The Kingston Board of Selectmen met Tuesday, Dec. 5. Selectman Don Alcombright was remote for the meeting while Selectman Tyler Bouchard was absent.
The Selectmen dealt with the results of the traffic study that was done on Landing Road regarding road safety. Some residents requested a three-way intersection be installed at the corner of Landing Road and Maple Street. “Ultimately, based on the research that was done by Old Colony Planning, based on accidents – things of that nature, Old Colony Planning indicated that it did not meet the merits of a three-way stop sign,” Town Administrator Keith Hickey said. Regarding issues with the bridge, Hickey said that they met with the appropriate parties from Duxbury to get some type of truck restriction. “Duxbury seems very willing to potentially limit the size of the vehicles that travel down Landing Road,” he explained. He said that Old Colony has agreed to do some traffic counts and traffic studies regarding potential changes to traffic flow. “We are trying to address this as best we can,” Hickey said. “The Police Department has tried to make people more aware of the speeds that they are traveling… the 40-mph speed limit starts closer to the Maple Street intersection than what was indicated in the report,” he furthered.
A representative from the Old Colony Planning Council joined the meeting remotely to answer questions as needed. “One question I had was the traffic study that was done in March, which is not the busiest time for the roadway that leads to the harbor, so I was just wondering if we have taken that into account in some of this analysis?” Chair Kimberley Emberg asked. She noted that traffic picks up considerably starting in May and said that March may even be the slowest time of the year. The representative said that one of the things they can do this coming spring is to recount the Landing Rd. area during May to have a baseline of March to May. Emberg also asked if he could elaborate on why the intersection didn’t meet the necessary requirements for a three-way stop and was told that in addition to entering their numbers into a database, the Police Department didn’t identify five or more correctable crashes in the span of a 12-month time period.
Alcombright said that he wanted to make sure that any truck restrictions wouldn’t impact boat traffic. Superintendent and Tree Warden Paul Basler said that for most people, it shouldn’t affect that. He said that the bigger concerns of the residents were the box trucks hitting the bridge and the speeds of landscaping trucks, etc. “Even with a truck exclusion, oil trucks, gas trucks are still going to be able to service the residents… it shouldn’t have any impact on the boating people,” Basler said. He also spoke against the installation of speed bumps saying, “that’s going to impact the boating.” He said that he did a sign audit on that road noting that there were 11 signs between Main Street and River Street. “After a while, a lot of signs become invisible… in my opinion, there are an awful lot of signs on that road that nobody is paying attention to… so by increasing the number of signs, changing the signs around, I don’t think that’s going to give us the impact we are looking for,” Basler said. Emberg said that they were merely accepting the report that evening and that any decisions regarding what actions to take, would take place at a later meeting.
There was some discussion regarding a resident that was surrendering a razor clam license for the current year. There was one person on the waitlist. The Shellfish Constable intended to call all recipients of the licenses to see if anyone was not using theirs, but the very first person he called surrendered it. Hickey said that he would like to see, as a show of good faith, the town refund the original holder of the license. He also said that he would like to set a policy in place that stipulates that license holders must use it so many times or surrender the license at the end of the year. The Board agreed to issue the license to the new recipient at a pro-rated amount and refund the unused six months back to the original holder.
Jason Silva, the Community Development Director, spoke to the Board regarding the review of fees charged for inspectional services. “It’s been about four years since we’ve changed; a lot’s changed in the last four years in terms of our economy,” Silva said. He noted that after reviewing the fees charged by surrounding communities, it has become apparent that the fees need to be raised. He also asked to increase the compensation for the inspectional services’ workers. The Selectmen voted unanimously to approve the proposed increases.
Emberg said that during an earlier meeting they discussed going out to bid for legal services. She said that Hickey had prepared a draft RFP for them to approve that evening. Selectman Sheila Vaughn was the sole Selectman voting against the RFP.
Regarding the Police Chief search, Emberg asked for results from the community outreach survey that was completed by residents. Crone said that the main takeaway was a call for increased communication with the community. He said that they narrowed the field of applicants to eight before having two drop out. He said that they would like to add two back in before notifying the candidates.
Hickey said that the hiring committee for the Finance Director met that day and narrowed the list of applicants. He noted that the current Finance Director Carol McCoy would be leaving in-person employment the following week and then working remotely until a replacement could be found. “She’s been a tremendous asset to this community. She’s done a great job and she’ll be a tough person to replace, but wish her all the best,” Hickey said.
Hickey said that they’ve asked Departments to go back and review their budgets before reviewing at a higher level to present before the Board. “We should have all that done and to the Capital Planning Committee and the Finance Committee before the end of the month, certainly,” Hickey said.
Emberg reminded those in attendance that the new water rates went into effect in early November and noted that it would be reflected in the March 2024 quarterly bill. She also said that Kington’s annual luminary display will take place on Saturday, Dec. 16 and road closings will begin at 5 p.m.. The tree lighting and caroling will begin at 6 pm on the Town Green. Other activities including crafts and visits with Santa will be between 5:30 p.m. and 8 p.m.. She also reminded residents that if they see snowflakes they need to get their vehicles off the streets to ensure safe and timely plowing.
Emberg opened things up to open forum and a resident asked, “the chlorine in the water, could we get an update on if this is a permanent condition, why, what we can do about it, and if the town is going to do anything about it because quite frankly it’s upsetting. Hickey said he would reach out to the Water Department and provide an update on the Town’s website.

The Halifax Board of Selectmen met on Tuesday, Nov. 21. Chair John Bruno began the meeting by turning it over to Plymouth County Commissioner Jared Valanzola. Valanzola announced that Halifax would be receiving $600,000 in ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funding for the two water treatment plants. “In 2020… the Federal Government awarded the County of Plymouth with some CARES Act money, about $90 million, and there was a handful of communities that believed we shouldn’t have administered that program. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts absolutely did not think we should have administered that program,” he said. Valanzola continued, “In the final analysis of the CARES Act, the town of Halifax, and every other town in Plymouth County received 50 percent more dollars than towns outside of Plymouth County. We distributed, of the $90 million, $87 million to our member communities. The remaining $3 million went to non-profit hospitals that are in the County… that is $44 million more than like-sized communities outside of Plymouth County received.”
