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Selectmen tour former police station

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Plympton Selectmen held a brief meeting Monday, May 3, as well as had a tour of the basement of Town House and the second floor space once occupied by the police, who have moved to their new headquarters next door.

They discussed problems with the 1935 building, heard about mysterious problems with the new water filtration system at the Dennett Elementary School, and showed interest in a new shared service grant, if they are eligible after a waiting period from their last one.

Town House tour

Selectmen toured the basement offices of Town House along with the old Police Station, which will be renovated at some point in the near future to create more office space for town departments.

Jon Wilhelmsen, chairman of the Dennett Elementary School Committee, led the building tour.  He is a “jack-of-all-trades”,  according to Town Administrator Elizabeth Dennehy, and is being tapped for his expertise.

The Town House was originally built as a school in 1935. The space, especially the former police station, is odd, with various width walls that will likely be knocked out to convert many smaller rooms into an open space. Selectmen are considering one open room with a conference room for now until they decide on permanent uses.

The electrical panels in the building are old and need to be updated as well. Power disruptions occur due to the legacy equipment, which includes screw-in fuse boxes.

Selectmen also discussed the ongoing water leakage in the building’s basement, which houses the building department.

The structure may have mold and asbestos, and the extent of the problem is unknown. The drop-down ceiling tiles are brown and discolored in some places, and boxes in the offices show signs of water damage.

While many problems were identified by Wilhelmsen and selectmen, definitive solutions are still being worked out.

Filtration failure

Wilhelmsen, who is also chairman of the Plympton School Committee, reported mysterious news from the Dennett Elementary School. The Department of Environmental Protection- approved water filtration system recently installed to filter out impurities in the water, including lead, is not working, he said.

The manufacturer insists that it is working properly, but random testing of water samples is showing that it is in fact adding lead into the water, according to Wilhelmsen. No one is sure exactly why.

He said that students have never been drinking the water and that there has been no interruption to their bottled water program for students and staff. The water is not a danger to them, according to Wilhelmsen.

Selectman Chairman Christine Joy asked if there was any recourse in terms of a warranty or guaranty on the system. All options are on the table, Wilhelmsen said, and he appeared frustrated with the situation.

He also reported that the incoming kindergarten class size will increase by 10 students this fall, to 39, with the potential to go up. There will still be two teachers and two aides for the students. The school, which is small compared to surrounding schools, is preparing for a “growth spurt.”

Shared service grant

Plympton and Halifax continue to flirt with the idea of a shared service, and even though they received a grant recently to explore a shared fire department, that did not come to pass, Plympton may be eligible for a grant to explore a different avenue, after a waiting period from the last grant, said Dennehy.

Selectmen in both Halifax and Plympton have stated they are open to the idea of shared services, and a few have made it no secret that they would like to explore the idea of improving their senior service through a regionalized approach.

In Halifax, newly-elected Selectman Gordon Andrews has been a vocal proponent of regionalization, and Plympton Selectmen appeared open to the idea of exploring a shared service grant as well at their meeting. Dennehy said that “something” with seniors may be in the works if they were to get a grant.

Dennehy is investigating how soon the town can apply for a grant, if indeed they are eligible.

• The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Board of Selectmen will be June 17, 2019, at 6 p.m. at Town House, unless otherwise posted.

Four Laker runners shine at All-States competition

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Four members of the Silver Lake High outdoor track and field teams had an opportunity to shine this past weekend out in western Massachusetts.

The Lakers sent four athletes to the MIAA All-State meet out at Westfield State–and they enjoyed some positive results in the process.

Alex Loyd was the lone representative from the boys’ team. The senior, who is a first year member of the spring track team, came in ninth place in the triple jump (43 feet and 7.75 inches). His season is still not over as he already qualified for the New Balance Outdoor National Championship which will take place in two weeks.

On the girls side, senior Ali McDonough wrapped up her highly productive Lakers career. She took 17th place in the 100 meter hurdles (15.84 seconds).

It might have been the last event of her high school career, but she will continue running at Bridgewater State (NCAA Division III) next season. McDonough holds the Silver Lake High record for girls in the 100 meter hurdles (15.51 seconds); it was that strong performance at Div. II states which allowed her to advance to All-States as a wildcard.

