Police Chief Matthew Clancy (Photo Courtesy of the Duxbury Clipper)

At the regular meeting held May 6, Plympton Selectmen voted to name Matthew Clancy as Interim Police Chief effective August 1, 2019.  Clancy will manage the Plympton Police Department on the retirement of Chief Patrick Dillon at the end of July, 2019.

Clancy is currently serving as Police Chief in Duxbury, and he will be retiring from there effective June 14, 2019.  He is very familiar with the Town of Plympton and the Plympton Police Department, as prior to serving the Town of Duxbury for the past eight years, Clancy was the Plympton Police Chief from December 2002 to April 2010.

Matt Clancy holds a Masters Degree in Criminal Justice from Boston University and he is a graduate of the FBI National Academy.  With over thirty-two years of combined full-time policing experience, Mr. Clancy has been involved with developing a wide array of policing, management and labor relations policies.  Mr. Clancy serves as the President of the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission and we thoroughly believe that his transparent and hands-on management approach will make him an asset to the Town of Plympton and we are thrilled to be welcoming him back.

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to our current Police Chief Patrick Dillon for managing the Plympton Police Department in an effective, efficient and responsive manner.  Chief Dillon has led the Department well over the years by setting a great example and encouraging officers to be involved with the community.  Chief Dillon also played an integral role in the planning process for the newly constructed Plympton Police Station.  We wish Chief Dillon the best of luck in his future endeavors and a very happy and healthy retirement.

Shelby Philbeck stands with her award-winning locker set for the play “Boxes.” (Photo by Kristy Zamangi-Twomey)

For the first time in many, many years the Silver Lake Regional High School Drama Club participated in the METG Festival.

METG, short for the Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild, Inc., has spent nearly a century striving to encourage and improve participation and education in theatre arts for students and teachers in both middle and high school. The festival includes 112 one-act plays put on by high schools across the state.

There are preliminary, semi-final, and state rounds at which awards are presented for student excellence in acting and technical design.

Silver Lake participated in the preliminary round hosted by Marshfield High School where they won four of the coveted awards.

Seniors John Coady and Quinn Bonneyman and junior Caitlyn Beckwith were all awarded leading acting awards while senior Shelby Philbeck won a set design award.

“We performed Boxes which is a one act play that uses symbolism to talk about teenagers’ stress in the current world,” Beckwith explained.

Of her role, Beckwith said, “I played the role of Holly who was at the end of the show, a voice of reason.  In the beginning it seemed like she had the perfect life but really her deeper story was that she had problems like everyone else which I feel like resonates in our world where we think someone is perfect but they have problems of their own. The character taught me not to judge other people at first which I was guilty of doing before, so I’m really glad I got to play her and learn that.”

Bonneyman, who will most likely study music at Brandeis University in the fall, played the role of Jack. “He’s the protagonist of the show who struggles with throwing his expectations away in the form of a box. People will put things in a person’s box and that’s their expectations or so he thinks. Throughout the story, it’s a development that he realizes that its others people’s hopes for him… he can choose what goes in his box and it goes to show that students have control of their own life and people in general have control of their own lives,” Bonneyman explains.

Coady, who will attend Brown University next year, describes his character as follows, “I played Chris who seems like the carefree easygoing character but as you learn he threw away his box because he couldn’t handle the responsibility that he felt was placed on him through the passing of his sister. That put a lot of stress on him and instead of facing it he decided to bury it. Throughout the show Chris is learning and understanding what it means to have people believe in you, what it means to have people have hopes for you. It was really incredible for me to step into that role because I’ve never felt real emotion on stage until I did that role. It was an incredible experience for me personally being able to play Chris in the show.”

Philbeck became involved in the production later in the process when it was decided that a set piece was needed. Putting her creativity to good use, Philbeck spent multiple rehearsals painting the lockers that would serve as the backdrop to the performance.

The Silver Lake students that attended the festival all describe a sense of comradery that was felt between all attending schools as well as an appreciation for the performances of their peers.  Of her experience at the festival Beckwith said, “Everyone from all the different schools were so supportive of us and we were so supportive of them. I made a lot of friends. I was really proud of our cast and myself and the other groups.”

Bonneyman added, “When you get there, there’s no crevasse of time that’s not filled with something fun and entertaining.” Regarding performing in front of the other schools Bonneyman said, “You get out there and it’s an exhilarating experience because the whole audience also wants to be there and they are all so passionate about what they do so all of them react and all of them respond to what you’re doing on stage which is amazing.”

