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Silver Lake committee on pot sales

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Silver Lake Regional School District Superintendent Joy Blackwood and School Committee Chairman Jason Fraser confer at the school committee meeting Thursday, March 14, 2019. (Photo by Kristy Zamagni-Twomey)

The Silver Lake Regional School Committee meeting Thursday, March 14, opened with Silver Lake student Bradley Sprunger giving a robotics presentation. Sprunger, who plans to study biomedical engineering in college, created a small prototype of an all-terrain wheelchair that would enable wheelchair users to better maneuver stairs and other obstacles. The committee lauded both Sprunger and his engineering teacher, Russell Shute, for a job well done.

Silver Lake student Bradley Sprunger demonstrates for school leadership and school committee members the various features of his all-terrain wheelchair that included components fabricated using a 3-D printer. (Photo by Kristy Zamagni-Twomey)

Silver Lake High School principal Michaela Gill, spoke on the possibility of incorporating a therapy dog into the school’s environment. Marshfield High School allowed members of Silver Lake’s staff to shadow their therapy dog, Nala, to better see the ways in which a therapy dog can enhance the student experience.

A therapy dog can be utilized in a variety of ways including scheduling visits with the dog prior to big exams in order to calm students’ nerves. Marshfield’s construction class even built Nala a dog house while the art class used her as a live model. In an effort to bring the program to Silver Lake, the school’s adjustment counselor Amanda Carr, has had her hypoallergenic dog Bodie registered as a therapy dog.

Gill spoke with pride about the accomplishments of Silver Lake students including twelve of the fall and winter sports teams being awarded the team sportsmanship award as voted by their opponents in the league.

On the arts front, several Silver Lake students were selected for the 2019 all-state music festival which included a performance at Boston’s Symphony Hall on March 2. Additionally, the theatre department was brought back into The Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild (METG). Despite the prestigious and competitive nature of the METG, four Silver Lake students won awards.

The month of March comes with a lot of excitement at Silver Lake Regional Middle School. Principal James Dupille described last week’s spirit week which culminated at March Madness, one of the biggest events of the school year. Activities at the event included a staff vs. student basketball game, a dance in the cafeteria, a photo booth and karaoke in the lobby as well as a gaming system setup in the auditorium.

In other news at the middle school, breakfast is now being offered to students in the cafeteria during homeroom. Students will have the option to select from various grab and go breakfast items.

The Committee was excited about this opportunity as early start times have been shown to have a detrimental impact on adolescents and the hope is that by providing a breakfast option, students will be able to get a jump start in the morning before beginning their studies.

The potential effects that a recreational marijuana retail shop in Kingston could have on Silver Lake students was  discussed at the Sliver Lake Regional School Committee meeting Thursday, March 14, 2019. (Courtesy image)

The potential effects that a recreational marijuana retail shop in Kingston could have on Silver Lake students was also discussed among the committee.

Currently, the town of Kingston has approved recreational marijuana establishments in commercial zones that are 1,000 feet or more from schools or other areas where children congregate.

There are several warrant articles that will be voted on during Kingston’s town meeting including a proposed year-long moratorium on retail marijuana shops as well as one to reduce the buffer zone between schools, etc. and retail shops from 1,000 feet to 500 feet.

Vice chair of the school committee Eric Crone asked the committee to consider a motion to support the one-year moratorium on retail shops in Kingston as well as not to support the reduction in distance.

Crone was basing his request on research out of California that indicated that schools that have retail marijuana shops in their towns, have a higher usage amongst their students. Principal Gill also acknowledged having read similar research and said the same correlation was found between vape shops and usage.  The resolution proposed by Crone was passed unanimously by the committee.

Committee chair, Jason Fraser, agreed to draft a letter on behalf of the committee to be presented at the town hall meeting.

Another issue discussed at length was the warrant article to fund a school resource officer at Silver Lake Regional Middle School.

