Halifax – Summer Schmaling, a Halifax Republican, is officially on the ballot for State Representative in the 12^th Plymouth District after submitting more than 300 certified signatures to the Secretary of State in Boston. The 12^th Plymouth District includes the towns of Duxbury, Kingston, Halifax, Middleborough, Plymouth, and Plympton.

“I’ve received a great deal of support and encouragement from voters to run for State Representative. Voters are telling me taxes are too high and our State Representative needs to be more transparent about their voting record in the legislature,” Schmaling stated.

Summer Schmaling is a resident of Halifax where she, her husband, and three children are active in the community.  Summer’s public service began in 2013 while serving on the Halifax Finance Committee, and as Chairman of the Halifax Elementary School Committee and Republican Town Committee.

Summer is a trained scientist with experience studying influenza and various viruses at the Tufts University School of Medicine.  Summer’s experience conducting scientific research has strengthened her ability to problem-solve in a unique way, a skill-set which is desperately needed in the state legislature to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, family-owned businesses throughout Massachusetts are struggling to keep their businesses alive and taxpayers – the elderly, families, and individuals – are facing difficult times paying for food, utilities, mortgages, and insurance expenses. However, high taxes, fees, and over-regulation implemented by the state legislature will not help our citizens or businesses recover from the pandemics economic impact.

Schmaling continued, “The Covid-19 pandemic changed everything; senior citizens and elderly veterans were put at risk and too many died.  Economically, businesses closed and jobs were lost; however, the policy and planning we implement in the state legislature will be our legacy to protect our citizens’ health, jobs and businesses.”

The 12th Plymouth District Primary will be held on Tuesday, September 3, 2020. The General Election will be held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020.  To learn more about Summer Schmaling and her campaign for State Representative, please visit www.summerforrep.com.

State Senator Michael D. Brady issued a message to residents of the 2nd Plymouth and Bristol District to provide an update on recent legislation, policy changes, and to urge the continued use of social distancing practices as the Massachusetts economy begins a graduated reopening.

Starting on May 18th the Commonwealth of Massachusetts began rolling out phase-one of its reopening plan. The initial wave of changes will primarily affect religious institutions as well as the manufacturing and construction industries.

“I want to thank everyone for their patience and understanding as we work to manage this emergency,” said Senator Brady, “ I cannot stress enough how important it is that we diligently maintain social distancing practices as the state begins to reopen.”

Please view the full details here:

https://www.mass.gov/doc/reopening-massachusetts-may-18-2020/download

“I offer my sincerest gratitude to all of our healthcare workers, first responders and essential employees who have played an invaluable role in seeing us through these challenging times.  We are working on legislation to protect and aid our heroes.”

The following are some of the bills we’ve passed to assist residents in the wake of the COVID-19 emergency:

• An Act to facilitate the delay of the income tax filing deadline- Takes several steps to facilitate the delay of the state income tax filing deadline to July 15, 2020.

• An Act providing for virtual notarization to address challenges related to COVID-19 Authorizes a notary public to perform an acknowledgment, affirmation or other notarial using electronic video conferencing in real-time.

• An Act providing for a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures during the COVID-19 Emergency Establishes temporary protections for renters and homeowners during the COVID-19 public health emergency.

• An Act to provide liability protections for health care workers and facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic- Exempts health care providers and health care facilities from suit and civil liability for damages allegedly resulting from the providing of health care services during the COVID-19 health emergency.

• An Act to further address challenges faced by municipalities, school districts and state authorities resulting from COVID-19- Amends various provisions related to the management of state and municipal operations in response to the COVID-19 public health emergency.

• An Act to address challenges faced by municipalities and state authorities resulting from COVID-19- Implements various changes to municipal operations, tax collections, the sale of alcoholic beverages and the hiring of public retirees during the COVID-19 state of emergency.

• An Act granting authority to postpone 2020 municipal elections in the commonwealth and increase voting options in response to the declaration of emergency to respond to COVID-19- Authorizes municipalities with an election scheduled to take place before May 30, 2020, to postpone the election to a date on or before June 30, 2020.

• An Act providing additional support to those affected by the novel coronavirus through the unemployment insurance system – Makes urgent changes to the unemployment system to support workers and families affected by COVID-19.

• An Act making appropriations for the fiscal year 2020 to provide for supplementing certain existing appropriations and for certain other activities and projects – Appropriates $15 million to support the Commonwealth’s efforts against the novel coronavirus, including for monitoring, treatment, containment public awareness and prevention efforts by the department of public health, regional and local boards of health, and any other public entities.

