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Reorganization was the first item when commissioners returned to open session from an executive session. On the roll call to reorganize, Commissioner Jared Valanzola voted no, and Hanley and Wright voted yes.

The presiding chair, Wright, then moved to appoint Hanley chair. When the roll call began, Valanzola objected that debate was allowed, announced a no vote on Hanley’s appointment, said the other two members had a credibility problem with the county, elected officials and the advisory board, and offered a self-nomination for chair under Robert’s Rules of Order.

This move is clearly just a maneuver of them rearranging the chairs on their own personal and political titanics.
— Jared Valanzola

A roll call on the chair followed, and no tally was announced. Hanley presided for the rest of the meeting. Remarks after the vote included a tribute to Wright’s public service and a prepared statement urging members to disagree without disrespect and to follow the board’s rules.

The Basler buyback was read into the record as an order paying $10,580.21 from the fiscal 2027 budget for sick leave and vacation time. The order stated that Basler, listed on the agenda as Francis Basler, retired as county administrator Oct. 14.

Hanley asked who had prepared the calculation and asked to see the math before voting. The new county administrator, Troy Clarkson, offered to send commissioners backup for buyback calculations and personnel forms a couple of days before each meeting. Treasurer Tom O’Brien told the board the commissioners’ office team prepared the figures and that they had been checked three times. Valanzola said this was the first time any employee’s buyback calculation had been questioned. Hanley thought he’d always seen the backup, put the item off and asked that it be the first vote on the next agenda.

The audit request for proposals drew a longer debate. Clarkson described it as an updated version of an existing template and asked for approval. O’Brien took the podium and walked through suggested corrections.

No, I was not asked to review it. I did get a copy recently. I found a number of errors and I would be more than happy to prepare a report and suggestions if you folks are interested.
— Tom O’Brien, County Treasurer (31:32)

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The high school’s slides showed 35% of students meeting or exceeding expectations in English language arts in 2026, down from 65% in 2023. Grade 10 math fell from 55% to 44% over the same period, and science fell from 52% to 33%. The share of students not meeting expectations in English rose from 5% to 22%.

The school is still classified as not requiring assistance or intervention, but its progress toward improvement targets fell to 23% in 2026, in the limited or no progress category, from 57% in 2023. Its accountability percentile, which the presentation describes as a measure of performance relative to schools serving similar grades, fell from the 44th in 2025 to the 33rd.

The high school’s principal, Michaela Gill, told the committee the faculty heard a similar presentation at the start of the year and was told the school is closer than is comfortable to the point where the state intervenes

We all need to own this and that is definitely a culture shift that we need to make. Our students deserve better.
— Principal Michaela Gill 1:27:56

The action plan in the presentation calls for identifying ninth and 10th graders who are partially meeting or not meeting expectations and pulling them for small-group tutoring during Laker Block, holding item-analysis sessions with past released MCAS questions, and moving freshman science from physics to biology. It also calls for a weekly attendance committee that reviews students’ records once they reach five absences, and for testing students in familiar locations with proctors they know.

The school received no points for advanced coursework this year. Gill said some advanced courses had not been coded correctly for state reporting and that the courses have since been reviewed. The presentation put advanced coursework completion at 65.1% for all students and 10.8% for students with disabilities.

The four courses put to a vote Thursday — AP Cyber Security, AP French, AP Pre-Calculus and AP Economics — are among the advanced courses the action plan lists. Gill said the AP Economics proposal may not have made it into members’ folders. The action plan also lists AP Art, which was not part of the vote.

The improvement plan in the committee’s packet is marked draft, with this year’s additions in red. They include a student learning goal that all students will meet or exceed expectations on 2026–2027 ELA and math Star scores and 2027 science MCAS scores. Gill also asked for help finding a community member from Halifax, Kingston or Plympton without a student at the high school to fill a committee seat.

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Pope Energy, the trade name its presenter, Doug Pope, gave for Boston solar developer Pope Clean Energy LLC, said the project planned for privately owned land next to district property cannot use its original route. A 50-foot right-of-way to Franklin Street turned out to be wet soil, and coming in from the south would disturb 5,300 square feet of wetland soil, above a 5,000-square-foot limit, Pope said. Crossing district land along the existing driveway and pole line would disturb about 4,900 square feet and avoid an Army Corps process the presenter called very long.

Under the proposal as presented, the district would keep ownership and grant a non-exclusive easement for access and utility lines for 35 years. The $192,500 would be prepaid, which Pope called the equivalent of $5,500 per year. Construction would bring six to 10 vehicles a day for six to eight months, with hours coordinated with the superintendent’s office, and operations would mainly mean mowing twice a year, he said. Aspen Power Partners, described as a New York City investor, now owns the project and would build and operate it, according to the presentation.

Asked where the $192,500 figure came from, he said the developer weighed the value of what it would otherwise have to do, citing a $190,000 cost to go to the Army Corps.

Members pressed on wear to the school driveway, truck traffic near the tennis courts and the project’s battery storage. Rosemary Aahanna-Hill said the district had just paid for work on portions of the road and needs it functional for buses. She also asked that a repair pledge be written into the agreement.

On fire risk, Pope read aloud a question and answer conversation with Claude AI about a 4.99-megawatt AC solar and battery storage project, introducing them this way:

He paraphrased the answer as roughly a 0.04 percent annual chance of a serious fire for a modern outdoor battery system and offered to send it to the superintendent. Aahanna-Hill said the reply did not answer what chemicals would be released or how the district would get children out of the school. Pope guessed the site is well over 1,000 feet from the school and about 500 feet from the tennis courts, and said the fire department would likely spray the surrounding ground and let a battery fire burn.

The committee was told the developer will send a detailed proposal, that it will be reviewed with the business office and district counsel, and that a proposal to let the district enter into an arrangement will come back to the committee.

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The capital budget was on the agenda for discussion only. Superintendent Danielle Klingaman, presenting the list, said the committee had heard the full presentation at its previous meeting and that the vote is scheduled for the Nov. 4 meeting. The slide on screen showed only the requests the district ranked most imperative, totaling $2.125 million.

Technology made up most of the list. Klingaman said the core network switch was the most important technology ask because it controls the entire district’s network. Classroom audio systems are running years past their recommended useful life and are especially important for students with accommodations, she said, while projectors and displays at the middle and high school building are beyond their useful life, with some replacement parts no longer available. Chromebook and staff device leases are standing items.

On the facilities side, the list includes a mower for grounds work and furniture: library and team-area furniture at the middle and high school, plus tables, chairs and desks at the elementary schools. The superintendent said furniture has not been prioritized in recent years and the district is now dealing with broken pieces.

There’s such a huge list of capital needs in the community that we could absolutely triple that for this year in terms of painting and other things that we’d like to address.
— Danielle Klingaman, Superintendent 55:54

The request still has to go through the town’s fiscal advisory review and be weighed against other departments’ capital requests, she said.

Chair Matt Gambino asked whether the list represents 20% of the schools’ actual capital needs. Director of Business & Finance Lisa Freeley confirmed it, saying one-year needs exceed $10 million and that the total is significantly higher across the district’s five-year plan.

Laurel Deacon used the discussion to address questions the member said have been popping up about the operating override.

She said the override paid for specific operating expenses the schools laid out and did not address deferred maintenance, and that capital requests from last year also went unfunded and continue to roll forward. Klingaman agreed that the override did not address capital needs.

Jenna Wechsler said residents may also ask why the district is spending money on the Alden School while a building project is planned, noting the project is a long way out and the building has to keep operating. Klingaman added that the Massachusetts School Building Authority expects districts seeking state reimbursement to show they are maintaining their buildings, and said the Alden School has had weather-related leaks.

