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Selectmen eye school repairs

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WHITMAN — The Board of Selectmen, on Tuesday, Sept. 11, discussed two requests from the district received in recent days, one pertaining to the failure of an air handle at the Conley School and another seeking additional parking at the Duval School [see related story left] to accommodate increased staff.

The Conley repair has been made on an emergency basis and the district at the next special Town Meeting will seek reimbursement. Both requests will be discussed at the next Selectmen’s meeting.

“The question at the next meeting will be if we consider that, emergency spending,” Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski said of the parking lot expansion, estimated at $28,000 plus $5,000 to move some playground equipment. He agreed the Conley repair met the criteria for an emergency.

Town Administrator Frank Lynam said he understood the need for parking but “really had a hard time identifying that as something that constitutes an emergency.”

Kowalski agreed that the board would have to discuss the issue before deciding whether it would support such an expenditure.

The board again tabled a proposed vote on the WHRSD regional agreement because Selectmen Scott Lambiase and Randy LaMattina were absent. It had been tabled for a vote of the full board once before and was tabled most recently pending more information on amendment procedures.

Selectmen received the School Committee’s Aug. 31 certification vote of the fiscal 2019 budget for $50,523,181 — an increase in the operating budget over fiscal 2018 for Whitman of $1,054,205, the amount voted at the May 2018 Town Meeting.

Dr. Melinda Tarsi of Bridgewater State University has advised Lynam that she and her class have drawn up a first draft of potential questions for the Community Assessment survey, which will be circulated to town boards and department heads for review.

“She felt that seeking additional public input at this time would not be helpful,” he said. “They want to wrap it up [to send it out].”

Kowalski asked for the review to be done in time for Tarsi to attend the Sept. 25 meeting. Lynam noted that, while the community information meeting was helpful for the process, Tarsi had only heard from about 25 people with suggested questions since.

streetlights

Assistant Town Administrator Lisa Green said more information regarding the failure rate, lack of choice for companies that handle the nodes involved and network costs for new street lights has been received.

For example, National Grid charges the same amount whether or not lights are dimmed. There is also a 3 percent failure rate on remote-controlled nodes.

One community using the system is still working to get the nodes, that control the lights remotely, to communicate together after six months.

“That, to me, is an issue,” Green said. “I don’t believe we’re a community that’s ready to deal with that type of an impact … I don’t know if it’s the right choice for us at this time.”

The manual control system has only a 1 percent failure rate, but she asked for consensus of the board.

A rosy retirement blooms

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WHITMAN — When Buds & Blossoms, 531 Washington St., closes its doors for the last time this month, owner Jackie Ferguson says she’ll miss the customers who she has come to know as friends — but it’s time to move on.

“I would like to say thank you to all who supported my flower shop and to all who just came in to visit and to say, ‘Hi,’” she read from a hand-written statement she wrote up to express her gratitude to her loyal customers. “You will be missed, but it’s time to hang up my apron and put my flower scissors away.”

It is time to move on to a retirement filled with family, cooking, hobbies — and flowers. Ferguson will miss working closely with her daughter, Dartha Flaherty, however, with whom she said she had a great working relationship as well as a close mother-daughter bond.

“I’ll still be just around the corner — not going far and I hope to see all of [my friends] in town,” she said, noting she also plans to work around the house and in her garden or getting together with friends. “I don’t know if I’ll have much free time.”

People have come in to ask what she might do with spare time, to which she replies, “I just might enjoy spare time.”

Her plan has been to close the business by Sept. 30, but at the rate she has been selling off, or giving away inventory, that date could be moved up.

“As soon as I put the free sign up, they came,” she laughed. “The girls over there [at the nail shop across the street] came in in droves, which is good. I sold what I could sell and what was left, I just want it to be gone.”

As Ferguson rearranged the remaining vases, she was giving away during the final days of her going-out-of-business sale on Friday, Sept. 14, she took a break to look back on her 24 years at the shop, her career in horticulture and her plans for an active retirement.

She intends to stay home and “putter around my house … cook for my family, have the kids over for dinner.”

As a young woman growing up in Saco, Maine, Ferguson got her start in the business by helping her father plant geraniums in the cemetery boxes that were a large part of his greenhouse business as well as in his garden, as he specialized more in planting than cut flowers. Her garden at home supplied quite a few of the flowers she used when she opened her own shop.

Ferguson’s children all enjoy gardening as well, and all have “lovely gardens” she says.

“I think it’s kind of in our DNA,” she said. While she is fond of sunflowers and carnations, Ferguson said she really does not have a preferred bloom. “I like them all, really.”

Prior to opening Buds & Blossoms, she worked for a flower shop in Abington for 10 years before her husband John suggested she open her own shop.

“We did it together,” she said. “I ran the flower shop and he was still working [as a brick salesman] at the time … but he was very supportive and we had a lot of fun.”

As a florist she says she enjoyed all phases of the business, from weddings and funerals to birthdays and “just because” arrangements. She also enjoyed teaching occasional flower arranging classes at Whitman Public Library.

“I just enjoyed being here,” Ferguson said. “I enjoyed doing crafts before I opened the shop and I just enjoy creating.”

She loves people and didn’t mind if customers came in just to chat rather than to buy.

Ferguson said she had planned to retire next year, but decided the fall was a better time — and she wasn’t looking forward to working around another winter.

Your average tough-as-nails … librarian

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WHITMAN — The most common image that comes to mind with the phrase “missing persons detective thriller” involve Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade or Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer — hard-bitten tough guys who chain-smoke cigarettes and wear felt fedoras and their .38 in a shoulder holster.

A new novel with Whitman roots in its title, “Little Comfort,” introduces a different kind of detective hero. She is Hester Thursby, a Harvard librarian who stands all of four-feet nine inches tall — that’s fourfeet nine and three quarters inches tall — who takes care of her 3-year-old niece, her non-husband Morgan Maguire and a Bassett hound named Waffles. She works on missing persons cases in her spare time.

Hill is scheduled to talk about his book at 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 27 at the Whitman Public Library. He plans to read three excerpts from the book, centering on the three main characters and how they are introduced in the story.

