Plympton selectmen Monday night were surprised by the request of Highway Superintendent Scott Ripley to declare a snow and ice emergency. (Courtesy photo)

Plympton selectmen Monday night were surprised by the request of Highway Superintendent Scott Ripley to declare a snow and ice emergency as he has used up his snow removal funds for the season.

Having been a winter with the least snow in recent memory, according to Boston weather people, selectmen said they would either call him in to explain, or perhaps just have a member of the board meet with him and discuss how the funds were spent.

In all fairness, Ripley began his position of Highway Superintendent in August, 2018,  after the budgets were set by Town Meeting vote ion May of 2018.

Town Administrator Elizabeth Dennehy presented the marijuana by-law produced by Ann Sobolewski with the Planning Board for selectmen’s approval.  The approved by-law will be returned to the Planning Board so a hearing may be scheduled in preparation for the Annual Town Meeting in May.

Selectman Christine Joy told the board that Plympton needs to do a much better job in its recycling, as does the rest of the country, and the effects are being felt throughout our economy.

China no longer buys our mixed paper for recycling because of the contaminants we allow, an average of 25%, forcing the United States to look elsewhere to sell its mixed paper.  What in 2017 brought $90 per ton in trade with China, in 2019 brings only $4 a ton from other markets like India.  “I don’t know that the country will ever get China back,” Joy said.   

What items are the worst offenders?  Think long, stringy things that tangle up the processor: garden hoses, plastic one-use grocery bags, plastic wrap. Don’t put recyclables in plastic bags.  The attendant won’t open the bag; it just goes into the trash.  Clothing can’t be processed with recyclables; in Plympton, it goes in the charity bins near the bottle and can redemption trailer.

The presentation she attended also cited help Massachusetts is giving in the way of grants for educating residents about what is recyclable and what is trash, and also grants for building recycling facilities, to help communities get serious about recycling.

Selectmen unanimously approved the application of Upinto2, Inc., the corporate name of the motorcycle riding school on County Road.  Upinto2, Inc. was granted a Class II motor vehicle sales license to sell motorcycles, primarily to their students.   Selectmen stipulated that no motorcycles were to be displayed outdoors for sale and no more than 40 motorcycles, 10 of which would be for sale, the rest for students to ride in classes, would be on the premises at a time.

In other business selectmen

• reviewed the open election seats for boards and committees

• executed a contract for Air Vacuum Corporation to deal with the exhaust fumes of vehicles at the Fire Station.

• voted to open the warrants for the Special Town Meeting and the Annual Town Meeting, both to be held May 15.

• reviewed the process of compiling the Annual Town Report, making sure that boards and committees follow the instructions to submit their reports to the town before the March 21 deadline.

The next meeting will take place March 11, at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted.

Superior Court Judge Robert Cosgrove hears arguments to dismiss several charges in the lawsuit filed by the Carver, Marion and Wareham Regional Refuse Disposal District against Plympton Health Agent Robert Tinkham, Ray Pickles and Diane Bondi-Pickles.

Robert Tinkham, of Carver, the Plympton Health Inspector, asked a judge to drop several charges against him in a civil suit alleging he defrauded the Carver, Marion and Wareham Regional Refuse Disposal District, where he was a member of the committee overseeing the district (and at times chairman of that committee) in his capacity as the Carver Health Agent. He, along with two alleged co-conspirators, Ray Pickles, once the district’s Executive Director, and his wife Diane Bondi-Pickles, a real estate agent, are accused of stealing in excess of $838,458.22 from the district.

At a hearing Jan. 14, Superior Court Judge Robert Cosgrove took the matter under advisement. On Feb. 7, Cosgrove partially allowed and partially denied the motion to dismiss the charges, and while he dropped one of the charges, six charges still stand.

In an 18-page written ruling, Cosgrove outlined his rationale charge-by-charge. The complaint against the three defendants originally contained nine charges. Two of the charges were plead in the original complaint only to “reach-and-apply” defendants, who have since been dismissed from the action, and therefore those two charges are no longer applicable.

Of the seven remaining charges, Cosgrove only dropped one, count six, for violations of M.G.L. c. 30B, or the Uniform Procurement Act, a 1990 law that codifies uniform public contracting procedures to promote competition and fairness, according to the state. (Cosgrove dismissed this charge against Bondi-Pickles as well.)

Tinkham argued that count six should be dismissed for three reasons: failure to allege any contract subject to the laws, failure to allege that he was a “procurement officer” as defined by the law and that there is no private right to sue under the act.