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Town Administrator Doug Lapp presented the plan under Section C-2.02 of the updated town charter, which the administrator said authorizes the Select Board to reorganize, consolidate or establish departments without returning to town meeting. Lapp described the current departments as separate and uncoordinated and said the purpose is not to cut headcount.

In a first phase, a new DPW director reporting to the town administrator would oversee highway, cemetery, tree, streetlights and traffic, and stormwater divisions. The sewer department would become a division, with the elected sewer commissioners keeping their policy role and the sewer superintendent continuing to run the plant. A facilities function would be added with no new staff, and responsibility for the recycling center, where two employees work, would shift from the Board of Health to the DPW.

Later phases could add an office manager, a laborer serving stormwater and sewer, facilities and fleet maintenance staff, and engineering and GIS functions, and could eventually move the curbside trash and recycling contract from the Board of Health into a sanitation division, which the administrator said could later support a trash enterprise fund. The Abington-Rockland Joint Water Works and the park department are not part of the proposal.

Lapp asked the board to approve, in order, an updated hiring policy, the reorganization and the administrator’s appointment of a DPW director, and suggested Jan. 1 as a start date. The hiring policy would let the administrator appoint an incumbent directly, without an external search, when a reorganization creates a position and that person already does more than half the work, subject to the board’s approval or veto under the charter.

I’m not recommending an external search, and I am recommending that our current highway superintendent be appointed the DPW director.
— Town Administrator Doug Lapp 39:38

The elected highway superintendent’s post would remain. Lapp said the current term ends in April 2028, that nothing requires the position to carry a salary, and that the recommendation is to zero out the salary next fiscal year and revise its duties ahead of a possible charter amendment to eliminate it. No current appropriations would change mid-year, the town administrator said. The town’s attorney, John Clifford, told members that the base salary budgeted for the highway superintendent should not change this year, and that the position has no control over staff or budget under the existing statutes and charter.

John Ellard said a DPW is needed but objected to the path, was not ready to vote, and would rather put the question of the elected post to town meeting, which he said has rejected eliminating it two or three times.

Clifford said the earlier question before voters was whether to replace the elected highway superintendent with an appointed one, which the attorney called a very different question.

Steven O’Donnell urged moving faster than July 1, saying residents did not fully understand the charter they adopted and the board has a fiduciary duty to keep the role from being held hostage, as he said the Board of Health had been. Lori Childs said the elected post should stay indefinitely, perhaps in an advisory role, and backed the recommended appointee. Tiffanie Needham asked for estimates of savings; in reply, the board was told a DPW would require ramping up staffing and would not produce the immediate savings of a treasurer-collector merger.

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The board voted on the message the same night it reviewed the latest draft rather than waiting for its next meeting. Town Manager Michelle Leary noted that the board’s new agendas state that any discussed item can be voted on, and the board took it up that night. The motion described the document as the FY28 budget message as edited and written by Vice Chair Ellen Maher. It passed on a voice vote with no opposition voiced.

The draft merged an earlier version of the message with comments from other members. Maher, walking the board through it, said the message lists core commitments, including maintaining the town’s AAA bond rating and increasing capital funding for schools, roads and sidewalks by 2.5% each year. She also said the capital plan should become a living document kept front and center.

The central change is in what departments will be asked to submit. As explained at the meeting, each department will provide a level-service budget that includes increased costs for services and contracts and that may not fit within the levy. A second budget would include additional operating items now funded through capital. Police vehicles were the example given: Maher said the department cannot run without them and that they belong in its operating budget. She said the same argument could apply to school buses, and cited last year’s school device replacement, which went into the capital budget because the schools’ operating budget could not support it.

Not everything moves. Maher said a fire apparatus slated for three years from now would not be placed in the fire department budget at a million and a half dollars, and that the board will weigh whether borrowing for such items is better carried by capital or by operating budgets. Those decisions were left to the joint “one town, one budget” summit.

Members also discussed adding a notes section to capital request forms so requesters record why a request landed where it did, and listing projected lifespans for purchases. A speaker said the town already has asset-tagging data with life expectancies, and later said the capital budget policy’s $10,000 threshold should be raised.

Will Ashton saw a payoff for the capital side.

And I think if you get some of those smaller annual things out of it, you can use your capital stabilization fund for bigger projects to pay debt out of, instead of doing debt exclusions for other projects.
— Will Ashton, Select Board 57:42

The message also calls for funding strategies and a timeline for King Street, a budget calendar, and a comprehensive budget document with a dedicated webpage for residents to follow the process. Leary said after the vote that the webpage would be created.

The draft calendar, built by layering the schools’ tentative budget calendar over the board’s, sets joint forums on Nov. 10, Jan. 12 and March 9. The Town Manager said nothing in the schools’ calendar required an earlier annual town meeting, so it stays in May.

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Dawn Byers moved to set the trash rate at $435 for fiscal 2027 26:04. After first calling the result three to one, Chair Justin Evans clarified the tally as 3-0-1, with Vice Chair Dan Salvucci abstaining.

The current-year rate is $435, and the prior year’s was $385. Speaking for the DPW Commissioners, Chair Kevin Cleary said the commissioners met the previous Wednesday and concluded that the $420 rate they proposed last year would still cover direct costs. The commissioners recommended $420 last year as well; but the Select Board instead chose $435 to account for indirect costs.

The town is negotiating a two-and-a-half-year extension with Waste Management, trying to fix as many costs as possible, with a meeting the following week that Cleary hoped would finalize it. He put the expense at roughly $1.9 million to $2 million, rising to perhaps $2.1 million over the life of the contract. Tonnage stays consistent at about 3,900 tons of trash and 1,400 tons of recycling, he said, urging residents to check the recycling flyer because contaminated loads bring penalties.

Town Administrator Sabrina Chilcott said holding the rate at $435 works with the current numbers but warned against going lower.

Shawn Kain, who backed $435, described last year’s rate as already a compromise because it didn’t account for all indirect costs calculated by the town.

Kain also warned that fees set too high could push residents to private haulers. Byers said that before considering $420, she would want a reconciliation of the past year’s revenue at $435 against actual expenses, but leaned toward keeping the rate level.

Evans said the intent of a majority of the board last year was to treat trash more like an enterprise account, noting that the former treasurer-collector had recommended establishing one, though the town has not done so. He called a level trash bill a win given the other costs the board is weighing for next year. Members asked for an update to last year’s indirect-cost calculation.

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The treasurer asked the board to keep the foreclosed lot, parcel 11-1-13, which the posted agenda lists as owned by Phillip Deming and describes as wetlands abutting Harry Jason Park. The motion the board passed retains the property for conservation and protection of the wetlands next to the park. It directs the treasurer, working with town counsel, to complete the notice, appraisal, accounting and excess-equity requirements and to identify any further Town Meeting action needed to dedicate the land to conservation. The motion carried on a voice vote. The vote does not itself dedicate the parcel or transfer it; those steps remain.

Town Administrator Bob Fennessy, catching up after missing the board’s previous meeting, said the state certified Plympton’s free cash at $215,376, effective July 1. The certification was issued Sept. 28 and forwarded to the Finance Committee chair Oct. 6, and Fennessy called the balance an important consideration as the town weighs upcoming funding requests and budget priorities.

Fennessy has handed out the budget package to departments. The first round will look at a base budget that keeps current services, then at where cuts could be made if they have to be, with department heads asked to volunteer what they can do without. Budgets are due to the town administrator Nov. 18, and the Finance Committee will follow the process.

