Town Clerks throughout the Silver Lake region are making last minute preparations for the Presidential Primary Election March 3.

The polls are open from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. and is expected to be a heavy turnout.

Plympton residents vote at the Plympton Town House, 5 Palmer Road, Route 58.

Halifax residents vote at the Halifax Elementary School, Route 106, Halifax.

Kingston residents in Precincts 1, 2, and 3, vote at the Kingston Elementary School, 100 Main St.; Precinct 4 votes at the Town Hall, 26 Evergreen Street.

State Representative Kathy LaNatra (D-Kingston) has announced that the House of Representatives unanimously passed legislation to create a registry of care providers who have harmed a person or persons with an intellectual or developmental disability, with a goal of preventing these providers from being hired for programs funded or operated by the Department of Developmental Services (DDS).

The legislation, An Act to Protect Persons with Intellectual or Developmental Disabilities from Abuse, will create a registry of care providers against whom the Disabled Persons Protection Commission (DCCP) has made a final decision regarding “substantiated findings” of acts resulting in serious physical or emotional injury of a person with an intellectual or developmental disability. The legislation requires care provider employers to check the registry prior to hiring or retaining any person as a care provider and prevents employers from hiring or retaining any provider who appears on the registry.  Those employers include those with DDS licenses for day services, those that have contracts with DDS, and those receiving funding from DDS.  Under the bill, DCCP imposes monetary fines or other penalties on any employer that fails to comply. The legislation also includes due process protections for care providers.  Representative LaNatra said, “I’m proud that the House of Representatives voted unanimously to take this important step, to further ensure the well-being of people with intellectual or developmental disabilities.” The bill now advances to the Senate for consideration.

Her district includes all  of Halifax, Kingston and Plympton, as well as residents of Precincts 1, 11 and 13 in Plymouth; Precinct 1 in Middleboro; and Precinct 1 in Duxbury.  She maintains regular office hours throughout the district.

In the absence of Chair Christine Joy, Vice Chair Mark Russo took on the role of acting chair during the Monday, Feb. 10, Plympton Board of Selectmen meeting. The meeting began with Russo, Selectman John Traynor, Town Administrator Elizabeth Dennehy, the entire Plympton Finance Committee, Plympton former Police Chief Patrick Dillon, Duxbury Fire Chief Kevin Nord, Duxbury Fire Captain Rob Reardon, and Director of Emergency Communications at the Regional Old Colony Communications Center (ROCC) Mike Mahoney seated around a table.

Russo explained that the purpose of the meeting was to address Plympton’s increasing dispatch fees with the ROCC. Plympton’s fees recently increased from $50,000 to $200,000 annually. Russo said that they were hoping to get a better sense of where those increases came from as well as how call volume was being assessed.

Reardon began by explaining a little bit about the history of Plympton joining the regionalized dispatch center. About six years ago, Chief Dillon approached them with problems he was experiencing with their current dispatch through the state. In short, Plympton felt that they were not being made a priority. “The difference between us and state police is you’re an integral part of our dispatch operation,” Reardon explained. As an example, Reardon referenced the previous Friday saying it was a particularly busy day for the four towns serviced by the ROCC, so the number of dispatchers was increased from 4 to 10 to accommodate the high volume.

Reardon also went on to say that there have been a number of benefits to the town due to the regionalization including the phone system at the police station, mobile data terminals, and better communications overall. Reardon said that the ROCC spent $800,000 this past year in order to improve communications for the sake of firefighter and police officer safety. Chief Nord, who also acts as department head at the ROCC, said, “You’ve gotten a tremendous amount of product for belonging.” Mahoney added that including just big-ticket items, Plympton has seen $193,000 worth of development funding this past year. Nord stressed that Plympton should think in terms of the big picture and all the infrastructure improvements they’ve seen, when reviewing the annual fee.

Mahoney addressed Plympton’s increase in call volume and explained how call volume is assessed. “There is no perfect metric to use to know exactly how much of an impact any one community has to a dispatch center because there are so many shared resources,” Mahoney explained. The call volume for Plympton in the last year was 15,000. Duxbury stood at 32,000, Halifax at 12,000, and Rochester at 12,000. Mahoney explained that for every item that gets logged into the records management system, a tick is added to the call volume tally.

Traynor questioned the numbers saying, “We’re less than half the population of Halifax and yet we have more call volume.” Nord explained that it was difficult to estimate what impact Plympton would have on the dispatch center initially as there really weren’t any good records to work from. Nord went on to say that initial estimates were low and stressed that Plympton is actually a very busy community with lots of traffic stops and EMS.

Mahoney said that much of Plympton’s call volume was due to building checks and motor vehicle stops. Traynor said that he assumed those things were going on in the other towns as well but was told that they were, but not to the same extent. Mahoney said that Plympton has strict traffic monitoring.

Chief Dillon said that of the 15,000 call volume, 9,000 of those were just building checks. “That’s 9,000 numbers that are sort of being, we feel, treated just the same as a domestic disturbance response or a car crash in one of those other towns.” Dillon proposed a possible weighted system where a building check might be worth half of a point whereas another type of a response might be worth two points.

Nord said that if Plympton were running a dispatch center on their own of the same quality, they would likely be looking at paying fees in the $400,000 to $500,000 range. Nord did apologize for the sudden spike in fee, however, saying that they should have begun slowly adjusting the number sooner.

Russo acknowledged that the town was aware and appreciative of the great service they were receiving. “We surely want to pay our fair share, it just doesn’t feel like this is our fair share,” Russo said.

