Bellingham Board of Health Readies Town Meeting Push for Tobacco Birth-Year Sales Ban

BELLINGHAM — May 27, 2025 — Bellingham's Board of Health finalized its town meeting pitch for a birth-year tobacco sales ban and approved a pay structure for its new tobacco agent at its May 27 meeting. Vice Chair Rick Gilberty, who disclosed he smoked roughly 40 years before quitting 23 years ago and is now the board's tobacco and food inspector, will present Warrant Article 19 alongside a Northeastern University law professor and the Melrose Board of Health director, both recruited to field technical questions. The proposed bylaw would bar the sale of any tobacco product in Bellingham to anyone born on or after January 1, 2004, regardless of age — a model used by Brookline and Melrose. The board set Gilberty's pay at $30 per hour for inspections and $50 per hour for compliance checks using undercover youth buyers, with one abstention on both compensation votes. The board also renewed its visiting nurse contract at $670 per month and approved routine invoices totaling just over $1,286, including $1,137.50 to Threads Unlimited for cleanup-day T-shirts.