Whitman-Hanson Express

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Budget, online troubleshooting mulled

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HANSON — Selectmen discussed ways to organize discussions between them, Town Administrator Michael McCue, Whitman officials and the School Committee to better coordinate budget planning.

“As a board, we’re concerned and we don’t want to keep repeating that pattern,” Selectmen Chairman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said of “not necessarily productive” talks during the fiscal 2020 budget process.

“I think that we are going to need to have a conversation with the schools very, very soon in terms of that coordination but in terms of what they foresee their future to be and what their funding needs are,” McCue said. “The numbers we gave them this year is not sustainable going forward.”

The town is also mulling a Citizen Online Reporting System, similar to one already in place in Whitman, for residents to report problems such as potholes in need of repair.

“You could just go online and put that little report in there and it gets divvied out to the right person,” said FitzGerald-Kemmett.

McCue has reached out to Whitman officials, through the town’s IT director, to ask about how the system works there and will report back how the system works, cost and level of input sought under the program.

“The Whitman application seems to be pretty broad in terms of what you can send in,” McCue said. “I’m not necessarily saying the town of Hanson doesn’t want that, but I don’t want to just make that assumption.”

McCue said he doesn’t think there is much of a price difference based on the kind of input a program is open to, but he added a better understanding of cost and parameters is needed before Selectmen should be asked to make a decision.

“If you get too deep into, maybe, a complaint process — you don’t necessarily want that sort of stuff coming in anonymously,” McCue said.

Selectman Matt Dyer, who said he has a “little bit of experience with point-click-fix” applications through his job as a state employee in Brockton, working closely with that city’s DPW and other city officials, he said residents are required to log in to make reports.

“It’s not only to keep out comments and complaints, but it also allows municipal workers to get in touch with them and say, ‘I don’t see the problem here, can you give me more guidance,’” Dyer said. “It works really well and, I know  … not everyone but a good majority of them are very happy with the service.”

FitzGerald-Kemmett said that kind of feedback is helpful for the board to hear.

“It’s in keeping with one of the goals this board has set, which is better outreach, better access to our citizens … having more of that open dialog and open line and I thought, ‘what have we got to lose by looking at it,’” she said.

Lite Control property accepted

In other business, Selectmen also voted to accept the Lite Control property, and authorized FitzGerald-Kemmett to execute relevant documents in her capacity as chairman. A cell tower on the property would not translate into additional revenue for the town because it is under a 30-year lease under a one-check deal with Lite Control that did not include residual payments.

“We shall look at that property for potential revenue opportunities,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “The irony of this [signing] is not lost on me, the one person [on the board] who dissented against it,” she laughed. “I will do the job that I have been elected to do.”

Selectmen Jim Hickey said that consideration had been behind his request to delay the board reorganization.

Marijuana meeting

Selectmen discussed the lack of notice some residents felt was given to an informational meeting held by a recreational marijuana cultivation facility at Town Hall recently, which some felt was inadequate.

Board members noted the state only requires that proponents announce the session in a legal ad in the local paper, which the applicants did. McCue is also urging that another meeting be held at the Council on Aging as a way to get the message out better, as well as organizing a cable television program on it.

“We are helping to facilitate this process, but it is not our process,” McCue said. “These meetings are incumbent on the proponent, they’re no meetings that are being promoted by the Board of Selectmen or the town of Hanson.”

Justin Evans wins big in Whitman

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Whitman voters signaled they are ready for youthful change tempered with experience, as they elected 29-year-old Justin Evans, and re-elected incumbent Brian Bezanson, to the Board of Selectmen Saturday, May 18.

The debt exclusion question passed 746 to 522. More than 1,400 Whitman voters — 13.65-percent of the town’s 10,420 eligible voters — cast ballots in the Town Election.

In Hanson, where there were no contested races on the ballot, and some offices had no listed candidates, turnout was extremely light, with only 228 registered voters casting ballots Saturday.

Evans, a member of Whitman’s Finance Committee who had been campaigning hard both door-to-door and on social media since January, was the runaway top vote-getter in the race for Selectman, receiving more than 200 votes in all four precincts — for a total of 1,024 votes.

“I think it’s a direct result of that,” Evans said of his campaigning, saying he got the feeling people were craving change.

He garnered 266 votes in Precinct 1; 248 in Precinct 2; 253 in Precinct 3 and 255 in Precinct 4. Bezanson received 604 votes — 158 in Precinct 1; 157 in Precinct 2; 155 in Precinct 3 and 132 in Precinct 4.

“It’s a crazy-good feeling,” Evans told reporters after the votes were announced by Town Clerk Dawn Varley. “I had never run for anything before, not student council — nothing. To have the confidence of voters really means a lot.”

Finance Committee member Chris DiOrio finished in third place, receiving 453 votes — 110 in Precinct 1; 114 in Precinct 2; 117 in Precinct 3 and 109 in Precinct 4. Incumbent Selectman Scott Lambiase received 434 votes — 133 in Precinct 1; 101 in Precinct 2; 96 in Precinct 3 and 104 in Precinct 4.

“Justin ran a tremendous race and I think the numbers bear it out,” DiOrio said of the four-way race for two seats on the Select Board. “I think [the vote margin] speaks volumes about his campaign and what he did. … I think the change in composition will do the board well.”

Evans pointed to a wish by voters to see new faces serving on the Board of Selectmen for his ballot-topping win. He expressed gratitude to the voters for passing the debt exclusion as well, as it helps free up funds for police, DPW and school department vehicles as well as badly-needed road repairs.

Evans wants to see some new approaches to zoning, especially with an eye toward development around the MBTA station.