Valanzola noted that they have since pivoted toward ARPA which he called more “forward facing.” He said that working with the leadership in Halifax was “fantastic.” “The last point I’ll make on ARPA: we currently are administering this program at approximately 1 percent. We administered the CARES Act for 1 percent and that received national recognition – it was actually 0.87 percent and that meant more money for Halifax… we received recognition from the U.S. Department of the Treasury as well as the United States Congress as one of the most effective and efficient administrations of the CARES Act in the entire country.” He further noted that while they are currently on track to administer ARPA at 1 percent, the national average is 7 to 8 percent.
The Finance Committee was also in attendance for a joint meeting with the Board of Selectmen to discuss wage and personnel. Town Administrator Cody Haddad explained some of the changes to the Wage and Personnel bylaws. He began by saying that he had previously sent the results of the compensation and classification study to the Selectmen as well as the Finance Committee members. Regarding the nearly yearlong process Haddad said, “we need to evaluate the positions and create internal as well as external equity.” He said that they contracted with GovHR to evaluate each position through a job evaluation questionnaire that all non-Union employees filled out. The questionnaires were provided to managers for evaluation and then, finally, reviewed by Haddad. GovHR then moved forward with interviews with at least one person in each position. This information was used to create the internal equity. He said that they used analysis from similar neighboring communities to assess external equity. He said that salary ranges were created using the 70th percentile. He said that the difference between going with the 60th percentile versus the 70th percentile was only about $1,000. He noted that going with the higher percentile would make them more competitive.
“Grades 1-3 are your administrative and technical staff, Grades 4-8 are supervisors and advanced technical staff, 9-12 are directors and senior managers and that’s really where the wage and personnel bylaw cuts off, but we did go forward and look at Grades 13-15 which would be the Town Administrator and Public Safety,” Haddad said. He said that all grades have a 35 percent variation between steps to create consistency. He said that the goal is to make it equitable for the employees but affordable for the town. Haddad said that in terms of implementation, they would start by making sure that everyone is now on one of the new steps, i.e. at least the minimum. He also said that everyone would receive at least a 2 percent raise while those being paid the least would be likely to see the biggest increase.
Regarding the financial impact for the town, Haddad said that for fiscal year 2024 it would be approximately $125,000. Haddad explained, “$260,000 was allocated at the spring town meeting for the purposes of this and also for settling collective bargaining agreements; there’s approximately $136,000 currently unallocated for this exact purpose.”
Finance Committee member Jim Walters expressed that he didn’t feel that the numbers were entirely accurate to the 35 percent and asked that it be amended as such. Haddad explained that the discrepancy lay in his using round numbers though he said he would revisit the document to ensure accuracy.
Selectman Jonathan Selig gave some background behind the impetus to review the wage and personnel bylaw. “So when I started… we had a tough problem here at Town Hall with retention and essentially filling roles. We were so grossly underpaying folks that we weren’t even just getting bad applicants, we were getting nobody… and the refrain you kept hearing was, you’re going to try and pay people that? Good luck,” Selig explained. He continued, “If we were lucky to get somebody, what would happen was that after a while, they were going to another community close by that was paying a lot more money than we were.”
Haddad said that the goal of the joint meeting would be to have them vote to adopt the compensation and classification plan as proposed. Haddad said, “To Jim’s point, when we get to the warrant, two options: we can either move forward as it’s written and we would just make note that it’s the 35.49 percent or what we can do is just make the last step a little bit of a smaller increase. My effort was to try and make the increase for each of the 12 steps the same percentage but in doing that, it bumped it off a little,” Haddad explained. “As long as the numbers add up and we can get it funded,” Walters said. The Selectmen and the Finance Committee voted to accept the plan. The Finance Committee then adjourned their portion of the meeting.
The Selectmen had an appointment with Wendy Grieco for an appointment to the Beautification Committee. “I just want to participate in the town, volunteer,” she explained. The Selectmen voted to approve her appointment through June 30, 2024.
The Selectmen went through the articles on the warrant for town meeting. These included Article 4 which reallocated $1.74 million in funding that was originally intended to turn the museum into the Council on Aging and approved in May of 2022. He said that the new article would rescind the original one and reallocate that funding for the purpose of designing and building a new Council on Aging facility. The Selectmen voted to approve the article. Article 5 encompassed all the changes necessary to move forward with the Thorndike Development project. The Selectmen recommended it.
The Selectmen also discussed potentially creating a policy regarding flags that will be flown on public property. “What I was concerned with is we had no policy whatsoever… I asked Cody to come up with a draft… what I thought to do was to limit our authorized flags to the American flag, the Massachusetts State flag, the Town of Halifax flag, the elementary school flag, and military flags for the purpose of Veterans’ observance… and I think that to me that makes the most sense and keeps us from getting into any arguments over who’s flag should be up, when it should be up, and everything else,” Bruno said. Bruno specified that it refers to the official flag poles rather than just a flag setup on public property. “I get the idea of this and it makes sense to me as to, I don’t want to call it Pandora’s box… it keeps it cut and dry… these are the flags we have,” Selig said. Bruno referenced a Nazi flag saying that if you were to allow other flags, you may have to agree to fly that one too. The Selectmen voted to adopt the policy as written.
Haddad told the Selectmen that he had a good meeting with a consultant regarding the MBTA Action Plan. He said that the consultant was very receptive to their ideas. He said that once they have a more finalized plan, they would bring it before the Zoning Bylaw Review Committee. He also noted that they hoped to bring it before the Board of Selectmen in February. Bruno noted that he had been a critic of the MBTA Action plans but said that he thinks that they can come into compliance without changing too much. Bruno said that it may be possible to just rezone some existing multi-family housing.