Coady echoed similar sentiments saying, “That was the Silver Lake kids first time partaking in this event and it was so much more than what I could have imagined it was; just going and seeing all of these different shows and of all these incredibly talented people in your area, you really get to learn a lot from how they go at things and how some of the actors do certain things. That was an incredibly humbling and informative experience. I was also struck by how accepting everyone there was of everyone else.”

Philbeck explained her experience as a crew member, “We went to METG and it was unreal to me because as a crew member you feel like you’re in like a niche of a niche because drama club seems like you’re secluded in a social sense and then crew even seems more secluded. But you were just in such an environment that you feel like you can relate to everyone… that was crazy to me because I had never seen that many people that were like me.”

Senior Hannah Arroyo, who plans to study communications at the University of New Hampshire, also attended the festival as an actress and described her time at the festival as an “unforgettable experience in a place where so many people are just like you.”

A love of theatre is apparent in listening to these students speak with such fervor about their experience at the festival as well as their future plans. While Beckwith is only a junior and is uncertain where she will go to school after next year she plans to continue with acting and theatre saying, “It’s been too big a part of my life to not do it all of a sudden. I love it.”

Bonneyman, who plans to study music, explains, “Acting and music, they kind of go hand in hand to me. I will be doing a lot of theatre as well. It’s just such a big part of my life.”

Coady, for his part, is unsure what he will study at Brown but knows that he will continue to act in some capacity. As he puts it, “Acting has been my passion since I was like nine so I’m never going to stop doing that no matter what.” Philbeck plans on studying biology describing her artistic endeavors as her “soul work” despite having alternate career plans.

The Silver Lake drama club put on a performance of Almost Maine this past weekend with performances both Friday and Saturday.

Coady describes it well, saying, “Almost Maine is a very unique show set into eight different scenes, all short stories in and of themselves; they are all independent from each other and stand alone as their own stories but they are all connected in some way and set in the same town. All of the stories are about love – two individuals falling in love, falling out of love, and all of them end in this thought of almost love. It’s really a beautiful show, it’s a funny show. There are upsetting parts, there are beautiful parts, there are adorable parts so it’s a very diverse show and the script is magnificent.”

Teachers Ashley Ferrara, Kim Orcutt, and JennyLyn Berry serve as the drama directors for the spring performance and the METG festival. Orcutt described the decision to do the festival as an easy one thanks to the quality of the seniors involved, “We haven’t done this kind of play competition before and we felt confident because of these students that are seniors this year. We knew that they would have the ability to dedicate themselves and help us be patient because we didn’t know what we were doing. We had some amazing leaders from the tech world, from the building world, and from the acting world.”

Ferrara gave credit to seniors Josh Heath and Nic Asnes for lending their skills and providing instruction on the technical aspects of production. Ferrara said of Heath, “He pretty much was in charge of building everything and instructing others and with him gone next year, the only reason we’ll still know how to do things is because he taught everybody how to.”

Asnes ran all of the lights and sounds. Ferrara continued, “Those two kind of manned the technical side of the show for us and we couldn’t have done it without them.” Ferrara also said they couldn’t have done it without the help of volunteers such as Orcutt’s father Don Orcutt who competed in and won a state title at the METG competition in the 70’s and who spoke to the Silver Lake students prior to the festival.

With regard to the lessons taken away from the festival, Ferrara said, “It’s hard to know how you can improve if you never leave your own school so that was the best part of the experience. The kids learned stuff but we also learned stuff as the directors.”

Illustrating the love the directors have for this group of seniors, Ferrara, Orcutt, and Berry joked about being in denial about their impending graduation before reminiscing about a moment at dinner when they found themselves crying into their cupcakes.

Nolan Hughes leans into the pitch. (Photo by Aaron Duke)

The personnel is largely different, but the goals remain the same for the Silver Lake High School varsity baseball team.

The Lakers lost 12 seniors to graduation following last spring when the team went 13-7 and made yet another MIAA Division 1 South tournament appearance. Now, it will be up to many younger players and varsity newcomers to lead the team this season.

The Lakers will be propelled by their starting rotation that does feature three returning varsity players: Nolan Hughes, Alex Heffernan and Michael Quigley. Each of them pitched well for the Lakers last season. Quigley threw a no-hitter in his first career varsity start last season, Hughes was a Patriot League All-Star and Heffernan is a four-year varsity player.