“I’m happy for the debt exclusion,” said Finance Committee member Chris DiOrio, who fell short in his race for Selectman, arguing that a Proposition 2 ½ override probably should have been sought first. “I hope that we’ll be able to use it correctly.”

Bezanson, who had expressed cautious optimism about his chances earlier in the afternoon, said he was not completely surprised at the outcome.

“Mr. Evans ran an incredible race,” Bezanson said. “He did the leg-work, because he was out there. … I’m thrilled to be back on the board.”

The next step for the town is to complete Town Meeting, adjourned until June 17 after the face of the debt exclusion on Saturday’s ballot was clear.

“This vote with the debt exclusion helps that, and then we have to start preparations for a possible fall Town Meeting,” Bezanson said. “I’m very happy that it passed. I’m not one for raising taxes, but this was the right time for the right reasons.”

Earlier in the day, DiOrio indicated he would look on a third-place finish with a degree of satisfaction, but he also said elections should be about issues and expressed bitter disappointment that that was not always the case in this election.

“I would have gladly engaged any candidate on the issues here, but frankly, it wasn’t allowed to happen,” he said, noting that the range of votes cast for himself, Bezanson and Lambiase was indicative of uncertainty on the part of voters.

“I think the [decision] on the second spot was hard for people to make,” DiOrio said. “I think there might have been a little bit of a turn over the last two weeks. People may have been going back and forth about what they wanted to do and where they wanted to go.”

A relative newcomer in town, DiOrio said his finish could be viewed positively and he has not yet decided whether he will seek elective office again.

“I’m not from this town, but I am for this town, and that’s why I stood up and ran,” he said. “Perhaps it gives me a foundation for the future.”

“I think they were looking for some change, but, yet, they wanted stability, so I was thinking Evans — where he’s got some new ideas — and Brian — where he’s got some stability — I think that’s how it went,” said Selectmen Vice Chairman Dan Salvucci, who backed Bezanson in the race.

The remaining races on the Whitman ballot were uncontested. For School committee in Whitman, — with two seats being filled — incumbent Dan Cullity received 875 votes and newcomer Dawn Byers garnered 1,036 votes. Incumbent Carol O’Brien received 1,115 votes as assessor. The two DPW Commissioner seats went to incumbent Kevin Cleary, with 986 votes and Bruce Varley with 965 votes. Incumbents Roberta Ellis-Drews, with 1,019 votes, and Lauren Kelley was elected with 1,111 votes, were re-elected to the Board of Library Trustees.

Katherine A. Kelleher was re-elected to the Housing Authority wit 1,043 votes. A one-year seat on the Planning Board went to Adam Somerville, who received 1,091 votes and a two-year seat went to Elaine Bergeron with 1,098 votes. Eric Joubert was re-elected to the Board of Health with 1,086 votes.

Hanson officials receiving votes to return to office were: Moderator Sean Kealy — 204; Selectman Kenneth Mitchell — 197; Town Clerk Elizabeth Sloan — 215; Cemetery Commissioner Kelly Woerdman — 180; Planning Board member Don Ellis — 175; Housing Authority member Teresa Santalucia — 200;  Tree Warden Davis Hanlon — 192; Public Library Trustee (vote two) Dianna McDevitt — 192 — and Pamela Fager — 153; W-H School Committee members (vote two) Christopher Howard — 189 — and Michael Jones — 190; Water Commissioners (vote two) Donald Howard — 191 — and Gilbert Amado — 186. Scattered write-in votes were cast for a four-year seat on the Housing Authority, the Board of Health and assessor — races for which no candidate took out papers.

Hanson housing plan OK’d

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HANSON — Selectmen and the Planning Board voted, in a joint meeting on Tuesday, May 21, to approve a Housing Production Plan aimed at increasing the availability of affordable housing in town.

The Board of Selectmen also approved a grant application to fund an electric vehicle charging station at Town Hall.

Town Planner Deborah Pettey and consultant Judi Barrett with Barrett Planning Group LLC of Plymouth and Thomas Thibeault, executive director of the Hanson Housing Authority met with Selectmen to review what the Housing Production Plan would mean for the town.

“We all have some responsibility in talking to the public about what housing need means,” said Barrett. “There are seniors in this community who are really poor, who are barely holding on to the homes that they have. You have single parents in this community who grew up here, who are barely holding on to what they have. … It’s your community, it’s a nice town, so help your neighbors.”

Selectman Matt Dyer had asked how low income housing is actually defined in light of the stigma attached to the phrase, as well as what the town should look into for investing new funds resulting from the program. Pettey said an affordable housing trust is an option as well as investment in infrastructure.

The median income for Hanson is about $98,000 — with affordable housing income guidelines at 80 percent of median, that puts Hanson at about $65,000 per year for a family of four in this region.

Barrett explained that the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development adopted a regulation several years ago urging towns to create such a plan, with the incentive that such plans could earn towns a break from requirements that they approve Chapter 40B comprehensive permits.

“If you have a plan and you’re producing new, affordable housing, you become eligible for the ability to take a break,” Barrett said. “It could be very helpful to you, especially if you’re going to start seeing more comprehensive apartment activity in your community, it might be nice to have a plan that communicates to land owners and developers that this is what the town would like to see and to get credit for production that might keep something you don’t want away.”

The plan includes a housing needs assessment, including demographic and economic growth information; Chapter 40B information, a state law that establishes a regional fair-share standard designating 10-percent of a town’s housing stock as low or moderate income; and implementation strategies.