Fennessy also reported that the attorney general issued a determination Oct. 5 on an open meeting law complaint about the board’s June 15 meeting notice, which omitted the names of people being considered for appointment or reappointment. According to him, the determination acknowledged the board’s corrective measures and considers the complaint resolved, but ordered immediate and future compliance and cautioned that future violations could be considered evidence of intent. Tuesday’s posted agenda named both people up for appointment.

The town’s public water supply project is back out for qualifications. In the first round only one respondent submitted qualifications, Fennessy said, and the law requires at least three for a request-for-qualifications determination. This round drew 15 requests, compared with 11 last time, and the deadline for intent to file is Thursday.

The town also received notice Tuesday that it is eligible to join a proposed national opioid settlement with Albertsons. Fennessy said the settlement provides more than $770 million nationally, including $655 million for opioid remediation and abatement paid over nine years. The notice does not say what Plympton might receive, and Fennessy said the necessary documents will be filed to keep the town in the process.

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Member Kerry Ni, who outlined the terms before the vote, said the first year combines per-hour raises for custodians, leads and maintenance workers with a 3% increase. Years two and three each add 50 cents an hour for leads and maintenance workers and another 3% increase.

Ni said the process started in March and that, beyond salary, the agreement updates contract language to bring Unit C in line with the district’s other HEA units and equalizes benefits across them. The committee had discussed the agreement in executive session, she said. The meeting opened with a roll call to enter executive session on collective bargaining strategy and to approve Sept. 28 executive session minutes.

Chair Jen Benham took up the agreement ahead of the policy business because the Select Board chair was attending to vote on it.

Our custodians, they play an essential role in keeping our schools clean, safe, and welcoming to staff and students.
— Jen Benham, School Committee Chair 14:07

No one raised a question, and Benham announced the motion passed after the roll call.

Superintendent Katie Roberts presented the Oct. 1 enrollment in a new format that counts every preschool student in district buildings, including Kids in Action students, rather than only the K-12 and integrated-preschool counts DESE uses. Roberts said the fuller picture matters as the town discusses building projects and capacity.

Roberts reported roughly 1,600 students in grades K-5, or nearly 1,857 including all pre-K students; 796 at the middle school; and 980 at the high school. Counting integrated pre-K through grade 12, the district has 3,542 students.

When we also include our KIA students, we’re at 3,633. So that’s the number of students that are actually educated in our buildings.
— Superintendent Katie Roberts 25:02

Another 51 students are served out of district, 10 are homeschooled and seven attend vocational-technical or agricultural schools. Ni asked that future reports also show a separate K-12 figure so they align with earlier reports, and Roberts agreed.

The committee accepted Plymouth River Elementary School’s 2026-2028 school improvement plan. Principal Gregory Lamothe said the plan, written with the school council in May, sets three goals: supporting the rollout of the Bridges math program through professional development, extending PBIS practices built on the school’s polite, responsible and safe expectations, and strengthening communication with families. Lamothe said first-grade turnout at curriculum nights was low this year and that the school wants to revive a reading program for preschool-age children that lapsed over the past two years.

School Committee member Tim Miller-Dempsey asked whether teachers can still challenge capable students under Bridges. The principal said they can and that fourth and fifth grades still offer Math Plus.

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The superintendent’s Budget Constraints and Mandates presentation sorted district spending into fixed, semi-fixed and discretionary categories.

By major category, Superintendent Chris Campbell said salaries and personnel represent more than $104 million, special education out-of-district placements and services more than $36 million, employee health care and benefits $32.4 million, and transportation and utilities $10.8 million. Special education placements, debt service and building utilities are highly fixed, the superintendent said, while contractual step increases, multiyear busing and vendor contracts, and scheduled maintenance are semi-fixed. Electives, technology refresh cycles, athletics and extracurricular activities make up the small discretionary share.

On mandates, Campbell said circuit breaker expenditures exceeded $10.4 million and out-of-district tuitions topped $7.6 million, offset by $844,000 from the federal IDEA special education grant, which has gone down. The district also funds about $2.6 million in early education, just over $1 million in English learner services, $1.1 million in vocational out-of-district tuition and transportation, and $315,000 in McKinney-Vento foster care costs.

Assistant Superintendent for Finance and School Operations Adam Blaisdell said a renegotiated contract held the September fuel escalation charge to just over $10,000, compared with well over $50,000 under the old contract. Electricity is budgeted at $1.2 million, held down by a solar lease the superintendent said locked in 8 cents per kilowatt-hour. Dr. Blaisdell said Eversource delivery alone would cost more than 24 cents per kilowatt-hour, compared with about 10 cents the district pays, and that the heating fuel line will increase substantially in the fiscal 2028 request.

But as we’re entering FY28 budget planning, we’re most likely going to be making some difficult decisions.
— Dr. Chris Campbell, Superintendent 1:27:27

For the series’ final presentation in mid-November, the superintendent said the recommendation will be to present two budgets: a needs-based budget and one built to the funding guideline, showing the impact of each. The superintendent also said non-salary lines rose 0.84% this year and that the committee has kept a soft class-size cap of 22 in the primary grades and 25 above.

It’s really, in reality, and I’ll stand by this, it’s a cost problem. Everything has gone up in a manner that the margins that outside organizations are making is ridiculous. There's no way to stay efficient and then make sure you're not in the same position next year.
— Paul Samargedlis, School Committee 1:40:15

Samargedlis, citing an email from the Select Board chair on five-year projections, asked the administration to put dollar figures next to discretionary areas such as athletics and the arts to show what cuts would actually save. Vice Chair Katherine Jackson asked that future slides show savings from bringing special education services in-house, transportation efficiency work and changes in federal funding.

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The warning came in Town Manager Michael Maresco’s State of the Town presentation as the fiscal 2028 budget process begins. Expenses are growing faster than revenue, creating a structural deficit that could reach $7.4 million by fiscal 2032 under the five-year projection, which the manager called an estimate subject to many variables.

The projection assumes health insurance and Plymouth County retirement costs each rise 10% a year, salaries 2.9%, other expenses 3.7% and schools 4%, against property tax growth of about 2.5% and new growth of $200,000 a year. Maresco said local aid rose only 1.8% with inflation near 5%.

He said a level-funded budget was the best outcome in view, with a worst case of level funding plus an additional 5% cut. It is too early for specifics, Maresco said, and the administration is studying how to level-fund without layoffs.

The presentation tied the town’s water shortage directly to revenue: without water there is no new growth, and commercial development is on hold. The developer buying the two vacant school buildings is worried about water and may back out, Maresco said. He said in his later report that he is working with Causeway Development on how water issues could affect development of the North and Center School.

Ryan Allgrove, a principal at APEX, presented a 2025 report on extending MWRA water to a consortium of South Shore towns, and disclosed working for Weymouth on that town’s MWRA project. Chair Paul Bunker said the board has no say over water decisions but wanted residents to see the presentation.

Weymouth’s pipeline from the MWRA system near the Blue Hills is targeted for completion in 2031, Allgrove said. Abington, Rockland, Hanover and Hingham remain in the consortium. A spur to the Abington-Rockland Joint Waterworks, mostly 12-inch pipe about a mile and a half long, would cost roughly $25 million including a pump station, within a $130 million, 7.6-mile regional scenario. Allgrove said no town has agreed to a cost split.

After Weymouth’s 5.5 million gallons a day, about 2 million gallons a day would remain at the connection, close to the 2.1 million gallon daily deficit projected for the systems studied, Allgrove said. The MWRA’s entrance-fee waiver, worth about $13 million for that volume, runs through 2027 for communities that make an earnest start, and the interbasin-transfer review under MEPA would take about two years.

And so two or three years of construction after that, that first gallon of water would flow. So you’re talking the mid 2030s. It’s not going to be next week.
— Ryan Allgrove, principal, APEX 8:43

Daniel Eddy said any solution will cost ratepayers more. The board took no action.

