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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.

Plane crash at Cranland Airport August 27, 2018

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HANSON — One person sustained minor injuries when a plane went off the end of the runway at Cranland Airport Monday — the second incident at the small airport off Monponsett Street in four days. The white and red aircraft ended up on its roof.

Other than the unusual timing following a fatal crash at the same airport on Friday, Aug. 24, this was a minor incident, according to Hanson Police Chief Michael Miksch said.

The pilot, a 20-year-old male from Florida had already landed when the plane flipped at the end of a runway, according to witnesses. Hanson Fire Department Ambulance transported him to South Shore Hospital.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), already on scene investigating the Aug. 24 crash will also be investigating Monday’s incident, Miksch said. BCI officers were also on scene along with Hanson Police and Fire departments.

 

A bid for better outreach

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HANSON — Officials must do a better job of communicating with residents, especially younger people, Selectmen say.

The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday, Aug. 14, requested that Town Administrator Michael McCue determine methods for improving communication with the public and membership on town boards and committees.

The item was part of a continued review of McCue’s goals and timelines prompted by his request for clarification or feedback on some goals. He also sought more information on the goal for reducing costs and increasing revenues.

Selectman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said she asked for the communication goal because she thought the town should be more active in making appearances on cable access programs or the WHCA community bulletin board and the Express in order to make sure people are aware of town meetings and board and committee vacancies. She said there should also be an effort to drive people to the town’s website.

“I know we’ve struggled with our social media presence, but we must find a way to get information out there where we’re going to reach people,” she said. “We need to engage younger people and we need to reach them where they’re at.”

FitzGerald also argued the effort is important because she wants to see the effort to fill vacancies on town boards and commissions be less difficult.

“I would really like to see such engagement that we’ve got a cross-section of all kinds of people on all these committees and boards so that we’re getting the best and the brightest and all kinds of ideas from across the spectrum,” she said. “The only way we can do that is to educate people.”

That includes a description of duties and estimated time commitment required of members.

McCue said FitzGerald-Kemmett’s explanation was very helpful and he is already mulling ideas.

FitzGerald-Kemmett also suggested some sort of deadline be attached to it to avoid having things put off. McCue said he would be willing to go on WHCA and discuss the needs of town boards and to submit some information to the Express.

Selectman Matt Dyer said he is also concerned how best to get information on the progress committees are making, and communicating needs, to the public on social media without violating the Open Meeting law.

“If we post it on social media is it public record because I’m on the board and now I’m using my official capacity to spread that information?” he asked. “I think if we get some clarification and guidelines on how to use social media to disburse this information, it would help.”

FitzGerald-Kemmett argued there should be a point person in Town Hall, whether it be the incoming IT director or someone else, to act as a conduit to getting information out to the public.

McCue suggested putting together a procedure for department heads to follow in achieving that.

McCue is continuing meetings with East Bridgewater to hire a shared IT director after a person the towns had hoped to bring on board had declined the offer.

Regarding costs and revenues, McCue said the town is “kind of doing that right now” in the auction of tax title properties.

But FitzGerald-Kemmett said it could also be as simple as an idea contest among town employees who may have ideas for more economical ways of doing their jobs.

“I would say that those conversations do take place to a certain degree, every month at our staff meetings,” McCue said, noting his idea was to see if the citizenry had any ideas.

Dyer suggested it could be as simple as placing a comment box or two around town. FitzGerald-Kemmett suggested something along the line of the Commonwealth Connect system Whitman uses where people can take a picture of a pothole or something else that concerns them and uploads it to the town site.

Selectmen also, in the board’s capacity as the body responsible for setting the Town Meeting warrant, voted to place a Housing Authority vacancy on the annual election ballot.

“This is a request and a requirement from the town clerk,” McCue said.

The town is also looking for volunteers to be appointed to the vacancy until the election, especially for those who also want to run for the office next spring.

