Lee, Lenox, and Stockbridge — Following a June 20 meeting during which fee hikes were proposed and discussed, the Tri-Town Board of Health voted unanimously to institute new charges for its fees to take effect in January. Most of those fees pertain to commercial services such as permits for septic systems and food-service institutions, well construction, and water testing.
The last fee increases by the group came eight years ago.
The Tri-Town Board of Health serves as the governing body for the Tri-Town Health Department. Whereas the Tri-Town Health Department manages and administers operational tasks such as inspections, enforcement, and community events for Lee, Lenox, and Stockbridge, the Tri-Town Board of Health sets policy, adjusts fees, approves regulations, administers appeals, and conducts short- and long-term strategic planning.
According to James J. Wilusz, Tri-Town Health Department’s executive director, about 90 percent of the fees collected are from commercial entities such as restaurants and businesses as opposed to residential units. However, the fees collected by the group don’t cover its operating budget, with only about 35 percent of those fees collected in a fiscal cycle covering the budget, he said. In fiscal year 2023, the operating budget for the Tri-Town Board of Health was $480,000, but the fees collected tallied only $170,000, or about 35 percent of that total, with the other 65 percent of the operating budget covered by town meeting levies, or budgets, Wilusz said.
“We can’t ever recoup 100 percent of our operating fees,” Wilusz said. “There are things in public health that we just can’t charge fees for which is a service we need to provide to the community, for environmental and public health. So, unless we have a $3,000 pool permit, which is impractical to the business, we incrementally increase fees over time.”
The proposed fees reflect an increase of 20 percent over current fees, a proposal that was reached after the group reviewed the Consumer Price Index; inflation over the last eight years; and the rising cost of fees, goods, and services, Wilusz said.
The group’s operating budget for fiscal year 2025 significantly increased due to staffing, workforce development, online permitting, travel-mileage reimbursements, goods, equipment, lab supplies, and mandatory training, Wilusz said. “And, so, we had to really increase our operating budget,” he said. “With that comes the unhappy things that we have to do with respect to charging additional fees.”
Green and home burials
To get ahead of possible requests to conduct non-traditional funerals in the Berkshires, the Tri-Town Board of Health heard a presentation by guest speaker Candace Currie that explained green and home burials. Currie is the clerk and director of Green Burial Massachusetts Inc., with the volunteer, nonprofit business dedicated to public education about the practice, as well as developing the Commonwealth’s first green-burial cemetery.
The group ultimately decided to focus on a home-burial policy while leaving green-burial processes to individual town cemetery commissions and departments.
A copy of Currie’s presentation can be found here.
Green burials are “earth friendly,” Currie said, adding that embalming isn’t legally required in the state. The green-burial process includes a casket that may be comprised of pine or wicker. It eliminates the use of embalming, or preservation chemicals; metal caskets; and concrete, fiberglass, or plastic vaults. The body can be wrapped in a shroud, so all materials decompose.
The grounds for green burials include hybrid cemeteries that also have traditional burials, as well as conservation burial grounds occurring on an easement or land trust, Currie said. Natural burial grounds also accept green burials and may post small markers in place of larger headstones. Participants in a green burial may even take action to cover the casket with dirt.
According to Currie, the first U.S. green cemetery was created in 1998, and as of January, there were more than 450 such cemeteries in the country, with interest in the process rising.
On the other hand, home burials are more complicated and don’t have to be a green burial. Home-burial sites can involve the local health department, the Department of Environmental Protection, and/or be required to be certified as an actual cemetery, fulfilling environmental and health requirements. This topic is planned to be reviewed by board members during a future session.
Move to Stockbridge Town Hall
The meeting may be the last session in the Aeroldi Building for the group, Wilusz announced, as the board anticipates a move to the Stockbridge Town Hall before the end of the year. The official relocation date hasn’t been set yet as the final details, including how to maximize the new space, are being completed, he said.
