Assessment to towns reduced

The School Committee has taken two more steps toward closing its fiscal year 2016 budget gap.

Members voted 7-2 on Wednesday, April 8 to reduce the assessment increase the towns will be asked to pay from 4.5 to 3 percent, and voted 9-0 to transfer an additional $250,000 from reserves.

Board members Susan McSweeney of Hanson and Robert Trotta of Whitman voted against the assessment reduction. Member Alexandria Taylor was absent.

“Taking one-time money out to fund an operating budget goes against everything that you normally think about, but at the same time if we can have a vision as to how we’re going to correct what the future is … we have a revenue problem,” Small said of the reserves transfer. “[But] I think it would decimate us not to do it.”

Both Small and Trotta advocated a return to long-term planning toward closing the budget gap.

“There needs to be a real dialogue between the towns and the school committee,” Trotta said. “I feel frustrated that we don’t seem to be making any [progress].”

The budget as presented in February was $47,635,211 with a $3,363,618 deficit. Salary adjustments and reductions of $959,382 made last month as well as revenue from school choice brought the deficit down to $2,262,988 and a March 11 transfer of $500,000 from the $1.4 million in reserves — leaving $970,000 in the account —further trimmed the deficit to $1,762,988. With the second transfer, there is now $720,000 in reserves.

With a 4.5-percent increase, $788,173 would have been added to the budget, according to committee Chairman Bob Hayes. At 3 percent, 525,449 would be added to help close the deficit — now at $987,539.

How it would hit

The impact of a 3 percent assessment increase would mean about 20 positions cut, according to Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning Ellen Stockdale. Only six retirements are planned, but Hayes said so many past retirements have gone unfilled, the district can’t assume the six can remain unfilled this time.

“We’re cutting bone onto bone,” he said. The $250,000 transferred from reserves can save four teachers, according to Hayes.

Both Whitman and Hanson officials have indicated 3 percent would be as high as they dare go for the FY 2016 budget.

“We don’t have the money,” said Whitman Town Administrator Frank Lynam, adding that a 4.5-percent increase could lead to either an override situation or “shutting down one of the departments.”

Hanson Selectmen Chairman Bruce Young said Hanson is in a similar situation as the town has spent “a good deal” of the free cash the town had going into its last Town Meeting and going into the May Town Meeting on projects the town has needed to do for some time such as school roof and window lintel repairs. He added that the Finance Committee has already reduced an approved 2.5-percent raise for department heads to 2 percent.

“We’re definitely not in as good a position as we were last year,” Young said. “Our position may not be as dire as [Whitman’s] but we’re just trying to maintain some kind of balance.”

“We have struggled over the past few years to accrue some money in stabilization to protect the town with its bond payments,” Lynam said. Whitman started the year with $1.8 million in capital stablization, but just to make existing debt payments the town will have to withdraw about $300,000 from the account, he cautioned.

“That was not something we anticipated,” he said. “We ended the year in a fairly positive mode and the weather took care of any spirit we had.”

Lynam and Young also indicated “dueling budgets” would have a detrimental effect on voters willingness to pass articles at Town Meetings and at the ballot box to fund technology upgrades the schools need.

“I think we have to show people we can work together,” Lynam said.

Time to talk

Whitman Middle School teacher Beth Stafford said, while she acknowledges departments need to work together, “it always seems to be the school side that gets cut” and the schools have lost 100 positions since 2000.

“No other department even comes close,” she said. “I just feel at this point in time people need to stand up and do what they’re supposed to do and fight for what you need — you’re the School Committee, you represent the children in the two towns.”

She suggested that perhaps it needs to start with conversations between the schools and the community.

“I want to have a dialogue,” Lynam said. “I don’t want it to be now. I don’t want it to be May. I want to get through this budget cycle and I want to have some serious discussions with people on what we can do on a long-term plan.”

In other business, warrant articles for fire alarm panel replacement were withdrawn from both towns’ annual Town Meeting warrants as not necessary at this time. Lynam mentioned that Whitman Fire Chief Timothy Grenno “very emphatically” said he was not requesting the project.

Frequent false alarms are traced to faulty building sensors or the communication system within the panels and do not preset a life safety issue. The articles in fact originated with the district’s technology department as a delayed project and they wanted to see if it could be done this year.

The votes were 9-0 to remove the article from both warrants.

Free cash leaned on heavily, additional firefighter request tabled

WHITMAN — There is good news — and a sobering forecast for future finances — on the fiscal 2016 budget front.

“We have a balanced budget,” Finance Chairman William Capocci reported to the Board of Selectmen Tuesday, April 14. “This is one of the nicest budgets that I think we’ve produced over the years. … Almost everybody’s going to walk away happy.”