The Halifax Board of Selectmen met on Wednesday, Nov. 15. Chair John Bruno told those assembled that following the public hearing regarding earth removal for Morse Brothers, they compiled all the questions posed by the public. He said that they did their best to have answers prepared for those questions.
Bruno said, “Transparency is a critical part of assuring everyone concerned that the Board of Selectmen when called upon to make decisions, has taken their role seriously and thoughtfully. Accordingly, I will take this opportunity to set out my thoughts, observations, and reasons. I’ll begin by describing as I see this matter, what we’re being asked to do.” He continued, “Understand that in 2022, Morse Brothers requested a permit to dig a pond, remove earth from their property on Lingan St. That permit was withdrawn before a public hearing was held. The request for a permit that is before the Board of Selectmen now is not the same project.” He noted that the current project is smaller in scope and proposes removing 20,000 yards of earth from a hill and does not involve excavation below grade or into the water table. According to Bruno, Morse Brothers is a cranberry/agricultural business that has been in business for 60 years.
Bruno also reminded those present that Halifax is a right- to-farm community. He said that three other earth removal permits have been issued in Halifax for bog operations – Turkey Swamp on Monponsett St. received a permit for over 36,000 yards, Harju Bogs on Thompson St. for a permit for 20,000 yards, and White Dog on Palmer Rd. for 84,000 yards. “The request by Morse Brothers is not unusual for cranberry operations nor is the amount of removal requested excessive,” Bruno said.
He further stated that the Board has done everything possible to hear and consider all the concerns brought forth by the public. He noted that the concerns fall into two major categories consisting of environmental and public safety. Those concerns include effects to the ponds and water table, traffic implications, road maintenance, and effects to underground utilities. Bruno said that the application has been reviewed by Halifax’s Board of Health, Conservation Commission, and the Water Commissioners. “If any of our town authorities, who are the experts on our town water, had raised even the slightest concern, I personally, would not even consider moving forward with this application,” Bruno said. He also specified that the State had also looked into the property and found no concerns. Bruno said that the Board needs to move forward based on evidence rather than conjecture. He said that the Police and Highway Department have raised no concerns regarding traffic or utilities.
Bruno said that the truck traffic will not run on Saturdays, Sundays, or holidays and would work around the school bus schedule. He further said that he would propose limiting the trucks to 25 trucks per day at maximum. He said that the work should be completed within a 29-day time period while telling those assembled that fewer trucks allowed would delay the project.
Selectman Jonathan Selig also gave a statement. “The last thing anyone wants to do is put our town into any sort of jeopardy. This project has been reviewed by our Highway Surveyor, our Board of Health Agent, our Water Superintendent, our Police Chief, our Land Counsel, an Independent Engineer – all paid employees whose job description is to help be watchdogs for our Town. The site has also been inspected by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection – an agency’s whose sole purpose is to literally protect the environment… I believe the Town has done its due diligence… this project does not pose a threat to our Town’s drinking water or our natural resources. For this Board to turn a blind eye to all of these findings would not only be in poor taste, in my judgement, it would be irresponsible.” Selig added that approving the permit would not be the end of the Board’s work, saying that they would be ensuring that the rules and regulations would be followed.
Before turning things over to the residents in attendance, Bruno noted that it was not a public hearing. The first resident that spoke asked how many times the residents on Lingan St. would be asked to endure the heavy truck traffic. Bruno said that while he hears the concern, they can’t change the fact that it’s where the bogs are located. The resident also complained about the condition of their road saying she would like to see it paved. Bruno cut her off saying, “you’re mixing up a whole bunch of issues.” Another resident spoke, again, citing concerns around underground utilities. Bruno told the residents that should anyone see that the rules are not being followed, they should take pictures and submit them to the appropriate authorities.
Jeremy Gillespie, who has been an outspoken critic of the earth removal project, said, “Boy, I’m disappointed but not surprised.” He continued, “the bylaw says that you don’t have the authority to give an earth removal permit in that zone and, in fact, the peer-reviewed town engineer said, they may need a permit from the Planning Board… the bylaw says no permit can be issued greater than 50 cubic yards, yet somehow they’ve gotten away with about 160,000 cubic yards… the other cranberry operations aren’t in the Division 2. You don’t have the authority; you’re taking the cheap way out.” Bruno said that according to Town Counsel, “no zoning ordinance or bylaw shall prohibit, unreasonably regulate or require special permit for the use of land for the primary purpose of commercial agriculture.” He said that they are following Town Counsel’s advice as to whether they should be the regulating authority. Another resident spoke saying that the attorneys for Morse Brothers used Bruno’s words to support their case in a lawsuit that she was a part of against them. She also showed them dirty water filters which she said need to be changed far more frequently than recommended since the last earth removal.
Another resident asked, “What kind of fines are these companies going to get slapped with?” “We haven’t discussed any of that yet. We haven’t even voted on the permit… but that’s an issue that could come up if it somehow became necessary,” Bruno said. He noted that it was something that could be considered.
Resident Dave Mascio asked Bruno and Selig if they told Selectman Naja Nessralla that he should recuse himself from voting on the matter as he is an abutter. Both Bruno and Selig said that they left the choice up to him. Nessralla wasn’t present at the meeting that night. “It does hold water against what you guys are going to decide,” Mascio said of his abutter status. He also brought forth an issue another resident asked about. They both asked that there be some type of monetary payment made to the town for use of the roadway should an incident occur that would require the town to fix something. “Have some contingencies put in place so that if something should happen… that’s what everyone is here for John, it’s not to piss you off,” Mascio said. Mascio also asked that there be some kind of training program for the truck drivers who will be driving down Lingan St. to safeguard the children and other people using that roadway.
Several residents, including one that owns an abutting farm, spoke out against Morse Brothers saying that they weren’t trustworthy. “We need to protect that land out there, that is all sacred ground,” a resident said. He further claimed that trucks were removing earth at night already. Bruno said that they investigated a complaint about that and the Highway Surveyor said there was a water main break and the Highway Department trucks had to go down Lingan St. to address the issue. Resident Claire Hughes also spoke out against Morse Brothers saying that they have gone town to town digging up earth and there have been many problems that have arisen as result. She told the Selectmen that they claimed to make their decisions based on facts, but said that it appears that they didn’t have all the facts. “There really should be more research into who you’re dealing with and their history and it didn’t take me long to find out that they do have a long history of not holding up their word,” she said.
