HALIFAX– On Monday, Aug. 27, 2018, the Halifax Elementary School Committee began with a walk-through of the school (see accompanying article). Next, chair Summer Schmaling quickly went through the posted agenda until a major point of concern came up.

First, Principal Kayne Beaudry announced that enrollment at HES was 614 students for the upcoming school year. He, and Assistant Principal Brian Desantes noted some of the pressures this creates.

“First and second grade were hit really hard,” said Desantes, adding that, “We’re approaching 25 students per room.”

Beaudry stated that with families moving in and out of town, there was a net gain of about 20 students.

This increase in students not only puts pressure on teachers in the classroom but affects the busing schedule as well.

Superintendent Joy Blackwood said that the SLRSD leases nine buses, all but one shared with the rest of the district– Kingston pays for one extra bus due to their population. Each bus has a 77-seat capacity, at three students per seat, she said, and a bus costs $56,000 per year to lease.

Adding a bus, even one that’s shared, is expensive, she noted, so she’d like to negotiate a 10-year contract that would even out expenses over time if a bus needs to be added. Not only would that save money, but the SLRSD would get new busses and four would be larger capacity busses, she says.

There were difficulties negotiating the last one-year contract. “I had to beg,” she added.

Blackwood also stated that by law a seat must be held on a bus for all 614 students enrolled at the school, even those that are regularly driven to school, because the district is obligated to transport students every day, but parents aren’t obligated to drive their children every day.

“Where along in the process did we know we had a bus problem?” asked Alex Meade, a school committee member.

Beaudry responded that enrollment numbers are constantly fluctuating.

Another issue affecting HES is accommodating busing “special requests,” where students take one bus to school in the morning and another one to a different address in the afternoon.

As students enroll, and enrollment numbers are collected, they are entered into PowerSchool, the school’s management software.

Then, the bus contracting company, First Student, creates the routes from that data. Only then can special requests be accommodated.

Beaudry says that he has accommodated all two-bus requests– with just one morning and afternoon switch.

Meade didn’t think the school needed to accommodate these special requests at all. “I don’t see the need to honor any of these requests,” he said.

“I tend to agree,” replied Beaudry, but then said, “We want to help and accommodate what we can.”

Bus problems have plagued the town for years, said Schmaling. She said she has heard complaints from parents about students having rides that are too long, busses that are too full as well as busses that arrive too early and sit in front of the school.

Beaudry says that staff tries to address this each year by collecting the times buses arrive and leave and working with First Student to address any issues.

PLYMPTON– On Monday, Aug. 20, Plympton selectmen met at Town House and addressed another brief summer agenda. Notably the board opened and closed the warrant for the upcoming Special Town Meeting, were updated on the Two Brooks Preserve project– which is the reason for the upcoming Special Town Meeting, and also heard an update from Joy Marble, Director of the Council on Aging.

Special Town Meeting

Selectmen opened and closed the warrant for the Thursday, Sept. 20, Special Town Meeting. The process lasted all of a few minutes. The STM will be held at 7 p.m. at the Dennett Elementary School. There will be one article on the warrant, asking the voters whether they will authorize the purchase of the 113-acre property off of Prospect Road once known as the Atwood Property and renamed the Two Brooks Preserve by the Plympton Open Space Committee.

Two Brooks

Preserve

Linda Leddy and Vicki Alberti came before the board bringing an update to selectmen regarding the status of Two Brooks Preserve.

A new logo and campaign for the Two Brooks Preserve were launched on Monday night, including a tri-fold brochure that was mailed to town residents and a website for the project, www.twobrookspreserve.com was launched.  In addition, an information session scheduled to explain the Preserve will be held Saturday, Aug. 25, at 10:30 a.m. at the Plympton Public Library.

The purchase price of the property is $800,000. In order for the property to fund itself, without raising taxes for Plympton residents, the Open Space Committee has presented a proposal to the Community Preservation Committee asking for $440,000.  The remainder of the funds needed will come from selling up to three lots with frontage on Prospect Road.  Private donations are also being solicited to take care of any additional expenses such as survey costs.