Throughout the duration of the crisis, my team and I have been hard at work helping constituents on a one to one basis to deal with the variety of challenges brought on by COVID-19. If you are in the 2nd Plymouth and Bristol District and in need of assistance please do not hesitate to contact us at (617) 722-1200 or at Michael.Brady@MAsenate.gov.

To stay up to date on the latest news from the MA State Senate follow me on Facebook  @MikeBradyWorks, on Twitter @Brady_Works, and on the web at senatormikebrady.org.

Halifax School Committee Catches up During Pandemic

The Halifax School Committee met virtually on Monday, May 11. Chair Summer Schmaling began with correspondence from Silver Lake Regional School Committee Chair Jason Fraser (who is also vice chair of the Plympton School Committee) asking if they would support him in his bid for treasurer/secretary on the Massachusetts Association of School Committee (MASC) Executive Board. Just as the Regional School Committee did, the Halifax Committee also voted unanimously to do so.

The Committee then provided reports for each of the standing sub committees. Superintendent Jill Proulx spoke on behalf of Policy saying that while they do have a list of recommendations from MASC, policy updates have not been a priority given recent changes to the remote learning plan. Negotiations said that they voted earlier that evening and plan to reach out to both the Halifax Teacher’s Association and the Halifax Custodial Negotiations Team to setup a remote meeting for further negotiating.  Committee member Alison Vance said that PAC has continued meeting and that chromebooks were rolled out to students. Regarding Youth and Rec, Schmaling said, “Clearly they’re kind of at a stand still themselves and not really sure what the summer will hold.” Union 31 had not met. Capital Budget also had not met though it was noted that the budget is obviously in flux.

Principal Kayne Beaudry provided an update on the remote learning plan. “I want to give kudos to our teachers. They have really jumped in and have been working with adapting and changing up their game plan every week; we feel that the plans are getting better and better,” he explained. Beaudry said that student engagement has been the top priority for the last few weeks. Families that have been flagged as needing extra help keeping up with engagement have been placed on a watch list.

Beaudry also mentioned that per state guidelines, teachers have been transitioning from just assigning work to focusing on prerequisite standards. “I do want to give a little plug to our specialist teachers,” Beaudry said. He noted the unique difficulties faced by this set of teachers as they see seven different grade levels. “They have really done a nice job on scaling back and listening to our families and making it as user-friendly as possible,” he continued.

Beaudry also spoke from personal experience, saying that he has his own children from preschool to middle school that are being homeschooled. He noted the inherent difficulties in remote learning especially for those in the younger grades.

Enrollment for the incoming kindergarten class is currently hovering around 78 students compared to the current kindergarten’s class of 64. Committee member Gordon Andrews told Beaudry he had seen some questions online regarding the kindergarten registration process. Beaudry said that the school has been working behind the scenes to address things like orientation for parents and screenings for students. Andrews also said that he has seen a number of questions from parents and other guardians regarding the required medical records as scheduling doctor’s appointments has become difficult given the pandemic. Beaudry said that the school nurse as well as the administrators are aware that there will be a backlog for medical records and said there will be a grace period for obtaining those records.

Proulx and Assistant Superintendent Ryan Lynch said that they have been meeting with union leadership, department heads, curriculum coordinators, and building principals regarding the remote learning plan.

Lynch said that they have been favoring asynchronous learning over synchronous learning as it allows families to go back and access lessons when convenient for them. Andrews said that the Committee wanted to express their thanks to the administrators and teachers for their hard work during unprecedented times. Proulx was quick to mention that thanks should also be extended to Director of Business Services Christine Healy. Proulx joked that she has been asking Healy “a million budget questions every day.”

As of right now, the anticipated last day of school is June 19.

Stephen Richardson
Social Security Regional Communications Director

 Social Security and its Office of the Inspector General continue to receive reports about fraudulent phone calls from people claiming to be Social Security employees.  These scammers try to trick people into providing personal information or money, and often threaten their victims with arrest.  Don’t be fooled.

Our employees will never threaten you for information or promise a benefit in exchange for personal information or money.

Real Social Security employees also will not:

o   Tell you that your Social Security number has been suspended.

o Contact you to demand an immediate payment.

o Ask you for credit or debit card numbers over the phone.

o  Require a specific means of debt repayment, like a prepaid debit card, a retail gift card, or cash.

o  Demand that you pay a Social Security debt without the ability to appeal the amount you owe.

o  Promise a Social Security benefit approval, or increase, in exchange for information or money.

If you receive a suspicious call or are unsure of the identity of someone who claims to be from Social Security:

o   Hang up.

o  Do not give money or personal information.

o   Report the scam to our Office of the Inspector General at oig.ssa.gov.

