Category Archives: Medfield State Hospital

The Town of Medfield’s Mediation Committee and DCAMM jointly presented their proposed solution to the clean up of the C & D area at the Medfield State Hospital at a meeting held at The Center last Thursday.  Bill Massaro has written up the following report, with links to the hand outs –

Info from Bill Massaro related to last Thursday’s event:

At the end of last night’s meeting, after our Mediation Committee (John Thompson, Ann Thompson, Bill Massaro) had presented the proposed mutually-developed cleanup of the C&D Area, summary information packages were handed out.

If you were unable to attend, or attended and did not get a handout, you can follow these links:

1.) Executive Summary:
http://www.town.medfield.net/index.cfm/page/Medfield -Mediation-Committee-June-6,-2013-Presentation:-Executive-Summary/cdid/23229/pid/21360

2.) Slides:
http://www.town.medfield.net/index.cfm/page/Medfield-Mediation-Committee-June-6–2013-Presenation–Powerpoint-Slides/pid/21360/cdid/23233

3.) For Questions & Concerns: The link below has been set up so that you can submit any questions or concerns you have about the proposed cleanup and members of the Committee will answer. A list of summary of FAQ’s will also be created and posted.

http://www.town.medfield.net/index.cfm/page/Medfield-State-Hospital-Information-and-Questions/pid/21358/cdid/23211

Thanks for your interest and support,

Bill

The town’s committee that has been mediating with DCAMM over the clean up of the Medfield State Hospital site and DCAMM will report to town residents at a meeting to be held at 7:00 PM this Thursday, June 6, at The Center.

This notice of that event from Bill Massaro of the town’s mediation committee:

Hi Everyone,

Since 2009 we have been working for a better cleanup at the Hospital C&D Area’s riverside 3.2 acre, 15 ft.-deep waste dump . 

Your votes at Town meetings to fund environmental consultants, your petitions and letters of concern to State permitting agencies and to our Legislators, and your public demonstrations enabled us to convince DCAMM  last June to begin Mediations seeking an adequate and appropriate cleanup for this unique and critically sensitve site.   

This is a reminder that on Thursday June 6 at  7:00 p.m. at The Center on Ice House Road,  the Medfield/DCAMM team will present a  jointly-developed,  new cleanup plan. 

There will be a short overview presentation of the proposed solution and how the Teams believe it finally addresses the Town’s  concerns.

The majority of the night’s program will be set aside to give you the opportunity to meet at separate display stations with Team members who  can provide more details of the plan, discuss any of your new or remaining concerns, and answer any questions.  

The State Hospital Use Committee (SHUC) on Wednesday evening created three subcommittees to address issues that it needs to explore to respond to the DCAMM offer to sell the Medfield State Hospital site to the town –

1.               Legislative Relations
2.               Building Assessment
3.               Visioning Process

Additionally, the Board of Selectmen appointed a five member committee to meet with DCAMM to work through the potential purchase terms, such as the price and other details, for the town to buy the Medfield State Hospital site.  DCAMM has stated that (1) it seeks a partnership with Town of Medfield over the Medfield State Hospital site’s redevelopment, and (2) that it will seek to recoup some of the monies it has as sunk costs into the site in determining the sale price to the town.  Those appointed were:

1. Steve Nolan
2. Bill Massaro
3. John Harney
4. Ken Richard
5. Osler Peterson

Meeting dates are being explored in mid-June to start the discussions with DCAMM.

Long day for this attendee, as that day started with a 7-9AM Building Committee meeting at the town house and ended with the 7-9PM SHUC meeting.

From Bill Massaro:

Hi Everyone,

Very important meeting and final opportunity to be heard on cleanup at the C&D Area alongside and in the Charles River. (Press Release Below)

Thursday evening 6/6 at 7:00 p.m. at the Center on Ice House Road. Please mark your calendars.

In 2012 our public demonstrations of concerns and objections about the inadequacy and inappropriateness of the cleanup proposed for the riverside Construction & Demolition Debris (C&D) Area at the State Hospital, played a large part in convincing DCAMM to agree to enter into Mediation with us.

The Mediation Committee’s work this past year has resulted in a jointly-developed proposal that I believe will satisfy our previous objections.

On June 6 the Medfield and DCAMM team will present this new proposed cleanup plan, answer residents’ questions, and discuss any further concerns you may have.

On June 18 the Agreement for this new remediation plan will be presented to the Selectmen for vote and sign-off at their 7:00 p.m. meeting.

This 12 day period after the 6/6 presentation is intended to give residents the opportunity to contact the Selectmen with comments, in support of or against the proposed cleanup, before it is voted on at the June 18 meeting. They will also hear comments from the audience that night before their vote.

On June 6 please attend the presentation

Before their vote on 6-18 make your opinions known to the Selectmen

Thanks for your continuing interest and your support,

Bill

Press release from the Town of Medfield –

 Press Release

 The Medfield Board of Selectmen appointed Ms. Ann Thompson, Mr. John Thompson and Mr. William Massaro to the Medfield State Hospital Committee Mediation Committee in the spring of 2012.  The purpose of the mediation was to work with DCAMM to create a plan for environmental remediation at the former Medfield State Hospital. A professional mediator was chosen to help the Town and the Commonwealth attempt to reach a resolution in a cooperative manner.

On Thursday, June 6, 2013 at 7:00PM the MSH Mediation Committee and the Commonwealth will present the proposed approach to the environmental remediation. The meeting will take place at the CENTER at Medfield, One Icehouse Road. The Committee urges all interested residents to attend this public meeting to learn more about the mediation process and proposed outcome of the mediation.

On Tuesday, June 18, 2013 at 7PM the MSH Mediation Committee and the Commonwealth will present the new remediation approach to the Medfield Board of Selectmen at their regularly scheduled meeting.

I was asked on FB to comment further on the town possibly buying the Medfield State Hospital site, and I will do it here as it also gets to FB and Twitter.

I think the town certainly must explore purchasing the Medfield State Hospital site, as controlling the ultimate uses of that site are both too important to and too desirable for the town, not to do so.

However, to intelligently explore any purchase we first need to marshal the facts and the data, if we are going to make a rational decision.  That means getting DCAMM’s asking price, as well as the costs to demolish and/or rehab the buildings, and learning things such as whether Mass. Historic will allow the demolition of any buildings.

Months ago the Board of Selectmen asked DCAMM to do building surveys of a sampling of the buildings to get a handle on the costs that would be involved to demolish and/or rehab them.  I think the cost to do those surveys in advance of any demolition of the current police and fire stations was quoted to me at about $5,000 per building.  I can imagine those surveys would cost more if the costs to rehab were wanted.

We also need to have a town wide discussion about what we want to do the the site if we were to purchase it.  I have suggested that we employ someone like Professor Lawrence Susskind of MIT to assist us in getting to a collaborative decision on the ultimate uses, by using the techniques he wrote about in his book, “Breaking Robert’s Rules.”   https://medfield02052.wordpress.com/2012/04/06/msh-discussions-with-state-today/ The basic process is that the person facilitating the process talks to all interested parties, writes up a list of the issues, holds a televised meeting to discuss and debate the issues, during which the residents vote on each issue by means of their cell phone.  We learn what the majority wants, and we then proceed with what the citizens have select.

At the the Board of Selectmen meeting last night DCAMM presented a broad outline of its general proposed terms for town’s MSH purchase of the Medfield State Hospital site.  See that letter via this link – 20130507-DCAMM-ltr from