Changes made in classrooms

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Duval third-grade teacher Danielle Silva and members of her family sounded like they were having a lot of fun as Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak was guiding a tour through the building for five School Committee members and the media on Monday, Aug. 20.

The tour was meant to show what physical changes had been made to four of the district’s four schools — Conley, Duval, Indian Head and WHRHS — following the closure of Hanson’s Maquan Elementary School.

The laughter emanating from Silva’s classroom prompted a visit as she was working to prepare the room for the first day of school on Wednesday, Aug. 29.

“Come on in,” Silva called out to them. “We’ve been here since early, so they’re getting a little tired now,” she said of her son and daughter’s efforts.

As she spoke with the school officials, her kids were filling welcome back goodie bags for her new students and making name cards for desks as her mother in-law, a former teacher in the Bridgewater schools for 36 years, was creating a chart on a flip-pad at the classroom easel.

The goodie bags proved to be an interesting idea to the committee members.

“That’s wicked cool,” said School Committee member Fred Small, who chairs the facilities subcommittee.

“It’s like a little welcome, it has a little poem in it,” she said, explaining that one of her college roommates, now a teacher in Maryland uses the poem as a welcome gift. “‘Sharing is caring,’ is what I say. [The poem says] if they make a mistake it’s OK so you give them an eraser. [There’s] notepaper — stuff like that.”

Silva said she and her husband divide the shopping for their interests seasonally.

“He gets car parts,” she said. “He’s into cars and I’m obviously into school … so stuff comes in boxes for me, they come for him, it works out.”

Small was impressed that Silva’s children were in to help their mom.

“That’s what makes Whitman-Hanson what it is,” he said of Silva’s work. “We’re here and we’re seeing it.”

The tour began at Conley, where Facilities Director Ernest Sandland and Principal Karen Downey talked about the new security doors all three elementary schools were having installed as well as a new addition to Conley’s outdoor classroom, funded by the PAC and a new computer lab funded by the annual talent show.

Classrooms have been cleaned with five coats of wax applied to floors and SJ Services will be moving to hallways and cafeterias before school starts, according to Sandland.

The outdoor classroom will now include a freestanding structure with a corrugated roof to be used as a teaching space, Downey said.

“Everything that has to do with this outdoor classroom is done through our PAC,” she said. “Through our basket auction and our Fun Run we’ve been able to put all of these plants and tables. When we began this two or three years ago, there was nothing in here.”

Landscaping and donated materials have created a space where students can go outside and learn more. So far, “well over $50,000” has been raised and spent on the project, with the new wheelchair-accessible structure alone costing between $14,000 and $15,000 for materials. A mid-September completion is anticipated, weather permitting.

“Kids need to be outside and you can be inspired in a lot of different ways,” she said.

Inside, Downey said the computer lab is another point of pride for the school.

“This is our baby,” she said. “If the outdoor classroom was a spot that our PAC supported and paid for, this spot has a direct relation to our staff.”

Proceeds from between three and five talent shows run by staff volunteers was used to transform the traditional computer lab’s rows of desks to a room where sectional tables on wheels can be used to teach and hold meetings in a variety of ways. It is served by a Chromebook cart for each grade and is adjacent to the school’s library.

“We wanted it to be a collaborative space, a space where you don’t have to just have a computer going but you could use the whiteboards and use the interactive board and tie into the library,” she said.

Duval School

At Duval, aside from the new security entrance and Silva’s work in setting up her classroom, School Committee members also examined the new space North River Collaborative will be using in a space for special needs programs that the YMCA program had used.

“It’s going to be a very nice classroom for them and they’ve got the playground out back,” Sandland said. Bathrooms for the children are in the hall nearby and there will be sinks in the classrooms.

The school’s Rinnai on-demand water heaters will also be the subject of the company test study on how they are used in a school district, according to Sandland. No other school district in Massachusetts uses on-demand water heaters, which save the district money on both water usage and energy.