Another resident spoke about the heavy truck traffic saying that the limitations seem reasonable until you are actually living on the street and seeing that kind of traffic. “I just hope that there is something in place to consider the residents; to consider the noise, the traffic.” Another resident said, “As part of that training program that Dave suggested, it should be ‘this is the speed limit that you are allowed to do on Lingan St.’ There’s a new state law, 4 ft. berth to vulnerable persons on the road; they need to know that they are going slow enough that they can brake for those people.” She noted that during the last earth removal project, there were four trucking companies utilized, two of which were courteous and two that were not. She said that they try not to call for every incident as they don’t want to be a nuisance, but said that going forward, they would “blow up” the non-emergency Police line, if necessary.
Cheryl Howell began her remarks saying “I’m going to be open and up front about stuff that happened a year ago when they wanted to pull the permit.” She continued, “One of the Board members was actually having an affair with another Board member and that one Board member was having an affair with Ryco which was one of the companies that was going to do the hauling. And that’s why a lot of the stuff we were having trouble with was because we felt as if it was just going to be pushed through. You cannot tell me that people that were dating weren’t talking about it behind the scenes.” Selig said, “Can I just say for the record that no one here is associated with Ryco and John and I are not having an affair.” This was met with some muffled laughter.
Bruno outlined the limitations associated with the project including that the earth removal will only take place between the hours of 7 am and 5 pm Monday through Friday and never on a legal holiday. A request was made by residents to reduce the hours to 7 a.m. through 3 p.m. in the interest of protecting elementary school aged children who are likely to be out after 3 pm. “Vehicles loaded with soil or sand should be suitably covered to prevent dust and contents from spilling and blowing on the road,” Bruno said. Selig said that he would like to see the vehicles limited to 10 or 15 mph rather than 20. Other regulations included that the town reserves the right for weekly inspections even without prior notice. “No excavation below the natural grade of any boundary line shall be permitted,” Bruno said. A regulation is also in place requiring Morse Brothers to provide reports outlining the amount of earth removed. Residents also asked that truck drivers have to sign an agreement and that should they violate that agreement, they will be fined.
There was also discussion regarding increasing the $0.25 per cubic yard of removed earth to be paid to the town to $1 per cubic yard. The Town Counsel said that the bylaw called for $0.25 or greater but said that there would need to be a reasonable justification for the increase. Residents said that repairs necessary, etc. would justify the increase. Town Counsel said that increased monitoring of the roads would likely justify an increase. Bruno and Selig agreed that doubling it to $0.50 would be reasonable especially considering that any repairs to the road need to be taken care of by Morse Brothers.
Before adjourning, both Bruno and Selig stated that the decisions they make are always with the best interests of the town in mind. Selig called Bruno “a man of character.” Bruno said, “If I made a mistake here, I’ll be the first to admit it and do everything I can to correct it.” Bruno made a motion to approve the permit with the conditions as discussed, that night in the draft form. Selig seconded it.

The Plympton School Committee met on Monday, Nov. 6. Chair Jason Fraser was absent, so Vice Chair Dan Cadogen led the meeting.
Dennett Elementary School principal Peter Veneto gave an MCAS presentation. “We have some things to celebrate and we have some things to improve upon,” he told the Committee. Veneto also said that at both the District and State level, there is still a lot of ground to make up to get back to pre-pandemic scores. “Recovery is underway,” Veneto said.
Some key takeaways from the presentation include ELA scores for Grades 3 through 10 for the State. While Grade 10 was at 58 percent meeting expectations, Grades 3 through 6 all fell somewhere between 40 and 44 percent meeting expectations. At the elementary level, Grades 3, 4, and 6 took MCAS in the subject areas of ELA and math while Grade 6 also took a test in math and technology. Grade 10 is at 58 percent meeting expectations for ELA.
Dennett Elementary performed well across the board compared to the State average. Grade 3 Dennett students were at 72 percent meeting expectations for ELA compared to just 44 percent across the State. For math, 65 percent of Grade 3 Dennett students were meeting expectations compared to the State average of just 41 percent. Overall, the State-wide averages have increased from 2022 to 2023, but they are still not where they were pre-Covid.
A Committee member asked Assistant Superintendent Ryan Lynch how Dennett compared to the rest of the District. Lynch said that they performed similarly though he noted that given Dennett’s small population, the numbers can become skewed more easily. Coordinator of Student Support Christine Marcolini told the Committee that the Dennett third graders outperformed the District saying, “I think that was the other big standout.”
Veneto said that the school goal is to have 70 percent of students meeting or exceeding expectations for all subject areas. Veneto said that the Grade 5 science scores for Dennett have typically been quite high but noted that was not the case with the most recent round of MCAS. “We traditionally have really hit the ball out of the park in terms of science and unfortunately that was not the case last year,” Veneto told the Committee. He said that he wants the administrators to get into the classrooms more during science so they can witness the types of lessons being implemented including hands-on learning.
Regarding student growth for Dennett on the ELA and math MCAS, Veneto said that the school shows typical growth with higher achievement compared to the State. “Typical growth is okay; in my opinion, we can do better,” Veneto told the Committee.
One area of disappointment for Dennett was a designation assigned to them as a result of the MCAS participation rate for one sub-group of students. They were deemed as requiring assistance or intervention by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) due to the participation rate for this sub-group falling below 95 percent. Given the Dennett’s small population, it only took a few students not participating for that rate to drop as low as it did. Veneto said that he planned on addressing the issue with the families that opted out of the testing. Committee member Kaitlin Johnson asked Veneto how he planned to broach the issue given the reason for opting out probably centers around student stress. “The language we typically use with our kids is just do the best that you can do… inherently there is stress that is associated with the test,” Veneto said.