The property, identified as one of the most environmentally significant areas in the region, according to Leddy, was enrolled in the Chapter 61 tax relief program. In July the selectmen voted unanimously to exercise their right of first refusal on the property and subsequently signed a purchase and sales agreement with the sellers.

The preserve’s benefits to the town would be numerous, according to the OSC. They include environmental benefits such as extensive aquatic systems and wetlands that help protect healthy drinking water; diverse habitats including forests, meadows, brooks, a bog and a reservoir; and many plant and animal species, including species of “special conservation concern.”

Other benefits identified include a preservation of Plympton’s rural character, recreational and educational opportunities.

Council on Aging Concerns

Joy Marble, Director of the Council on Aging, came before the board to give them an update. Marble’s primary concern, a theme that ran throughout her comments, was the lack of a permanent space for Plympton’s senior citizens. Right now, the COA uses a meeting room at Town House for most of their office space and activities, which Marble says is not conducive to the council’s goals.

Marble indicated that the COA “tries not to step on toes,” but is now using the Town House kitchen and other buildings in town to carry out their functions.

“They [the seniors] need a place to call their own,” Marble said. “I’m working towards getting monies and funds to do that…”

“It’s the dream of all three of us [to find space],” said Selectman Mark Russo.

Selectman Christine Joy suggested that grant money might be found to build a “not elaborate” senior center, or incorporate space for one into the master-plan for the Town House campus.

“You still need some space…some designated space…we’re here to help you,” said Joy.

Marble also said that it was time for the board to think about trading in the van the COA currently uses, which she says is not handicap accessible.

Joy asked if a car-dealership might be interested in “wrapping” a van with their logo and sharing it with several towns’ Councils on Aging, to save money. This was a well-received idea on the part of all.

Marble was also concerned that the COA does not have a phone line of its own. Town Administrator Elizabeth Dennehy stated that the “infrastructure” was in place for the line, but it had not been activated yet.

The Board of Selectmen will next meet Sept. 10, 2018 at 6 p.m. at Town House.

WHITMAN — By his own admission, Richard Rosen may not be the best or the smartest beekeeper, but he is becoming the face of backyard beekeeping for people tuning into their local cable access stations from coast to coast as he learns more about it.

He has already inspired the 5-year-old daughter of Whitman-Hanson Community Access TV Executive Director Eric Dresser, who was captivated by seeing a guy in a bee suit.

Rosen has been fascinated by bees, and the idea of running his own hives, for a long time — and while the real estate developer knew honey production was no money-maker, he also knew it was important to try to save them.

“It’s fascinating is what it is,” he said of the life cycle of bees and their honey production. “It was something that I had thought about for years. I thought, kind of from the fringe, that it was pretty interesting.”

He has turned that fascination into a sideline at McGuiggan’s Pub, selling jarred honey, and now working on a drinks menu on which listed beverages will include his honey as an ingredient.

Rosen has also become something of a celebrity through the syndication of his cable access series “The Buzz Around Bees,” which is now seen in programming markets in 14 states, including California and New York. It is the first show WHCA-TV has ever syndicated.

Rosen has already experienced some face-to-face feedback from fans. While attending the Aug. 8 Whitman Police Night Out Against Crime, he said a person stepped up to talk to him about the show.

“There was passion in the person who was talking to me about what they learned from what we showed them,” Rosen said. “I think that’s really cool and it’s surprising how many people do say something to me that have seen the show. … It’s rewarding when people say things to you about what they have seen on the show.”

WHCA’s Access Operations Coordinator Kevin Tocci, who shares Rosen’s interest in bees, approached him about doing the show.

“The idea of what we do here is, if you see somebody who has a unique hobby —whether it’s bees, or gardening, painting, whatever it may be — to expand upon it,” Tocci said. “We’ve been successful here at getting people to take their hobby and make it into a TV program.”

Tocci noted that Rosen had done various other programs for WHCA over the years and is comfortable in front of the camera.

“When he told me he was getting bees I thought that would be a fantastic show,” Tocci said. “And we experienced some very interesting things … we not only experience that the hive had minted a new queen, we got to experience the marking process and [to] understand that.”