The discussion was a continuation of the one had at the Monday March 11 meeting between the school committee and the Halifax Finance Committee.

As of this past year, the school resource officer at the high school is a full-time position funded by the Kingston Police Department as the school is within the jurisdiction of the town of Kingston.

Currently, the resource officer at the high school does his best to make his way to the middle school whenever possible.

However, both Fraser and Superintendent Joy Blackwood stressed the importance of having an officer at both schools, citing a recommendation resulting from a safety audit of the middle school campus by experts in the field.

The regional nature of the school district complicates the question of how to fund a second resource officer. The proposed solution would be a Kingston officer funded as was previously done at the high school prior to this past year. Plympton and Halifax would share the expense as Kingston has been funding 100% of the high school officer despite a benefit to students from both Plympton and Halifax.

While the Plympton Finance Committee was on board with the idea to fund the officer, the Halifax Finance Committee had concerns.

A representative from the Halifax Finance Committee present at Thursday’s meeting stressed that while they support the idea of the resource officer, they do not support the proposed mechanism to fund that officer.

The main point of contention is the funding coming from a separate warrant article rather than included in the proposed school budget.

School leadership acknowledged this concern and agreed that even if the position were funded for a year through a warrant article, they would work with the communities to find a potentially different way to fund it in the future.

Blackwood hopes to schedule a meeting between the school committee, police, finance committees, and selectmen in the three towns to further discuss.

  

Copper thief caught red-handed

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Michael Davis, of Plymouth, in a March 4, 2019 booking photo. (Photo courtesy Hanover Police Department)

The copper thief who targeted Plympton as well as other South Shore towns has been arrested thanks in part to the investigation by Plympton Police Department’s Sergeant Brian Cranshaw

Hanover police arrested Michael Davis, 47, of 27 Beaver Dam Road, Plymouth, on Monday, March 4. He was arraigned in Hingham District Court the next day on charges of breaking and entering a building in the nighttime for a felony, destruction of property, and possession of a burglarious instrument, according to court records.

The alleged copper thief was apprehended as part of a multidepartment investigation and surveillance operation that included Sergeant Brian Cranshaw, of the Plympton Police Department, as part of the Old Colony Police Anti-Crime Unit, police reports said.

Davis is suspected in multiple home break-ins across the South Shore. He allegedly breaks into homes that are listed for sale, and after ensuring they are empty, goes into the basement and cuts out all the copper piping.

Investigators applied for and were granted a warrant for a GPS-tracking device for Davis’s car, after growing suspicious of him, a source familiar with the investigation said.

This led police to the Hanover location where they found Davis inside a Broadway Street home listed for sale in the act of cutting copper pipes in the basement, where they confronted him.

Davis ran off into the woods, but police were able to track him down and arrest him.

He pleaded not guilty in front of Judge Heather Bradley and posted $250 cash bail. He must stay away from the alleged victim and out of the Town of Hanover as part of his pre-trial probation conditions. Weymouth-based attorney Christopher Affsa was appointed by the court to represent Davis.

He is scheduled to be back in Hingham District Court May 1, 2019, for a pre-trial hearing.

Water study committee created

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Linda Leddy explains to the Plympton Board of Selectmen the necessity of a Water Study Committee, Monday, March 11, 2019.

PLYMPTON — Plympton selectmen approved another volunteer town committee, Monday, March 11, 2019, which will be tasked with identifying and mapping public water sources as required by the state. The board also discussed how to best use the space that will be vacated in Town House when the police move to their new station next door, and a traffic-blocking gate on Heather’s Path in response to the North Carver Urban Renewal Plan.

Water Study Committee

Another town committee, the Water Study Committee has been created by the vote of  selectmen, on the recommendation of the Open Space Committee, in order to identify public water sources (wells) and map them, as mandated by the state’s Department of Environmental Protection.

Linda Leddy, chair of the Open Space Committee was before the board and said the town has been remiss in its obligation to map potential public wells and is “way under-sourced in terms of data and mapping.”