Superintendent Jill Proulx said that there is a corrective action plan that the school will have to do. Marcolini said that they have had in-depth conversations with the families involved and they don’t anticipate having this problem next year. “If families or children are expressing stress… I think it is incumbent upon us to really be talking with the families and talking with the children… I think our doors are always open and I think that seeing us fall below that number for us, that is a significant event and we need to do everything we can to make sure our kids and families feel supported,” she told the Committee.
Some of the actions planned by the Dennett administration to address improving MCAS scores include putting support teams in place to identify students who may need more supports and interventions. There will also be data meetings for K-6 to identify and target interventions for math and reading. Additionally, there will be enhanced co-teaching and an intervention model to provide more support in the classroom.
Veneto also reviewed the results of a student survey that assessed a wide variety of social and emotional issues. Committee member Robert Montgomery asked if any of the questions evaluated self-advocacy. Marcolini said, “A lot of the questions really are around themselves as workers and how supported they feel.” She also noted that, “the kids really are accurate raters of themselves.” Regarding the survey, Veneto said, “A lot of positive information here I thought.”
Marcolini said that she was happy to see the “grit” scores come up the way they did. She also noted the positive change in reporting from the sixth-grade class. Cadogen asked if she felt this was due to it being a different cohort of students than last year’s sixth grade class or if it had more to do with changes implemented in the school environment. Marcolini responded that she believed it to be a little bit of both.
The issue of increasing the daily substitute rate as well as the custodian substitution rate was addressed during the meeting. The proposed increase for the sub rate was from $107 per day to $110. It was said that the increase would make Dennett more in line with neighboring communities while still being below the paraprofessional starting rate. It was explicitly stated that the intention was to be competitive without making it more lucrative than being a paraprofessional. The increase to the custodian rate would be from $18 an hour to $19. The Committee voted to accept the increased rates.
Veneto also provided a Principal’s Report which included that the current enrollment stands at 253 students. He also said that they have a new art teacher and a building substitute. Veneto said it was “probably the first time in about a year that we can say we are fully staffed… and I would like to keep it that way.”
Homeschool enrollment was also briefly touched upon. At the Dennett, the numbers have increased by 1 from 4 students to 5. Proulx said, “District wide, overall, the numbers have decreased substantially especially since 2020.”
Before adjourning, the Committee asked Veneto and Proulx to touch upon an incident that happened during the night of parent teacher conferences. A student was found to have three live bullets on their person. The student showed another student who notified an adult. The Police came and investigated and found nothing else. The student reported finding the bullets on the side of the road. “The Police deemed that there was no credible threat,” Proulx said. Asked if the story regarding the origins of the bullets could be verified, Veneto said, “the Police can’t confirm that there was anything just lying on the ground.” Cadogen pressed asking if it was possible the story was fabricated. “That’s a strong possibility,” Veneto said. Committee members then asked if the issue was being addressed with the student’s family as there were concerns over items not being locked up properly. Veneto said that it was his understanding that the Police had done that.

The Halifax Board of Selectmen met Nov. 6 for a public earth removal hearing for Morse Brothers Cranberries. Kevin Grady from Grady Consulting, Atty. Nick Rosenberg, and Brendan Moquin were there representing Morse Brothers and their project. Grady said, “The project is an agricultural use. It’s a common practice to utilize source materials from cranberry bogs, in particular, for agricultural use. This application is in no way similar to what we submitted a couple of years ago when we were looking to do a renovation of the entire bog. That is not what we’re proposing here; this is very simple, gravel removal application. It’s something they’ve been doing for decades.” He also said that the application was submitted in compliance with the bylaw and all regulations. He said they were looking to remove 20,000 cubic yards over 1.4 acres of the 308 total acre property.
Selectman Chair John Bruno asked about traffic resulting from the project. “Morse Cranberry has been utilizing Lingan St. for decades; it’s the only road in and out. We’ve looked at other avenues of access – they just don’t exist,” the representatives explained.
Town Engineer Patrick Brennan spoke regarding his findings. “My main concerns… and Kevin just mentioned that; how close they can excavate to the ground water table – this is within the Zone 2 of the public wells… you have to leave so many feet separation to the ground water to avoid any potential contamination of the ground water tables,” Brennan said. He continued, “they’re going to adjust the plans so that they stay a minimum of four feet above the ground water table which is what the regulations call for.” Selectman Jonathan Selig asked if Brennan would be more comfortable with a buffer greater than 4 ft. He said that yes, the greater the buffer, the greater the protection.
Brennan also said that the nearest adjacent property is nearly half a mile away. He added that, therefore, he didn’t believe that noise from the excavators would be a problem. He also said that he believes it’s important that the trucking not be done before 7 a.m. or after 6 p.m.
The Selectmen had the residents wishing to speak sign up and the list totaled nearly 40 people. The first resident asked how long the project would be estimated to take as well as how many trucks are anticipated to travel down Lingan St. daily. She also asked if the trucks would be running during holidays. It was said that they would max out at about 50 trucks per day and that a rough estimate of the length of the project would be “a little over a month.” When asked if the winter could cause the project to be temporarily paused, the consultant said that the project would likely need to be stopped after the first freeze and resumed in the spring.
Another resident said that the layers of Lingan St. were not intended for heavy truck traffic. Still another resident asked, “Are any materials being trucked in from outside currently to fill those roads?” “Not that we are aware of,” Bruno said. “It looks like there are a lot of changes going on along that road, so if someone is going out from the Highway, could they inspect that dirt road and inspect the material and how that is being re-graded,” she continued. Bruno said, “We’ll make a note of that, thank you.”
