Samoset/Manomet repaving project could bring changes to parking and traffic flow

By Carol Britton Meyer

There are two scenarios for the long-awaited Manomet/Samoset Avenue reconstruction – funded entirely by the town or through the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), contingent on approval of the project – and each option could result in changes in traffic flow, pedestrian access, and parking.

With the second option, the state would pay for most of the cost, with the town responsible for funding the design – at an estimated $1.5 to $2 million – and as yet unknown right-of-way expenses. Each road is about a mile long.

Town Manager Jennifer Constable noted during Wednesday’s select board meeting that the board heard a presentation about potential options a few months ago and that this latest update was a “refresher” prior to the planned public meeting about the project. Details on this session are to be announced.

Director of Wastewater Operations/Assistant Director of Public Works John Struzziery and Merrick Turner, representing the BETA Group, Inc. – an engineering, planning, and construction services company – provided updates to the board.

A town project would be simpler, involving minimal leveling and overlay work in addition to providing accessibility at intersections, with an option to add sidewalks, bike lanes, and more extensive rehabilitation of the roads.

The timeframe for completion would be shorter, taking about two to three years.

TIP option more comprehensive

A TIP project would be designed in accordance with MassDOT policy, with sidewalks on both sides, and accommodations for bicycles.

This would be a more comprehensive, complex way to do the project, taking potentially from seven to 10 years to complete from start to finish, according to the presentation.

In preparation, traffic counts and parking scenarios were taken and considered during Thursday through Sunday, July 11 through 14, in 2024 (through August 21 for parking).

The report indicates low volumes and speeds, with a one-way road as a viable option for traffic flow.

Various cost estimates were also presented in 2024 dollars for various construction scenarios involving different levels of reconstruction – ranging from $3.1 to $6.1 million for Samoset and $2.8 to $5.5 million for Manomet.

Several strategies also were presented for both roads. For Samoset, they ranged from retaining a two-way road with parking on one or both sides to one-way travel with parking on both sides.

For Manomet, options included both a two-way road that meets MassDOT criteria that would eliminate parking and include a bike lane on both sides and one-way travel with parking on both sides (except from A Street to Lewis Street), and a one-way bike lane scenario.

There are a number of different options for parking, which will be discussed at the public meeting.

MassDOT considers project ‘very viable’

While the TIP process is competitive, Struzziery said that input from MassDOT indicates that “the project is very viable and we can make [our submission for the grant funding] competitive.”

The expected lifetime of a town-funded project would be about 10-20 years, while with a more comprehensive MassDOT project, the expected lifetime would be 20-plus years, according to Turner.

Select board member Jerry Taverna expressed some concerns about residents’ reactions.

“I think we [could] have a big problem with residents. We’re talking about major changes,” he said. “We’ve taken a year to study this, and I think some serious public outreach has to happen, and education about the project – to take some time to hold multiple meetings with feedback from the residents that would be affected.”

Struzziery agreed, noting that MassDOT is looking for community support for the project as part of the process.

Following public input, the town would need to submit a TIP application for the project to move forward with applying for state funding.

In other business

The select board unanimously supported the submission of seven Community Preservation Act applications by various entities involving town-owned properties – a requirement to apply for CPA funding through the Community Preservation Committee – for the next round. The pre-application deadline is September 30.

The funding requests include:

• A patio to be installed at the front of the senior center to provide outdoor seating and additional space for social gatherings;

• Restoration of historic records in the Hull Village Fire Station;

• Cleanup of parts of Fort Revere;

• Fencing at the Hull Community Garden on George Washington Boulevard;

* Stencil signage to indicate public access at a number of town-owned waterfront locations, resulting from the Waterfront Access Working Group’s ongoing study;

• The Village playground and basketball courts;

• The Hull Community Housing Trust Fund – 10% or more of the town’s CPA yearly funding resulting from an earlier voter-approved tax surcharge is set aside for affordable housing purposes.

The CPC reviews all applications and makes recommendations to town meeting, where voters have the final say.

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Lifesaving Museum’s annual Head of the Weir rowing race hits the water on Saturday

Hull Lifesaving Museum’s 39th annual Head of the Weir River Race is a celebration of the estuary at the height of its fall beauty and the fabulous array of the region’s open water rowers. As many as 60 boats jockey for position racing out of the narrow estuary and onto open water, traveling from the headwaters of the Weir River downstream, past Bumpkin Island, across Hull Bay, to the museum’s Windmill Point Boathouse at Hull Gut.

