These stalwart scouts from Troop 70837 braved the 16 degree cold Sunday to tempt passers by with the 2024 selection of Girl Scout Cookie flavors on sale in the Plympton Library parking lot. They are, from left, Julia Gold, Abigail Borsari, and Emma Gold. They sold lots of cookies for their troop and will be seen – hopefully on warmer days – selling cookies until the end of March. This year’s cookie selection include the ever-favorite Thin Mints®, Trefoils®, Adventurefuls®, Caramel Chocolate Chip®, Caramel deLites ®, Samoas®, Do-si-dos® peanut Butter Sandwich, Girl Scout S’mores®, Lemonades®, Lemon-Ups®, Peanut Butter Patties® Tagalongs®, Toast-Yay!®, and Toffee-tastic®. Girl Scout Cookie booths will be set up Saturday, Jan. 27, at Lowe’s in Kingston; Sunday, Jan.28, at Stop & Shop Kingston, and Walmart, Halifax. Go to the Girl Scout Cookie Finder online at https://www.girlscouts.org/en/cookies/how-to-buy-cookies/cookie-finder-results.html?#02367.
Finding warmth on a frigid January Sunday
by Fred Corrigan
Special to the Express
It’s a beautiful sunny Sunday, a freezing 17 degrees, but you have to love the smiling faces and the business fortitude of the Girl Scouts from Troop 70837.
They set up their cookie display in Plympton Center. It was wonderful to see all of the cars stopping by to purchase cookies. The proceeds from their Girl Scout Cookie sales stays “local’.
The caramel deLites are crispy cookies topped with caramel, toasted coconut, and chocolaty stripes. A sweet tooth pleasure!
Driving south on route 58 in Plympton, I came to a fantastic number of families enjoying ice skating on the flooded cranberry bogs. Great winter family fun!
How do you stack your firewood for winter? Do you create a round pile with a peeked top or do you make a couple of long lines for mother nature to dry. Fall work for winter warmth!
East Monponsett Lake finds a large flock of Canada geese swimming in the winter sunshine.
It may be “Cold”, but the wonders of winter in New England, can Warm Your Heart!
Is a lifetime suspension too long?
Deb Anderson
Express staff
Kingston’s Board of Selectmen met Tuesday, Jan. 16, at the Kingston Town House, to continue the earth removal permit from Dec. 19, and hear the appeal for a senior citizen who has been permanently barred from the Kingston Senior Center.
In the open forum, Pine DuBois, from the Jones River Watershed, asked selectmen to to watch the drone footage taken by Jimmy Powell in the Landing Road area, showing the dangerous flooding on Jan. 13, where water flooded the road and vehicles were trapped in standing seawater. She asked selectmen for future preventative roadblocks and traffic control to avoid the damage to vehicles in an extremely dangerous situation. “I don’t think people know that salt rots their cars.” she said. The drone footage and flooding photos can be seen on the Jones River Ecology YouTube channel.
The earth removal permit hearing was continued as the peer review company has not yet been hired. Town Administrator Keith Hickey advised selectmen to wait until the peer review was complete. The hearing was continued until Feb. 13, at 6:15 p.m.
Selectmen were next asked to consider the appeal of a Council on Aging’s suspension of a patron to enter the senior center or attend activities there. Originally a 30-day suspension, the event involved a patron and the Director of Eder Affairs, foul language and inappropriate behavior. Upon appeal to the Council on Aging Dec. 15, the COA increased the suspension to a permanent ban, all of which was within their authority.
The patron, who is a resident of Carver, appealed further to selectmen. After much discussion, with several selectmen considering that a permanent suspension was “too aggressive”, and after several votes to amend the term of the suspension, they finally agreed and voted to amend the suspension to end at January 1, 2025, at which time the term of the suspension will have been served.
Selectman Tyler Bouchard said, “I used to umpire a lot of baseball games. I’ve kicked out a lot of Dads – a couple of Moms, too.” In all of his hundreds of games he has never seen a lifetime ban.
Selectman Eric Crone said he thought the purpose of the hearing was to see if the COA Advisory Board acted within its authority in elevating the 30-day suspension to a permanent suspension. He said that reviewing the tapes and the testimony it looked like they did what was within their authority. He did not vote to overturn the lifetime suspension.
