The Kingston Board of Selectmen met on Tuesday, November 12. Chair Eric Crone said that due to recent resignations the positions of Building Commissioner and the Assistant to the Fire Chief were vacant. Following the recruitment process, Town Administrator Keith Hickey recommended the hiring of David Kulikowski as Building Commissioner. Kulikowski, who holds a B.S. and M.S. in Construction Management from the Wentworth Institute of Technology, previously served as Building Inspector in Rockland and Norton. “He is nearly through the process of becoming a Building Commissioner,” Hickey said. Kulikowski is scheduled to begin in early December. The Fire Chief recommended the hiring of Colleen Chase. The Selectmen voted to appoint both.
Hickey told the Selectmen that following the resignation of the Director of Elder Affairs, he gauged interest in creating a new director position that would oversee both the Department of Elder Affairs as well as the Recreation Department. He said that while some larger neighboring communities do have a joint position, most the size of Kingston do not. “I really feel like the Council on Aging Director position should remain as a department head position working independently from the recreation department and keeping the organizational chart… as it exists today,” Hickey said. Selectman Kimberley Emberg said that she felt that it shouldn’t be a one-off conversation so much as something that needs to be reevaluated on a deeper level. She did agree that right now was not the time to explore it though.
During his Town Administrator’s update, Hickey said that the town had met with a vendor about offering online permitting to residents. Online options would be available for transfer station decals, business permits, alcohol licenses, health permits, beach permits, etc. “I think it’s something Kingston is significantly lacking in comparison to other communities – trying to allow people to do their town business online versus having to actually come into a building,” Hickey said.
The first stage of the Blackwater Memorial Forest is underway with the wetland restoration. Trees will be cut among trails to make it a more functional conservation area in the future. He said that the second stage is currently out to bid with numbers expected back by early December.
Hickey thanked the Town Clerk and all the election staff for doing a great job on election day.
Hickey said that the turnout for the veteran’s celebration was “tremendous.” He thanked all those that contributed to making it a success. “This year, Mark Beaton, who owns the Charlie Horse and Plymouth Bay Catering, donated the 140 meals for the Veteran’s Day luncheon,” Hickey told the Selectmen.
Selectman Tyler Bouchard, who said he was a hunter, spoke regarding conservation land and deer hunting and mating season. “If you’ve noticed there’s been a lot more accidents on the street because during that time period they are trying to mate and they run a lot at night… I think it’s just a good thing to remember especially at night and those early mornings and dusk… Also, it’s bow hunting season right now; I’ve also seen some people on Facebook talking about seeing people out in the woods and stuff like that – you know, it’s one of those things we’ve been doing for a couple of thousands of years… and then gun season for deer hunting will start the Monday after Thanksgiving,” Bouchard said. He also said that if you hear gunshots now, it could be due to duck hunting.
The Selectmen held their annual hearing for the classification of property for tax purposes. Principal Assessor Maureen Clarke spoke to those in attendance. She said that currently no parcels are classified as open space in Kingston. She further noted that in Massachusetts, only one community, the town of Bedford, have an open space discount. Clarke also explained the residential exemption saying that unless you have a lot of non-owner-occupied properties, it doesn’t make sense to adopt. The small commercial exemption provides a tax reduction to small commercial property owners at the expense of the larger commercial and industrial properties.
Clarke also shared a graph that showed how the average assessed home value in Kingston has risen from $331,894 in 2016 to $633,409 heading into 2025. The tax rate is increasing this year from $12.71 to $12.97. She also shared that the total property value for the town of Kingston is $3,413,919,852. Residential makes up nearly 87 percent of that property, commercial approximately 7 percent, personal property 5 percent, and industrial is less than 1 percent. Clarke shared that there were 17 new homes in Kingston in the past year. “There’s been no commercial growth, other than a few additions put on the buildings,” she said.
Clarke said that the maximum allowable levy for FY25 is $45,176,552. “The town has decided not to tax to the levy and we are taxing to a levy of $44,266,527,” Clarke said.
