SMITHFIELD, RI- Bryant University is pleased to recognize the students from Kingston and Plympton for their academic success in being named to the Fall 2023 Deans’ List.
To earn a place on the Deans’ List, students must have a GPA of 3.4 or better for at least 12 semester hours of work. Congratulations on this outstanding achievement!
• Benjamin Andrade of Plympton
• Jacob Bugbee of Kingston
• Jake Cipullo of Kingston

About Bryant University
For over 160 years, Bryant University has been at the forefront of delivering an exceptional education that anticipates the future and prepares students to be innovative leaders of character in a changing world.
Bryant delivers an innovative and uniquely integrated business and liberal arts education that inspires students to excel.
With approximately 3,700 graduate and undergraduate students from 38 states and 49 countries, Bryant is recognized as a leader in international education and regularly receives top rankings from U.S. News and World Report, Bloomberg Businessweek, Forbes, and Barron’s.
Visit www.Bryant.edu.

The Warrant is now open for the Town’s 2024 Annual Town Meeting which is scheduled to occur on Monday, May 13, 2024, at the Halifax Elementary School. Citizen petitions must be submitted to the Town Clerk’s Office by March 12, 2024.
In order to participate in the Annual Town Meeting, residents must be registered to vote. The deadline to register to vote in order to participate in the 2024 Annual Town Meeting is Friday, May 3, 2024.
All questions relating to Voter Registration should be directed to the Halifax Town Clerk’s Office by calling (781) 293-7970 or e-mailing [email protected]. More details regarding Elections and Voter Registration are available on the Town Clerk’s web page as well as the Elections & Registration web page.
Any questions regarding the Annual Town Meeting, submitting warrant articles, etc. should be directed to the Halifax Board of Selectmen’s Office by calling (781) 294-1316 or e-mailing [email protected].
A copy of the Warrant will be posted on the Town’s website and mailed to every household when it becomes available.

Plymouth Superior Court ruled Feb. 5 in Morse Brothers, Inc vs. Town of Halifax and the Halifax Select Board, to uphold the restrictions on the earth removal permit issued by the Select Board Sept. 1, 2023.
Morse Bros. stated that even though they have been operating a cranberry business in the Town of Halifax for some 45 years, it was the first time they had been required to obtain a permit pursuant to the Halifax Earth Removal Bylaw.
The plaintiff, Morse Bros., filed a complaint alleging that the bylaw was improperly applied, and the conditions were invalid. Morse Bros. asked the court to issue a preliminary injunction to prohibit enforcement of the conditions.
Morse Brothers, Inc. asked the Court to declare that the restrictions would harm their business and stated in their filing that the Town had never asked for these restrictions in their Earth Removal Permit in the past. They further stated in their filing that “Morse Brothers has historically relied on the sand available on its Halifax property to renovate and maintain its bogs both in Halifax and in nearby towns.” During the past year, the complaint stated, Morse Brothers has been excavating soil, screening sand, and transporting the sand to Hanson as part of its renovation project.
They said that their company has engaged in these practices for decades, and its farming practices have been “in harmony” with the town. Morse Bros. received notice Sept. 1 that Halifax was requiring Morse Brothers to obtain an earth removal permit for the first time, pursuant to the Halifax Earth Removal Bylaw, or to “cease and desist any sand removal or transportation-related activities.”
On Oct. 4, 2023, Morse Bros. submitted a request for an exemption from the bylaw, noting that the bylaw negatively impacted its “ongoing cranberry bog maintenance” and “unreasonably infringed on protections of land uses for the primary purpose of agriculture under state law.” Simultaneous with its request for an exemption, Morse. Bros. also applied for an earth removal permit under the local bylaw.
Nov. 15, 2023, the Halifax Select Board granted the permit, subject to several conditions. The first condition limited the hours of the earth removal to between the hours of 7 a.m. and 2:25 p.m. Monday through Friday, and in no case on a legal holiday. The limitation applies also to the starting of engines, loading and unloading trucks, and preparation for commencing of work.
The permit also states that vehicles loaded with soil and/or sand shall not exceed 10 miles per hour while on Lingan Street. To avoid conflicts with school buses, vehicles traveling to and from the project location for the purpose described in the permit shall not be present on Lingan Street during school bus pick-up and drop-off times provided by the town.
Morse Bros. would also be limited to 25 trips per day of vehicles loaded with soil and/or sand.
Each truck and driver entering or exiting the property shall be provided by Morse Bros. with a list of rules and regulations regarding road safety. Each driver shall sign an acknowledging receipt of these rules and regulations. It is the responsibility of Morse Brothers to keep record of this information and provide it to the Town as requested. And no activity is allowed under the permit during the 2024 school vacation weeks of February 19 through 23 and April 15 through 19.
In their ruling, the court said it must assess “whether the moving party has shown that success is likely on the merits and that irreparable harm will result from denial of the injunction; and the risk of irreparable harm to the moving party outweighs any similar risk of harm to the opposing party”.
In applying these requirements, the court found that Morse Bros. was not entitled to a preliminary injunction because it has not shown proof of irreparable harm.

