in commercial construction as well as
residential. I did both. >> Okay. >> Over the years um >> and I keep a breast of all the technical updates and such you know through my SBOA which is Southeastern Massachusetts Building Officials Association. >> Okay. >> You know we have to maintain uh 45
credit units hours um as they say every 3 years or threeear period. So, >> okay. >> Um, we're in the fir we're in the first year of the cycle. I think I have 40, so I only have a few yet, but and that carries year to year, but >> Okay. Um, talk to me as part of this
position. You're our zoning enforcement officer. How familiar are you with that part of the job and uh maybe examples of of zoning enforcement that you've done in the past and how you approach that that, you know, part of this position? Well, I like to tell everybody that um
I'll deliver bad news, which we have to do on a regular basis um with a smile on my face and at least a possible avenue for the applicant to explore, whether that be special permit, variance, um whatever the case may be. Um I do talk
about fallover a lot because it's where I cut my teeth and it was the greatest experience for me ever because I worked for a very well very seasoned commissioner. Um, we had legal, we were on the fifth floor, legal was on the sixth floor. So, if I ever had any type of a, uh, a question, problem, zoning
issue. Um, you know, was right there for me. So, and I understand it's, you know, legal counsel is very expensive. Mhm. >> So I, you know, always um would either check with the administrator or what have you if it was something large, something that was really coming down the pike, you know, just to make sure uh
to let him know that, you know, this is on the radar, you know, this is something that we got to be prepared for, you know, so that we could protect, you know, the public, all the constituents, the town, myself, so that we make sure that we have a solid footing to stand on um all the time.
>> Okay. And with Oh, go ahead. And when I make, you know, decisions, like I said, I like to, you know, give everyone the opportunity. Um, I'll even go as far sometimes to say, uh, listen, I think this is a good, solid plan. It depends upon how you represent yourself in front
of the ZBA. Um, I'll endorse it. Um, you know, say that it it's something that is, you know, not going to deriggate from the the intent of the zoning ordinance or, um, you know, the neighborhood itself. and um you know then have the ZBA take a look and you
know that way everybody can get a little kick at the can so to speak. >> Great. Uh one other question before I turn it over. We recently switched over to online permitting. How familiar are you with the uh online permitting softwares out there and uh you think? >> Yeah. Well, when I first when I worked
in uh it's um open gov. >> Yep. >> And very well verssed. >> Okay. >> I used it for four years in North Attboro. So that's not a problem at all. In fact, I find it to be the best. That's another attractive um
point for me for Halifax because I know what a great system that is. Um currently I'm using a system that is not it's not it's not friendly to the end user. Um some departments are not tied
in with it. You know, at our first uh interview, we, you know, I did discover that all town departments are, you know, interconnected so that with a push of a button, I can give everybody, you know, if I'm if I'm looking at a house that I'm ready to go with, you know, I can
alert Concom, you know, board of health, um, you know, uh, DPW, fire department, whomever the case may be right down the line so they can all, you know, tax, you know, collector, um, so that they can at least, you know, get back me and say I have nothing with this
>> uh or hold on to this would you please because I have something that you know I have to >> they have to take care of us before we can move forward. >> Excellent. >> All right. Again I've kind of zipped through my questions. Rest of the board have any? >> I just the same couple um you know
emerging trends and uh building practices, sustainable practices, stretch code, green building initiatives. All familiar up to date on all those initiatives? >> Absolutely sir. Yes sir. >> Okay. Um longevity. Not to put pinion down here, but what's the plan? We're not I don't think we want to be back here in six months. >> No. No. Absolutely not.
>> You're looking to make a commitment to the town for certain amount of time. >> Yeah. And then um you know, it seems like you've had a couple different experiences over the last some odd years about different towns. >> Anything stand out to you about what makes a town worthwhile for your time in terms of your employment versus
>> I think, you know, as being a football coach, I'm big on the team concept and um collaboration is is key. So I think that you know the open lines of communication especially with the fire department for me is one of the biggest because we do so much work together you
know public safety inspections whatever the case may be any type of a building renovation sprinkl or not. So, I think it's really important to to have those type of uh relationships. And I've heard nothing but good things about the town, uh, you know, fiscally responsible. Um,
you know, so I'm not going to be worried myself either, you know. Um, what's happening here? Is something going to be cut? Uh, you know, I'd like to I'd like to have um this maybe be my last home that I have to >> Okay. No. >> And then just lastly in terms of a
geographic location, seems like we're kind of you're down in the 1957 79, you know, Swansea, Fall River area. Commute's not a problem. Commitment's not a problem. >> I did it in uh this exact same commute to North Al. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> And I'm doing I'm you know doing some uh
I'm parttime in Dyon now. >> And um it takes me, believe it or not, you know, almost a half hour to get to Dayton >> as it does to here because of just, you know, traffic. It's It's sort of out there. So, yeah. I mean, geographically, that's not that's not an issue at all.
>> Not prohibitive. Okay. >> So, Bill, you >> just got a couple. Have you in the uh past had any construction projects in the town of Halifax or you planning any future? >> I have projects in the future. >> No, I hung up my tools
about Well, I just do it for family and friends now. >> And one more. How do you ensure that the buildings meet accessibility requirements for people with disabilities? >> Wow, that's Thank you. I'm glad you brought that up. I was the ADA
coordinator um and um head of the uh COC in North Attabore for those four years. So, uh we would meet monthly. uh have excellent uh contact at the uh architectural access board which is what
we enforce not as much as ADA compliance because ADA encompasses so much but it's AAB is the that's our governing body here in Massachusetts. So um yeah I've spent a lot of time uh in fact the old um Tom Rogers was uh a wonderful guy
that used to speak to us all the time. He's since passed on, but he was a wealth of knowledge for me as a young building commissioner. I used to lean on him for any question or concern, and I still do. I lean on those agencies, state inspectors. I have a uh a great network of state inspectors that I know
and can reach out to planners, um just, you know, agents in general that, you know, I run I bounce things off of too. We all we all kind of do that. Um because let's face it, we're all we're all doing the same job. It's just a different community. >> Sure.
>> And and a lot of the same issues just come up again and again and again. Doesn't matter location, where you are. Um and you always get a little bit of everything. >> Yeah. >> So, >> keeps the job fun. >> It does. I, you know, I love it. I mean, um
I don't want to retire, you know, not I'm not ready for that part of my life yet. So, >> and I think I have a lot, you know, a lot to offer and a lot in the tank to go. So, >> great. Yeah, >> thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um >> Tom, you said you had one more question. >> So, I have one more question that I
didn't ask all three candidates, so I don't know if the other two and plus yourself would be willing to oblige and entertain me here. >> Um I don't I just read the job description for the second time, and I don't see it in here specifically. Um, but I think one of the past practices of at least one if not several um, building
inspectors that we've had, building commissioners that we've had, um, they've been available or made a point to be available at all or at the request of the planning board or the zoning board of appeals at their meetings um, either in person or via Zoom, which I'm
not sure it's required. I didn't see that it was required, but I'd imagine it would be. I'm not on those boards and never have been. I'd imagine it's helpful in some situations. Typic typically in the past what I've always done is reach out to the chairman of the ZBA and have either some type of a sit
down with them to review what we have coming for that month. >> Okay. >> And if it's you know if there certain things like it's a special permit to you know raise a roof or what have you. It's it's you know it's uh it's just legal non-conforming. It's not going to you
know change alter the structure anything like that. Some of the easier ones. And then if there's some type of a problem and they invite me or ask me specifically to sit out of that meeting, I have no no >> either in person or via Zoom, you'd be available with notice.
>> Absolutely. Typically typically in in most communities, um we've always done it that way. Uh in North Adabar, I don't think I I went to maybe one ZBA meeting the whole time I was there four years. >> Okay. >> Um when I worked for Matapoet, they
wanted me there for everyone. >> Okay. >> Regardless. So you'd be willing to you're immenable to working with the chair of the committee if if if >> in fact I would like I would give them okay >> uh for that month's agenda I would let them know u this is the reason this is the section verse this is why we're
sending them for relief and um you know in my opinion this does not meet the general intent of the of the zoning enforcement zoning ordinance or it does okay >> and um you know I support or I strongly suggest you know you take a hard look at
cuz sometimes it could be a conflict conflict of interest and I went through this um where you know the zoning board during the middle of a meeting will say well what if we decide to do this Mr. commission. Is that okay if we do this? And I'm like, no,
>> it's, you know, you're breaking the open meeting law, all these other things >> that are, you know, it's all important. So, okay. >> Yeah. But I'm not I'm not um >> not not a Okay. >> Not judge. >> And I don't know if there's Rob or William come up or >> I mean I don't know if we can hear you. >> Yeah. If you want just rob.
>> So, I've been in three different towns and each boy wanted something different. >> Uh and women they pretty much wanted me at a meeting. how which they didn't want me in any meetings and Halifax previously they they would have had me at some meetings that's their
jurisdiction if they don't want me there I will certainly be there to give them my >> absolutely you need support >> so Rob you're also you're also available on everything >> okay and Bill >> Mike oh Mike yeah sorry
>> um yes as I said I sit on the zoning board so I I require the building inspector to come if it's a case require hiring him there. If it's a against his decision, he needs to be there to support himself. You don't go to court without both sides. So, there's no
reason for that individual have to wait another month for that board to talk to the building official. Needs to be taken care of and move forward. >> Okay. I apologize that I forgot to ask that. I wanted >> Yeah. No, that's fine. Well, however, you know, whatever the, you know, the
the standard operating procedure has been here, um, that's fine. But I would have it I would make it they would already know where I stood. That's my point. Okay. >> You know, I make it I make it very clear, you know. Um, so I mean, as far as defending myself,
>> that's that's what the action is. That's why I'm sending you. >> So, but I'll I'll, you know, I'm amendable to do it anyway you wish. >> Okay, great. >> Anything else from the board? >> Nope. >> No. >> Thank you. >> Maybe just a general comment. I don't know what your appetite here is for
this, but I I just always think it's nice when we have multiple candidates who uh fit the bill and um put themselves out there and I think we have a tough call here. >> Um >> yeah. No, absolutely. It's a it's a >> appreciative of all three of your resumes and your interest for sure. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate it.
