Plympton-Halifax-Kingston Express

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Halifax COA enjoys holiday festivities

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The Halifax Council on Aging brought the holiday spirit to the Meadow Brook Restaurant in Hanson where they had their holiday get-together.
Vocalist Tommy Rull sang the old favorites and entertained the group and special guest Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz. Luncheon choices were fish filet, roast pork, or chicken, for a taste treat.

Nessralla’s to close Christmas Eve

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After a dozen years at their 318 Plymouth St., Halifax location, Nessralla’s Farm Stand will close Christmas Eve. Kozhaya “John” Nessralla, said he is sad to leave but that his farm will continue on Hemlock Lane and they plan ro re-open in the spring at another location yet to be determined.
“It’s been a good business and we want to thank everyone who shopped here and supported our farm stand.” Nessralla continued that it wasn’t his choice to close, but he didn’t own the property and the landlord made a business decision. “They’ve been they’ve been good to us, it’s just that when you don’t own the land, you can’t always do what you want.”
What will he miss most about the farm stand? “The people. Our customers. We’ll see them again in the spring and I hope they come by to see us.”
Nessralla’s, with the input of its manager Dana Amey, has been a staunch supporter of local business, local farms, local crafts and local boutique foods. Just last year the demand for their products changed them from a seasonal store to a year-round business. We wish them well in the New Year.

Mendes elected to Lasell SGA

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NEWTON — Sarah Mendes of Halifax was elected to Lasell University’s Student Government Association (SGA) this fall.
Mendes was elected as an SGA senator. Senators attend weekly Student Government meetings and participate in at lease one cross-campus committee, focusing on student life, academics, finance, diversity and inclusion, and more. Senators are responsible for representing the experiences of their fellow students to Lasell administrators, and work to keep their peers informed of all Student Government activities.

Special Town Meeting complete in 28 minutes

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Plympton’s Special Town Meeting Nov. 30 saw the seven articles covering the town’s business conducted in only 28 minutes from start to finish.
The cold, rain-driven blustery night caused many to wonder if the 35-person quorum would be met, but it was met and then some, with 87 Plympton residents braving the weather.
The meeting was held at the Dennett Elementary School, 80 Crescent St., Plympton.
Town Moderator Barry DeCristofano called the meeting to order at 7 p.m., asking all to take this moment to silence their phones. Then, without ado, he began.
Article 1, asked the town to approve the purchase of substantial acreage of an area north of Maple St, east of Palmer Road, and south of Main Street. The vote was unanimous in favor of the land purchase. Turkey Swamp will be held in a conservation restriction so devopment will not be allowed.
Article 2 was approved, allowing the establishment of Tax Title Payment Plans to help citizens pay their delinquent real estate taxes over a term of five years or less, easing the burden.
Article 3 was approved to transfer $21,000.00 to the Unemployment Line in the FY 2023 budget to cover a shortfall.
Article 4 asked the town to allow the selectmen to petition the state legislature to allow the current Fire Chief Stephen Silva to continue in his position of chief for five more years until age 70, providing his health allows. Selectmen asked that the town pass over the article. The voters agreed.
Article 5 corrected an error in the Wage and Personnel Bylaw, that would allow unused sick leave to accumulate without limit. The corrected verbage would limit sick leave to accumulate up to 50 days. The article passed unanimously.
Article 6 asked the Town to transfer from the Overlay Surplus Fund $100,000.00 to help reduce the FY23 interim tax burden. The motion passed unanimously.
Article 7 asked the town to transfer up to $100,000.00 from Free Cash to repair or replace the roof on the Old Town House. The town approved the warrant article unanimously.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:28 p.m.

Silver Lake Warrior Mites win Super Bowl!