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The goals, linked from the agenda as Appendix A, were listed for discussion only.

The draft commits to five power standards drawn from the standards superintendents must follow: evaluation, data-informed decision-making, fiscal systems, communication and continuous learning. It then sets four goals aligned with the district improvement plan.

A professional practice goal commits the superintendent to support administrators in consistently implementing four foundational instructional strategies, the focus the district settled on last year. Two student learning goals mirror the improvement plan’s STAR benchmark work in English language arts and math. Raab said one of those goals mistakenly limits the STAR target to grades 2 through 5 and will be amended to grades 2 through 10 to match the district-wide work.

The fourth goal covers the district’s new SEA (Support, Engagement, and Advocacy) department, which places health and wellness, PE and health, and counseling under one central-office department. It also covers the district’s holistic assessment, known as the HSA, which the district will keep this year while deciding whether to continue using it.

Before the goals were walked through, Maria Fenwick said that, by her understanding, once the superintendent selects indicators, those are the only ones the committee evaluates that year, and urged anyone who wants others included to say so now.

I guess the first question is for your SMART goal, I was surprised that it felt like there was no outcome, like measurable outcome.
— Carey Borkoski, School Committee 30:11

Raab said principals could help collect the objectives work and evaluations they are doing with staff.

Carey Borkoski also questioned the HSA, saying that, by her understanding, a measure behind a building principal’s goal comes from one or two student questions, and asked whether social-emotional learning is being implemented consistently before outcomes are measured.

Raab said that part of the goal could be rewritten. Erika McMahon also asked for a concise year-to-year summary of what the assessment shows and what the district does in response.

The committee then held a first reading of its own draft goals for 2026-27. They call for growing the audience for the committee’s town updates, office hours and webpage, measured by readership, viewership and participation; timing academic progress reports to when data is available and tracking how spending supports academic progress; and cutting meetings to an average of two hours. That goal would ask departmental presenters to aim for a maximum of 20 minutes.

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The council opened its public hearing on Measure 26-114, Housing Production Plan Presentation and Adoption, on a motion by Vice President Fred Happel and heard the draft from Lynn Sweet of LDS Consulting Group, whose firm prepared it.

The town’s Planning and Community Development Director, Robert Luongo, told councilors the plans are updated every five years and the last was completed in 2018.

So today the Weymouth subsidized housing inventory stands at 7.13%. So it is short of that 10%, so there is some vulnerability to the community.
— Lynne Sweet, LDS Consulting Group (7:28)

Sweet said that if the council adopts the plan and the state accepts it, the town could gain safe harbor for a couple of years by producing 0.5% of its year-round housing units. She described Weymouth as built out, with new housing most likely to come as teardowns or infill, and said the inventory includes only 10 homeownership units, though the town has added 38 units since the last plan.

Most of the plan’s recommendations involve amending the zoning ordinance, Sweet said. They include an affordable housing trust, which she likened to the town’s own bank for affordable housing; making the voluntary inclusionary zoning bylaw mandatory, with cash payments in lieu of units that could go to the trust; an affordability component for the accessory dwelling unit ordinance; an expanded housing rehab program; and a 40Y bylaw for ownership housing, which she called her personal favorite). The plan’s first-year action plan targets two developments with expiring affordability, Union Towers and Queen Anne’s Gate, potentially with CPA funds.

Luongo added that since a 2001 Housing Appeals Court decision involving Arbor Hill, the town has maintained that affordable housing occupies 1.5% of its land area, an alternative way to meet the 10% standard. He said the state has changed how it calculates that land area and the question was never resolved, but the town still maintains it has that protection.

Councillor Gary MacDougall said senior housing is limited in the plan, citing the report’s projection that by 2030 about one in four residents, more than 14,000 people, will be 65 or older. Rick Coughlin said there is a housing crisis well beyond Weymouth. Carrie Palazzo asked how the council would work with the administration on implementation; President Arthur Mathews said any Community Preservation Committee or appropriation measure would come before the council with a public hearing.

Councilors were told the plan also needs Planning Board approval and a letter signed by the mayor before it goes to the state, which has about 45 days to review it. Mathews called it the tentative plan for the Economic Development Committee to meet again before Nov. 9 and to try to bring the plan to a council vote that day. No member of the public spoke, and the council voted 9-0 to close the hearing.

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The board took the depot item out of order because other towns were voting on it that night and the following week. The board had agreed to the arrangement in principle at an earlier meeting, but the intermunicipal agreement had to be revised after Norwell decided not to join.

The change to the intergovernmental agreement between Hanover and the South Shore Recycling Cooperative, the siting agreement the town signed in March or April, is in Section 3. Hanover’s share of the depot’s fixed costs, originally set at 0%, rises to 40% of what other member communities pay, which Town Manager Joe Colangelo presenting the changes put at roughly $1,500. He called the offer a goodwill gesture from a town that had worked for years to site the depot and wanted to keep the regional effort intact.

The intermunicipal agreement now spells out a decommissioning process and insurance requirements the board had considered important, and the two documents were aligned to remove ambiguity; Colangelo said nothing in it was new relative to the board’s expectations. The cooperative is trying to award a grant-funded project to a bidder by the end of October, and the grant requires the project to be finished by March 2027.

No questions were raised before the vote. The board approved the amended agreements and authorized signing them; the action did not appropriate money, approve construction or grant a site approval.

The board also heard how Karen Preval, a newly hired Director of Finance and Strategic Planning, on the job about three weeks, is building Hanover’s five-year projections.

my objective was really not to produce a finalized five-year balanced budget but to provide the board with an understanding
— Karen Preval (17:08)

The conceptual projections, covering fiscal 2028 through 2032, will change once the state certifies Hanover’s tax rate, she said. They assume 2.25% increases for town departments, in line with board policy, 2.75% for schools and a 9% health insurance projection, and put projected fiscal 2028 appropriations at $82,955,948. A fiscal 2028 levy of about $64 million, a 3.5% increase, would leave roughly $84,000 in excess levy capacity. Preval flagged fiscal 2030 through 2032, when the maximum allowable levy falls significantly as debt-exclusion debt is paid off.

The figures leave out a proposed $2 million prepayment, drawn from stabilization funds, toward Hanover’s Plymouth County retirement assessment, which is tied to a special town meeting warrant article. Shown separately, the prepayment would cut that assessment by $770,800 in fiscal 2030, $851,100 in fiscal 2031 and $976,300 in fiscal 2032, lowering projected operating budget growth from 3.3% to 2.5% in fiscal 2031 and from 3.8% to 2.9% in fiscal 2032.

Colangelo said bond counsel and the town’s debt advisers, who met with officials Monday, asked for more information but felt the plan had merit and likely would not hurt Hanover’s credit rating if the town sticks to its plan to repay the stabilization fund. Board members noted the model does not yet include debt for the South Shore vocational school project; one said last year’s model had assumed $1.25 million. Preval said it would be added.

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Mike Elam, who identified himself as vice president of community affairs and market development for i3 Broadband, said the company is seeking the town’s help navigating local permits.

What we’re proposing is a full overbuild of your cable system with fiber.
— Mike Elam, i3 Broadband 26:52

Elam said the Peoria, Illinois, company closed a partnership with T-Mobile about two and a half weeks earlier and will build and maintain the network, which residents will see marketed as T-Fiber. He said the work would be permitted sector by sector, in blocks of about 250 to 300 homes, with the mix of aerial and underground lines still being designed.

Elam said utility-pole attachment applications have moved far slower than expected in Massachusetts and that the company would rather bury lines by plowing, boring or micro-trenching where there is room. He said the company would post bonds, file local permits, handle traffic control and pay for any damage, and called the project a multimillion-dollar private investment.