While the budget is balanced, the Finance Committee was able to accomplish that by almost completely depleting free cash and tabling Fire Chief Timothy Grenno’s request for eight additional firefighters for at least a year. Several other warrant articles were also withdrawn.

“Free cash is gone,” Capocci said, as are funds in the motor vehicle fine and ambulance accounts and technology stabilization. More than $281,000 is being taken out of capital stabilization.

“We’re getting through the year and we’re surviving,” Capocci said, asking for selectmen’s support on the budget at Town Meeting, including on the firefighter issue he described as “the killer on the budget” even as he stressed that he has no argument about the need.

“If the eight firemen go through, we’re talking override,” Capocci said. That is a move Grenno said he did not want to force.

Grenno and Town Administrator Frank Lynam had independently reached the same conclusion to table the additional firefighters after a recent numbers-crunching session. There was, however, some friction aired between the chief and Capocci on the issue.

Communication between Grenno and Capocci was the main issue in their disagreement.

“The problem that I have is on Jan. 20 I presented my budget,” Grenno said. “Last Tuesday, Frank and I sat in his office for three hours an crunched the numbers on the eight hires … knowing the financial picture the town was going through … I came to the mutual agreement with Frank that we would table it.”

The next morning at 7:15 a.m., Lynam called him to report he did not have the chance to discuss it with the Finance Committee because it voted a 2.5-percent increase in all the services, Grenno said of his budget’s 4-percent increase.

“There was no discussion with me,” he said. “My concern is [that] discussion of the Fire Department budget is going on without me being present.”

Lynam clarified that the 2.5 percent Grenno mentioned, plus 2 percent was approved by FinCom for a 4.5-percent increase.

“At no point in time in any of our nine meetings that you have requested the minutes for, did we discuss the merits of five firemen,” Capocci said. “This was simply a question of we have $5 to spend and it’s going to cost $6 to hire eight people — and we don’t have that dollar.”

Grenno had ultimately sought Finance Committee minutes through a Freedom of Information request to find out what, if any, discussions on the firefighter issue were conducted in his absence.

“All he’s got to do is call me,” Capocci said of the FOI request emailed to him by Grenno the morning after a late FinCom meeting in which the Fire Department Budget was voted. “To do it this way, I thought, was a little extreme.”

He said no budgets were voted on before March 31.

Chairman Carl Kowalski said his first reaction to Grenno’s proposal for additional firefighters — to deal with increasing call volume and resulting overtime costs — was concern for the school budget.

“It’s sad that the schools are in that shape,” Kowalski said of W-H’s position at 10th from the bottom in per-pupil spending statewide. “But we cannot afford to give them more money.”

Grenno made his points effectively enough to change his mind, Kowalski said. Now, however, he said he finds sense in Capocci’s argument and Grenno’s willingness to table the request.

Getting there

Capocci started his presentation by outlining the town’s ability to weather the recession, without layoffs, since its onset in 2007 before detailing the current state of the town’s finances. He concluded the presentation by cautioning about five major challenges to future town budgets.

The town had been hit with a $2 million cut in revenue between local receipts and state aid to cities and towns on a $20 million budget in 2007, according to Capocci, while services were increased. Fiscal planning in the intervening years permitted infrastructure investment, including the new police station paid for inside the levy limit mainly through free cash.

Cuts made two years ago, however, required by a failed override for the schools had an effect on free cash since as town budgets have increased, due largely to higher fixed costs and a 10-percent cut in trash fees, he said. Another $322,482 transferred from free cash at a special Town Meeting in January – before the weather turned. This year’s snow and ice deficit is $354.832.

“Before we looked at any budgets for this year, we were in the hole $455,000,” Capocci said.  Basic revenue is $812,000 over last year. Initial budget requests came in at $1,325,743 higher than last year.

Capocci also warned of five key concerns looming over future budget years: the eight additional firefighters; minimal free cash; rising energy costs; other post-employment benefits (OPEB), such as retiree health insurance; and Whitman-Hanson Regional  School District, the low per-pupil spending for which he termed “an embarrassment.”

“We are going to reach a solution in the near future,” he said. “So be prepared.”

By  Tracy F. Seelye, Express editor
editor@whitmanhansonexpress.com

HANSON — The historic Nathaniel Thomas Mill on Liberty Street has a “starring role” in an upcoming short horror film titled “Blood Martini.”

Filmed on location Saturday, Sept. 6, the film’s climatic scene uses the mill as the dramatic setting to examine the what-if scenario of a man’s present-day encounter with a mysterious woman from the past who was wrongly accused during the Salem witch trials.