“It’s going to show that, number one, we’re not wasting water,” he said of the study. “The hot water heaters we used to have, if I’m in here during a snowstorm, they’d be running. If nobody’s here, these units are not being used.”

Indian Head School

Perhaps no school entrance has changed as noticeably as Indian Head.

New security doors open into what had been the assistant principal’s office, where district IT Director Chad Peters was helping connect phone lines at the security window where visitors must check in. The former reception area is being used as an office for the school psychologist and the window will be covered by a shade.

Principal Jill Dore-Cotreau’s office has been finished and she was settling in on Monday.

The added population of pupils in kindergarten through grade two transferred over from Maquan demanded the addition of bathrooms to accommodate the younger children and provide sufficient privacy. Sinks feature motion-activated faucets.

The changes are also notable outside where a new playground — with a spongy rubberized ground surface — has been installed and parking has been adjusted to provide a blacktop play area with a basketball court for which portable backstops will be used that can be stored away for plowing in winter. The spongy playground surface is pitched to permit rainwater runoff, but also absorbs water and runs it off through the bottom, Sandland said.

The old basketball court is now a picnic area with green metal tables and seats.

A tree-shaped climbing apparatus was manufactured in Germany and the support pole is anchored in six feet of cement.

“This was six months in the planning with teachers and the community,” Sandland said. “We had a 12-foot fence here, but we ended up taking it down and cutting the pipes to reduce it to a six-foot fence. If we left that 12-foot fence it would have felt like a prison.”

W-H Regional High School

The moving of the Maquan preschool to the high school has created some dramatic changes inside and out at that school, too.

The new inner ring driveway for preschool parent drop-offs is almost complete, with the boulder unearthed during construction placed in the lawn as the school’s new “pride rock” as Szymaniak calls it. Lines were slated to be painted on the new driveway on Tuesday, Aug. 21 with sidewalk repairs to be finished Wednesday, Aug. 22.

Hanson Highway Department helped move the rock.

“We’re going to paint it,” Szymaniak said. “Different clubs and organizations are going to paint it as an expression of pride.”

Sandland said the rock also dictated where the driveway’s drainage system would be anchored.

Inside, work on the doors separating the preschool from the rest of the building was nearly complete. Card access doors will limit who is permitted into the preschool where identifying signage will be placed.

“If I had known there were so many I would have brought more brushes,” joked a worker varnishing cubbies in the preschool hallway.

Classrooms were ready for furnishings to be moved in and each room’s bathrooms — complete with the shortest toilet one has ever seen — as well as sinks and cabinets have been installed.

Outside the preschool area, a playground is still being worked on.

An alcove lined with trophy cases will be the preschool director’s office, with the trophies — some dating back to 1920 — to be put into storage or display in the athletics department.

Summing up

Sandland said the hardest part of the construction projects proved to be coordinating work schedules and available finances to the scheduling demands of the construction trades.

“It’s not a secret,” he said. “It’s a fact. We’re in a great economy and trying to get people to come out and give you prices in May, when we get the money approved, they’ve already got their work lined up for the summer.”

Once the physical work began the challenge shifted to cutting into wall slabs to install the doors without marring the high school building that has been a MSBA model school for new construction since it was built.

“Making it look like we didn’t cut the slabs,” he said.

And then there was that rock.

“That was just ridiculous,” Sandland said. “Where that rock was is where the catch basin is … so they had to go down further.”

Taking town’s pulse: Whitman survey seeks residents’ questions, opinions

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WHITMAN — How questions would be placed before residents on a planned community assessment survey were discussed in detail during a meeting with town stakeholders — representatives of W-H and South Shore Vo-Tech schools, the DPW, police and fire departments, town clerk’s office, Finance Committee and Board of Selectmen — and residents in the Town Hall Auditorium on Wednesday, Aug. 15.

“I guess the question is, between the Board of Selectmen and the Finance Committee, once those questions are answered … is, ‘Are you willing to have your taxes increased to pay for those [services] or do you expect other areas to be cut back?’” Selectman Daniel Salvucci said. “We can do anything that people want, but they  have to be willing to pay for it.”