>> To echo to echo what Tom said, um there are many positions that we have that we we can't I'll be quite frank qualified candidates. Uh, and this is a case of three very qualified candidates. Um, so, knock on wood, this trend continues, uh,
because we do have a couple other key positions that we need to fill. Um, I'll entertain a motion. What What does the board want to do here? Do we want to make our decision this evening? Uh, does the board need more time to think? What What uh what's the pleasure of the board right now?
>> Um, don't all speak at once. I might like a little more time. I think Tom, >> I mean, I could see this going a number of ways. Uh I mean, I would be I would be leaning in one direction. Um
but I'm not opposed to more time and thought if we need be. The only the only comment I would have is that we're not scheduled to meet >> until January. Until January >> until mid January, which is another three and a half weeks, >> right? Yeah. >> You >> Yeah. Uh, again, it's I use this analogy
a lot and I apologize, but but again, we it's it's what flavor of ice cream you like. I think again, all three are terrific. I think you're all we have your resumes up here. You all three, I think, can do a great job on the on this position. Um,
it's it's tough. It's a extremely tough call, but that's why they put us here to try to cut through this. So, um I guess if push come to shove, I I could make a decision tonight. Um >> I could I mean if we want to do it, I'll do it tonight, but it's up to the board.
>> So, what do we do? >> So, I'm going make a motion. You guys want I'll entertain a motion if somebody wants to make a motion. And again I think if we are going to uh make a motion fellas it's obviously um
to offer in condition of uh background checks Corey checks and all the necessary background information um pending. So um I'll make a motion to appoint Michael S. Broen as a building commissioner for the town of Halifax.
>> Second. >> All right. I have a motion in a second to um make Michael Broen the building commissioner for the town of Halifax. Do you want to amend that bill to include pending background >> pending backgrounds Cy and
>> salary salary negot negotiations? >> Yep. >> Okay. I have a motion and a second that amendment. >> Um okay. All right. All those in favor of uh Michael Broen I. I opposed
passes unanimous. Guys, again, thank you. >> Thank you. >> I appreciate your time. Thank you very much. >> Thank you again. All right. Those are always tough. Those are always tough. So, we've gone a little faster than we thought, uh, ladies and gentlemen, in
that we don't have our water uh, commissioners and superintendent here until 7. So, I think instead of just hanging around, we're going to entertain a motion, I guess, to take a a bathroom break recess, and we'll try to reconvene about 5 minutes of 7 to continue that
part of of tonight's meeting. >> So, I'll entertain that motion to recess until 6:55. >> So, moved. >> Second. All those in favor. >> I I passes unanimous. We'll see everybody at 6:55. Again, sorry for the
the gap in between events tonight. >> All right. Uh if I could get everyone's attention, it is 7:00. I'd like to reconvene the board of selectment meeting um here in Halifax in the great hall for Tuesday, December 16th, 2025. Uh we had to take a small bathroom break
because we had gone through our agenda so quickly. So, I just like to open the meeting back up. Thank you guys for being here. I know we have a a contingent online as well. Um, so I'll go first. I just wanted to offer our water department a chance here. Um, to
to inform the residents about what's going on, what efforts they're making um in the water department to try to help with our water. Um, and I know they have meetings regularly, but I think this gives them an opportunity. It's almost like going prime time, right? Where you're going to have more eyes and more
ears. So, um, if the board would like, I'd like to offer it out to our, um, superintendent and our commissioners if they'd like to come down and and, uh, just kind of give us a briefing on what's what's up with the Halifax water situation and how we're working on ways
to, um, to improve that going forward. So, Dick, I know you're here. If you want to come down or >> or Bill, whoever you'd like to. Yeah, Bill, you want to come down? >> The superintendent and this is John. >> Sure. Oh, shoot. >> And what I'll need you guys to do, Bill,
I need you to do is just say your name and identify yourself just because there are folks at home that won't know who you are. So, just so people know. >> Uh, Bill Lindseay, the water superintendent. >> Yep. And yourself, sir? >> John Gregory. I'm with Tayen Howard, consulting engineer for the water department. >> Excellent. Okay. Um, Bill, I guess, uh,
I'll open it up to you here. Um, I will say that the board has received uh, a lot of notifications from folks about water quality. Uh, and I just wanted to give you the opportunity here to to explain to the people what the water department's doing to try to remedy these uh, and what the plan is going
forward for folks. >> Yeah, we was well, we were hoping to flush hydrants back in October. I think we mentioned that at our last meeting with you guys that as long as the Richmond Park plant was up and running, we were going to flush hydrants. Um during one of our commissioner meetings,
one of the wells that uh that the Y camp went down. Um it was just pumping out dirty water, right? You know, non-stop. We had that cleaned. We had to pull that, clean it. Uh they replaced a bunch of parts on it. In the meantime, we're running Richmond Park and we continue to
have the same problems that we had back in September, August, September with automated valves not working. So, we can't can't run the plant when the valves don't open when they're supposed to or close when they're supposed to. Um, couple of weeks ago, we had the
company from the valve the valve company down. They had to replace the insides of the valve on fil on the filter too cuz it broke. There's some part inside that hits a metal rod and after so many times
it cracks and breaks. The valve stops open and closing. They came down last week to replace it. Then they decided they do do filter three because last, you know, July or June they did filter one. So they figured be proactive. Filter two just
broke. Let's do filter three. They put all new parts in. Um stainless steel disc instead of the cast iron. And it's leaking. So you still can't run it. And now they're waiting on parts to get shipped out. So, they're going to rebuild the entire inside of the valve
without removing the valve from the pipes. So, we know there's a lot of iron and manganese in the water from not flushing. Um, I thought it was just a year, but it I think the project actually started in the end of or the beginning of 2024. So, it's probably
been two cycles of not being able to flush. Um, and we had a leak on Home Street a couple weeks ago where we had to shut down the water man when we refilled it. That stirred up all the iron and manganesees that made everything worse. Put some air in the
system from, you know, draining down. Um, last week I spent all week opening hydrants in the area, Home Street, um, Kobe Drive, Mlen, all down there trying to get clear water through and get all the
iron out. I even sat at the hydrant on Oak Street at the end of the town line. Figure I'll pull everything out that way because and it was near the woods so I wouldn't get anything in the street so nothing was going to freeze and cause any accidents. There were days it would take 40 minutes
for the hideand to clear and there's times it takes 10 and I'll let it run an extra 10 and basically that's sort of the solution for now until we can get flushing done. So, I guess um the question I have is
our plan going forward. What do you what do you see as the fix for for the the issues that we're having here? What's the what's the the final goal that our water >> final goal? Stop flushing and get all that out. We know that we knew back in September that was the problem. We knew we would have we had the tank cleaned um
on October 1st that didn't have a lot of iron. >> They said it was actually pretty good shape. >> Yeah, they said it was less than the last two times they cleaned it. >> Okay. So we we know that whatever wasn't in there is out in the system and the only way to clean it out is to flush the hydrants. >> And you think the not flushing for the
last two cycles is what's leading to this >> these water issues? >> Brockton when we took on Brockton water and their chlorine was higher than ours and it was running backwards down home street. It's, you know, just clogged up the water main with the iron manganesees. >> Okay. >> And then we couldn't flush 24 and we
couldn't flush this year. >> Yeah. any any insights from you as to what we're experiencing here? >> I think um Bill has said exactly what we're all thinking here. It's a flushing issue. That's basically the fact that that could not be done is the issue. Okay.
>> And um you know with Richmond Park being down and the treatment that's there uh that kind of contributes to the issue. So, um, it's just a matter of working diligently to get everything back up 100% running for Richmond Park, which we are working with the water department to
do right at present. >> And I would assume you work with other communities as well. And issues like this in the past, have you seen that flushing is the key to to fixing these issues or are there other issues? >> Typically, yes. >> Okay.
>> Yes. flushing programs need to be implemented especially in particular with uh communities that experience iron and manganesees issues in their in their drinking water. >> Okay. Any questions from the board guys? >> Yeah, I just have a couple I guess. Um
thank you both for being here. I think there's some employees here, the water commissioners as well. Fairly short notice to ask you to be here and I appreciate the effort on all of your behalf here. >> So thank you for that. Um, you know, I think that the last meeting we had, it got a little contentious and I'm pleased to hear that this meeting is the tone is
seems better. Uh, looking to solve things rather than stir up the pot maybe a little bit. I guess my thing is, is this just bad luck? Um, cuz what I'm hearing is a lot of moving targets. Um, in May at our town meeting, we were told by a water
commissioner that would just be a matter of days until Richmond Park was back up. And I guess we should have been clearer what a number of days meant because now we're going on eight or nine months for that number of days and the moving target of September now October now it's
too late to flush and now we're just I don't want to say punting it but we're moving it to the spring and hoping that the flush is the solution. I didn't really hear that it would be the solution. I heard that we're hoping. So I guess you know I don't want to
speak for anybody else up here. Um, you know, people blame the town for the water. Um, the water department, as we know, is a different entity. They're an enterprise fund. Taxes are being paid to the town, distributed to the water department, etc. So, what are we what
are we to tell taxpayers? Is this the best that we can do is just kick kick it down the road for 6 months? Is that the best solution that we have? And I'm not placing blame because I don't know anything about water. I have no solution to offer. I have no constructive criticism that would be
beneficial to you all because you know more than I do. And that's not being sarcastic. That's the truth. I don't know. But our position is that, you know, we're elected representatives like the water commissioners answering to a town that is looking for answers on a number of things about the water and we
have nothing to tell them time after time. So, I'm hoping that flushing solves it. But it sure feels like it's a moving target and I hope that springtime shows different results. >> Um, I think the second year I was here,
I believe 2022 and 2023, we were flushing pretty good. We were, you know, October, April and October. I don't think we had as many complaints about the water back then. And then when this project started, it's just from the
the iron and manganesees. been sitting in that in the water man and the only way to get rid of it is to flush it out and that and there's parts of town that don't have any problems. I talk to people that work in the building tell me all the time I see all these complaints but my water's great and I said well
you're just one person >> but you cannot have it and your neighbor would get it and there's no rhyme or reason how it happens but as long as it's sitting in that water man when something happens when there's a fire and it stirs it up it sits around for a couple days so flushing is probably 90%
going to going to fix it. That and Richmond Park back online. Richmond Park filters out the manganesees and feeds everything down home street, Oak Street, all that side of town because of where Richmond Park is located. >> Do we have um and again I'm going to
echo what Tom said. Thank you guys for coming in. I sincerely appreciate it. Do we have a time frame on Richmond Park uh being fully operational, ready to go? Um >> because I know it's been >> well it's been running like up until this incident happened we had it ran
all of October >> and half of November before this incident happened >> and how before October so before that I guess how long had it been offline before October >> about um August of 24.
