The first three hearings scheduled for Monday, January 13 with the Plympton Planning Board all requested continuances to later dates. The remaining hearing was for CLE, LLC to seek site plan approval to construct two buildings at 0 Palmer Rd. to be used as retail/showroom spaces for cellular nodes.

Cellular nodes are small low-powered antennas, sometimes referred to as small cells, that provide coverage and capacity much like a cellular tower.  These nodes, which are often placed on utility poles, streetlights, etc., are necessary to power 5G technology which handles large amounts of data at extremely fast speeds. According to CLE, LLC owner Kevin Farrell, who was present at Monday’s hearing, his customers include Crown Castle, AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Sprint.

Farrell said that the nodes are manufactured at a fabrication shop on Wood St. in Middleboro. Since the facility is not conducive to displaying the nodes for potential clients, Farrell intends to use the proposed buildings on Palmer Rd. as a showroom and retail facility where customers can go to view and purchase the nodes.

CLE, LLC was represented Monday by their attorney Edward Conroy and by a representative of Webby Engineering. Farrell stressed that the proposed buildings would be strictly for business use and emphasized his belief that they fit well into the character of the area as it is a business district.

Planning Board member Paul D’Angelo recused himself from the Board as he knows Farrell. Chair Ann Sobolewski and Planning Board members Jennifer MacDonald, John Schmid, and Jay Cohen were all present. Conroy said that Farrell has been putting these nodes up throughout Boston and handed the Board photos of them.

Sobolewski said that the town’s technical review engineer was unable to review the plans due to a death in the family. He will, however, review the plans prior to the next hearing and provide feedback to the applicant.

The proposed buildings are 80 ft. x 90 ft. and are 7,200 sq. ft. each. The lot is 12 acres. Sobolewski asked what the rationale was for having two identical buildings to be used for the same purposes. The engineer explained that the town restricts retail spaces to be less than 10,000 sq. ft. in size. Additionally, there was a problem with the installation of sprinklers in a building over 7,500 sq. ft. According to Farrell there will only be one sign on one of the two buildings.

Farrell said there would be 6-8 employees, but they would not all be full-time or on-site. The initial plan would be to have two employees in each of the buildings.

Schmid had a number of technical questions for the engineer that appeared to reveal problems with the proposed plan that would need to be fixed before proceeding. Several questions from the Board regarded the aesthetics of the buildings themselves. Schmid asked if the green color depicted in the plans was really the intended color of the actual buildings and was told that it was but that it could be changed if the town preferred something else.

MacDonald also reminded them that there were some specific requirements such as 60 percent of the building consisting of windows. Sobolewski asked if they had any waivers for the parts of the plans that do not align with town requirements and was told that they did not.

The hearing was opened to public participation and abutter Siobhan Green took the opportunity to share her concerns. Green, who said that she has lived in her residence for 18 years, said that during that time there have been three owners of the property at 0 Palmer Rd. Green said that the previous owner dumped truckloads of dirt that have resulted in “ferocious” flooding to her property.

“I worry about people holding to their word because everybody that has bought the property has somehow lied or defied the town in one way or another in what they plan to do with it and how they plan to handle it,” Green explained. Green went on to describe a past incident where a number of trucks idled on the property as early as 3 a.m.

In examining the site plans, Green noted that it looked like several trees would have to be taken down that would appear to result in a full view from her property of the buildings to be constructed. “I am partial, of course, to the woods, that’s why I moved to Plympton…I like the rural beauty of it,” Green explained.

Sobolewski said that there are a lot of things that can be done to provide attractive screening. “One of the things that this Board has routinely, as John said, been focused on is appropriate landscaping especially when there is a residential abutter because your home is your biggest asset that is your value of your land and we’ve really taken that to heart. A lot of our applicants are very forthcoming and willing to meet with abutters and talk to them,” Sobolewski told Green.

Green also questioned the area of the property that she believed to be wetlands. CLE, LLC will have to come before the Conservation Commission because they are within 100 ft. of wetlands. They will also still need to go before the Board of Health as well.