“The Housing Production Plan says if you’re working toward that 10 percent and you’re doing it in a fairly systematic way — in your case, are you creating at least 18 new units a year of low to moderate income housing — then you get some credit for that, which might mean you get a break from having to deal with a lot of comprehensive permit activity,” Barrett said. The plan is intended to ask the community, which is predominantly single-family homes, what type of housing it would be willing to consider in order to create low income housing and where it should be located.

Hanson’s affordable housing stock runs at about 4 percent, which is not unusual for a small town, according to Barrett.

Now that the two local boards have approved the Housing Production Plan, the state will consider approval. The plan also includes a provision that, should 40B development increase school costs above taxes generated by that development, the town would be eligible for additional aid to the schools, according to Barrett. While not every town receives it, that brings in $350,000 per year for the town of Lakeville and $100,000 in Lunenburg.

Housing Authority member Teresa Santalucia said several groups in town also back the Housing Production Plan, including the CPC and Housing Authority.

Charging station

Pettey also reported to Selectmen that a grant from National Grid, which is almost automatically approved, would provide the town $25,000 for the installation of two charging stations for electric vehicles. The stations would be located on the upper parking lot at Town Hall.

“It’s a rebate,” Pettey said. “The town would get reimbursed for it.”

There will be four plugs, two on each station. The town can charge $1 per hour to people seeking to charge hybrid or electric cars there. A fund would be set up, into which  to funnel the charging revenue, for the payment of network fees.

Dyer said Green Hanson members are “ecstatic” about the plan.

“If we can lead the way and have that, it would be great. It sends a good message,” said FitzGerald-Kemmett, who added that she is considering purchasing an electric car.

Town Administrator Michael McCue said the Green Communities program is also moving toward electric vehicles for town-owned purchases they support.

Selectmen also approved a bylaw last year requiring the town to replace most of its vehicles with electric vehicles going forward.

Planning Board member Joe Campbell said cellphone apps can be set up to ping the location of the charging station for motorists seeking one.

“It’ll become pretty popular, if it’s PR’d the right way over these apps that they have out there,” he said.

WFD’s Feeney set to retire

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WHITMAN — When Deputy Fire Chief Joe Feeney retires from Whitman Fire on July 7, his final shift will mark the end of a 32-year career with the department.

Appointed to the department by former Chief Timothy Travers in June 1987, rising through the ranks to be appointed as deputy chief in 1999, Feeney got his start in firefighting while he was a member of the merchant marine.

“Joe is a great asset to our department and to our operations,” Fire Chief Timothy Grenno told the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday, May 14. “His retirement is going to leave a large void, which will not only be felt by me, but all the members of our department. Joe has been an outstanding firefighter and deputy fire chief.”

A retirement party is planned for June 22 at the Whitman VFW pavilion, with tickets available at the fire station.

Feeney is a person who tries to avoid that kind of fuss, but he’s going to get one, anyway.

“[After] 32 years in, I think enough’s enough,” he said while sitting in the dispatch room on a recent 24-hour shift, but he always liked the job. “Most days are like the best day on the job. I always like the people I’ve worked with — every guy here is great and it feels like you’re playing for a winning team.”

He said relaxation is not a specific retirement plan.

“This is relaxed right now,” he said of downtime between calls. “I have a couple of things I’m working on.”

If Feeney is reticent about his résumé, his superior officers have been just as effusive.

“It’s going to be hard shoes to fill,” Grenno said of Feeney’s departure. “He’s done some tremendous things and his knowledge, his sense of humor, his wit is going to be sorely missed by all of us.”

Lt. Al Cunningham, who tops the civil service list will succeed Feeney as deputy chief, according to Grenno. Cunningham and Feeney are working together on Tuesday inspection rounds.

“Joe’s had some of the more significant fires that we’ve had in town,” Grenno said. “[He] has seen his share of grief and terror and he has seen his share of happiness around here with births in the field.”

He was the shift officer for the Commercial Street fire last winter, as well as a fire that had broken out a month before the new high school opened as well as “some of the more tragic events in town” including fatal car crashes.

For Grenno, knowing when Feeney is on shift means he can relax when he is off duty.

Feeney did not come from a family of firefighters, and describes his career path as something akin to a beneficial accident.

“In that profession, everyone had to learn firefighting,” Feeney said of his stint as a merchant marine, and he received that training while a cadet at the Mass. Maritime Academy. “I never thought that much about it, although I had been in a couple of ship-board fires and we just did our job like we were trained — it didn’t seem like a big deal.”

He was working in the field for three years after graduating and was looking for a steadier paycheck because the merchant marines offered sporadic employment. Someone suggested he take the fire exam and he thought that sounded like a good idea.

“My ultimate goal, believe it or not, was to get on the Boston [FD] fire boat, which might be one of the most boring jobs in the world, if you ask the guys who work up there,” he recalled. “But it looks cool.”

After taking the fire exam, he was called by Whitman, where he lived at the time. A native of Brockton, Feeney’s parents had moved to Whitman when he was in college.

“Tim Grenno’s father called me in and I signed for him,” Feeney said. The elder Grenno was retiring and he wanted the incoming Chief Travers to meet with Feeney. Travers sent Feeney to the Mass. Fire Academy after hiring him on and, by the time he had a spot at the academy, Feeney had been working for the department for almost a year.

“He was the first firefighter that I hired,” Travers recalled. “Joe was very well educated and [he] came in on the job with a bachelor’s degree and, in those days not too many firefighters had advanced degrees. I was impressed by that.”

Feeney and Robert Holver were the first two Whitman firefighters to go through the Mass. Fire Academy, where local academies had been used before that time.

He topped the lieutenant’s test after about 10 years, went to grad school for a master’s degree in fire science from the University of New Haven — the first Whitman firefighter to hold an advanced degree, Travers said — and attended the National Fire Academy where he was certified as an executive fire officer as well as obtaining local chief officer certification from the state academy. He holds about a dozen other certifications in fire prevention and inspections.