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Katie Rondeau
Special to The Express

You play football because you want to. You play football because it’s fun. You play football so you could pretend you’re Joe Montana throwing a touchdown pass, or Emmitt Smith going for a long run. And even if they beat you 8 times out of 9, that still leaves, one time.” Little Giants
Last year this team lost every game. This year was going to be different, this year was their chance at ONE TIME.
The season started in August back at our home town practice field down at Pottle. With last season’s outcome behind them these young athletes all signed up and showed up to play another season of football. Football takes heart and that’s exactly what this team has. After the first month of pre season practice the coaches recognized that these young Warriors were blessed with the kind of raw football talent given to those who were born to bask in gridiron glory. These kids were not going to give up. This was going to be our year.
“FATE WHISPERS TO THE WARRIOR YOU CANNOT WITHSTAND THE STORM. THE WARRIOR REPLIES I AM THE STORM.”
The returning 4th graders and the upcoming 3rd graders created the perfect storm that no team could match. One time turned in to victory after victory for the team. The undefeated Silver Lake Warrior Mite Team defeated the East Bridgewater Vikings by the score of 20–0 finishing with a perfect record of 9-0 for the season. And, a Super Bowl championship!!!
Silver Lake Mite Warriors WIN the Super Bowl with a perfect 11-0 record
The Silver Lake Mite Warriors have Katie Rondeau. Katie wrote the one talking about Emmett Smith and Joe Montana.
Photographer, Rebecca Deaton scored 287 points while shutting out seven teams in eleven games, bringing home the CHAMPIONSHIP!
The Silver Lake Mite Warriors 3rd & 4th Grade youth football team finished the season with a record of 11-0 after a 21-0 win over East Bridgewater in the Super Bowl.
Credit goes out to the coaches Erik Barrette, Chris Hession, Marc McGarry, Robby Cahill, John-Michael Fontes, Doug Carbone, Brandon Barry and Bobby Cyrus who selflessly gave of their time to develop this young team.
This game inspires character, leadership, resilience and teamwork. Above all the game unites a family. And, that bond is the greatest win of all.

Note: These players were inadvertently left out of the roster published in last week’s Express. We apologise for this oversight.

Deb Anderson, Publisher.

Randy Sullivan talks turkey

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If you want to call a turkey, just talk to Randy Sullivan.   He can give you a lot of choices that he creates in his Plympton workshop: slate calls, wing-bone calls, box calls, scratch box calls, trough calls, long paddle box calls that make a higher pitch, each designed to catch the ear of an ambitious Tom looking for a hen.  Or you can work a crow caller.  Why would you want to make sounds like a crow?   To wake up the turkeys early in the morning so you can take your shot.  Or owl calls, so turkeys think there are owls nearby and flush, or leave their cover.
The workmanship is beautiful, but Randy doesn’t take all the credit for that – the choice of the wood gives a lot to the appearance.  A favorite is flame elm, a pale beauty with a streak or two of rose pink running through it.
Each handcrafted turkey call makes a distinctive sound.   Randy demonstrated how a piece of wood used in the long paddle box caller is shaped to a specific curve to help give the call its voice.  He told of his friendship with Dick Kirby, founder of Quaker Boy Game Calls, a legendary turkey call maker who gave Randy the formula for that curve, and Randy uses it to this day.  The friend has since passed but the art of the turkey call continues through the friends like Randy he mentored.
While once you could just look up a Sullivan turkey call on eBay; these days he is more selective.  He now has a following, people he makes calls for every year.   “I just started making calls for the kids,” Sullivan continued. “Probably 70% of the calls I make go to the kids or for fundraisers all over the country, and that’s all right.”    He said he donates a fair number of calls to the Carver Sportsmen’s Club for their youth hunts and gets a lot of satisfaction when a young hunter sends him a picture of their first turkey.
Once plentiful in colonial Massachusetts, the last known wild turkey was killed in 1851, according to the Mass.gov website.  Native turkeys had been driven out of their habitat and hunted to extinction.  The Mass Wildlife naturalists undertook re-introducing the wild turkey to the Massachusetts landscape in the western part of the state in the 1970s.  Biologists relocated 37 wild turkeys from flocks in New York state.   Those birds thrived and by 1978 the count was estimated at about 1,000.  The turkey relocation and re-introduction was a success.  Turkeys were introduced to areas east of the Connecticut River and throughout the northeastern, and southeastern areas of the state until the mid 1990s when the count for these birds was more than 25,000.  In 1991 the wild turkey was named the official Massachusetts Game Bird.
If you’d like to talk turkey with Randy Sullivan just email him at randysullivan11@gmail.com

Local students will perform in Nutcracker ballet

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Sixty-five dancers from 19 South Shore communities take to the ballet stage for a beloved holiday entertainment tradition. 