She shared what would be an average tax increase based on the average home value in Kingston. The valuation difference would be $41,969 and the average tax bill difference between FY24 and FY25 would be $698.
The Board of Assessors recommended a single tax rate by adopting a minimum residential factor of 1. They recommended not adopting an open space discount, residential exemption, or small business exemption. The Selectmen voted to adopt their recommendation.

The Plympton Board of Selectmen met on Monday, Nov. 4. Library Director Michael Slawson presented to the Board. “For this year, we just finished submitting our yearly reports… we’re compliant with everything for that so we should be eligible as usual for our state aid funding. It’s usually around $5-$6 thousand a year that we get from the state; that’s really important money that we get because that money can be used for anything.”
Regarding circulation numbers, he said that total checkouts went up by nearly 900. He also said that they received a Green Communities Grant for a new heat pump. Additionally, the library received a $20,000 grant from the American Library Association for accessibility. Slawson said that they held a roundtable discussion with patrons to ask for ideas to make the library more accessible. A heated mat will now be on the front entrance ramp to make it less slippery. They’ve also applied for CPC funding for the back patio of the library which Slawson said, “needs to be more usable.” A technology grant from the Association for Rural and Small Libraries allowed for the library to buy all new public computers and a 3-D printer as well as virtual reality.
Slawson also told Selectmen that they are looking to update the adult non-fiction collection. The plan is to weed out anything that hasn’t been checked out in the last three years and update it with new books. Slawson said that they would be moving the non-fiction section to where the fiction section is now.
Selectman Mark Russo asked about the library of things which includes all kinds of “things” from board games, Rokus, puzzles, night vision cameras, etc. Russo suggested something like leaf blowers for this time of year. Slawson said, “one of the ideas for the library of things is getting things that people may use once or twice a year but don’t want to go out and pay $500 for and then use it once, so things like leaf blowers or a lot of libraries will have the roof snow rakes… or a carpet cleaner… why buy it when you can come and check it out at the library.”
The Board held a tax classification hearing. The Assistant Assessor said that she was recommending a factor of one which would have residential, industrial, and commercial properties assessed at the same rate. She gave the percentage of levy by class saying, “residential 75 percent, open space we have zero, commercial 12, industrial 2.9, and personal property 9.3.” She said that for this fiscal year, the average assessed value for a single family house is $532,902, which is up 3.5 percent. The previous year, the average assessed house went up just over 7 percent. She also said that the excess levy capacity for the current year is $283,017. The tax rate is up $0.17 from the previous year. The Selectmen voted to approve everything as presented.
Russo provided an update on the Community Preservation Act funds, saying they had three new applications. He said that while the Committee hadn’t met yet to review, he did want to let his fellow Selectmen know that they were considering three new projects. “Our process is to have a first meeting with the applicants, questions about the projects, potentially suggestions that might help or improve or at least clarify the project and then early next year another meeting to look at any revisions in the applications. At that time, we send the applications out to all the Boards, Commissions, and Committees in town – seek all their input. Once we have their input, we have a public hearing and we decide then which projects will be referred to Town Meeting for a final vote,” Russo explained. He said that the meeting to look at the three projects would be December 3 at 5:30 p.m. at the Townhouse.
The first project is from the library to redo the patio in the back of the building as well as landscaping at a cost of just over $50k. The Recreation Commission has also put in a project to replace a fence as well as do a number of upgrades to the large field. The cost for the project will be approximately $64k. The third project is from the Open Space Committee asking for further preacquisition open space funds in the amount of $40k. “It gives them money to be kind of agile when an opportunity arises,” he said. He noted that it was that type of money that has allowed them to create places like Cato’s Ridge and Turkey Swamp. Russo said, “For citizens concerned about taxes, the money involved in all of these projects is money that has already been collected and included in the 20-30 percent state match that we wouldn’t have otherwise.”
