The Friends of the Holmes Public Library finished their June fundraising Book Sale taking in a total of $1.464.50. Some books will stay behind for the Friends ongoing book sale.
The Library has two bookshelves located in the entrance lobby that offer books throughout the year for the “ongoing book sale.” Hardcover books, CDs and DVDs are $1 and paperback books are $.50.
If people want to become involved, or get more information, they can contact the group through the Freinds email: [email protected]. Meetings are open to all and are held on the 4th Wednesday of the month at 6 p.m. in the Community Room at the Holmes Public Library. There are no meetings in July or December.
The Friends also have a Facebook page: Friends of the Holmes Public LibraryHalifax MA.
A shower from the Tower
Halifax kids were treated to a shower from the tower – Halifax’s Tower 1 truck – last Thursday, in the midst of the area’s first heat wave. Tower 1 was at the Halifax Elementary School Thursday, June 20, from 10 a.m. to 12 noon, providing a misting water station for the kids to play in and get wet.
Halifax strict water ban to limit water buy from Brockton
The Town of Halifax Water Dept. sent out a release specifying a strict water ban effective June 21, “in order to reduce the amount of water purchased from Brockton.
Sunday: NO WATERING
Monday: Even numbered Houses 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Tuesday: Odd – numbered Houses 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Wednesday: NO WATERING
Thursday: Even-numbered Houses 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Friday: Odd-numbered Houses 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Saturday: NO WATERING
Car washing and the use of sprinklers are allowed during specified hours only. Due to high demand, watering on the weekends is not allowed.
The Board of Water Commissioners appreciates everyone’s cooperation in conserving water to avoid a total water ban.
If these restrictions are not adhered to, the following fines will be enforced:
First Offense – Verbal Warning
Second Offense – $50 fine
Third Offense – $100 fine
Fourth Offense – TERMINATION OF WATER SERVICE. $250 TURN-ON FEE.
The increased demand we have experienced can threaten public safety and the quality of public drinking water. In extreme cases, high water use can threaten the ability of Municipalities to store water for water pressure and fire protection purposes.
Watering during the heat of the day does not help your lawn and wastes water.
If you have a well, please visit the Board of Health, 499 Plymouth Street to obtain a well or irrigation well number. This number must be posted on the front lawn to prevent the Water or Police Departments from stopping at your house to enforce this policy. For questions, you should contact the Water Department by visiting their office at 500 Plymouth Street or calling (781) 293-1733. The Board of Water Commissioners appreciates your cooperation.
Have you got your Real ID?
Linda Redding
Special to the Express
Can your license fly? This was a question put to participants at the June Halifax TRIAD meeting. Speaker Michele Ellicks from the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) explained that beginning May 7, 2025, in order to board a flight in the United States, you will need to have a federally accepted ID. A federally accepted ID includes the Real ID issued by the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles, a United States Passport, or a Military ID. A federally-approved ID will also be needed to enter most Federal Buildings. One exception to that would be entering a post office.
If your Massachusetts Drivers License or State issued ID Card has a star in the upper right corner your license or ID is a Real ID and is ready to fly. Without the star it is considered a standard ID and does not meet the requirements as a federal ID. It is still a valid drivers license and ID. To bring your license or state- issued ID up to the Real ID you need to bring additional original documentation to the RVM when renewing. You must provide original document verifying lawful presence/Date of Birth. Proof of Social Security number is required. If you use your Social Security card it must not be laminated. To prove residency you will need two recent documents providing proof of Massachusetts residency. If applicable, you will need a document proving a name change.
It is best to consult the RVM website for the guidelines before renewing your drivers license or state issued ID card. For more information visit mass.gov/RMV. Appointments are also required and can be made online or by calling (857)-368-8005.
This informative presentation was recorded by Area 58 and will be available to view on the local cable channels or online at area58.tv
The next TRIAD meeting is on Tuesday, July 2 at 10:00 in the Great Room of the Halifax Town Hall. The guest speaker will be Charlie Chase, President of Descendants of Whaling Masters . Chase will discuss the Massachusetts whaling industry. The public is always invited to attend TRIAD meetings and refreshments are provided.
Plympton renews Area 58 contract
The Plympton Board of Selectmen met on Monday, June 3. They began the meeting with a license renewal for the town of Plympton’s cable. Selectman Mark Russo said that federal and state law mandate that they hold a public hearing to ascertain the community’s need for continued cable services.
Russo explained the role of Area 58 before proceeding with public comment. “Public access TV in Plympton is funded by a small percentage of revenue from the local cable company. The funds are used to establish a cable studio which we call Area 58 Community Access Media; it’s a nonprofit organization and the way these things are set up it is separate from town government and therefore has more freedom from perceived or real oversight,” Russo explained.