Kimberly King of the Halifax Conservation Commission said, “There were multiple complaints that went into DEP (Dept. of Environmental Protection) and other state boards. Those investigations did come back to Conservation last week and there were no findings by any of the State agencies that Morse Brothers were in violation.” Regarding the findings, she added, “It would be very educational for the residents to have.” Resident Steve Goodman, who also serves on the Conservation Commission, said, “My concerns are environmental mainly; the DEP report that you’re relying on is fundamentally flawed. In it, it indicates that they found that they didn’t remove any earth lower than the elevation of some of the dike roads, however some of those dike roads are lower than the historical high-water mark which is what you’re supposed to use for how low you can go as far as removing earth. And if they’ve never removed earth below the water table then I need someone to explain to me how that hole keeps filling up with water.” Goodman also said, “I never had, in four years, any silt, any problems at all with my water and after I watched the trucks go by for four or five weeks in a row without a permit, my water quality is significantly less since then.”
Jeremy Gillespie asked the Town Engineer, “There’s two monitoring wells on site and one of them is located right next to a drainage canal; do you think that has any effect on the water and the monitoring well being that close?” “When the bogs are flooded, the levels in the well actually come up and they have that information in the stuff they sent to me today,” Brennan said. Gillespie became heated insisting that Right to Farm not only protects the farmers, but the residents right to clean air and water. He ended his statement saying, “In fact, their own attorneys said that the Board of Selectmen can’t even issue a permit legally according to their own bylaws and that zoning overlay district that protects our aquifer was approved in 1998 so let them take it back to the Attorney General and have it nullified if that’s what they want to do but the Board of Selectmen does not have the authority to issue a permit.” This final statement was met with rousing applause to which Bruno said, “you know folks, I really don’t want to do this; we’re trying to do this in a measured and professional way and would appreciate everyone’s assistance in that. We all know this is a hot issue… but it’s not helpful if we have cheering, if we have booing going on.”
Gordon Andrews was the final name on the list. He said, “I’m just wondering if the Board of Selectmen could say whether this project is within the aquifer protection zone?” Brennan said, “Yes, it is in Zone 2.” Andrews replied asking, “So has the Planning Board issued a permit for this project?” He also asked the Selectmen to set the fee at $15 per yard if they approve the project. “It is within your power to set the fee; $15 a yard times the 20,000 – you’ve got $300,000 to fix the road,” Andrews said. He further asked that they review the abutters list to make sure that no one has a conflict of interest. Andrews also asked if the Board of Selectmen had received any recommendations from the Water Commissioners and if they did, if they could please read them. Bruno said that the documents are part of the public record and anyone can read them, however, he noted that the Water Department did not have any concerns assuming the guidelines are followed.
Someone asked the Selectmen if it was the responsibility of the Board to have made Morse Brothers cease the controversial earth removal that took place in the past. Bruno was careful to say that he didn’t know that the Morse Brothers did anything illegal in the past, noting that there was controversy surrounding it.
Regarding when a decision would be made, Bruno said that they are attempting to make a thoughtful decision and said that he needed time to sleep on it and think it over. Selig said, “there are three parts to this, there’s the residents, the Morse Brothers, and there’s the environment and I think that we need to try and come up with the best solution possible to make sure that all three of those get addressed.”

The Halifax Board of Selectmen met on Tuesday, Oct. 24. Lloyd Geisinger of Thorndike Development was there to provide an update on the proposed project at 265 and 266 Monponsett St. Geisinger explained the Zoning Bylaw Agreement as well as the Master Development Agreement that would need to be approved before they could move forward with the project. The zoning bylaw would need to be approved during Town Meeting in December. The proposal includes 102 senior housing units located on two different parcels. Thorndike has also proposed gifting the town land for a senior center and pickleball courts. “You get the land in perpetuity for $10,” Geisinger explained. .
The estimated budget for the senior center as laid out in the agreement is $3.4 million. At a previous Town Meeting, $1.7 million was allocated for the design and construction of the senior center. “There will need to be a vote, that is part of the Town Meeting, reauthorizing or repurposing $1.2 million of that $1.7 million for the construction of the senior center on this property,” Geisinger explained. Regarding how the money will be administered to the town, he said that the total mitigation payments will “equal the cost of the winning bid to build the senior center and pickleball courts less the $1.2 million that the town will repurpose, but in no event less than the $3.8 million.” According to Geisinger, the building of the project cannot be started until 36 units have been purchased.
Geisinger said that the condominium documents would specify that children under the age of 18 can visit and even stay for weeks or the summer but are not allowed to permanently reside there. He said that in his past experience, this was the wish of the majority of the residents. He further noted that at least one adult over the age of 55 must reside in at least 80 percent of the units.
Included in mitigation commitments is the construction of the new pedestrian crossing between 265 and 266 [Monponsett St.], construction of a sidewalk from the entrance of 265 up to the intersection of Monponsett St. and Route 106, and the installation of several 6 ft. tall shrubs. Geisinger said, “The parcel that we’re looking to have re-zoned is only the development parcel, which is approximately 12 acres of land. The remaining land on the parcel will have a permanent conservation restriction placed on it, so it can never be developed.” Geisinger also said that no certificate of occupancy will be issued for the last building until construction of the mitigation improvements have been reasonably completed. This is meant to offer protection for the town.
Regarding the zoning bylaw amendments, they were explained as being in three parts. The first would create a new overlay district that would allow for senior housing and the second would rezone the 265 parcel from AR Residential to B Commercial and Business with the senior overlay applied to it. The third part would have the overlay applied to 266 which is already zoned Commercial.
The three main objectives according to Thorndike are to put the development agreement on the warrant for town meeting, make the request to the Planning Board for the eligible location, and finally, to have the Town Administrator be authorized to submit the application to the State for an advisory opinion. The Selectmen voted to have the Master Development Agreement appear on the Warrant for the December Town Meeting.
In an adorable turn of events, the Halifax Police Department’s newest member was sworn in – Roxy, the comfort dog. The statement read, “I, Roxy, will support my officers and my community with my whole heart and soul. I promise to comfort, encourage, and soothe away sadness, fear, and confusion. I offer a warm heart, tender companionship, and unconditional love. I will serve my community throughout my days to the best of my ability.” Roxy received lots of belly rubs during the swearing-in ceremony.
Two one-day liquor licenses were approved for two dates in late November for the Farm at Raven Brook. A representative said, “We do similar events like this where we setup a station and provide alcoholic beverages, for this particular event we plan on offering our pumpkin beer… an IPA, a seltzer, and also a mulled wine as well, so something warm and good for the Christmas tree shopping.”