A site walk has been scheduled for February 8 at 11:30 a.m. All abutters are invited to participate. A continuance of the hearing has also been scheduled for February 10 at 7:15 p.m.

The Plympton Board of Selectmen met Monday, January 6 for the first time since the holidays. Selectman Mark Russo was absent, but Chair Christine Joy and Selectman John Traynor were in attendance. Town Administrator Elizabeth Dennehy said she met with Halifax Town Administrator Charlie Seelig and Brockton Area Transit (BAT) to discuss what services BAT could potentially offer both Plympton and Halifax. “What we found out,” Dennehy explained, “is that they have a couple of different ideas as far as involvement.” The first, most introductory level, would involve BAT helping build the towns’ volunteer base. In this scenario, BAT would help coordinate with Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) on training initiatives. Dennehy explained that this would be beneficial as volunteers could be covered on insurance once they had completed some sort of formal training.

A mid-level involvement includes BAT working with MassDot to help the town acquire more vehicles to be utilized by volunteer drivers. This would require more formal involvement including identifying a bus stop. Traynor asked what kind of charges were associated with each service. Dennehy said that while they didn’t get into cost during this initial meeting, BAT was aware of the assessments for both Plympton and Halifax and seemed willing to work within those constraints.

Dennehy said that much of BAT’s funding comes from MassDOT as well as the federal government and a lot of numbers were needed to support their requests. Dennehy said, “Charlie and I have to kind of go back to the drawing board and figure out what our demand really is. They’re going to work us through that and give us some tools.”

Dennehy also discussed the best possible method to gather data such as when and where rides would most be in demand. Options include surveying residents, attending Council on Aging meetings, and reaching out via social media.

BAT appeared to be interested in having Plympton and Halifax bring a third town aboard. There is currently a well-established program in Hanson and BAT encouraged Dennehy and Seelig to reach out to them for more details. BAT also encouraged Plympton and Halifax to continue to pursue The Greater Attleboro Taunton Regional Transit Authority (GATRA) as they might be a better fit.

Traynor and Dennehy also met with the Plymouth Area Chamber of Commerce earlier Monday. Traynor described the meeting as “positive” and “very successful” and said, “the takeaways from that is they could assist us by providing letters to either GATRA or BAT.” They also told Traynor and Dennehy that they could provide assistance to some smaller businessess in town by highlighting them throughout the region. They would also be able to hold a grand opening for any new businesses that may come into town. Traynor emphasized that they were interested in hearing about both SYSCO and Hubbell Inc.

Plympton awarded $93,000 in Choice Small Town Grant

Dennehy shared with the selectmen that the town was successful in securing a Housing Choice Small Town Grant in the amount of $93,000. The grant is available to Massachusetts’ towns with populations under 7,000 residents. Dennehy said the money would be put toward a consultant who will work with the Town Campus Committee.

And then there were five on ConCom

The Board voted to reduce the number of people on the Conservation Commission from seven to five members. Two of the members have left town and the Commission was having difficulty with quorum issues. Remaining members include Richard Burnet, Amy B. Cronin, Linda Leddy, Michael Matern, and Marta J. Nover. The Board also voted to appoint Rob Firlotte as the highway superintendent (he was previously serving as an interim) through June 30, 2020.

Class 2 licenses approved

The Board also voted to approve several Class 2 licenses for various business in town. Those businesses include Angel’s Auto and Towing, Carey Auto Inc., Competition Auto, Plympton Sand and Gravel, and Plympton Cycles. Conditions specify the number and type of vehicles to be sold as well as limiting the number of vehicles to be displayed. Other conditions include that the premises be kept neat.  All conditions are subject to change with thirty days’ notice from the Board of Selectmen.

As is customary, the Board ended their meeting with their rants or raves for the last few weeks. Traynor said,

“I thought the meeting today with the council kind of showed that Plympton, even though it’s very small, has lots of resources and we know how to go out and touch on them.”

For her rave, Joy said she was impressed with the turnout at town meeting and was thankful that both the funding for the Council on Aging van and the article to enable the Board of Selectmen to make safety zones passed.