>> Yeah was about a year >> about a year offline. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So was and again I don't know much but was there a period of time when Richmond Park was up and running in September that we could have flushed before October? >> It was um I think it was 10 days at the
end of September. >> Not enough time. >> No. The the water department has what's called a unidirectional flushing program which is been generated to flush the system sources tanks out in one direction to keep all of the dirty water
moving away from any means that have already been flushed. And that's separated out into multiple zones strategically done through a computer program and modeling program. And uh the the water department needs a sufficient
amount of time to be able to do that time of day. I think Bill, you typically do that at night time, correct? >> And um you know, this determines the amount of the volume and the amount of water scouring velocity that you need to put through these mains to get a very good flush of the system. And the water
department has had this program for a number of years. So I think there's pretty good confidence that flushing is going to do the trick here. >> Do we So Oh, you have something else. >> So say again, what is the actual problem with Wickman Park?
>> There's there's automated valves that um have a diaphragm in them that opens and closes to let the water in and out. And there's um two discs that one on each side of the diaphragm apparently, which I guess is just our luck, the
valve distributor says 99% of the time they have no problems with this valve. There's a rod that goes through it to stop the valve from opening up too much. >> And every time it opens up, the outside disc hits this metal rod and then it
goes back. Every time it hits it, it ended up cracking it. And once it cracks, now it's not holding the diaphragm. So now when it opens, the diaphragm just stays open. It just stays open. And we the day we noticed it, the well was running and we dropped 2 ft of
water in the tank because it was going out of the well through the filters and out into the lagoon. >> So this is all part of the rebuild. >> Yep. So, are we paying for this or is this all under warranty or >> It's all covered under warranty >> for how how long? >> Um
I I think they said I think the distributor said they were going to cover it till at least February >> cuz the I mean everything's been in since >> And who's is there a company doing insulation? >> Yeah, it's um it's um
Lions. They're the company that's fix they're the uh the sale prep for >> Clay and he and they coming they come in and do the work right there. >> I mean it seems we should be holding their feet to the fire. They're the ones that aren't providing the service. Well,
they've been doing I think they've been pretty good about getting the pots and I mean he was he was down um two days last week and he came down on the third day to try to sand down the pots to see if he can get them to fix because it wasn't it was leaking
>> and they they I their response I think is pretty good. >> Yeah. >> They come out they they spend some time fixing it and as soon as he gets the parts he's back down. It doesn't matter if it's late on a Friday, he tries to get down and get it done. I think he was
here last Thursday till 4:30. >> So So Bill, do we have a ballpark on when this issue will be resolved? Do we have as far as the valves hitting and and in and Richmond getting completely squared away to how we
>> This is the only problem so far that we have run into. I think once they fix the valves, that should be it because they're putting all new >> um getting rid of the cast iron and putting in stainless steel. >> So, I think once he fixes this third valve, it's just going to be a matter of
letting it run and watching the numbers and >> letting it run in auto during the day and at night. >> Have they given you any sort of estimate, time estimate or ball? >> Um, I think he was hoping to have the pots by the end of this week. >> The end of this coming this week here.
Okay. All right. And then as far as flushing goes, um, you're thinking what, um, March to try to get the flushing going? >> I'm hope I mean, like last time I was hoping for October, but I'm hoping March as soon as it's not going to freeze.
>> And I mean, the whole department is not happy with this cuz they were looking forward to flushing in October for the overtime. >> Sure. you know, cuz they didn't get any the year before and we were they were looking forward to getting and we all know that as soon as we flush, it's
going to fix all this dirty water. >> I guess my question, Bill, is if we we get Richmond Park squared away, we get uh we flush the be Jesus out of this thing in March, right? And we still have water issues.
it do you think it would behoove the town to to maybe bring in like a third party to kind of look at the whole system from a a different set of eyes to you know soup to nuts look at everything and make sure that there isn't any sort of underlying issue again that's if the
flushing doesn't work you know and and Richmond Park's fix doesn't work do we think it would it would be in our interest to bring somebody in to to take a headto toe look at our whole water structure to to make sure that we're running as good as we can run. Just a
ballpark here. >> The the Y camp wells um have the iron and manganese and there's no filter system over there. So, I've been working with D to try to get some grants. Um I just had one of the guys over there send me an email about
um a company that deals with it and they set us up with an engineer for um emerging contaminants for just an engineer and aspect to come out look at the system and see what they can offer and that that's a grant from D. They're just
paying for the engineer. >> Okay. >> So, I mean there is other things that we're trying to look into also. >> And in your exposure, not to go down this road, but in your exposure in your investigation with grants, has MBTA compliance affect any of that? >> Nobody's said anything to me about it
yet. >> Okay. >> Okay. >> Hopefully it doesn't. >> Yeah. Fingers crossed. >> Um, anything else from the board? Well, I mean, you know, I I can appreciate the difficult situation. Um, but I'm not really sure I heard an answer to the taxpayer who's paying for
the water. Would you drink it if you lived here? >> Would you bathe in it if you lived here? >> Depends on how bad it looks. It's just a It's just the Well, what D likes to say, it's >> there's a there's a glass right behind you. >> Would you drink that? Does that come out
again? >> Today. So the problem >> the problem is is that you have a lot of you have a lot of hopefully and may here but that's the reality of a lot of people in town is the problem and so I can appreciate the may and timelines and
the best efforts of a lot of people >> but >> it doesn't help a lot of people who have that to bathe in to drink in and so forth and that's the issue. So I again I can appreciate everybody showing up tonight and I that's a tough thing to do and I appreciate that every the town should. >> Yeah, >> but without concrete answers that's a
lot of hopeies and a lot of may and a lot of pushing it down the road. >> But if you look in the jar that's the iron on the bottom. >> So you would drink the you drink the top of it >> if you want me to. >> I'm not asking I'm not recommending it. Obviously it's not a good situation. I'm just trying to highlight the fact that
it's not it's not good. >> But that's what happens in the water man. It sits there and then something happens. It stirs it up. I ran the hydrant in her backyard last week. I ran the hydrant down the street. I ran a hydrant at the corner of Kobe Drive in Oak Street and the one at the end of
Oak. I mean, when the water comes out of hydrant clear, it should be clear in the water mains because it's the same water. The hydrant doesn't get different water. So, if the hydrant in front of your house is clean and the next one's clean, the water should be clean. >> There's a chance that something stirs it up and you pull it back in your house.
What's What's the age of these water manes? >> Um, >> so go back to the 50s. >> 1950s. >> But I think everything I think Oak Street might not be that old. Maybe is >> I I don't know.
>> Oak Street. >> What was the question? >> How old is it down Oak Street? >> Kobe Gardens. >> Yeah. >> It's just a difficult cell to tell people. Hopefully hang on four or five months. That's just hard. >> Yeah. >> Because they blame the town and yeah, we are the town, but the water department
is different. And I'm not looking to pass the buck. I'm happy to answer the questions, but I can't give any answers. The answers don't come from us. >> Yeah. >> So, it's easy to say, "Call the water department, document your findings, and so forth, but we're really just hoping that this all works and bad luck doesn't
continue." That's a lot to ask people who are paying a pretty penny for all their taxes in town. That's my opinion. So, we're kind of charged with representing the town and I know everyone's doing the I trust that everybody's doing the best that they can, but at this point, I haven't heard anything tonight that's more than hopefully it works.
>> A good question of put money you want on it. >> I'm going to bet you a dollar, Dick. >> But Dick, here's the problem. We heard that we heard that in May at the town meeting, sir. That's the problem. >> Because we haven't done pricing in a while. And the reason I say it's going to work because it has in the past where
we used to do it on a regular basis but now we haven't done that. A good flushing is going to make a tremendous amount of difference >> hopefully. No, >> but the problem is we heard that in May, sir, as well. >> But we didn't flush >> right. Is that why?
>> Because how many valves have you replaced? Look into maybe another >> how many? >> There's only three. What he's talking about? There's only three addition all three of them. The problem that was
with the flushing was up the valve was with the wells and supplies the water to do the budget that went down on us. And you're right about what you were saying. There's a lot of bad luck going on here. A lot of things that we didn't expect to happen
to that. We had a lot of problems that nobody saw. Are the other wells out fitting with the stainless valve yet or steel iron? Because we have four wells, right? >> We have four wells. >> So, do we have any other cast iron valves still? >> The valves are in the in the building,
not at the wells. The windows, >> but you said the fix is going to be installed with stainless steel valves in the Richmond Park. >> In the Richmond Park building, we replace all the valves to stainless. >> There's three of them. >> Yeah. In the build. The valves in the
building. Yep. And again guys, I appreciate everybody being here and I know people are heated about this and I completely understand, but we want to make this as as productive as we can, right? I do feel like I know a lot of the water folks I
know, you know, they feel this too, right? They they they don't want to provide the product like that woman just brought in. You know, they it's on their shoulders, too. And I know they're upset and I know they're trying their best. So, I hope that while obviously let your, you know, let your concerns out
here, I hope we could try to move forward to to come up with a solution to go forward to fix this. Dick, uh, so the one, the person speaking was Dick Clark. He's a longtime commissioner, has been superintendent in this town for what? 40 years. Dick, you've been around.