The Plympton Board of Selectmen continued with their virtual weekly meetings on Thursday, April 23 to cover any COVID-19 related updates as well as some regular town business.   

Chairman of the Board of Health Arthur Morin reported to Town Administrator Elizabeth Dennehy that all COVID-19 cases in Plympton were reported to be recovered resulting in no active cases they were aware of as of April 23. Selectmen Chair Christine Joy exclaimed, “Hallelujah, that is great news.” Selectmen Mark Russo and John Traynor agreed. Morin said, “I was tickled yesterday when I got the news that they are out of quarantine and everything is good.” Since the meeting, however, the town’s website has been updated to report one active case in town.

Town Administrator Elizabeth Dennehy told the Board that they had to decide whether to conduct an appraisal of the property at 61 Upland Road. There is currently a notice of intent to convert under Massachusetts General Law, Chapter 61A. The Board decided they would take a vote at a later meeting as they felt that they needed more time and more discussion to make the correct decision.

Dennehy provided an update on the town’s measures to combat the Coronavirus pandemic locally. Weekly calls with townhouse employees, the library, and the Council on Aging are continuing. Additionally, an Emergency Management meeting was held this week to discuss what it will look like when the town reopens as well as best approaches for reopening. Dennehy said that the town will need to be in compliance with both the state and federal government’s guidance. Extenuating circumstances will also have to be taken into consideration including, but not limited to, childcare issues or caretaking for ill family members. “Everything seems to be running smoothly,” Dennehy said.

Dennehy also said that Meals on Wheels has been moved out of the Fire Department and is now being operated out of the Halifax Council on Aging. Dennehy said that Council on Aging Director Joy Marble gave her an update on the Brown Bag program that delivers a bag of essential groceries to residents who qualify. Those wishing to inquire about eligibility for either Meals on Wheels or the Brown Bag program should reach out to Marble (contact information can be found on the town website).

Dennehy said that if people need to visit the Townhouse they must check in with either herself or the Chair of the Plympton Board of Health Arthur Morin. “We seem to have a pretty good schedule going right now,” Dennehy said.

Regarding the town budget, Dennehy said that despite being under certain time constraints, it would be premature to make any decisions currently about what will or will not be happening.

Chair of the Plympton School Committee Jon Wilhelmsen was also in attendance to provide an update on the schools. Wilhelmsen said it was a challenge to keep everything equal. He added, “We’ll do things as we always do in Plympton which is collaboratively.”

The National Guard arrived on Sunday with much needed protection gear for Plympton first responders including N-95 masks and other protective equipment.  Since the arrival of COVID-19, protective gear has been in the news because it is so difficult to get.  Fire Chief Stephen Silva said that the supplies have loosened up and now his department is in good shape.

The chief made the news this week with his war against the giant online retailer Amazon.  Plympton Fire Department has been a municipal customer of Amazon for years, and has enjoyed a good business relationship with them.   Once the COVID-19 virus pandemic hit, Amazon restricted the purchase of many protective equipment items so they would be available to hospitals and emergency responders, and not hoarded by resellers.

All Plympton had to do is fill out a form.  And another form.   And fill it out again.   Weeks went by, Silva said, and no product orders came through.  Other fire departments recommended to Amazon by Silva were getting their orders, but Plympton was not.   Silva finally enlisted the aid of Channel 25 News to put their media might behind it, and Amazon did call them back, assuring them that Plympton would be taken care of.  Problem solved!

After reading an announcement on the Plympton’s Facebook page April 8 that the town would close the transfer station at the end of business on April 9 for a period of two weeks because of a health emergency that could not be discussed due to HIPPA regulations, cars and trucks poured into the transfer station Thursday morning, with the line of vehicles lined up Ring Road, as far as Crescent Street at one point in the morning, creating a traffic jam.

It didn’t take long for town officials and the Board of Health, to modify that order and by Thursday mid-morning decided that curtailed transfer station hours would be the better solution.

Chairman Joy was pleased with the quick response and praised Arthur Morin, chairman of the Board of Health and head of the transfer station attendees, for the new plan.  The new transfer station hours will be Thursdays, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and Sundays, 9 a.m. to noon.  It will no longer have Tuesday hours.

Morin told the board that the compactors will no longer be used and residents will toss bagged trash only into open top containers, leaving no need for anyone to touch any of the equipment at the Transfer Station.   The office building remains closed to the public.  “Now you can come in, drop your trash, and go,” Morin concluded.

