The Halifax Select Board executed three contracts in a single open session Aug. 25, closing out a summer of turnover at the top of town government. The board voted unanimously to approve a negotiated contract with Darleen Sullivan as Interim Town Administrator, running from Monday, Aug. 31, 2026, through June 30, 2027, and separately ratified three-year collective bargaining agreements with both of the town’s police unions. Sullivan, the former Norwell Town Administrator, becomes Halifax’s third administrator since Cody Haddad departed just over a year ago
The Select Board opened at 6:00 p.m. and immediately moved into executive session to discuss two MassCOP contract negotiations, the Interim Town Administrator position, and executive session minutes. The motion carried 3-0 on a roll call vote. When the board reconvened in open session, it took its agenda out of order and spent the first 20 minutes on a proposal to merge two volunteer committees before returning to the contracts.
Chair Thomas Pratt framed the administrator vote as the end of a process that had consumed the board for weeks. “Obviously we’re in search of a Town Administrator that’s been going on for the better part of several weeks,” Pratt said. “There’s been some behind-the-scenes work on our end, individually looking for possibilities.”
The board interviewed Sullivan in open session on Aug. 20 and voted that night to appoint her pending successful contract negotiations. Tuesday’s vote executed the agreement. “Darleen presented very well,” Pratt said. “At that time we agreed to enter contract negotiations with the hope of appointing her as Interim Town Administrator, and we’re lucky and fortunate to be in a position to do that.”
Jonathan Selig said the town had landed well given the circumstances. “Darleen has extensive experience, and I’m excited that she’s coming in here as an interim,” Selig said. “We’ll see how it goes, and hopefully we like her and she likes us, and who knows what happens down the road.” Vice Chair William Smith was briefer: “I think we can hit the ground running with her.”
Sullivan spent more than 13 years in Norwell, rising through the Treasurer-Collector and Finance Director roles to Assistant Town Administrator and finally Town Administrator, a post she left at the end of June. Halifax’s vacancy opened when Town Administrator Steven Solbo, who started in Jan. 2026, resigned in August; the board approved a mutual separation and transition agreement on July 30. Sullivan’s contract expires at the close of the fiscal year, leaving the board to run a permanent search during her tenure. No salary figure was stated in open session.
The board also approved memoranda of agreement with Local 239 of the Massachusetts Coalition of Police, representing patrol officers, and Local 459, representing police sergeants. Both contracts run July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2029. Each passed unanimously with no discussion of financial terms in open session; the bargaining strategy had been handled in executive session earlier in the evening.
“Good job on both of those,” Smith told Selig, who had led the negotiations. “I think it’s a very fair contract, and they deserve it.”
The evening’s longest discussion was also its least formal. Selig floated merging the Halifax Fireworks Committee and the Holidays in Halifax Committee into a single body — a working name of “Halifax Celebrates” was raised — that would handle all town celebrations rather than one summer event and one December event.
“The move now in government is to streamline, is to try to get rid of redundancies,” Selig said. “We have great members on both. I figured it might make more sense to have one committee to handle our celebrations. That way we’re not limited to holidays in Halifax, we’re not limited to fireworks.”
Representatives of both committees told the board they already work together and had no objection. The practical obstacle is procedural: the Holidays in Halifax Committee was established on Town Meeting floor, which means changing its charge, name, or composition requires a Town Meeting vote. The board settled on drafting a warrant article for the fall Special Town Meeting that would amend the existing charge, cover a name change, and set the merged committee’s composition. Members will research the original charge and bring it back.
Budget mechanics were the other complication. Each committee carries its own line item, and only one was funded this fiscal year. Pratt suggested letting the current fiscal year run its course, then folding any future funding into a single joint account rather than appropriating separately for fireworks.
The board also weighed in on a proposed “Friends of” fundraising group modeled on library friends organizations. Selig said such a group would have to operate at arm’s length. “It really can’t have any town involvement,” he said. “If a group of parents or volunteers want to have a Friends thing and do it on their own, for their own reasons, knock yourself out.” Committee members could volunteer at events but should not sit on the friends group’s board, the board agreed, to avoid any appearance of impropriety. Taking donations from such a group would be permissible.
The board also declined to reopen the Fourth Avenue boat ramp early, letting the lock stand until its scheduled removal on Sept. 7. No motion was made and no vote taken because none was needed to leave the existing policy in place.
All three members agreed the underlying problem is timing. “This is all reactive,” Pratt said. “Everything we’ve done so far, including this discussion, is reactive. I’d much rather be proactive about a solution.” Selig said he would ask the Parks Commission — Chairman Michael Schleiff and members Bruce Nobles and Jeremy Gillespie — to come before the board in March 2027 to design a policy for the May-through-September season, and said he would not oppose a hybrid arrangement giving residents some form of access. Smith raised eliminating out-of-town beach stickers; Executive Assistant Pamela McSherry said sales had dropped off sharply in recent weeks. The board tabled that question for March as well.
Selig closed with a note about the start of school the following week, asking drivers to slow down. “You’re going to have kids all over the place next week,” he said. “A lot of bike riders. A lot of those e-bikes now. Give yourself some extra time. Give some space to our buses.”
Pratt thanked McSherry for absorbing added workload during the vacancy. “More and more falls on Pam,” he said.

The Halifax Board of Selectmen voted unanimously last Thursday to appoint Darleen Sullivan, who stepped down as Norwell’s Town Administrator at the end of June, as Halifax’s Interim Town Administrator — filling the town’s top appointed post the same evening they interviewed her. Over roughly 70 minutes of questioning, Sullivan promised the board a five-year budget forecast within about a month of starting, pledged to work full-time hours rather than a part-time interim schedule, and, while stressing she was speaking personally rather than as a town official, urged Halifax to reconsider its rejection of the state’s MBTA Communities zoning requirement, telling Selectmen the town is “bleeding money legally” in its ongoing suit.
The appointment was the only substantive item on the agenda. Chairman Thomas Pratt opened the meeting at 7:30 p.m. in the Great Hall at 499 Plymouth Street, joined by Selectman William Smith, Selectman Jonathan Selig and Board of Selectmen Administrative Assistant Pamela McSherry. The board’s posted agenda listed a single interview, a possible vote, and an anticipated executive session to prepare for contract negotiations.
Sullivan told the board she brings more than 30 years of management experience and roughly 20 years in municipal government. She spent 16 years at Verizon in customer billing operations before moving into local government, starting in assessing, then serving as Treasurer-Collector in Hanover and Norwell. In Norwell she rose to Finance Director, Assistant Town Administrator and ultimately Town Administrator, a post she left at the end of June.
“I’m a problem solver, just by nature,” Sullivan said, describing a management approach built on communication and department-head collaboration. “I don’t walk in and exert, you know, hey, I’m the boss. I look at it like I’m coming in and I’m working with other professionals.”
She also addressed the elephant in the room directly: Halifax has cycled through administrators in recent years, and department heads have watched several transitions. “I know you guys have been through some transition,” Sullivan said. “But I promise that I will, no matter what, if I’m your person, that I will not leave you hanging.” She pointed to Norwell, where she gave more than six months’ notice, as evidence of how she exits a job.