Weymouth filmmaker Bill Jacques and Abington author Kristen Good based the script on her short story, “The Re-Acquaintence,” first published 20 years ago in horror magazine, Midnight Zoo.

With filming complete and editing expected to be finished by Oct. 11,  Jacques is planning to enter the work several short film festivals, including the Providence Film Festival in Rhode Island, the Taos (N.M.) Short Film Festival, Screamfest and the Los Angeles Show Your Shorts film fest.

“We wanted to keep it under 20 minutes,” he said of the film. “If it gets longer, it’s harder to enter in short film festivals. We will also do a movie release party for the public and investors at a local venue.”

Jacques has acted, written, directed, cast, contributed to or done production work on more than 60 films in the past eight years.

“We wanted to delve into the possibility of what might happen if a beautiful, mysterious woman from the past — who was wrongly accused of being a witch in Salem — was able to come back to the present to seek revenge on the man who was responsible for her death hundreds of years ago,” Good said of the project’s genesis. “The story touches on reincarnaton, the occult and revenge.”

Actors Cate Carson of Boston and Harry Aspinwall of Cambridge were cast as the protagonists, which left the question of location. That’s when Jacques contacted Good.

“Bill has always been a fan of my photos,” Good recalls. “He says he likes my ‘eye for the creepy,’ [and] when it came down to shooting the final scene for the film, the only thing that was holding them up was where to shoot it.”

After a few weeks of scouting possible locations including Middleboro and Bridgewater, Good — who is known for her research on and photos of the Bridgewater Triangle — had an idea. She grew up in Hanson, so the Nathaniel Thomas Mill came to mind and, once there it inspired the filming of additional scenes at the location.

“I knew it would be exactly what Bill was looking for,” Good said. “We used the woods behind the mill as an afterthought on the day of filming. [They] had that spooky, mysterious look we were looking for that almost called out to us — so we went with it.”

Salute for native son

WHITMAN — The town will honor Army Paratrooper Maj. Michael J. Donahue, a Whitman native who was killed on Sept. 16 by a suicide bomber in Kabul, Afghanistan during his third deployment.

Selectmen on Tuesday, Sept. 30, voted to hold a memorial ceremony to honor Donahue, a graduate of the Whitman-Hanson class of 1990.

Donahue, 41, was with an 82nd Airborne unit out of Fort Bragg, N.C. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery on Tuesday.

The town ceremony will be held on Sunday, Oct. 19 at 4 p.m. in Whitman Park, near the pond and All-Wars Memorial.

Town Administrator Frank Lynam said he met with state Rep. Geoff Diehl, R-Whitman, on Tuesday about organizing a ceremony.

Lynam said Peter Brown, a classmate of Donahue, has offered to help coordinate the event, as has Aaron Richardson, commander of the VFW, and Christie Coombs, whose husband Jeffrey Coombs died in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

“We as a community would like to honor him,” Lynam said. “All of the pieces are coming together.”

Selectmen Tuesday also voted to invite the state’s constitutional officers as well as Whitman’s state and federal legislative delegations to the cermony.

Whitman police, fire and other departments will also support the program, including  honor guards.

Lynam said the memorial could draw 100 people or several hundred people, and is an appropriate way to honor Donahue.

“He’s been away from Whitman for a long time, but he’s a native son,” he said.

End of Winterfest

Richard Rosen, chairman of the Winterfest Committee, on Tuesday told selectmen that the committee has voted unanimously to end Winterfest after two decades.

“Mr. Chairman, times have changed. Things have changed. All good things must come to an end,” he said.

Rosen said the Whitman Winterfest celebration started as a one-day event 20 years ago, usually held around the first weekend in December.

The Winterfest Committee worked on a yearlong campaign in connection with Whitman’s 125th anniversary, with the largest parade, held carnivals for 15 years, raised funds for a $125,000 playground in the Whitman Town Park, and held the first-ever Whitman First Night this past New Year’s Eve.

Selectman Daniel Salvucci praised Rosen and the committee and said they made Whitman a better place.

Selectman Brian Bezanson said he thought Winterfest would expand and he was bummed out to hear it is ending.

“It caught me by surprise. I didn’t expect it,” he said.

Selectman Lisa Green commended Rosen’s and the committee’s dedication and said she is sorry to see Winterfest go.

Selectmen Tuesday voted to approve a request by Rosen to hold another Whitman First Night ceremony, to be held this New Year’s Eve.

Chest compressor 

Selectmen voted to sign off on an application for a $499,000 Community Innovation Challenge grant application to purchase 37 Lucas chest compression machines to be spread across 18 Plymouth County fire departments, including Whitman.