Asked when residents could expect service, Calvin Delaney said the rollout would be gradual and would probably take two or three years in all, depending heavily on how much can go underground.

Asked about cost, Elam said service generally runs about $55 a month for 1 gig and $65 for 2 gig, with no charge for the modem or connection, but said pricing will be dictated by the market and the company will match competitors that cut prices. He said the company does not offer television service. 50:35

Select Board member Peter Spagone Jr. said he had sat through the company’s presentation at the town’s regular sessions with department heads, held the first and third Wednesday of each month, and urged the company to keep using them.

At the tax classification hearing, the town’s assessor, Paula Wolfe, said values rose about 5% to 6% again, with the average single-family assessment climbing from $542,717 to $560,719, and that last year’s average single-family bill of $7,418.94 would rise about $250. Commercial, industrial and personal property make up only 12% of the town’s base, the assessor said, so a 10% shift would save residential owners $107 while raising commercial bills $1,300.

The Board of Assessors recommended a single rate, a residential factor of 1 and no open space discount, small commercial exemption or residential exemption. Spagone moved the recommendation, and members voted aye on a voice vote. Wolfe said the office would submit the figures the next day to get the tax rate set.

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The school’s state classification was upgraded to substantial progress toward targets, and its accountability percentile stood at 69, Principal Peter Veneto, who presented the results, said. The percentile compares a school’s overall performance with that of schools serving similar grades; Dennett stood at 68 in 2022.

Grade-level results swung widely. Grade 3 posted 75% meeting or exceeding expectations in ELA. Grade 6 climbed 14 points to 48% in ELA and 21 points to 61% in math. Grade 4 ELA dipped to 53%, and grade 5 slipped from 64% to the 54% range in ELA and from 64% to 55% in math. Grade 3 math fell from 65% to 57% over four years, with ups and downs along the way. Statewide, the presentation said, ELA results decreased from 2025 and math was mostly flat.

Still nowhere near the 70% that we’re shooting for. But significant gains there to be noted.
— Principal Peter Veneto, on grade 6 ELA 4:53

Asked whether scores in the high 40s to mid-50s counted as a success, Superintendent Jill Proulx called the 69th percentile and the school’s substantial progress wins, but said the district would much rather see upward progression than annual fluctuations, noting the math program is only in its second year..

Curriculum Coordinator Brian DeSantes said the 2025 math result of 51% was the baseline before the HMH math program and that the first-year gain to 57% came as a surprise, because schools sometimes take a hit in the first year of an implementation 31:26. DeSantes thanked the committee and the town for allowing the funds to adopt a new curriculum and said the PRISM grant helps pay for instructional materials, professional development, consultants and coaches. He called the 2026 ELA scores a baseline. This year brings full implementation of the Wonders ELA curriculum, with training from McGraw-Hill and the consulting group TNTP in the second year of PRISM II funding. Later in the discussion, DeSantes predicted the math figure would reach at least the 60s.

During the budget timeline report, Proulx said a preliminary budget will come in December, including a level-service budget at a 2.5 percent increase, and that the committee typically does not vote until March.

School Committee member Jason Fraser asked what placeholder the district is using for its new bus contract. Proulx said the district plans to build at least one bid into the December presentation, noting increases across Massachusetts ranging from 10 percent to as high as 48 percent.

Fraser said the district exercised an additional year of its current contract last year, avoiding the increase then, but cited diesel prices, a continuing shortage of CDL-licensed drivers and the Plymouth County situation with insurance and retirement.

So we have two major cost centers that are probably going to hit us with double digit increases before we even start to address the issues and the needs of students.
— School Committee member Jason Fraser 58:14

Fraser favored preparing the three budget scenarios the superintendent had outlined, including level service and level funding.

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The draft covenant posted in the board’s packet, from Old Myrtle Street Realty Trust trustee Susan J. Curtis, makes the developer solely responsible for maintaining Old Road and its drainage and utilities, including snow and ice removal. The town keeps public use of the way and will maintain a planned water line. The obligation runs with the four lots. A review by engineer Patrick G. Brennan describes a 751-foot dead end with a 14-foot travel way.

Michael McGee stepped away before discussion, citing no immediate conflict but past campaign support from Curtis.

Town counsel said the final version, handed out at the meeting, added a reference to the certified town meeting vote on the way’s public status, barred work beyond Station 7-51 on the plan and required the covenant to be recorded before any work begins. Selectboard member Brian Glennon sent town counsel the questions and edits behind those changes.

It was really the two big things I had was the limit of work and confirming that this, in fact, is a public way based upon something before us, and that we as a board are not certifying it as a public way.
— Brian Glennon, Selectboard 1:31:18

The trust’s attorney said the town clerk certified records of an 1812 town meeting vote as true public records on July 7, 2025, and that the town asked for a plan and a covenant guaranteeing it would never pay to maintain the road. Town counsel said the vote describes a road of about 1,000 feet that very likely is this one, though confirming it would take title research. Counsel added that signing would not bind the town to accept the way as public if it is not.

How the existing gravel road was built is disputed. An abutter said a photograph dated Aug. 12 shows the stone wall being moved and that the timeline the board had been given was wrong. The trust’s attorney said the work began in June 2025 and the building commissioner deemed it lawful; Glennon noted that finding assumed the way was private. The town’s public works director, Sheila Sgarzi, said neighbors called Aug. 15, 2025, to report that a contractor had torn through a drain line, and that the line, in the North Street right of way, was believed repaired but no street opening permit was obtained.

Glennon said questions about the earlier work could be set aside for now. After the vote, Glennon asked the board to confirm it had not discussed or absolved anything that may have happened in the past.

Carole Smith, a North Street resident, said a drainage easement carries water under the new gravel road and asked that the covenant acknowledge it. Sgarzi offered to run a camera through the drain to confirm it is intact. Glennon said the board was not adjudicating any easements.

The abutter asked that the abutters’ attorney, who was not present, get a chance to review late filings and respond, possibly next week. The trust’s attorney called that a delay tactic that would keep the trust from paving or installing its water line this year. The abutter said the request was not meant to delay. Selectboard member Cynthia Ladd Fiorini said the board had already given abutters two weeks and that remaining questions about other matters did not concern the covenant. Glennon was reluctant to continue the matter again, saying solicited comments raised nothing new about the document.

A second town attorney said the covenant waives no regulatory requirements, so wetland work still must go before the Conservation Commission. Town counsel called the covenant as protective of the town as it can be and said it bars this owner from extending the road but does not bind future boards. The motion passed unanimously with the three members present, the presiding member announced.

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This is the ninth in a nine part series looking at each of the ballot questions coming to Massachusetts voters in November. (technically the same week as Question 8)

Please take the poll in the middle of the article.

If you own a firearm in Massachusetts, you have until Oct. 28 to register it with the state and to make sure it carries a serial number.

Six days later, on Nov. 3, you vote on whether to keep the law that requires it.

That is Question 9. It is a referendum on Chapter 135 of the Acts of 2024, the gun law Gov. Maura Healey signed on July 25, 2024 and called the state’s “most significant gun safety legislation in a decade.” A yes vote keeps the law. A no vote repeals it. That is the reverse of most ballot questions, where yes means change.

The deadline does not wait for the election, and two things follow that anyone thinking about skipping it should know.

Repeal would not reach backward. The state constitution’s referendum provisions treat a law like this one — one left in force while the vote was pending — differently from a law whose operation was suspended. A suspended law the voters reject is “null and void.” This one, if rejected, “shall, at the expiration of thirty days after such election, be thereby repealed.” Repealed, not void. A law that is repealed stops going forward; it is not treated as though it had never existed. Someone who misses Oct. 28 betting the law is about to disappear would still have missed a deadline that was in force at the time.