Pratt asked how quickly Sullivan could assess the town’s financial and operational condition. Her answer centered on data. Within roughly a month, she said, she would compile four to five years of budget-versus-actual history to see where Halifax has consistently needed transfers, then build a template and a five-year forward-looking forecast.
“Let’s budget closer to reality if we can,” she said, adding that she would lean on the Finance Committee and department heads for detail and knows where to go for early estimates on state local aid.
Sullivan also walked the board through Norwell’s override, which passed at town meeting but narrowly failed at the ballot — members cited margins of roughly 80 to 134 votes. Her chief lesson, she said, was timing: she had told residents an override was coming two years in advance, but formal preparation should have started earlier in the fall. When school assessment figures and a health insurance increase she put at 14.28 percent landed in the winter, her staff built parallel “override” and “cut” budgets, split the article into a base budget and a supplemental, and held multiple public forums. After the ballot defeat, the town implemented the reductions, consolidating some positions.
She described a budget restructuring she used in Norwell that she may bring to Halifax: breaking out “shared costs” — health insurance, pension, liability and life insurance obligations that serve both town and schools — as a separate line between gross revenue and departmental appropriations. The exercise, she said, revealed that a budget that looked like a 50-50 town-school split was closer to 70-30. “At least the invisible bleed was gone in that sense,” she said.
School costs drew particular attention because Halifax carries two of them — its own elementary budget and its assessment to the Silver Lake Regional district. Pratt noted that the dual structure was new to Sullivan’s experience, and Selig said a monthly check-in with regional district administration had been established under previous town administrators to track budget conditions. Sullivan said she wants Halifax represented at that table and intends to examine the district’s detailed budget and the fairness of the assessment method. Selig also noted that the town’s municipal budget is typically finished well before school figures firm up, because districts are waiting on state numbers.
The interview’s sharpest exchange came when Pratt noted that Halifax voters “overwhelmingly” rejected the MBTA Communities zoning mandate in December 2024, that the town is now ineligible for certain state grants, and that the matter remains unresolved.
Sullivan did not hedge. Saying she was hesitant to press an opinion in the role but would give her personal view, she told the board: “I think we need to re-approach this and you really should pass it, because in all honesty, the state has the absolute authority to do this.”
She argued the town’s leverage lies in siting rather than refusal: “Why not take the only control you have, which is where do we want to put it?” She said she did not expect the town’s litigation to prevail, and pointed to infrastructure grants for bridges, culverts, and sidewalks that Halifax cannot currently access. Smith noted the town is also losing out on Transportation Improvement Program money.
Sullivan added that a district could later be repealed by town meeting vote, and said she would ask town counsel whether Halifax could adopt the zoning and still pursue its suit. She twice framed the remarks as personal: “I’m not wearing the Town Administrator hat today. If I was, I’d be a little more reserved.”
Pratt outlined the breadth of the position: Halifax’s administrator serves as human resources, procurement officer and records request officer, without a dedicated HR department. Sullivan said she carried the same portfolio in Norwell and used a low-cost consultant to help with procurement RFPs, moving all bids online through a free platform. She said she would likely ask whether the town clerk could serve as records access officer for intake and tracking, while remaining involved herself — but only after learning how Halifax operates. “I don’t want to come into Halifax and make big changes right now,” she said. “I need to get in, I need to get into the bathtub here and see how it’s going.”
Smith asked how she handles confrontational residents and whether she had dealt with First Amendment audits in Norwell. On both, Sullivan emphasized preparation and composure: listen, respond calmly, don’t escalate, and make sure staff are trained in advance. “I’m also very professional, but I do not shy away from tough conversations,” she said.
Asked about hours — Halifax Town Hall is closed Fridays — Sullivan committed to a full schedule, distinguishing herself from previous interim candidates who proposed partial weeks. “I’m going to commit as if I’m a full-time TA,” she said. “I don’t think you can get it done” otherwise.
Sullivan turned the interview around near the end, asking the board how it would define success. Pratt said the town needs items resolved rather than accumulated, citing ongoing litigation in several areas, friction between departments and a divided electorate following a close override vote. He asked for a smoother, earlier budget process, better communication with residents, and a well-organized town meeting “that the residents can be proud of.” Smith said his priorities were not being blindsided and having accurate warrant materials that are not changed at the last minute. “You shouldn’t be tweaking numbers after it’s been blessed,” Sullivan agreed.
Selig, who said he has served six years on the board, was blunt in his assessment: “Your resume is the most extensive and impressive in municipal work that I’ve seen for any candidate that’s come across our desk in my time here.”
Pratt then made the motion to appoint her. It carried unanimously. “I didn’t know that would happen this evening,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan said she is targeting a September 1 start but would begin onboarding immediately and make herself available for calls before then. She told the board her goals by June 30 are to leave Halifax with a set of financial policies — reserve, stabilization, and debt management — and a completed budget forecast, whether or not she is still in the chair. She also suggested the board revisit the arrangement in December or January to assess whether the fit should extend beyond the interim term.

Kratom comes off store shelves across Massachusetts on Aug. 28, closing a gap that Kingston’s Board of Health moved to close on its own nearly a year ago.
Governor Maura Healey announced the emergency order on Aug. 13. Department of Public Health Commissioner Robbie Goldstein, MD, PhD, has temporarily placed all forms of kratom into Schedule I under state law, the most restrictive classification the Commonwealth has, reserved for substances with a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use. The order takes effect after a 14-day notice period and remains in place for up to one year.
For the three towns, the practical effect is the same in every case: any smoke shop, convenience store or gas station still carrying kratom powders, capsules, gummies, shots or dissolvable strips must clear them out, and local boards of health gain explicit authority to enforce that.
The order lands as a win for Rep. Kathy LaNatra, D-Kingston, who has spent two years working the issue in the 12th Plymouth District and at the State House, hosting briefings where legislators heard from parents, pediatricians and public health advocates.
“After hearing a personal story from a constituent and a friend about her child’s usage of kratom products and his subsequent recovery, I made it a top priority of mine to help educate my colleagues and constituents about this drug and do something to keep the residents of Massachusetts safe,” LaNatra said in a statement issued the day of the announcement.
She said her advocacy led “four out of six towns that I represent to issue town-wide bans prior to today’s order.” Her district covers Kingston, Plympton, precincts in Halifax, Middleborough, Pembroke and Plymouth. Plympton and Halifax appear to have been the two hold outs, so this state ban will change the status quo.
Express readers heard the warning early. In July 2025, LaNatra and Kingston Police Chief Brian Holmes went public together about kratom’s spread among local teenagers.
“Too many parents have never even heard of kratom, and yet their kids can walk into a local store and buy it right off the shelf,” LaNatra said at the time.
Holmes was blunter about the enforcement problem. “We’ve encountered young people in our community who are using kratom, unaware of how dangerous it really is. It’s flying under the radar, and that’s a serious problem,” he said. “There are no safeguards in place — no age restrictions, no proper labeling, no public awareness.”