Marilyn Browne, chairman of the Finance Committee spoke saying, “I know how critically important it is for people to be informed and not isolated and I think that this program offers that opportunity for people who may be ill or weather related incidents and they can’t get out and I just think it’s very critical that we keep it up and keep people informed.” Kimberly Russo spoke next saying it was needed for history. Russo said, “We’ll have it forever… we use it to settle a lot of arguments in town… so I think we need it.” Colleen Thompson, Director of Elder Affairs and member of the Town Properties Committee said, “I do believe this is very important to the town.” She noted that they recently held a well-attended forum in town on the importance of new buildings, but said that those that couldn’t attend were able to watch it back.
Town Administrator Elizabeth Dennehy also spoke saying that she felt that it was ultimately about transparency and noted that she hoped for a beneficial contract between the town and the company. Russo said that he came up with a list of reasons why cable access was necessary. The first on his list was that despite the number of volunteers, etc. in town, they are a small community with limited expertise in broadcasting and publishing. Russo said that they also offer a training program. He also noted transparency and the elderly population as being two additional reasons to continue with Area 58. “Area 58 is a shared service, it combines the cable access activities of Plympton, Carver, and Halifax… it is a beautiful example and maybe one of the best examples of shared services and how dynamic that model can be because in my heart of hearts, I ultimately believe these small towns that are so strapped financially – one of the main ways out of it, is finding additional ways to share services,” Russo said.
Executive Director of Area 58 Rich Goulart also spoke. “We’re just starting really in what we can do for the town, I would really love to see more and more people really come in and do the public access side of things and really start producing their own programs on any of their own interests, we’ll do everything we can along the way,” he said. He also said that they would continue to do what they could for the government including the schools. Goulart said that they do what they can to get things posted to YouTube as well as their own channel.
The Senior Manager of Government Relations for Comcast, Michael Galla, also spoke saying they are happy to work with the town to get whatever they need with relation to Internet and fiber. “I just want to let everyone know we have our internet essentials plan; we have two plans available, one for $9.95 per month and one that’s a little higher that offers two different speed tiers; it does allow for people to get access that are lower income,” he explained regarding seniors and others that may be in need. Selectman John Traynor asked about the qualifications and was told that they are income based and take into consideration things like whether or not they are on social security. “It’s not very cumbersome,” he said.
The Selectmen closed the public hearing before moving onto a departmental update from the Town Accountant Lisa Hart. “I’ve begun setting up FY25… I did set the Special Town Meeting articles have all been done… the money that was approved from the schools from general stabilization and the line transfers.” She also said that she can’t officially close the books until roughly September or even October.
The Selectmen discussed with the Accountant the DOS database system employed by the town for presentation of financial information. Russo said, “If we could present it in a more vibrant way, I think that would be very helpful.” Traynor agreed saying that if they could have a technology person to turn to, it would greatly help with such things. Russo said, “we just need to fund that position and that might just be one of the ones for a shared service.” Traynor proposed using Silver Lake’s technology department potentially.
The Board also discussed pricing for mosquito and tick control on the fields in town including Holt Field. Dennehy went over the pricing structures for some of the different companies. The cost for spraying Harry Jason Park was significantly greater due to the larger acreage. Traynor said he would like to talk to recreation first. “So they’re building that walking path but we have to get it so it’s a walking path that’s usable by seniors and disabled people, but I don’t know what the cost of that is,” Traynor said. Dennehy said that there were no plans to pave that walking path until they get further into the town campus-wide projects. Dennehy noted that Plymouth County Mosquito Control can come and do the spraying from the back of the truck. She said that the substance that is sprayed is different than that from private companies and often doesn’t reach the back of the property. She also told the Selectmen that aerial spraying is outside of their purview. Russo said that his preference was to begin with hiring someone to spray Holt. Regarding the walking path, he said that he is more than glad to do fundraising to ensure that an accessible pathway at Harry Jason Park is created. The Selectmen voted to have Oh Deer conduct spraying twice a month through early September.
Dennehy provided a Town Administrator’s update. She said the town was working with the Old Colony Planning Council on a road safety audit on the intersection of Rt. 58 and Center St. “They’ve done some preliminary traffic counts and things of that nature,” she explained. “It’s a dangerous intersection,” Traynor added. She also said that the Green Communities Grant application she applied for to finish out the work on the library heating system is still pending. The application is for just over $240,000. Dennehy also said that $36,720 for another HVAC rooftop unit at Dennett Elementary School was earmarked through Senator Susan Moran. Another $5k would be going toward a lease agreement on a new police cruiser.