The girls team also had a pair of freshman competing at All-States, indicating the future is bright for the team. Riley Paskow came in ninth place in the 400 meter dash (59.55 seconds). Meanwhile, Summer Bejarano ran the two mile and finished 21st overall (12:31.15).

It is worth noting Paskow had the top performance of any freshman in the 400 meter dash, edging out the next best freshman by 0.78 seconds. Meanwhile, Bejarano was one of just two freshmen to compete in the two-mile event. That said, both have an opportunity to continue shining and improving over the next few years for the Lakers.

Search begins for ‘Super’

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The Halifax, Plympton, and Kingston school committees were all invited to attend the first portion of the Silver Lake Regional School Committee meeting on Thursday, May 23.

The meeting began with an in-depth discussion of the superintendent search that is to be conducted this summer in order to find a replacement for retiring Superintendent Joy Blackwood. MASC (Massachusetts Association of School Committees) has been hired to aid Silver Lake in conducting the search.

MASC Executive Director Glenn Koocher attended the meeting and spoke to the committees regarding the overall timeline and process for the search. Koocher stated that the goal would be to have promotional materials reviewed and approved by mid-June with the position posted by late June and remaining posted throughout the summer. According to Koocher 80-90 percent of applicants come in the last week with some 60 percent coming in in the final days.

The search committee, which will include members from all four of the district’s school committees as well as members of the school administration, will see all applications. MASC will place the applications into tiers based on their perceived level of qualification. The search committee can elect to look at these tiers or not as they see fit. A wide net will be cast with the position posted to the MASC website which receives 100,000 hits per year as well as a superintendent website which receives a million hits per year.

Of great importance to the committee members was that the new superintendent have a lengthy tenure with Silver Lake. There was mutual agreement that the committee wanted to avoid the so-called revolving door that seems to be the new way for superintendents in Massachusetts with most averaging around three years in a given school district. Current Superintendent Blackwood began her tenure when the current graduating class was starting kindergarten.

Koocher explained that while a standard contract is usually for three years, as part of the interview process, the search committee could certainly question applicants as to whether or not they still saw themselves in the district in five years’ time. Silver Lake Regional School Committee member Edward Desharnais stated that he would like to see someone hired who has spent a decade or longer of their career actually teaching in a classroom rather than someone who had spent less time teaching and more time doing strictly administrative work.  Regional experience was also deemed an important search criterion as the new superintendent will have to work with four school committees, three boards of selectmen, three finance committees, as well as all the other considerations that come along with a three-town district combining for a total of five schools. Chair of the Plympton School Committee Jon Wilhelmsen reminded the committees that no one applicant is going to have all of the experience and qualities wanted while Regional School Committee Secretary Paula Hatch spoke of the need for chemistry and again reiterated the importance of choosing a candidate that will be willing to marry the district. Regional School Committee Chair Jason Fraser said, “I’ve had several people from all three of the towns say that they believe this is the most important municipal position we have in the three towns and I could not agree more.”

A compensation package was also discussed. “We’re looking for a superintendent for a very dynamic superintendency; we’re also looking for a superintendent to come in in an off cycle mid-year,” Fraser said. Fraser based his proposed salary on data as well as current superintendent salaries in like communities saying, “The number that I’m looking at as a salary range would be $170,000 to $190,000. That’s the salary range I’d like us to publish to get the attention of the candidates we’d like to see.”

The school committees will meet on June 13 to vote on materials and authorize the distribution of materials as well as the posting of the position.

Elliot Glass, Director of Career and Technical Programs at Silver Lake, gave an update on the various community programs that the CTE students have been working on as of late. The greenhouse construction project at the back of the high school is on track and should be complete by the end of June. CTE students at Silver Lake have also lent their skills to various projects in all three of their local communities. Students were tasked with designing and landscaping a portion of the area at the Halifax playground.  Carpentry finished their garage on Lake St. in Kingston and will also be assisting with some of the structures at Gray’s Beach. The metal fabrication department has been working on replacing the flag pole at Dennett Elementary School in Plympton.