Kingston’s Board of Health acted three months later. After a public hearing on Oct. 6, 2025, the board adopted a “Regulation Prohibiting the Manufacturing, Sale, and Distribution of Kratom, Kratom Products and Kratom Synthetics,” effective Oct. 17, 2025.
That town-to-town gap is what the state order now closes. Beginning Aug. 28, retailers in both towns face the same prohibition as those in Kingston — not through local rulemaking, but by operation of state law.
Cheryl Sbarra, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Health Boards, emphasized that. “Until now, kratom products were largely unregulated in Massachusetts,” she said. “We are increasingly concerned about their use, especially among young people, because these products are readily available in convenience stores across the Commonwealth.”
Enforcement is a separate question. Boards of Health in all three towns are small operations. Whether the three towns will inspect proactively or respond to complaints remains to be seen.
DPH says it is distributing guidance to local boards of health, health care providers and treatment programs, and will hold an informational webinar for local public health officials on implementing the order.
Kratom is a leafy plant native to Southeast Asia. It contains mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine, or 7-OH, and depending on dose can produce stimulant-like or opioid-like effects. Newer products on the market contain highly concentrated or laboratory-modified compounds with substantially stronger opioid-like effects than the raw plant.
Because the products have gone essentially unregulated, potency and ingredients vary widely from package to package, and buyers have had no reliable way to know what they were getting.
State health officials link kratom use to seizures, hallucinations, psychosis, physical dependence and withdrawal symptoms resembling opioid withdrawal. Overdose risk rises with highly potent products, with products containing unknown substances, and when kratom is combined with opioids, alcohol, benzodiazepines or other sedatives. Kratom-related deaths have been reported but remain uncommon and typically involve other substances or underlying health conditions.
Because the effects can be opioid-like, DPH advises that naloxone be administered immediately if someone who has used kratom has slowed or stopped breathing. Naloxone is available without a prescription at pharmacies and many retail locations.
Dependence is real, and a sudden supply cutoff can produce opioid-like withdrawal. Treatment is available, including medications, counseling, peer support and behavioral health services.
Anyone seeking help for themselves or a family member can call or text “HOPE” to 800-327-5050 to reach the Massachusetts Substance Use Helpline, staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. DPH has posted new resources at mass.gov/kratom covering the risks, how to recognize and respond to an overdose, and how to find treatment.

The Halifax Select Board voted unanimously, 3-0, at a special Thursday morning meeting on July 30 to approve, authorize, and execute a mutual transition and separation agreement with Town Administrator Steven Solbo, ending the tenure of the town’s top appointed official.
Chair Thomas Pratt opened the six-minute meeting by confirming that each board member had reviewed the proposed agreement as printed. No member had questions, and Solbo, who was present, had nothing to add. Pratt then made the motion himself.
“At this time, the agreement has been drawn up by legal and is subject to signatures and verification of a few things,” Pratt said. “Beyond that, as the chair, I will make a motion that our board sign the agreement as presented and enter into the proposed mutual separation and transition agreement as written.” The motion was seconded and passed 3-0 with all three members — Pratt, Vice Chair William Smith, and Clerk Jonathan Selig — present.
What followed was several minutes of tribute. “This is a tough gig. This is a very tough gig,” Selig said. “I commend him for always bringing it as far as his attitude, his effort, digging in and doing the best job he could for Halifax.” Smith thanked Solbo for “all the time and effort you put in.”
Pratt tied his own remarks to the Special Town Meeting held the night before, on July 29. “The one thing that I would add, in the lead-up, in the last several weeks and months, particularly these last seven to 10 days, despite some of this noise being on in the background, I think Steven showed up for the town, as was evidenced by last night,” Pratt said. “A much smoother, notably, town meeting. More organization through the door, and I thought that that was a good reflection on the dedication.”
The board’s reluctance to characterize the agreement was the meeting’s only point of friction. Resident Alan Dias of Snow St. asked the board to paraphrase what would happen next. “There’s some interest in this, and I think residents should know what’s going on,” Dias said.
Pratt agreed in principle but said the board’s hands were tied. Because the signed agreement is a public document, he said, a records request filed that day would have to be answered within 10 days, and the board expected to release the full agreement inside that window — “the hope would be by this time next week.” Dias pressed on the practical questions: whether the town would begin searching for a new administrator immediately, and whether Solbo would remain for days, weeks, or longer.
“Those are good questions, Alan,” Pratt replied. “We’re going to defer to legal. Legal counsel has advised us to sit on that for a bit. There are some things in the contract that would prohibit us from laying that out clearly at the moment, but I would imagine that you would know our plan sooner rather than later.” Dias then stated for the record that he was formally requesting the public information. The board adjourned at 8:37 a.m.
Two days Earlier: New School Committee Member Appointed
The Thursday vote came 48 hours after a two-and-a-half-hour joint session on Tuesday, July 28, in which the Select Board, the Halifax Elementary School Committee, and the Finance Committee met together in the Great Hall. The dominant subject there was money the school district is sending back to the town, prior to the Town Meeting held on July 29.
The joint bodies also filled a vacancy on the Halifax Elementary School Committee. Three of four applicants appeared: Krystal Kingsley, a health care executive with a finance and strategic planning background who grew up in Halifax; James Hopkins of Pond St., a retired naval officer and father of four; and Samantha Cox of Twin Lakes Dr., who worked for years in early childhood education and served on the override committee. Derek Wigman withdrew.
Members of all three boards took turns questioning the candidates on strengths, handling social media pressure, meeting commitments, and working as part of a team after losing a vote. Pratt recused himself from the vote, citing a personal friendship with one of the candidates. Selectman Jonathan Selig was absent, what may be his first missed meeting in his tenure, according to Pratt.
Because the appointment required a majority of all seven sitting members of the Select Board and School Committee — not merely those present — four votes were needed. School Committee member Tara Tonello first moved to appoint Hopkins, calling all three candidates “truly incredible”; the motion received no second. Goyette then moved to appoint Kingsley, saying the committee needed financial expertise. “When we start to do the budget, I feel like somebody with a strong financial background would be really helpful in that committee,” Goyette said. The motion carried with the required four votes, Pratt abstaining. Krystal Kingsley will be sworn in at the town clerk’s office.

Halifax voters reversed a significant share of the budget cuts imposed after May’s failed Proposition 2½ override, approving roughly $634,929 in supplemental appropriations at a Special Town Meeting July 29 — including $350,021 pulled directly from the town’s stabilization fund. Every restoration passed over the objection of the Finance Committee, which declined to recommend a single spending article. The reversal was driven by late-breaking news that the Halifax Elementary School would return approximately $727,000 to the town, money the Select Board pledged to use to refill stabilization once the state certifies it as free cash.
The special town meeting, called by citizen petition, ran roughly 95 minutes and disposed of six articles. Petitioner Gordon Andrews of Elm Street moved to pass over Articles 1, 2 and 4 as no longer necessary — all three passed over unanimously — leaving Article 3, a rewritten omnibus budget amendment, as the night’s main event.