This year’s Head of the Weir race will be Saturday, October 4 (poor weather date is October 5). The race begins at 12 p.m.; check-in is from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. at Steamboat Wharf, 48 George Washington Boulevard. Entry fee is $45 per person. There is no day-of-event registration: Online registration is at https://hulllifesavingmuseum.org/programs-workshops.

A highly contested five-and-a-half miler, the Weir draws coxed youth and adult rowers in gigs, single and double livery and workboats, currachs, and ocean shells, as well as experienced kayakers. In the “head of the river” format, boats kick off the starting line at closely timed intervals, and times are collated at the finish to determine the race winners. The Weir is an exceptionally exciting race and a great spectator event, featuring more than 200 of the region’s finest rowers from all over New England and New York.

Please remember that due to worsening erosion of the marsh, the traditional starting line has been moved. All vessels must now launch at Steamboat Wharf and row to the starting line, 1-3/4 miles. High tide is scheduled for 9:35 a.m. on that date.

The traditional after-race party will be held at the boathouse, and all race competitors are welcome to nourishing chow and refreshments at the Windmill Point Boathouse. After competitors have gone through the line, friends, family, and spectators are welcome to enjoy the offerings for a suggested donation.

Visit www.hulllifesavingmuseum.org for all the details regarding registration, launching, and parking. You can email your questions to info@hulllifesavingmuseum.org or call 781-925-5433.

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Volunteer, former teacher appointed to school board; three housing trust seats filled

By Carol Britton Meyer

A school committee vacancy and three openings on the Hull Community Housing Trust were filled during the select board’s meeting Wednesday night.

In a joint select board and school committee meeting, Aleeza Hagerty – an active community and school volunteer – was appointed to fill the seat formerly held by Regan Yakubian, who resigned in August to apply for a nursing job within the school district.

Aleeza hagerty

Hagerty, one of six applicants, will serve in this position until the regular 2026 town election.

The other applicants were Sheila DeRensis – who was not present for the interviews – Susan Engelkemeyer, Jennifer Gonzalez, Robert Insoft, and Ernest Minelli IV, a former school committee member.

Click here for the letters of interest and backgrounds of each applicant

School Committee Chair Kyle Conley prefaced the interviews with remarks made in the “context of where we are at the start of the school year. I’m incredibly proud of our students, staff, teachers, and administrators,” she said.

Conley also noted that Hull Public Schools students continue to excel academically, “outperforming the state averages [on test scores] … within a safe and welcoming environment. Our students are also continually recognized by outside organizations as incredibly respectful and kind.”

Conley also noted that committee members had an opportunity to speak to each of the applicants prior to the public interviews “to vet their capacity to take on this commitment, their qualifications” and the reason they were seeking the position.

She went on to say that a big part of the school committee’s work is supporting the efforts of Superintendent of Schools Michael Jette, now in his second year, including the rolling out of his five-year draft strategic plan and his priorities to the school committee this week.

“A lot of the committee’s work got paused when we lost a school committee member,” Conley said. “We’re really excited to have someone in place to get the ball rolling and to move quickly for the sake of the students.”

Hagerty, a Hull resident for 12 years, has a long volunteer history – from veterans’ organizations to youth sports to the Hull Public Schools – and has a teaching background.

She also has a real estate business in town.

“I’m hearing a lot of questions about low student enrollment and how we can attract families to Hull with housing being so expensive,” Hagerty said. “The new structures being built here are not intended for families. We could hopefully address this issue to attract more families to Hull.”

In volunteering for the school district, Haggerty has already shared her ideas about ways to improve the HPS curriculum with school administrators and thinks relationship building is important.

“I could hit the ground running,” she said in her interview.

Hagerty said she is an advocate for finding creative ways to provide extracurricular programs that are not as competitive for students who don’t wish to play on an organized sports team, for instance.

After Hagerty was appointed, Conley thanked all of the applicants for “putting their hats into the ring. That takes a lot of courage.”

Both boards acknowledged that all six candidates had good qualifications. “With six candidates for one seat, I hope the other applicants will consider serving on other town boards,” select board Chair Irwin Nesoff said.

The vote for Hagerty was seven of the eight votes – four from the school committee, and four from the select board (Greg Grey was not in attendance).

Before the vote, Conley expressed support for Insoft, a pediatrician who she said would “bring complementary skills to the table, with a focus on students’ health and wellness.”