In the Feb. 2 edition of the Plympton-Halifax-Kingston Express, we mistakenly reported that a $20,000 gift from MacDonald Industries, was for landfill repairs. What we did not make clear was that the funds were to be earmarked as landfill repairs to help the Town of Halifax with the cost of engineering for the Hemlock Lane landfill, owned by the Town of Halifax, near the Highway Department that is showing some problems.
Halifax Health Agent Bob Valery consulted with Marilyn MacDonald, of MacDonald Industries, for advice on how to approach solving the town’s problem, calling on her experience.
When she found that the problem was beyond her level of expertise, she gave suggestions for engineering firms that would be able to provide plans and a course of action for the landfill repairs. In a gesture of goodwill, MacDonald Industries donated $20,000 that will more than cover the projected engineering costs for the old Halifax landfill repairs.
Valery said, “Let’s fix it and fix it right.” He had noted that repairs in the past had been more a “short term fix”, with the problems recurring over the years. The board voted to approve TRC Environmental Companies to provide the engineering plans for the project.
Chairman John Bruno asked the board to approve his request to write to MacDonald Industries “expressing our deepest gratitude to them for their community concern and gift of $20,000.”
“In my mind, this is extraordinary,” Bruno said, “She’s really a good neighbor”. The board voted unanimously to send that letter.

CHARLESTON, SC– Howard Cushman of Halifax, is among the more than 1,300 cadets and students recognized for their academic achievements during the fall 2023 semester.
The dean’s list is a recognition given to cadets and students who are registered for 12 or more semester hours and whose grade point average is 3.20 or higher, with no grade of I (Incomplete) and no grade below C for work in a semester.
Cadets who are named to the dean’s list receive a medal, which is worn on their uniform during the semester following their academic achievement. Non-cadet students on the dean’s list are presented a certificate.
The Citadel, with its iconic campus located in Charleston, South Carolina, offers a classic military college education for young men and women focused on leadership excellence and academic distinction.
The approximately 2,300 members of the South Carolina Corps of Cadets are not required to serve in the military, but about one-third of each class earn commissions to become officers in every branch of U.S. military service. Citadel alumni have served the nation, their states and their communities as principled leaders since 1842. The Citadel Graduate College offers dozens of graduate degree, graduate certificate and evening undergraduate programs in the evening or online. The Citadel has been consecutively named Best Public College in the South by U.S. News & World Report for 13 years and No. 1 Best Public College for Veterans in the South for six years.

Deb Anderson
Express staff
Kingston’s Board of Selectmen met Tuesday, Jan. 16, at the Kingston Town House, to continue the earth removal permit from Dec. 19, and hear the appeal for a senior citizen who has been permanently barred from the Kingston Senior Center.
In the open forum, Pine DuBois, from the Jones River Watershed, asked selectmen to to watch the drone footage taken by Jimmy Powell in the Landing Road area, showing the dangerous flooding on Jan. 13, where water flooded the road and vehicles were trapped in standing seawater. She asked selectmen for future preventative roadblocks and traffic control to avoid the damage to vehicles in an extremely dangerous situation. “I don’t think people know that salt rots their cars.” she said. The drone footage and flooding photos can be seen on the Jones River Ecology YouTube channel.
The earth removal permit hearing was continued as the peer review company has not yet been hired. Town Administrator Keith Hickey advised selectmen to wait until the peer review was complete. The hearing was continued until Feb. 13, at 6:15 p.m.
Selectmen were next asked to consider the appeal of a Council on Aging’s suspension of a patron to enter the senior center or attend activities there. Originally a 30-day suspension, the event involved a patron and the Director of Eder Affairs, foul language and inappropriate behavior. Upon appeal to the Council on Aging Dec. 15, the COA increased the suspension to a permanent ban, all of which was within their authority.
The patron, who is a resident of Carver, appealed further to selectmen. After much discussion, with several selectmen considering that a permanent suspension was “too aggressive”, and after several votes to amend the term of the suspension, they finally agreed and voted to amend the suspension to end at January 1, 2025, at which time the term of the suspension will have been served.
Selectman Tyler Bouchard said, “I used to umpire a lot of baseball games. I’ve kicked out a lot of Dads – a couple of Moms, too.” In all of his hundreds of games he has never seen a lifetime ban.
Selectman Eric Crone said he thought the purpose of the hearing was to see if the COA Advisory Board acted within its authority in elevating the 30-day suspension to a permanent suspension. He said that reviewing the tapes and the testimony it looked like they did what was within their authority. He did not vote to overturn the lifetime suspension.