Celebrating the magic of the holidays through the joy of dance, South Shore Ballet Theatre will present the seasonal classic “The Nutcracker,” on Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 17 and 18, 1 p.m. and 5 p.m., at Thayer Academy Center for Performing Arts, 745 Washington Str., Braintree.

For more than 14 years, South Shore Ballet Theatre’s full-length production of “The Nutcracker” has celebrated the magic of the holidays on Boston’s South Shore. Based on E.T.A. Hoffman’s tale “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King,” and set to Tchaikovsky’s treasured musical score, “The Nutcracker” is the dance classic that offers quintessential enchantment for holiday season entertainment.  Become entranced by Clara as she explores a charmed world from her family’s living room on Christmas Eve, adventures through an enchanted forest of dancing snowflakes, into the magical Land of The Sweets led by the Sugar Plum Fairy.

“This year is very special as we welcome back two South Shore Ballet Theatre graduates to perform the roles of Sugar Plum Fairy and Dew Drop,” shares SSBT Founding Artistic Director Marthavan McKeon.  “We are also thrilled to welcome back Leslie Woodies as part of our production team, who is sharing her expertise with the dancers as well as working with me to update this year’s production with quite a few surprises for the audience.” McKeon notes that Woodies previously served on SSBT’s senior faculty for many years, and now serves as a projection designer with Harbor Media’s Kristina Yannotta.

 Known for its spectacular professional-quality productions, SSBT engages guest artists in The Nutcracker’s leading roles, including Olivia Hansen of Cohasset as Sugar Plum Fairy, a SSBT graduate, appearing courtesy of The Dallas Conservatory’s Classical Training Program, Wyatt Payne as the Cavalier of American Midwest Ballet in Omaha, Nebraska, Lila Jacobs as Dew Drop, a current National Ballet of Canada student, as well as a SSBT graduate and Hingham native, and Harry Yamakawa-Moser as Drosselmeyer, SSBT Faculty member. The production also engages 65 student dancers from SSBT’s ballet training programs, residing in 19 South Shore communities.

Founded in 2008, South Shore Ballet Theatre is the South Shore region’s pre-professional ballet school featuring world class faculty, training tomorrow’s dancers today!  SSBT’s mission is to provide students and their families with the opportunity to develop an appreciation of ballet and related dance disciplines in a safe and nurturing environment, encouraging students to strive to achieve their fullest potential, regardless of course of study.

Tickets to “The Nutcracker” range between $20 to $30, are now available for purchase at 29965.danceticketing.com/r/events. The event is family-friendly and performs in approximately 90 minutes. To donate to support South Shore Ballet Theatre Foundation’s scholarship program, or for more information about SSBT’s programs, tuition, and performances, visit southshoreballettheatre.com, call 781-312-7224, or follow South Shore Ballet Theatre on social media.

About South Shore Ballet Theatre

Founded in 2008, South Shore Ballet Theatre (SSBT) is the South Shore region’s pre-professional ballet school featuring world class faculty, training tomorrow’s dancers today!  SSBT’s mission is to provide students and their families with the opportunity to develop an appreciation of ballet and related dance disciplines in a safe and nurturing environment, encouraging students to strive to achieve their fullest potential, regardless of course of study.

SSBT students frequently take the performance stage including the beloved full-length production of “The Nutcracker”, their annual Spring Gala and throughout the year collaboratively with local schools and arts programs, sharing the appreciation of dance with the local community.

SSBT staff are committed to supporting diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice. All students are welcome regardless of appearance, gender, race, religion, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, or disability. SSBT maintains an open-door policy so that all individuals may join the SSBT community and share this art form.

