As expected, the avian flu outbreak in Plymouth has been officially confirmed, weeks after dead and dying birds began showing up across town. The town on Monday received notice from a national laboratory that six of nine bird carcasses collected in Plymouth and submitted for testing carried the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, or HPAI, commonly […]
Author Archives: Mark Pothier - Independent Staff
Posted inCulture
As Plymouth grows, so is its homeless population
The campsite in North Plymouth is a lonely outpost at the end of a trampled-down path. The ground is littered with evidence of lives upended. There’s a tattered tent, a rusting bicycle hanging from a tree, mismatched boots, takeout containers, a child’s coloring book. No one would call this place home. Not by choice, anyway. […]
Posted inReal Estate Sales
January freeze: Just 38 properties sold in town last month
January isn’t exactly prime time for buying or selling a house, for obvious reasons, one of them being the weather. (Are you ready for the predicted weekend storm?) Nonetheless, there are buyers and sellers out there, with the latter still holding the advantage because of stubbornly low inventory. At the same time, many Plymouth homeowners […]
Posted inGovernment
Here’s an easy way to have your say on Plymouth’s priorities
Want to weigh in on where the town is – or should be – headed? Here’s an easy way to do it that’s more constructive than a Facebook rant. But you have to act soon. The town is inviting residents to take its online “visioning survey” by Feb. 16. It’s part of a lengthy process […]
Posted inEnvironment & Health
With snow in the forecast, parking ban set for 1 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday
The good news for kids and people who plow driveways as a side gig: With a storm watch upgraded to storm warning, forecasters are calling for a fast-moving system to dump between four and eight inches of snow on the Plymouth area starting Saturday night. The inconvenient news for people who park their cars and […]
Posted inReal Estate Sales
There were more than 100 property sales in town last month
December brought some gifts to local real estate agents in the form of healthy sales numbers – 108 Plymouth properties exchanged hands last month. The news was good for sellers, too. The average sales price (a combination of single-family homes, condominiums, and lots) was $638,000. Nine sales topped $1 million. For buyers, high prices are […]
Posted inFrom the Editor
Brindisi orders ‘all appointed town officials to cease all communication with the PI’
The Jan. 3 request from Independent reporter Fred Thys was a standard one: He wanted to speak to someone at Town Hall about a story. The response from communications coordinator Casey Kennedy was anything but standard. “Per the Town Manager’s email to Mark [Pothier] a few weeks back, the Town has paused its relationship with […]
Posted inFrom the Editor
‘The PI is worth your time and money’
Since launching in November 2023, the Plymouth Independent’s reach has far exceeded our expectations. In 2024, the first full year of publication, there were nearly 800,000 site visits, and about 2.2 million page views. It’s clear that many of you crave and value local news, especially after years of virtually no coverage. But so far, […]
Posted inBusiness
Here are the 10 most read stories we published last year
As 2025 dawns, the Plymouth Independent has wrapped up its first full year of publication. And it truly was full. We published hundreds of stories, columns, letters, obituaries, videos, and images from local artists. Many thousands of you came to the site every week – almost 800,000 during the last 12 months. Close to 24,000 […]
Posted inCulture
This year’s menorah lighting at Plymouth Rock holds special meaning
Darkness arrives early in December, but it will be a bit brighter on the waterfront late Sunday afternoon. The Chabad of the South Shore is planning to light a public menorah at Plymouth Rock on Water Street at 5:30 p.m., Dec. 29, followed by a community celebration, marking the fifth night of Hanukkah. In addition […]