On Monday, March 9 the Plympton Board of Selectmen voted to issue a notice of intent to award the Town House Front Entrance Community Preservation Committee renovation project to DDC Construction Incorporated, the low bidder among four submitted bids. DDC’s bid came in at $35,500 — well below the high bid of $63,427, a difference the Town Properties Committee confirmed at its March 11 meeting. The project’s architect reviewed and approved DDC’s qualifications and references before recommending the low bid, which Selectman Nathaniel Sides described as “pleasantly surprisingly low.” The award is contingent on Town Counsel review of the contract documents.
The board also unanimously approved an $8,500 expenditure from Plympton’s opioid settlement funds to support drug prevention efforts at Dennett Elementary School. The funds will cover materials for the LEAD (Law Enforcement Against Drugs) educational program being delivered through the police department, a radio communications upgrade for the school resource officer and Dennett staff, and cruiser decals. Chair Dana Smith explained that the police department had applied for a grant to cover the project but was not successful, making the opioid fund an appropriate alternative given the direct connection to drug prevention.
Town Administrator Liz Dennehy noted that Dennett School Secretary Judy Hanson had independently contacted the board Friday about potential grant funding for the same project. If the school secures separate grant money for any portion of the work, Sides confirmed, those opioid settlement funds would remain available for other town uses within the approved scope.
TPC Authorized to Pursue Fire Station Grants
The board approved a blanket authorization for the Town Properties Committee to pursue grant funding and federal earmarks for the proposed new fire station. Dennehy, participating remotely, recommended the broad authorization so the committee would not need to return to the board for each new opportunity, while noting that any award requiring a local match would come back before the Selectmen.
Sides used the item to remind all town board and committee members — flagging correspondence from the TPC that had arrived via personal email accounts — to use their official town-issued addresses for official business. “If there’s a Freedom of Information request that comes in periodically, we need to be able to reproduce those easily,” he said. “If they’re using a personal email address, that could get cumbersome.”
The fire station issue loomed large at the Town Properties Committee’s March 11th meeting two days later. TPC Chair Pierre Boyer reported ongoing code violations at the existing station: an exposed electrical panel at risk of water spray from adjacent pipes, water actively seeping through floor vents, unresolved floor drain issues, and a leaking roof that worsened significantly during the recent blizzard. Boyer said the committee is still awaiting a joint meeting with Town Counsel and the Selectmen to chart a path forward on both the fire station and a separate water infrastructure project.
Boyer laid out the committee’s planning approach: rather than sizing a new building around current apparatus, the TPC intends to first analyze call volume trends by category, staffing models, mutual aid usage, and population projections over a 25-to-30-year horizon before any design work proceeds. He noted that Plympton’s population has declined slightly — from approximately 2,900 to 2,813 as of the 2024 annual report — while total call volume has risen and mutual aid calls now account for 24% of all responses. “The data will tell you the factual story,” Boyer said. He added that a preliminary service-model analysis is expected to be presented to residents in the coming months.
Appointments and Community Recognition
The board unanimously appointed Gabriela Falconeri to the Community Preservation Committee to fill a member-at-large vacancy. The appointment runs from March 9, 2026, through June 30, 2029. The board also approved an Eagle Scout project for interior renovations to the Holt Field Snack Shack, which had received prior Recreation Commission approval and is overseen by Ross MacPherson.
Smith closed open session by praising the highway department’s response to the recent blizzard — which he compared in scale to the Blizzard of 1978 — and by recognizing the passing of Donald Vautrinot, a longtime Plympton resident, Vietnam veteran, former deputy fire chief, and former police officer in Plympton and Carver. “It’s definitely a part of our town that is missed,” Smith said.
Plympton TA Appointed in Easton
The Plympton Board of Selectmen closed their March 9 meeting by voting unanimously to enter executive session to discuss the Town Administrator’s employment contract — several hours before the Easton Select Board returned from its own closed session to formally vote to hire Plympton Town Administrator Liz Dennehy. The dual proceedings underscore what is now a near-certain leadership transition in Plympton.
The Easton appointment did not happen overnight. A week earlier, on March 2, the Easton Select Board had interviewed all three finalists — Dennehy; Jonathan Beder, the current Town Administrator in Avon; and William Chenard, the current Town Manager of Pembroke — before voting 4-1 to select Dennehy pending successful contract negotiations. Avid readers of the Express have seen this situation play out in Halifax and Kingston, who have each hired new Town Administrators in recent months.