He then topped the deputy chief’s exam, a rank he has held in Whitman for 20 years.

“He’s a no-nonsense type of guy,” Travers said. “He didn’t get wrapped up in the politics in the fire department. Joe stayed on his own, did his own thing, did his job, and did it well.”

Travers said that after his retirement, Feeney probably could have had the fire chief’s job if he wanted it.

“I’m quite sure he didn’t want it,” he said.

Over his career in firefighting, Feeney has seen big changes in emergency medical services (EMS), which comprise two-thirds of emergency calls into the department these days. Different construction types now in use also present challenges as builders use lighter, cheaper materials, he said.

“They seem to behave poorly during a fire,” Feeney said, noting some of the materials also present health concerns for firefighters. “Some of the glues, some of the materials, the furnishings, are giving off bad chemicals that end up on us or in us — even with good equipment on.”

He echoed Grenno’s concern about cancer prevention.

“There’s a lot of cancer awareness in our job, more on restricting where in the station you can go with turnout gear that’s been exposed to smoke and fire,” Feeney said. “We keep it all basically in the apparatus floor or in the wash area.”

Responses to drug overdoses and mental illness issues are also more numerous today.

“I think, when I first started, we went to one heroin overdose a year and now we go to one a week — maybe more,” Feeney said.

“We meet people at their worst, sometimes it’s the worst day of their life,” Feeney said. “So you have to be kind of thick-skinned and don’t take it with you. … When you take the job, you know that’s going to happen and as long as you’re mentally prepared …”

Evans, Bezanson win in Whitman

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Whitman voters signaled they are ready for youthful change tempered with experience, as they elected 29-year-old newcomer Justin Evans, and re-elected incumbent Brian Bezanson, to the Board of Selectmen Saturday, May 18.

The debt exclusion question passed 746 to 522. More than 1,400 Whitman voters — 13.65-percent of the town’s 10,420 eligible voters — cast ballots in the Town Election.

Evans was the runaway top vote-getter, receiving more than 200 votes in all four precincts — for a total of 1,024 votes. He garnered 266 votes in Precinct 1; 248 in Precinct 2; 253 in Precinct 3 and 255 in Precinct 4. Bezanson received 604 votes — 158 in Precinct 1; 157 in Precinct 2; 155 in Precinct 3 and 132 in Precinct 4.

Finance Committee member Chris DiOrio finished in third place, receiving 453 votes — 110 in Precinct 1; 114 in Precinct 2; 117 in Precinct 3 and 109 in Precinct 4.

Incumbent Selectman Scott Lambiase received 434 votes — 133 in Precinct 1; 101 in Precinct 2; 96 in Precinct 3 and 104 in Precinct 4.

The remaining races on the ballot were uncontested.

For School committee in Whitman, — with two seats being filled — incumbent Dan Cullity received 875 votes and newcomer Dawn Byers garnered 1,036 votes. Incumbent Carol O’Brien received 1,115 votes as assessor. The two DPW Commissioner seats went to incumbent Kevin Cleary, with 986 votes and Bruce Varley with 965 votes. Incumbents Roberta Ellis-Drews, with 1,019 votes, and Lauren Kelley was elected with 1,111 votes, were re-elected to the Board of Library Trustees.

Katherine A. Kelleher was re-elected to the Housing Authority wit 1,043 votes. A one-year seat on the Planning Board went to Adam Somerville, who received 1,091 votes and a two-year seat went to Elaine Bergeron with 1,098 votes. Eric Joubert was re-elected to the Board of Health with 1,086 votes.

In Hanson, where there were no contested races on the ballot, and some offices had no listed candidates, turnout was extremely light, with only 137 voters casting ballots by 1:30 p.m. Saturday.

For complete coverage, see the Thursday, May 23 Whitman-Hanson Express.

 

Modernizing the public library

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HANSON — Library Director Karen Stolfer and consultant Ruth Kowal, who has more than 40 years’ experience in both small and large public libraries, presented an informational program on the library’s future at the beginning of the Monday, May 6 Town Meeting. Kowal has also served as the director of administration and finance at the Boston Public Library and was director of the Plymouth Public Library for seven years.

Speaking on behalf of the Library Trustees, Kowal spoke of the library’s future planning effort over the past year. The strategic plan is available for review on the library’s website and paper copies are available.

A public presentation on the library building program will take place at 6:30 p.m., Thursday, May 16 in the Hanson Public Library.

“I grew up when libraries had books, maybe some LPs — I guess they’re called vinyl recordings now — everyone was expected to be very quiet, if you spoke at all,” Kowal said. “You took what you wanted to use home, unless it was a reference book that you were going to use and … it had to be used in the library. Things are very different in libraries now.” Kowal noted that libraries, and how they are now used, reflect the “big changes in our culture and society,” and what the public expects.

“You are fortunate to have a Board of Trustees for the Hanson Public Library, and a library director, who are looking forward and are really looking out for the interests of the citizens of this town and want to ensure that you have excellent library service here,” she said.

Kowal outlined the public survey, focus groups, staff interviews, public “flip chart” sessions and conversations with key stakeholders that have taken place since the trustees contracted with her in January 2018. The state hasbeen assisting with financing that phase of the project. The public was asked how current services could be improved, what additions or changes the public would like to see and how patrons envision the li- brary in five to 10 years.