Housing Trust seats filled

Michelle Cox, Joe Gibbons, and Robert Pezzini – who sits on the affordable housing committee – were appointed to fill the three at-large seats on the Hull Community Housing Trust. Marlene Earl, who also expressed interest in being appointed, was not present at the meeting.

The housing trust is dedicated to receiving and managing funds and resources to increase and preserve affordable housing. The trustees will play a crucial role in creating and preserving affordable housing for low- and moderate-income households through providing financial support for development projects, rehabilitating existing housing, and offering programs to assist homebuyers and renters. 

Cox, who is a real estate agent, believes that the affordable housing issue is important and remarked at the high cost of housing in town.

Gibbons, who sits of the Friends of the Carousel board and works on residential construction projects, desired a seat on the trust “to help ensure the fund is managed responsibly to benefit everyone in Hull.”

Pezzini, who said he has spent his entire career in the affordable housing field, said he would like to help the trust “come up with a plan that meets the town’s needs and is financeable and attractive.”

Fellow select board members also appointed Nesoff to represent them on the trust.

Affordable Housing Committee member Cyndi Koebert said trust members “will set the agenda and will learn from each other. If you have the passion and interest, I think this [effort] will be very successful.”

AHC Chair Kate Barclay called those appointed that night “a good mix of people for the best interests of Hull.”

Nesoff commended the AHC for its “incredible” work to get a vote on creating the trust on this year’s town meeting agenda and the vote of support that resulted.

“It’s great to see it coming to fruition,” he said.

A replay of the interviews will be available on demand on Hull Community Television’s website, www.hulltv.net.

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Hull High’s school year begins with ‘momentum and a sense of optimism,’ principal reports

By Carol Britton Meyer

Hull High School was in the spotlight at this week’s school committee meeting, with Principal Robert Shaw painting a picture of a successful beginning to the new school year, with students arriving energized and engaged.

“We’ve had a strong and successful opening,” he reported. “The energy in the building has been positive and purposeful, and our students and staff are off to a strong start.”

The high school welcomed three new members to the professional staff, “each of whom brings fresh ideas and expertise to our school,” Shaw said.

These include two new guidance counselors, Kaitlyn McGee and Thomas Egan, who have quickly become indispensable members of the team, Shaw said.

Their orientation sessions were followed by professional learning days for all staff in late August, “which helped set a collaborative tone and align us around our goals for the year,” the principal told the committee.

Shaw highlighted a couple of points of focus from among many, including strengthening student engagement across classrooms and building deeper professional learning communities among teachers.

“Student engagement already was a focus; this year we are having highly focused conversations about designing lessons that require students to do the cognitive lift, give them more opportunities to choose topics, formats, or approaches within assignments, and to connect content to real-world issues and applications,” he said.

A Professional Learning Communities program has also been revived as a vehicle through which administrators and staff can think about and discuss these, and address other ongoing, initiatives.

“Overall, the school year has started with momentum and a sense of optimism,” Shaw said. “I am grateful to our faculty, staff, families, and of course our students for making the beginning of this year so promising.”

Several students shared their thoughts on a variety of classes and activities, including a new introduction to business class and the upcoming December 12-14 theater arts program’s production of “Once Upon a Mattress” – the retelling of “The Princess and the Pea” fairy tale – with students in rehearsal the night of the school committee meeting.

One of the students called the business class “creative,” noting that by the end of the term, participants will have created their own “hypothetical business,” patterned after how an entrepreneur would set up his or her own.

This grades 9-12 business program is supported by a Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Innovation Career Pathways grant. There is also a second part to the program to come.

This and other courses are being offered in order to diversify HHS’s elective offerings and to develop “an integrated pathway of business courses that will culminate in [at some time in the future] a capstone experience in grade 12,” Shaw explained.

“I am thrilled about this,” School Committee Chair Kyle Conley said. “This is what makes the Hull Public Schools so special.”

Superintendent of Schools Michael Jette explained that this is one of the topic areas “identified as missing last year. This is very exciting,” he said.

Shaw noted that the business program “seemed to make sense from what we were hearing from students and parents.”

“Soccer, football, and cheerleading are also off to a good start,” he said.

Other programs at HHS this year include robotics and a new creative writing course, among others, with more information to be shared at future school committee meetings.

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Nearly 50 volunteers descend on town-owned section of beach for new group’s first cleanup effort

The Beach Community Action Group’s first cleanup took place on Saturday, September 20, , and nearly 50 people came to clean the two-mile stretch of North Nantasket beach. Volunteers collected dozens of bags of trash, along with large debris, including boat doors, buoys, lumber, and hazardous items, such as nail-filled boards and syringes.