>> So, I've been with I was superintendent for 20 years. I've been with 40 years. >> So, Dick's been here a long time. Um, and I and I do say that if he says a good flushing will take care of this, I I have no reason to doubt that
personally. Um, but again, I know folks are upset. I ma'am, I I can't believe that that came out of your faucet. >> I've been dealing with that for 13 days. >> Yeah. You know, and we're around the holidays. I I >> can't do laundry. You can't wash dishes. I'm buying bottled waters left and
right. Yeah. I This is not >> I should not have to be dealing with that. And that is >> that's not portable water. >> That's not portable water. You can >> correct I'm paying for >> but I am going to have it tested to see actually what is it? What's coming out of it? >> Sure. >> Had a lot of 40° days. There's no You
should be able to flush if you're able to flush on all of P Street, Colby Drive, Brandise, Harvard, everywhere else. Why are you not flushing other places on warm days? I don't want to hear about it because it's icy. We can't do this because the valve broke. We've already replaced it. Then that breaks.
Now we got to wait again. How many more years? If it breaks again, are we back to a whole other year of waiting to be flushed? And I have to deal with this again. No, this is not just because of the water we break on the fifth. This is when it started to be the worst. But I
have had brown water off and on since I moved here in 2014 that I don't have any I mean we we deserve interest. I don't want to get this broke, that broke and paid for this. I'm trying to do this. Where does that will leave me in the end.
>> No, I agree. I agree. And and I and and they can only provide you guys with the information they have and and I know that's going to frustrate a lot of you a lot of people. >> They're saying flush at the end. So, so let's flush. >> Can we flush now? Well, it's like it's going to be >> it's going to get warm the next few
days. Can they if that if that plant is fixed, why can't they take one of those days? It's got to be 4050. have the highway department with the sand truck drive behind while they're flushing out the hydrants. Put down the sand and see if that helps. Start start in one area and see if it helps with the people on
this poor street. >> Yeah, >> they can't live like that. That's ridiculous. But I would think if they're worried, they want their overtime, let's give it to them. Go out there and flush the hydrant. Stand behind so nothing freezes. Shoot it into wherever they can. Put a fire hose on it. Shoot it into the woods. Make a freeze. Make an
ice pond. Do something. >> And there's no rhyme or reason on my either as to why I have brown water like this. But my neighbor directly to the um left of me does not have brown water today. But the woman diagonally from me and and across the street both have
brown water. The other end of Colby Drive, one neighbor said, "I've never had brown water." >> So how is this coming out of my sink? >> So I got to ask >> Hold on. So So guys, just we have a lot of people.
>> Yeah, I know. I just need It's a technical question for water. >> Dave, I just need you to identify yourself so people know who's talking. >> Dave Masio, >> is there being in the water department for 40 years, sir? >> Mhm. >> Is there is there a lowlying area in the
topography of the town that you could flush the hydrants that may be getting the most sedent sediment to help some of these other people in that area where you know the town and the water the water system itself? Like would there be would would that be a better solution
for them is to find the hydrant from a lower line topography to get that magnes and iron out >> possibly I'm not being sarcastic. >> Yeah. >> No, it's fine. >> It would probably work
the low area probably. It's not going to help this lady. >> Okay. So, let me rephrase the question. Is there a lowlying area near her home or those areas that are most adversely affected that you can flush those hydrants to see if it gives them a
reprieve? The only way that I would know is and I was going to talk to the other commissioners and the superintendent tonight is doing what she said. Tomorrow is going to be a 40° day I think or Friday and night when we came out and
just try to do something. I don't >> Why didn't we do that in September and October when you had 13 days, which is totally wasn't enough time. >> You just told me about You just told me a couple minutes ago 13 days wasn't enough time. >> There there's there's a big difference in the water usage right now. There's
>> the the tank is staying full longer. In September, even October, we the tank people are running water. >> We two wells, you know what I mean? Two wells, one well actually, cuz one runs at night, one runs during trying to fill that tank. It takes all day, >> you know. Now we're going five or 6
hours before by the time the well shuts off to fill the tank and by the time it turns back on. Some nights we're going seven or eight hours. >> Yeah. >> August, September, they would rather water their lawn than then let the tank fill out. >> Sure. >> You know. >> So guys, just >> hold on. Just just to I mean we don't
want to get this off the rails honestly because it wouldn't be productive. I' I've have a gentleman couple gentlemen here with their hands up for quite some time. Um, commissioners and and Bill, are you okay if I take questions from the audience here? Are you all right? >> Yeah. All right. Go ahead, sir. Just if
you can I if you can identify yourself just for the people watching home and address, please. >> Yeah. So people can hear you. >> Sure. I'm Jamie Holly, uh, 457 Laurel Street. And I've got a couple questions just about
what is the source of the sediment that these people are seeing. Is this from aging pipes or is this being dredged up from our wells? I know we have a high iron area. Is this something that we're
experiencing sloughing off of iron pipes or what is this that they have in their water? Cuz that's horrible. >> There are no iron pipes in this town. >> Okay. What are the pipes? are all PVC plastic or PVC.
>> So everything that's coming into their system is being dredged up from Richmond or YMCA, something like that. >> Is there any way that the town can put a pre a point of access preilter in to
eliminate what's coming up so that we can stop it at the point of entry? western path is the point of entry where the filtration between filters are >> and those filters are supposed to be taking out the
sediment. >> But if they're not working properly, they're not going to do it. >> What's that? >> If they don't if the filters aren't there's three filters in this pot. >> Okay. >> They're filters. They're probably as high as that stage. >> Uhhuh. If those aren't working properly
>> and that's the value issue that's causing them to be able to be utilized get that fixed. >> Okay. So once and is that where the majority of our water is going to come from is Richmond part one and two. The majority comes from the YMCA camp
which is the iron magazines in the YMCA two filters two wells down there >> and are those filtered are those being prefiltered at points >> but if we're talking about Richmond Park filters why aren't we talking about YMCA
if that's where the majority of our water for the town is coming in at those two at that location is lower than Richmond Park at some point. >> But we still need to address it. >> At some point, we'll have to put a filtration plant there. Yes. Not right now.
>> Okay. >> Doesn't need it right now. >> I really think that that needs to be something that we talk about is getting the filtration where the majority of our water for this town is being drawn from. >> No.
>> And is that a matter of us obtaining grants um D grants? What do we need to do with to accelerate this process as a town? >> I mean, I don't want to sit on our hands. These people are suffering.
>> You get that. I understand that. But >> even if I guess my point is is even if we flush, I've seen it after right after we flush three days, two days after we flush pipes that they that these people that have brown water consistently, it's
right back. And is that because there's a low-lying sag in the pipe that's generating a a concentration that these people are somehow being saddled with? I'm just trying to understand mechanically. I have a mechanical brain.
The term is being used in the wrong sense. The term means starting like the engineer said starting at the tank and working way to the other parts of the system. In order to do cold drive, you have to stop the
tank, do street, do home street, but it's flushing with two hydrants open at the full velocity of 12-,400 gallons a minute. This term flushing that's been brought up in this prior part of the conversation
is just isolated flushes. You are not flushing the maze. They're just isolating flushing to get the turerculation in that area out for a short-term solution. The long-term solution is to be back online with the bianual flesh program that we've been
doing since I've been a board here for 25 years. What's being done is just a bandaid to get us through until we can do a 14-day flushing program to do the entire community. I guess I hope that
>> Yeah, it does. That does that does help answer some, but I've been here since 2007. She's been here since 2014. Um I've I've seen issues of brown water. They were flushing twice by annual flushing back in 2007 and it still didn't address the problem. So that's
this is one question that I wanted to get out of the way. The other one that I have is I've been diligently following a study out of New Hampshire uh on PFAS um in our drinking water. And what this
study did in New Hampshire is they have an interesting situation there where they can monitor people's wells. They don't know they're being monitored because it's public data. And they can monitor birth records. Again, public data. They were able to take people's
wells that were downstream of PFAS release areas and find that those mothers who became pregnant had so much higher infant mortality. Um they had low birth rates, everything just
very bad. And we're dealing at Richmond 1 and two with concentrations of PFA6. We're supposed to have a state limit of 20. I saw the last test was 22.2.
I'm also seeing I pulled up uh records from uh Richmond 1 and two going back to October today. And EPA also has they break down PFAS into a number of
different chemicals. and we may be under the limit for PFAS these individual chemicals and that's under the limit but if we have a group of two or more of these PFAS
chemicals that are present in any quantity then we are in a hazard zone with the EPA and we have received uh on the 1118 well test well number two we are over um
on two of the chemicals that combine into a hazard. And then also we also had that on the um Richmond well number one on the 1118 draw where they sampled that. So we're
over on these PFAS chemicals and it doesn't just affect pregnant women. Um it affects men. Uh it's kidney, it's um high cholesterol causing. There's all kinds of indications for high PFAS 6 or
PFAS levels and I'm wondering how the town water department. What are the steps that need to be taken uh in order to look into filtration um carbon filters uh RO systems? What are the steps that
we need to take to make sure that we're not poisoning the town? >> John, you want to answer that? He's our engineer. >> Sure. >> Not me. This John >> Yeah, >> I've got the numbers here and you probably have not seen the numbers.