This data are required by the state in the case that Plympton should ever need to move to a public water supply in the future and is required by law of all towns that do not currently have public water supplies, she said.

The first step, she said, was to form the committee. They will then engage the professional services of a hydrogeologist to put together disparate data sets, although she doesn’t expect this to require major spending, she added.

The committee’s makeup is to be determined, however Selectman Mark Russo offered to sit on the committee as the selectmen’s representative.

Heather’s Path Gate

Carver planning officials irritated Selectman Christine Joy for not including a gate south of Heather’s Path in the latest plans for a proposed development of 1.8 million square feet of warehouse space to be constructed off Route 58 and Montello Street on the Carver-Plympton town line. The gate is intended to prevent truck traffic from cutting through Plympton on its way to Carver, forcing trucks to travel through Carver to the new development.

Carver officials and Plympton officials, spearheaded by Joy, have been negotiating to mitigate the effects of the planned construction on Plympton residents.

The development has been controversial since at least 2016, even including threats by Carver officials to take land of Plympton residents whose properties extend into Carver by eminent domain, a proposal that was taken off the table.

“We’ll see … we’ll wait and see what happens,” said Joy.

“If not a gate, something else,” she added, pledging to win a concession for Plympton residents.

Old police station space

Selectmen discussed the fact that, although it made Selectman Russo uncomfortable, they would have to forgo making final decisions on the way the old police station space will be used once the police department moves from Town House into their new quarters next door.

The warrant for annual town meeting needs to be closed March 25, not leaving enough time to fully explore what departments or committees should permanently occupy the space, let alone a full renovation.

Selectman Chairman John Traynor said that he’d like to see some load bearing walls removed, the space opened up, roughly renovated and temporarily occupied for the year until plans can be finalized. The board agreed.

One primary candidate for the space is the building department, where water currently leaks into their basement offices, which upset Traynor. The Council on Aging also seeks to use the space. Selectmen would like to see a conference room there.

Other selectmen’s news:

• Highway Surveyor Scott Ripley has identified a 2-foot by 2-foot hole in a small bridge north of the intersection of Winnetuxet Road and Main Street. He is applying for a grant to fund repairs.

• The town treasurer was voted to be the town’s “tax title custodian.”

• Assistant Town Clerk Patricia Detterman was appointed interim Town Clerk beginning March 21 as Town Clerk Tara Shaw will leave the post effective March 20.  Detterman has drawn nomination papers to run as a candidate for the position.

• The slate of officers that will appear on the ballot in May for town elections was modified to include the position of Town Clerk, and to correct an error with library trustees so that they will continue to have staggered terms.

School roofs for $6.5 million?

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Members of the Halifax School Committee and the Silver Lake Regional School Committee met with the Halifax Finance Committee Monday, March 11, 2019. (Photo Courtesy Area58 Community Access Media)

HALIFAX  – Monday, March, 11, 2019 was the first joint meeting with both the Halifax Elementary School Committee and the Silver Lake Regional School Committee to discuss the requested budgets with the Finance Committee.

The need for repairs at the elementary, middle, and high school were discussed. The chair of the Silver Lake Regional School Committee, Jason Fraser, spoke about the need to have the roofs repaired or replaced at both the middle and high school due to water infiltration issues. Due to the recent snow, the fire marshal ordered that the snow be shoveled off the roof resulting in further damage in the form of punctures to the membrane. A decision will have to be made whether to sink more dollars into repairs or replace the two roofs at a cost of 6.5 million dollars or more. Other structural renovations under consideration for the near future include HVAC work and flooring that needs to be replaced in the elementary school.

One of the largest requests from the Elementary School Committee in the operating budget is the cost of half a bus, that would increase the number of buses for the school from nine to ten. Tough decisions had to be made about five years ago that resulted in the loss of one of the school’s buses. Enrollment in the elementary school is up, however, standing at 610 from last year’s 582. Overcrowding and behavioral issues are both problems that the committee hopes can be curbed by the addition of a bus. Lengthy bus rides, sometimes as long as an hour, are likely contributing to the behavioral issues on buses.

