Meet Board of Health candidate Douglas Schneider

Board of Health candidate Douglas Schneider couldn’t be reached for an interview, but attended a candidate’s night hosted on April 30 by the League of Women Voters Southcoast.

MATTAPOISETT — For the past 40 years, Douglas Schneider has been involved in the development business, focusing mostly on residential. Now he’s looking to give back to Mattapoisett by bringing his experiences as a civil engineer and professional land surveyor to the Board of Health.

A certified soil evaluator and septic system inspector, Schneider said that out of the boards and committees in town, he thinks he could help the most being on the Board of Health. He also established a small civil engineering land surveying business practice in Mattapoisett in 1995 before leaving the practice three years ago to take a job on the Cape.

According to Schneider, he has worked with “almost every single board in town and other towns,” including the Board of Health, Planning Board and Conservation Board.

While Schneider said he doesn’t have a specific agenda other than maintaining the work the Board is currently doing and making sure things flow “properly and smoothly,” he said there are some issues that need to be addressed.

This includes tackling new regulations set by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection that require denitrifying septic systems for certain areas.

Denitrifying septic systems are designed to filter out nitrogen from treated wastewater.

Schneider said that where he’s currently working on the Cape has already implemented the regulations, which he said has been “extremely expensive.”

“Right now, the best denitrifying system will cost you over $30,000 just for the unit, not including installation,” he said.

According to Schneider, the town has to implement a wastewater treatment master plan to cover denitrification, adding that luckily a lot of the town is already sewered, which helps with the plan.

He cited his experience working with denitrification systems since 1995 as a reason for why he would be able to tackle this project

The Board of Health is also looking to hire a new health nurse, who will need to be trained for the job.

Schneider said his experiences hiring and firing some people at his business practice will help him address the challenges that come along with hiring a new person.

Schneider said that if he’s elected to the Board the first thing he would do is learn what the other Board members are working on.

“Being somewhat new to the game, I don’t know everything, but I’m willing to learn and do what I can,” he said.