Silver Lake CTE

Program presented

A presentation was also given on the newest CTE program offered at Silver Lake as of this year. Allied Health teacher Kathryn Morini was present as were two of her students. In just its first year, the Allied Health program was the most requested of the CTE offerings. Students in the program have already earned their stop the bleed and CPR certifications and will undergo domestic violence training in the fall to certify them as domestic violence interventionists. Students within the program will test for their CNA (certified nursing assistant) and HHA (home health aide) in their junior year, gaining them employability as well as a leg up in applying to nursing school and more, to continue their education.

Morini spoke about the enormity of the healthcare field citing the opportunity for employment in both the medical and business sides of the industry. Students attended a career fair where a wide range of representatives were brought in including owners of care vendors, the CEO of Linden Ponds, OR nurses, physical therapists, and such.  “We just had a whole gamut of different people come up and talk to the kids about all the different career fields that they could go down and the doors that would be open to them really if they took on this field of study,” Morini explained.

Glass commended Morini for her extensive connections in the field and her ability to use those connections to further the students’ experience. Regarding the future of the program Morini said, “The main goal for the first year was to make sure that they learned it, retained it, and now they’re applying it. We’ll come back next year and we’ll do more and hit the ground running.”

Blackwood gave an update on the school related matters that were voted on at the various town meetings. Kingston, Plympton, and Halifax unanimously voted the Silver Lake assessments despite increases, a fact Fraser credits to the towns’ trust in Blackwood’s leadership. Blackwood also gave an update on the article to add a part-time school resource officer at the middle school which was voted on at both the Plympton and Halifax town meetings. Plympton supported the article while Halifax did not. Neither the finance committee nor the selectmen voted to support the article in Halifax and it failed to pass by a vote of 68-44. The vote was the final one of the evening in Halifax, occurring at nearly 11pm.

While Kingston, Plympton, and Halifax all seem to support the concept of a school resource officer at the middle school, the mechanism to pay for that officer has been a major point of contention for the finance committee and board of selectmen in Halifax since the idea was first introduced.

Kingston supported a part time school resource officer at the high school for four years and has been funding a full-time officer as of this year. By law, the school resource officers at the high school and middle school have to be Kingston police officers as the schools are located within their jurisdiction. The current school resource officer spends 99 percent of his time at the high school so Blackwood and other members of the administration feel strongly about bringing in an additional resource officer to increase security at the middle school.

The plan, for the first year only, was to put it as a warrant article and then have the towns come up with an intermunicipal agreement where they would reimburse Kingston for the cost of that resource officer. With only Plympton voting through the article, there is now only $14,000 (Plympton’s share of the cost) allotted toward funding for the part time resource officer at the middle school. While this means that the officer will not be available as often as if Halifax had also voted in favor, there will still be somewhat of a consistent police presence at the middle school; an improvement over the current situation.

Blackwood is determined to find a solution to fund the officer that will work for all three towns moving forward. The problem with placing the cost within the school budget is that it changes the assessment and adds to Kingston’s cost. The only equitable solution for the towns would be to add 1.5 resource officers into the budget. The problem with this approach is that it would result in having to make roughly $150,000 in cuts from the school budget.

Having the resource officers included in the school budget doesn’t make sense to Blackwood as she explains, “They are not my employee. I don’t evaluate them. I don’t pay their health insurance. It’s a very difficult thing. We are not year-round. Police officers are year-round. We are only 184 days.” Old Rochester, the nearest, most comparable district to Silver Lake funds their resource officers by putting the cost into each of the town’s police budgets. Blackwood said, “I know I’m leaving but I have not cut back on the goals in my agenda. One of my hopes for this fall is to get something in place before I’m done.  I am here full time, until I’m not. Security has been something that I have really focused on and I’m hopeful that we can come to an agreement that everybody can live with.”

Grand Jury indicts roofer Matt Will charges

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BROCKTON — A Plymouth County grand jury has indicted roofer Matt Will, 35, a Pembroke resident who was doing business out of Halifax as Five Star Discount Roofing, on 18 fraud and larceny related charges May 24, District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz announced recently.