And repeal would not take effect on election night. On the constitutional language it arrives about thirty days later, on or about Dec. 3; CommonWealth Beacon describes it as taking effect on certification of the results, which also falls in late November or early December. Either way the law stays in force for about a month after the votes are counted.

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How to register, in plain terms

The state’s portal is reached through the firearms services page at mass.gov/firearms-services, and it requires a MyMassGov personal account first. Inside it you register each firearm you possess and request a serial number for any gun that does not already have one. Antiques and relics are excepted. Transfers, losses and thefts have to be reported within seven days.

The penalties escalate — a fine for a first violation, a larger fine or jail for a second, and up to five years for a third.

Guidance #5 says both the registration and serialization portals are operational now; the state’s page said they would be ready in October 2025. The regulations behind them — 501 CMR 19.00 for registration, 501 CMR 20.00 for serialization — have been on the books about as long. The thing that was not settled until three weeks ago was the date.

The deadline was a moving target, and that is part of the story

For most of this year, gun owners trying to find out when they had to register got two different answers from people reading the same law.

On Sept. 17, we read the state’s firearm modernization page. It said: “Firearms must be serialized and registered by October 2, 2026.” Other published guidance pointed to Oct. 28, and attorneys were publicly contradicting each other about which was right. Some still are — a firearms defense firm’s explainer was still giving Oct. 2 as the compliance date this week.

On Sept. 18, the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security issued Guidance #5, a frequently-asked-questions memorandum that consolidates its first four guidance documents and adds new ones. Question 35 says:

“However, individuals are not required to comply with the registration and serialization requirements set forth in sections 121B and 121C of chapter 140 until October 28, 2026, pursuant to section 157 of An Act Modernizing Firearm Laws.”

Read again on Oct. 9, the state’s page now says: “Firearms must be serialized and registered by October 28, 2026.”

So the operative date is Oct. 28. It is also a date the state took most of a year to settle, on a requirement that carries criminal penalties. And Guidance #5 — the document that settles it — is not linked anywhere on the state page that announces the deadline. That page links the two regulations, the firearms services page and the account signup. To find the memo that resolved the conflict, you have to already know it exists.

The second deadline, which almost nobody is writing about

There is a separate requirement in this law that does not fall on Oct. 28. It falls whenever your card expires.

Under Chapter 135, a Firearm Identification cardholder may no longer buy, own or possess a semiautomatic rifle or shotgun. Section 153 of the act grandfathers what a cardholder already had — but only temporarily. Guidance #5, question 41:

“An FID Cardholder may no longer purchase, own, or possess a semiautomatic rifle or shotgun except that section 153 of Chapter 135 of the Acts of 2024 allows the Cardholder to possess any firearms they were authorized to possess when the Card was issued until it expires or is suspended or revoked.”

And question 42:

“Cardholders with semiautomatic rifles or shotguns who do not obtain an LTC before their FID Card expires should relinquish possession of the rifle or shotgun through sale or transfer to a licensed dealer or properly licensed person, surrender to an appropriate law enforcement agency, or transfer the firearm out-of-state.”

In practice: an FID holder who owns a semiautomatic rifle or shotgun has to move up to a License to Carry before the card expires, or give the gun up — sell it, transfer it, surrender it, or take it out of state.

There were 24,215 active FID cards in Massachusetts at the state’s most recent published count, in April 2022. This provision reaches them one at a time, on their own renewal dates, which means a hunter in Hanson or Carver who has concluded that none of this touches him may be wrong, and may not find out until his card lapses.

What the law does

Chapter 135 runs 116 pages and took effect in stages over two years. The main pieces:

• Registration and serialization. The law directs the state’s criminal justice information services department to build “a real time electronic firearms registration system,” and requires that “all firearms possessed, manufactured or assembled in the commonwealth shall be registered.” All firearms except antiques and relics must carry serial numbers, including unfinished frames and receivers.

• Ghost guns and 3D-printed firearms are brought under those requirements.

• Red flag orders. School administrators and licensed healthcare providers join those who may ask a court for an Extreme Risk Protection Order; courts issuing a Harassment Prevention Order may also order firearms surrendered.

• Licensing. Local licensing authorities may review prior license history and denied involuntary-commitment petitions. Semiautomatic rifles and shotguns now require the owner to be 21. The FID restriction described above. Nonresident business owners are no longer eligible for a license to carry.

• Training. New required content for permit applicants, including live-fire instruction, safe storage and suicide prevention.

• Machine guns and assault-style firearms. Bump stocks, trigger cranks, Glock switches and auto sears are brought within the machine gun definition. The assault-style firearm definition is rewritten, with rules for what current owners may keep.

• Where guns may not go: government buildings, polling places and schools, with exceptions.

• Local enforcement. Licensing authorities may transfer dealer inspections to the State Police and must attend statewide training. A public dashboard of anonymized firearm data, plus two study commissions.

Tufts University’s Center for State Policy Analysis, which takes no position, groups it as “three main pillars: improved tracking; new restrictions on guns; and heightened standards for gun owners.”

How this got on the ballot, and why the law has been operating the whole time

Most referendum questions stop a law before it starts. This one did not, because of one decision in October 2024.

• July 18, 2024 — the House passes the bill 124 to 33; the Senate, the same day, 35 to 5.

• July 25, 2024 — Healey signs it. Its ordinary effective date would have been Oct. 23, ninety days later.

• August 2024 — repeal backers file a referendum petition. The first federal lawsuit is filed the same month.

• Oct. 2, 2024 — Healey signs an emergency preamble, putting the law in force immediately. Had she not, the petition would have suspended it until the vote.

• Oct. 9, 2024 — petitioners file 93,229 signatures with local officials; they reach the Secretary of the Commonwealth on Oct. 23.

• Nov. 22, 2024 — Secretary William Galvin certifies 78,707 valid signatures, against a requirement of 37,287. More than double — and past the deadline for that year’s ballot, which is why the vote is in 2026 rather than 2024.

Two years of implementation followed. Tufts calls this “a veto referendum” — one that normally stops a law before it starts, except that here “an emergency order from the Governor kept the law in place.” Voters are not being asked to prevent something. They are being asked to undo something already built, and that is the consequence of one signature on Oct. 2, 2024.

The ballot question itself begins: “Do you approve of a law summarized below, which was approved by the House of Representatives on July 18, 2024, by a vote of 124 to 33, and approved by the Senate on July 18, 2024 by a vote of 35 to 5?” The margins are printed inside the question. Part of the case for keeping the law is on the ballot.

Unlike Questions 1 through 8, Question 9 carries no 2026 legislative action line in the voter guide — no committee vote, no majority or minority report. It is a referendum on a law the Legislature already passed and held hearings on in 2023 and 2024, so nothing in this year’s process gave anyone a chance to testify.

The case for repeal

The official argument against the law, written by Toby Leary of The Civil Rights Coalition, makes four claims. Massachusetts “already had some of the strictest gun laws in the country” before 2024. The law is “a deeply flawed, 116-page piece of bureaucratic overreach.” It “mandates an expensive, real-time electronic tracking system that the state hasn’t funded and doesn’t know how to build.” And “state agencies have struggled to explain the law, issuing dozens of clarifications for rules that treat harmless historical re-enactors and antique hobbyists like criminals.”

On the last of those, here is what is documented. The state has issued five numbered guidance documents, the fifth of them an FAQ that consolidates the first four. The compliance deadline moved by twenty-six days, three weeks before it landed. For months the state’s own website said something different from the state’s own guidance. And the memo that resolved the conflict is still not linked from the page that states the deadline.