Fire Chief Timothy Grenno, who requested the measure, said the $4-million grant program is administered through the governor’s office and is for innovative projects that combine services or purchases of capital equipment.

Grenno said he spoke with his brother fire chiefs and they looked to a group purchase for equipment to help patients who are suffering from a cardiac arrest.

The Lucas chest compression machine straps around the chest of a patient, and compresses at the proper rate and depth, he said.

“It’s proven. It’s tested,” he said. “It increases, up to 88 percent, the chance of survival for patients who suffer from pre-hospital cardiac arrest.”

Security fence 

Selectmen approved a building alteration requested by Police Chief Scott Benton to insert black or privacy slats into a 440-foot fence around the police station, to prevent people outside from viewing the parking lot. Part of the fence damaged during snow plowing will also be repaired. The low bid for the project was $4,000.

Benton said a police supervisor brought the idea up during a monthly command staff meeting, noting that a number of police officers were concerned about the security of the parking lot.

“If it’s serious enough for them to come to me, I’m going to pitch it,” he said. “A safe work environment for the men and women over there is what they want.”

The chief said a lot goes on in the area, with prisoners being brought in, and lots of sport teams and people coming in and going out.

Benton said people tease officers about a police car that was in a crash that is parked in the lot.

He said the department gets undercover vehicles from the district attorney’s office that are parked there.

“Bad guys do surveillance, just like the good guys do,” he said.

Benton said the town had a bank robbery. The suspect or suspects knew the police and personal vehicles and shifts of Abington and Whitman officers, he said.

He also mentioned that the  ambush of two Pennsylvania state troopers, took place after an assailant — still being sought — watched for two months and figured out the troopers’ schedules.

Salvucci said he stopped at a number of police stations during a recent trip with his wife to the Cape Cod Canal, and he could not see into the parking lots of at least six police stations along the way.

“When we had that station built, I don’t know why we didn’t think of that,” he said.

Lynam said community policing was the focus when the police station was built in 2008 and 2009.

However, community policing has changed since then, he said, although Whitman police continue to engage and interact with the community, walk around, and in good weather bike around the community.

There is a different group of people out there now, and in this electronic age, it is not hard to figure out who is in the vehicles, Lynam said.

“I thought, ‘are we trying to wall out people and build a fortress?’ But it makes sense,” he said.

A boost in free cash

HANSON — When voters meet in special Town Meeting Monday, there will be more free cash than previously forecast available to fund some of the 42 articles on the published warrant.

Available free cash amounts to $1,446,878 — for this year, anyway.

One of the articles where that free cash spike will help concerns roof replacement costs for the slate roof section at Indian Head Elementary School. The town will now seek a vote at special Town Meeting that $170,000 come from free cash and the remaining $680,000 be funded by a one-year capital exclusion to Propostion 2 1/2.

Town Administrator Ron San Angelo announced during the Tuesday, Sept. 30 Selectmen’s meeting that free cash numbers are “significantly higher as a result of  a lot of hard work from varous department heads.”

Town Moderator Sean Kealy suggested San Angelo produce a flyer outlining the free cash situation for voters at the Special Town Meeting, which convenes at 7:30 p.m., Monday, Oct. 6 at Hanson Middle School Auditorium. San Angelo said he plans to make a presentation about the free cash situation at the start of the meeting.

The town usually enters October’s special Town Meeting with between $600,000 to $800,000 available in the free cash line.

San Angelo said the higher free cash amount is not due to taxes being increased too much, but rather to stepped up efforts to collect back taxes owed to the town.

“One of the main reasons … is the great deal of work done between my office, the treasurer-collector’s office and all the land use and health departments collecting back taxes,” he said. “I wish we had this every year [to work with], but this is sort of a nice, one-year bonus for us. … A lot of it was from one large development a lot of people worked hard on.”

About $398,000 was from back tax collections and another $104,00 was from interest on the back taxes. A rise in the number of inspection permits has also helped as have savings on insurance.

San Angelo also credited Assessor Lee Gamache with her work on a new method of doing supplemental taxes over the past few years. As a new development project, such as condominiums, is constructed the assessed value increases with progress on the project, he explained. The result of that work has been an additional $86,000 in free cash.

“That’s taxable revenue on that improvement,” San Angelo said. “Our assessor has been working hard to collect those supplemental revenues to make sure we get that growth as it occurs.”

When the school roof articles are reached at Town Meeting, an article to repair the slate roof at Indian Head School will be passed over in favor of one to replace it on the recommendation of the Schools Repair Priority Committee. Selectman  Bruce Young, who chairs that committee said the move will be fully explained to voters at the special Town Meeting.