People still want to be able to borrow books, DVDs and CDs, either by traditional means or digitally, Kowal said. But the number one item on the survey was a request for more programs and classes for all ages. Friendly and knowledgeable staff able to assist with research, technology use or to just recommend a “good read,” was also mentioned, as well as access to computers, printers, internet access and other technology. Delivery of library materials to homebound residents was also a high priority, as well as expanded partnerships with community organizations and schools were also mentioned as well as expanded hours in a comfortable and welcoming building.

A strategic plan and building program is being developed based on areas in which the public saw a need for improvement. The second phase of the project has focused on the building program.

During the flexible hours they seek, the public wants to be able to be comfortable in spaces and furnishings that can be moved around. Expanded program areas including large and smaller meeting rooms were requested as well as a “contemporary and adaptable power and infrastructure system,” that is more outlets for devices patrons may bring in. ADA compliance and accessibility in an environmen- tally efficient building with strong WiFi capacity along with public access to meeting rooms when the library is closed were also requested.

“The Hanson Public Library is a very attractive building, architecturally, it’s in a great location, but it’s too small to do what people want it to do,” Kowal said. Options for the future include an extensive renovation and expansion to double the space from 8,195 square feet to just under 16,000 or to build a new library in a new location — with the Maquan School and former Plymouth County Hospital sites mentioned. The Senior Center, facing similar space concerns, is also in the midst of a planning process.

Kowal said next steps for the library project would include work with town and state officials on a possible timeline, hiring and architectural firm funded by the Mass.

Board of Library Commissioners and determining a desirable site for a future building as well as a funding plan.

When a grant was applied for to construct the current building, it was denied, so no state grant money was used to construct this building because libraries are required to look out at least 20 years for construction projects.

“The Review Committee felt that the needs assessment was very well done,” read a comment from the committee that reviewed Hanson’s construction grant application at that time. “However, it felt that that library ought to plan and design a new building for the population that is being projected. This library is not planned for 20 years.”

“The Children’s area is not large enough,” said another.

Town Administrator Michael McCue, speaking about a special Town Meeting article funding potential demolition of the Maquan School “when it may make sense.”

A previous consideration for razing only a portion of the building, leaving the gym and cafeterias intact for community use fell victim to consideration of liability and ADA access compliance, said Selectmen Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett, who chairs the Maquan Reuse Committee.

McCue assured voters, while questioning the future of the building during discussion of yet another special Town Meeting article — on repair- ing the senior center floor – that there are no plans to tear the library/senior center building down.

Bottom line on debt exclusion

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WHITMAN — Town Administrator Frank Lynam has announced the funding total involved in the debt exclusion question on the Saturday, May 18 Town Election ballot. Polls are open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Town Hall for Whitman’s Town Election. Hanson votes from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Hanson Middle School in its Town Election.

“Under the Proposition 2 ½ language, a debt exclusion doesn’t contain an amount,” Lynam said. “It only authorizes you to exclude what it takes to make a payment for that year.”

The fiscal 2020 payment on the debt for the police station construction and renovations to Town Hall and the fire station, which is being decided Saturday, is $687,025. A yes vote will authorize the town to raise that amount.

Lynam said the figure represents a tax increase of $129.15 on a median house value of $307,500 — or an average of $10.76 per month.

“It will enable us to address the capital needs we had to leave on the table at our Town Meeting last week,” he said. With the debt exclusion making that debt payment the following funds could be freed up within the levy limit: $329,000 in vehicle purchases; $240,000 in road work; $268,000 in building repairs and $135,800 in security provisions for all of the schools. While that totals more than the $687,025 it provides an opportunity to begin prioritizing the funding of those needs, according to Lynam.

“That money, although on a declining basis, will be available each year, to commit to capital or to reserves as the case may be,” he said. “The override will do much more to correct it, but that’s not what’s happening next week.”

Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski also reviewed the Community Assessment Survey process and how a report on the results are being written up in a report the town will use in future budget planning.

“We placed ourselves in a precarious position this year where we would probably need a heavy override this year,” Kowalski said about funding directed to the school budget at last year’s Town Meeting. “What we did to respond to that was that, in the summer months, we received help from Bridgewater State University to compile a community survey … to lay the foundation for a strategic plan.” He added that the strategic plan would only be as useful as the statement of values the town possesses.“The reason for that community survey was not really to determine how we were going to pay for what we would like to be, it was to give a foundation for what we would like to be,” Kowalski said.

The town has also contracted with the Collins Center at UMass, Boston to draft a capital plan, a draft of which as already been received and sent back for additional work.

“Right before Town Meeting we had a decision to make about what to put on the ballot for the May 18 Town Election, whether it would be a debt exclusion that deals with the debt for the police station and the repairs to the Town Hall and the fire station, a sizeable Proposition 2 ½ override, primarily to deal with the increase in the schools needed in order to do level-service, to do one or either or to do both,” Kowalski said.

Kowalski said the debt exclusion, while not what he had envisioned, made sense so that more discussion and explanation of the override — now planned for October — can be held, to involve more people in its construction and explain the need to residents.

“It’s critical that that override be successful,” Kowalski said. “It’s a place that we need to be [in], a place that’s going to mean and awful lot of work over the summer and early fall.”

STREETLIGHT UPDATE

Assistant Town Administrator Lisa Green and Lightsmart representative George Woodbury explained a wiring problem discovered in streetlights after they had been purchased from National Grid.

A former DPW Director in Lexington, Woodbury wrote the state law that permits towns to buy streetlights from utilities. Whitman’s annual streetlight bill had been $143,000 to $145,000 per year. Purchasing the lights is expected to save the town about $55,000 a year, increasing to more than $100,000 per year with the change over to LED lights. But the wiring problem — underground-rated wires that do not stand up to UV rays were installed by Eastern Utilities Associates and sold to New England Electric Energy Services in 1999, which were bought by National Grid in 2000. National Grid maintains that the streetlights have been sold to the town “as is” when they were confronted by the now-disintegrating wires.