A study conducted by a bus company two years ago to analyze routes and such in an effort to alleviate the long rides failed to yield any useful results. The finance committee and school committee discussed other approaches that may help to lessen behavioral issues including looking into what policies are in place to stop poor behavior on the bus as well as what, if any, schedule adjustments could be made to reduce the amount of time students spend sitting in the driveway of the school before being let off the bus.

While the elementary school committee noted that their requested budget was reasonable, they agreed that it is difficult to say to what extent the additional bus will alleviate the busing issues.

Both the Elementary School Committee and the Silver Lake Regional School Committee stressed to the finance committee that the school system took the brunt of the cuts last year and asked that historical context be taken into consideration when deciding what to approve in this year’s town budget. It’s in that vein that the Elementary School Committee discussed the other big-ticket item that they’re requesting in their budget – a one-time lump sum payment of nearly 70,000 dollars for textbooks. The Finance Committee acknowledged that the need for new textbooks had been placed on the back burner for several years and agreed that it was a pressing matter.

Summer Schmaling, chair of the Elementary School Committee, made a point to acknowledge the work of the PTO in funding various school projects. Likewise, school committee member Gordon Andrews credited fundraising and donations with funding the re-building of the elementary school playground in its entirety.

At the high school, a need for a new plasma table for the metal fabrication shop had been put off for several cycles. Fraser spoke to the concern that without the new table, the school could be graduating students from a program without the proper skills and knowledge to succeed in their chosen field. With Pembroke having voted to tuition in students to Silver Lake for vocational training, the need for such amenities is even more prominent.

An area of dispute at the meeting centered around the request for a school resource officer at Silver Lake Regional Middle School. As of last year, Kingston funds the high school’s resource officer as a full-time position. The newly requested position in the middle school was not listed in the requested budget but was instead added in as a warrant article. While all meeting participants were in agreement over the importance of student safety, The Board of Selectman Chair, Kim Roy, and members of the Finance Committee took issue with the request not being included in the budget and asked that the issue be taken up from scratch with Kingston, Plympton, and Halifax all weighing in on the best way to go about the creation and funding of the position.    

Finance Committee member Melinda Tarsi ended the meeting by stressing, as she did throughout, that she is asking all town department heads and committees to prioritize their budget increases in order to allow the finance committee to make the most educated decisions possible regarding the town’s overall budget.

SL basketball players compete in Patriot League All-Star game

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With the amount of talent that exists in the league, it has become a tradition for players from several different schools to come together to compete in the Patriot League All-Star basketball games.

The games, that take place on an annual basis after the teams wrap up their regular season, feature the best competition the league has to offer with Patriot League Keenan Division teams taking on those of the Fisher Division. Both games took place on Friday, Mar. 8, at Whitman-Hanson Regional High School and the Lakers had representation in both of them.

On the girls side, Holly Reeder-Morning got the nod for Silver Lake. She was one of nine players on the Keenan team this time around. The team featured three players from Plymouth North, another three from Duxbury and two from Whitman-Hanson. The Hingham girls did not have any representatives there, however, as they were still competing in the Division 2 South playoffs.

Ultimately, the Keenan ended up winning that contest over the Fisher, 71-70.

Lily Gustafson represented the Lakers well in the three-point contest as well prior to the game. She exemplified her ability from beyond the arc and lasted three rounds into the contest.

The Silver Lake boys had three participants in their respective All-Star game: Danny Duggan, Josh Gilbert and Josh Murphy. Murphy was also the team’s participant in the three-point shootout, and he made seven of them.

Since none of the boys’ teams were still in the playoffs, all of the teams competed in the All-Star game, and the Fisher Division boys beat the Keenan Division 110-90.

