Selectmen Meeting Notes

Selectmen Notes: Town's Average Tax Increase is 2.6 Percent; Officials Support Timilty's MSH Amendment

The Medfield Board of Selectmen met Tuesday to discuss the following town business.

Town Administrator Michael Sullivan reported that the average tax increase, from fiscal year 2006 to present, is about 2.6 percent. “It shows that we are not spending excessively,” said Sullivan. “Our problem right now is a decline in revenues, particularly from local receipts other than property tax and state aid.”  Sullivan said that many people, if asked, would estimate the tax increase to be between five and six percent when it is actually less than half that amount. He said the town will save an additional $150,000 in interest when, this week, it refinances $13.8 million in bonds, including $12 million for three school projects, $1.4 million for water main replacement on North and Green Streets, and $400,000 for additional work on the…

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Thursday’s State Hospital Meeting Critical to Future of Medfield

Residents are advised to attend Thursday’s public meeting with DCAM to support the town’s effort to have the state hospital site completely removed of hazardous materials.

Editor’s note: Thursday’s Public Involvement Participation meeting with DCAM will be held in the Chenery Room of Town Hall (second floor) from 7 to 9 p.m. The Medfield State Hospital has been closed for nearly a decade; but it is what happens next with the property that will have a lasting impact on the town. “Whatever is done up there … the state hospital is going to change the whole town,” said Tom Sweeney Jr., member of the Board of Assessors, who was on the State Hospital and State Hospital Preservation Committees in the 80s. Determining what happens on the approximately 225-acre property is incumbent upon the extent of cleanup the Division of Capital Asset Management (DCAM) is willing to complete. The problem? The town and DCAM can’t …

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SHERC Chairman Urges Community to Attend March 8 Meeting on Medfield State Hospital Cleanup

SHERC chairman John Thompson says it is “critical” for the community to attend Medfield’s Public Involvement Participation meeting with DCAM on March 8 to support the town’s efforts in a complete cleanup of the state hospital site.

John Thompson, chairman of Medfield’s State Hospital Environmental Review Committee (SHERC), has urged town officials to remain firm in seeking complete remediation of the former Medfield State Hospital site and is now urging the community to take a similar stance. Thompson is encouraging the Medfield community to attend the March 8 Public Involvement Participation (PIP) meeting at Town Hall with the state’s Division of Capital Asset Management (DCAM) to show unified support for complete remediation of the construction and destruction area (C&D) of the property. “That would be a critical meeting to attend and to give [DCAM] the message that we [as a town] are concerned about it and we would like to have it cleaned up to the fullest extent…

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SHERC Recommends Selectmen Consult Legal Counsel for Cleanup of Medfield State Hospital Site

SHERC chairman John Thompson presented three recommendations for the Medfield State Hospital site before the Board of Selectmen at Tuesday's meeting.

Locked in a stalemate with the state’s Division of Capital Asset Management (DCAM) over the extent of cleanup needed at the former Medfield State Hospital, the town’s State Hospital Review Committee (SHERC) made three recommendations to the Board of Selectmen at Tuesday’s meeting. One of those recommendations was a request that selectmen seek legal counsel as a result of the committee's interactions with DCAM. “At [SHERC’s] meeting on Feb. 2, [the] committee made the following motion, which was accepted, to recommend to the selectmen to seek legal review through [town] counsel and/or other legal counsel for strategy [with cleanup of the site] going forward,” said John Thompson, chairman of SHERC. “This motion came about as a result of our …

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Medfield, DCAM Remain at Odds Over State Hospital Cleanup

State Hospital Environmental Review Committee (SHERC) representative, John Thompson, delivered the committee's report to Selectmen at the Sept. 6 meeting.

“If hazardous waste is dumped over your water supply, is it better to take it out or leave it there ... and monitor it?” That’s the question, posed by SHERC (State Hospital Environmental Review Committee) representative, John Thompson, in a report delivered to the Board of Selectmen, at its Sept. 6 meeting.  The answer to that question finds the state and town of Medfield at odds regarding the clean-up efforts at the site of the former Medfield State Hospital. Both the town and SHERC  favor the removal of the waste, while the state has formulated plans to “cap” the waste material and implement a monitoring system, which is less costly than the removal process.  “Simply saying that it costs too much without a thorough investigation, ” …

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