The Town of Duxbury last week cancelled all future training for nuclear disaster due to lack of funds following a long-running dispute between Duxbury’s Emergency Management Director Kevin Nord and Entergy, the owner and operator of Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant in Plymouth.

Nord, who is also Duxbury’s Fire Chief, said the town has been in negotiations with Entergy to fund its Radiological Emergency Response Funding (RERP) since May 2010. The town’s last round of funding has now run out. The consequences to the town and to Entergy could be serious.

The hill was alive with children of all ages over the weekend as Duxbury finally got a snowfall after three months of snowless weather. Liza Thors is a vision in pink as she sleds on her comfortable tube.

A discussion this week on how the Duxbury Board of Selectmen oversees and directs the Town Manager revealed that selectmen interpret the town’s bylaws and Town Manager Act differently.

Listed on Monday’s agenda as a “discussion of legal services,” the topic was the result of a debate among selectmen two weeks ago regarding how and when the town manager is allowed to hire Town Counsel Robert Troy, and why Troy was used during a recent lawsuit against Duxbury instead of an attorney provided by the town’s insurance company.

At the Jan. 9 meeting, Selectmen Christopher Donato pushed to have the topic of hiring town counsel on a future agenda, but began discussing

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(Carolyn Ravenscroft reads through the Civil War letters of “Duxbury boy” John Southworth.)

Thanks to archivist Carolyn Ravenscroft, the Duxbury Rural and Historical Society (DRHS) has earned national recognition from the Library of Congress. A cache of six Civil War letters written by Duxbury Union soldier John Southworth will be included in the Library of Congress’s National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC) as part of their “Gone to be a Soldier: Personal Narratives of Members of the Union and Confederate Armed Forces.”

If passed, an article in Duxbury’s Special Town Meeting Warrant would send a letter of intent to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) from the town opposing the relicensing of Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station until NRC-recommended safety improvements have been made. According to Mary “Pixie” Lampert, the citizen’s petition is part of a concerted effort by the statewide Pilgrim Coalition to place articles and ballot questions before voters in Duxbury, Marshfield, Kingston, Plymouth and various towns in Barnstable County.

Vicki Carvalho and her boyfriend Justin consider it a perk to be able to enjoy the sunshine at Duxbury beach on their lunch break. Owners of Duxbury Fitness, a personal training studio and gym on Tremont Street, these two fitness buffs know a bit about kicking it into shape and a lot about owning a business. We recently caught up with Carvalho at Duxbury Fitness where we learned the best exercise to quickly get a great workout.

At the request of the Democratic Town Committee, Lt. Governor Tim Murray visited Duxbury last Wednesday to host a local town meeting. The event, held at the Duxbury Senior Center, attracted a crowd of about 60, including state Sen. Robert Hedlund and Reps. Thomas Calter and Daniel Webster.

In his opening remarks, Murray spoke to a range of issues, taking special care to claim a wide array of accomplishments by Gov. Deval Patrick’s administration. Murray also took questions from the audience. Both Duxbury Selectman Chris Donato and local activist Mary “Pixie” Lambert asked Murray about the re-licensing of Entergy-owned Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth and expressed their concern for public safety.

Art teacher Colleen Longo bent over Pat Orlando, placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, and helped him mix red paint into yellow before adding a dash of white. She pointed to a photo of a spotted owl clipped to Orlando’s canvas.

“Can you see these three shapes?” asked Longo, brushing the owl’s orange breast feathers. “Can you paint these shapes for me?”

This week, selectmen endorsed a measure brought forward by the Community Preservation Committee to lessen the burden of the three percent CPA surcharge paid by Duxbury residents.

Selectmen unanimously approved a Town Meeting warrant article that would exempt the first $100,000 of assessed value from being included in the three percent Community Preservation Act surcharge. This exemption is allowed under the Act without losing eligibility for subsequent rounds of funding, said CPC chairman John Bear.

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A favorite aphorism of mine is quite simple: be prepared.

As anyone paying attention to Duxbury politics knows, the BOS has been embroiled in a kerfuffle over the purview of the Town Manager’s duties. Though the issue is multi-layered, the main point discussed at the Monday night meeting was whether Duxbury’s town bylaws or the Massachusetts General Court- Save passed Town Manager Act (TMA) governs the duties of the Town Manager.