Volunteer Emily Cookson of Hull estimates she picked up nearly 400 items of manmade waste during the two-hour cleanup.

“While there were certainly larger items, there were plenty of small plastic things like bottle caps and plastic fragments,” she said. “When you consider the number of volunteers who showed up today, we removed a lot of trash and put it in its proper place.”

Nantasket Paint and Hardware and Dunkin’ Donuts provided donations to support the cleanup, which operates within the confines of the Wetlands Protection Act, the Endangered Species Act, town bylaws, and other rules and regulations. The Beach Community Action Group worked in conjunction with Hull DPW to coordinate the debris pickup, and with the conservation department to ensure volunteers were picking up trash according to best practices in conservation and beach management.

The Beach Community Action Group was created just eight weeks ago by a group of concerned Hull citizens, including Kelly Crummey, Mitch Fishman, Susan Mann, and Valerio Romano. It is a volunteer organization dedicated to keeping North Nantasket Beach enjoyable, clean from trash and debris, and safe for Hull residents and guests.

Since forming on July 31, the group quickly organized and set up a website, social media, and invested in backend technology infrastructure to help automate various functions of organizing a volunteer event, such as volunteer sign-up, completion of liability waivers, creation of check-in lists, and sending reminders and other essential communications. As a result of this investment, the logistics and volunteer hours required to run a cleanup or event are drastically reduced, and the group can now quickly execute any new project using this platform.

“From this first cleanup, the community of people serving as stewards of Hull’s most precious resource will only grow,” Crummey said. “We believe our group will become a powerful force in preserving the beauty of our beach, ensuring the safety of our beach, and educating the community at large about the importance of protecting our beaches for future generations.”

Crummey noted that now that the first cleanup is behind them, the Beach Community Action Group members already are looking ahead and planning educational programs for this winter, as well as another beach cleanup in the spring.

If you would like to learn more about upcoming activities or how to get involved, visit www.hullbeachcommunity.org or join the Beach Community Action Group on Facebook.

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Hull Police arrest 41-year-old Braintree man on multiple drug, weapons charges

A 41-year-old Braintree man was arrested on Thursday on drug and weapons charges following a drug-trafficking investigation.

After stopping a car driven by Timothy M. Lesslie on Hull Shore Drive to conduct a search authorized by a warrant, detectives found 18 grams of heroin, 12 grams of cocaine, 6 grams of mushrooms, 3 grams of methamphetamine, and 1 gram of Adderall, as well a pair of brass knuckles and a green stun gun.

Police Chief John Dunn reported that Lesslie was charged with trafficking in 18 grams or more of heroin, possession with Intent to distribute a Class B drug, possession of a Class B drug (two counts), possession of a Class C drug, and carrying a dangerous weapon (two counts).

Lesslie was booked at the Hull police station and held at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility on $40,000 bail. He was arraigned on the charges on Friday in Hingham District Court, which issued the initial search warrant that led to the arrest.

“Solid police work by our detectives during this investigation ultimately resulted in the removal of a drug dealer and his narcotic inventory from the streets of Hull,” Dunn said. “The Hull Police Department’s detective unit demonstrated top-notch professionalism during this investigation, ultimately arresting the suspect peacefully and without incident.”

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Retired teacher with roots in Hull chosen from field of seven to fill vacant HRA seat

By Carol Britton Meyer

After interviewing seven candidates who applied for a seat on the Hull Redevelopment Authority, the members of the HRA and select board chose a retired teacher with strong roots in Hull to fill the position.

Charles J. Richardson, Jr. was appointed this week in a joint meeting to fill the vacancy created by Dennis Zaia’s resignation in July. Richardson will serve at least until the 2026 annual town election, when he will have to face voters in order to keep the seat.

Richardson, who said he has a “vast interest in Hull” and no particular agenda except to abide by the HRA’s mission, said his school experience in Hull taught him the importance of “celebrating similarities and honoring differences.”

Richardson graduated from Hull High and taught history and coached football and baseball at his alma mater from 1985-1991. His career in education took him outside of town, but he returned to Hull in retirement.

Newly appointed HRA member Charles Richardson…

Noting that there seems to be “a bit of an impasse” among HRA members, he said that the words he so often heard in education are a “gentle reminder that we can get there again, and I would be super-excited to be part of it. I see so much potential here.”

