Plympton Select Board Authorizes Up to $5,000 for Town House Basement Testing

PLYMPTON — September 8, 2025 — Plympton Select Board approves basement testing, Conservation Commission appointment, and 40B opposition letter at September 8 meeting. The board unanimously authorized Town Administrator Liz Dennehy to identify a funding source for Board of Health environmental testing in the Town House basement, capping expenditures at $5,000 without further board action; the town building maintenance article, replenished with roughly $40,000 at the last Town Meeting, was identified as the most likely source. The board also unanimously appointed Molly Hutt Wardell to the Conservation Commission through June 30, 2027, filling a vacancy left by the resignation of longtime member Linda Letty, whom member John Russo called a "big loss for the town" responsible for preserving "several hundred acres." The board endorsed a letter to the Zoning Board of Appeals on a proposed 40B development off Spring Street, pressing for age-restricted affordable units and a local-preference designation the developer has so far rejected. The meeting was further shadowed by the simultaneous resignations of three Town Properties Committee members — Ross McPherson, John Wilhelmson, and Mark Wallace — leaving the five-seat committee with two confirmed members and prompting Russo to call the situation "a bit of a crisis right now in town government." Police Chief Matthew Hall updated the board on the transition from D.A.R.E. to the IACP's LEAD program at Dennett Elementary School, with Officer Tim Johnson set to begin the 10-week fifth- and sixth-grade curriculum in late October.