Weymouth School Committee votes to demand compressor station safety briefing for schools

WEYMOUTH — November 5, 2020 — Weymouth School Committee votes to seek compressor station emergency planning role it was denied. The committee voted 6-0 at a November 5 special meeting to send a formal letter to Mayor Robert Hedlund requesting collaboration on health and safety planning for two schools — Johnson Early Childhood Center, 0.9 miles from the North Weymouth compressor station, and Wessagusset Primary School, roughly 1.3 miles away — after Chair Lisa Belmarsh confirmed neither the committee nor Superintendent Jennifer Whipple's office had been consulted on the town's 1,100-page emergency response plan or the community host agreement Hedlund signed with Algonquin Gas Transmission. Hedlund, who joined the meeting by Zoom, defended the agreement as not enabling the project — which he said was already fully permitted and built — and said the town had spent $1.6 million in outside legal fees opposing it over six years. The committee also heard that the district's phased return to school was on track, with Abigail Adams Middle School and grades three through five already in hybrid learning and Weymouth High School set to begin one-cohort-per-day attendance the week of November 17, while COVID-related staffing costs were running at approximately $2.1 million.