The backdrop was May 16, when Halifax voters defeated a $1.5 million operational override 867 to 714. That defeat locked in a baseline FY27 budget carrying nearly $1.5 million in departmental reductions, including $290,021 in combined police and fire cuts and a substantially reduced elementary school appropriation.
Before taking up any article, Moderator Robert Gaynor recognized Lauren Laws, chair of the Halifax Elementary School Committee, to explain the roughly $727,000 headed back to the town. Laws described it as the product of a one-time convergence: a state-required restructuring of the Silver Lake and Halifax Elementary budgets in 2023 moved pre-K, middle school and high school special education costs to Silver Lake, while Halifax Elementary continued to receive Circuit Breaker reimbursements tied to costs the town had already incurred.
The result, Laws said, was that Halifax Elementary received a substantially larger Circuit Breaker reimbursement while serving a far smaller eligible population — dropping from 21 students to three. That allowed the district to pay more than $1 million in eligible special education tuition and transportation costs from Circuit Breaker funds rather than from the local operating budget. The superintendent’s office contacted DESE in April and met with the department again in July before concluding the remaining balance could not be carried into another fiscal year.
“It is important to note that this was not the result of over-budgeting or reduced services to students,” Laws said, adding that the town should not expect reimbursements at that level again.
Andrews split Article 3 into four separate votes, a procedural division the Select Board and Town Counsel had worked out an hour earlier — necessary because the stabilization transfers required a two-thirds vote while the rest needed only a simple majority. Lumped together, Town Counsel warned the board, anything short of two-thirds would have defeated the entire package.
The first tranche moved $198,743 out of the FY27 reserve fund and into five operating lines: fire wages ($140,000), treasurer-collector clerical wages ($24,735), accountant clerical wages ($24,469), youth and recreation wages ($9,186) and a $353 library expense correction. The motion also ratified $48,762 in reserve fund transfers the Finance Committee had already approved — language Town Counsel insisted on to foreclose any claim of wrongdoing by that committee.
Selectman Jonathan Selig pressed the point that this money was not one-time revenue. The reserve fund was funded at $300,000 at the May annual town meeting rather than the customary $100,000, using raised-and-appropriated dollars after a $200,000 accounting correction from the regional district. “This part of the plan is essentially taking money that we decided in May to put in reserve,” Selig said. “Let’s put it in the actual line items that are short.”
Resident Susan Vogt of Deer Run Rd. spoke for the fire appropriation: “We need ambulances in this town. We need fire trucks in this town.” The Select Board recommended the package; the Finance Committee did not. It passed by majority.
The elementary school line drew the first two-thirds vote of the night. Superintendent Dr. Jill Proulx told the meeting her recommendation would be to restore cut positions “first in the grade levels with the highest class averages, which are grades 2 and 6,” moving those classrooms from roughly 26 or 27 students down to about 20. Remaining salary savings might restore a math specialist or other eliminated positions.
E.J. Bryan of Harvest Ln. asked whether the district could realistically hire in late July. Proulx said the school committee would first have to vote the amended budget, after which positions would post for 10 days. “I can’t promise you that there will be viable candidates,” she said, “but it is a possibility, it’s a strong possibility.”
Gordon Laws, chair of the Silver Lake Regional School Committee, said the labor market favors districts hiring now, pointing to failed overrides statewide and citing neighboring Whitman-Hanson’s layoffs as having put more certified teachers into circulation.
Chair Thomas Pratt delivered the Select Board’s recommendation with a caveat. “The late-breaking information of the return of the circuit breaker funding from the schools of 727,000 changes the game, for me at least,” he said, before adding that the fix is temporary: “All it does is fix a band-aid.” The board, he said, does not believe the vote diminishes the need for an override.
The police line produced the meeting’s most detailed department testimony. Asked by Sandra Nolan of South St. what would happen without the funding, Police Chief Joao Chaves read a prepared statement.
Current staffing is 14 officers for roughly 8,000 residents, Chaves said, below the 16 to 20 range FBI standards suggest for that population. The department has already lost two officers to resignation and will lose a third in September, with a fourth actively pursuing another department. “We can’t operate our department the way it is with losing four officers,” he said. “We’d have to close an entire midnight shift.”
Jonathan Selig, delivering the Select Board’s recommendation, was candid about his discomfort. “I’m not 100% sold on stabilization for reoccurring costs,” he said. “Not a huge fan of using stabilization for operational. But where we have close to three-quarters of a million dollars unexpected, it’s not ideal, but I’ll live with it.” He noted the town drew $750,000 from free cash last year; this year’s stabilization draw of $350,021 is less than half that.
The final Article 3 vote restored $36,165 for the Council on Aging director’s wages and $50,000 in Council on Aging wages — $86,165 total — funded not from stabilization or free cash but by transfer from the town’s GATRA reimbursement account. Andrews said the town holds a signed contract with the Greater Attleboro-Taunton Regional Transit Authority worth roughly $98,000 that reimburses wages, van costs, repairs and maintenance, and that approximately $117,203.98 sat unspent in that account at fiscal year close.
Finance Committee Chair James Walters opposed every spending line on a single consistent principle. “The Finance Committee does not recommend using the reserve funds or the stabilization fund to fund ongoing debts like salaries,” he told the meeting.
His central objection was structural. “If we’re putting one-time dollars into salaries, what are we going to do next year if the revenues aren’t there? Are we going to do the same thing again?”
Both petitioner Andrews and the Select Board committed on the record to returning the $350,021 to stabilization once free cash is certified. Andrews said he would file another citizen petition to force the transfer if the board did not act. Pratt confirmed: “Once certified, it returns as appropriate to the stabilization fund.”
Articles 5 and 6, both filed by the Select Board, were taken together with Article 6 first — a sequencing the board worked out in advance so a new account would exist before the old one was rescinded.
Vice Chair William Smith explained that Article 6 establishes a receipts-reserved-for-appropriation account for PFAS settlement proceeds and moves an initial $300,000 into it from settlement money currently sitting in the general fund. Roughly $379,303 is in the PFAS account now, Smith said, and the $300,000 represents an initial allocation rather than the full expected settlement. Unlike a stabilization fund, appropriations from the new account require only a simple majority.
Selig framed Article 5 as the cleanup. The town created a PFAS Settlement Stabilization Fund in May after the state directed that settlement money could not sit in the general fund — but a stabilization fund requires a two-thirds town meeting vote for every expenditure, an impractical constraint for water emergencies. Article 5 rescinds that May vote. Town Counsel advised that under Department of Revenue guidance, a special purpose stabilization fund must remain on the books for three years regardless; the practical effect is simply that the town will not use it. Nothing had been deposited in it.
The Finance Committee recommended Article 6 subject to an amendment naming the receiving account. Article 6 was amended, then Article 5 passed unanimously, after which the meeting discovered it had voted the amendment without voting the underlying motion. Andrews raised the point of order; the meeting returned to Article 6 and adopted the motion as previously amended, unanimously. Andrews then moved to dissolve.

