Author Archives: Richard M. Serkey

Select Board candidate Scott Vecchi has a serious credibility problem. At a forum on May 1, Mr. Vecchi claimed that a “toxic environment exists at the Plymouth Police Department” and blamed Police Chief Dana Flynn and Town Manager Derek Brindisi for it. The Plymouth Independent has reported Mr. Vecchi worked for more than 25 years […]

I am writing to vigorously object to the character assassination of Zoning Board of Appeals member David Peck by Becca Bankhurst in her letter to the editor following the ZBA vote on the Cedarville commercial development on Hedges Pond Road. Mr. Peck works hard to measure every case that comes before him against the requirements […]

A recent writer to the Plymouth Independent claimed that “town officials and their pro-development appointees on town boards and committees keep rubber stamping market rate housing”. That claim overlooks the fact that in many cases, rightly or wrongly, state law limits the ability of towns to deny permits to applicants whose projects meet the requirements […]

In April 2024, the town entered into a purchase and sale agreement with the purported owners of property on White Horse Beach to acquire it in order to demolish the longstanding former Full Sail bar. The agreement was contingent upon Town Meeting approval of $655,000 for the land and $220,000 for the cost of demolition. […]

I am writing to once again urge the town to take action to remove the [former] Bert’s Restaurant eyesore: The time for further negotiations with the owners of this property has long since passed. Nothing concentrates the mind better than the adoption of an action agenda and the commitment to carry it out in a […]

I did not attend the North Plymouth Steering Committee meeting at which a proposal to construct multifamily residential housing at Benny’s Plaza was discussed, but the PI article about the meeting reported that the proponents’ presentation got a raucous and obscenity-laden response from many of those present. I am vicariously embarrassed for the Town of […]

I have great sympathy for the injustices visited upon the Wampanoag Nation, but I’m nevertheless opposed, for several reasons, to reciting a proposed “land acknowledgement statement” at the commencement of all municipal meetings. First of all, the proposed statement is, in my opinion, based on the implicit premise that all non-Wampanoags are, in some way, […]

The Community Preservation Committee has recommended that Town Meeting approve the purchase of the site of the former Full Sail [bar] for the sum of $665,000 and approve the expenditure of another $220,000 to then demolish the dilapidated structure and construct improvements on the then vacant land. There are apparently twin rationales for this proposal: […]

Representatives of the Wampanoag Indian tribe have asked the Town to recognize their legacy by agreeing to recite a “Land Acknowledgement” statement at the commencement of all municipal meetings.  I am opposed to doing so, not because I lack sympathy for the injustices visited upon the Wampanoag Nation, but instead because it could be the […]

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 […]