“Hester is tough, she’s smart, she’s resourceful (unlike Rambo, she’s also articulate), but she definitely isn’t feisty,” author Edwin Hill says of his protagonist in his promotional materials. He said he is drawn to character, especially in movies, that are faced with challenging situations with only their own resolve to make it through.

“I like difference,” he said of Hester’s size. “I wanted something to make sure she never blended in.”

It was an Agatha Christie novel he read on a car trip as a kid that hooked him on mystery novels.

“From that moment on, I wanted to be a mystery writer and it only took me 35 years to figure out how to do it,” he said. A failed attempt at publishing a book in the early 2000s left him discouraged until he found the kernel of an idea in the Christian Gerhartsreiter — AKA Clark Rockefeller — a professional imposter who kidnapped his daughter and was later convicted of murder. There are also facets of the Charles Stuart case in “Little Comfort.” By 2012 he was back to writing with an agent by 2014 and selling it two years ago.

His debut novel, released Aug. 28, traces Thursby’s latest case, a handsome, ruthless grifter whose life goal to be accepted as part of the wealthy class who owned the summer lake houses he grew up cleaning. Sam Blaine uses a secret he shares with Gabe DiPuriso, based on an incident out of Gabe’s foster child past. A library is another source of his inspiration.

Hill’s grandmother, Phyllis Hill was the librarian in Whitman from the 1940s to the late ’60s.

“Librarians are really central to a community,” he said. “They really were then, too. She created all kinds of programs at the library that people would take part in and she really helped influence people’s futures.”

Mrs. Hill died in 1994 at the age of 99. Her grandson recalled how people came from all over to her funeral and talked about the influence she had on their lives and how she had always welcomed them.

His parents still live in Whitman, where his dad grew up.

While the book also takes the title from Whitman — once known as the Little Comfort section of Abington — but the story is set in Somerville where he grew up. Hill has a Google alert set up on his home computer for the phrase Little Comfort and has collected some unusual headlines.

“I just loved the name,” he said. “I always knew that my first book was going to be called ‘Little Comfort,’ because it’s such a perfect title for a mystery novel. Then I had to work it into the actual story.”

Backstory

The saying goes that one should write what you know and, just as Robert Cormier set his novels, such as “The Chocolate War,” in Fitchburg and Leominster where he lived and edited the local newspaper, Hill leans on his grandmother’s career in the town of his family’s roots for inspiration.

“When I was drafting, I wrote a lot of scenes of [Thursby] at work, but I really wanted the character to be very isolated, it’s central to the plot that she feels very isolated,” Hill said. “I actually ended up putting her on leave.”

In this novel, the first book in a series, she doesn’t go into work to achieve that feeling of isolation. But the Widener Library and her job there will feature in the second and third books in the series. The fifth book in the series is going to be set on the South Shore.

He said readers should be aware this is a story that involves violence and sex.

“This is not a cozy mystery,” he said. “It deals with some uncomfortable situations.”

A hint can be found in Hill’s inclusion of Hester Thursby’s idea of relaxation — retreating to her own top floor apartment in the multifamily house she owns with Morgan to watch VHS tapes of her favorite movies. Her top 10 titles include “Alien,” “Jaws 2,” “Halloween” and “The Shining” as well as “The Little Mermaid.”

“She loves movies where women overcome extraordinary circumstances,” he said.

He also includes Crabbies — those crabmeat and cheese on an English muffin bites often served at family get-togethers — as part of a suggested menu for book club events. Macaroni and cheese also features as a food of choice for many characters in the book. Whitman groups may also appreciate his suggestion of chocolate chip waffle cookies, which are a tip of the hat to Hester’s beloved canine.

“Anything where you can get crowd sourcing is great,”he said of the recipes.

Does Hill see any of himself in his characters?

“When you write a book of fiction like this, I would say every character is you because they come out of you, and then no character is you at the same time,” he said.

A vice president and editorial director for Bedford/St. Martins, a tech book division of Macmillan, Hill worked on his book early in the morning before work, and in the evenings, at home. But his professional connections would not have helped with a mystery novel, and he was careful not to blur the lines between his profession and avocation in any case.

“It was a long process,” he said of getting published. “You have to be resolved, you have to have grit and you have to be prepared to work through hearing ‘no.’”

After the major hurdle of finishing a book, comes the work of finding an agent, a publisher and, finally, an audience for your book.

That’s where Hill finds himself now. He has hit the road to visit bookshops and libraries in Brookline, Belmont and Whitman as well as New York City and Austin, Texas. On the day he spoke with the Express, he had just done an interview about the book with a Florida-based podcast.

Laughter funds hunt for cure

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They are a family on a mission.

For the past year and a half, Whitman native Mark Chauppetta’s Wheelchair Strong Foundation has spearheaded fundraising efforts in support of Duchenne muscular dystrophy research donations to third-party 501(c) 3 organizations such as the Kingston- based Jett Foundation. Wheelchair Strong has raised more than $30,000 in the last two years for the Jett Foundation, which also raises money for Duchenne research, and a series of 10 grants of $1,000 to families with children with various disabling diseases.

Funds are also used for advocacy.

The three-part goal of the foundation is to raise awareness for Duchenne, help all children that have diseases and to keep his twin sons Troy and Andrew Chauppetta, 23, who suffer from Duchenne, active, participating in life and proving what people in wheelchairs can achieve.

“Wheelchair Strong Foundation wouldn’t be in existence if I didn’t have those two boys … mainly because they are very bright, and they are computer savvy and graduated from [Southeastern Regional] trade school,” he said Friday. “They have degrees in design, visual communications and they know how to write code.”

Troy and Andrew built and manage the foundation’s website wheelchairstrong.com as well as their dad’s private investigations site. They also design graphics for the Wheelchair Strong logo and marketing materials for foundation events, which they also work — selling products from their own business twinteeshirts.com.

“The cool thing about the Wheelchair Strong Foundation is everything we do is entertainment- based,” Chauppetta said. “Everything we do is fun.

… I think laughter and fun and involvement have been the best medicine that Troy and Andrew could have ever had. I think it’s what’s kept them healthy and smiling and laughing and the karma has been amazing for them.”

A big part of that focus on fun has been its annual comedy fundraiser.