>> How have you not seen the numbers? >> They are just recent numbers. >> These were just >> This is from 1118 and we're we've got well number one is over on two chemicals that caused the
hazard and well number two is over on two chemicals that cause the hazard. And on PFAS6, we are now at 22.2 for a combined of of six PFAS. Massachusetts D puts a limit of 20 on
that. We were at 20.01 back in October. Now we're at 20 22.2 in October 18th test. So this is getting to be dangerous because the people here and especially any mothers that are looking to become pregnant or are
pregnant. >> Don't drink the water. >> So how can we address this John? >> Well, we need to look at the sampling rounds that have been completed, possibly do another round. I'm going to be talking to to Bill about that. And um
>> do you guys are necessary reports and see like flashing red lights that wow this is too high this is too high we've got an issue >> we analyze any of those reports if they you know if we're doing that particular work for a client that
>> so are you doing the work for >> we are right now the only work we are doing is with the written park project >> so I guess my question guys for our for our commissioners and Our super is what is our PAS plan? What what what do we have to you know Mr. Harley brought up
these numbers. Do we have a a PAS plan going forward to to make sure our waters good to go? >> I had a talk with D last Friday. Um we're waiting on December's results. Um and then we're going to have to figure
something out with Richmond Park. >> Okay. And let's say um hypothetically those those levels are continue to be high. Bill, what I don't know like Tom says, I don't know the water business. What's the what's the fix? Like what do >> filters carbon uh carbon filters? That's
actually what the grant was for with the engineering firm. >> Okay. >> So that's D set us up with a um Olsson engineering. Um he's come down. We've we've had a discussion and he's working on something. Um address that.
>> Would that be at both the Y and at Richmond those carbon filters? >> Just Richmond where YMCA doesn't have um I think one of the wells has no DTEX and the other is under the limit. >> Okay. >> But correct me if I'm wrong. Those
filters filters are extremely expensive. >> I know another town a million dollars easy. >> Yeah. on a filter >> for one filter >> and you have to take them and clean them out and >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Can I ask a question that might not even
make sense and would be wrong? >> Is it possible we could switch to Brockton water at the moment until the our problems are fixed? >> Um probably. I mean >> have we have we looked at that or >> if you wanted Yeah. I mean,
>> guys, guys. So, so again, to keep this on the rails, to keep this going productively, if if somebody has questions, ask the board and then we'll be the conduit and try and ask these folks here just so we're it's not coming in all different directions. Okay. >> Brockton R's different than us. So, you
>> But it's our water get coming back, isn't it? >> I can't answer that. I don't know who owns water. I mean, it comes out of pond and goes to Silver Lake and gets pumped out of Silver Lake. >> At some point, we at some point we >> I mean, if you want to fight with him over that, I'm
>> Oh, I'm not looking for a fight. I'm looking for a solution. >> Hold on. Hold on. So So Van, I see you, but hold on. Uh Chris had his hand up beforehand. So again, guys, you might have to come down here just to a microphone because people watching online aren't going to be able to hear anything you're saying, right? So Chris,
I know you're good voice here, but just kind of maybe skew that microphone over a little bit so folks can hear what people are saying. Otherwise, people watching aren't going to get any of this. >> Chris Winnows, 129 Circuit Street. Uh, since we're start off with PAS, since we're start talking about that, uh,
recently there was some stuff posted online and phone numbers and stuff. So, I took it upon myself to also call to to confirm it and talk to the state. uh they were talking about the PAS at that time it was only the 20.1 and they said
they round down to 20 >> because the way the state laws word it is if it exceeds 20 but looking at the numbers over the years like Jamie just spoke it's exceeding every time and now the last test is 22 uh so they said once it exceeds like
that 20.5 and it gets rounded up and it's over I think a quarter if a couple tests are over that amount Now, they'll have to shut the wells down and it's mandatory with the state law. They'll have to send a letter out to the town that has succeeded. So, I don't know if that's true, if we're very soon going to
have the wells shut down. >> A question for John or Bill. Have you guys heard any >> I think >> stuff from the state at all about any of this? >> They're waiting for December's results. >> Okay. >> The December's results will determine what the quarter limit is. If we're
over, then we got to send out a letter and then we have to have a plan on what we're going to do. >> Okay. >> But the water also mixes in the tank with the Y camp. >> Sure. >> So it's not everything is over the limit. >> Just that one that one area. >> Yeah.
>> Okay. >> Um, thank you. Did you have a follow-up, Chris, or >> Yeah, the other thing that was brought up is the I think previously I don't know if it was town meeting, but one of the things he said we didn't flush is because at that time we were hooked up to Brockton water. rock and water.
>> The state said they had already advised the water department that they didn't see that as a reason because it was so important to flush and they had actually advised that we should have still flushed and they weren't sure why we didn't because as they explained, you
know, the the cost of all the problems that were caused by not flushing kind of outweighs, you know, the cost of paying the money >> paying the money to flush >> Brockton water. >> So, I didn't know. I'll try to guys either bill or >> we came off Brockton water February of 24.
>> Okay. >> So that's why we figured Richmond Park was going to be up and running and we'd be able to flush and Richmond Park never really came back online. So >> did we ever reconsider jumping back after February 24 when there was a delay? >> No, because the Y camp was keeping up
with the water demand. So instead of buying water from Brockton, we just use the Y camp. But we can't fill the tank to flush cuz you're going to fill the tank, shut the well off, and then flush all the hydrants. You're going to drop the level of the tank and in the summertime with everybody water and it would take all
day. Sometimes that well ran 12 or 13 hours. I think that's why it failed so fast and that's why we had to spend all that money to rebuild well four. >> One last question. >> One last one. Go ahead. a total number on the amount of money that we've spent on these upgrades because I know in like
town meeting we transferred like 600,000. There was so much taken out of retained earnings. It seemed like we paid over a million dollars for return pack upgrades. >> Uh three I think
>> I think I think the 2.9 was um final amount. So, as a taxpayer, we paid $3 million almost to upgrades and the place came and get up and running. That just seems like a big problem. >> I got uh Van, you had a question. Come
on down. Just identify yourself and your address, please. >> Yeah, >> just close to the mic if you can. >> Thanks. >> Yeah, just a couple of questions I have. Can we val these all automated valves with process automation tied into them? So we get the reports back through the
system. >> We do we get enroll time stamp. Does any of that go along with these? >> I don't think so. No. >> Okay. So >> yeah, if you can just go just go to the microphone just otherwise people are going to hear you. >> Yeah. A little little background. I've done a lot of work on the power electric
side of water and wastewater treatment plants myself. But um just get a general general idea of this. I think it's pretty clear here. A couple things. Do we have an agreement with the water group here that these levels must be maintained? at all when we write a contract with the group that handles the
water department. In other words, you got to stay within these parameters or barriers or make corrections before this water goes to our town. So, there's something like that. My personal opinion should be in some kind of agreement like that. So, they have to maintain those standards. I'm assuming it's APA related
that you're maintaining, but there should be something in contracts like that so we don't get hit. Um, another thing I would say too is on the uh the GPS timestamps are always good because it tells us what happened and when. We actually have those stamps on reports that come out through the process
automation system for the water. Um, and uh I just think in any kind of drinking water systems, we should be moving all stainless steel valves no matter what happens here. Not a uh anything that is still iron and steel. We're doing a lot of flushing if that's coming out of our wells. We're better off paying the money
here now to go out and look at putting in these filtration preiltration systems inside the water so we don't have all this stuff going back to our town and we're doing all this flushing and everything else down the road. Pref filter system makes sense um for uh for
us. And uh I guess I would say too just that uh if we're if we're taking water back from Brockton, my guess is it's probably going to the Brockton treatment plant before it's coming down here for their filtration system. So if somebody could check what's coming back from Brockton, they may actually already be
filtering it from us, taking it from us, filter it, ship it back. I don't know that to be perfect here, but I'm just saying if the city that size must have some kind of water filtration. So I think for a short term something like that could be looked at. But I think we
have to move to pre-filtered stages even with bypass filters if we have them in these facilities. So if there's a problem in here, we can switch to the bypass filters. why we we uh do any service work on anything related not interrupt the town any of those type systems but uh that's kind of pretty
much all I said pre-automation system sometime stamps we don't want anymore and um and we we actually have to move to that direction I'm just shocked that I don't think the people in the county are going to trust anything that you don't go outside and get an audit of everything from the pipe systems all the way back to the wells and tell us what
do we need to do this year two years and three years to get our water systems up and prefilter out all PF the forever chemical the PFAS which react there's a some articles that will tell you that you get almost 90% if you're using carbonized type filtering system. So we shouldn't be looking here what the
government says is a minimum. We should be looking to put our clean drinking water as close as we can to everyone in the town and if we got to pay an extra money most people in the town if they hear that they're probably going to look at going back and saying well that makes damn sense because my kids and everybody are drinking this water and everything.
That's an expense that people could lock on to, but you got to have whoever you hire to run the wells, the water systems or what got to have a you got to have contracts with them somewhat. They got to keep the water at because without that, how are you going to get it? And this with a process system that reports
back to us. We should be able to uh get that information back uh and report back to you on those reports. Our wells are operated here. We had this happen at X. You guys would have the reports so that we'd be in good shape. That's all I got to say. Uh hopefully we can all work
together to get this done. This is a real issue, but you're not going to get trust from anyone in the town unless you get an independent reviewing. Nice people, but I don't think it's over the head. That's my personal opinion in the electrical side. I'm I work in, but this is uh this is somebody needs to come on
full-blown look at the system here. Now, something help the people like immediately here. What do we need to do? Hey, maybe the town agrees to put a blue drop system or some filter system and so don't get it or whatever if they got a problem right now. I mean, even on my hand, I'm willing to, you know, like I say, as a town person to help the people
short term, I actually put a blue drop system in my house, the complete system, and I'm actually asking my wife to go test the blue drop because we've had the same things, the big filters and pitches coming in all yellow, right? But I'm going to have to uh test that and find out what's coming out of my system now
because it's the best one they got. Um, and uh, I'll let let them know what I actually got back. Didn't take all the PFAS. Did it do this other stuff it was supposed to do, but I haven't even tested that yet, but I just felt anything was better than taking a shot. So, if I would recommend one last thing,
please look at getting an independent company in here to do a look at our whole water system and the way we do our contracts with the water people to make sure they maintain, you know, somebody can come in and make sure that they're auditing that whatever. I mean, I think nice people, but again, I think it's over there. my personal opinion. Thank
you. >> So to touch on one thing that Van said and again I don't know water guys but I if we got water somehow got water from Brockton it's a it's a moot point if we're still using the same system. Correct. Like if we're if we're not flushing the system we're we're still
going to have that same issue you know through those same pipes that haven't been flushed. Right. I mean I think that's again I'm not I don't >> treat unless you >> on the way back in. Yeah, but it's going to come through those same pipes anyway.