Open Burning Permits info
Burning season for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts began Monday, Jan. 15, and will continue through Wednesday, May 1, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
In Halifax, burn permits may be obtained immediately 24 hours a day by paying $25 online at halifax-ma.org/pay. Your payment receipt serves as your valid burn permit for the season. Online registration/purchase is preferred.
For residents without internet access, you may obtain a permit by mailing a check or money order made out to the Town of Halifax for $25.00 along with the physical application or you may leave the application and payment in the designated box at the front desk of the Fire Station. Please visit halifax-ma.org/OpenBurning for more information.
In Plympton, please follow the link below to complete the permit. As always they are free of cost. The Permit only needs to be filled out once per year, then on days when you wish to burn call (781)585-2633 ext 212 to see if burning is allowed that day.
https://docs.google.m/…/1FAIpQLSeywwni0HM…/viewform…
In Kingston, residents can go to Kingston.firepermits.com to apply for a permit. Once you are registered you can apply for and pay $10 for your burn permit online through UniBank. Residents will receive an email notifying them when their payment has processed and the permit is approved. If conditions are not safe for burning, notification will be posted on the homepage.
com/…/1FAIpQLSeywwni0HM…/viewform…
In Kingston, residents can go to Kingston.firepermits.com to apply for a permit. Once you are registered you can apply for and pay $10 for your burn permit online through UniBank. Residents will receive an email notifying them when their payment has processed and the permit is approved. If conditions are not safe for burning, notification will be posted on the homepage.
Dennett students to name snowplows
The Plympton Board of Selectmen met virtually on Thursday, Dec. 21. Selectmen Chair Christine Joy and Selectman Mark Russo were present.
Town Administrator Liz Dennehy said they have been reviewing the town’s flag policy with an intention to add a stipulation to it. “We would try to get the flags up on the telephone poles, that Highway does for us, generally from May 15 through November 15 unless there’s bad weather then obviously, we would make arrangements to have them taken down,” she told the Selectmen. Joy asked Dennehy why those dates were chosen and Dennehy said that they felt that getting them up before Memorial Day and having them remain up slightly past Veteran’s Day would be ideal. Dennehy also mentioned that the town should probably budget for the flags as they can be expensive. “We can get an inventory of our flags too as we get closer to Town Meeting time… and if there are any that need to be replaced, we could even do an article for it,” she said.
Dennehy also told the Selectmen that she is working with the Highway Superintendent on a project to have Dennett Elementary School students vote to name the three snowplows in town. “So the three trucks will get funny names… we’re trying to find ways to get our Highway Department more integrated with the community,” she explained. She also said that they are trying to coordinate a time for the trucks to be brought to the school so the students could see them and learn a bit about how they operate and what goes into plowing snow.
Dennehy said that budget season was well underway and preliminary budgets are due from town departments in mid-January. “We’re off and running on that,” she said.
“We got our Purple Heart community designation,” Dennehy told the Selectmen. She said that they coordinated with the Veteran’s Agent on it and signage would be going up soon.
The Selectmen issued Class II and III and scrap metal license renewals for 2024. Russo did the inspections on the properties and “found everything to be in good order.” Russo said he paid particular attention to the number of vehicles on display and found everything to be in compliance. The unanimous approvals were for Alby’s Salvage Inc., Angels Auto and Towing Inc., Bridge Bike Inc., Carey Auto Inc., Competition Auto Body Repair, Motorsports, and Plympton Cycles.
The Board also voted unanimously to support several appointments. Susan Vetterlein was appointed as the Clerk at Town Hall. Deborah Anderson was appointed to the Bylaw Review Committee until dissolved. Paul Johnson was appointed as a Transfer Station attendant until June 30, 2024. Caitlyn Mullaney was appointed as a full-time Police Officer and Stephen Raddatz was appointed as a part-time police officer, both until dissolved.
As customary, the Selectmen ended their meeting with their raves. “It was really neat, the Fire Department, I think with the help of the Police Department, doing the Santa over on the weekend. I know the kids on my street were really excited,” Joy said of her rave. She did note that the sirens were “really jarring” and wondered if next year they could play Christmas music instead. “Everything was awesome, but until I figured it out, I thought we had a major accident in town,” Joy explained. For her second rave, she said, “how thankful I am that we have such a great team of people who are working for the town. We really have come a long way with professionalizing departments.” She named Dennehy as well as Administrative Assistant Briggette Martins, Highway Superintendent Rob Firlotte, and the Chiefs of Police and Fire.