Comedy show

The third annual comedy night benefit for the Wheelchair Strong Foundation — Komedy for a Kause 3 — will take the stage Saturday, Oct. 6 at Plymouth Memorial Hall, 83 Court St, Plymouth. A VIP reception with appearances by Boston sports teams legends, will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m., with doors opening to the public at 7 p.m.

Headlining this year is “Police Academy” movie actor Michael Winslow, the “Man of 10,000 Sound Effects.” Also appearing will be Brockton standup comedian Dan Miller, Boston comic Dave Russo, Jerry Thornton of Barstool Sports and newcomer Harrison Stebbins, with Easy 99.1’s Tom Stewart hosting the program.

Chauppetta said The Hollywood Reporter recently ran a story announcing a new “Police Academy” movie is in the works, to feature Winslow and Steve Guttenberg as academy instructors this time out.

Tickets are now on sale at wheelchairstrong.com.

TV puppeteer Paul Fusco, the voice of cat-eating alien “ALF” has recorded a promotional spot for the show, which can be viewed on the wheelchairstrong.com site.

“My youngest, Max, who is 12 is a huge fan of ALFs,” Chauppetta said, so as a private investigator, he decided to find the actor who voiced the Alien Life Form. “I hunted down Paul Fusco, who is the creator and the voice of ALF.”

He found Fusco’s people and was able to get him a message, and agreed to do the 30-second public service announcement, with a picture of ALF seen wearing a Wheelchair Strong T-shirt from Troy and Andrew Chauppetta’s business site twinteeshirts.com.

“It’s been a great success,” Chaupetta has said of the Komedy for a Kause shows. “What I like to do every year is bring in a celebrity from the past. I’m a product of the ’80s, my wife says I’m stuck in the ’80s, I get great joy out of connecting with people, like ALF, from the ’80s.”

Chauppetta also recently sent a Wheelchair Strong Tshirt to iconic ’80s villain in shows and the move “Vision Quest,” Frank Jasper, who has also helped the foundation raise funds. “Sopranos” heavy Steve Schirripa has also been a long-time supporter of the foundation.

“It’s good exposure for us and they like helping out, Chauppetta said. “Anyone who’s seen Troy and Andrew’s story, how could they say no? They’re these motivated boys that believe in ability and not disability.”

Better perspective

The twins drive a van operated with hand-controls that look like something out of a video game, own a business and live life to the fullest, their proud dad points out.

“Probably more so than ambulatory people, because I think they have a better perspective on life because of their disease,” he said. “Their time is limited — they’re 23 years old, they’re defying the odds. They weren’t even supposed to live this long and they are extremely high-functioning, they’re extremely happy, they’re never not smiling.”

Chauppetta said they do have tough moments behind closed doors, but that the family deals with those moments as a family. “They just bring strength to everyone in our life,” he said, noting he always comes back to Whitman as a 1987 graduate of WHRHS and volunteer with the W-H wrestling team and his youngest son attends Hanson Middle School.

“I’m still active in the community here,” he said. A successful pig roast held in July at the Whitman VFW offered an opportunity for advocacy and to outline the foundation’s purpose for the public.

Chaupetta is also working to complete a feature-length documentary titled “A Father’s Fight,” slated for a local premier in January, on his journey as a father struggling to raise handicapped children.

A trailer can be viewed at wheelchairstrong.com for the film that also features Chauppetta and his sons Troy and Andrew, comic Lenny Clarke, Patrick Renna from the move “The Sandlot” and the Netflix series “Glow,” UFC fighter Joe Lauzon and a lot of family and friends. The film follows Chauppetta who, as a 50-year-old dad, trains while struggling with the decision whether he should get back in the UFC ring to raise money for his kids’ illness.

Maquan reuse mulled: Assessment articles to go before TM

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HANSON — Selectmen voted to close and sign the warrant for the Monday, Oct. 1 special Town Meeting, which will include three new articles — two dealing with potential future uses of the Maquan School building.

A half-dozen other agenda items were tabled due to the illness of Town Administrator Michael McCue, including those involving votes on adoption of an Economic Opportunity Area designation for Main Street, a contract with an auctioneer for tax title properties, possible appointment of an IT director, an intermunicipal agreement with East Bridgewater and a committee appointment policy. The items will be added to the Tuesday, Sept. 18 agenda.

Selectmen voted, on McCue’s recommendation, to remove a Highway Department cul-de-sac maintenance article. After the department received quotes for the cost, they determined the project could be funded within the current budget, according to the Selectmen’s Administrative Assistant Meredith Marini.

Replacing the Highway project as Article 10 will be an assessment of the Senior Center, one of the board’s goals recently suggested by Selectman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett.

“This [also] came up in the Maquan Reuse Committee,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “One of the things we’re thinking about is somehow could a portion of Maquan be used for the Senior Center, but of course we don’t want to move forward with that until we have a needs assessment done by the Senior Center and we know what it is they need.”

The article was placed, but no vote has yet been cast on recommending it until a dollar amount is available. Another placement without recommendation pending a dollar amount is one to protect the school building over the winter.

“Mike has now changed the [article seeking funds for] demolition of the Maquan School to securing and winterizing the building and conducting a hazardous [materials] assessment of the school,” Marini said. “We’re not going to do demolition at this time, but we’re going to button it up until some decisions are made regarding the building.”

FitzGerald-Kemmett said the winterizing and assessment article stemmed from a conversation at a recent meeting of the Maquan Reuse Committee based on preliminary work she and McCue have done. Requests for proposals and for possible plans from commercial real estate brokers were not provided and demolition estimates had run between $600,000 and $700,000.

Maquan committee

“None of that sat right with us,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “The more we talked about it, the more we all agreed that, because of where that property is located and the emotional attachment to that school and the property [being] contiguous to the library, senior center and the [Indian Head] school, we really want to maintain control over that property.”

Among the possible uses is keeping the gym/cafeteria area for community use, while razing the rest to use the property for playing fields or accessible playground.

“Fundamentally, it just doesn’t feel right to not try to use some portion of that building,” she said. “Right now the plan is to mothball — winterize — the building so it doesn’t deteriorate.”

FitzGerald-Kemmett noted the town is negotiating with the school district on extending the turnover deadline from Sept. 30 to mid-October.

The senior center assessment could also help in determining how a portion of Maquan could help both the center and library with their space needs.