Woodbury said a case taken to the Public Utility Control Commission would take two years to win; right now the MAPC would help the town pay 30 percent of the replacement cost right now. He “leaned on” National Grid, suggesting a dimmer control for which the company could obtain state funding worth another $8,000. Another $27,000 could be saved based on the timing of the light purchase, according to Woodbury, and a lower installation cost for the wiring has been negotiated. The net result would be that most of the cost to replace the wiring would be covered.

Selectmen supported the move.

A woman’s view of a whaling voyage

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WHALING TALE: Storyteller Anne Barrett portrays 19th century sea captain’s wife Mary Chipman Lawrence’s shipboard life for the Hanson Historical Society’s annual din ner Thursday, May 2.

HANSON — All that was missing was the roll of the decks and the sea spray as storyteller Anne Barrett of Topsfield performed her one-woman show, “Life Aboard a Whaling Ship,” for the Hanson Historical Society’s annual fundraising dinner at Camp Kiwanee Thursday, May 2.

In 1856, New Bedford’s Mary Chipman Lawrence and her 5-year-old daughter Minnie joined Lawrence’s sea captain husband Samuel for a three-and-a-half year voyage on the whaling ship “Addison” before the outbreak of the Civil War led to the beginning of the end of America’s whaling industry. Barrett used Lawrence’s journal, published as “The Captain’s Best Mate: The Journal of Mary Chipman Lawrence,” as the basis for her performance.

Readings from the journal were interspersed with Barrett’s performance of sea chanties to bring the journal to life in the presentation funded by the Massachusetts and Hanson cultural Councils.

Mary was one of several whaling captain’s wives who brought boxes of Bibles aboard to distribute to crews, according to the book, “Rites and Passages: the Experience of American Whaling,” by Margaret S. Creighton [1995, Cambridge University Press].

“It is no place for a woman on board of a whaleship,” Creighton’s book quotes “Baltic” Captain James Haviland as saying in 1856.

While wives and children were not always embraced aboard ship, the journal Barrett brought to life presented a happier vision of the experience.

Lawrence’s journal painted a different picture.

“Ship owners and captains would discover there was a benefit tp having a wife and family on board,” Barrett would say as Mary. “It’s said that, sometimes, it had a rather a calming effect on the crews. … I would like to think that the ship and crew and my husband were the better for my being aboard.”

Life, as portrayed here was mundane, often congenial and sometimes comical, as when a sudden wave sent applesauce — made from the fruits of a stopover in New Zealand — flying across the galley floor.

Well, it seemed pleasant to Mary, except for an episode of food poisoning induced from leftover fried pilot fish, crew deaths from drownings while hunting the whales in longboats and harsh weather conditions.

“Often when I heard the sailors singing that song, I longed for my home port of New Bedford, even as I was enjoying the many pleasures of our voyage,” Barrett said after entering the stage singing a song about returning to New England.

As Barrett sat in a parlor chair, a table next to her held a framed photo of Mary and Minnie as well as a candle and a doll like the one for which Minnie sewed clothes as the voyage took place.

There was homesickness to deal with as well as the very real dangers of whaling under sail in the 19th century. Letters, for example could only be set home by way of New Bedford-bound whalers they passed along the voyage.

Stopovers in Maui in what was then known and the Sandwich Islands and Kodiak Island in what is now Alaska and Bristol Bay in the Arctic, prompted Mary’s now-cringeworthy descriptions of native peoples.

“I was much engaged with the appearance of the natives,” she wrote in her journal of the Hawaiians. “I confess that I am disappointed with the appearance of the natives. They are not nearly so far advanced in civilization as I had supposed. The good folks at home tend to hold them up as a model from which we would do well to copy. I do not doubt that there has been a great deal done for them, but there’s a vast deal more to be done to raise them very high on the scale of the world. From what I heard and saw, they are a low, degraded and indolent set.”

She did, however, admit in the journal that the influence of foreign sailors had been bad for the islanders.

One trip to arctic added more than 300 gallons of whale oil to add to 500 gallons already rendered from cetaceans on the journey, as well as whale bone, the baleen from right whales — then selling for the high price of $1.50 per pound — used in corsets and hoops for women’s skirts.

Barrett also outlined how Mary was an active member in the Falmouth Ladies’ Seamen’s Friends Association, which raised funds for furnishing, sewed bedclothes and supplied Bibles at the Sailor’s Home in the Sandwich Islands.

After the “Addison” returned from the voyage in June 1860, Barrett related, Mary Chipman Lawrence would be rolling bandages and knitting socks for the Union Army before the next year was out.

“Large-scale whaling diminished greatly at that time,” she said. “Of course, petroleum was taking over and the government purchased many whaling ships and sank them at the entrance to harbors of Savannah and Charlestown [to blockade Confederate shipping].”

Captain Samuel Lawrence went on to command a steamship for the Union Army, continuing that work after the war. The family later moved to New Jersey and finally Brooklyn. N.Y.

“The many lovely moonlit evenings on the ocean, the sparkling sun on the water, the interesting people we saw, the wonderful sights and the many friends that we made — all of those are memories that have lasted me a lifetime,” Mary wrote.

Barrett remained after the program to answer audience questions about Mary Chipman Lawrence and the program.

Whitman TM adjourns until June 17

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WHITMAN — Voters in a lengthy Town Meeting Monday night approved the $33.4 million fiscal 2020 budget following nearly 90 minutes of deliberation on various line items — with concern centering on town administrative salaries and school budgets.

