Selectmen Appoint New Town Counsel
At their Dec. 9 meeting, the selectmen unanimously appointed Blatman, Bobrowski & Mead of Millis as town counsel, replacing Kopelman & Paige of Boston. The board also voted unanimously to appoint John J. Clifford of East Bridgewater as labor counsel, replacing Gilman & Associates of Wellesley. Board Chairman Paul Gallagher thanked K&P and Michael Gilman for long service to the town. BB&M is a boutique firm which selectmen said received high marks from other current employers.

Amazing Race Contestants Win Big

but not without their Kingston connection...

Nick Spangler and his sister, Starr, won $1 million for finishing first in the CBS reality show, Amazing Race, but not without the help of the Observer’s own Susannah Locketti and her husband, Chip, who loaned the couple their laptop and paid for their internet use while at LAX where the Spanglers had begun their first challenge. See the complete story in the January print edition of the Kingston Observer.

Tax Hike
The tax rate is up $.62 per thousand according to Town Administrator Kevin Donovan. Donovan said town ...

Keeping God In Stitches
On May 5, 2004 the St. Joseph Church Prayer Shawl Ministry met for the fi rst time. There were eight attendees. Since that day, the ministry has made and distributed more than 750 handmade shawls to anyone who asked for them.

Selectman Interview for New Town Counsel
The selectmen, seeking to reduce the cost of legal services, interviewed ten law fi rms at their Nov. 25 meeting...

Village News
Happy Birthday! to Nettie (Holman) Edwards who will be celebrating her 96th birthday on the 13th. No doubt she will be surrounded by her family who include her cousins, Helen and Jack Laine of Plymouth, Ron and Daune Mc Garvey of Duxbury, and Ed and Phyllis Baker of Goshen, New Hampshire and many friends. Nettie still cultivates her interests which include natural remedies, genealogy, cooking, and baking, knitting, bird watching and playing the piano. Nettie was born on Green St. in the home now owned by David Rossi...

Lights! Camera! Cranberries!
Bog Hollow Farm, owned and operated by Barry and Lydia Mathias, was recently transformed into a winter wonderland for the fi lming of an Ocean Spray Cranberry commercial featuring those two irresistible down home guys, Henry and Justin....

The passing of Gobin Stair
Gobin Stair, a longtime resident of Kingston and the Beacon Press director, who released the controversial "Pentagon Papers" passed away peacefully Tuesday night, November 25th at the age of 96....

Fake Grenades Spark Real Concern
In case you’re wondering why a section of Main Street was blocked off on Monday morning November 3, here is the skinny. A call came into the Kingston Police Station at 8:39 a.m. from two contractors who were working in a vacant house at 282 Main Street. They discovered two objects that appeared to be hand grenades hanging from nails in the basement of the house.
Responding to the call were Kingston Police, the Mass State Police and the Plymouth Sheriff’s BCI and Communication Unit. Adjacent homes and businesses were evacuated and the intersection was closed with traffic diverted. NStar was dispatched to cut power to the house.

Green Committee is Ineffective When Seeing ‘Red’
If anger and attitude were a renewable energy resource, then the Green Committee could single-handedly power Kingston into the next century.

Gesinger Plans to Build a 40B to Help Fund His 40R
Smelt Pond would get 44 additional apartments on top of the currently planned 730 units
Remember how 40R was sposed to protect the town from unwanted 40Bs? Who would have guessed that the 40R developer would himself become a 40B proponent?

West Nile virus confirmed in mosquitoes from Kingston
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) announced that a West Nile virus (WNV) mosquito sample collected from Kingston on Sept. 5, tested positive for West Nile virus. In 2007, mosquito samples were tested for West Nile virus and 65 samples were positive. The good news is the species of mosquito is known to be a bird biter.

Geisinger Plans 40-B Rental Project off Raboth Road
42 Apartment Units on land abutting Smelt Brook
Two years ago, when Lloyd Geisinger was promoting his 40-R housing development, he sent out numerous hype mailers telling us how his 40-R would end the surge of 40-B development. We were told that 40-B’s were a bad thing because of the lack of town control...

Sewer Commissioners warn: Wind Turbine Placement Dangerous and Illegal
(September 4, 2008) If you ask the Sewer Commission how they feel about wind turbines, they would probably say, "great", but ask them how they relish the idea of placing such a structure hovering over the sewer plant and you will get a different answer...

Senior Center Continues on Path to Reality
(September 4, 2008) The long anticipated Kingston Senior Center is finally looking like it will become a reality sooner rather than later. The Senior Center Building Committee has cut back on some of the architectural aspects of the project in order to have the project come in at budget. The new price tag of the Center now stands at a firm $2.750 million, this after eliminating a planned completed second floor and no basement. The budget, put together by Caitlin Architecture, reflects an $18,000 reduction by Caitlin in order to move forward with the construction.