“I’m really hopeful we’ll have something by spring Town Meeting,” FitzGerald- Kemmett said. “It’s ambitious, but we’re going to try.”

Marini said the estimate for insuring the vacant building was $26,000 and suggested that cost may “put a fire under everybody” to have a recommendation within the year.

“We don’t want it to turn into another High Street situation,” Marini said. McCue has also added an article designating an Economic Opportunity Area as Article 23, which Selectmen voted to place and recommend, after Article 15 — seeking an assessment of the transfer station has also been pulled, this one by the Board of Health, pending an opportunity to meet with Selectmen on the issue.

Remote-control street lighting

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WHITMAN — Selectmen voted to authorize the town to contract for wireless remotely controlled LED streetlights as part of the town’s conversion program on Tuesday, Aug. 28 and is also reviewing a report on liaison assignments.

Both projects were spear headed by Assistant Town Administrator Lisa Green, who reported on them to the board.

Consultant George Woodbury of LightSmart Energy Consulting, LLC is working with the town on the conversion project and has reviewed various LED programs and companies, including the one Selectmen opted for, which permits remote adjustment of the brightness of the lights in specific areas. With the board’s vote, Woodbury is prepared to move toward finding the best, most cost-efficient supplier for the town.

The town’s streetlights have already been mapped via GPS.

“He can look at each particular area and recommend the best wattage design for the streetlight that will meet the needs of that area,” Green said. He also provided preliminary cost figures, and recommended the remote control option.

“In the future it allows the town to do other things as well with the lights, as far as any type of surveillance or policing, so it gives us a lot of opportunities to plan in the future,” she said.

With the grant money the town has received through the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MRPC), National Grid’s incentive programs and Green Communities grants, the system is very affordable for the town, according to Green. The only cost incurred would be a net cost of $14,500 for one-time software costs above the conversion costs covered by the grants.

The town is expected to realize $72,658 annual savings with the new LED streetlights once the project is complete. Maintenance costs are estimated at $11,000 per year. Right now, the town pays National Grid close to $69,000 per year for maintenance.

“One of the major reasons to make the initial investment in the controls, is we would have the ability to set schedules for when the lights go on, when they go off, and to adjust the intensity as needed,” said Town Administrator Frank Lynam. “It gives us the ability to address the needs of neighborhoods as well as providing the general light controls that exist now, where they’re either on or off.”

Lynam also noted police often prefer darker conditions in which to perform their duties.

“Right now, to perform the controls, you’d have to physically climb the pole to make the adjustments,” Lynam said.

Liaison research

Selectmen have asked Green to draw up a handbook specific for the board, by Christmas if possible, in order to settle questions first raised in July by Selectman Randy LaMattina.

She said she has a working draft fashioned toward how the Whitman board already works.

Green, with the assistance of the board’s Administrative Assistant Laurie O’Brien, researched the current practices of 24 towns across the state, asking if they had a handbook focused toward the Board of Selectmen and if any members of that board were appointed as liaisons to town departments.

They also asked how those liaisons were designated.

“There isn’t one practice that each board of selectmen follows,” Green said. “There were a lot of different variations.”

In some towns, selectmen are only appointed as liaisons to other boards or committees. Other communities only name liaisons as needed.

“There were a few towns that had Board of Selectmen choose departments based on interest and other factors,” Green said. “In some towns the [selectmen] chair did assign the liaisons, in some towns they talked collaboratively on assignments, they would volunteer … based on interest and other factors.”

Selectman Scott Lambiase asked if boards with liaisons tended to be those with town administrators instead of town managers.

Green said that didn’t tend to be a factor.

“The nice part of any of these [MMA-based] handbooks is they are not etched in stone,” Lambiase said.

Only two of the towns — Hamilton and Acton — had their own selectmen’s handbook, which provided for liaisons. Duxbury also has liaisons, but to boards and committees.

Most towns use the Mass. Municipal Association’s manual for selectmen, according to Green. The MMA does not cover liaisons in its manual.

“It gives us some choices here,” Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski said. “It’s up to us to decide what we want to do.”

Lynam said the liaison practice in Whitman dates back to before the town administrator provision as a way to keep selectmen informed about what other departments were doing to “avoid chaos.”

The current practice of having selectmen ask for assignments based on interest is a carryover from that time, Lynam suggested.

“I’m not aware of any town with a town administrator that has liaisons,” he said.

In other business, Lynam reported that the town will consider joining in a class action lawsuit vs. opioid drug manufacturers, following a recent conversation on the matter with Police Chief Scott Benton.

“It is similar, in some respects, to litigation that occurred with the smoking producers and tobacco companies,” Lynam said. He sought advice from town counsel on the issue when it first came up about a year and a half ago, but it was not then known if the state was going to join the effort as it did with tobacco.

He spoke to the associate house counsel last week, asking for current materials on the lawsuit in an effort to determine if it now makes sense to step in on the project.  If the town joins a suit — and if it is successful — attorneys will receive 25 percent of proceeds with the rest divided proportionately with the plaintiffs signed on, with the possibility that the state could step in and supervise such a distribution.

Lynam said he will make a recommendation at the board’s next meeting.

Clarification

In last week’s Express, Lynam noted that part of his very preliminary research on the fiscal 2020 budget indicated the school budget could increase by 5 percent, or $1.5 million.

Lynam stressed on Thursday, Aug. 30, that the figure is not necessarily the operating assessment to be voted by the School Committee in March.

“The 5 percent in and of itself is not necessarily a back-breaker until you consider that the $23 million we get from the state for Chapter 70 money, last year increased by $120,000,” Lynam told Selectmen. “It’s minimal, which means virtually all the increase will be on the burden of the two towns.”

The total fiscal 2019 school budget was $50,406,029 with Whitman’s assessment at $13,270,185 of the $22,183,526 assessed to the towns. Lynam’s estimated calculations so far put the total fiscal 2020 school budget at $52,926,330 — up $2,520,301 — with Whitman’s assessment possibly as much as $14,750,296 of the $24,583,827 that could be assessed to the towns.

First Day earns a ‘B-plus’

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Heat, dismissal schedules pose challenges

Despite some glitches surrounding air conditioning in general and dismissal schedules at some of the elementary schools, Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak gave the district’s opening day of the 2018-19 school year a grade of B-plus.