>> Back in taking water from the pond and putting it in and what's in the water manes is staying there. >> Correct. Until you flush it out. >> It's the mains. I feel like that is >> water. The water man still has the iron and maganesees in it. >> Again, and I don't want to I'm not speaking for the water department, but I'm trying to put it all together. I
don't think it's the source. I think it's the mains. It's our system that we haven't flushed in almost two years. And I think that's the crux of what most of these issues are. But again, that's that's a maybe you guys can confirm or deny >> it's not going to stop any of that.
>> Right. Right. That I think is >> you got to go filtration way around it. >> Sure. >> So, you might as well make a decision. I mean, stop one, whatever. But you got to do something. >> Yep. Um Chris, you've already asked Amy, you had your hand up. You want to come down and identify yourself, please?
Messiah. >> Um, I think that it's really important to think about the fact that over the last couple of years, we had the aquafer big digs that everybody was against. And I bring it up because the water has
gotten worse in our neighborhood since then. My my bathroom tiles turn brown. They're white tiles and they turn brown on a regular basis. That did not happen before that. And I got a brand new toilet in 2024
December and it already has a dug ring of iron around where the water comes out at the top. >> And um it's it's it's bad. It's bad. There's like a jelling that happens. So, I would encourage you guys to look into the fact
that right now we have Maryland's Landing aka the dump asking to put more dirt in this 35 ft by 80 something diameter on top of the area over there
which is by our aqua another set of aquafers directly goes into >> I'm sorry >> 170 ft tall >> 17 millions of months. >> So, it's going to that will affect our water supply. Uh reclaiming dirt from um
sites at such places as Loganport. We need that to stop and the board of health needs to send a letter out right now. now and if you could maybe urge them to do that because we all know that the offro um protection zone big dig
that happened in the YMCA area um didn't help the town's water at all. Um so maybe we can prevent another issue from happening from by stopping that. >> You guys know about that, right? >> Say one more time. the Maryland's
landing aquafer protection zone area. We shouldn't allow them to put anything on there. I think that's a vote of town meeting um in the '9s that shut that down. And so I don't know how um it's happening, but we need to stop that um
because again, I don't know how you can circumvent the town's vote, >> okay, >> on shutting down the dump. But again, the aquafer protection zone is my main thought process on that. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Yep.
>> Uh, anybody else? Any other Okay, Chris, come on up. >> So, two questions. As we just found out about the PAS, one of the wells and looking towards the future, do is there any plans for the future like emergency
if we ever lost a well where another well would go in town any other aquifer and as the town even grows we I mean we know that there's a lot of building going on stuff if there's ever more wells that are needed where would they be put just plans
>> so I can ask guys uh contingency plans essentially uh in case we have well issues and need to shut wells down. Um, does the department have kind of a plan A, plan B kind of thing? >> Quickly just to add to that, I do know there's a property at the end of Stonyware which I was always told is for
a future well if it's ever needed. I don't know if that's true. >> Okay, >> it is true. >> When they put that was put in, that was done before we even got into the white camp. This was the best we thought that's where the W would be. And then the town took over
the white camp property and we found that was a better spot. The two main wells are at the white camp. Those are the two put up the most water. If one of those wells were to die, we have other locations in that area which
could be used. But to put in a well like the last well that we put in just to get approval from the state took almost 10 years. >> Wow. >> They don't just tell you well here. It's a little quicker. I believe John,
if you're just replacing the well, an existing well, I don't think it takes that long, but it's still going to take a while. But we have a big piece of property. We have are down here because the other
if we lose a weapon, we got tied in with parking. We're tied in with East Bridgewater. We're tied in with Hansen. We can let that town come in and we did also supply them. That's way mutual agreement with the town.
>> And as far as the stony one cuz it's going on with Maryland's landing that aquifer, if you look at the state GIS maps, there's two main aquifers under Halifax from what we were told. The wells that we're using now are on the other one to the east of basically the town hall here. the other aquifers to
the west where the end of Stony >> the Maryland's landing at the power lines is right where that downs slope is the edge of that aquifer and the DP has told us that's the way the groundwater goes with some of the contamination so the Pine Street bogs have had some
contamination heads over to Cranberry Drive Stonyware so if we bring more dirt in you know future as Hellifax grows that we go contaminate that aquifer so maybe we might want to protect that aquifer if we ever need it in the future.
>> And my second question was at the last meeting we had when the water department came in in the audience there was one comment made about with the $3 million of upgrades if it was unsure if even the water department would be fully trained
with all the new upgrades. I just is everyone certified have learned >> on all behind me. >> I'm just curious with all those upgrades all fully trained and operating it and certifications and
>> they're trained on all the upgrades and they have the class two license class treatment license. Thanks, Chris. Anybody else? Yeah. Um, hold on. Ted
hasn't had a chance yet. Would like to share the wealth. >> Ted Bennett, town resident, also the uh deputy police chief. Just a question. How long would the flushing take for a full flush? I believe someone >> two weeks. >> It would take two weeks.
>> And um >> two two 14 days. Not 10 days, but at least 10 days. >> So if there was a weather window of 10 days, if there was some coordination with the police department and the highway department, I understand that
there would be liability with the roads. But if there was a weather window, could it be moved up to get it done? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Where have you been, Ted? So, but I >> I mean that that's a great idea, but I
just I don't understand why the 13 days in September didn't qualify for that window. I keep going back. You said 13 days. We had September to October. Why didn't we get it done? I just >> It was because they were I think a water they're worried about water usage, right? >> We just got the well online. So, we can't just get it online. It we in
September, we didn't even have the programming completed to let the wells start on automatic. We were going in the morning, running it during the day, making sure everything ran, fixing the leaks that cuz everything decided to leak because nothing was ever used. Nothing was under any pressure. So, the first part was all the stuff that was
leaking and breaking, the chem pumps breaking. September was maybe 10 days running. It wasn't really till October and it was the programming to get it to run. We had to watch it to make sure the pH is right, the chlorine is right. It wasn't just a matter of start it up and
just close your eyes, walk away. So, a quick question and maybe this is for Dick because he's been here a long time. >> He started when you were 10, though. So, there you go. Um, you've been here a long time, Dick. Have you seen the water
issues like we're having now in town in the history of your time here? >> Has there ever been a time here in Halifax where we've gone this long without flushing? >> Yes. >> All right. Okay. We've gone this long because you had people behind you in
your department shaking their head. No. >> Well, yes. Because when I first started here back in the 80s, we had never lost. >> Yeah. >> The department I think the first water mania back in the 50s
and they never worked. >> Yeah. >> But but what happens is because we didn't even have Richmond. We All we have is park in park. >> Yep. >> Now, Richmond Park came online back in 1979
from 79 to probably the at least mid maybe late ' 80s. There was no never. And then what happened was as as the wells of Richmond Park got
used more and more and more, the iron creeped out. That's why That's why they didn't put the plant in because originally we didn't need the plant. >> So then they the wells were there but there was no treatment plant
and behind >> that's when we had to do it. >> They put the filtration plant in. >> Yep. So it wasn't until two years after that that we started fighting cuz I think
obviously the first couple years was the first time we close. >> Um Tom, you have something they see. >> Yeah. I don't even know if this is like a fair question, but I guess I'm just wondering does the wa do the water commissioners or does a water commissioner or anybody have an opinion on the expansion of the town the thorn
dyke project the potential MBTA 750 units and the impact that that could have on an already strained system? >> So you're so basically you're worried about so having enough supply. >> I'm just wondering the supply seems to be a problem. The quality of what we have seems to be a problem. I'm just
wondering with the Thorn Dyke project, you know, nearing part of the completion, 750 units being proposed again and again by the MBTA um overlay district. Do we have any concerns about the water quality and being able to sub to substantiate more
people more supply than we have now that we can't regulate? sometimes. >> I I think we if I remember right when that project first came to us, we looked at that and I think I know with that because usually what we do
with a big project is we have the engineers look at it and they say you know how much will that affect our system but then we figure because of what it is like it's not a party B. Well, it just seems to me that if we had no if we had a problem with supply in
September or October of this year without Thorn Dikeke and any MBTA zoning, any additional properties like that would only exacerbate an already tough situation. >> But I but I think down >> but I think the supply Tom is because we had we had wells Richmond Park has been cons consistently
down and has been. So I'm just wondering how that affects things moving forward. >> I don't again I don't want to I don't know water but I I don't think it's a capacity issue. It's that the the system we have set up wasn't fully operational. >> So it's a it's a capacity issue what we have working
>> and you got a the rates that are higher than normal in the system itself which may have just shut it down. If you get to a point one a month and he's got to shut it down then you got a problem. You got a problem expand just whether it's chemicals or it's water. He's already
saying that they're pumping they're getting more magnesium than they water. So, we've got a problem. >> So, >> all right, Amy, really quick, but I I have a >> I just want to make a really quick point. >> Sure. >> So, when they started flushing back in the '90s, it was after subdivision
control went in because we had um too many condos, not just in Halifax, but across the state that went in that outweighed our infrastructures, which is what I always talk about. And it's interesting to find out that you started flushing right as subdivision control came in. and subdivision control is that
when you go in front of a planning board to talk to people, you have to talk about whether you have enough room on your streets, whether you have enough water, whether you have enough room in your schools, whether you have enough fire, police, what how is it going to affect the town taxpayers. So these
overlays that come in will overweigh us and it will not be on the contractors. That's why they're going away from 40B. noticed that our water commissioner just stated that um a 40B they would probably be using their own water which is
exactly the reason why Thornike never went through with a 40B. It wasn't because they um it was because they didn't want to because they'd have to have multi-million dollars worth of water infrastructure in order to do it. So they um sank us by coming in front of
a December 2023 town meeting and flabagasted the town. And that's why we now have that because it was a slap in the face like nobody even understood what was happening. And that's going to be a major problem when that shut when that turns on. Every town north of here
that has done this over building has a water problem. Hangingham's been buying water from Cohasset. Marshfield sells water to Situit. Situit has a water problem. Everybody's on an expanded water ban. Yes, we have a problem. We have to pay attention to it. So again, I
didn't know this before, but water flushing started because of the overbuilding done in the 70s and the 80s. >> I don't think I don't think I showed this why it started. >> Y >> I remember like I say it was a long time ago.