Russo said he wanted to underscore, emphasize, and appreciate Joy’s rave and all of the wonderful things going on in town.
He said his second rave was for the holidays. “It’s the darkest time of year; it’s the time of year when the weather is getting pretty darn cold and it’s kind of our opportunity for some agency – our opportunity to offer antidote in the form of some light and some comfort and some joy and hope for everyone, a peaceful new year,” Russo said.
Plympton SLT hearing continued
The second round of the SLT Construction Corporation’s continued hearing before the Plympton Zoning Board of Appeals will take place Thursday, Jan 25, at 6:30 p.m. in the Deborah Samson meeting room in the Plympton Town House, 5 Palmer Rd. Plympton residents are encouraged to attend.
The first round of the hearing was Thursday, Jan. 4, and the standing room only crowd heard from attorneys representing SLT as to how their client’s project fell within the bylaws of the Town of Plympton, and why it should be allowed.
Zoning Enforcement Officers Thomas Millias and Kathleen Cannizzo issued their determination not to allow the permit for the proposed asphalt, brick, and concrete processing facility (ABC) based on the following: the project is located in a Groundwater Protection District and the SLT plant stated it would use water to mitigate the dust created in the processing. Because the water would mix with the rubble dust particles, it would become a “process liquid” unless it were treated and returned to state drinking water standards.
Second, the definition of “Light Manufacturing” states that the fabrication, assembly, processing, finishing work and packaging must be done in a manner such that noise, dust, odor, vibration, or similar objectionable features are confined to the premises and are in no way objectionable to abutting property.
SLT’s several attorneys spoke on their client’s behalf, stating that there would be no “process liquids” used at the Spring St. property, that there would be no manufacturing of asphalt, brick, or concrete at the property; it would use previously manufactured asphalt (cured), brick with attached mortar, and concrete rubble that may have rebar metal in it, break it down by crushing it, using strong magnets to remove the scrap metal, then force the remaining material through screens to size the final product. They would not be fabricating anything; they would be recycling existing materials, all of which is allowed under Plympton’s By-laws, they claim.
SLT handed out information in the form of 32-page booklets to explain their proposed operation.
SLT maintains that any vibration, dust, noise, or odor will not be felt outside of the Spring St., Plympton’s property lines. As the Spring St. property abuts Carver, the entrance and exit for the facility will be through the Town of Carver.
Travel Trivia Live with Kelly & Mark
Yes, that was our own Linda Redding of Halifax on the Travel Trivia game on Live with Kelly and Mark! The performance, that was actually taped way back last fall in September, aired January 3. The show had been on winter break.
It was Linda’s mother, Kay Redding, who started the ball rolling by asking Linda to help fill out the form on the Kelly & Mark website to become a Trivia caller. “It was easy to complete, though you did have to upload a photo and give two statements: a truth and a lie,” Linda said. “I thought I would give it a try too.
After submitting the entries, Linda was “very surprised” on Sept. 5 to see that she had a phone call from the Walt Disney Company. She had completed and submitted the form a week or two before.
“My truth was that I met Conan O’Brien at Logan in 2017 when bringing my cousin Beverly to the airport for her trip home to LA,” Linda said. The lie was that she met Steve Carrell at the Marshfield Hills General Store. “Mark guessed correctly, and I didn’t win the prized ‘Live with Kelly and Mark’ T-shirt stating that ‘I Stumped Mark’.” The trivia question was “How old was Derek Hough when he started on Dancing with the Stars”. I answered 23 and he was actually 22, missing out on a trip to Antigua. I am going to receive a wine.com gift card and have a chance to win a trip to Punta Cana. A member of the audience also received a wine.com gift card. I had to pick a number between one and one hundred and something and I picked 104—the number I had as an audience member back in 2015.”
Halifax Senior Center is coming
Taylor Fruzzetti
Express correspondent
Thorndike Development will begin the construction of a 55 and up condominium complex including a new Council on Aging facility and four pickle ball courts this summer according to Thorndike Development Asset Manager Michael Devin.