“I want to thank the police and fire departments from both towns who were giving high-fives to all middle school and elementary school kids,” Szymaniak said. “It was a great opening.”

The School Committee on Wednesday, Aug. 29 heard a review of the first day of school and a progress report on the new WHRHS scoreboard project.

There were some air-conditioning issues, even at the high school as the summer’s oppressive heat and humidity continued, according to Szymaniak, but he had Facilities Director Ernest Sandland purchase 60 80-bottle cases of water to distribute to the elementary schools and encouraged staff to keep students hydrated.

Szymaniak and Assistant Superintendent George Ferro toured all the schools on Tuesday, Aug. 28 to ensure they were ready for that evening’s open houses as well as Wednesday’s opener.

“Our facilities department is pretty awesome,” Szymaniak said. “We got emails from the three elementary principals saying [Sandland] got everything done, buildings looked great  … and I think parents were very excited about going to open house.”

Ferro was out directing traffic at the new inner drop-off loop at the high school and he and Szymaniak then “bounced around” from building to building to observe the opening.

When the dismissal issues cropped up at Indian Head Elementary, Szymaniak and Ferro went to the school to investigate the situation and get information out to parents “a little bit later than I wanted to, but” Hanson Police Chief Michael Miksch and resource officer William Frazier helped adjust the dismissal process.

Maquan School will officially be closed by Sept. 30, which permits time to hold yard sales of excess equipment on Tuesday, Sept. 18 for town departments to shop and on Friday, Sept. 22 for the general public.

Athletic Director Bob Rodgers announced that the new scoreboard is financed sufficiently with the aim for it to be installed for the season-opening game vs. Marshfield Friday night.

Rodgers took the opportunity to again stress that no taxpayer dollars are being spent on the project. The JJ Frisoli Foundation has donated $25,000 and will receive a double advertising panel on the scoreboard for the life of the unit. Mutual Bank and Richard Rosen have each contributed $10,000 for single panels for 10 years. Rosen will divide his panel between Rosen Realty and McGuiggan’s Pub. Two more $10,000 panels are still available and may be subdivided. Rodgers said he is in discussions with three companies that are “strong possibilities” for those spaces.

The final installation is now estimated at $110,000.

“It’s a much more complicated process than we envisioned when we started this,” he said. “But, with the scoreboard going up, I think a lot of people are going to see this and think the school must have tons of money.”

The project is being paid for outright through previous fundraising and gate receipts in addition to the donations and advertising sponsorships already received. Future fundraising will replenish those funds.

“I’m pretty optimistic about where this is headed,” Rodgers said, noting the board can be leased in a limited capacity for youth sports programs as well as post-WHRHS football game “fifth-quarter” movie screenings.

“We’re going to be able to sell advertising that will be meaningful advertising for the businesses in town,” he said. “Several restaurants” have already expressed interest.

Rodgers anticipates the scoreboard advertising will be an ongoing revenue source for the athletics department for years and can be offered to W-H clubs and organizations to sell advertising from which they can divide proceeds with the athletics department.

The School Committee also voted to accept advertising rates including “nonprofit shoutouts” for $25; 30-second video with audio for between  $100 to $400 depending on the sport and season and a digital full color display for between $25 to $100 per game or $200 to $250 per season. The committee will be updated prior to a re-vote on the advertising pricing during a meeting thhis coming June.

Special Ed PAC gears up for year

The district’s Special Education Parent Advisory Committee (SEPAC) has been required since the 1970s but last year Hanson residents Tina Stidstone and James Fitzgerald took a leading role in revitalizing it.

“The plan is to make the SEPAC something more than it ever has been,” Stidstone says. “My kids have been in the district since 2002 and I never got involved before.”

She said in the past, the special education director planned meetings for parents that showed up, but noted SEPACs are intended to be parent-run organizations. Stidstone and Fitzgerald are hopeful some of the programs they are planning attract more parents to those meetings and some special events.

“This past year I emailed and said ‘all right, I’m taking it as a personal goal to get this thing up and running,’” she said. “I think we’ve done OK. … My whole thought is I have no right to say anything if I don’t become part of something to make it better.”

They started with five parents at last year’s meet-and-greet to 23 at the last meeting of the year, but with more than 600 special needs children in the district, Stidstone would like to see more parents attending.

“I think a lot of people aren’t aware of it, don’t know what it is or what it’s for,” Fitzgerald said. “It was one of those things that was slightly on my radar and with some of the changes the district was making I wanted to have an avenue to talk to other parents.”

They are also concerned about the status of Assistant Superintendent of Pupil Services Kyle Riley, who is currently on personal leave. Retired Special Education Coordinator Mildred O’Callaghan has been serving in a consulting capacity for the past few months, according to Stidstone. Executive Assistant Lisa Forbes has also been working with the SEPAC.

SEPAC meetings are held from 6 to 8 p.m., the first and second Tuesday of the month in the WHRHS library. The group’s first meeting of the school year will be on Tuesday, Sept. 11 and is the meet-and-greet session with district administrators, they noted. Other programs will center on school transition and public safety topics. A basic rights meeting also has to be presented every year.

An October meeting will focus on transition of students to new schools with the closing of the Maquan School and a November meeting will feature members of police and fire departments to discuss “our kids in the community” the duo said.

“The biggest impact of all of it was on the special needs kids,” Stidstone said. Most of them were transferred to Whitman’s Duval School, where they don’t know any of the other students she said.

“We have to know what happened good and what happened bad,” she said. “This can’t be just a ‘bash the district session,’ this has to be for constructive feedback.”

Like parents of preschool pupils with older siblings in Hanson Schools, Hanson parents of special needs students attending Duval are still working out transportation arrangements.

Stidstone said members of the group asked for the meeting with public safety personnel.

“If you see my kid walking down the road and he’s stimming (the repetition of physical movements, sounds, or words, or the repetitive movement of objects common in individuals with developmental disabilities), how are you going to react?” she said. Providing profiles for first responders of special needs children for their information in the event of an emergency is another topic they’ve discussed.

“They don’t want to send their guys into a situation where they frighten a child,” she said of the fire chiefs in both towns who are very supportive of the November meeting.
In December, they plan a meeting with the district about emergency drills at school and how the alarms can cause distress.