The grand jury returned the indictments against Will charging him with one count each of larceny of property over $1,200 by single scheme, state building code violations, employer failing to have workers’ compensation, money laundering and being a common and notorious thief. Will was also indicted on seven counts of home improvement contracting violations and three counts each of forgery and uttering.

Prosecutors say Will targeted some more than 50 mostly elderly homeowners, beginning in July 2018 at Oak Point, a 55-plus community in Middleboro, when at least 15 individuals began reporting that Will had defrauded them out of funds ranging from $800 to $12,000 by starting contracting work and not completing it or simply taking the funds and absconding.

But the case languished, as police and the Middleboro building inspector appeared to continue to give opportunities for Will to catch up with his work.

Eventually, Will had multiple cases in courts in Falmouth, Plymouth and Wareham District Courts as his theft allegedly spread beyond Middleboro, and the grand jury investigation revealed “a substantial criminal enterprise” involving 50 or more victims across the state.

In total, the alleged victims have lost at least an estimated $250,000 and have been found so far in Kingston, Duxbury, Brockton, Plympton, Wareham, North Easton, Hanson, Falmouth and Pembroke in addition to Middleboro.

Many of the district court charges will be dismissed against Will, as is typical when someone is indicted, and he will be arraigned in Plymouth Superior Court in Brockton at a later date.

Will was arrested Thursday, May 9, at his Furnace Colony Drive home in Pembroke, after a run from the law and a police standoff.

He first fled justice April 10 as the indictments against him loomed and after he missed a Falmouth District Court arraignment, then was arrested May 4 in Rockland following a dramatic escape from police after leading them on two multi-town high-speed chases in central Massachusetts into Rhode Island the night before, according to court records and police reports.

He was then released by a Hingham District Court judge, who was not made aware of the chase by prosecutors, according to audio of the hearing, was ordered to Wareham District Court by 4:30, but fled again and was finally re-arrested after a tense standoff with police in Pembroke.

As law enforcement personnel attempted to execute a search warrant at his Pembroke home, Will hid from police in his attic. Police used canines to extricate him from the attic, and he was injured after wrestling with the dogs and falling through the ceiling.

He was taken to Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Plymouth and released the next day – Friday, May 10 – to Plymouth County Correctional Facility. He was expected in Wareham District Court the following Monday, May 13, and when he was not transported there by the Plymouth County Sherriff’s Department, the Express learned that he was a patient Lemuel Shattuck Hospital in Jamaica Plain, where a Department of Corrections ward is located.

The Express has confirmed that as of press time, Will remains at Lemuel Shattuck Hospital, nearly three weeks after his arrest.

His condition is unknown.

Garron takes the helm in Halifax for 10th time chairman

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HALIFAX — The Halifax Board of Selectmen reorganized Tuesday, May 28, the first regularly scheduled meeting attended by Gordon C. Andrews, who was elected to the board earlier this month. The longest serving member, Troy Garron, was voted Chair for the 10th time, and acted comfortable in that role, asserting himself and speaking more often than he has in the previous year. This is only the second time in his 30-year tenure as Selectman that there has been an all-male board, according to Garron. The board voted Tom Millias vice-chair, now in his fourth year as a Selectman and voted Andrews as clerk.

Andrews came into his own and was asking frequent questions about some of the board’s latest as well as longest standing issues, from Rufus, the dog ordered euthanized, to the ongoing negotiations with Fieldstone Farms. His wife and parents were in the audience to support him at his first meeting, which was routine and brief.

Rufus’ euthanasia decision appealed

Rufus the bulldog, owned by Thomas Wilson, of Holmes Street, has received one final chance at life.

A clerk-magistrate’s ruling supporting the board’s April 9 order to have the dog euthanized as a nuisance by reason of vicious disposition following a dog-on-dog attack in March is being appealed by Wilson to a Plymouth District Court judge, said Town Administrator Charlie Seelig. A civil hearing will occur June 7.

The court conducted a hearing May 9 and reviewed the board’s procedures and findings. In a written ruling, Plymouth District Court Assistant Clerk-Magistrate Brendan Barnes found that Wilson had filed to offer “any evidence” that the selectmen’s decision was made in bad faith. He also found that there was proper cause: Wilson admitted the dog had aggressive tendencies and there had been two violent incidents in as many years’ time.

