Matt Muratore squeaked by Kari MacRae in Tuesday’s Republican primary for the Plymouth and Barnstable State Senate seat, according to the unofficial voting results. With most of the votes counted, Muratore, a state representative from Plymouth, leads MacRae, a Bourne School Committee member, by just 50 votes, 6,978 to 6,928. That’s a margin of .4 […]
Author Archives: Fred Thys - Independent Staff
Posted inGovernment
Select Board debates whether to spend more on Oak St. school project plagued by cost overruns
A plan to convert the tiny building that long housed the Oak Street elementary school into affordable housing for seniors, veterans, or disabled people is $140,000 short of the funding needed for the project, which has ballooned to nearly $1.2 million. With the October Town Meeting warrant closed, the Plymouth Housing Authority would normally have […]
Posted inEnvironment & Health
Officials hope to minimize EEE threat with aerial spraying
Aerial spraying to kill mosquitoes in parts of Plymouth and surrounding towns is tentatively scheduled to begin Tuesday, said Ashley Randle, the state’s commissioner of agriculture. The spraying will take place inland, from dusk to dawn. The effort is aimed at preventing people and animals from potentially being infected with Eastern equine encephalitis, a deadly […]
Posted inEnvironment & Health
NRC says Holtec didn’t take measures to prevent worker’s radiation exposure
Federal inspectors found that Holtec Decommissioning International, the company dismantling the Pilgrim nuclear power plant, failed to establish controls to prevent a worker from being exposed to radiation earlier this year. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, however, found the violation of “very low-level safety significance” when they visited the closed plant on several occasions between May […]
Posted inGovernment
What we know about the massive military plane that buzzed Plymouth
Kenneth Fosdick was in his boat last Friday morning – going past State Pier – when a huge C-17 military transport jet flew over, its engines producing a roar. “I look up and I’m like, ‘Oh, my God!” said Fosdick, an experienced pilot and the chair of Plymouth’s Airport Commission. “I honestly thought that there […]
Posted inEnvironment & Health
Covid has made a comeback in Plymouth this summer
Plymouth has been hit especially hard by the summer wave of Covid that has washed over the state and the country, according to data collected by the state. But even though the virus has made a comeback here – with more people seeking medical treatment – most cases have not been severe, according to medical […]
Posted inGovernment
Meet the candidates who want to represent Plymouth on Beacon Hill
Editor’s note: To help voters make informed choices in the Sept. 3 Democrat and Republican state primaries, the Plymouth Independent reached out to all the candidates seeking to represent Plymouth in the House of Representatives and Senate. We focused on contested races, but plan another story before the general election in November. The deadline to […]
Posted inGovernment
Sound solution: Select Board, restaurant owner reach agreement on outdoor music
Erin Murphy will be able to offer amplified outdoor live music at her downtown restaurant after all, but it will be on the back deck, not out front as she initially requested. After two charged meetings of the Select Board last month that ended with the board denying her a permit, Murphy and Select Board […]
Posted inGovernment
Exit interview: Former Planning Board member says taxpayers need to be more engaged
Birgitta Kuehn is concerned about the direction of Plymouth’s Planning Board – especially now that she no longer serves on it. Kuehn has moved to Chicago to follow her husband, who has taken a new job there. It is a return to her hometown of sorts, as she grew up in Oak Park, Illinois, […]
Posted inGovernment
Community Preservation Committee recommends spending taxpayers’ money to improve White Horse Beach access
A key town committee has given its support to using taxpayers’ money to create more access to White Horse Beach and to former cranberry bogs, as well as for funding affordable housing across the street from the library on South Street. The Community Preservation Committee Thursday night voted unanimously to recommend buying six properties at […]