This past season, the Silver Lake boys’ team finished the year at 13-9 and beat Stoughton in the preliminary round of the Div. 2 South playoffs before falling to Tech Boston in the first round. The girls’ squad was on the younger side and finished the year at 4-17.

Roofer back in court on new charge

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Roofer Matthew Will, 37, of Halifax, in Wareham District Court on Monday, March 4, 2019, charged with a new larceny-related case, his sixth. (Photo by Abram Neal)

WAREHAM — Matthew Will, 37, of Halifax, now faces six larceny-related cases between Plymouth County district courts representing some 26 open charges, prosecutors said in Wareham District Court on a snowy Monday, March 4. He appeared for an arraignment on the new, similar case alleged in Middleboro, this time for one charge of larceny over $1,200 by false pretense, as well as for three pre-trial conferences on outstanding cases.

Will is the owner of Five Star Discount Roofing, of Halifax, and stands accused of victimizing now, at minimum, 24 area households in at least three communities across the county by beginning construction work and not completing it, or not doing work at all, after accepting deposits.

The newest case, police records say, involves a 77-year-old Middleboro woman, who hired Will to fix her roof in September 2018. Will asked her for $4,000 upfront for supplies for the job, and the woman wrote him a check for that amount. On Feb. 7, 2019, the work had not yet begun and the homeowner went to police. Police then applied for a criminal complaint against Will.

Both Jack Atwood, Will’s Plymouth-based defense attorney, and Will were late for the already delayed 11 a.m. court opening, which started late due to the early-morning snowstorm. Atwood said he was driving from another court. He successfully filed a motion to withdraw as counsel because Will was not adequately assisting in the preparation of his defense, he said. “I don’t represent him on the new charge,” said Atwood, of Will.

Judge Tobey S. Mooney presided over the hearings and arraignment. After allowing Atwood’s motion to withdraw, she appointed Onset-based defense attorney Peter Russell to the cases after the probation department confirmed that Will financially qualified for an appointed attorney. She warned Will that he needed to participate in his defense and that, “you won’t be back here picking and choosing attorneys.”

Arguing against the $1,000 cash bail for his new client’s release, as requested by the commonwealth’s Assistant District Attorney Jonathan Schulman at the arraignment, Russell stated that Will had not been convicted of any charges, up until recently had no criminal complaints other than an “old fish and wildlife charge,” had been a reputable contractor up until his “business went south” and has four children.

Mooney released Will on personal recognizance on the new case, citing the fact that he was already being held on bail in other cases.

The alleged victims now claim they have lost a combined $157,197.34, with individual losses ranging from $695 to $15,569. Most of these victims are over age 55, and many are quite elderly, according to police reports. The alleged victim who lost the most money is 78-years-old.

Will continues to hold construction supervisor licenses, as of press time, according to state records, and continues to be in business. At two points Will attempted to address the judge, once to explain why he wasn’t participating in his defense, which Mooney immediately stopped him from doing, and another time, at the end of the session, he asked the judge, “Can I say one more thing?” and Mooney abruptly cut him off with a curt, “No.”

Tape Art murals on Silver Lake hallways

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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.

Town Clerk takes Boston job

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Plympton Town Clerk Tara Shaw. (Courtesy Photo)

“I have enjoyed working with everyone,” Plympton Town Clerk Tara Shaw said as she announced this week that she will be leaving the position as of April 1, “ from the people who come into my office, to the good friends I have made through work at the Town House.

“This is such a wonderful town,” she continued.  “I remember the day when my children were home alone for the first time while I went to work at the Town House.  I asked the patrolman on duty if he would drive past the house to reassure them.”

“Everyone in this town takes care of everybody.  And that’s how I thought about my job as Town Clerk.  It was always worthwhile.”

The two years remaining for her term will be on the ballot for the annual town election May 18.  Assistant Town Clerk Patricia “Tricia” Detterman has taken out nomination papers for the position.

