Politics & Government

Selectmen Receive Update from SHERC on Medfield State Hospital Site

SHERC provided Medfield with an update on the status of the Medfield State Hospital site at the May 3 Board of Selectmen meeting.

SHERC’s John Thompson provided the Medfield Board of Selectmen with an update on the Medfield State Hospital through a checklist presented at the BOS meeting on May 3.

The checklist, according to Thompson, is to go through several aspects of the disposition of the state hospital property, both administratively and environmentally.

“What we’re trying to do is resurrect the Memorandum of Agreement again and bring it up to date because DCAM has been doing a lot of work on the hospital property and it is a bit of a moving target because DCAM has only submitted a partial report, we do not have a full report,” said Thompson. “We don’t feel the town should go forward and really can’t go forward with finalizing the Memorandum of Agreement until we see the results of their Phase II investigation.”

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Thompson said DCAM is expected to submit the report detailing the results of its Phase II investigation in late August or early September this year.

“At that point, we feel it would be appropriate to go forward with the MOA,” Thompson said. “We will see what areas [DCAM] plans to clean up and how they will go about that.”

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Thompson said the items in the checklist he felt were important for Town Counsel Mark Cerel to hear about were the following: Violation of Consent Order; Formation of Bylaw Review Committee; Legislative.

 Violation of Consent Order:

The update regarding the violation of consent order, according to the checklist, refers to the verbal conversation Assistant Town Administrator Kristine Trierweiler had with DCAM. Trierweiler was “told verbally that the order states ‘occupied buildings’ and since there are no occupied buildings there has been reason for DCAM to complete the consent order,” the document read. “No one knows why DMH (Department of Mental Health) did not comply. There are many other requirements aside from the asbestos concern in the ACO that DCAM should address.”

SHERC requested the Board of Selectmen task Cerel with determining if the Medfield Building Inspector has code enforcement jurisdiction over state property.

 Formation of Bylaw Review Committee:

The update regarding the formation of bylaw review committee, according to the checklist, says Cerel “has been tasked with working with a committee to review the pertinent bylaws regarding the state hospital,” the document read. SHERC met with Cerel on March 24 to discuss bylaws. Thompson’s latest update from SHERC regarding the bylaw committee is to ask the Board of Selectmen to consider a Board of Health representative be on the bylaw committee.

“Since the Board of Health has authority under the State Regulations to create new regulations, a Board of Health member should be on Cerel’s bylaw review board, or alternatively the BOH should independently take on a bylaw task,” the checklist report read. 

Legislative:

The update regarding the legislative portion of the checklist refers to “issues that have been raised regarding the well field legislation and the supply of 28.8 million gallons of water to DMH and the obligation of the Town to continue that agreement once a developer is chosen,” according to the checklist.

Thompson asked the selectmen to task Cerel with investigating the issue and provide a legal opinion as to whether or not the town legislation provides free water to the developer at the expense of the town.

“We requested DCAM sample the well field and they couldn’t even get into the tops of some of the wells,” said Thompson. “They had just rusted shut, some of the wells don’t even have water in them at all and so the consensus from DCAM was based on their own investigation that the well field is inoperable. That may change our approach in how we structure the Memorandum of Agreement with DCAM.”

Thompson, Cerel, the selectmen and Town Administrator Michael Sullivan discussed the water well situation in greater detail, with Sullivan providing information regarding the town’s plans for a new well at the site.

“My understanding is the new well would not be that type of structure anyway [tubular well] and all of that material would be disposed of,” Sullivan said. “The new well would be a gravel pack and would be much deeper than the shallow point wells you are getting.”

Check back at Medfield Patch for an in-depth article detailing the water well situation at the State Hospital site.

Thompson reiterated at the end of his discussion the four main areas of focus SHERC wanted addressed.

“The four things I wanted to leave with are we would like the selectmen to consider having [Cerel] take a look at whether there is code enforcement jurisdiction, also we raised before the issue of the consent order, where does that stand?” Thompson said. “Having a Board of Health representative present on the bylaw committee and the issue of the water tower.”

After the discussion and review of the checklist, Selectman chair Osler “Pete Peterson” and selectman Ann Thompson honored SHERC’s request and tasked Cerel with investigating the issues mentioned. 


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