During the Town Administrator’s update, Liz Dennehy said they are planning on having a very preliminary discussion with the Town Properties Committee Chair about their vision for timing and affordability for the Fire Station project. She also said that on November 18 there will be a Finance Committee meeting that will be attended by some people from the school. “I think that they’re having some budget issues at Dennett in this current fiscal year as a result of Silver Lake and special education funding,” Dennehy said.
Dennehy also said that the Recreation Commission is finishing off their original CPC project. She said that they are completing some last minute surficial work at Holt Field like some lips in the concrete. She said they are also working to smooth the surface for the site of the future walking path. “It’s all pre-approved and it’s pretty much all being done with volunteers… it’s really remarkable,” Dennehy said. “If somebody had told me two years ago, we would have lights on the field, we’d have graded the field for the smaller field, and we’re having new fencing… it takes people with the energy to go out and make that happen,” Selectman John Traynor said.
The Selectmen finished their meeting with their raves. Russo said that his rave was for the Community Preservation Act and the Committee. “The Community Preservation Act gives us the chance to work on these kinds of projects that might not be done otherwise and I think part of the genius was the name – community preservation is exactly what these projects are doing. It is open space preservation, historic preservation, those kinds of things that make a community and preserve a community.”
Traynor said that his rave was for the election drawing to a close. He also gave a “shout out” to the Council on Aging and the Director of Elder Affairs for putting on a Veterans Breakfast/Buffet each month. “I think it’s really important and they’re doing a great job and if there are any veterans out there that aren’t aware of it, they should drop in,” he said.

The Plympton School Committee confronted a $213,000 budget deficit for the current fiscal year during its meeting Monday night, Oct. 28, prompting an immediate budget freeze and discussions on how to address the shortfall.
The deficit, primarily at-tributed to unexpected special education costs, caught committee members off guard and led to a tense discussion about potential cuts and funding sources.
“This is the third year in a row we’ve had over-runs, so I think that we’re extremely sensitive to that,” said Committee Chair Jason Fra-ser. “This is 5% more to our budget after we’ve already gone to the town voters and asked them to support a certain level.”
Sarah Hickey, the district’s Director of Finance and Operations, explained that the deficit stems from new out-of-district placements and additional support services for students with complex needs. These costs were not anticipated when the budget was approved earlier this year.
“Plympton has had a new out-of-district placement. Plympton has a student that was identified as needing a one-to-one paraprofessional,” Hickey said. “The substitute line was cut and there are a number of long-term absences, so we have long-term subs in for a number of teachers.”
The committee voted unanimously to implement an immediate budget freeze to prevent further overspending. However, members acknowledged that the freeze alone would not be sufficient to close the gap.
“A budget freeze isn’t going to fix this,” said Jon Wilhelmsen, Vice Chair of the Committee. “We’re going to have to figure out a way to get that information so we can have a way to discuss with the town so that the town can make a decision about how they want to deal with this.”

One potential source of funds discussed was the district’s special education re-serve fund, which currently holds about $50,000. The committee also considered using federal grant money to offset some costs, though concerns were raised about the legality of such a move.
Peter Veneto, principal of Dennett Elementary School, expressed concern about the impact of potential cuts on staffing and programs. “After losing a full-time aid last year, if we had to take this step, that would be very difficult to man-age,” he said.
The committee plans to create a prioritized list of potential cuts, ranging from de-laying equipment purchases to more severe staffing reductions. Fraser emphasized the need for transparency in this process.
“I think we literally need
a list from $263,000 down to zero from the least painful to the most painful decisions that may have to occur for us to cover the total hole on our own,” Fraser said.
Committee members stressed the importance of working with town officials to find a solution. They plan to schedule a joint meeting with the Finance Committee and Town Administrator to discuss the situation and explore potential funding options.
“I think we’ll be able to work with the town in order to deal with this,” Wilhelmsen said. “I think the town does recognize that this school and all of the folks that work here do a tremendous amount and do it very efficiently.”