There will be 14 open seats on the ballot:

 • 1 Selectman, 3 years

• 1 Board of Assessor, 3 years

• 1 Board of Health Member, 3 years

• 2 Board of Library Trustees, 2 years

• 1 Board of Library Trustee, 3 years

• 2 Finance Committee Members, 3 years

• 1 Moderator, 3 years

• 1 Planning Board Member, 5 years

• 1 Planning Board Member, 3 years

• 1 Plympton School Committee, 3 years

• 1 Silver Lake Regional School Committee, 2 years

•1 Town Clerk, 2 years

Nomination papers are available in the Town Clerk’s Office at the Plympton Town House during regular business hours, Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., and Monday evenings, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The last day to submit nomination papers with at least 22 signatures is Friday, March 29, 2019 at 5:00 p.m.

The last day to object or withdraw nomination papers is Wednesday, April 17, 2019.
https://www.town.plympton.ma.us/town-clerk/elections

  Papers that have been pulled as of Tuesday, March 5, 2019:

• 1 SL Regional School Committee, 2 years, Michael Antoine

• 1 Planning Board, 3 years, John Schmid

• 1 Board of Library Trustees, 3 years, incumbent Christine Winslow

• 1 Finance Committee, 3 years, incumbent Steven Lewis

• 1 Town Clerk, 2 years, Patricia Detterman

There are only three weeks to take out nomination papers and return them to the Town Clerk to be included/printed on the ballot.

Please consider serving the town in one of these positions.

SL girls basketball battles through rebuild season

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Facing tough competition early in the season, the Silver Lake High girls’ basketball team had a hard time picking up wins at the beginning of their season. However, they continued to grow as a unit as the year progressed and ended up enjoying more success in the second half of the year.

Six of the first seven teams the Lakers faced at the start of the season ended up being tournament teams: Bridgewater-Raynham, East Bridgewater, Duxbury, Pembroke, Plymouth North and Falmouth. While they started the year off by losing their first five games, the team coached by Olly deMacedo did pick up wins against New Mission, North Quincy and Quincy in the final month of the season to finish the year at 4-17.

Once Holly Reeder-Morning come back to the team from her ACL injury midway through the season, they saw an uptick in their offensive production and their overall success. A junior this season, she will be back again next season for her fourth year on varsity.

This season, the Lakers had a healthy mix of veterans and younger players, so experience should not be a big issue for them next season. This time around, they had five seniors on their roster: Izzy Ruprecht, Jessica Stas, Brianna Villanova and Stephanie Bennett.

On the other hand, they will have plenty of players coming back next season, who are varsity contributors. These include players such as Molly Turbush, Riley Dunphy, Erin Demacedo, Lily Gustafson, Lilly Noonan, Kiley O’Brien and Natalie Bouchard, as well as Reeder-Morning.

That said, the Lakers have the foundation set so that they can keep working hard in hopes of enjoying more success in the future–and it is certainly attainable. After all, the team won 16 games and made it to the tournament in the 2017-2018 season.

Halifax STM waits for quorum

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Selectmen wait with residents for the required 100 voters to make up a quorum so the business of the town could be voted on. Less that 2% of the registered voters in Halifax showed up on a cold and windy night to pass six special town meeting warrant articles. From left are Selectmen Chairman Kim Roy, Selectman Troy Garron, and Selectman Thomas Millias. (Photo by Abram Neal)

HALIFAX — “I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts, and beer,” joked Town Moderator Dennis Carmen, quoting President Abraham Lincoln, as the February 2019 Halifax Special Town Meeting reached a quorum of 100 registered voters needed to begin and kicked-off 52 minutes late at 8:22 p.m. He apologized for not being able to provide free beer to those that had waited almost an hour for the STM to start.

Only 104 residents attended the meeting, according to Town Clerk Barbara Gaynor, or less than 2 percent of the town’s registered voters.

