December 29,2006
By SYDNEY SCHWARTZ
The Patriot Ledger

Marshfield police and the Plymouth County Sheriff's Department cracked
down on Internet predators this year, using an undercover sheriff's
deputy to pose as a teenage girl online.

The task force, dubbed HEAT (for Hi-Tech Evidence Analysis Team),
arrested nearly 30 men, including a Plymouth selectman and a
67-year-old flight instructor from Peabody who allegedly flew to town,
thinking he was going to have sex with a 15-year-old girl.

Other top stories included the trial of 18-year-old Tobin Kerns,
accused of plotting a Columbine-style slaughter at Marshfield High
School.

Kerns was arrested in 2004 after students told police he wanted to buy
guns, make bombs and kill teachers and classmates. A verdict in his
case may come as soon as February, when the Supreme Judicial Court
will hear arguments.

Marshfield this year elected its youngest selectman in history,
22-year-old Katie O'Donnell, despite criticism that she was too young,
lived with her parents, paid no property taxes and had experience
limited to a few months on the planning board and a temporary job at
town hall.

This year, high school athletes made it to the hockey state
championship and the Division 1A football Super Bowl, but starting
paying $50 fees for playing sports. Students also got hit with a
$50-per-semester parking fee.

The fees came after the spring's budget cuts, which eliminated three
firefighters, three police jobs, two public works jobs and several
positions in the elementary schools.

Also this year, selectmen decided not to ask voters to approve a
property tax increase, but they plan to seek an increase in 2007.

Selectmen formed a downtown task force to focus on development in the
town center, including the retail and revitalization plans of Merrill
Diamond and Brian Curtis and the planned realigning of Snow Road. Both
developments are before the zoning board of appeals.

But taxpayers also gathered together to fight development, pledging
$40,000 to a group fighting the Beacon Ocean Shore Limited
Partnership's 90-unit condominium project and holding a series of
meetings on a planned Walgreens store at the intersection of Routes
139 and 3A. Veterans said the store project would infringe on
Marshfield's Veterans Memorial Park.

When the historical commission was evicted from its town hall office
of nearly 30 years to make room for the information technology
coordinator, all but one member of the commission quit in protest.

Around the same time, residents celebrated the next generation of
children when supermarket co-founder and 42-year-Marshfield resident
Pat Roche pledged $1 million to help build new quarters for the
Marshfield Boys and Girls Club.

Town meeting voted almost unanimously to give the club the go-ahead to
build the proposed the $9 million clubhouse.

Sydney Schwartz may be reached at sschwartz@ledger.com.