Morin said that residents, perhaps in an attempt to be helpful, were touching the buttons, levers, and equipment, without protective gloves, not practicing social distancing, and were trying the doorknob to get into the office, despite signage stating not to.  Morin said he took steps to protect the health and safety of workers at the transfer station.

The bottle redemption center is also closed, as they are throughout the state during this COVID-19 emergency, and the recycling compactors at the Transfer Station are closed for the present time.

Any recycling, glass, plastic, and paper now go in with the regular bagged refuse until the pandemic emergency is over and the Selectmen and Board of Health announce new protocols.  Electronics, appliances, batteries, fluorescent light bulbs, will also remain closed.

Morin reported that he was notified that there are two additional  COVID-19 positive cases in Plympton, raising the total, as of last Thursday, to four.

Plympton’s Board of Selectmen met via ZOOM Thursday evening, April 9, at 5:50 p.m. following an executive session at 5:30.  All three selectpersons were in attendance, ready to tackle the town’s business on this new platform.

Chairman Christine Joy called the meeting to order and with the board acted on some housekeeping items from the posted agenda:

• Town Administrator Elizabeth Dennehy’s contract vote on March 2, 2020, was ratified.  She will serve the town for another three years.

• Nathan Cristofori’s appointment as Special Police Officer that was voted on April 2, 2020, was ratified

• Arthur Morin, Jr., Chairman of the Board of Health and Cathy Ferguson, Board of Health Administrative Assistant, were voted as members of the Emergency Management Team on April 2.   That vote was also ratified at Thursday night’s meeting, April 9.

Selectmen weighed the benefits of postponing the Annual Town Meeting from Wednesday, May 13 and the Annual Town Election from Saturday, May 16, to Wednesday, June 17, and Saturday, June 20, respectively.   The board voted unanimously for the postponement, hoping that the COVID-19 pandemic crisis would have passed by mid – June.

After reading an annouJoy commented, “This is a very fluid situation … things change daily.   People need to be aware that this is an unprecedented situation,” Joy said.

Selectmen will next meet on Thursday, April 16, at 5:30 p.m.

Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, the Halifax Fire Department’s first annual awards night, previously scheduled for Thursday, March 19th, had to be cancelled. Fire Chief Viveiros has decided that instead of continuing to delay, the department will begin announcing the award recipients.

Today, Citizen Hero Awards were presented to John Keegan and Christine Tompkins.

John Keegan

On December 21st a small aircraft plummeted into the icy waters of the East Monponsett Lake. The pilot, who was soaking wet and could not swim, was able to climb on top of the aircraft as it slowly began to sink. Without hesitation or concern for his own safety, John immediately utilized a neighbor’s canoe and paddled through the icy water to make the rescue. In recognition of his valor and heroism, John Keegan was honored with the Citizen Hero Award.

Christine Tompkins

Christine Tompkins truly embodies the spirit of community and selflessness that who care as much about our seniors and display such willingness to help their neighbor, as Crissy does. Even as this award is presented Christine continues to once again serve our community. As quickly as the Coronavirus appeared so did the need for additional PPE. Crissy immediately recognized that need and continues to put in countless hours sewing masks for anyone who might need one.

In recognition of her countless acts of human kindness, Christine Tompkins was honored with the Citizen Hero Award.

Congratulations John and Christine !!

KINGSTON and BOSTON – State Representative Kathy LaNatra (D-Kingston) announced today that the House of Representatives has passed legislation to move the individual tax filing and payment deadline, support municipal government operations, and allow alcohol sales for take-out or delivery at restaurants.

The legislation would extend the individual state tax filing and payment deadline from April 15 to July 15.  Additionally, it includes the following provisions:

• Permits establishments licensed to sell alcohol for on-premises consumption to sell wine and beer via delivery and take-out provided the wine or beer is sold in the same transaction as a purchase of food and in a sealed container.

• Modifies local permitting processes, extending municipal tax deadlines, and allowing municipalities to extend property tax exemptions and deferrals.

• Allows municipalities to activate qualified workers by suspending the cap on hours and compensation for certain retired employees for hours worked during the state of emergency.

The legislation will provide administrative and economic relief to restaurants, cities and towns, and to the taxpayers of the Commonwealth. There are several provisions affording towns and municipalities the flexibility to allow for extending time frames for town meetings and assessing some kind of temporary leniency with paying taxes and late fees. The bill will now go to the Senate.

Representative LaNatra said, “This legislation will provide needed relief in a number of important areas. I am pleased that my colleagues in the House of Representatives moved quickly and we look forward to seeing it enacted into law.”

