Pilgrim Hall, one of the oldest museums in the country, is marking its bicentennial with a $6.2 million renovation project that got underway earlier this month. The project is focused on restoring two massive historical paintings and replacing the 200-year-old building’s roof. Because the roof replacement also entails interior work, certain precautions had to be […]
Author Archives: Fred Thys - Independent Staff
Posted inGovernment
School Committee acknowledges Wampanoag people were here first
The Plymouth School Committee this week unanimously passed a resolution acknowledging that the Wampanoag were the first people to live here. The resolution, known as a land acknowledgement, will be read before every School Committee meeting going forward. In other areas of town government, however, a move to adopt a similar resolution has been controversial. […]
Posted inGovernment
Select Board OK’s spending another $140,000 on Oak St. project despite concerns about cost overruns
A divided Select Board Tuesday night approved spending $140,000 in American Rescue Plan Act money to finish the transformation of the former Oak Street elementary school into three affordable apartments. The work, which was originally budgeted at under a half million dollars, has more than doubled to $1,168,000. The once-modest project has attracted massive interest […]
Posted inSports
Team effort: A campaign is underway to let Plymouth North football games kick off after dark, despite EEE threat
Mosquitoes are not deterring a determined group of Plymouth North High School students and parents from trying to persuade town officials to bring back Friday night football. They’re calling for an exception to the closure of parks and fields from dusk to dawn to allow home games to start at 7 p.m. instead of 4 […]
Posted inEnvironment & Health
Spraying for mosquitoes continues by ground as EEE threat remains high
Nighttime aerial insecticide spraying for adult mosquitoes in Plymouth has stopped – at least for now – according to the state Department of Agricultural Resources, but ground spraying is ongoing. Aircraft sprayed most of Plymouth away from the coast on the night of Aug. 27 but have not done so since. “No aerial spraying occurred […]
Posted inGovernment
Muratore’s slim win over MacRae for Senate tops primary results
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 […]
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 […]