The Plympton Board of Selectmen met virtually on Thursday, Dec. 21. Selectmen Chair Christine Joy and Selectman Mark Russo were present.
Town Administrator Liz Dennehy said they have been reviewing the town’s flag policy with an intention to add a stipulation to it. “We would try to get the flags up on the telephone poles, that Highway does for us, generally from May 15 through November 15 unless there’s bad weather then obviously, we would make arrangements to have them taken down,” she told the Selectmen. Joy asked Dennehy why those dates were chosen and Dennehy said that they felt that getting them up before Memorial Day and having them remain up slightly past Veteran’s Day would be ideal. Dennehy also mentioned that the town should probably budget for the flags as they can be expensive. “We can get an inventory of our flags too as we get closer to Town Meeting time… and if there are any that need to be replaced, we could even do an article for it,” she said.
Dennehy also told the Selectmen that she is working with the Highway Superintendent on a project to have Dennett Elementary School students vote to name the three snowplows in town. “So the three trucks will get funny names… we’re trying to find ways to get our Highway Department more integrated with the community,” she explained. She also said that they are trying to coordinate a time for the trucks to be brought to the school so the students could see them and learn a bit about how they operate and what goes into plowing snow.
Dennehy said that budget season was well underway and preliminary budgets are due from town departments in mid-January. “We’re off and running on that,” she said.
“We got our Purple Heart community designation,” Dennehy told the Selectmen. She said that they coordinated with the Veteran’s Agent on it and signage would be going up soon.
The Selectmen issued Class II and III and scrap metal license renewals for 2024. Russo did the inspections on the properties and “found everything to be in good order.” Russo said he paid particular attention to the number of vehicles on display and found everything to be in compliance. The unanimous approvals were for Alby’s Salvage Inc., Angels Auto and Towing Inc., Bridge Bike Inc., Carey Auto Inc., Competition Auto Body Repair, Motorsports, and Plympton Cycles.
The Board also voted unanimously to support several appointments. Susan Vetterlein was appointed as the Clerk at Town Hall. Deborah Anderson was appointed to the Bylaw Review Committee until dissolved. Paul Johnson was appointed as a Transfer Station attendant until June 30, 2024. Caitlyn Mullaney was appointed as a full-time Police Officer and Stephen Raddatz was appointed as a part-time police officer, both until dissolved.
As customary, the Selectmen ended their meeting with their raves. “It was really neat, the Fire Department, I think with the help of the Police Department, doing the Santa over on the weekend. I know the kids on my street were really excited,” Joy said of her rave. She did note that the sirens were “really jarring” and wondered if next year they could play Christmas music instead. “Everything was awesome, but until I figured it out, I thought we had a major accident in town,” Joy explained. For her second rave, she said, “how thankful I am that we have such a great team of people who are working for the town. We really have come a long way with professionalizing departments.” She named Dennehy as well as Administrative Assistant Briggette Martins, Highway Superintendent Rob Firlotte, and the Chiefs of Police and Fire.
Russo said he wanted to underscore, emphasize, and appreciate Joy’s rave and all of the wonderful things going on in town.
He said his second rave was for the holidays. “It’s the darkest time of year; it’s the time of year when the weather is getting pretty darn cold and it’s kind of our opportunity for some agency – our opportunity to offer antidote in the form of some light and some comfort and some joy and hope for everyone, a peaceful new year,” Russo said.