All six of the articles, which were pulled in a random order, passed with near unanimity on voice votes, and only the first article pulled, article one, generated much discussion. That article took up more than half of the hourlong STM. The finance committee recommended all six articles at the meeting.

Article one was the most discussed article as it involved the most spending. It asked the voters to appropriate an additional $1,056,056.26 for the fire suppression (sprinkler) system project at the Halifax Elementary School, which is in addition to $977,000 voters already approved at the May 2017 Annual Town Meeting.

The town went out to bid in May 2018 for the project but no bids were received, due to the timing the project was put out to bid, officials said. The town went out to bid a second time, and according to Town Administrator Charlie Seelig, the low bid came in at $1,731,687.

The article needed a two-thirds vote to pass, and town officials were both careful to answer questions from the voters and appeared defensive regarding alleged mistakes made with the building’s circa-1993 sprinkler system, which only covers part of the building and is leaking air, failing earlier than anticipated.

Seelig stated that the town could vote to approve the project now, or not, but that if they delayed it would likely cost much more in the future.

One voter, Timothy Kundzicz, of Elm Street, who said he was new to Halifax, was particularly vocal in his opposition to the article, insisting that those responsible for the failing system had to be held accountable and that those responsible for the new system be held accountable as well if the system doesn’t hold up as expected. Kundzicz spoke several times with his questions and comments regarding the article, some of which were technical in nature.

In response, Seelig, in apparent frustration, said, “You want to berate someone … you want someone to take responsibility for [the old sprinkler system] … but I suspect some of the people are dead.”

In addition to Seelig and Board of Selectmen members, Fire Chief Jason Viveiros, Building Inspector Robert Piccirilli and the new sprinkler system’s architect, of Habeeb & Associates Architects in Norwell, all answered voter questions regarding the project.

Eventually, after all discussion was exhausted, a resident moved the vote, and the article passed with a two-thirds majority. Only a few voices were heard voting in opposition.

Article six was pulled next, but because articles five and six were related, article five was discussed first. Both involved Payment in Lieu of Taxes (or PILOT) agreements for solar energy developments. Selectman Tom Millias presented the articles, stating that they were a “win-win” for both the town and the solar developer.

Article five asked voters to approve an agreement negotiated by the Board of Assessors on behalf of the Selectmen with the solar energy generation company Green Apple Farms, IV, LLC, for its proposed facility on Franklin Street.

Article six asked voters to authorize the Selectmen and, on their behalf, the Board of Assessors to negotiate a PILOT agreement with the solar energy generation company Halifax Solar, LLC, for its proposed facility on River Street.

The agreements, Millias said, will see the town receive payments much higher than the town would otherwise receive through taxes. The PILOT agreements stipulate fixed-rate payments over the course of 20 years.

Both articles passed unanimously.

Article four was pulled next. It asked voters to transfer $10,000 from the undesignated fund balance to be added to the Monponsett Pond account for studies of the Monponsett Ponds and projects to improve water quality.

At this point in the meeting, voters were yawning as the time grew later. The article passed unanimously and was not controversial.

Article two was pulled second to last and asked voters to transfer $7,300 from Article 32 of the ATM of May 14, 2018 (Repair and Replace Police Station HVAC units) to Article 30 of the ATM of May 14, 2018 (Repair and Replace Highway Barn Garage Doors) to be added to the $21,700 previously appropriated for a total of $29,000.

The article asked voters to move money that they had already approved on spending for one project (to repair and replace police HVAC units) which had come in underbudget to be added to a project that had become more expensive (to repair and replace the highway barn garage doors).

This, too, was uncontroversial and passed unanimously.

Finally, the voters unanimously voted to transfer $4,500 from the undesignated fund balance to upgrade the town’s website – $3,000 less than originally printed in the warrant.

Seelig said this was necessary because the current version of the town’s website will no longer be supported beginning this spring and that the commonwealth requires the town to have a website, legally.

The meeting was over about an hour after it had started.