Traynor said that the success of town meeting was a testament to all of those working on the various boards.

Joy agreed saying, “It’s not like it used to be. We’ve got a very good group of people who are doing their homework and making presentations that make sense to the residents and there is a level of comfort and trust with it. We’ve come a long way.”

The Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) and our local fire departments limit open burning for public health and safety reasons.

Open burning is allowed in Plympton and Halifax from January 15 to May 1, with permits available at no charge at the fire station beginning January 1.  You must have a permit issued by the fire department in advance.

State fire wardens determine each day whether conditions are safe for open burning. Weather and air quality can change rapidly, especially in the spring, and fire departments can rescind permits when that happens.

Open burning must be done between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. from January 15 to May 1, at  least 75 feet from all buildings.

You must also be sure air quality conditions are acceptable for burning by calling the Massachusetts DEP Air Quality Hotline at (617) 556-1021 or by visiting the MassAir Online website at http://public.dep.state.ma.us/MassAir.

Only Certain Materials Can Be Burned

• Brush, cane, driftwood, and forestry debris from other than commercial or industrial land clearing operations, agricultural materials such as fruit tree and bush prunings, raspberry stalks, and infected bee hives for disease control, trees and brush resulting from agricultural land clearing, • Fungus infected elm wood, if no other acceptable means of disposal is available.

Call For Help Immediately if a fire gets out of control.  People conducting illegal burning, or who allow a fire to get out of control, may be held liable for the costs of extinguishing the fire in addition to fines or imprisonment (M.G.L. c.48, s.13).

See the Massachusetts web site for complete information www.mass.gov/doc/safety-tips-for-open-burning

A special town meeting was held Monday, December 16 at Dennett Elementary School in Plympton. Each speaker was allowed three minutes during the first round of discussion on an article and up to two minutes during the second round. Town moderator Barry DeCristofano said, “we come here as friends and neighbors; we will leave here as neighbors and hopefully still friends.”

Planning Board Chair Ann Sobolewski spoke to Article 1 which strikes section 6.10 of the Plympton Zoning Bylaws that regulates solar facilities and replaces it with a significantly revised article. Sobolewski asked that section 6.10.6.2.2, which prohibited the use of herbicides, be changed to allow them as they had since learned that prohibiting them could negatively impact the site if agricultural. Sobolewski asked that the warrant be approved as otherwise printed in the warrant.

Sobolewski explained to her fellow residents that the current by-law regarding solar facilities was adopted wholesale directly from a model provided by the state that was meant to encourage large scale ground mounted solar facilities. She further explained that this article is an attempt to change the  bylaw to make it more beneficial to the town.

Sobolewski addressed her fellow residents saying, “I can tell you the only thing the Planning Board has done since I have been chair as of this past May is look at enormous large scale solar energy facilities being installed in Plympton one after the other after the other; they don’t stop. There is lots of deforestation associated with them and the way the bylaw is currently written there is literally very little we can do.”

A properly published public hearing on the matter was held back on Nov. 12 to discuss the bylaw changes. Regarding the public participation, Sobolewski noted that “in general the comments were favorable.” At the conclusion of the hearing the Planning Board Recommended Article 1 with four in favor and one abstention. The abstention felt that the changes were not necessarily strong enough.

Co-chair of the Open Space Committee Linda Leddy, who also served on an active subcommittee regarding the bylaw change, asked to speak to the article. Leddy asked to acknowledge Amy Cronin who also served on the subcommittee but was unable to attend the town meeting. Planning Board member John Schmid also served on the subcommittee and was in attendance. Leddy echoed Sobolewski’s sentiment saying that the model bylaw they adopted had very few parameters associated with it. Leddy said that the number one concern as expressed through the Open Space surveys is keeping the character of Plympton rural. Another major concern was that the town continue to support the local farmers. Leddy explained, “What we’re really trying to draft in this is to find the middle road between the basic bylaw we have right now and one that would be more extreme and shut many things down.” Leddy said that limiting forest cutting to no more than ten percent of the acreage on the property was one of the ways that the subcommittee hoped to ensure that the rural character was maintained.

