What's happening around town.

Powder Point Bridge: the committee wants more time, the money clock disagrees

Advisory committee chair Ed Mayo brought the Selectboard a nine-point memo on Monday whose central finding was that Duxbury still does not have the information it needs to choose a replacement design, and should not be hurried into one. Pulling the other way is the federal calendar: Fiscal Advisory Committee vice chair Fernando Guitart warned that missing MassDOT's February 2027 procurement window could cost the town as much as $25 million in outside money, and Town Manager Rene Read has said plainly that no local fund is waiting behind it. The span now standing is 40 years old, 2,200 feet of timber with multiple failed pilings and six-figure annual upkeep, while the $172 million replacement is expected to come from federal and state sources rather than Duxbury taxpayers. A Section 106 ruling on the bridge's historic status is due by Columbus Day, and a decision in the town's favor would put a mostly wooden rebuild back on the table, which is why chair Amy MacNab has floated a Special Town Meeting to hand the choice to residents; our full history of the bridge and the fight has the background. Sources: Duxbury Clipper and the Duxbury & Marshfield Record.

Clancy trial: the defense takes over, and a psychologist testifies she could not know it was wrong

Prosecutors rested Monday after 14 days of testimony, having argued that Lindsay Clancy killed Cora, Dawson, and Callan deliberately, meaning to take them with her in a suicide attempt. The defense case opened with her mother, Paula Musgrove, describing the months in which her daughter spoke of harming the children, and turned Wednesday to forensic psychologist Paul Zeizel, who told jurors Clancy was suffering from bipolar disorder with postpartum psychosis and had no appreciation that what she was doing was wrong. On cross-examination the prosecution questioned the 35 hours Zeizel spent evaluating her, pointed to factual errors in his account of her treatment, and noted that the commanding voice she later described appears nowhere in her medical records before that January day. Judge William Sullivan barred a defense witness on hospital staffing but allowed McLean Hospital's staffing records in, and the defense is expected to rest this week ahead of rebuttal and closing arguments; as before, we are noting the proceedings rather than adding commentary. Sources: WBUR and NBC 10 WJAR.

Duxbury Beach: the shorebird truce is fraying

A Boston Globe story this week put figures behind an argument residents have been having on the sand for years. Piping plovers have climbed from roughly 150 nesting pairs statewide in the 1990s to 1,247 counted last year, and least terns, still carrying the state's lowest protective listing, now nest at close to 90 sites; the closures that produced those gains also kept oversand vehicles off the entire beach for most of July last summer, with full access back only at the end of August. The access fight is a budget fight too, since Duxbury pays about $1 million a year to lease the beach and roughly half a million more to run it, and lost money on the arrangement until a 30 percent average permit increase in 2025 put a resident oversand sticker at $270. State Rep. Kenneth Sweezey and the group Save Duxbury Beach are backing bills that would require periodic review of the restrictions and loosen the rules written for terns in particular. Source: The Boston Globe.

A new School Committee member, seated until March

The Selectboard and School Committee met jointly on Monday and voted unanimously to appoint Jenna Wechsler of Fox Run to the seat left open by Jen Weedon's resignation. Wechsler, an attorney, holds the seat until the March town election, when the rest of the term goes to voters. Two other residents applied: Carol-Ann Smith of Brick Hill Lane and Priscilla Nissi of Perry Drive. Source: Duxbury Clipper.

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This page is a pointer, not a replacement, for the town's real news infrastructure. The Duxbury Clipper (weekly, since 1950) is the paper of record and deserves the subscription. The Local Seen carries full video of town meetings. The Town's E-Alerts deliver official notices by topic. Know something we should note here? Send a tip.