Russo also asked about the likelihood of other towns joining the ROCC and was told that Hanson has already signed on and that several other towns are potentially joining as well. As of right now, the ROCC has the potential to more than double with a new building capable of handling a population of 100,000. The ROCC has also gone from five dispatch seats to fifteen. The potential for growth means that other towns would be sharing the burden of cost.

The meeting was very amicable with all sides agreeing that they just wanted to come to a resolution that would be satisfactory to all involved. The ROCC agreed to look at the potential of a weighted system and the Board of Selectmen and Dennehy agreed to come up with a number somewhere between $50,000 and $200,000 that would work for the town.

HALIFAX – The Annual Street Listing form has been mailed out to all Halifax households.  Town Clerk Barbara Gaynor requests that residents please fill out the form and return it as soon as possible.

Filling out the form DOES NOT REGISTER you to vote.   

If there is no letter such as D; R or U listed under Party beside your name, then you are not registered to vote. You may register to vote at the Town Clerk’s office or online at https://www.sec.state.ma.us/ovr/.

The last day to register to vote for the Presidential Primary, is Wednesday, February 12.  The Massachusetts Presidential Primary is Tuesday, March 3.

The Annual Town Election will be held on May 16.  Nomination papers will be available beginning Tuesday, January 21 at the Town Clerk’s office and must be returned by March 25.

Nomination papers are available for the following:

Board of Assessors, three year term; Board of Health, three-year term; Highway Surveyor, three-year term; Library Board of Trustees, two positions with three-year terms; Halifax Housing Authority:  three positions: three-year term, four-year term and a five-year term; Park Commissioner, a three-year term and a one-year term; Halifax Elementary School Committee, two three-year terms; Silver Lake Regional School Committee, three-year term; Board of Selectmen, three-year term and Board of Water Commissioners, three-year term.

Dave Palana
Express correspondent

Junior Sam Shirikjian had a big day for the Lakers with a 6.89-second 55-meter dash to set a new personal best in place among all Patriot League sprinters at the meet. Shirikjian ran another personal best to place fourth overall in the 300 meters in 38.27 seconds.

Senior Nicholas Ierardi also ran a personal best to place third in the 55-meter hurdles in 8.37 seconds while Christopher Tilton ran into fifth place in the 600 meters and the Lakers’ 4×200 relay team outran Plymouth’s.

In the field events, Brandon Hooper placed fifth in the shot put. Ierardi also picked up points in the high and long jumps while Shirikjian also earned points in the long jump and Joseph Wennemer picked up points in the high jump.

Residents may have noticed a new emptiness at the Plympton Post Office.  While the clerks remain the same, and the service over the counter is the same, where are the mail carriers?  Where is the mail?

Online shoppers during the holiday season bombarded the little building with an avalanche of packages that made sorting the mail and preparing it for delivery a dangerous proposition.

One worker noted that it became an emergency situation and became unsafe for everyone behind the counter.

Now Plympton mail carriers are working out of the spacious Carver post office.  The same rural carriers are working their same postal routes, they said, but the carriers work from the Carver location.

“There is no plan to bring the carriers back to Plympton – not to this location – because it is just too small, “ a worker told The Express.  For now, service will remain the same, just happening from two locations.

If their first meet of the season was any indicator, the Silver Lake High girls gymnastics co-op, also known as Pemberlake, is in a strong position this season.

The co-op started off their year with a three-team meet in Pembroke on Friday, Dec. 20. In it, they took on and defeated Whitman-Hanson 131.5-117.95, but fell to Notre Dame Academy in a nail biter 132.1-131.5. With the win and loss, Pemberlake moved to 1-1 on the season.

Lauren Canniff was the top performer of the meet. She won the all-around with a score of 33.2. She tied for first place on the floor (8.5), came in second place on vault (9.2) and on the bars (8.1). Additionally, she finished third on the beam (7.4). This performance earned her Pemberlake’s Gymnast of the Meet award.

Just behind her, Ava Dorsey took second place in the all-around (33.1). Dorsey took first place on vault with a 9.6 and first on bars with an 8.3. She also tied for third place on floor (8.2).

Canniff and Dorsey were not the only first place finishers for the co-op. Sam Raleigh tied for first place on the floor (8.5) while Stella Lane had a first place finish on the beam (7.7).

Maizie Condon was second on floor (8.3), Sarah d’entremont took second on beam (7.7), Ciara Dalrymple came in third on vault (8.6) and Cam McGrath tied for third on floor (8.2)

On Thursday night of this week, the team competed at the Patriot League Invitational at Hanover High School. Their next team meet is set to take place on Tuesday, Jan. 7 at home. They will face off against both Marshfield and Hingham (7:00 p.m. start time). In Hingham’s first meet of the season, they scored 128.3, but fell to Hanover who put up 132.

Anyone who purchased a rain barrel this summer, it’s time if you haven’t already, to drain and store it! This prevents it from cracking from freezing water left inside.
There were directions on how to store your barrel, but if you are like most folks, finding them may be harder than the process!
Some helpful tips on how to do it!
1) take off the top of the barrel and use a bucket to get most of the water out then gently tip over to get the rest out.
2) use an elastic to keep the lever down and let it flow through the spout (see pics)
Also if you don’t have space in a garage, shed or basement to store it, make sure it is totally empty and lay it on it’s side. Secure it from rolling with rocks, bricks or some other heavy object against winter winds. If you leave it standing, rain and snow will just filter in again. If you must leave it standing, flip it over and put a heavy object on top.
This will keep your water barrel useable for next season and many more to come!
Have a safe winter and here’s to looking forward to gardening weather in 2020!

– Thank you to Nancy & Joe Botelho for these tips!