Cosgrove agreed with the final point, saying, “Consequently, Plaintiff’s claims against … Tinkham pursuant to … the Uniform Procurement Act, must be dismissed. Because there is no private cause of action under G.L. c. 30B, the court need not reach the other arguments presented by the defendants pursuant to that claim.”

The lawsuit now charges Tinkham with six causes of action: conversion and civil theft; breach of fiduciary duty; fraud; money had and received; civil conspiracy; and violations of M.G.L. c. 93A, the consumer protection law.

The lawsuit alleges Tinkham received monetary payments from the district between 1995 and 2018, but other waste district committee members did not receive compensation for their services. He did not have a contract or employment agreement with the district, and no taxes were withheld on the payments, according to the original lawsuit, which was later amended by the district.

Court records say he billed the district for landfill inspections while working for the Town of Carver. Carver’s job description for the health agent includes inspecting the Carver landfill, according to public records. In 2007, Carver officials reaffirmed this aspect of the job description.

But, the Carver landfill, leased by the district, is inspected by a professional engineer. Tinkham is not an engineer, according to his resumé, and he kept no records of his inspections for Carver, if they indeed occurred, the lawsuit alleges. The total amount paid to him for inspections by the district was $88,990.

In the lawsuit, the district points to 13 representative examples from 2004 and 2005 alone of Tinkham collecting payments from the district while being paid a salary from the Town of Carver.

Tinkham also stands accused of providing no goods or services in connection with money he was paid for the district’s “Grant/Recycling” services, between 2012 and 2018, totaling $88,100. He allegedly submitted false documentation for payment for that work.

Tinkham also stands accused of receiving payments not supported by any documentation at all. “In total, there are 82 payments totaling $86,703.82 for which payment was made but the District has no invoice or proof of any services rendered,” say court records.

The alleged fraud was discovered when Pickles, in 2017, without the authorization of the committee, sought payment of assessments from the district towns for the first time since 2015.

When Carver and Wareham refused to pay, claiming a lack of documentation, Pickles used district counsel, without authorization, to sue for breach of contract in Wareham District Court.

That suit was voluntarily dismissed. Pickles was terminated Jan. 29, 2018.

The district was created as a regional refuse disposal district in 1973 by a special act of the General Court.

It is an independent body-politic, based in Marion, funded by user-fees, assessments to the member towns and agreements with third-parties.

According to files obtained by the Express, the state Office of the Inspector General is investigating the alleged misconduct as well, in addition to the lawsuit against Tinkham, Pickles and Bondi-Pickles.

The district is seeking triple-damages, interest, costs and attorneys’ fees.

Tinkham denies all allegations.

VIGIL: Organizers Adrienne McDougall, left, and Diane Ostranber take part in a candlelight vigil for Maura Murray in Hanson Saturday, Feb. 9, the 15th anniversary of her disappearance after a New Hampshire car crash. (Photo by Abram Neal/Express News)

HANSON — Maura Murray, then 21, a native of Hanson, vanished after she crashed her 1996 Saturn into a snowbank along a curve on Wild Ammonoosuc Road (Route 112) in Woodsville, New Hampshire, a village of Haverhill, 15 years ago. The UMass Amherst nursing student’s mysterious disappearance on Feb. 9, 2004 has sparked worldwide attention in the press, on the Internet and on social media over the course of the last decade and a half.

Family, friends and supporters of Maura Murray marked the somber anniversary Saturday in New Hampshire and here in Hanson by lighting candles in hopes that she will be found. Her father, Fred Murray, 76, had shared with the public new details of an investigation he has conducted into her disappearance with the hope that the public attention will put pressure on New Hampshire authorities to further look into the matter. Investigators, meanwhile, say the investigation is still active.

Fred Murray, who spoke to the Express Monday, Feb. 11, says that he is certain he has found a burial site in a house “astonishingly close” to the site of the accident. According to him, locals first tipped him off about suspicious activity at the house in the first year after his daughter’s disappearance, including rumors of new concrete being poured in the basement shortly after the accident, he says.

The Boston Globe reported last week what Murray said, based on those tips, “that a man who lived in the home at the time of the crash, as well as the man’s extended family members who lived nearby, were responsible for his daughter’s death.”

Although he told the Expressthat he is not positive that it’s his daughter who is buried in the house, he strongly believes that there are human remains in the house and that they are likely those of his daughter.

“I only need to be right once,” he pointed out.

The house, which he says police never searched, a point which officials don’t advertise unless pressed in statements, has come under new ownership since Maura Murray’s disappearance, and the new owners have been receptive to Fred Murray’s investigation. He says he is willing to pay to dig up their basement, although he’d rather New Hampshire authorities do it.