The challenges for the Lakers will include finding pitching depth and filling out their starting nine as they hope to contend for another Patriot League title; with Duxbury, Hanover and Plymouth South returning strong teams, it will be a challenge, as usual.

Cole Whidden and Jake Holmes should log some innings for the Lakers and the same could be said for Harrison Milbert, a freshman and first-year varsity player.

Hughes and Heffernan will both likely see time at first base when they are not pitching while Bobby Ohlson and Matt Bettle provide the outfield with some varsity experience. Will Cauchon’s bat will return to the lineup, seeing time at third base and as a designated hitter and Connor Burgess takes over behind the plate as the team’s starting catcher.

As of the start of this week, the Lakers were 0-2 on the season. They dropped their opening game against Xaverian 11-1 on Thursday, Apr. 4 and two days later, Barnstable beat them 5-0.

The Lakers next game is scheduled for Wednesday,

Apr. 16 on the road against Plymouth North (2:00 p.m. start time).

Train 041 arrives at Hanson Station from Boston on Tuesday, March 19, 2019. (Photo by Abram Neal)

In 1949, Jacqueline Steiner and Bess Lomax Hawes wrote the song made famous by the Kingston Trio about a man named Charlie stuck forever riding beneath the streets of Boston because he was a nickel short. Now, Charlie will have an even harder time coming up with his fare because the MBTA announced fare increases for the first time in three years last week. 

Area riders can expect to pay more for their “T” trips beginning July 1. Local monthly commuter rail passes were hit hard by the hikes — increasing at a higher percentage rate than the overall system increase.

At a meeting of the MBTA’s Fiscal and Management Control Board March 11 the board approved an overall 5.8-percent increase in fares across the transit system after modifying a previous proposal tabled in January.

Bob Gray, a commuter from Duxbury, who disembarked from train 041 at Hanson Station said of the increase, “It’s more money,” but added, “It’s a good way to get into the city.”

Another rider, Shellie, of Pembroke, who works in Boston at a law firm and disembarked from the same train said, “Yeah, I’ll have to pay more … I’m not thrilled.”

The Whitman, Hanson and Halifax commuter rail stations are in fare zones five, six and seven, respectively.

One-way fares inbound or outbound to or from Boston will increase by 50 cents in each zone, from $9.25 to $9.75 or 5.4 percent in zone five (Whitman), from $10 to $10.50 or 5 percent in zone six (Hanson) and from $10.50 to $11 or 4.8 percent in zone seven (Halifax).

A monthly commuter rail pass will cost you an extra $19.50 in zone five (Whitman), up from $291.50 to $311 a month, an extra $22 in zone six (Hanson), up from $318 to $340 a month and an extra $19.50 in zone seven (Halifax), up from $336.50 to $360 a month.

This represents a yearly cost increase for a monthly commuter rail pass of $234 or 6.7 percent in zone five (Whitman), $264 or 6.9 percent in zone six (Hanson) and $282 or 6.9 percent in zone seven (Halifax).

The total yearly cost for a zone five pass will now be $3,732, a zone six pass will be $4,080 and a zone seven pass will be $4,320.

Local one-way bus fares, local monthly bus passes, reduced local bus and subway one-way fares and reduced monthly passes for seniors, TAP (those with disabilities), youth and students were spared the fare increase.

A local bus fare will remain $1.70, with a CharlieCard. A one-way subway ride will go up by 15 cents, from $2.25 to $2.40, with a CharlieCard.

The transit agency stated, “While the MBTA continues to focus on controlling costs and growing non-fare revenue, this increase, which is in line with the rate of inflation in the Boston area, is necessary for the Authority to continue making system investments to improve service.”

The MBTA website says that state law allows them to raise fares regularly but must limit those increases to every two years with no more than 7 percent for each increase. The MBTA has not raised fares since 2016. This increase is lower than the 6.3 percent increase originally proposed.

Sophomore goalie Kat Gilbert, of Halifax, has been a key playmaker this season. (Photo by Sue Moss)

Inconsistency. It was a thorn in the Whitman-Hanson/Silver Lake high school girls’ hockey team’s side all season.

“We’ll play two really good periods and have one really bad period and every time we had a really bad period, it hurt us,” said fourth-year WHSL head coach Kevin Marani, whose team finished the winter 4-13-2.

