Appointments committee recommends confirmation of Steve Hirons as sealer of weights and measures

On July 30, 2025, the Appointments Committee of the Gardener City Council recommended that the full council confirm Steve Hirons as the city’s sealer of weights and measures. The committee moved to recommend confirmation by voice vote after an interview with Hirons during the committee’s meeting.

The sealer enforces measurement accuracy for consumer transactions in Gardener, a role Hirons described as validating scales, gas pumps, measuring devices and other instruments used in trade. “I am the sealer of weights and measures for the city of Gardener. I test all of the scales, gas pumps, oil trucks, measuring devices, yardsticks,” Hirons said during his interview, summarizing the office’s consumer-protection work.

Hirons told the committee he conducts annual testing of scales and gas pumps, and periodic tests of point-of-sale scanners. He said supermarkets are tested aisle-by-aisle using a division of standards protocol that samples many packaged items and requires a high accuracy threshold. “They have a testing system from the division of standards where we do a 100 products in the supermarket at least, and and they have to get 98 correct or they failed the test,” Hirons said. He also described using an approved 5-gallon prover to test fuel dispensers and said the office keeps equipment serial numbers and paperwork for four years for audits.

Committee members asked about challenges and resources; Hirons pointed to aging test equipment and the expense of replacement, saying some of the equipment in use dates to the start of his tenure decades ago. “The equipment today is the same equipment I used when I started. ... Every 10 or 12 years, they’ll say, alright, you gotta get new equipment. And that’s a really big expense for the city,” he told the committee.

During the interview Hirons provided several operational details the committee cited in discussion: that scanners are checked semiannually; that pump testing measures volume using the 5-gallon prover; and that he handles complaint-driven immediate re-testing when customers or businesses report suspected errors. Hirons described a recent pump test at a local station in which a pump was delivering noticeably over capacity and the station corrected the issue after testing.

Councilor Hegden moved to recommend confirmation and Chair Heath seconded; the committee approved the recommendation by voice vote. The committee did not record individual roll-call votes in the transcript.

The committee chair closed the item without further conditions. The measure will move to the full Gardener City Council for final confirmation.

For the public, the sealer’s work affects routine consumer purchases — groceries, fuel and other retail items — by checking that sales instruments report accurate weights and volumes. The committee’s recommendation forwards the mayor’s appointment to the full council on the council’s usual schedule.