Author Archives: Meg Sheehan

Your April 9 letter from Becca Bankhurst stated I am the sole director and officer of the nonprofit group Community Land & Water Coalition (CLWC). This is inaccurate. I am one of CLWC’s four directors and officers. Together we have over 150 years’ experience in Southeastern Massachusetts in conservation, law, organizing, municipal government, and Native […]

An April Fool’s Day event in Plymouth will focus on sand mining at the Cedarville Conservation Area. All are welcome to join an awareness raising picket from 8 to 10 a.m. at 71 Hedges Pond Road. Until January, the Cedarville Conservation Area was a globally rare pine barrens forest. It is a Native American historic […]

I echo Tony Thompson’s March 22, 2025, letter that the “discovery” of 588 affordable housing units warrants “fresh eyes” in the town’s Planning and Development Department. The “discovery” is especially concerning [because] town planner Mr. [Lee] Hartmann is the sole town employee who is a member of the Affordable Housing Trust. The responsibility of the […]

At recent Plymouth Select Board weekly meetings, people have been speaking at public comment about the 33-acre sand mining operation getting underway at 71 Hedges Pond Road by Duxbury-based Eric Pontiff. This land is the Wampanoag Native American Tribe’s “Great Lot,” an ancient homesite and sacred area. It was designated as conservation land by Town […]

Is the  “ceremonial big check for $2 million” presented by the Plymouth Foundation at the February 11 Select Board meeting a sleight of hand? Is it really just reimbursement for the almost $2 million the taxpayers have already paid to the Foundation for “services”?  Since 2014, the town has paid the Foundation $1.8 million – […]

Town Meeting should vote no on article 17 – the land bank proposal – on October 19. It is set up to funnel town-owned land that should be used for the public good into the hands of private developers. The land bank bears a troubling resemblance to the shadowy Plymouth Foundation that Town Hall uses […]

Garrett Tunison’s Your View [letter] of Sept. 26, “Town officials are ‘clueless’ when it comes to business development,” describes the Plymouth Foundation as “the same old people and families that have been around forever….” That’s true, and a public investigation is uncovering a lot more. The Plymouth Foundation is a shadow arm of town government. […]

My first Plymouth home as an infant was on Nelson Street next to Benny’s Plaza in North Plymouth. The store was a favorite of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins until it closed. From children’s toys and bicycles to nylon stockings, Benny’s had the best prices. My mother was at home when she moved to Nelson […]

Will Plymouth to finally say no to A.D. Makepeace Company? Makepeace cloaks itself in cranberries while most of its profits are from mining sand on its 12,000 acres of land. Makepeace claims this mining is cranberry farming. The sand is a globally rare commodity used for concrete, asphalt, and consumer products. Makepeace clear-cuts forests and […]

This is in response to the Plymouth Independent’s Feb. 9, 2024, story, Neighbors’ fight to stop 55-plus apartment project backfires.  The story claims to be about the Claremont Plymouth LLC apartment complex proposed for Colony Place. Instead of being about the facts and the many missteps inside Town Hall that created the controversy, the newspaper […]