Barnes also wrote, “the physical appearance of the dog” buttressed his decision.

Barnes affirmed the Board’s ruling to euthanize Rufus, and now Wilson is exercising his right to have the decision reviewed by a judge.

The decision was handed down May 13

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Empty Wage and Personnel Board

Melinda Tarsi, who ran for selectman and sits on the Finance Committee, has left the Wage and Personnel board due to a personal conflict, and as no members of the public currently sit on the board, there are currently three non-town employee openings.

When there are not enough non-town employee members for the board to have a quorum of two, the town bylaws require that the Finance Committee and Board of Selectmen send a liaison to the board so that it is able to function.

Right now, according to Seelig, the board is technically empty.

The Selectmen are taking their time in appointing a member to the often-unpopular board, which former members report as difficult work.

Andrews noted that the town’s biggest expense is its employees but was hesitant to serve, pointing out his obligations to both the Silver Lake Regional School Committee and the Halifax Elementary School Committee.

He said he’d rather serve as the Selectmen’s liaison to the school committees before he served on Wage and Personnel.

When Millias asked if he wanted to be the board’s liaison directly, he said, “Not really, but I will.”

Garron cautioned Andrews to take his time in deciding if he really wanted to take on the position, and recommended he wait.

No one from the board was appointed to the committee.

According to the town’s website, “The three-member Wage and Personnel Board oversees the administration of the [t]own’s Wage and Personnel [bylaw] which covers the wage and benefits for all employees of the [t]own other than elected officials, School Department employees and employees covered under collective bargaining agreements.”

New town website

The town’s new website, according to Seelig, will be finished later this spring, although he will not give a precise date as to when the site will go online, noting a number of factors that need to go into the site before it goes online.

The roughly $5,000 website upgrade is in its design phase now.

The upgrade was necessary because the town’s website provider, Virtual Town Hall was bought out by a company called CivicPlus, and CivicPlus would no longer support the product Virtual Town Hall had provided.

The current town website is functional, but slow and cluttered.

• The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Halifax Board of Selectmen is Tuesday, June 11, 2019, at 7:30 p.m. in the Selectmen’s Meeting Room of the Town Hall.

Salute to nation’s veterans

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Plympton and Halifax joined cities and towns throughout the country showing their red, white, and blue stars and stripes with ceremonies, parades, and moments of quiet reflection.

Plympton’s parade showcased its fire trucks, including the fully restored 1938 Buffalo driven by resident Don Vautrinot.

It was Plympton’s turn to host the Silver Lake Regional High School’s Marching Band, and they played the standards well, rousing the onlookers.  Selectmen, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and horses, all took their places as they marched from the Historical Society Building.

The parade culminated at the Town Green where selectmen led the hundreds gathered there in prayer and the salute to the flag.

Dennett School students took part.  Lillian Rankin recited the Gettysburg Address from memory, Brianna Crowley narrated the poem “In Flanders Field”, and Brianna Barrow read her essay,  “What Memorial Day means to me.”

Doris Silva, the Boston Post Cane recipient as Plympton’s oldest citizen at 102 was presented flowers by Briggette Martins, secretary to the selectmen and a member of the parade committee.  Doris is also a veteran of the Coast Guard.

The Halifax parade stepped off at 9:30 a.m. from the Halifax Country Club, with Parade Marshal WWII Iwo Jima veteran Jim Gargiola being driven by Korean War veteran Edgar Bent in a fully restored Model T Ford.  Walking alongside were members of the Halifax VFW Post 6258.

Following were Boy Scouts Troop 39, Girl Scouts, a Generations Float, courtesy of  Nessralla Farms, and marchers from A Dancer’s World who danced their way down Route 106 to the Halifax Town Hall.

At the 10 a.m. ceremonies, Steve Littlefield, Asst. Veterans’ Agent, gave opening remarks.  Parade Marshal Jim Gargiola read “The Ragged Old Flag”, and Rev. Dr. William Wildman of the Halifax Congregational Church gave the invocation.

The placing of the memorial wreaths was done by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Boy Scouts, Wil Corey, Veterans’ Service Officer, Steve Littlefield, Asst. Veterans’ Agent, and the Board of Selectmen.

