Bellingham Board of Health Permits Horse Farm, Moves Against Dormant Tobacco Shop

BELLINGHAM — September 16, 2025 — Bellingham's Board of Health permitted a Granite Street horse farm to keep up to 20 horses and moved to suspend a tobacco shop license that has sat dormant for roughly four years. Health Agent Dylan Labonte presented a waste management plan already on file for the multi-acre farm, which is reopening for boarding and training under a new tenant; the board voted unanimously on the permit. A second vote approved keeping a single elderly potbelly pig for a prospective resident identified as Alicia, pending her finding a home in town. The board unanimously ordered registered mail sent to Atlas, a smoke shop that has repeatedly failed to open and failed to appear before the board, warning that non-appearance at the October 7 meeting will result in immediate license suspension. A wide-ranging discussion of a rodent surge in the Weathersfield neighborhood produced no formal vote but prompted Labonte to commit to a targeted CodeRed alert, expanded chicken-coop inspections under a new $25 permit fee, and outreach to animal control about a feral-cat program. The board also approved a $670 payment to the Visiting Nurse Association and deferred action on a potential property condemnation at 29 Douglas Drive and a proposed ban on the kratom derivative 7-OH to the next meeting.