Richardson also noted that growing up in Hull, he knew some of the families who were displaced when the property was taken by eminent domain many years ago.

“This is a mission-driven process, and I would love to have that mission realized,” he said

As he sees it, the HRA “is closer [to agreement] than it thinks. Everyone wants to do what’s best for the town.”

Other candidates who interviewed for the position were Raymond Delmonico, C. Anne Murray, Valerio Romano, Sara Venteuolo (remotely), and Judeth Van Hamm. Chris Niland withdrew prior to the interviews, and Chair Irwin Nesoff read James Pitrolo’s letter of interest since he was unable to attend the meeting.

Click here for the candidates’ letters of interest and resumes

After the interviews, select board member Jason McCann nominated Murray; Jerry Taverna, Richardson; and Nesoff, Romano, with Romano winning three of the combined boards’ votes, followed by Richardson winning five of the combined votes, which constituted a majority. A vote was not taken on Murray’s candidacy since Richardson had already won enough votes to be appointed.

In other business

John Struzziery, director of the Hull wastewater treatment facility, reported that a $98,771 Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection grant awarded to the town was instrumental in improving the pumping capacity and efficiency of Hull’s sewer treatment plant – with an estimated energy savings of $113,610 over 30 years. There will also be a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Quarterly progress updates to the state, a public meeting, website updates, and a final report were part of the process, which included installing a pump that works when under water, for greater resiliency. The state is currently reviewing the report, which once approved, will be posted on the town’s website.

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Public invited to wreath-laying ceremony honoring Gold Star families and those lost at sea

The public is invited to a wreath-laying ceremony honoring those lost at sea and local Gold Star families on Sunday morning, September 28.

LAST YEAR’s WREATH CEREMONY INCLUDED PARTICIPANTS ON LAND AND SEA.

The wreaths will be laid on the water from the Sgt. Joseph Bazinet Bridge between Spinnaker Island and the mainland, and from boats on west side of the bridge.

Boat passengers should arrive at the town pier at Mariners Park by 10 a.m.  There is free parking and passengers should check in with Sheila Fleck. Boats should monitor VHF channel 69.

By 10:30 a.m., participants will travel to the bridge by boat or by car. There is parking at Hull Village Cemetery by the Gold Star memorial at Duck Lane and Spring Street, at the foot of the bridge.

The ceremony begins at 11 a.m. with the national anthem, followed by a prayer, and a conch shell salute by Susan Bryant.

The names of those lost at sea and Gold Star families will be read next, followed by the placing of wreaths in the water from boats and the bridge. An honor guard will fire a salute and “Taps” will be played and all horns will sound six blasts as the flags wave.

A lunch will follow at noon at the Nantasket Beach Salt Water Club, 3 Fitzpatrick Way. RSVP to Craig Wolfe, 781-771-6416 or 89edge@comcast.net.

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Following contentious debate, board agrees to pursue light plant management changes

By Carol Britton Meyer

In a long-awaited joint meeting with the light board, the select board voted 4-1 Wednesday night, following a lengthy and often-contentious discussion, to direct Town Counsel Brian Winner to file a home-rule petition with the state Legislature that would change the governance of the light plant in accordance with the passage of Article 37 at the spring annual town meeting.

The motion was made by select board member Jason McCann, who said that while he supports taking this step, he is disappointed in how long the process is taking and is concerned about whether a change in the governance would prove beneficial. Winner said he has a certified copy of the town meeting vote to include with the home-rule petition filing. Greg Grey was the only “nay” vote on the motion.

A video (CLICK HERE) produced by hull light board member jacob vaillancourt discusses the issues around implementation of article 37 and why the proposal’s sponsors think it should be implemented.

If the petition wins approval in the Legislature, the town manager would no longer serve as light plant manager.

The process is a long one, and the Legislature will make the final decision.

In the meantime, nothing will change with the light plant management, Select Board Chair Irwin Nesoff said.

Attorney Nicholas Scobbo, who represents the light plant, participated remotely, in part speaking about procedural issues.

The purpose of the meeting was to continue earlier discussions about the town meeting vote.

In May, voters approved by a 116-83 vote Article 37, which proposed returning to the independent management setup that was eliminated in 1993 when town meeting requested that a home-rule petition be filed on Beacon Hill. Although this year’s proposal was approved, Town Manager Jennifer Constable told the light board and select board earlier that legal counsel had deemed Article 37 as “not actionable” because it did not include provisions about filing special legislation.