Article 1, which required a two-thirds majority to pass, was passed with a show of nearly all hands in the crowded room. There were only a handful of residents voting against.

Article 2  would enable the Board of Selectmen to appoint Matthew Clancy as the new Plympton police chief. Chair of the Board of Selectmen Christine Joy moved the article as written in the warrant. Joy spoke on behalf of the article saying, “Matthew Clancy is uniquely qualified to serve as our chief of police and it is in the town’s best interest to secure his services.”  Before returning to Plympton as the interim police chief, Clancy served as the Plympton police chief from December 2002 to April 2010. The article easily passed.

Article 3 would allow the Board of Selectmen to establish designated safety zones for roads that are not a state highway. The article would give the Board the ability to reduce speed limits in such zones without Massachusetts Department of Transportation approval. Selectman Mark Russo spoke to the article telling residents the article would provide an “easy, inexpensive fix for some safety problems rather than expensive construction.”  Russo also assured those in attendance that the Board would not take action without significant input from abutters and other concerned residents. Nearly all in attendance voted to approve the article as stated in the warrant.

Article 4, which had the support of both the Board of Selectmen and Finance Committee, would transfer available funds in the amount of $12,501 from the general stabilization fund to pay for an eight passenger, wheelchair accessible van to be used by the Council on Aging (COA). Selectman John Traynor explained that the current van used by the COA is not wheelchair accessible. Traynor further explained that the town received a Massachusetts Department of Transportation grant in the amount of $62,800 but that the town was required to match 20 percent of the grant.

A resident asked what would be done with the current van and if an additional driver was to be added. Traynor said that currently the COA utilizes a non-wheelchair accessible van as well as a sedan that formerly belonged to the police department. Traynor said that they will most likely be getting rid of one of the vehicles though it may be the sedan. Traynor also said that currently the COA has one paid driver and one volunteer. He said he is hopeful to have more volunteers in the future. COA director Joy Marble addressed the crowd saying, “It is very much needed, not just for seniors but for handicapped residents.” The article passed with what appeared to be unanimous support.

Article 5 proposed increasing the fines for dog related offenses to match the standard rates required by the state. Animal control officer Brian Kling explained to residents that the fines imposed by municipalities cannot be lower than those in the statute. There were a few questions by the public regarding the bylaws affecting the control of animals though none specifically about the increase in fines. Sobolewski elected to address the crowd reminding them that they were mandated to increase the fines. The article passed.

Article 6, that was not recommended by the Board of Selectmen or the Finance Committee, was to transfer funds from an available overlay surplus fund in the amount of $270,000 in order to reduce the fiscal 2020 interim tax rate. The Board of Assessors made a motion to pass over the article rather than voting upon it. The motion was approved.

Article 7 generated the most controversy albeit still minimal. The article would transfer $20,000 from available overlay surplus funds for the purpose of purchasing and installing an update for the Assessors’ CAMA system software. Neither the Board of Selectmen nor the Finance Committee recommended the article. Chair of the Board of Assessors Ethan Stiles explained that fiscal year 2022 is a revaluation year where the assessors must update all the assessments in the town. According to Stiles the Board of Assessors last updated their software in 2014. Stiles referred to the conversion as a “nightmare” and explained that the Board doesn’t want to wait until the spring to bring their request to town meeting as they want to avoid having to convert the software during a revaluation year. Planning Board member John Schmid asked several questions of town accountant Barbara Gomez before saying, “I support this.” Finance Committee Chair Nathaniel Sides said, “Speaking on behalf of the Finance Committee, the reason the Finance Committee does not feel that this is an appropriate article to entertain at tonight’s town meeting is exactly the fact that we have not had the opportunity to do our due diligence the way we normally would do when an article like this is presented… so that is the primary reason we voted against recommending this article at special town meeting. We are not necessarily saying that this item isn’t worthy of funding at a future town meeting, but we feel very strongly that this is the type of article that should be entertained at an annual town meeting and not rushed at a special town meeting.” Joy agreed saying that it is not that the Board of Selectmen doesn’t support the request but rather that they don’t feel it is appropriate for a special town meeting. The article failed to pass but the vote was the closest of the night.