Leary adds a practical objection: the law pulls officers “away from investigating violent crime to plow through piles of administrative paperwork.” Wayne Adams, also of the coalition, puts the burden on hunting traditions and antique guns and describes dealing with the law as “questions, questions, questions.” John Briare, who co-founded the coalition, calls “assault weapon” a “brilliant marketing term” and says the law has made a license to carry hard to get, particularly in Boston.

Tufts adds two points the repeal side can use. Repeal would not return Massachusetts to open ground: “Red flag laws would still allow family and household members to question the fitness of gun owners. And assault weapons that match the old definitions would still be banned.” And on the central empirical question: “Whether Question 9 would lead to more gun violence and gun crime is very hard to know for sure. Massachusetts already had among the lowest rates of gun violence” under the old rules.

The case for keeping it

The official argument in favor, written by Ned Notis-McConarty of Vote Yes for a Safe Massachusetts, rests on what the law closed: “banning ghost guns; outlawing devices that turn semi-automatic weapons into machine guns; expanding tools to help prevent firearm suicide and mass shootings; creating a firearms data dashboard to better understand gun trafficking.” It claims Massachusetts has “a gun death rate 70% lower than the national average.”

That figure checks out. CDC data for 2024, as compiled by Pew Research Center, puts Massachusetts at 3.8 gun deaths per 100,000 people against a national rate of 12.8 — 70 percent lower, and among the lowest of any state. In raw numbers, the CDC counted more than 280 gun deaths in Massachusetts in 2024, most of them suicides, which is why the suicide-prevention and red flag provisions matter more to this argument than the headlines suggest.

Everytown for Gun Safety, which rates state gun laws, moved Massachusetts from fifth-strongest to second-strongest in the nation after Chapter 135 passed. Tufts describes the same changes in neutral terms: the law “closed some genuine gaps in prior state rules, allowing Massachusetts to track home-assembled and other so-called ‘ghost guns’ and adding school administrators, healthcare providers, and police officers to the list of people who can seek ‘red flag’ orders removing guns from people who pose a risk.”

Ruth Zakarin, who chairs the yes committee, argues the rewrite was overdue — “technology has changed, the world has changed since then” — and says licenses to carry were issued at a higher rate in 2025 than in 2024, the direct answer to Briare’s claim that the law made licensing harder. The Massachusetts Teachers Association, the committee’s largest funder, says through President Matt Bach and Vice President Deb Gesualdo that upholding the law keeps “commonsense measures that protect students, educators and families from gun violence” in place.

The state’s budget office adds an argument that appears nowhere in the campaign literature. Since 2024 the Commonwealth has “made significant investments to implement the law including training employees, promulgating new gun licensure processes, and developing IT infrastructure,” and repeal “would require the Commonwealth to expend resources in suspending or re-directing those investments.” It puts no number on either figure.

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O’Brien described himself as a military veteran and a “common-sense Republican.” He said he served as a county commissioner from 2009 to 2013 and defeated the incumbent in the primary. Nyman said she is a former state representative for Hanover, Norwell and Rockland and a former Hanover Select Board member who most recently worked as government affairs liaison at the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office.

County administrator hiring

Monday Night Talk host Kevin Tocci asked whether the commissioners’ hiring of a new county administrator was appropriate and transparent, saying two county employees were later dismissed to free up money for the administrator’s salary. Nyman said she felt the process was flawed and that the higher salary was never advertised and was set after the hire. She said the Advisory Board, on which she said she served while on the Select Board, was never informed, and that a later Advisory Board meeting with the commissioners was not taped or broadcast.

The advisory board was left in the dark through this whole process.
— Nyman 17:03

O’Brien said the process was flawed and the hiring “was wrong.”

I’m hoping that the court cases overturn the entire action and they start all over from the beginning to include the contract and the hiring.
— O’Brien 8:21

Nyman’s record

O’Brien called Nyman a “career politician” who would be a “go-along, get-along, liberal Democrat” siding with the commission’s Democratic member. In his opening, he said her “failed leadership” in Hanover cost the town federal COVID money, that as a state representative she failed to increase the county’s registry of deeds income, and that “those and other problems” led to her defeat.

Nyman said she is her own person, citing her stand on ARPA funding in Hanover, and later said Hanover “did well” with ARPA and CARES Act money. Responding to what she called O’Brien’s accusation that she had called the new administrator her “good friend,” she said she never said so and that he might have her confused with the outgoing Commissioner.

O’Brien said working on an issue and “getting it done are two different things,” repeating that ARPA money was lost in Hanover.

Deeds revenue, audits and town budgets

Nyman said 90 cents of each dollar goes to the state and 10 cents to the county, and that she would ask legislators to file a bill to change that. O’Brien said the county’s 10% share of registry of deeds fees needs to be increased and is “supposed to be 40%”. When Nyman asked what he did as a commissioner to raise it, O’Brien said a sitting state representative had more opportunity than he did.

Asked about a broader audit of county government, O’Brien said annual financial audits are already required and called himself a strong advocate for an operational or performance audit. Nyman said audits are expensive and she would want more information first, though she would not oppose one.

On struggling town budgets, Nyman said the county has no structural deficit and a $3.5 million stabilization fund, and called for continual outreach to towns on needs such as water quality and PFAS. O’Brien said shared water, trash or electrical services have been discussed but warned the county has limited resources and should not “get too far over our skis.”

Commissioner pay and hours

O’Brien said his primary-season criticism of commissioners’ hours relied on a media investigation he later found “flawed and incomplete.” He put the workload at roughly 20 hours a week and said the pay “would appear” more appropriate. Nyman said she would work “as much as it takes” and said pay should be comparable to other county commissioners and the county’s size. She said that as an Advisory Board member she voted against a budget over a commissioners’ raise.

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Plymouth County Retirement’s assumption reset hit three South Shore budgets in the same week, and the people who run them are not happy. Norwell was told full funding slips from 2031 to 2032, with assessments averaging 9.75% a year until then. Hanson put its added cost at about $330,000 this year and pushed for a sterner letter to the retirement board. East Bridgewater’s business office priced the FY28 payment at $5,285,683, up almost 12.2%, an increase that “would take up most of the town’s available 2.5% revenue growth,” with an 8% to 10% health insurance hike also expected. Hanson Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett put it bluntly: “$330,000 in a year when we’re already facing a deficit... is a lot of money. It’s not a rounding error.” Last week’s edition flagged Hanover’s projected $10.7 million FY32 bill, so the pattern now spans at least four towns.

The second thread is how towns pay for what they want to build when the levy has no room left. Scituate voters overrode their Advisory Committee on a $3 million borrowing for Pier 44 Park. Cohasset is promising a $7.5 million fire station renovation “without an override.” Plymouth’s Select Board split 3-2 over whether to spend free cash on a $300,000 title study. Hingham’s CPC is staring at $3.5 million in requests against just under $2 million in funds. Meanwhile, the campaign-trail talk of reformulating Chapter 70 and unrestricted aid sits next to Town Meeting floors that are doing the real arithmetic.

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The pension reset

• Norwell — Norwell Told County Pension Full Funding Slips to 2032, With 9.75% Average Yearly Increases The new actuary pushed the return assumption down from 7.875% to 7.4%, the retirement board settled on 7.625%, and Peter Smellie said Norwell’s five-year plan built around 2031 would probably now involve “some level of override.”

• Hanson — Hanson Select Board Members Push Sterner Letter to Plymouth County Retirement Board Over Assessment Increase Members called the draft too polite, Joe Weeks urged the retirement board to seek money from legislators rather than towns, and the chair put Hanson’s added cost at about $330,000 this year.