Going in, Rosen thought Tocci was talking about a single program. It’s now in its second season, with Rosen shifting attention from his own hives to those of other area beekeepers.

The show’s six-episode first season was an eventful one.

Rosen and his wife Kathy demonstrated introducing bees to the hive, how a new queen had been created in one hive, and how another was “robbed” of its honey by other bees.

“It’s difficult for me to explain just how crazy it is,” he said of the life of honeybees. “But the whole life of a honeybee — how they’re born and when they’re born, how long they live and what they do — it’s pretty fascinating.”

“The Buzz Around Bees” also seems to bridge different ages, Tocci said, as Dresser noted his daughter was intrigued when Tocci posted a photo on Instagram of himself wearing a beekeepers’ outfit for videotaping.

“What’s he wearing?” Dresser said his daughter asked. “I brought up Episode 1 and I showed her ‘The Buzz Around Bees’ and I had never seen her captivated by anything that’s not cartoons until that moment.”

But long before the TV show was even a suggestion, came the development of Rosen’s hobby beginning with learning more about honeybees.

“I started researching it and I read two books and watched a two-hour-and-20-minute DVD, and I still didn’t have any idea what I was doing when I was done,” he said.

Rosen also knew a couple beekeepers, whose experiences fueled his interest. One of those friends, who lives in Duxbury, finally inspired him to buy a couple hives and give beekeeping a try.

His Danecca Drive backyard now hosts seven hives as he has added to his apiary each year.

He stressed that he is still learning about bees himself — taking the eight-week bee school program offered by the Plymouth County Beekeepers’ Association three times so far.

“I’ve said this many times on the show, they have forgotten more about bees than I’ll ever know,” he said. “The old joke is, if you ask three beekeepers the same question, you’ll get five different answers.”

That old saw did not make him hesitate to bring on, in his role as program host, three beekeepers in his first season on the air” PCBA President Anne Rein of Hanson, as well as Bill Veazie and Glen Cornell of Whitman. The sixth and final show of the first season wrapped things up with a panel discussion of issues facing bee populations between Rosen, Rein and Cornell.

This year’s shows began with the bee pickup day in Plympton — in a garage with 9 million bees in packages of 10,000 bees each —and has included the most recently produced episode about sugar shaking to determine if mites have infested a hive and the different pollinators bees seek out. Last season included a tutorial on setting up oil traps for beetles that can take over a hive.

“Last year was not a good honey year, a lot of beekeepers had a tough time … basically because of the weather,” Rosen said of that season, in which he managed a fair yield despite his challenges.

The damage done to bee populations by weather, mites, beetles and pesticides are a very real concern.

With 85 percent of plant species on earth, and about 52 percent of the food products at your grocery store, requiring bees and other pollinators to exist, a 2013 Whole Foods Markets “Share the Buzz” demonstration of the statistics proved an eye-opener for Rosen. The store showed that one of every three bites of food is produced by honeybees and other pollinators by removing all products requiring pollination from its store shelves — 237 of 453 products including almost the entire produce department.

Between learning of that demonstration and his experience as a beekeeper, everything Rosen now plants in his yard benefits bees. That includes selecting plants that have not been treated with pesticides like neonicotinoid, which kill bees.

“This year, so far, it’s been a great year and six of the seven are doing well. One is doing OK, but I think it’s because of where I have them placed. I have a couple [hives] more in the shade and I’m finding they don’t particularly like the shade.”

A daily tablespoon of local honey, produced within a 25 mile radius of where one lives, is also said to be helpful for allergy sufferers.

“There are a lot of people that live by that,” he said. “I have people who come into McGuiggan’s to buy honey that are not drinkers, they’ve just heard we have true local honey and they want to buy it.”

Stings are the last thing to worry about, he said.

“Honey bees don’t want to sting you because they’re going to die after they sting you,” Rosen said. “They won’t unless you swat them. You tend to be afraid of bumble bees, because they’re so big — bumble bees will not bother you —but yellow jackets are bad guys and will sting.”