“During lockdowns, they are supposed to stay quiet in a corner,” she added. “My son’s not going to stay quiet in a corner. What is being done for those kids?”

Fitzgerald said during a first day of school fire drill, his son was upset when it came time to go back into the school.

“Those meetings [in November and December] are really about safety,” he said.

Parents have also asked for day meetings, and that is being looked at as possible spring and fall sessions after preschool drop-offs, perhaps in the high school’s Courtyard Café.

They are also working to plan a SEPAC family picnic with first responders perhaps bringing some of their vehicles for the children to explore. Stidstone said she, for example, has tried to bring her son to community touch-a-truck events in the past but he was too overwhelmed by the crowds.

“This will be our kids only,” she said. “It’s not going to be public. The plan is to have a picnic with our families and meet a couple cops and firefighters in their gear so that they know if a firefighter comes [to the house] he’s not a monster.”

They are also trying to plan a resource fair for the parents of special needs kids later in the school year to address the major concern parents had in a survey Stidstone and Fitzgerald conducted last year.

Fitzgerald said they are also coordinating with SEPACs in other districts.

Diehl: Bring on Warren

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By Tracy F. Seelye and James Bentley
Express staff

Proclaiming it “our moment” and staking out the theme that U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren “has let us down,” state Rep. Geoffrey Diehl greeted supporters at the Whitman VFW Tuesday night to bask in his Republican primary win.

His margin of victory was 54.8 percent of the vote compared to 27 percent for John Kingston and 18.1 percent for Beth Lindstrom.

“While Warren has spent the last six years building a national political profile for herself, I’ve been fighting for you, and most importantly, listening to you,” Diehl said after greeting supporters with hugs as the song “This is My House,” by Flo Rida.

He is casting Warren as an out-of-touch person using Massachusetts as a stepping-stone while ignoring the benefit of the GOP tax cut, the need for immigration control and support for law enforcement, and failing her constituents on the opioid crisis.

“I will make the fight against opioid addiction a priority,” Diehl said. “We’re losing about 2,000 people to opioid-related overdoses here in Massachusetts each year. What has Senator Warren done about it? Nothing.”

He also took the opportunity to again underscore that the ballot initiative he backed to repeal automatic gas tax hikes a few years ago has saved Massachusetts residents $2 billion.

In Whitman, his hometown, voters gave Diehl 1,361, according to unofficial tallies at the close of polls with Kingston receiving 76 and Lindstrom 65 of the 25.3 percent of 10,684 registered voters casting ballots. In Hanson, with 21 percent of the town’s voters casting ballots, Diehl had 789 votes to 107 for Kingston and 57 for Lindstrom. Meanwhile, the race to fill the state representative seat Diehl is vacating will be an all-Abington contest as former Selectman Alex Bezanson staved off a challenge from Whitman union advocate Kevin Higgins to face Plymouth County DA’s office victim advocate Alyson Sullivan for the Nov. 6 general election.

“I’m going to concentrate on being a state representative, that’s all I want to do and I’m not sure any of my (Republican) opponents can say that,” Bezanson told supporters at J.R. Ryan’s Sports Bar in Abington after claiming victory.

“I am the only candidate in this race that is a working-class candidate, the only candidate who’s going to go to Beacon Hill every single day full time to be your state representative. … I’m not going to go to law school, I’m not going to use this as a stepping stone. I’ll be your full-time state representative.”

Bezanson and Higgins each carried their hometowns, with Abington giving Bezanson 939 votes to Higgins’ 369 — and Whitman supporting Higgins with 735 votes to Bezanson’s 408 — before East Bridgewater decided the matter with 340 votes for Bezanson and 214 for Higgins.

“My hometown really showed up for me and I’m really proud,” Higgins said Wednesday morning, vowing to stay involved in politics in the future.

“I was thrilled. Obviously we spend a lot of time on this campaign,” Bezanson said. “It was a tough race, it really was, but I think now’s the time to join forces, unite the party, and take this seat back to a Democrat.”

Democrats are holding a unity breakfast on Sunday, Sept. 7 at the Post 22 American Legion in Whitman hosted by state Sen. Michael Brady, D-Brockton. He said the opioid epidemic, funding for public education and taxation remain issues to watch in the run-up to November.

“Until we have a progressive graduated income tax rate, we’re not going to be able to make the significant investments in our public schools and our public services that we need to,” Higgins said. “The other important piece to that is, if we don’t fix the regressive personal income tax in Massachusetts, then our property taxes are going to continue to rise.”

Defeated Republican Greg Eaton also vowed unity in the effort to keep the seat in his party, as he attended Diehl’s victory party later that evening.

“It was not close,” he said of his own result outside of Whitman. “I am absolutely backing Alyson. She’s a good Republican, she comes from a good family and she stands for what we stand for in this party.”

Sullivan carried all three towns — 742 to 629 for Eaton in his hometown of Whitman, 1,170 to Eaton’s 151 in her hometown of Abington and 528 to 271 for Eaton in East Bridgewater. Bezanson and Higgins had both knocked on a lot of doors in their race.

“I am honored and humbled to have received the trust, confidence and support from so many people in Abington, East Bridgewater and Whitman,” Sullivan stated Wednesday. “Over these next two months, I will build upon that support, as I continue to share my goals of working with others to tackle the opioid crisis, advocating for local aid and reforming our school aid formula, and building the economy, as I seek to be the new voice for the people of Abington, East Bridgewater and Whitman.

“We contacted 1,200 people in the district that either switched to Democrat or registered as Democrat since 2016,” Bezanson said. “That’s a lot of people in this district.”

He touted his experience as the difference.

Higgins agreed he needed a smaller margin in Abington to take the district as East Bridgewater was so close.

“I’m going to concentrate on being a state representative, that’s all I want to do and I’m not sure any of my (Republican) opponents can say that,” he said before the result of the Republican Primary.

Whitman Selectman Brian Bezanson, no relation to Alex Bezanson, said Dr. Scott Lively’s showing in Whitman’s primary voting vs. Gov. Charlie Baker shows the strength of conservatism in the town. Lively garnered 499 votes in Whitman and 347 in Hanson to Baker’s 921 in Whitman and 598 in Hanson.