The project, planned to house 102 condominiums, will be located at 265 and 266 Monponsett Street. The Council on Aging facility will be located at 265 Monponsett street.
Devin said that the project is expected to cost 3.8 million overall, with the town utilizing $1.7 million in funds that have been set aside for the construction of a new Council on Aging since Town Meeting on May, 9 2022.
According to Town Administrator Cody Haddad, $1.2 million of these funds have been allocated to use towards the Council on Aging project with roughly $460,000 set aside to cover the cost of the design and project management. Haddad explained that a portion of the $1.7 million was used to cover design costs for a previous plan that included reconstructing the Halifax Historical Museum to house the Council on Aging.
Thorndike Development will contribute up to $2.6 million in mitigation payments for the buildings according to Devin. Construction for the senior center is estimated to be completed in spring 2026 with the condominiums estimated to be completed in 2027.
According to Haddad, the initial proposal by the developer was to build over 200 affordable housing units.
“With over 200 units, we were concerned with additional costs to the town [such as] public safety and schools,” said Haddad.
Haddad said that eventually Thorndike Development proposed the 55 and up housing and came to an agreement with the town to include a Council on Aging facility on the site.
The Dec. 14 Special Town Meeting approved of a 55 and up condominium zoning overlay that will allow for the project to commence according to Haddad.
Some residents were concerned that the condominiums could add stress on Halifax Police and Fire during the Dec. 14 Special Town Meeting.
However, according to Thorndike Development, the town can expect an average of 23 calls for emergency personnel per year from the 55 and up community due to its size.
Haddad said that the project is estimated to bring in approximately $600,000 in tax revenue and added that this revenue can be used to hire additional staffing for the fire department.
The next step in the project is to complete a site plan review with the planning board, said Haddad.
According to Halifax Council on Aging Director Darlene Regan, the current Council on Aging facility located at 506 Plymouth Street does not currently meet the community’s needs.
“The house we are in now was built in the 1800s and it has never changed,” said Regan.
“I’m looking forward to it because now we can actually have our activities right in one place, whereas now we are scattered,” she said. “We outgrew our building and that’s a good thing.”
Regan said that in addition to the current building not being ADA compliant, the building has experienced issues with the aging infrastructure such as leaky chimneys.
“Going forward, having the doors open to all, all people that we can serve, is going to be a really key factor for our senior center,” she said.
Regan said that she is looking forward to broadening the COA’s horizons with the new facility which in addition to pickle ball courts for town wide use will include space for programming such as yoga and medical screenings.
Bridgewater State University will also be working with the Halifax Council on Aging to provide adult education courses to the new space according to Regan. “We’re thinking about that new generation that’s out there…they want to get out and they want to do something fun.”
A Walk in the Woods on New Year’s Day
Julia Leonard
Special to the Express
The Halifax Beautification Committee organized a New Year’s Day hike at The Burrage Wildlife Management Area, a unique and ecologically diverse environment.
Winter offers a very different perspective of the land. Along the Snake River, several trees had signs of girdling, the chewing a beaver makes around a tree. Beavers are a keystone species due to their ability to shape freshwater habitats. Their dams filter water downstream and create pools and wetlands that become homes to many other species. Signs of beavers in the area are also a great indicator of a healthy and diverse aquatic ecosystem.
An ootheca was seen attached to a young cherry tree. Oothecae are the egg sacks of the praying mantis (this one is a Chinese Mantis). Laid in the Fall as a soft mass, which then hardens, these semi-solid capsules will keep the eggs safe throughout the winter. When the temperatures rise in the Spring and Summer, up to 100 young invertebrates will emerge. The Chinese Mantis is an invasive species, and although sold as pest control for gardens, it also preys on many pollinators and important native arthropods.
A few stump puffball mushrooms were also observed. This fungus grows from the stumps and roots of dead trees. White and solid when young, they dry and turn a dull brown when ready to release their spores. Small animal encounters, raindrops, and the feet of hikers all help to disperse spores. Fun fact: they belong to the genus Lycoperdon, which, in Latin, means “wolf fart’.