The Halifax Board of Selectmen voted unanimously July 14 to keep the Lingan St. / 4th Ave. resident-access boat ramp gated through Monday, Sept. 7, extending a four-day July Fourth closure into a full summer-long shutdown after residents described jet ski traffic, drinking, and near misses in the swim area at the town beach on West Monponsett Lake. In a second unanimous vote, the board directed Town Administrator Steven Solbo to price out a land survey and a title search — because after two meetings of debate, no one at the table could say with certainty whether the town owns the beach it is trying to regulate.
The beach discussion, listed on the agenda as a Parks Commission item, consumed roughly 45 minutes of the meeting and drew a contingent of residents from the 4th Ave., neighborhood. It was the second time in a month the issue commanded the board’s agenda: on June 23, residents brought photographs and video to the board describing jet skis operating inside the no-wake buoys, alcohol on the beach, blocked emergency access, and a rear-end collision involving a vehicle towing a jet ski trailer. Chair Thomas Pratt cautioned at that meeting against assuming the conduct was confined to non-residents, telling the room the rules should be enforced the same way regardless of where a person lives.
Following that meeting, the town installed a temporary gate at the ramp for the Thursday-through-Sunday stretch of the July Fourth weekend. By Tuesday, residents were nearly unanimous that it had worked — and that removing it had immediate consequences.
Parks Commission Chair Michael Schleiff opened by conceding the season had gotten away from the three-member elected board. “It was a mess,” Schleiff said. “Everybody knows it. Everything fell apart. Nothing worked.” He said the commission had put the same measures in place as prior years — a paid parking attendant, swim buoys, markers, a portable toilet, post-storm cleanup — and that a surge of visitors overwhelmed all of it.
Schleiff said he is effectively operating alone. He told the board he has been unable to convene the commission’s other two members, that the commission last met around the time of the annual town meeting, and that he has been hauling trash from the beach in his own truck. He said the commission returned roughly $2,000 in unspent funds to the town at the close of the fiscal year because it lacked the staffing to expend it, and that money for police details at the beach was exhausted before the holiday weekend. “We try it every year,” he said. “Every year we try to get ahead of it. We never get ahead of it. Ever.” He later added: “I’m frustrated through the roof. And the breakdown is like everywhere.”
Pratt pressed him on the commission’s meeting schedule. “If we’re a day late and a dollar short, like you’re not meeting regularly, that only exacerbates the problem in my opinion,” the chair said. Member Jonathan Selig suggested a standing monthly meeting and offered administrative help from the Selectmen’s office to reach the other commissioners, while cautioning that the Parks Commission is separately elected and outside the board’s appointing authority — a jurisdictional limit Pratt returned to repeatedly through the meeting.
Residents were pointed. Steve Goodman of 4th Avenue disputed Schleiff’s account of coverage at the beach and said the temporary gate had changed behavior almost immediately, with vehicles turning around rather than launching. He said the effect reversed within a day of the gate coming down, and that vehicles now scout the ramp for enforcement before larger groups arrive. Goodman also told the board he intends to file a complaint with the Attorney General’s office over the Parks Commission’s failure to produce meeting minutes in response to a public records request, saying the commission had more than six weeks to respond.
David Mascio of 4th Avenue thanked Pratt, Selig and Deputy Police Chief Theodore Benner for visiting the site, but said he emailed the Parks Commission the prior week and received no reply from any commissioner. “If a Parks Commissioner doesn’t want to be involved, step down and put a talent bank form in,” Mascio said. He argued that enforcement at the beach in recent months has come primarily from residents working with police, and pointed to a fatal jet ski crash in Lakeville as the outcome the neighborhood is trying to avoid. “If parks can’t handle it, let’s get some people in there that can.”
Amy Troup of Hillside Avenue told the board the gate had restored ordinary use of the beach, describing families walking children down to the water on weekday evenings. She said signage at the beach has long designated it for Halifax residents and that neighbors filed a petition with the town clerk’s office in 2020 seeking to bar non-resident access.
Benner raised the practical obstacles. The deputy chief said the town does not know where 4th Avenue ends as a public way and where park land begins — a distinction that matters, because a gate blocking a public way would not survive legal challenge. The existing temporary gate sits far enough down that he believes it is defensible; moving it uphill, he said, would require settling the public-way question and would push turnarounds into residents’ driveways. Benner said officers have written approximately 40 citations at the beach this year totaling roughly $1,900, but that enforcement does not hold. “They’ll go down there. They’ll tag 10 of the vehicles. As soon as they leave, 10 more vehicles do show up,” he said. He suggested relocating the parking attendant to the entrance to check stickers on the way in rather than patrolling after the fact.
That prompted the ownership question. Goodman told the board he has been running his own title search at the Registry of Deeds and has traced the parcels from the 1860s through 1930 without finding a conveyance to the town. He described a private school property bequeathed in 1911, passed in the 1930s to two owners who split the land and donated the school building to the town, with the remaining lots running down to the beach still privately held as of 1956. Solbo noted that a survey and a title search are separate exercises and that both would need to go out to bid, though some firms perform both. Mark Dillon of Lingan St. said he believes the Parks Commission already commissioned a survey of the area roughly two years ago under a state planning grant, and that the record may still exist.
Selig moved to have Solbo research pricing for both a land survey of the gate area and a title search to establish ownership of the beach parcel. It passed unanimously.
The board also asked Solbo to research whether the beach can lawfully be restricted to residents. Selig framed the concern plainly: the town can restrict parking, but restricting a public area is a different legal question. “If we built HOPS and said it was for Halifax kids only — how do you make a beach resident only if it truly is a public area?” he asked. Margaret McKenna of Lingan St. described how the nearby private Liberty Beach handles the issue, with guests permitted only when accompanied by the resident who brought them. Pratt said he supports the goal but wants the legal footing settled first. “I’m not against it. I just want to make sure we do it right the first time,” he said. “I don’t want to put it forward and then have to take it back because we were not right or not accurate.”
Dillon offered a note of caution against a blanket ban, saying the neighborhood also lost visiting families from East Bridgewater and Kingston who used the beach without incident, and that access through the ramp — not the beach itself — is what draws the problem traffic. He also noted the ramp runs through a freshwater mussel bed, a protected species in Massachusetts that helps filter the pond.
Selig then moved to extend the temporary gate through Sept. 7, with the board free to revisit it earlier if circumstances change. It carried 3-0. The town posted formal notice of the closure on July 18, directing residents to the state boat ramp on Route 58 for the duration.

The Plympton Board of Selectmen voted 2-1 on July 14 to offer the permanent town administrator position to interim administrator Robert Fennessy Jr., over the preference of Chair Nathaniel Sides, who argued the town’s looming budget pressures called for a candidate with a deeper municipal-finance background. Selectmen Dana Smith and Daniel Cadogan carried the motion, citing Fennessy’s experience running neighboring South Shore towns and his three months already on the job in Plympton.
The decision capped a two-meeting process that began July 9, when the board interviewed four finalists forwarded by a seven-member screening committee working with the consulting firm Community Paradigm Associates. Community Paradigm’s Bernie Lynch told the board the committee had winnowed roughly 30 applicants down to the four who appeared in public.