“Everybody wrote him off to be just a flash in the pan, but he’s had some support, and I think that should send a message to Gov. Baker that there is a conservative wing of the Republican Party and he needs to listen to them,” Brian Bezanson said. In the state representative GOP primary he said both candidates were “decent candidates that could do a good job and I think now the party will unite.”

Both Brian Bezanson and Selectman Randy LaMattina, a Democrat, expressed a degree of surprise at Higgins’ strong showing in Whitman.

Hanson water quality stirs ire

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HANSON — There was some disagreement on how the discoloration happens, but the Water Department has been asked by its board of commissioners to open a gate at High and Main streets — which directs water toward the train station —for at least a week to determine if it will clear manganese and iron deposits from water mains along three streets in town.

The idea is to direct clean water from the tank toward Hanson’s Main, Reed and South streets, where continuing problems with discolored water at their homes along those streets motivated more than a dozen residents to attend a Board of Water Commissioners’ meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 22, demanding a solution.

Residents were asked to return in two weeks to let the board know if the opened gate helps improve their water quality. They say the water pressure has been fine — and some left the meeting more dissatisfied than when they arrived.

“When everything’s running during the daytime, there’s a lot of water moving through the pipe,” Commissioner Don Howard said. “When everybody shuts down their house and the faucets and goes to bed, the tank fills up … the sediment sets in [dips in] the pipe. The next day, when you start using the water, it turbulates it up and it runs into the pipe and I think that’s what’s happening.”

Flow vs pipes

Water Department Assistant Superintendent Gerald Davis said he believed the problem was more likely due to the 12-inch main from Main Street connecting to another 12-inch main on South Street via an eight-inch pipe along Reed Street. He also argued more frequent flushing on the mains would also help.

But Howard maintained the gates were the likely source of the problem.

Residents, some of whom are thinking about selling their homes, voiced frustration at the expense of replacing water heaters, filters and clothing ruined by the dark brown water.

Assessor Lee Gamache, of 819 Main Street, said the situation is already hurting the real estate market in Hanson.

“If it was just one incident, I think we’d understand,” she said.

Her husband Joe asked what, if any, long-term plan there is to address the problem.

“You talk about low water costs, well it’s costing us a lot, not just for water, but we have a new hot water heater [and we’re] probably going to have to replace it,” he said, adding that they have also had to replace clothing. “There’s no real warning so financially, it’s been a burden constantly replacing things because of it.”

A couple from Gorwin Drive said they feel the problem is “creeping” in their direction.

Joe Gamache supported closing the gate in conjunction with a maintenance program including more frequent pipe flushing until pipes can be replaced.

“We’ve got to try something because we’re not going to get … pipe replaced tomorrow like we all want,” he said. “We can revisit this in a year. If we don’t see any kind of improvement, you’re going to see a ‘For Sale’ sign in my yard.”

Howard said Hanson’s 100-year-old water system now consists of three different types of water pipes in the ground, much of them cast iron.

“That pipe is the same pipe that Brockton and several other area towns have in,” he said. “The problem with it is the manganese and iron builds up in the cast iron [pipes] over a period of years.”

New pipes installed are required to be cement-lined.

“If we could to that in all of our cast iron pipes in town, we’d eliminate a lot of our problems, but the Water Department doesn’t have the money,” he said. “So we’re trying to keep the water flowing.”

More frequent flushing of pipes is not possible because of mandatory Mass. DEP water conservation regulations, Davis said. Howard agreed, noting the only flushing done in the past five years was done this past spring to try to reduce the iron and manganese deposits.

“I’m hoping and planning that we can do it again this fall,” Howard said, noting sediment sits in the pipes until a heavy use emergency such as a fire or water main break disturbs it. The July 5 fire at JJ’s Pub and an Aug. 20 water main break on Andrew Lane both caused that to happen.

Work being done by the Brockton water department on Main Street Monday, Aug. 27 was to Brockton pipes and should have no effect on Hanson water, according to the Hanson Water Department.

“How to control it? I have no way of knowing, I’ll be honest with you,” he said. “I’ve worked with water since 1957. We don’t want to raise the price of water.”

Howard also said the Water Department is trying to keep water prices down, but residents attending the meeting said they would be willing to pay more for clear water and that they are already spending a lot to resolve problems the sediment causes.

They are already buying water.

“We buy so much water,” a woman said. “I won’t drink it or cook with it or give it to the pets.”

Some of the residents said they don’t even like to shower in it.

“I’ll pay more for clean water,” said a South Street resident who said he would not have bought his house had he been advised of the water issue. “We’re talking in circles here. What’s the issue? What’s the resolution? What’s the cost? What’s the time frame? That’s what I came here to hear.”

He had serious doubts that 9,000 voters in town would back higher bills to help 1,000 people having problems. Howard replied that it is hard to get a quorum of 100 voters at Town Meeting.

“We don’t want to pay anything for dirty water,” the resident said.

Commissioner Gil Amado said he was a member of the commission because, as a South Street resident, he is affected, too.

I’m frustrated myself,” Amado said. “I’m on this board to help make things better. The water has been better, but we’ve had so many issues … water follows the path of least resistance and, when it starts flowing, it’s taking whatever’s in that pipe with it.”

“With money it could be cleaned,” the South Street resident said.

Another resident said they need to hear a timetable, too.

“What we keep hearing is you have a plan, you have a plan, you have a plan, but there’s no definite date,” she said. “There’s no definite solution. It’s like, ‘Yeah, we’re going to work on it, but it’s going to take 20 years or it’s going to take 10 years.’”

Call with problems

In the meantime, Davis urged residents to call the Water Department when problems occur — no matter how often — instead of going on Facebook.

“People read on Facebook that someone doesn’t have water, everybody runs to their faucet and then they turn the water on,” he said. “Don’t do that! Because, if there’s a water main break, you’re bringing all the dirty water into your house.”

Howard said water should be turned off when there is a main break.

When animals depend on water during a break, Davis said owners should also call. During the last main break, Water Department staff members provided water to horses on a farm in the affected area.

When lines are flushed, he can also plan to do it where people have animals or are served by a cast iron line, the timing of the flushing can be adjusted.

“This year alone it’s been so minimal, only until we disturb the system,” Davis said.

“I don’t think people are calling,” another resident said.