Representative LaNatra’s district includes all residents 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. To reach her, email Kathleen.LaNatra@mahouse.gov or her legislative aide, Chris Jean, Christopher.Jean@MAhouse.gov. The phone number for the office is 617-722-2430. For updates and announcements, please visit Representative LaNatra’s Facebook page, https://bit.ly/2Ura8VR or her website, https://www.kathylanatra.com.

The Halifax Board of Selectmen meeting on Tuesday, March 17 began with the three selectmen and Town Administrator Charlie Seelig seated 6 feet apart at a very long table.

The first item on the agenda was a discussion of the revised draft from late February of potential changes to the multi-family housing zoning by-laws. Seelig said that Building Inspector and Zoning Enforcement Agent Rob Piccirilli had approached him with specific concerns regarding various definitions. Halifax’s land use counsel Amy Kwesell was also in attendance to advise on the proposed revisions to the by-laws.

Piccirilli stressed that he felt that there should be a definition of both a townhouse and an apartment in the by-laws. Seelig said that a townhouse would fall under the multi-family category as it is simply another form of a multi-family dwelling.

There was some debate as to whether it would be beneficial to include a specific definition of an apartment in the by-laws. Currently an apartment is classified as a subset of a dwelling unit. Piccirilli said that many other towns clearly define what constitutes an apartment in their by-laws. Seelig said, “An apartment in my head is someone is renting it; if you own it, it’s a condo.”

The conversation moved on to in-law apartments as well.  Piccirilli asked, “Our problem with in-law apartments, and I think they are a fantastic thing, but to try and monitor these… when does a single-family dwelling become a two-family dwelling?” Selectman Tom Millias responded with, “immediately.” “In-law is a subject that is ripe for revision, I don’t think anyone is disagreeing with that,” Seelig said. Selectman Gordon Andrews asked, “Can we just note in the multi-family by-law, no accessory apartments allowed?” Seelig said, “I think there’s a worry that somehow, someday, somebody is going to try and glom an additional accessory unit onto one of the condos in the two, or three, or four, and the idea is no, you can’t do that and it needs to be explicitly in the by-law.” Millias agreed saying, “People get creative… we have to get specific.”

There was also a discussion on the differences between two-family homes and multi-family homes. A two-family and duplex are classified as one and the same whereas a multi-family home would have three or more units. Chapter 167, Section 3 provides updates to both the definitions and use requirements for a single two-family dwelling and multi-family dwellings.

Piccirilli shared his concerns over the development of Chapter 40B. Chapter 40B is Massachusetts’ affordable housing law which allows developers to build under a simpler permit process as well as less stringent zoning rules as long as a certain percentage of their units are devoted to low and moderate income families. “I’m not here to say what I want or what anyone else wants; I’m here to do what’s best for the town and the question that’s going to come up at town meeting, that I can foresee, is what kind of breathing room do we have within this to prevent the 40B from coming here?,” Piccirilli asked. Seelig immediately responded with “we don’t.” Kwesell was also quick to respond saying simply, “none.”

Piccirilli was told that cleaning up the by-laws for multi-family dwellings was the first step in incentivizing developers to not go to a Chapter 40B. Kwesell said that the plan was to allow developers to build market-rate units and sell them as market-rate units under the revised by-laws while still providing as much protection as possible to abutters.

Seelig and the selectmen also discussed the ongoing and continually developing situation regarding COVID-19. Seelig addressed the logistics for working from home saying, “If we’re going to both allow or be required… a department head has to make the request of the Board of Selectmen for an individual to work from home.” Seelig also said that the town Board of Health had some money available to pay for laptops for select employees who do not have the required equipment. Town employees working from home are required to provide a synopsis to their department head of how they spent their time each day. Seelig explained, “we need to provide some assurance to the public, to the Board, to the department head that work is actually being done.” “If there are details that need to be filled in, we have time to do that. As with many other things, we’re doing this a little bit on the fly, we’ll smooth out the rough edges as we move along,” Seelig said. The Board of Selectmen voted to approve the framework of the work from home policy.

The possibility of holding public meetings remotely was also briefly discussed.

Since the meeting on March 17, Halifax has actually moved to holding meetings via the platform Zoom with login information available on the town website.

Andrews informed the other selectmen that while 25 percent of students at Halifax Elementary qualify for free or reduced lunch, there was a delay in setting that service up for those still needing it with school closed. He said the delay was due to contract issues within the school system.

The issue has since been resolved. Andrews said that those that are not currently part of the free or reduced lunch program but are currently in need will be helped. He advised that they reach out to the food service director at Silver Lake whose contact information can be found on the town website.