Town Administrator Cody Haddad explained his proposal for an Energy Management Consultant. “We have several energy efficiency grants, what you really need in order to be effective with these is someone to oversee the project… it would be beneficial to potentially look at bringing on a consultant to help us with this,” Haddad said. He said that part of it could be paid for using the Green Communities Grant while the rest of it would be put into next year’s operating budget. He said that it would pay for itself as it would result in more and better grant opportunities. The Board agreed to look into acquiring a consultant.
The Selectmen met with members of the Finance Committee to kick off the budget process as well as establish priorities for the upcoming fiscal year. Haddad said they asked Departments to provide them with where they would allocate a 10 percent cut if needed as well as what ramifications would result. A member of the Finance Committee asked that Department heads take a look at what they did last year and what the results were. The Selectmen and Finance Committee voted to approve the budget memo.

The Kingston Board of Selectmen met Oct. 10. During Open Forum, Ronnie Litif of 119 Three Rivers Dr. in Barrows Brook Village took to the microphone. “I want to bring up a longstanding issue that has been neglected by the town, the builder, and people that have lived in my neighborhood before me; I’ve lived there for three years… I’m asking the Board to help us get the builder to finish the remaining items that were part of the comprehensive permit to build Barrows Brook Village,” Litif explained. He said that they have a full list of items needing finishing and can provide it to necessary parties. He noted that there is no HOA and that many people who moved there were falsely told that there was an HOA. He mentioned severe potholes as well as a lack of streetlights. “I’m concerned for my neighborhood and the future of it,” he said. Emberg explained that while there can’t be a conversation about the issue during open forum, if he left his contact information, someone would help him “navigate the situation.”
Resident Danielle Dennison of 176 Main St. spoke next. “I don’t know if this has been brought up before… I have two small children and we like to walk to school, and we like to walk to the cemetery, and the sidewalks are kind of in a crumbling situation in a lot of spots. There’s not a lot of curbs, and I think if someone was in a wheelchair, I don’t think they can access it very well,” Dennison said. She mentioned the number of joggers and babies in strollers and said she felt it was just a matter of time before someone gets hurt. She also brought attention to the traffic light where Main St. and Brook St. meet saying she felt it would be useful to have a walk button there.
Emberg said that a member of the Planning Board resigned over the summer. She said that they received one letter of interest from Alexander Graham of 22 May Ave. Graham, who said he has been a resident for five years, attended the meeting. “I’m interested in joining the Planning Board primarily because I’m from Western Massachusetts originally; I’m from a small town like this and I was heavily involved with the community when I was growing up and I’ve been here for, like I said, five years. I commute in and out of Boston nearly every day, I do a lot of going to work and coming home, going to work and coming home. Not that I’m not busy enough with work and my family but I really am missing that sense of community and I think this is a good opportunity for me to get out and meet people,” Graham said. He also said he takes a lot of pride in where he lives and hopes to raise his family in Kingston long-term. Graham is a senior commercial project manager that does business with the MBTA. He noted that they are actively working on fixing up the Green Line. A member of the Planning Board asked if he planned to run for the position during the election. Graham said, “that is my intention.” He was unanimously appointed. Mary Harriman was also unanimously appointed to the Council on Aging Advisory Board.
During the meeting, Town Administrator Keith Hickey told the Selectmen, “I want to come to the Board tonight to make sure that the Board is supportive of applying for a Community Compact Grant to study the regionalization of the Kingston, Halifax, and Plympton school departments with the Silver Lake Regional School Department.” Currently the towns are regionalized only at the middle school and high school level while each of the three towns’ elementary schools act as their own school committees. He said that the Halifax School Committee and Halifax Board of Selectmen have approved the proposal as well as the Kingston School Committee. He said that the assumption is that the Plympton School Department will not be supportive.
Hickey said, “One of the topics that the grant money is available for is regionalization and I’m not sitting here tonight suggesting that it is a good or bad thing to fully regionalize the schools… I’ve heard from a number of people that there is some potential, significant savings and elimination of duplications of effort that currently go on now because there are four separate school boards that the Superintendent has to work with.” Emberg asked if it required all three towns to apply for the grant. Hickey said that it did not but noted that the Superintendent is concerned about supporting the grant while one of the three towns is not supportive.
Kingston Selectman Eric Crone, who spent many years on various school committees, noted the difficulties associated with the Superintendent reporting to four different school committees. Crone noted that Kingston and Plympton often have more money to spend on the school budgets than Halifax. He said that regionalization could potentially aid with some of those issues. The Selectmen agreed to approve the grant application.
Selectmen Tyler Bouchard and Eric Crone provided an update on the Police Chief search. Bouchard said they had a good meeting with the working group the previous Friday. “The posting will be going out this week… we will reconvene in 30 days… we’re waiting for those applications to come in,” Bouchard said. Emberg mentioned that they had agreed upon a wide range for the salary and asked if they narrowed it down or kept it broad. Bouchard explained that they felt that keeping the salary range wide would provide for more applicants. Crone said, “we will be doing a survey… we got some sample survey questions… from towns across the State from their searches… we should be able to gather some good information from folks in town to get a wide range.” Bouchard added that the survey would be available on the website. Paper copies would also be available at the Town Clerk’s office. Bouchard also said that they were advised as a Board not to talk to anyone who may be applying for the position to avoid any claims of favoritism.
Bouchard spoke regarding the MBTA Zoning Task Force. He said, “Kingston did receive a waiver… one of the biggest controversial [things] was that everything had to be within 0.5 miles of an MBTA station… Kingston got a waiver that allows a certain portion to be outside of that.” He continued saying that the new owner of the mall was approached regarding some multi-use including housing. “There’s a potential that we could come into compliance with this thing while having housing that’s possibly inevitable… while also satisfying the needs of the MBTA zoning… that mall fits into the category,” Bouchard explained.