Softball falls to B-R on Rivalry Saturday

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Both sides played well and made it a competitive game.

However, the Silver Lake High softball team could not string anything together offensively against a tough Bridgewater-Raynham opponent down at UMass Dartmouth on Saturday, May 18.

The Lakers competed against Bridgewater-Raynham in the third annual Rivalry Saturday. For the majority of the game, there was no score but ultimately, the Lakers came out with a 2-0 loss and fell to 12-3 on the season.

On the mound, Bri Belfort excelled for the Lakers. She pitched a complete game and although she took the loss, she carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning before Bridgewater-Raynham was able to get anything going offensively. In a complete game effort, she struck out seven batters and allowed just four hits in total.

Izzy Ruprecht hit well for the Lakers, collecting three hits against Bridgewater-Raynham. All of her hits were singles including one in the top of the first inning that gave the team a scoring opportunity. Hannah Mitchell followed up Ruprecht’s first base hit with another single, moving her over to third base. However, the Lakers were unable to capitalize; Bridgewater-Raynham retired back-to-back hitters to end the inning. This started a dominant stretch of pitching for B-R; the Lakers would not have another runner reach base until the fifth inning.

According to MaxPreps, the loss to B-R snapped a nine game winning streak for the team. This streak included a pair of games where the Lakers scored 20 runs or more: against Hingham on May 15 and against Scituate on May 8. The Lakers beat Hingham 20-10 and Scituate 29-1; the latter win was their highest run-scoring total of the season.

The Lakers next game is this Friday, May 24 against New Bedford at home; the game will start at 3:30 p.m., according to MaxPreps.

Andrews wins Selectman race

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HALIFAX — Halifax achieved a 7.8% voter turnout as 451 voters came out to choose the next member of the Halifax Board of Selectmen Saturday, May 18, the only contested race on the ballot in either Plympton or Halifax. In that contest, Gordon Andrews beat Melinda Tarsi 253 to 195.

Tarsi was disappointed with her loss, but said she was excited she did well. She plans to continue to serve the town on the Finance Committee, she said.

Andrews was sworn in to office in front of family and friends Monday, May 20.

His first official act as Selectman was to sign vendor warrants.

The board will reorganize at the next regularly scheduled meeting, May 28, and talk about their summer goals, Andrews said.

One of the policies he campaigned on, regionalization of the Council on Aging, received a warm welcome in Plympton Monday night, where Plympton Selectman Mark Russo noted that he’d be interested in exploring a similar concept.

Andrews also spoke about reopening talks for regionalization of the fire department and noted that most of Halifax’s mutual aid calls go to Plympton and Hanson, which would be logical places to start up talks or restart talks in the case of Plympton.

As for the shortage of volunteers in town, “I think we need to start walking around baseball fields and softball fields and asking around,” he said. “I’ll do it,” he added.

“If we don’t have volunteers, we have to pay for employees to do jobs,” he said.

He also said he will bring up with the board the idea of changing Town Meeting to a Saturday in an attempt to increase turnout, a change that would have to be voted on by Town Meeting. The board could place an article in the warrant, though.

Andrews plans on continuing to sit on both the Halifax Elementary School and Silver Lake Regional High School committees.

“I think I should be able to handle it,” he said. “I’ll see how it goes.”

Plympton chooses Joy for chairman

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The Plympton Board of Selectmen reorganized Monday, May 20. Christine Joy is chairman, while Mark Russo is now vice-chairman and John Traynor is clerk. They spent a large part of their meeting working on an ongoing “parking-lot,” for issues that are on the backburner, but they want to track and put on the agenda from time to time in the future.

The parking lot has become lengthy over time, but some of the items on the list are ongoing, for example, IT-infrastructure upgrades that the board wants to monitor, although the board was crossing off issues that they had accomplished.

Selectman John Traynor led the presentation on the parking lot.

The issues accomplished included evaluating and formalizing the board’s goals and objectives for 2019, which they worked on with the Town Administrator, Elizabeth Dennehy, and appear on each meeting’s agenda. The Selectmen do not always go into much discussion on these goals and objectives at each meeting but ostensibly use them to guide their decision making.