SSBT’s programs include American Ballet Theatre’s (ABT®) National Training Curriculum, a breakthrough nine-level program that combines high quality artistic training with the basics of dancer health and child development.  The National Training Curriculum consists of a comprehensive set of age-appropriate, outcome-based guidelines to provide the highest quality ballet training to dance students of all ages and skill levels.

For more information about South Shore Ballet Theatre, its programs, tuition, scholarships, and performances, visit SouthShoreBalletTheatre.com, call 781-312-7224, or follow South Shore Ballet Theatre on social media.

Special Town Meeting Nov. 30

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Residents of Plympton will convene Wednesday, Nov. 30, at 7 p.m. at the Dennett Elementary School,  80 Crescent St., to consider seven articles on the warrant that include the following:

Article 1 asks the town to authorize the Board of Selectmen to acquire by purchase, gift, or eminent domain the lands off Palmer Road, Maple Street and Main Street, such acreage known as “Turkey Swamp”, including any buildings and improvements thereon, and any interests in abutting lands that may be convenient to provide access, for open space, conservation and passive recreation purposes.  The lands will be held in the custody and control of and managed by the Conservation Commission. Any and all related costs, deposits to secure purchase agreement, attorneys’ fees will be appropriated from the Community Preservation fund and expended under the direction of the Board of Selectmen.

Article 1 also asks the town to authorize the Board of Selectmen and/or such other Town boards or commissions as the Selectmen may designate, to apply for, accept and expend any sums, including grants and/or reimbursements, that may be provided by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts under Chapter 132A, Section 11, including the Massachusetts Municipality Vulnerability Preparedness Program, or by any other public or private source, to defray all or a portion of the costs of said acquisition, and to enter into all agreements, execute any and all instruments, and take any and all actions as may be necessary or appropriate to effectuate the foregoing purposes; or take any other action relative thereto.

Board of Selectmen Recommended by BOS (3-0)

ARTICLE 2 asks the Town will vote to amend the Town’s General Bylaws to add a new section to authorize the Treasurer establish payment agreements, or Tax Title Payment Plans for parcels of land in tax title to allow delinquent taxpayers to pay off their tax liens over time – up to five years – for both commercial and residential property, industrial, and open space.  There are specific conditions under which a tax title payment plan may be drawn and may include a waiver of up to 25% of the interest due, provided payments are made in a timely basis according to the agreement.

Town Treasurer Recommended by BOS (3-0)

ARTICLE 3  asks the Town to vote to transfer from Free Cash the sum of $21,000.00 to the Unemployment Line (Budget Line 30) in the FY 2023 budget as voted in Article 4 at the May 18, 2022 Annual Town Meeting.

Town Treasurer Recommended by BOS (3-0)

ARTICLE 4 asks the Town will vote to authorize the Board of Selectmen to petition the Massachusetts General Court for special legislation, to allow Stephen Silva to continue his appointment to the position of Fire Chief until age 70. Provided he is mentally and physically capable of performing the duties of his office.

Board of Selectmen Recommended by BOS (3-0)

ARTICLE 5 asks the town will vote to amend the Wage and Personnel Bylaw, Section 11, Sick Leave, by striking subsection (c) in its entirety and by editing subsection (g) to read as follows: (g) Unused sick leave shall be credited and shall accumulate from year to year without limit. Unused sick leave is not eligible for payout in the event of an employee’s separation from the Town for any reason, or take any other action relative thereto.

Board of Selectmen/Wage Advisory Committee Recommended by BOS (3-0)

ARTICLE 6 asks the Town to transfer from available Overlay Surplus funds the sum of $100,000.00 for the purpose of reducing the Fiscal 2023 Interim tax rate.

Board of Assessors Recommended by BOS (3-0)

ARTICLE 7 asks the Town to vote to raise and appropriate or transfer from available funds a sum of money for the repair and/or replacement of the roof on the Old Town House, including all necessary work and improvements related thereto, or take any other action relative thereto.

Town Properties Committee Recommended by BOS (3-0)