Fennessy has served as Plympton’s interim town administrator since late April, stepping in after Liz Dennehy — the town’s first-ever administrator — departed for Easton. An attorney of more than two decades and an adjunct professor at UMass Law School, Fennessy told the board he has held the administrator’s job, on either an interim or permanent basis, in Boylston, Kingston, Carver and Halifax, and served last year as interim human resources director in Brockton. He pitched himself as a package deal. “You’re not just getting a town administrator,” he said. “You’re getting an attorney,” an HR director, and “the only person who’s worn the town administrator shoes” in nearly all of Plympton’s neighboring communities. Asked what he saw as the town’s biggest challenge, he answered without hesitation: “Obviously, it’s financial.”
The other three finalists brought contrasting profiles. Christine DeMoranville, the Treasurer-Collector for the City of Taunton since 2022 and a 30-year veteran of banking and government finance, leaned on her investment and procurement record; she told the board Taunton had posted among the highest municipal investment earnings in the state on her watch and that she had earned her Massachusetts procurement (MCPPO) certification in March. Heather Hamilton, a former chair of the Brookline Select Board with a background at MassDOT and a municipal engineering firm, emphasized capital planning, grant strategy and communication, and said Plympton’s rural character and its prior female administrator had drawn her to the role. Sydney Viveiros, currently assistant town accountant in Lakeville and previously executive administrative assistant to the Acushnet town administrator, presented herself as a hands-on, budget-conscious generalist steeped in day-to-day municipal operations, and repeatedly likened Plympton to Acushnet.
Sides opened the July 9 session with a warning to the audience that the finalists were sitting for genuine job interviews and deserved courtesy. Each candidate fielded questions on their first 100 days, HR and collective bargaining, grants and procurement, economic development in a town with almost no commercial tax base, and their working relationship with a three-member board. Sides also closed each interview with the same offbeat prompt — “You’re a tree. What kind of a tree are you and why?” DeMoranville and Fennessy both chose the oak; Hamilton picked a willow; Viveiros, a Japanese maple.
When the board reconvened July 14 to deliberate in open session — a requirement under the state’s open meeting law — all three members went out of their way to praise the field. “I wish we had more jobs that we could hire all four of them for,” Cadogan said, calling every finalist a strong fit for the town in some capacity. But the members diverged on who should get this job.
Sides made the case for DeMoranville. “The biggest issues that are facing the town for the next five years or so are financial in nature,” he said, describing her as a proven financial manager with procurement, labor and roughly four to five years of municipal experience. He stressed the choice was “certainly nothing against Bob,” whom he called “a wonderful choice, a safe choice.” Smith backed Fennessy, pointing to his record in contiguous towns and the fiscal strain facing Plympton and the wider South Shore: “We need somebody with more experience on the ground, having worked in other towns.” Cadogan also backed Fennessy on the strength of his interim tenure and resume, while sharply criticizing the process itself. “I vehemently disagree with the open meeting law that makes us criticize people in public,” he said, declining to rank the other candidates and calling the public deliberation “a disgusting process that the state makes us do.”
Cadogan ultimately moved to offer the position to Fennessy. Sides added the standard contingency that any offer be subject to successful contract negotiation, and the motion carried on a roll call: Cadogan and Smith in favor, Sides opposed, a reflection of the finance-versus-experience split rather than any objection to Fennessy.
Fennessy accepted graciously. “I’m truly honored by your vote today, even though it wasn’t unanimous,” he told the board. “It’s been a privilege serving as interim town administrator here. I learned a lot in a short amount of time, and there’s a lot more to learn.” He pledged an open-door policy, “always have, for 20 years.”
The financial anxieties that shaped the vote were on plain display earlier in the same July 14 meeting. Before taking up the administrator question, the board reviewed the town accountant’s year-end internal budget transfers for fiscal 2026, which totaled roughly $317,000 in departmental deficits. Sides singled out the police department, which had run about $128,000 — roughly 10 percent — over budget. “Given the current fiscal state of the town, we need to know every step of the way,” he said, pressing for earlier notice when accounts head toward deficit. The board approved the transfers unanimously, pending Finance Committee sign-off on reserve-fund pieces expected later that evening.
That strain traces back to the town’s most recent town meeting, where — as board members recounted during the interviews — Plympton drew roughly $800,000 from stabilization to close its budget gap and avoid a Proposition 2½ override. Members told candidates repeatedly that the maneuver was a one-time fix: stabilization is now largely depleted, the town has no current five-year capital plan, a proposed new fire station failed at town meeting, and an aging population worried about affordability sits alongside an influx of younger residents. Whoever holds the administrator’s chair, Sides said, will need “creative ways to increase revenue” heading into what the board described as one of its toughest budget years.

Kingston’s highway barn closed after a chemical spill exposed two Streets, Trees and Parks employees and forced the town to relocate resident sticker sales for a few days, with officials awaiting air-quality results they hope will clear the building for reoccupation by week’s end. Town Administrator Scott Lambiase and Superintendent Shawn Turner offered only a limited public account, citing the potential for litigation.
The spill at the highway department building dominated the practical concerns of the June 23 meeting even as officials kept details deliberately sparse. Lambiase told the Board the town was “being a little careful on exactly what we’re putting out there, because this does have potential for some litigation, depending on how it goes down,” and directed selectmen to a written briefing distributed just before the meeting rather than a full public discussion.
Turner said the department was awaiting air-quality testing, with results expected “Wednesday afternoon at the earliest, Thursday morning at the latest.” If the air tests come back clean, he said, employees could return to the building. In the meantime, the department has continued limited operations, with Turner acknowledging it lacks “all the equipment we usually would to complete the job” for road work and thanking residents for their patience.
Turner credited a wide circle of town personnel for the response, singling out the fire department for ensuring two employees who were “somewhat exposed” received proper medical testing, the health agent for keeping people out of the building, and police for guarding the site around the clock since the incident. Chair Kimberley Emberg and Lambiase, in turn, praised Turner for managing the situation at all hours. “The biggest thing is making sure the employees are safe,” Turner said.
In the meeting’s most substantive debate, selectmen voted not to continue the process of accepting Nobadeer Circle as a public way, halting a resident petition after town staff estimated it would cost roughly $218,000 to bring the private road into acceptable condition.
Town Planner Valerie Massard walked the Board through a memo prepared after staff inspected the roughly 30-unit development, which was approved and endorsed in 2008 as a 40B project with roads designated private and maintained by homeowners. Massard reported 14 catch basins and 11 drain manholes, about 85% of which need reconstruction; four stormwater wetland areas; and two ponds connected by a 190-foot culvert running beneath the road. Staff estimated repaving alone could reach $200,000 at prevailing wage, on top of catch-basin reconstruction and crack-sealing, and recommended spending up to $1,500 on an engineer to produce a true cost estimate. Massard stressed that the prevailing-wage figures are higher than what private homeowners would pay for comparable work.
Selectman Carl Pike, who said he served on the Zoning Board when the development was approved, argued that a project built to be private should remain private. “I, as one selectman, am not interested in talking about converting it from a private road to a public road with all of the associated costs involved,” he said. Emberg pressed a different point, saying she could not identify the public benefit the road-acceptance policy requires. “I don’t know the public benefit. I just can’t see it,” she said, noting the circle functions as a dead-end neighborhood street.