The New Hampshire Attorney’s General office said in a statement that they “searched the area with dogs at the time,” but never searched inside the house in question.

In November and December 2018, Fred Murray brought in two trained, accredited cadaver detecting dogs to the house, each one on separate occasions. They alerted, he says, by lying down in the same spot in the basement of the house. He says that video of the dogs alerting exists, and is available widely online from local television media outlets.

Later, ground-penetrating radar was used and indicated strong findings of an abnormality in the same spot in the concrete, he said. Much of Fred Murray’s investigation has been paid for by donations and through pro-bono work of those who support him, he says.

“It’s astounding that this [basement] wasn’t looked at before. I told the police about this in the first year … the State Police did an inadequate job when my daughter first went missing,” he added, adamantly.

Fred Murray said he has found the local police to have been less-than-helpful, and as for federal law enforcement, “The FBI has been dodging it [the case] for 15 years … they’re useless,” he said of the Boston office of the FBI.

He says that law enforcement’s response to his investigation, when he’s notified them of his findings, has been, “We looked at that, we looked at that, we looked at that.”

“Because of the institutional intransigence of the New Hampshire State Police the case is still alive 15 years later,” he said.

Fred Murray said that he thinks he’s been getting “the run around,” and that officials have been waiting for him to go away. “This time, the guy didn’t go away, and that guy was me.”

A representative for the New Hampshire Department of Safety, of which the New Hampshire State Police are a division, refused to comment because of the active nature of the investigation, but did refer the Express to the Office of the New Hampshire Attorney General.

“The case is still open and active.  We do receive tips and information periodically, as well as generate new information from investigative efforts,” said Jeffrey Streizin, Associate Attorney General and Director of the Division of Public Protection with the New Hampshire Attorney’s General office in an emailed statement.

He continued, “We are aware of the allegations regarding a home’s basement in that area and have considered and are considering next steps. That area was searched by law enforcement in the past, including with dogs, and nothing of significance was discovered.”

When asked to clarify whether the home itself was ever searched, Streizin said, “The State Police conducted a canvas of that area in 2004 and searched the area where that house is located with dogs. They did not go into the house at that time.”

“I need help. I’m asking for help,” Fred Murray said. “The people of northern New Hampshire have been wonderful. They are salt of the earth people … The goodness of people has really come to the forefront. Maura’s only friends in this have been the Massachusetts press, her friends and the great people of the area.”

Exactly where Maura Murray was headed, and why, has remained a mystery over the years. Moments after the crash, a good Samaritan stopped to assist her, but she waved him off and told him not to call the police, according to original police reports from 2004. The passerby called local police anyway, although he did drive off. A Haverhill police cruiser arrived within minutes, but the Saturn was locked, and Maura Murray was gone.

According to a four-part series reported by Maribeth Conway in this paper’s predecessor, the Hanson Express in 2007, Fred Murray had dinner with his daughter in Amherst two days before her disappearance.

She caused damage to her father’s car that night in a minor accident near UMass in Hadley, Massachusetts, and later friends reported she had been drinking that night, although no charges were filed in that incident.

The following day, she performed Internet searches for driving directions to Vermont and the Berkshires. She also called for a condominium rental reservation in Bartlett, New Hampshire, which she did not end up reserving. Her family often vacationed in Bartlett, a town in the White Mountains near the Attitash ski resort.

Her belongings were neatly packed up in boxes in her UMass dorm room before she left, according to reports, leading to speculation that she may have been considering leaving school permanently. But she had good grades, and her college textbooks were found in her car by investigators after the accident.

Maura Murray withdrew $280 from her bank account, leaving the account almost empty, and emailed professors and her boss at a local art gallery that she would be away from school because she was needed in Hanson due to a death in the family. Relatives later confirmed there was no death in the family.

No one is sure exactly why the college student made up the story.

A friend later suggested that Maura Murray may have been under a lot of pressure and wanted to get away to think about something important.

She grabbed some toiletries, a favorite stuffed animal — a monkey given to her by her father– and a necklace her boyfriend had given her. She then departed. Police say she next stopped at a liquor store, bought about $40 worth of alcohol — which police reports say some of which was found in plain sight in her car after the crash– and never returned to Massachusetts.

Fred Murray says his next step will be to try to enlist the help of senior New Hampshire State Police officials but that he continues to wait and marvel at the lack of help. He added, “We’re still going to win.”

When asked to clarify what a win for him would be, he hesitated and said, “There is no win. There is no satisfaction. I have to find her, bring her home and give her a proper burial. Every father who ever drew a breath on the planet should know what happens next.”