Other items accomplished included coordinating the Green Communities Grant, which is ongoing and has become part of Dennehy’s responsibilities, she said, which allows the town to save money on energy expenses mainly through retrofitting existing building through grants to make them more energy efficient.

Another issue was solving the sound recording issues in the Selectmen’s Meeting Room with Area 58 Community Access Media. Any sound recording issues that existed have been deemed solved by the selectmen.

An intern, one of several sought, was obtained from Bridgewater State University to work with the Wage and Personnel Committee.

Finally, the professional team of auditors did finally make a presentation to the financial team, another long-term goal.

But, the “parking lot” continues to be lengthy, and additions were made, which was not concerning to Selectmen Russo or Joy, speaking after the meeting. They said that the parking lot was for items of less pressing concern but needed to be monitored.

This category included the following:

• A disposition process for town owned land, discussed at length, is in place, but the board is not completely comfortable with, they say.

• A master plan for the town campus, that continues to be on ongoing discussion, and the board is waiting on a report from the Old Colony Planning Council to give it direction.

• Completion of a town pavement plan, including road inventory and assessment with the Highway Superintendent.

• A technology master plan, that will include an infrastructure audit, a new server upgrade and long-awaited email updates.

• Concerns about the intersection of Main Street and Ring Roads – another enduring issue.

• Speed limits on Main Street, that Russo reports are controlled by the state and that there is not much that localities can do about it.

• Illuminating the entrance to Town House, that all on the board have agreed is unsafe.

• More volunteer outreach and recognition.

• A town flag policy for flags from the town center to Old Town House, a cause that Traynor has championed but other board members have not as enthusiastically supported.

• Working with more interns.

• Fixing the water problems in the basement of Town House, where people work.

• Renovating the old Police Station, possibly temporarily into an open space with cubicles and a conference room, until more final plans can be made for the space.

• Hiring an engineer to fix the parking lot on the Town  Hall Campus.

• A cleanup for the North Plympton Cemetery, on the Kinston line.

• A new septic system for Town House.

• Follow the Water Resources Working Group.

• Monitor Plympton senior citizens’ issues.

Finally, for the long term, the Selectmen said they will monitor the Carver Urban Renewal Project, the Rocky Harvest settlement compliance agreement, the Finance Committee and the budgeting process, future exploration of shared services and opportunities and the Dennett School water treatment project updates.

• The Plympton Board of Selectmen will next meet Monday, June 3, at 6 p.m. unless otherwise posted.

• Memorial Day is Monday, May 27; Town House will be closed.

• The Memorial Day parade line-up begins at 9:30 a.m. at the Old Town House, and the parade starts at 10 a.m.

SL lacrosse teams will be playoff bound

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Since they are having such great regular seasons, the Silver Lake High lacrosse teams will keep playing once those schedules run out of games.

It appears as though both the boys and girls teams for the Lakers will be competing in the MIAA South Sectional playoffs this season. Last week, the girls qualified for the playoffs despite two weeks remaining of regular season play. Meanwhile, the boys made it clear they will clinch this week.

As of the start of this week, the girls were 10-3 on the season. They have been shining offensively as of late; in their three wins last week, the team scored a combined 62 goals, or more than 20 per contest, on average.

First, they trounced Barnstable 17-5 on Monday, May 6 and the following day, they had a season-high in goals. The Lakers beat Quincy 24-8 on May 7 and two days later, they had a 21-14 win over Bridgewater-Raynham. It was the win over Quincy that put them at 9-3 on the season and qualified them for postseason play.

On the boys side, the Lakers came within a game of qualifying for the postseason with a victory over a tough Bishop Stang opponent. Stang came into last week with the same record as them: 6-3 on the season. However, the Lakers had no issue taking them down 18-7 on Saturday May 11 to improve to 9-3 on the year.

Sean Daly led the way offensively in the boys victory over Stang, scoring five goals (with one assist). Dhruva Nugent’s three goals ranked second in the win.

The boys next game is next Tuesday,May 21 at home against North Quincy (4:00 p.m. start time).

The girls next game is on the same day against the same opponent at the same time, except they will be on the road.