Other members agreed. Pike moved that the selectmen not continue reviewing the road for public acceptance at this time, and the motion carried. Turner said the town would keep plowing Nobadeer Circle “just because we have,” but cautioned that once inspections begin, failing catch basins or overgrown trees would have to be addressed or plowing could stop.
The Board approved transferring $19,500 in opioid settlement funds to Plymouth County Outreach, an addiction-recovery and overdose-follow-up program housed on Main Street near the Plymouth line. Police Chief Brian Holmes said the program’s grant funding is “coming to a screeching halt in September,” prompting the organization to invoice every police department in Plymouth County to keep it running for at least another year. Holmes said he and department staff work closely with Executive Director Vicky Butler and are pursuing more sustainable funding with state officials. Under the town’s arrangement, the police department must seek the Board’s permission each time it draws on opioid settlement money.
In a quarterly update, Holmes reported that two new hires began the 22-week Municipal Police Training Academy in Plymouth, bringing the department to 28 sworn officers. He said a pending U.S. Department of Justice COPS Hiring Program grant, if awarded, would cover 75% of a new hire’s salary, with an application deadline in mid-July and a decision expected in early fall.
Holmes delivered a candid update on the long-discussed new police station. A plan to build near the Pembroke Street fire station collapsed after Eversource, which owns an abutting power-station property, indicated it has future expansion plans and could not grant an easement large enough for the town’s needs. Officials are now weighing an alternative town-owned lot, a purchase, or a creative reworking of the existing 244 Main Street site — an approach the department’s architect has called difficult while the current station remains occupied.
The chief also reported that the department’s Family Services Unit, operational since mid-January, now serves five partner communities — Kingston, Plymouth, Halifax, Hanson and Carver — and has completed 76 full evaluations, 56 non-traditional evaluations and four post-arrest evaluations, diverting people toward substance-abuse and mental-health services. That program has been funded for only one quarter of the fiscal year, through September, pending the state budget. Holmes added that Kingston officers assisted at Gillette Stadium during the FIFA World Cup and that the town is hosting this year’s Plymouth County DA’s DARE camp, with graduation set for July 31.

Plympton residents should expect a Proposition 2½ override question next spring, committee member Jason Fraser told the School Committee on June 15, after the town spent roughly $800,000 of its stabilization reserves to balance this year’s budget and left itself with less than $600,000 in the fund to fall back on.
Fraser, the committee’s legislative agent, delivered the warning during his legislative report, framing it not as a school problem but as a town-wide one. He said town leadership — the Selectmen, the Finance Committee and the Town Administrator — had sent a unified message that an override is the likely path back to balance when budget talks resume next spring.
The math, as Fraser laid it out, leaves little room to maneuver. “Even if we wanted to next year, it would be nearly impossible to go back to the well the same way,” he said. The strain already reached Dennett Elementary this year, which absorbed cuts and reductions in staff hours.
Fraser urged the committee and the town to think bigger than a one-year patch. “My advice would not be a Band-Aid override that would just whip us through one fiscal year, but look at an override that could replenish some of our stabilization funds so it could be sustainable over a three- to five-year period,” he said. He added that the pressure extends beyond the elementary school: “We could see serious erosion in all departments next year if we don’t do something to address that issue.” The squeeze, he noted, will hit all three Silver Lake member towns — Plympton, Halifax and Kingston — along with the regional district.
Fraser tempered the outlook with a run of good news on the revenue side. He reported that the committee secured roughly $59,000 in state earmarks for Dennett: $10,000 from Sen. Dylan Fernandes to replace the school’s voice-over-IP phone system, a $14,000 earmark from Rep. Kathleen LaNatra for emergency roof repairs, and $35,000 from Fernandes, with LaNatra’s support, for a building architectural and engineering report. Because Town Meeting separately authorized a $35,000 warrant article for that same report, Fraser said the state money may cover the work and leave the town’s appropriation largely untouched. He also reported that a retroactive $4 million statewide supplemental for rural aid should send about $18,000 to Plympton, with the statewide fund expected to climb from $12 million toward the $16–20 million range next year.
The committee opened the meeting by completing its reorganization for 2026, with Robert Montgomery presiding as chair. Fraser, who had chaired the committee, remains a member, and was thanked by colleagues for his service in the role.
The reorganization was paired with a vacancy. Montgomery announced that member Jon Wilhelmsen has resigned, leaving an open seat. Fraser explained the process: the committee will put out a public call for candidates, vet applicants as a full body, and recommend an appointment to the Board of Selectmen. Because of the summer schedule, members expect the work to carry into September. The appointee would serve a one-year term, running only until the next town election. The committee set a target application deadline of July 15 and agreed to publicize the opening through the school, the town clerk and local channels. No formal vote was required.
Principal Peter Veneto and K-6 Curriculum Coordinator Brian DeSantes presented end-of-year assessment data for Dennett, which will close the year with 251 students enrolled. The school’s DIBELS early-literacy score finished at 77 percent, up from 64 percent at the start of the year after a midyear dip to 59 percent that prompted an action plan re-allocating reading support. DeSantes told the committee the dip was an outlier, partly tied to a kindergarten staffing transition, and credited grade-level data meetings held three times a year for catching the problem early.
The presenters flagged a consistent weak point: third grade, K-2 DIBELS scores sit above 80 percent, DeSantes said, but third-grade foundational results lag district-wide as instruction shifts toward comprehension and writing. The school plans additional phonics training for third-grade teachers next year. STAR reading for grades one through six held roughly flat at 59 percent, while STAR math edged up to 63 percent in the second year of the HMH math program. DeSantes set a clear marker: “We’re not going to quit until we get to 70.”
Assistant Superintendent Tricia Clifford reported that the district has selected Wonders, a McGraw-Hill program, as its new K-5 English language arts curriculum, chosen by a teacher-led curriculum council over the other finalist, CKLA, after roughly six months of field testing. Both programs meet the state’s definition of high-quality instructional materials. Wonders will be paired with Orton-Gillingham foundational instruction, with professional development planned through the summer. Clifford said the work was funded largely by a state PRISM grant and that she is awaiting word on whether year-two funding will come through.
Superintendent Jill Proulx kept her report brief, thanking those who participated in her annual evaluation, which the Administrative Review Subcommittee completed in early June and which will shape her goals and the district’s improvement strategy.
On the building report, Fraser said the committee can move to bid the engineering and architectural work as early as July 1, with the $35,000 already in hand. Because Dennett is a town-owned building, he agreed to coordinate the procurement with the Selectmen and possibly the Town Properties Committee — complicated by the fact that Plympton is operating under an Interim Town Manager.

As the smoke clears from this year’s 4th of July fireworks and the parade floats are tucked away, it is the perfect time to look back at one of our own hometown heroes. Centuries before the legendary Chinese warrior Hua Mulan became a household name for taking her ailing father’s place in the imperial army, Plympton produced its very own patriot in disguise. Donning a man’s coat and shouldering a musket, Deborah Sampson stepped out of the rigid confines of 18th-century New England and into the brutal theater of the American Revolution.
