Category: Your View

The Open Meeting Law provides in part that “after notifying the chair…, any person may make a video or audio recording of an open meeting…after notifying the chair of the public body” and “the chair shall inform the attendees of any recordings.” At the June 11, 2024, meeting of the Select Board, Fred Thys, a […]

This is absolutely absurd on the part of the Select Board. (“Canty says reporter could face years in prison for failing to announce he was recording a public meeting,” June 19).  So much so that I cannot even read the entire article. I was born and raised in Plymouth. My family has paid taxes for […]

During the (June 20) Plymouth Master Plan kickoff meeting, the turnout of Plymouth residents was significant. A majority of the goals voiced by attendees focused on safeguarding our drinking water and preventing reckless development. Currently, Plymouth’s water quality has greatly deteriorated, as verified by the EWG Tap Water Database. The quality of our drinking water […]

Three years ago on a February morning, mid-Covid outbreak, my mother and I picked up my dad at the curb of [a Massachusetts] hospital. He had suffered a significant traumatic brain injury a few days earlier and this was the first time we had seen him since he left by ambulance a few days prior. […]

I’m disappointed in the Plymouth Independent. I was looking forward to the return of professional local journalism to Plymouth before the Plymouth Independent started publishing in November 2023. I have a great deal of respect for journalists, having studied journalism at Northeastern University for my undergraduate degree. However, the PI’s recent inability to admit when […]

I was distressed to read that Plymouth Select Board member Kevin Canty recently threatened a Plymouth Independent reporter, suggesting he was committing a felony by recording the board’s public meeting without providing advance notice. In my 40 years as a journalist for the Associated Press and local newspapers on both coasts, I have recorded and […]

I’m sure you have to tread lightly, but that article [on Select Board Member Kevin Canty] and topic exemplifies what can go wrong and so easily sideways with people and politicians.  I imagine you could write an expanded article on a number of topics or angles.  1. Government transparency. 2. What appears to just be […]

I had the opportunity of working with Bill Keohan for several years in the early days of the Community Preservation Committee. Under his leadership, the committee was able to accomplish great things in conservation of open space, while also providing significant support for both the town’s historical structures and its senior citizen housing, often by […]

I enjoyed Christopher Hart’s story. and think he’s doing great work. Whenever I read about veterans – either organizations that help them or people who celebrate them – I think that the absolute best thing we can do for veterans is to stop fighting wars. I believe that we are on the precipice of nuclear […]

I had the honor, as a private citizen involved in historic preservation, to work with Bill Keohan on a number of historic preservation projects. I am reminded of Act III scene II from Shakespeare’s Julius Ceasar. The praise from both the Select and CPC boards is honorable for they are all honorable men. “I speak […]