The session adjourned after voting to pass over Article 29, regarding the amended W-H Regional School District Regional Agreement — due to concern over how Chapter 70 funds would be allocated — with 29 more to be addressed when Town Meeting reconvenes at 7:30 p.m., Monday, June 17 after voters cast ballots on a debt exclusion to fund those articles at the Saturday, May 18 annual Town Election. Town Meeting convened nearly 20 minutes behind schedule, due to the time needed to check in the 369 voters who attended.

Zeroing-out?

Lazel Street resident Marshall Ottina started the budget debate with a request to amend the town administrator salary line to $1, which ultimatelty failed.

The Finance Committee had recommended a $129,000 salary for Town Administrator Frank Lynam, to send a message about what Ottina termed a failure to adequately prepare solutions to Whitman’s financial problems. Lynam’s fiscal 2019 salary is $126,900 and he earned $122,000 in fiscal 2018.

“A year full of negligence and broken promises have brought the town of Whitman to where we are today,” Ottina said. “At Town Meeting last year, and the lead-up to it, the messaging from our town administrator, Board of Selectmen and Finance Committee indicated we were heading to a financial crisis … We face tonight, a year later, departmental budget cuts across the board.”

He also noted that W-H schools, while seeing a budget increase, is still experiencing cuts that will reduce services next year and is losing 19 employees, along with cuts to DPW, public safety and library — among other departments.

“We were told [last year] that an operational override was how we could make these departments whole again,” Ottina said. “And then they sat. Where is our plan for the override?”

Ottina said the money itself is not the problem, he does see the salary as a “failed investment on our part,” charging that Lynam has “offered us less and less” for the salary increases he has received.

Forest Street resident Shawn Kain, however, disagreed with
Ottina’s amendment despite his own long-standing budget disagreements with Lynam.

“I believe that [this] is one of the most important items in the budget,” Kain said. “The town administrator plays a critical role in the budget process. The position should be paid for — for the well-being of the community very much depends upon this individual.”

Kain said it is obvious the community is in a precarious situation and financial crisis, missing “essential best practices to protect us,”

“I thought about this long and hard,” Kain said about the salary issue. “Should we take aggressive action, zero out this line and make demands of the Board of Selectmen? … I don’t think we should and here’s why — the solution to this problem is very complex and will demand cooperation and strategy where there are  logistical differences in plans and policy. It needs to be thorough if it’s going to be done right. It cannot be done by force, it must be willfully chosen by all parties involved, but especially by the town administrator.”

He advocated putting partisan and aggressive politics aside and directly asked Lynam to shoulder the burden and meet the community’s demanding expectations. While noting the large turnout, Kain also recognized the recent tension in the community.

“If you are sitting in this hall, though, you have my respect,” Kain said. “Apathy and a lack of civic engagement is the true enemy. It’s an honor to be here tonight.”

Lynam responded that, while he “doesn’t make a habit of talking about my position or my salary,” the pointed comments prompted him to do so. He said there are things pending to help the town move forward, including last year’s contracting of the Collins Center at UMass, Boston to conduct a capital study and a budget analysis to enable a more thorough and supportable budget could be presented to the town. A draft that had been presented to him on May 1 had to be returned because some basic information was missing, Lynam said.

“If you’re unhappy with my performance, talk to the people who hired me, the Board of Selectmen, but you don’t zero-out a line, you don’t eliminate the possibility of having someone work — that’s just foolish,” he said.

While the salary amendment failed by 257 against to 82 in favor, but the $128,169 salary recommendation also failed 196 against to 156 in favor, until a resident on the prevailing side moved for a reconsideration, which passed by a vote of 259 in favor to 95 against.

Town Clerk Dawn Varley said final vote totals will not be released until after Town Meeting business concludes on June 17.

“I understand, as much as anyone, what’s going on,” said Animal Control Officer Laura Howe, noting that as a part-time employee with no benefits she practically pays the town to work for it. “I have never seen our town so divided in my entire 52 years of life. I am truly saddened and disheartened that we would discuss [zeroing out the salary line]. … Everyone who works for this town is a good person and I don’t know when we started picking up pitchforks and flames. … This man is a good man.”

After the meeting, Lynam said he was not surprised by the attempt to reduce his salary so drastically.

“I know that there was a small group of people who were discussing that,” he said. “It’s really the wrong way to do things. If you’re not happy about the way something’s done you advocate for change, you don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.”

Pay cuts

Finance Committee Chairman Richard Anderson and Fire Chief Timothy Grenno explained that, while union employees are receiving higher pay raises, administrators agreed to take a cut to an increase of only 1 percent to help the town save money.

“All of the department heads voted, because of the situation of the town, we’d take a 1-percent [raise],” Grenno said.

Because of the budget situation, a line item to fund a planned administrative deputy chief at the Fire Department was withdrawn as well, saving the town the planned $130,000 salary.

“There was a lot of discussion,” Anderson agreed. “The discussions were about reining in salaries and this Finance Committee is committed to making sure we make every effort to rein-in salaries. What we propose … is we are hoping that this 1-percent raise is the beginning of other departments and other collective bargaining units to consider reining in future salaries. This is something that the Finance Committee is wholly committed to.”

After Lynam’s salary was passed, challenges to several other administrative and non-union clerical salaries were set aside and those line items were passed.

W-H’s FY 20 budget finalized

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The School Committee on Wednesday, May 1 fell in line with the Whitman and Hanson boards of selectmen and finance committees in voting to certify an 8.5-percent increase in the school assessment for the towns in fiscal 2020.

Both towns held their annual and special town meetings, Monday, May 6.