‘We’re here for as long as it takes’

At the beginning of this week’s discussion, Nesoff told the board and the citizens in the audience, “We’re here for as long as it takes. There’s no time limit.” True to his word, the discussion lasted for one-and-a-half hours.

Nesoff also said that he was “looking forward to a civil and respectful discussion,” although the comments made by a few light board and select board members became heated at times.

As part of the discussion, Light Board Chair Thomas Burns – after reading the wording of Article 37 – said the light board “would like the select board to support it,” referring to the select board’s ability to file a home-rule petition.

Light Board member Patrick Cannon questioned the amount of time that has been spent on this issue, which he said is “sidelining” the board “when we have far bigger fish to fry to be sure the lights stay on.”

Light board member Dan Ciccariello – noting that town meeting voters supported changing the light plant governance – said “it’s really difficult to accept the fact that the select board would throw up road blocks to accomplish that goal. We are here tonight to urge the select board to vote to adopt this article and proceed to the State House.”

Grey voted against taking that route because of a number of as-yet-unanswered questions, including how residents would benefit from such a change.

“We still have no idea about how such a change would affect our citizens,” he said. “We have to make decisions in the best interests of the entire town.”

In response, light board member Jacob Vaillancourt, who filed the Article 37 citizens’ petition, said the board “is legally obligated to look out for the ratepayers and to keep the lights on.”

Member Brian McCarthy said he initially voted against Article 37 because he was not fully informed at the time, so took his cue from the advisory board’s unanimous vote to not support it.

However, following the town meeting vote and doing further research, he came to the conclusion that “the people voted, and the majority rules. I’ll end it there.”

While Nesoff voted in support of filing the home-rule petition, he said there are still issues that need to be addressed.

“I am disappointed that there was no attempt before town meeting to educate the people, but at this point, I think we should move forward [with the petition], and whatever happens in the Legislature happens, and the town will abide by that,” he said.

Select board member Jerry Taverna applauded the majority of the board for its decision.

“This is a big deal, following an open and honest debate tonight,” he said, especially since the advisory board did not support Article 37.

At the end of the discussion, Vaillancourt noted that “this is only a step in a long process that no one can predict. In the meantime, the light board has critical work to do, and we don’t want to lose the focus on that.”

A replay of this week’s meeting will be available on demand on Hull Community Television’s website, www.hulltv.net.

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Light board hears proposal for battery-based ‘microgrid’ to supplement aging feeder lines

By Carol Britton Meyer 

Near the end of Monday’s three-and-a-half-hour light board meeting, member Jake Vaillancourt presented a report as a member of the newly created electric capacity planning task force with recommendations for near-term reliability and capacity mitigation as the town faces increased risk of outages and brownouts by or before 2027.

Member Patrick Cannon is the other task force member.

LIGHTS OUT: Hull Light Operations Manager Panos Tokadjian, who has worked for the plant since 2014, will retire at the end of the month.

“Our supply lines are about 90 years old, and current operations are beyond best practices,” he said. “Hotter summers and load growth increase these risks without mitigation.”

To help address this issue, the task force is recommending exploring the possibility of installing a battery-backed “microgrid” at the former landfill to “shave peaks and hold to under 17.5 MW until feeder upgrades are made, and to provide enhanced storm resilience with safe, staged load pickup and clean re-sync.” Hull is served by two National Grid feeder lines (10 megawatts and 7.5 megawatts).

Past failures of the feeder lines, which pass through remote areas of Hingham, led the light plant to rent the townwide generators to supply electricity during an outage caused by failure of the National Grid lines.

Click here to download the complete presentation

Vaillancourt’s presentation will be forwarded to the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company to prime them to assist the board in accomplishing this goal and to explore the availability of funding. The board expects to meet with MMWEC in early October.

MMWEC assists Massachusetts municipal light departments such as Hull’s with their needs to contract for energy.

In other business…

Light Plant Operations Manager Panos Tokadjian is retiring at the end of September. He began working at Hull Light in 2014 as assistant manager.

Resident David Irwin, who attended Monday’s meeting, asked the board if they had considered hiring him as a consultant.

“He knows our system, what’s good and bad,” he said.

 “We’ve already talked with him, and he’s taking it under consideration,” Light Board Chair Tom Burns responded. 

While noting that the light plant manager would make that decision, “several on the board think it’s a good idea,” he said.

The next light board meeting is scheduled for Thursday, October 16.

A replay of this week’s meeting will be available on demand on Hull Community Television’s website, www.hulltv.net.

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