The Selectmen ended their meeting with their raves for the past few weeks. Russo said that “transparency and civility in town government” is a sub-context that got him started in local government and that he enjoys seeing it furthered. Traynor agreed about transparency and said that he feels that communication is vital.
He also raved for the Memorial Day Committee. “So far, all of the feedback I have heard is very positive so looking forward to next year,” Traynor said. Selectman Dana Smith agreed and said his rave was also for the Memorial Day event. “It’s just a great event,” he said.
Dennett budget woes to continue
Kristy Zamagni-Twomey
Express correspondent
The Plympton School Committee met on Monday, June 3. Superintendent Jill Proulx opened the meeting as it began its reorganization by asking for nominations for a Chair. Jason Fraser was unanimously elected Chair while Jon Wilhelmsen had unanimous support for Vice-chair. “We have an important year ahead of us and a lot of work to do,” Fraser said. Kate Johnson was voted Secretary.
Fraser thanked those who came out to Town Meeting and voted to support the Dennett budget for FY25. “That budget will continue to include reimbursement in the form of Circuit Breaker for this upcoming fiscal year, however, we have now split the cost of educating students with extraordinary disabilities who need out-of-district services between Silver Lake and the Dennett’s budget. This is going to cause us to have to look at the budget, as a whole, much like we did this year for the total cost of education in Plympton. We saw around a 6.7 percent increase in the total cost of education from last year’s numbers to this year’s numbers. I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention, I can thank the town for supplying us with $187,000 at Special Town Meeting for the override that we had in our special ed line and Peter [Veneto] and his staff for putting the budget freeze in place,” Fraser told the Committee. He continued saying, “Anticipating already, just based on some of the cuts we had to make to the budget this year and some of the natural growth due to contractual obligations, we could be potentially looking at a 6-8 percent increase of our budget from Go as a level-services budget.” He called the financial situation “precarious.”
Director of Business Services Sarah Hickey addressed some faulty equipment at the new playground. She said the hemisphere is currently shutdown due to missing nuts and bolts. She said that some routine maintenance would be done per the recommendations of the manufacturer.
During an update for Capital Improvement, Fraser said that Senator Susan Moran had earmarked funds for an HVAC system at the Dennett. Wilhelmsen said that they had an earmark of a little over $36,000 which they hoped would be enough to replace a rooftop unit. He noted that while they replaced one with CARES Act funds, many of the others are nearing end of life.
Fraser said that Represenative Kathy LaNatra was able to secure an earmark of $50,000 for Silver Lake Regional performing arts. The Middle School planned to use the funds for ADA compliant risers while the High School planned to use them for repairs to the stage. During his Legislative Agent’s report he also said that the Senate increased the per pupil miminum increment to a historic $110 per pupil. Rural aid has also been increased. He said that the best budget news of all is that Circuit Breaker reimbursement will be increased to 75 percent for FY25.
Principal Peter Veneto began his report with an update on enrollment saying that they currently have 255 students enrolled. Veneto said that they had Future Lakers Day, that day where the sixth grade students from the three towns come together to have a field day and meet future classmates. Step up day for the sixth graders was later that week. The Dennett had “Ride your Bike to School Day” as well. The last day of school is Monday, June 17.
Fraser told the Committee that one area that was cut during budget discussions was overtime for the custodial staff. “We no longer felt as a Committee that we could bear the burden of paying the overtime cost for custodians to come into the building for organizations that we believed should be able to foot the bill themselves,” he said. Veneto came up with a facility utilization fee schedule. Wilhelmsen asked if this would extend to Town Meeting using the building and was told that they should be exempt. The wording was changed to exempt Plympton Town Government or school-sponsored organizations. The Committee voted to accept the new fee schedule.
Veneto also went over how test scores compared from last year to this year. He said that the March 2024 scores were better than the scores from May of 2023 for almost every grade in the Reading STAR assessments. There was a slight drop for both fifth and sixth grade. For the Math STAR testing, the scores for March 2024 are equal to or better than May of 2023. Veneto said, “The scores are down a little bit from September 2023 to March 2023. He noted that they didn’t have a math interventionist during that time and they still won’t moving forward. Veneto said that in spite of that they are still trending toward their end-of-year goal.
Fraser said that he has been hearing that classroom management has become more time consuming compared to six or seven years ago and asked if that was affecting the time allotted to teaching. Veneto confirmed that this was the case and noted that class sizes are beginning to approach numbers more typical of an average elementary school. Fraser said that he would like the Committee to figure out what they can do in assisting with that.