>> Sure. I it was because D came to us and said no what do you have for flushing what do you do for flushing >> so was it >> and it wasn't because we had a lot of dirty water protocols it was because D said you should be >> let's start flushing
>> let's start flushing that's the reason >> so so I I'm I'm hopeful and and I don't know if this idea will work but I want to float it by everybody here I think maybe the best idea we've had so far is by our deputy chief here. Is there a way
if we can time things with the temperatures and with the schedule and the weather to try to get some serious flushing done? Um because I do think to to Dick's point in the 40 years he's been there that has cleared up a lot of
these issues. So I think it might make sense to start there, right? Let's rule that out and hopefully that clears up a lot of our issues. And if that doesn't, then we come back here and we figure this out again. But I think it's not
really fair to folks. I mean, that woman's water, it we can't have residents with water like that. So, I do think we need to act. And I know it's not ideal and we got to make sure we're doing it safely because, you know, the last thing we want is accidents from people getting iced over. But I do feel
like if we coordinate with highway, with PD, with you guys at water and try to come up with a plan to give it a real good flushing and see what happens. And then if >> you agree that that's only going to that's taking care of the maganese
not >> No, no. P I agree. >> Two separate issues. >> Yeah, I think I think they're they're both serious issues, Van, but I I think they're for right now they're two separate issues, right? So to help them now. >> So, we need we need a stop gap now and
we need to come up with a plan now so that that water doesn't happen. Um, I'm not saying it's the safest water we have. I'm not saying that, you know, it's going to cure everything, but I do feel like we need to coordinate with highway water police. Let's look at the temperatures and let's and let's get
this done. Um, so I don't know. I don't know where we go from there. If if if we have Steve, if we have Ted and Chief Jobs or we have the highway supers discuss with a with a plan here to try to get this done. >> I spoke with a highway today.
>> Yeah. >> So, for those that didn't hear, Ted spoke with Steve uh who said he's willing to try to come up with a schedule to get this done. >> Can they do it during the day, Jonathan, when it's warmer? It's still going to go down into the 20s, but does it matter? I think the town would probably be very
acceptable to having to either stop using water in a neighborhood for a couple hours to get this stuff done. So, whatever needs to happen, I think it should be done during the day where it's going to be in the 40s for the next four or five days or whatever instead of doing it overnight for the safety of them as well. >> Right. What water commissioners and and
Bill, what are our thoughts? Do we have the manpower? Sully, we get the manpower to do this during the day. >> The questions should go to the superintendent. Sure, >> Bill. >> Yeah. >> Yeah, >> you should be able to. >> Yeah. >> Can't Can't you just run the hose right down to the sewer main?
>> Keeps all the water off the street. >> Not if there's not one close. >> Yeah. >> And we we use the 4 in right off the front with a flush box. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> And again, less more water. And and again, this isn't ideal and it might
inconvenience some folks, but I hope especially this time of year, not to get all cheesy on you guys, but your inconvenience may really help people like this woman here, right? So, let's let's come up with a plan. Let's put our heads together and let's do this sooner rather than later to try to fix the
issues that we have. Um, knock on wood, I think we capped it at a 90% success rate. I'm going to hold you to it. Um, but knock on wood, it fixes a lot of these issues. um at least gets a jump on it and then we can circle back, you know, in the spring after we do the
flushing to see what we have. I'm not saying we turned a blind eye to PAS. Um the EPA is all over that right now. We as a town have to be all over that because as Jamie was saying, the the levels that they're going to demand are only going to go lower and lower and lower and we're going to have to get
better and better and better over time. >> That's why we got involved with that lawsuit, >> right? So I think >> to collect money on the PAS. Correct. >> The total is like 1.3 million. >> Yeah. No, we have money coming from the state on PAS and we will absolutely use that to help with PAS. But I do feel
like again this isn't an ideal situation. I don't know many towns that flush their their systems in December and January, but I think we're kind of at a I don't want to say a critical point, but we're at a point now where it's kind of our only option right now. I think.
>> Yes. Dave Masio. So, do we switch? So, if we do if we can get the flush pulled off, right? Hypothetical, I'm just asking. Do we switch over to Brockton, get the PA fast tested out of Brockton and run Brockton till you guys can get Richmond Park back up? Because
realistically, if if if we're saying that the maganesees and iron is coming out of the YMCA and Richmond's got the filtration, then aren't we just going to put the stuff right back in the lines again? I mean, I I understand a little bit how the wells work. It's a, you know, it's coming from ground water.
You're going to have, but I'd rather pay for the broccolin water if it's clean. It's, it's not loaded with iron, magnes, and all the other stuff. I'd rather pay for that gladly if I'm going to get clean water versus, all right, we flush the pipe and then 2
months later, I I'm dealing with the same thing. I got my my shower's white, it's brown, you know, we're we're constantly cleaning it. So, do we switch to Brockton until we get Richmond open? Is it is it foolish for that or is it is it is it better?
>> Also, if if and I'm sorry, excuse me. If once Richmond's open, are we shutting down the Y >> so we don't get more? Are we going to shut the shut the YC down? >> They work together in tandem. >> So, we're still going to get a concentration of iron maganesees no matter what we do without a filtration
plant on that one. Hopefully we get treatment plan online. Like you said, we're supposed to be here >> end of the week. I think >> that cuz I I've been approached by one of your personnel saying, "You're going to I need you got to go pay your bill." I I
don't want to pay it. I I don't care what anybody says. I don't want to pay it. I didn't want to pay it. I paid it, but I was ticked off about it because it's been it's been brown. >> Okay. All right. uh I I don't ever want that person coming to my shop again and asking me. He doesn't have the right to
and I made it clear. But nobody here wants to pay for it. And and we use enough social media at this point cuz obviously there's enough people in town that have communicated through uh Halifax community uh local page or or the Facebook stuff that you know to even
Tom Pratt, thank you has has put put his voice out there. Everybody can communicate and pass it along. Even if it's repeated over and over again, as we repeat a lot anyways, hey, they're flushing the water, man. It's going to be risky. It's going to be cold. Keep an eye out. Everybody talk to your
neighbors. Everybody pass it along. Let's just get it done cuz I I want to know what you get tested out of that jar. Cuz first of all, I thought you brought moonshine in here. I was like, I want a head of that. >> See how that's great. >> Yeah. >> Thank you.
>> Yeah. Thanks, Dave. So, yeah, you haven't spoken yet, ma'am. Go right ahead. >> Sure. >> Hi everyone. Marcy Ward from Twin Lakes. >> Um, I I appreciate everybody being here as well and I I feel your pain because we have a serious issue. Um, I've had a
lot of challenges like everyone else here. And um, one thing that I'm concerned about is when the water is clean, it's like smells like a swimming pool. So, I don't know if anyone else has noticed that, but I have noticed it makes my eyes water. Like, so just
something to watch out for. I don't know how many people on the board here live in Halifax or if they if you're experiencing those those challenges, but that's something we also want to be mindful of because even though it looks clean, it smells like, you know, not we
can't use it. We still can't use it. So, that's something else I wanted to bring up if anyone else has that issue. Okay. Can they answer? >> Thank you. >> Um, so, so, uh, the question is, guys, what getting a chlorine smell in the water? >> They use chlorine for disinfection.
>> So, they're using chlorine for disinfection >> to keep the bacteria out of the water. >> Okay. And is that a past practice you guys have done for a long time? >> And safe to drink. >> Has it has it recently gotten worse or is that a smell you've had for a long time or
>> Oh, sorry. >> It's okay. It's been uh I think I've noticed it more recently, you know, since the water's been like a lot more frequently. It's been darker brown and for a longer period of time more frequently. >> Yeah. >> Um I have noticed it more recently than
I have in the p in past times. And to be to be fair, like >> I moved here in 2019 and I really didn't have the brownwater issues for a long time until probably now that you're mentioning probably like 2014 I think I 2024. Sorry. I think that's when it
started. So, it's been ongoing since then and I have noticed the chlorine smell. >> Okay. >> But I didn't notice it in the past. Okay. So, >> so hold on. >> Chlorine is used to kill the bacteria. >> We're mandated to do that.
>> Okay. >> Sometimes, you know, you're going to get a smell of chlorine. >> It's perfectly safe to drink. And if you if you don't want the smell, if you take a picture of water and you fill it with with your water and put it in the refrigerator tomorrow morning, that
chlorine smell is gone. You need a perfectly clean water to drink. Chlorine will dissipate overnight. >> Okay. Um Mary, you had your hand up. Do you still have a question? You're going to have to come up. I'm going to make you walk up here. >> You can hear me from here. >> No. No. Come on. You don't get special treatment.