The Burrage Wildlife area can be accessed at 382 Pleasant Street in Hanson, 482 Elm Street in Hanson, and across from 140 Elm Street in Halifax. It is open from dawn to dusk and offers over 10 miles of trails and encompasses over 2,000 acres of land.
Winter can be the perfect time to enjoy the diverse woodlands of Halifax, Hanson, and Plympton. As naturalist Alfred Wainwright said, “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing.”
Steps taken to curb hate at HES
The Halifax Elementary School Committee met Tuesday, Jan. 2. The topics of conversation were heavy, ranging from hate speech to the preliminary budget presentation.
Chair Lauren Laws asked the other committee members to approve the minutes from their previous meeting. Member Lori Costa-Cline requested that they hold off on voting on the minutes. She explained, “There’s a significant discussion that’s not included… and it was an important discussion that involved diversity, equity, belonging, and inclusion – creating a group focused on that. Why that was necessary – incidents of hate and racist speech at HES; creating a more tolerant culture; work that had been happening in terms of cultural inclusion. So, I think that I am disappointed that we don’t have a recording.” She said that she felt it was important that they have a public record. The Committee voted that they would come back with edits for what to add into the minutes.
Laws said that they added the DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging) subcommittee during their last meeting. Beaudry said that as of the start of this year, the school has classified 92 incidents as behavioral issues at the K-6 level. He said that 39 percent of them were code of conduct, 30 percent of them were peer conflict, 13 percent were inappropriate language, 13 percent were noncompliance, and 4 percent were vandalism. He said that of the incidents, 75 to 80 percent of them occurred within the fifth and sixth grade. “We did have an incident, as was brought up last meeting, where there was hateful words towards another student. We obviously investigated that, parent meeting, we had a student meeting, there was discipline that was administered according to our handbook,” Beaudry said. He did note that there were several incidents of writing on the walls in the bathroom that were hateful. “It was typically in the boys’ bathroom,” he noted. He said that they have implemented a program called Hallway Pass where fifth and sixth grade students have to note why they are leaving the classroom, for what purpose, and what times they are out. According to Beaudry this has cut down on these types of incidents.
Costa-Cline asked how these incidents were being communicated to all stakeholders. “Kind of closing the loop with staff, making sure the kid that reported the incident understands what happened,” she explained. Beaudry said that, “we have been hearing derogatory, negative comments and that’s why… we have been working with Dr. Carlos Hoyt who is a speaker and a consultant… so Ryan [Lynch] and I and one of the fifth grade teachers met with this person just to kind of share like what the issues were we were seeing and then this individual shared what they can bring to us and right now we’re in the process of just finalizing the dates… it’s a really neat model.” He said that it would begin with a workshop for teachers and then a workshop for fifth and sixth grade students. Laws asked if there would potentially be room to start these conversations for younger grades so they don’t come to a head in the way that they have this year. Beaudry said that they are absolutely open to that. The Committee asked for further information about Dr. Hoyt.
Hybrid Meeting Request
Laws said that it was requested that they meet in a hybrid form. Laws said that they don’t have capabilities to do that in their meeting space. She said that she did find out that they would be able to broadcast them live on YouTube since she felt that the intention was not so much to participate but to be able to watch in real time. Superintendent Jill Proulx said that Kingston was the only one of the three towns that broadcast live. There was some discussion surrounding the public making comments. The Committee said that people needed to realize that those comments would not be viewed by them during the meeting. They voted to look into the technology to enable them to broadcast live.
Policy Review
Committee member Karyn Townsend said that she would like to see a policy put in place that there would be no food or candy given by a teacher to a classroom at any time. She said that she felt that food should never be given as a reward. Principal Kayne Beaudry said that the policy already exists. Costa-Cline said that while she appreciated the intent, there were specific “cultural events” such as the ice cream social that were centered around food. Laws pointed out that they give out hot chocolate and apples during the Turkey Trot as well. Proulx said that she recommended that they begin with a review of the existing policy.
Principal, Asst. Superintendent, Superintendent Updates
Kayne Beaudry provided the Committee with an update on Star Assessments that were administered in Grades 2 through 6. He said that ELA scores improved by 6 percent and Math by 13 percent. Assistant Superintendent Ryan Lynch provided a curriculum and assessment update. He said that they have continued their work with consultant Dr. Pia Durkin of Research for Better Teaching. “We did learning walks on November 29, Mr. Beaudry, myself, Dr. Proulx, Mr. DeSantes, Dr. Durkin visited several classrooms and looked at differentiation, learning centers, engagement; Mr. Beaudry followed up with an email to all teachers,” Lynch said. He said that more learning walks would take place in February.