Veneto shared a chart which showed median growth from September to March. Proulx said that 50 SGP (student growth percentile) is average. “You want to see something above 50,” Proulx said. The percentiles for Grades 2 through 6 in Reading were all over 50 percent with numbers ranging from 54 percent to the highest in Grade 4 at 68 percent. For math, however, Grades 3-5 were all below 50 percent with Grade 3 at 41 percent, Grade 4 at 34 percent, and Grade 5 at 38 percent. Among other takeaways, Veneto said that they will be working to restore the math interventionist. “This was the work of a lot of people and we spent quite a lot of time making sure that we had accurate data so that we’re making better informed decisions for our kids; trying to figure out early on, what do they need and how can we provide it,” Veneto said.
Assistant Superintendent Ryan Lynch provided an update saying that he appreciated Principal Veneto and all the principals across the district, presenting testing data in a uniform manner. He said that he hopes to see similar uniform approaches in ways to meet expectations using consistent, research-based interventions. Proulx followed with a Superintendent’s update saying that Silver Lake held their graduation the Friday before. “So I just wanted to extend my congratulations to our graduates from Halifax, Plympton, and Kingston. It was a beautiful evening – one of our favorite events,” Proulx said. Proulx also said that during a State-wide meeting of superintendents, it was announced that chronic absenteeism is down nearly 5 percent. She said that updated standards for Health and P.E. have been provided and will be followed next school year.
Wilhelmsen told the Committee that Plympton Library Director Mike Slawson was able to get a grant for $20,000 for accessibility improvements. Wilhelmsen said that Slawson was taking ideas from the general public regarding suggestions for accessibility improvements, including things as small as adding devices to the Library of Things offerered there. Wilhelmsen pointed out that there may be an opportunity there for helping older people as well as children in the community.
The Plympton School Committee will meet for their end-of-year closeout in July.
Halifax Fireworks 2024
The Town of Halifax’s Fireworks Celebration, coordinated by the members of the Halifax Fireworks Committee, is scheduled for Saturday, June 29, from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. behind the Halifax Elementary School, 464 Plymouth St. A variety of activities will be available during the event such as a DJ, food vendors, face painting, and more.
The Fireworks Committee is also seeking volunteers on Sunday, June 30, to assist with post-event cleanup. If you’re interested in volunteering, please e-mail Janice Hayward at [email protected] or Susan Hill at [email protected].
In the event of inclement weather, the Fireworks display will be rescheduled to Sunday, June 30, and the post-event cleanup will take place on Monday, July 1.
This event is made possible by the support and funding from residents, guests, sponsors, and local businesses. We are thankful to all who have contributed towards continuing the tradition.
Everyone is invited to take part in watching one of Halifax’s grand community events as we celebrate our nation’s birthday alongside friends, family, and neighbors. We hope to see you there!
Halifax Farmer’s Market throughout the summer
The Halifax Farmer’s Market will set up its pop-ups at the Halifax Town Hall on the following dates throughout the summer:
• Saturday, June 22
• Saturday, June 29
• Saturday, July 6
• Saturday, July 13
• Saturday, July 20
• Saturday, July 27
• Saturday, August 3
• Saturday, August 17
• Saturday, August 31
• Saturday, September 14
• Saturday, September 28
• Saturday, October 12
• Saturday, October 26
The fee for vendors to participate is a donation to the Halifax Helping Hands Food Pantry.
Plympton veteran wins first place
By Bob Lessard, Historian
American Legion Post 64,
Middleboro
Jeffrey Montelo of Main Street Plympton was awarded a first-place gold medal in Denver, Colorado at the National Veteran’s Creative Arts Festival.
His winning artwork of a bearded veteran, which was titled “Through the eyes of a Veteran” captured the top prize.
Montelo, a United States Marine Corps Vietnam veteran, had earned a spot in Denver, when his artwork placed first in the creative art contest held at the Brockton VA Medical Center.
Commenting on his winning creation, Montelo stated, “He’s probably homeless and looking into his future and it looks a little brighter.”
Montelo is an active member of Middleboro’s Simeon L. Nickerson Post 64 American Legion. He was Commander in 2014 and currently holds office as Senior Vice Commander of District 10, where he is the Commander-elect. He also is a member of Middleboro’s Veterans Honor Guard, which provides a contingent of flag holders and a firing squad for funerals of Middleboro veterans. In Plympton, he is an active member of the Fire Department’s Community Emergency Response Team…CERT.
Silver Lake Boys LAX take on Marshfield
Laker Boys Lacrosse took on a highly ranked Marshfield Rams team in their last game of the season prior to MIAA Playoffs. Despite dropping this one to the Rams, Silver Lake was ranked 30 in MIAA Division 2 securing a first-round game vs Methuen High School. The Lakers won that first round game 14-11 and moved on to the second round of the playoffs to take on Longmeadow earlier this week.
Photos and text by Steve Gilbert
To purchase and see more game action visit
http://sgphoto.net
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