Born right in Plympton on December 17, 1760, Deborah Sampson’s roots run deep in Southeastern Massachusetts. She was the eldest of seven children, possessing an illustrious Mayflower pedigree. Her mother was the great-granddaughter of Plymouth Colony Governor William Bradford, and her father descended from Myles Standish, John Alden, and Isaac Sampson, one of Plympton’s first settlers. Despite this blue-blood lineage, her youth was marred by extreme poverty and family tragedy. Her father abandoned the family—ultimately moving to Maine to start a new family, though Sampson’s mother was told he had died in a shipwreck—leaving the household completely destitute.
Unable to provide for her children, Sampson’s mother scattered them among relatives and neighbors. By age ten, Deborah was sent to Middleborough as an indentured servant for the prosperous family of Jeremiah Thomas. There, she grew unusually tall for the era, standing nearly five feet, eight inches, and developed formidable physical strength from rigorous agricultural labor. Though the Thomas family didn’t believe in educating women, the fiercely intelligent Sampson taught herself to read and write using the Thomas sons’ schoolwork.
When her indenture ended at age eighteen, she worked as a weaver and a summer schoolteacher in Middleborough. She often wove at Sproats Tavern, a local hub where men gathered to swap tales of military glory. Listening to these stories, Deborah hungered for travel and independence in a society where an unmarried woman traveling alone risked being branded a person of “ill repute”. In early 1782, she secretly acquired men’s clothes, bound her chest, and attempted to enlist in the army at a Middleborough recruitment center under the alias “Timothy Thayer”. Her disguise was quickly foiled when a local woman recognized her awkward way of holding a quill—the result of a childhood finger injury. The scandal rocked the community, leading the First Baptist Church of Middleborough to formally excommunicate her for her “unchristian like” behavior of dressing in men’s clothing.
Undeterred, Sampson traveled to Bellingham in May 1782, far enough away that her face was unknown, and successfully enlisted under the alias “Robert Shurtliff”. To her surprise, her towering height, strength, and marksmanship earned her a spot in Captain George Webb’s elite Light Infantry Company of the 4th Massachusetts Regiment. The light infantry specialized in dangerous flanking maneuvers and rapid skirmishing. Ironically, the grueling physical demands of this elite unit protected her secret, as no one suspected a woman could endure such extreme hardship. Because she lacked facial hair, her comrades simply nicknamed her “Molly,” assuming she was a beardless, under-aged boy.
For over a year, Sampson served in the perilous “Neutral Ground” of New York’s Lower Hudson River Valley, clashing with loyalist guerrilla bands known as “cowboys”. For many years, romanticized legends—and Sampson herself during later lecture tours—claimed she fought at the pivotal Siege of Yorktown in 1781. However, a fascinating piece of local history recently corrected the record: a diary kept by Abner Weston, a Middleborough militiaman and Sampson’s neighbor, was rediscovered in 2019. Weston’s diary entries confirm her botched “Timothy Thayer” enlistment occurred around January 1782, months after the British surrendered at Yorktown, proving definitively that she joined the active front in the spring of 1782.
Yet, her actual combat record is astounding enough without the Yorktown embellishments. During a close-quarters skirmish with Tory raiders near Tarrytown, New York, in the summer of 1782, Sampson suffered a sword slash to her forehead and was shot in the upper left thigh by a musket ball. Terrified that a medical examination would expose her sex, she begged her fellow soldiers to leave her to die on the battlefield. They refused, taking her to a field hospital where her head wound was stitched. Before the doctor could examine her leg, Sampson slipped out of the hospital and performed battlefield surgery on herself. Using only a pocket penknife, a sewing needle, and thread, she dug into her own thigh and extracted the musket ball entirely without anesthetic. A second musket ball was lodged too deep, remaining embedded in her leg for the rest of her life and causing a chronic wound.
Sampson’s disguise eventually collapsed not in combat, but in a hospital ward. In the summer of 1783, her unit was deployed to Philadelphia, where she contracted a severe, malignant fever and lost consciousness. The attending physician, Dr. Barnabas Binney, discovered the tight linen bandages compressing her chest. Recognizing the immense danger she faced, Dr. Binney made a compassionate ethical choice: he kept her secret, transferring her to his private residence where his family nursed her back to health. Upon her recovery, Binney gave her a sealed letter to deliver to General John Paterson. Fearing a punitive discharge, Sampson was instead met with profound respect by Paterson, General Henry Knox, and General George Washington. On October 25, 1783, she was granted an honorable discharge at West Point, having successfully completed 17 months of service.
Returning to a rigidly gendered society, Sampson married Benjamin Gannett, a struggling farmer from Sharon, Massachusetts, in 1785. The couple lived in persistent poverty, raising three children and an adopted orphan on an overworked farm. Sampson’s unhealed war injuries severely limited her ability to perform the heavy physical labor expected of a farm wife. To survive, she turned her wartime exploits into a strategic public relations campaign, becoming the first American woman to embark on a professional, paid lecture tour in 1802. Traveling across New England and New York, she captivated audiences by delivering patriotic speeches before donning her full infantry uniform to perform complex weapon drills on stage. Her personal diary from the tour survives today, documenting the grueling reality of 19th-century travel, filled with fevers, toothaches, and exhaustion.
Despite her fame, she struggled to secure the federal military pension afforded to male veterans. It took the intervention of fellow revolutionary Paul Revere, who owned a foundry in neighboring Canton, to sway the government. After visiting her Sharon farm in 1804, Revere wrote a powerful advocacy letter to Congress. Knowing he had to ease the conservative gender anxieties of the era, Revere noted that he had expected to meet a “tall, masculine female” but was pleasantly surprised to find a “small, effeminate, and conversable Woman” who was a dutiful wife and mother. His strategy worked; in 1805, Congress placed Sampson on the federal invalid pension list, making her the first woman to receive a federal pension for military combat service.
Deborah Sampson died on April 29, 1827, at the age of 66. Her revolutionary trailblazing didn’t stop at her death; in 1837, Congress awarded spousal survivor benefits to her heirs, making her husband the first male widower in U.S. history to receive a pension based on his wife’s military service.
Today, Sampson’s legacy is permanently woven into the fabric of the nation and Southeastern Massachusetts. In 2020, the United States government passed the landmark Deborah Sampson Act, a sweeping piece of legislation designed to eliminate gender gaps in healthcare at the Department of Veterans Affairs. In 1983, she was declared the “Official Heroine of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts”.
But nowhere is her memory more deeply rooted than in the Plympton-Halifax area. Her likeness proudly adorns the Plympton town flag, the Board of Selectmen meet in the Deborah Sampson room in the Town House, and a monument stands in her honor on the Plympton Town Green along Route 58. As we celebrate our nation’s 250th birthday, let us remember Plympton’s own revolutionary hero. Deborah Sampson took up arms when the nation needed her, proving that the spirit of American liberty knows no gender.