Beaudry provided an update on the water testing that has been ongoing within the school. Lead levels were found to be elevated in all 10 sites that were tested. A company has been hired to do additional testing. “In the meantime, water is only being used for hand washing,” Laws said. Beaudry said that bottled water was being used for water fountains and in the kitchens for any type of cooking. Laws said, “To summarize… we’re not sure if it was the timing of the flushing that impacted the lead results, so the reason we are retesting with someone who – this is someone who this is what they do, they’re professionals – is to make sure either that those tests were valid or they weren’t valid and then we’ll go from there.” “Yes,” Proulx replied.
Proulx began her update by thanking Director of Business Services Christine Healy for her 28 years of service to Silver Lake. “Christine is not only a remarkable Business Director, but human being… we’re going to miss her and we love her very much,” Proulx said to a round of applause. “It’s been an amazing journey and I have learned a lot and I’ve met a lot of wonderful people,” Healy said.
Proulx told the Committee that the Commissioner has approved their amended regional agreement that includes the inclusion of Pre-k officially into the Silver Lake Regional Agreement. She said it also brings the agreement up to date with all current laws and regulations. She also spoke on some calendar updates saying that if there were no weather-related cancellations, the last day of school would be June 13. The Committee did vote to approve the calendar.
Budget Presentation
Proulx and Beaudry presented a budget narrative and capital plan to the Committee. Proulx said that they begin each year with discussions with the Technology Director, Special Education Director, and the Curriculum Coordinator. They also ask that principals begin discussions with their teachers. Proulx noted that the budget would be based on level services which she noted is different than level- funded. Level services keeps things functioning as they currently are whereas level- funded would require cuts. She said that Pre-k would now be a Silver Lake expense and Silver Lake positions in the elementary schools would now become town employees. “Silver Lake does not exist as an elementary entity,” she said. Laws asked how many people that impacted and was told it was three paraprofessionals in Halifax. Other changes included that grants would now be used to defray out of district vocational costs.
“There are increases to the Halifax budget. There are five paras and a part time speech language pathologist in the budget; in the past that was funded through a grant… you’re going to see an increase in the salary lines,” Proulx said. She said that shared costs’ increases represented about $12,000. She said that Circuit Breaker was estimated at 70 percent or $750,000. The Regular Day represents an increase of 12.32 percent or $783,751. The special education tuition and transportation represents a 63 percent decrease. The total budget is a 10.3 percent decrease of $955,207.
Additionally, Proulx said that shared costs, while included, do not reflect potential contractual changes. Additional staffing requests were also not included. The budget as presented that night did not include potential enrollment increases such as kindergarten or a reduction for technology hardware.
According to Beaudry the anticipated class average for next year is 19, down a bit from this year. He said that a notable increase is $7,000 for a reading intervention program. He said that the teaching supplies line is down. Beaudry also shared proposed costs beyond the level service budget. Those included a special education teacher estimated at $65,000, a part-time ESL teacher at $32,000, a building substitute, and a Hero Academy proposal. The Hero Academy would be a summer offering for approximately 60 students in Grades 1 through 6. He said it would be for students who are partially meeting expectations who typically don’t receive services during the school year and are likely to have regression over the summer. The total increase for these services would be roughly $140,000. Beaudry also went over capital needs including water testing and plumbing, student and staff bathroom upgrades, and a gym bleacher replacement.
The building substitute cost would not increase over previous years, it would just be a difference of day-to-day sub rates over a permanent building substitute. The Committee agreed that it should therefore be added into the budget. Costa-Cline noted that the town had asked them to do level service. “It’s in our best interest to listen to the direction of the town and be respectful of their ask; I think we are in a difficult situation with asking for more than level service even though I think it’s a compelling need that has been made for all of those additional items,” she said. She further said that while she is comfortable with the building sub and potentially the special education teacher add – she didn’t feel that the town could afford the other requests. The School Committees’ next meeting will include a public budget hearing.
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