Hickey provided a financial update saying that an indicator of financial strength is the town’s excess capacity levy on property taxes. He said that it has averaged around $1 million to $1.5 million and noted that it is now $2.5 million. Crone brought up that the excess levy capacity is taken into account by the State when deciding how much Chapter 70 funding the schools will receive. He asked if the doubling of the excess levy capacity could end up being a bad thing since the schools could be “dinged.” Hickey said that he was unsure but would find out an answer.
He also told the Selectmen that the new playground is now open. “The slide I’ve heard… is a great slide,” he said. Hickey also told the Selectmen that the Town has contracted with Old Colony Planning to perform a study on traffic patterns to help decide how best to redevelop certain areas of Route 3 from Duxbury to Plymouth. He said that the Jones River and sea river rise would also be incorporated into the planning. He also said that he and others attended the Duxbury Highway Safety Committee meeting to discuss ways to reduce heavy truck traffic on Landing and Bay Roads.
Chair Kimberley Emberg said there were several openings on various Boards and Committees. She pointed interested residents to the town’s website but drew special attention to an opening on the Old Colony Elder Services Board. “Their purpose is to support the independence and dignity of older adults and individuals with disabilities by providing essential information and services that promote health and safe living,” Emberg explained.
Emberg also said that new water rates take effect on November 1 and noted that those increased rates would be reflected in the March 2024 quarterly bills.

The Halifax Board of Selectmen met Tuesday, Oct. 10.
Chair John Bruno led the meeting saying, “I would like to begin the meeting tonight with just a brief comment and a recognition of the passing of John Campbell. For those of us who have had the pleasure of knowing Mr. Campbell, he was a wonderful gentleman – lived in Halifax, I think somewhere around the order of 60 years and was involved in projects for 60 years. The Council on Aging, and in particular, I don’t think there is a building in town that he doesn’t have his name on… he helped rebuild all the buildings in town.” Selectman Jonathan Selig echoed the sentiments and said that during the playground project, he was willing to print anything that was needed through his business and never charged the town. Selectman Naja Nessralla said that Campbell was a family friend and that he would “give you the shirt off his back.”
The Selectmen’s first appointment of the night was with Ed Bryan for an appointment to the Finance Committee. Bryan would be finishing an existing term that would end in 2026. “I have looked at your talent bank and it is impressive,” Bruno said. Selig said that he knew Bryan personally and thought he would make a great addition to the Finance Committee. Given his personal relationship, however, Selig did abstain from the vote. The Chair of the Finance Committee also spoke recommending Bryan. Bruno and Nessralla voted unanimously to appoint him.
Cam Russell also appeared before the Board to discuss his proposal for his Eagle Scout project. He was proposing to make a board that will go by the flagpole on the town green, explaining different elements of the flag, including the folds and the ball at the top. “I’m excited and I wholeheartedly support this project,” Selig said. Scout Master Peter Burgess spoke saying it would be “high-quality, weather-proof, no maintenance to the town.”
Health Agent Bob Valery spoke to the Selectmen regarding a public health excellence grant. Of the grant, Valery said, “There is a distinct goal that is prevention through education, disease tracking, enforcement of existing sanitary codes, and then what’s the exact inspectional process… the grant itself, funded through the State… establishes a minimum public health standard for communities, it increases capacity and effectiveness by incentivizing shared services, create a uniform data collection and reporting system, and increase, near to my heart, equity.” He continued saying that the State would fund them to do anything above and beyond where they currently are at least through 2027. “We are trying to hit anybody that has been historically left behind,” Valery said. “I appreciate you guys and the work that you do,” Selig said of the Health Department. He continued, “This is going to give us more coverage as far as the level of service for health in this town and I think residents should be excited that this exists and that, like you say, it’s not going to cost us anything extra but we’re going to get extra services which I’m all for.”
The Selectmen also met with the head of Halifax Youth Baseball and Softball, Pete Barone regarding a proposal for a new scoreboard for the field near the Police Station. “Basically, we are paying for everything,” Barone said of the plans. He said that they hoped to have it up by the spring. Bruno asked if it would be considered a donation to the town and was told that the town would own it. Selig said that Halifax hosts the biggest town tournament in New England for softball every year for the last two decades. The Selectmen voted unanimously to approve the scoreboard.
Town Administrator Cody Haddad addressed the property at 265 Monponsett (Halifax Trails). Thorndike Development has proposed a development on the land which includes a senior center. “We’ve been working since the Board authorized me to negotiate with them on a Master Development Agreement and draft zoning; we actually met earlier today and with the assistance of Town Counsel, we were able to nail down the zoning language to be proposed at the Special Town Meeting in December… we’re hoping that at your Oct. 24 meeting, we will look to have Thorndike in to present their Master Development Agreement,” Haddad said. Haddad also went over some of the zoning changes that would need to pass in order to allow the development to continue. He asked the Selectmen to recommend it to the Planning Board so they can start their process and eventually it could be voted on at Town Meeting.
The Selectmen also discussed the salary range for the Building Commissioner position. Bruno said that they have been searching for candidates to fill the position since March. “It seems to me, our pay scale is just out of whack for what we would be able to get,” Bruno said. Haddad said, “We’ve been actively recruiting for this for some time; we really have not gotten a significant number of qualified applicants.” Haddad said the average salary for neighboring communities is around $92k while the range Halifax is hiring at tops out around $79k. Haddad asked for a salary adjustment. The Selectmen agreed to increase the salary grade.
In other business, Haddad said they did receive an application for earth removal for Morse Brothers and are in the process of scheduling a public hearing. He said the date would be in the newspaper. Regarding Board and Department trainings, Haddad said they would be doing a three-part training for Department heads in November. Regarding staffing he said that they are currently conducting interviews for the Outreach Coordinator position for the Council on Aging. He said that they have also scheduled interviews for the Conservation Agent. He also said that he started taping “Cody’s Corner” which is a segment with Area 58 on different things going on in Halifax.
Before adjourning, Selig thanked Scott Materna and his department for lighting the Town Hall pink for the month of October.