The 9-1 vote, with member Alexandria Taylor voting against, set the assessment increase in Whitman at $1,127,966 for a total assessment of $14,398,151. Hanson’s assessment increase at 8.5 percent would be $757,634 for a total assessment of $9,670,975. The assessment to both towns is $24,069,146 for a total certified budget of $52,373,023.

Taylor had vowed at the last School Committee meeting, on April 24, that she would not vote an assessment increase that is lower than 12.5 percent.

Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak reminded committee members there will be “people and positions impacted on anything under 12.5.”

Committee member Fred Small said that, in coming up to 8.5 percent, Whitman Selectmen and Finance Committee members were able to find the revenue to reach that level.

“The 2 percent extra is very much appreciated in my mind,” Small said. “While it doesn’t give us level services, what I think it does is it allows us to make the best we can out of a very bad situation. … I don’t know that we could expect anything better.”

He also stressed the need to get right back to work “almost immediately” after Town Elections to begin work on the fall override. That should be a three-pronged approach, Small said — the schools “need to lead our own charge,” improve on ways to save money, and make the public aware of the need for a good override.

“We focused a lot on Whitman in this budget process,” said Committee member Michael Jones of Hanson. “I think we learned last night [at Hanson’s Selectmen meeting] that we skipped over Hanson.”

Szymaniak reiterated that, at 8.5, there has been $1,740,000 cut from the level-service budget presented by the district this past winter. Of that, $897,000 is people and about $290,000 in “things” including legal costs as well as more than $561,000 transferred from excess and deficiency.

“We’re in the process of restructuring what we do here as well,” Szymaniak said. “There will be an impact to service, there will be an impact to technology, there will be an impact to facilities, there will be an impact to central office.”

The district is eliminating middle school foreign language classes and high school guidance services will also feel cuts, according to Szymaniak. All schools will feel the effect of cuts.

“We are looking at making sure that our students are safe and they are being taken care of through our counseling services moving forward,” he said. “In a global economy, our students need to have foreign language. We do not do that well and part of these cuts will have an impact.”

Whitman School Committee candidate Dawn Byers tearfully spoke of her seventh-grade daughter losing her Spanish class next year.

“I stood up a few years ago and advocated for all students to have [foreign language], and next year, they won’t,” she said. “I’m not going to talk about money or decisions I just want people to know what the kids are doing — taking a step back.”

Assistant Superintendent George Ferro stressed that the School District was asked to begin the budget process two months earlier and complied with that request.

“We presented the exact same budget that you see in front of you,” Ferro said, “We didn’t change, we didn’t deviate, we presented the exact same thing. … We presented what we felt was reasonable, was best and was responsible.”

Szymaniak said he is ready to start work immediately after town meetings to put a plan together to satisfy the needs of the school district as well as the towns in a full team approach.

“I’m calling them out and saying, ‘We’ve talked about this for years and, through this whole budget process, we’ve talked about a fall override,’” he said. “It needs to happen and the school needs to be a part of it.”

Data outlining the effect of budget cuts over the past 10 years, which some School Committee members have requested, can help develop a presentation for the community on the need for an override, Szymaniak said.

Small said he is sure the towns’ police and fire departments will be doing the same thing.

“We would all stand together,” Small said. “Our medical calls are up, we’ve got fires that have been devastating over the past few months — so there’s need all around. … We all work together with it, but we need to drive our own bus.”

Whitman Fire Union, whose members had advocated a 6.5-percent assessment to avoid firefighter layoffs in a May 2 ad in the Express, released a statement Thursday in the wake of the School Committee’s vote.

“Whitman Firefighters Local 1769 would like to recognize the Whitman­Hanson School Committee on their vote for an 8.5-percent  assessment for FY20 at last night’s school committee meeting,” the statement read. “We  understand that a lot of work was put into this process and many difficult decisions were made. We  are very passionate about keeping our community safe and a 12.5-percent  assessment would have decimated our department’s staff by 50 percent. … We look forward to working with the Town of Whitman, its residents and the Whitman-Hanson Regional School District over the coming months on a plan to make our community sustainable for ALL departments for many years to come.”                                                                                                                                          

School Committee member Robert O’Brien Jr., said his 15-year-old son is among a growing number of high school students who want a say in the budget process and how it affects them.

“Nobody likes it,” O’Brien said. “Unfortunately, there is not a lot of money to go around. … Starting Tuesday, we have to start pushing on it. … There is an incredible amount of teamwork that goes on behind the scenes that most people don’t see, but now we need to take that and — I guess — politic it, for lack of a better word.”

School Committee Chairman Bob Hayes said a Hanson Selectman told him at that meeting on Tuesday, April 30 that a budget “post-mortem” was needed. He suggested a monthly budget committee meeting be held between the School Committee, department heads, finance committees — in addition to the regular monthly School Committee meetings.

In other business, the School Committee also voted to advise the boards of selectmen and finance committees of the formation of a Budget Committee, which is designed to include representatives of the boards as well as department heads in both towns. The aim is to get to work after the May 6 town meetings on the override project.

The School District also reported receiving a letter from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) declining a request to waive the 180-day school requirement at Conley School where a norovirus affecting large numbers of students and staff forced the closing of that school on March 15.

The last day of school for Conley will be a half-day on June 14, at a cost to the district of $1,820 for bus transportation.

Small requested that the district post the DESE letter on the school website for parents to read.

“There’s a phone number on there, if parents wanted to call,” he said.

The School Committee also appointed Business Services Director Christine Suckow and committee members Taylor, Small, Dan Cullity and Christopher Scriven to an Insurance Committee to review all district insurance policies with an eye to reduce costs in the future.