The Plympton Board of Selectmen met remotely on Monday, July 25.”
Selectmen Chair Christine Joy told the Board that legislation recently passed that extended the remote meeting provision through March 31, 2023. Selectman John Traynor said, “I would like to see us in person as long as we can broadcast it and have Zoom.” Selectman Mark Russo said, “I think ultimately a hybrid model is going to be great; I don’t think we are ready. I don’t think we have the technology. I don’t think we have the staffing yet to do it – very strongly in favor of continuing with Zoom for the time being. I think it offers the most opportunity for participation.” He further said that he felt it best to continue with the current model for the convenience of residents, volunteers, and town officials. Joy said that while she is also in favor of the hybrid model eventually, she also doesn’t feel that the town has the technology to run it correctly. “We need some more time to figure out how to make this work for Plympton,” she said.
Traynor stressed that he believed the town did have the technology to make a hybrid model work now. “I’m disappointed,” Traynor said of Joy and Russo’s reluctance to move forward. Joy proposed revisiting the idea on the first of the year. Traynor, instead, proposed that they revisit it when Area 58 confirms that they have the technology in place to properly run a hybrid style meeting. Russo said, “I think there are other issues including staffing issues. Lots of towns are doing this and they have a staff member who is just taking care of the audio/visual, the presentation – it’s what we don’t have.” Traynor countered, “We do have, that’s part of Area 58. You keep saying that, but they are the staff.” “John, that is absolutely incorrect,” Russo said. He continued, “There isn’t enough manpower/womanpower here right now to do those things and do them well.” Traynor got in the final word saying, “I hear you and I think you are overstating the case and I don’t agree with you.” Joy said that the Board would not be taking a vote, but they would be revisiting it in the near future.
The Selectmen also discussed their priorities for FY2023. Joy said that the Selectmen agreed that one of those priorities would be age qualified affordable housing. Russo said that one of his goals would be, “attaining some kind of land so Plymptonians can stay in town.” Russo also highlighted the importance of bettering their technology including making sure the town website is a source of information. He also said he was interested in “a continuing evolution of the budget process.” Traynor agreed about the importance of technology. He also said that the Firehouse and overall town center infrastructure is one of his priorities for the coming year. “When we talk about the Firehouse, we find that, in fact, what we’re talking about is the town campus infrastructure or town center infrastructure,” Traynor explained. “The parking at the Townhouse is atrocious as we know; we do want to put in the ball fields,” he continued.
The Board also discussed having department heads once again begin attending their Selectmen meetings to provide updates. Town Administrator Liz Dennehy shared with the Selectmen a document she developed that would be shared with the department head prior to their appointment. The hope is to provide more structure to these meetings than what was previously had during such meetings the last year. This would allow the Selectmen to have specific questions and concerns ready ahead of the meeting. Traynor suggested that they begin with the library. “I am just totally blown away by the energy that he is putting into this; a lot going on over there,” Traynor said of the Library Director.
The Selectmen took up the granting of the solar easement on the Dennett Elementary School roof. Dennehy explained, “what we’re looking for this evening is a motion… to grant the solar easement for the solar project to Dennett Elementary School and this would run concurrently with the lease and power agreement, and it would also terminate when both of those are concluded.” She further explained that the agreement included the assurance that the town won’t do anything on the town-owned land around the school that could cast a shadow on the solar panels. It will likely be a 20-year agreement. Selectmen voted unanimously to grant the solar easement.
Dennehy provided the Selectmen with a Town Administrator’s Update. “The Route 58 bridge that was in need of some repairs… bids are coming in tomorrow for that work,” Dennehy said. She said that it is a State, not a town project. She also told the Selectmen that work is beginning on the Townhouse roof project. “The gutters were being taken care of today at the Old Townhouse,” she added.
The Selectmen ended their night with their raves for the past few weeks. “My rave would be for the Plympton School Committee and how they frugally managed the budget throughout all of the challenges that they experienced this year, and they are returning over $100,000 to the town,” Joy said. “My rave tonight is for the Board of Selectmen. We had some somewhat challenging issues tonight,” Russo said. “Saluting ourselves and particularly saluting John and Christine tonight,” he added. Traynor said, “My rave would be for the Townhouse team and when I say that I mean the Townhouse center, the campus if you will… it’s really enjoyable the way you can see them working together… looking back to six years ago, you can see we made a lot of progress.”