“If we know where the major complaints are, we can target that area. … I don’t care if you call everyday.”

Howard initially said the pipe-replacement plan could take 20 years, but then backed away from that estimate.

When Hanson painted the inside of the water tank last summer, it cost about $335,000 to purchase water from Brockton during those three months. The Water Department budget is $1.5 million of that, another $35,000 was required in electricity costs to pump the Brockton water.

New wells being put in on East Washington Street will help a lot of the cost and discoloration problems, Howard said. A pipe replacement program will be introduced after a new water tank is put in.

A couple who moved into their 300 South St. home in 2006, however said they are already preparing to sell their house because of the ongoing water problems.

“I know a lot of people have had problems since the water tank project,” the woman said, noting they have had to replace three pressure leak valves in three years because of the sediment. “We’ve had it since 2006 on a regular basis and it has increased.”

The residents said they were still having problems three days after the water main break.

Davis said any fluctuation in pressure would make water dirty.

Budget panel forming

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WHITMAN — As the town begins work on the fiscal 2020 budget next month, Town Administrator Frank Lynam informed the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday, Aug. 28 that early calculations show a very preliminary structural deficit of $1.9 million.

A budget committee is being formed with the aim of beginning its work in mid-September. Selectmen to serve on the panel will include Scott Lambiase, who is spearheading the project and Brian Bezanson. Finance and School committee representatives will also be named to the committee, which Lambiase said could also include department heads. The Finance Committee met jointly with Selectmen Tuesday before going into its own scheduled meeting.

“I want to put a working group together, as we discussed, with some members of Finance Committee, members of this board and we talked about hopefully including the School Committee, a couple department heads, Frank [Lynam] of course,” Lambiase said. “What we want to come up with, at least in my opinion — in my thoughts — was a sort of a formula that we’ll follow this year and then, hopefully, every year going forward.”

Lynam said Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak has also expressed an interest in that work and that WHRSD Business Director Christine Suckow would also be very involved. Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski also advocated including one or two at-large community members.

Early calculations

Lynam said he has been crunching numbers to get an early picture — “a very, very rough draft” — of what an FY 2020 budget may look like.

“There’s no magic associated with this,” he said explaining that the levy limit is increased by 2 ½ percent and then by new growth taxable this year. “The tax levy that we expect to see for 2020 is $26,514,684.”

Roughly $11 million additional funds are anticipated to come in from “all other sources.”

Under contracts for employees in effect for 2020, a 2 percent increase is factored in. The school budget is estimated to be up 5 percent, or $1.5 million over the previous year, according to Suckow.

“The 5 percent in and of itself is not necessarily a back-breaker until you consider that the $23 million we get from the state for Chapter 70 money, last year increased by $100,000,” Lynam said. “It’s minimal, which means virtually all the increase will be on the burden of the two towns.”

Other educational costs such as South Shore Vocational Technical High School and Norfolk Aggie are also expected to increase for the coming fiscal year, according to Lynam.

“When you factor in the money that we’re looking at for fiscal 2020, we have a structural deficit of $1.9 million,” he said. “That’s based on everything we know right now.”

He argued that the meetings Lambiase has in mind are intended to “look at how we look at the budget,” how it is estimated and if it can be broken down to critical and non-critical components.

Joint session

Lambiase said Tuesday’s joint meeting was meant to determine what each board is looking for and information they are obtaining to avoid duplication of effort.

“How can we work together to do it?” he said.

Finance Committee Chairman Richard Anderson said his board is “definitely encouraged” by the opportunity to meet with the Selectmen and said better communications would be helpful, suggesting that the Selectmen’s liaisons with various town departments could be helpful in that effort.

“We start meeting with department heads and talking about budgets, I think more communication would be better,” Anderson said.

Lambiase agreed and said he encourages participation by all boards concerned with the budget.

“They know their departments,” Selectman Dan Salvucci said, arguing they could help find alternative ways of funding equipment they need. “They know what they can and cannot do.”

Anderson also lauded the Community Assessment as a way “to find out what kind of community we really want to be” as Kowalski has said in the past. Lambiase said that process will be helpful, but that most of the information gleaned from the assessment will be more useful for long-term planning.

Anderson said planning is vital.

“[An] override, if that’s the direction that the town goes, fails at the ballot box, we need to have a backup plan,” he said. “You can’t make it in the short amount of time that we have and that we worked with last year.”

Regional agreement

In other business, Board of Selectmen voted to table a vote on the revised WHRSD Regional Agreement due to a change in Section 9B pertaining to the process by which amendments may be made.

Amendments other than withdrawal from the region must be initiated by a vote of the School Committee through a petition signed by 10 percent of the registered voters.

“The question raised is, if the Board of Selectmen in its role as the executive board of the town had a concern or issue with the agreement … prior to signing this agreement, the board would sign a proposal for an amendment, discuss it with the schools and if the board wishes to move forward, would place it on a Town Meeting warrant,” Lynam said. “Now we need 990 registered voters to sign a petition before we can raise that question.”

Lynam said he has sent word to the School Committee that he understands its wish to maintain its responsibilities and control, but the new language takes away the Board of Selectmen’s authority to act as an executive board for the town on an issue that may involve presenting an amendment.

“The question is whether that’s important enough to hash out,” he said.

Salvucci said, as elected officials, the School Committee has authority over the region.

“Wouldn’t that be in their hands and not ours?” he asked.

“They’re not accountable to us,” Lynam said, noting the region was set up as a separate political subdivision of the state. “The question that rises here, is whether the Board of Selectmen for town of Whitman or the town of Hanson — or any town that’s in the region — should be permitted to present a proposal to amend the agreement?”

Lynam said it only requires 10 citizens to put an article on a Town Meeting warrant and suggested it is an effort to make certain that it takes a super-majority of the towns to make a change in the agreement. Bezanson noted the town doesn’t always see 990 voters turn out for an election.

“That’s been my view all along,” said Selectman Randy LaMattina. “We’ve gone from powers of this board that have worked [and] now, for no apparent reason, giving them away.”

LaMatinna urged the board to make specific recommendations for how the agreement should be changed, but Lambiase had already made the motion to table it and declined to withdraw his motion.

Lynam said he had other concerns with portions of the agreement that were required by statute, but the amendment procedure is not covered by statute.