The $170,000 from free cash, if approved, would permit the roof project to begin before any ballot vote on a capital exclusion takes place — most likely on the design phase and formulation of bid documents.

A vote at Town Meeting to send a capital exclusion to the ballot requires a simple majority because it is not a debt exclusion funded by town borrowing, which would need a two-thirds vote. Debt exclusions funded via borrowing by the regional school district, as would have been the case for a new school, also requires a simple majority at  Town Meeting.

Resident Joseph O’Sullivan asked if any funding for the roof prooject from the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) in involved. Repair Committee members present stressed that MSBA’s accellerated repair funds would be available if the problem was limited to the roof. Any other problems in need of repair disqualifies a school from consideration.

In other business, Selectmen again continued a public hearing on a gravel removal permit sought by the Great Cedar  Cattle Feeders Inc., of Halifax at bogs they own at Richardson Street and Pierce Avenue until an Oct. 21 meeting. The continuance is aimed at providing time for the farm and bog abutters to work out conditions under which the operation would be acceptable to both sides.

Panthers on a tear

Antonio Centeio (11), Kyle Nehiley (19), Nick Haley (22) and Brian Barry (13) celebrate Haley’s goal vs East Bridgewater. Later in the game, Brian McGahan (7), upper right notched a hat trick as teammates including Ben Maines (21) and Centeio join in the congratulations. Below, Jared Pendrak makes his way to a goal.
Photos by Sue Moss

Jim Barrington is in his last season at the helm of the Whitman-Hanson Panthers Boys Soccer program. After a recent absence from the MIAA Tournament, the Panthers and Barrington look for a return to the state’s biggest stage of competition — a great send-off for their coach. Brian McGahan and company sparked a second half breakout, shutting out the East Bridgewater Vikings 5-0 on Sept. 25 — then followed with another explosive performance on offense to top Quincy 5-3 Monday night. In the first half Whitman-Hanson and East Bridgewater battled it out, with bodies flying and tempers flaring, and went into the locker room at half tied 0-0. McGahan came out of the gate early, scoring in the 44th minute off a Kyle Nehiley assist. Two minutes later the Panthers struck again as Nick Haley blasted a goal from thirty feet out, giving Whitman-Hanson a 2-0 lead. McGahan had the assist on Haley’s goal. “Brian (McGahan) played his heart out tonight and led this team to a well dissevered and hard fought victory” an electric Barrington spoke of McGahan. “His hat trick was the first Whitman-Hanson hat-trick in over ten seasons for the program, showing the magnitude of his performance tonight.” In the 55th minute McGahan netted his second goal of the night. During the 64th minute the Panthers added yet another goal as Jared Pendrak netted his first score of the season, giving the Panthers a 4-0 lead. Pendrak’s goal came on a strong cross from Brian Barry, adding to the strong showing by the junior class.    Minutes later McGahan netted the hat trick off an assist from senior Jack Bannon, who started the game as the goalkeeper. Bannon, along with sophomore goalkeeper Connor Keene split the shutout, proving that the Panthers goalie situation hasn’t dwindled after the graduation of all-star goalkeeper Jason Malloy, who is now serving as an assistant coach for the Panthers. “With this victory, we are inching closer to our goal of making the tournament, and we are a team on a mission, and its hard to stop the momentum we are gaining” added Barrington on his team’s performance thus far this season. Whitman-Hanson defeated the Quincy Presidents Monday, Sept. 29, 5-3 at Veterans Stadium in Quincy, improving to 5-3-2 overall and 4-3-2 in the Keenan Division of the Patriot League. The Panthers first goal was scored by Pendrak off an assist by Antonio Centeio. Quincy tied the game on a goal by Yuri Mascarenhas at the 22nd  minute. The Panthers then went ahead at the 28th minute on a goal by Tom Chmura assisted by Centeio. W-H scored again with five minutes left in the half with a goal by Centeio. The Panthers led 3-1 at the half. At the 6-minute mark, they scored on a goal by Haley assisted by Ben Mains. Nehiley scored the final goal for W-H assisted by Jared Pendrak. Quincy scored on a penalty kick at the 23rd minute by Yuri Mascarenhas. Yuri also scored the final Quincy goal at the 28th minute. W-H tied last week against Plymouth North, 1-1. The Panthers got on the board at the 11th minute on a goal by Haley, assisted by Pendrak. Plymouth North tied the game at the 30th minute on a goal by Nick Greely. Both teams had numerous opportunities but couldn’t break the tie.