The Plympton Board of Selectmen met Monday, Jan. 27. Town Administrator Liz Dennehy said that as of right now Silver Lake Regional was projecting a 13.37 percent increase while the Dennett was projecting a 19.7 percent increase for level services budgets. “Obviously the numbers are not sustainable and not possible; there’s no way that we can support that type of an increase,” Dennehy said. She further said that Kingston and Halifax are not able to support those kinds of numbers either. Dennehy said that for Kingston and Halifax, they did offer tiers of cuts which she said immediately resulted in a loss of teaching positions, even in the first round of cuts.
“When it comes to the school funding, if you were to pursue an override let’s say… if that were the case, you’d want to start early and I don’t know what that would mean. We have the new Fire Station construction – there was talk about pursuing a debt exclusion for that. Also, on the school side of things, if two towns vote it, you don’t want to be the one that doesn’t and then you’re left having to come up with that financial obligation,” Dennehy said. Selectmen Chair John Traynor said that he believed that all three towns had to vote unanimously, but Dennehy said she didn’t believe that to be the case. She did agree to double check, however.
In happier news, the Selectmen awarded the Boston Post Cane to Inez Murphy. The award dates back to 1909 and was established by the Boston Post Newspaper. The award itself is an actual cane that is presented to the oldest resident of a New England town. In Plympton, the awardee must have lived in town for ten or more years and they will hold the honor for life.
Asked about her secret to longevity Murphy responded, “stick around young people.” Murphy was surrounded by a large amount of family during the meeting. Selectman Mark Russo commented that Murphy had 20 great-grandchildren.
Amy Belmore of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Plymouth addressed the Selectmen. Belmore said that they were founded in the 1990’s as part of Habitat International and noted that they serve Plymouth, Carver, Plympton, Kingston, Middleboro, and Lakeville. “We’re building and repairing homes at the affordable rate so we’re very specifically reaching an underserved population – folks that are making, or households that are making, up to 60 percent of the area median income,” Belmore said. She told the Selectmen that while they use unskilled labor, they are overseen by a licensed construction supervisor. Belmore told the Selectmen that they would love to work in Plympton.
Belmore said that there are asset limits when looking at the household income for qualification. “It’s important to know, we don’t gift these houses, some people don’t realize these houses are not being given to the homeowner. They are becoming mortgage holders at an affordable rate over typically a 30-year term. And so, we are looking for people who have solid employment history,” she explained.
Selectman Mark Russo told Belmore they were eager to find a plot of land in Plympton that would be ideal, but they hadn’t yet been able to identify one. “There are 17 affiliates in Massachusetts and we share information all the time,” Belmore said. “I look forward to the day we’re doing business with you,” Russo said. “I know we’ve run into not only the wetland issue, but natural heritage issues, rare and endangered species issues; we’ve looked at a number of pieces of land here in Plympton so we’ll keep looking,” Belmore said. Belmore did note that Habitat is able to accept donations of land as well saying that they are a 501c3.
The Selectmen approved the use of public roadways for the Best Buddies Challenge Bicycle Ride.
Russo led off the raves with one for the Massachusetts Municipal Association and its annual conference. He called it a wonderful resource and said that when he initially started as a Selectman, there was less information available than can be found now through such means.
Traynor said his rave was for the Habitat for Humanity. “If we can make that a priority to find something this year to go forward with; that would be great,” he said.