The co-op’s youth played a large f

actor in its inability to string together a full three periods. Fifteen of its 19 skaters were either freshmen or sophomores. They dropped five games by two goals or less. Wins came against Stoughton (twice), Quincy/North Quincy and Shawsheen.

I said to the girls, ‘We’re so close. Once you start to win, it becomes a habit,’” Marani said. “We had a ton of one-goal games, two-goal games with an empty net.”

The Panthers did make strides from last season, doubling their win total, upping their points total from four to 10 and potting 62 goals as opposed to 31.

Back with WHSL  after playing club hockey last season, junior captain Alyssa Murphy (Kingston) was a force on offense, netting 27 goals and dishing out 15 assists. She was in on 67 percent of the team’s tallies.

“She’s such a good talent,” Marani said. “Her talent speaks for herself. She was very unselfish, all about the team. Everything she does is team first. “

Sophomore Emily McDonald (Hanson) was second on the team with 15 points (6 goals and 9 assists). Not only did she play on the same line as Murphy, but she’ll serve as a captain with her next season as well.

“She’s another great kid,” Marani said. “She’s a leader. She is  quiet girl that leads by example. She is probably the hardest working player on our team. Every practice she is there. She is exactly what we want from every single player. If we had 20 Emily’s we’d be very, very good.”

Surprisingly enough, Marani said the strength of the team was defense. To be strong on defense, you need a steady presence in net, and sophomore Kat Gilbert (Halifax) provided that, turning away 481 shots.

“Kat is becoming a real goalie,” Marani said. “She is one of the better goalies in the league and that is a big part because she was committed. A lot of her issues were concentration.”

Freshmen Lilly Ulvila (Kington) and Abby Powers (Kingston) provided the Panthers with a look into the future. The two combined for 11 goals and 10 assists.

Marani said he has the same expectations heading into the offseason as he did coming into this year.

“We should make the state tournament next year,” said the coach. “If we don’t, it’s going to be a disappointment.”

Quentin Climer created flowers with tape that was easily moldble into shapes and stretchy in texture. (Photo by Stephanie Spyropoulos)

With various art media displayed throughout the Silver Lake hallways- this week students will observe and participate in a noticeably different method of creativity -in the form of tape art.

Founder of Tape Art Crew Michael Townsend carries over three decades of art experience and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Rhode Island School of Design.  Artist Leah Smith and Tape Art instructor also has over a decade in creating public art.

The pair generated inspiration with the SL students during a brief brain storming session prior to the application of the tape on Tuesday.

The students were encouraged to create and envision their story and then pairing up in groups they taped their portions of the story as it would unfold along the bare white wall.

Strictly pictorial each detail of the wall art was made of tape. Flowers, grass, lines both leading and finishing, cat ears, tiger bodies and a story unfolded about within various stages.

The green and blue artistry tape is easily removed and repositionable.

The idea of creating a scene together incorporates everyone. Coming into a space and seeing something new is exciting and when it is removed it will be missed and leaves room for new ideas to spring up, said Smith.

Several students stood on a table and stools to work on the top portions of the mural each had a shared task.

In recognition of March – Youth Arts Month this event was made possible by the generous support of the Kingston, Plympton and Halifax Local Cultural Councils and the SLRSD PTO.

Hannah Close Art teacher at the Silver Lake Regional High School was first introduced to the Tape Art Crew when she attended a professional development workshop in spring 2018. The event was hosted by the Massachusetts Art Education Association MAEA at UMass Dartmouth featuring the Tape Art Crew and led by two of the crew members.

Similar to the students the teachers at the workshop were given a prompt and coaching on how to manipulate the blue and green painter’s tape and all were paired in groups to create a temporary tape art mural.

‘The Tape Art Crew members posed thoughtful questions about imagery, communication and visual problems while we worked. The results were as exciting as they were varied,’ said Close.

Close who also spent class time Tuesday with the Tape Art Crew was excited about the opportunity to bring working artists to SLRHS because of the conceptual thinking, exposure to the media of temporary tape art murals and allowance for her students to develop visual communication skills. Her hope in what the students will gather from the experiences this week is:  development of interpersonal and problem solving skills.

‘They work together to create large scale murals that will be shared by the whole school and community,’ said Close.

The Tape Art Crew hails from Rhode Island and has hosted their workshops all over the world. Internationally they have traveled, creating tape murals throughout the US, Hong Kong, Greece, and Tokyo.