>> Get your steps in. >> Jonathan. >> Yeah. So, just on that question, are we testing for bacteria and when a level of bacteria gets high, then we put bleach in the water? >> No. >> John, is that a question for you or >> I'm sorry, what? >> I was just going to say,
>> is that the engineer question or Bill or Go ahead. >> No, we use it all the time. >> What kind of bacteria is in the water? >> None because we use chlorine. >> But you must not put the chlorine in until you get that you know that there's bacteria in it because we only smell it at certain times. No, goes in all the
time right at the well, right at the treatment plant before it goes out into >> How come sometimes it's so much more like prevalent than at other times? >> I think now it's probably from not flushing. It's sitting in the water man with that's what oxidizes the iron and manganesees and makes it settle out into the water man.
>> So So again guys, I feel like we're going to go around around a little bit here, right? I I think what what we should our goal tonight here is I think we need to come up with a flushing plan. And I think it doesn't need to be a band-aid flush. I think we need to look at a full system flush. And I think we need to use
highway, we need to use PD, and we need to use water to get our system flushed. Um it's not going to be easy with with the time of year we're trying to do it, but I feel like that's step one, right? And we do that and then we come back and we see how effective that process is.
Uh, again, we have a long time I'm sorry I keep throwing you under the bus with the age thing. We have a longtime guy here that says the flushing takes care of a lot of this stuff. Let's at least give them the opportunity to do that. Something we haven't done in almost two years and see if it corrects a lot of
these issues. Um, the board does that make sense to you guys as well? >> Yeah. I just think it's unfortunate that it took long for >> this conversation to happen. We're here. >> Best way to say that. >> I will say water under the bridge, but
that's not a great analogy to use right now because we're here, right? So, >> um, yeah, Chris and then Van. But again, guys, Chris first. Chris first, then Van. >> But Van, you can stand behind me. >> Yeah.
>> Quick question. Is it correct that higher levels of chlorination are used to participate the magnes out of the water so it falls out and solidifies? in munable water systems. >> That's a question for you. The high What
do you mean by higher level? >> Like chlorine is used and it coagulates the maganesees and it drops out of the water. Is is that correct? >> Yeah. >> So even if we're using it for disinfection, could it have a side effect where we're
it's falling out of the water system and filling the pipes with maganesees? It can cause some precipitation on the pipes. Yes. >> So it could accelerate filling the pipes >> filling the pipes with >> maganese that's falling out from the
chlorination >> so that's just a vicious circle that we're running here. The more chlorine we use the more that gets left behind. >> I think that I think the water department's using more or less the same chlorine that >> Yeah. We don't chlorinate from the Y camp as much. So we don't oxidize the
iron and manganesees. just enough to for the um to kill the bacteria. >> All right. >> Van Donley 2011 Cranberry Drive. You mentioned the case about the about the sue for a million three or whatever for PFAS, right? That's the filter,
>> right? So I mean we're getting paid to fix our problem. So hopefully that money's earmarked to go fix the problem. I would hope. Right. >> It has to be used for has to be used for PAS remediation. >> Yes. Exactly. What problem kind of we have here? Right. Another question. Do we use any ultraviolet lighting for our
bacteria or just chlorine? That's it. And is there a reason why we don't use ultraviolet lighting in the systems or is that >> uh cuz that's a you know that's a big help for killing bacteria >> if it's we don't use it.
>> Okay. So I don't >> So again, recommendation here is is that you um you look at somebody to come in and look it up system soup the nuts and if you got to buy Brockton water and you find out that it's already going to a treatment plant where they got to test it, okay, at a certain timeline and
basis, you may be buying treated water that you can use now while we rebuild our system over a couple of years or whatever while we're doing that. So to me, flushing the water is great. May help out a little bit for now. you still got other problems for filtering and all of this. So, you need somebody to come
into the town and said, "Here's your water department. Here's the select port. Here's what these experts have come in and told us, right, to the town and they do the presentation soup to nuts, right? From piping to look at our storage to everything and say the best system to get rid of your PFAS, right?
And the best system to get rid of the magnet because you're still going to have to flush down the road if you don't deal with a lot of the problems that are causing it, right? So, if we take that out of the water, the town's people are going to happy. They're probably more willing to pay for that if they got an expert telling them this is what needs to happen. And so just anyways, that's
it. >> All right. So, so again, I feel like we're they're all val they're good valid points, guys, but we're kind of we're going in a little bit of a circle here. So just in the essence of keeping things going forward, I do feel like I think our plan as a town moving forward should
be a coordinated effort between Halifax PD, Halifax water and Halifax highway to come up with a plan to flush. Um we'll have I don't know who runs point is that Bill do you run point on that and coordinate with PE you know how in
flushing in the past how does that operate? Who who is the contact person between all those entities? >> Just the water department. >> Water department. All right. So, the water department is on board with working with PD, working with fire, um >> I'm sorry, highway. It's a long night.
Sorry. Um to come up with a plan to flush uh a full flush, not a band-aid flush, a full flush in between the weather that we can do um and then circle back. And I don't know if we need to put a hard date on the calendar
>> uh to circle back um maybe you know February or March to see if if those issues have been cleared up. Does that sound like a plan for the board? And then if the issues aren't cleared up maybe we look at bringing in a third party um to examine the other issues
that that might exist. >> Can I just ask one more question? >> Sure. So we need time to flush the whole system. Can it be broken up? Like if there's a three-day stretch now and you can then pause it if the cold weather comes back or does it have to be continuous? >> You can probably break it up. You just
have to >> be strategic and hit the >> Yeah, you need zone by >> zone. Yeah, it's got to be strategically placed so that the water go Yeah. So >> the plan is broken up into a series of zones. >> So we don't need 10 We don't need 10 straight days. We just need a couple segments of four or five that would
>> I think it's better if they had 10. >> Well, sure. Yeah, I agree with you. >> I don't know if we're going to get 10 days above freezing though, Dick. >> I'm just reluctant to set a date of February 1st if we're setting ourselves up for failure in 6 weeks when we don't have a 10day stretch that's going to present itself. That's all. >> And I'm a little concerned, but do we do
a full flush yet? I don't think that's going to be very difficult this time of year because a lot of sections of town are pretty good. We have I think we're better off if we concentrate on where we know we're getting most of the dirty water calls rather than waste our time
going to an Yeah, that makes sense. >> And then in the spring, we hit it. >> That makes sense. >> I'm just reluctant to have anybody, including us or them, overpromise and underdel, which I think has been the pattern that we've fallen into here. So, I'd rather set everyone up for look
looking okay and progress being made rather than failure. >> So, >> right, we got to come up with something, right? >> Well, I understand that. That's what I was asking about splitting it up. >> So, I think this is the best idea that we have. And to your point, Dick, you know, we start with the areas that we've had the most calls on and we start with, you say the town's divided into zones.
You know, let's let's hit those trouble zones first. >> You know, where most of the dirty water calls are. >> Yep. >> I suggest that we hit those areas and go from there. >> Yep. >> And if the weather breaks and we can do more, we do more. Get the dirty water calls where the people have the worst
water. >> Let's get that straightened up the best we can. >> Great. >> All right. Uh Jamie, real quick. >> Jamie, one one more quick question and a point. Um >> on my printouts that I did where I was trying to search the Halifax wells for
YMCA, I only see that PH is being tested. Are we testing for PFAS on YMCA as well? Because I don't see detailed reports for the the breakdowns. >> I'd have to look at the schedule, but I think it's once a year.
>> Once a year >> because there's no detects over there. Okay. And then just a quick point to go along with what Amy and um Chris said. Amy mentioned that she started to see the water issues once that big dig stand dig started to happen over there. Um
when her water issues started to appear, we probably lost our natural filtration. Um by all this sand leaving our system. And then what Chris and I were in the area of Maryland's Landing. And if anyone's attended the meetings and I've been posting on Facebook about this
Maryland's Landing and McDonald Industries, they have uncontrolled toxic runoff coming off of that site right now. And that it's not going into the retention ponds, but that plays into the water department because that is flowing into the aquifer that's going over
towards Stony Wear, which is a future site for us. So, we have toxic chemicals that Mer McDonald Industries says are uncontrolled and they're flowing off creating new wetlands underneath the power lines. So, toxic wetlands
underneath there, something to look forward to for the future. So, I would really see if there's a way that the town can minimize the sand mining, get rid of that, whatever. and this whole Maryland
landing thing is really becoming a uh an issue >> and for the for the future of this town. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um so again, I'm going to ask the water department if we can uh once you guys get squared away to try to provide
the town with um areas of the town that are going to be flushed. you know, uh, when you guys figure out what zones you plan on doing and what days, we can give folks the best heads up as possible, you know, including these streets if we can. I know in years past we've kind of just
said flushing going on, but if we can try to be targeting about what streets and zones we're trying to do, just to give people a heads up, um, you know, not only for their water in their home, but also any sort of extra water that may be in the roads or in the neighborhood. I think it's vital that we
we let folks know that these are the areas in town that we're going to be doing on these days. So, if we can, you know, share that with as many folks as possible, we'll talk to our, you know, IT guy. We'll try and get that out on our town website to get as much word out as we can that these are the areas that
we're going to be doing and these are the days we're going to be doing them. >> Is is it are you able to start right away because the next five days look above freezing. If we can coordinate it with >> gota coordinate with PD and with highway >> else.
>> Yeah. >> Yeah. 50 50 58 on Friday. >> Does it does that sound like a plan? >> Yep. >> Awesome. Well, thank you guys. I know this is uh not a fun meeting to attend. I want to thank water for coming here
tonight. I'm sure you guys know you were going to get barbs here. Um but again, I can't stress this enough. Everybody in this room wants to fix this, right? There's nobody in this room that wants water like what we're seeing. I can I can tell you firsthand the people I've
spoken with. So, um, we have a plan. We're going to go forward. Hopefully, that plan is effective. And if it's not, we're going to circle right back and come up with another plan. All right. Anything else? >> Yeah. My first comment was, "Thank you for showing up." And my last comment will be, "Thank you for showing up as
well." >> Yeah, we're good. >> Thank you. >> Thanks again. All right. Um, with that I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> Already? >> Yes. >> So move second. All those in favor? >> I >> I meeting adjourned at 8:27.