Meet Board of Health Candidate Michele Bernier

MATTAPOISETT — Incumbent Michele Bernier is no stranger to the Board of Health, but she is new to campaigning. After writing in her name in the blank candidates spot three years ago and winning the seat, Bernier is now running to stay on the Board.

"I noticed there were no candidates for the Board of Health. So I thought about it and said, 'Well what the hell,'" she said.

Bernier has lived in Mattapoisett since 1987 and from 1996 to 1999 served as the first woman on the Select Board. She took part in closing the Mattapoisett landfill in 1998 after it was leeching into the drinking water. 

"That was kind of a big deal, but I was very much an outsider," she said. "I accomplished several things, and I was happy."

For 20 years Bernier worked as the director of the Solid Waste Department in North Attleborough, and for seven of those years she was also the town’s assistant town administrator.

After retiring from the Town of North Attleborough in 2021, Bernier went to assist her husband at his law firm where she helped with some large litigation cases that had been delayed because of covid.

While she was the director of the Solid Waste Department in North Attleborough, Bernier ran a $2.9 million dollar trash and recycling program alongside a large transfer station for a town of 30,000 people.

She said she has learned a lot about septic systems during her time on the board — one of the key issues Mattapoisett is facing due to new Title V regulations issued by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.

"I've learned so much and I've learned about Mattapoisett, the sensitive areas in town and what's important," she said. 

Bernier said she hopes to complete unfinished business if reelected, including obtaining a 30 yard roll-off trash container with a hip-roof cover for the Mattapoisett transfer station.

Trash containers with hip-roof covers can be closed, which would eliminate pest issues the station currently faces due to the current container having an open top.

"That hasn't come in yet, so I want to keep pushing away at the terms of our contract to make sure that our new waste haulers are complying with the terms we put in our contract," she said. 

No matter the outcome of the election, Bernier said she still plans on volunteering her time at the Swap Shop — a new initiative where people will be able to bring items they no longer want but could be reused to the transfer station for others to buy — and enjoying the town she fell in love with.

"We owned a sail boat and would sail into Mattapoisett Harbor," she said. "Our house here is the first and only house my husband and I have owned together and now it's our home."