• East Bridgewater — East Bridgewater School Committee Tables Letter to Healey Protesting MBTA-Linked Grant Ineligibility In the same meeting, Director of Business Administration John Shea said the $574,000 FY28 increase would eat most of the town’s available 2.5% revenue growth (the grant dispute is covered under Housing and 3A below).

• Last week’s edition — South Shore News...letter: Pension Peak Background on Hanover’s projected $10.7 million FY32 bill and its proposed stabilization-fund prepayment.

Capital ambitions vs. levy reality

• Scituate — Scituate Town Meeting Backs $3.8M Pier 44 Park, $5M for Gates Senior Housing Voters cleared the park by two-thirds on a voice vote despite a 2-4 Advisory Committee recommendation against, and also approved $5 million in CPA money for the 63-unit Gates Apartments and indefinitely postponed the police training facility.

• Scituate — Scituate Select Board Approves Three-Year Firefighter Contract, Hears Low-Borrowing FY28 Capital Plan The FY28–FY30 deal pairs 3% annual raises with a $6,000 family / $3,000 individual health insurance opt-out, and Town Administrator Jim Boudreau sent a $4.2 million water tank request back for better numbers because it “keeps going up and up and up.”

• Cohasset — Cohasset Panel Pitches $7.5M Elm Street Fire Station Renovation, Aiming to Pay Without an Override The plan rests on a year-old estimate, a start no earlier than winter 2029, and a Select Board that is already asking whether 3% inflation compounding has been priced in.

• Plymouth — Plymouth Select Board Splits 3-2 to Recommend Free Cash for Shallow Pond Title Research Chair Deb Iaquinto and Kevin Canty favored borrowing, which would need a two-thirds vote, while Golden, Keohan and Quintal carried free cash, and the vote came the same night staff presented a five-year forecast with widening gaps after FY28.

• Marshfield — Brant Rock Overlay Repeal Fails at Marshfield Town Meeting as Seawall Repairs, Land Buys and Audit Pass Voters approved $9,944,140 for revetment repairs, with the town expecting 75% FEMA reimbursement, and widened a $250,000 operational audit to cover all departments, schools included.

• Hanson — Hanson Select Board Members Push Sterner Letter to Plymouth County Retirement Board Over Assessment Increase A second letter asks Hanover to reconsider $1.8 million to $2 million in building permit fees on South Shore Vocational Technical, a cost spread across all member communities.

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Big infrastructure, unresolved

• Hull — Hull Light Plant Grant Motion Ends Without a Vote Vice Chair Jerry Taverna’s bid to keep the DPW garage and light plant on separate existing sites died without a vote, and the board approved an $8,990,000 bond sale by voice vote.

• Hingham — Hingham Light Board Gets State Permit for $100M Transmission Project, Delays Town Meeting Ask to Next Year Chair Laura Burns said commissioners want firm rate-impact numbers first, and the same roundtable heard that Hingham CPC applications total just over $3.5 million against just under $2 million in estimated funds.

School budgets under pressure

• Rockland — Rockland School Committee Raises Daily Substitute Pay to $125, Citing Lost Subs and Staffing Cuts Last year’s reductions eliminated the permanent building subs and thinned the paraprofessional pool that covered absences, and Superintendent Jane Hackett said the increase fits within this year’s budget, with $150 a day for retired teachers. The committee also adopted a Protect Act policy covering civil arrests on school grounds.

• Marshfield — Marshfield Survey: Nearly Half of Respondents Unsure Where to Find Quick Mental Health Help Of 353 respondents, 86.6% ranked mental health the top student priority, and Lauren Dargan noted that work on a social-emotional curriculum has stalled because of budget constraints.

Housing and 3A

• East Bridgewater — East Bridgewater School Committee Tables Letter to Healey Protesting MBTA-Linked Grant Ineligibility The draft lists FY27 literacy, hate crime prevention and Safe Routes grants the district says it can no longer apply for, and Assistant Superintendent Jennifer McPartland said the restriction is “now written into every state grant.”

• Scituate — Scituate Town Meeting Backs $3.8M Pier 44 Park, $5M for Gates Senior Housing Advisory Committee Vice Chair Missy Seidel cited a one-year safe harbor from new 40B applications in backing the Gates money, and the $5 million is the only town money in a roughly $33 million building.

• Regionwide — The November Nine: Question 7 The measure bites only where lots have public sewer and water, which leaves it barely touching Norwell, Hanover, Hanson, Halifax and Pembroke but reaching Weymouth, Braintree, Hull, Whitman and much of Rockland, where the 32,670-square-foot minimum would drop to 5,000.

Land use: batteries, data centers and overlays

• Pembroke — Pembroke Town Meeting Adopts Battery Storage Bylaw After Voters Double Residential Buffer to 300 Feet Voters doubled the abutting-residential setback from 150 to 300 feet over Town Counsel Michelle Randazzo’s warning that the attorney general “may end up disapproving the bylaw in its entirety.”

• Kingston — Kingston Selectmen Back Data Center Ban, $2.5M Water Meters The board recommended the data center ban 4-1, with Carl Pike opposed, and a unanimous recommendation on battery storage zoning for the Oct. 27 Special Town Meeting, plus the $2.5 million DEP-ordered meter project, also 4-1.

• Marshfield — Brant Rock Overlay Repeal Fails at Marshfield Town Meeting as Seawall Repairs, Land Buys and Audit Pass The citizens’ petition fell short of two-thirds on a show of hands with no standing count, after both the Advisory Board (4-2) and Planning Board (5-0) opposed repeal.

• Plymouth — Plymouth Town Meeting Votes to Require Special Permits for Unified Complexes The 101–44–1 vote came despite Planning Board Chair Steven Bolotin’s no-vote plea, and the article now heads to the attorney general for 90-day review.

Campaign season

• 12th Plymouth — 12th Plymouth Forum: LaNatra Points to Tax Relief, Meschino Calls for Audit and Tax Cuts Rep. Kathy LaNatra said Chapter 90 rose 50% this year and called the Chapter 70 formula unfair, while challenger Eric Meschino pitched an audit and ending property taxes for seniors with paid-off homes.

• Sixth Plymouth — Sixth Plymouth Forum: Sweezey, Bradley Rushing Split on Budget Votes, Utility Charges, MBTA Communities Law Both candidates called the school funding formulas broken, and Jessica Bradley Rushing said every town in the district had an override on the spring ballot and about half passed, while Rep. Ken Sweezey defended his budget votes as a stand against underfunded Chapter 70 and unrestricted aid.

Process skirmishes

• Plymouth — Plymouth Town Meeting Votes to Require Special Permits for Unified Complexes Moderator F. Steven Triffletti ruled two citizen petitions out of order, calling the airport-revenue ruling “substantive,” and no two-thirds appeal vote was taken on either.

• Kingston — Kingston Selectmen Back Data Center Ban, $2.5M Water Meters The board voted unanimously to send Marsha Meekins’s open meeting law complaint over the Miramar agreement to outside counsel, and took no position on the two Miramar citizen petitions.

• Halifax — Halifax Sets Jan. 12 Special Town Meeting, Keeps Warrant Open to Nov. 5 The board pushed Special Town Meeting into January to allow time to certify free cash, raised the trash fee from $440 to $450, and approved the Democratic Town Committee’s get-out-the-vote tent 3-0, conditioned on notifying local Republican officials.

• Marshfield — Brant Rock Overlay Repeal Fails at Marshfield Town Meeting as Seawall Repairs, Land Buys and Audit Pass The $9.9 million seawall motion read on the floor differed from the printed warrant, and the moderator ruled withdrawal was not an amendment after Priscilla Maglio objected that the rewrite had not been handed out.

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