It was standing room only at The Moon and Back Café in Plympton Center, as friends, neighbors, and 4-H associates, came to wish Rita LaPointe a happy 94^th birthday on Saturday, and enjoy a piece of her pink heart-shaped birthday cake, made by her neighbor Christine Perkins.   

Rita has been a Plympton resident for more than half a century and is well known for her expertise in raising and training dogs, as well as grooming and boarding dogs for many through the years.  She has led the Cave Canem 4-H dog club since 1961, with her group taking first prizes and ribbons for training and conformation at local shows, regional shows, up to Eastern States, “The Big E”.

Rita’s “no nonsense” training approach takes a firm hand on the leash and a voice that speaks with little “wiggle room” in the commands given, followed up with loving praise for commands well followed.  Training and caring for dogs gave many of her 4-H youngsters a sense of responsibility and self esteem under Rita’s direction, and she was well respected, indeed a legend, in her dog training.

In 2013 she added the esteemed “Speak for Thyself” award to her credit.  This honor is given each year by the Alden Kindred of America, recognizing exceptional women who, in the spirit of Mayflower Pilgrim Priscilla Mullins Alden, make their own choices, women who, standing on their own merits, have accomplished much in their community.

Just last year Rita retired from her grooming business; at the age of 93 she felt it was getting to be too much for her.  She is still involved in her 4H dog club.

Leaving Plympton last week was a difficult move for her.   She left her home for All American Assisted Living in Hanson.  “It’s the first time in my life I haven’t had a dog,” she said Saturday.  She has a good attitude about her new location and looks forward to all of its advantages..  She wants people to know where she is and that she would love for friends to visit.

Join South Shore Ballet Theatre (SSBT) this holiday season for its annual production of The Nutcracker!

Based on E.T.A Hoffman’s “The Nutcracker and the King of Mice”, and set to Tchaikovsky’s beloved musical score, SSBT’s The Nutcracker celebrates the magic of the holidays through the joy of dance.

Come watch as Clara explores a world of magic from her family’s living room on Christmas Eve, through an enchanted forest of dancing snowflakes, and into the magical Land of The Sweets led by the Sugar Plum Fairy.

SSBT’s exciting, family-friendly production features 90 student dancers from its ballet training programs, representing communities on the south shore from Plymouth to Quincy.

SSBT provides quality dance training and inclusive performance opportunities to students of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds.

After 11 successful years of operation in Hanover, SSBT has relocated its studios to a new, state-of-the-art facility in Hingham, conveniently located adjacent to the Derby Street Shoppes. Under the direction of founder Marthavan McKeon, SSBT’s new facility in Hingham has anchored the studio’s role as the South Shore’s premier ballet studio.

All are welcome to celebrate the holidays with SSBT’s timeless production of The Nutcracker.  Performances will take place at Thayer Academy in Braintree on Saturday, Dec. 14, at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. and on Sunday, Dec. 15, at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m.

To purchase tickets and learn more, please visit the web site www.southshoreballettheatre.com or email them at ballet@southshoreballettheatre.com.

There are four dancersfrom Plympton and one from Halifax among those performing in the 2019 production.

Sofia Mendez, 16 years old, currently in 11th grade at Silver Lake High School, will dance Snow, Spanish, Demi Soloist and Dew Drop in Waltz of the Flowers.

Emma Christensen, 13 years old, in the 8th grade at Silver Lake Middle School, will dance Snow, Arabian, Lead Marzipan and as Demi Soloist and Dew Drop in Waltz of the Flowers.

Sofia Christensen, 10 years old, is in 5th grade at Dennett Elementary School in Plympton. Sofia will perform as Palace Fairy and Trepak.

Olivia Christensen, 9 years old, is currently in 4th grade at Dennett Elementary. She will perform as Party Child and Polichinelle

Enya Teran, 7 years old, is a student in the 2nd grade at Dennett Elementary. She will perform as Doll After the Tree Grows and Angel.