Anyone with questions they would like included in the survey to be used to guide budgetary decisions should submit them to Bridgewater State University Assistant Political Science Professor Dr. Melinda Tarsi by Friday, Aug. 31.

Submissions should be sent to Tarsi at melinda.tarsi@bridgew.edu or by leaving phone messages with her office at 508-531-2404. She said email is the easiest way to reach her. Contact information will also be available on the town website whitman-ma.gov or questions can be submitted through the Selectmen’s office.

About two dozen town and school officials and residents heard a presentation by Tarsi spent about an hour outlining the process and format under which a community assessment survey would be conducted. She stressed that she is not being paid or receiving a commission for assisting with Whitman’s survey.

“I’m really honored to be asked to help out with this process and I think it’s going to be a great opportunity, not only for the town of Whitman, but also for my students because they are very community service-driven and very interested in doing things in the classroom that they can see the effects of in real life,” she said.

Tarsi said her students would be assisting her in analyzing the survey data when classes start in September with the aim of having surveys completed within four to six weeks to permit Tarsi to preset a full report to the town by December.

Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski said the stakeholders’ meeting was intended to establish some statements of value as the groundwork for the coming survey to guide long-term planning.

“We have some short-term things to deal with, in terms of budget for next year … but then we’re going to take the opportunity to maybe think about the town of Whitman over the long term,” he said. “Basically, the question that we are asking ourselves is what kind of town would we like to have — what do we value?”

A joint meeting between the Board of Selectmen and the Finance Committee is also scheduled for 7 p.m., Tuesday, Aug. 28 to discuss the fiscal 2020 budget. FinCom Chairman Richard Anderson said they would be looking for some guidance in making plans based on information from the survey.

Kowalski noted that his job at Massasoit Community College has involved planning, adding that the survey was suggested by his wife, whose job as director at High Point Treatment Center frequently involves surveys about the opioid crisis.

Town Administrator Frank Lynam contacted Tarsi to help Whitman conduct a survey that produces the largest possible response while protecting the integrity of survey results.

Tarsi said her students’ assistance in the project is part of Bridgewater State’s program of community service learning, which connects classroom lessons with community needs. Her students have conducted a past survey and results report for Millbury said Tarsi who is also chairman of the Halifax Finance Committee.

In Millbury, close to 20 percent of surveys were completed and returned in a tight window during which the survey was in the field. Incentives such as raffled gift cards, could help increase responses or answers could be weighted according to U.S. Census data to account for the representation of entire town.

Result analysis can include both weighted and non-weighted information Tarsi said.

“Everyone in this room has taken a survey, or hung up on someone who called to ask them to take a survey — which I’ve even done — so we’re all sort of familiar with the respondent side of things,” Tarsi said. “But I wanted to get all of us on the same page as far as the data analysis side of things.”

She said survey data could provide a sense of people’s attitudes and preferences, patterns of attitude across different demographics or time in their lives, as well as the potential relationships of the two. But, she cautioned, survey data cannot provide information on people’s core beliefs and predispositions, their views on sensitive issues, their past preferences, cause and affect or produce unbiased responses.

She said identical responses can’t give information on how opinions were developed and that people are not always willing to admit opinions on sensitive issues. Measures can be taken to limit bias, but because human beings are involved, Tarsi stressed that no survey can be completely bias-free.

How the survey will be distributed, the length of the survey, as well as the wording and order of questions were all considerations Tarsi said had to be addressed.

She said the order of questions can be shuffled in random order for every respondent for the online copy and alphabetized on paper copies of the survey.

“I want to hear from folks the kind of questions that you think are important to ask,” she said to town officials attending the meeting. “What information is it that you need to do your job better or to make better decisions?”

She advocated both an online survey through the Qualtrex platform as well as a paper ballot, which are numbered and can be provided to town departments such as the Senior Center or Library as a pdf document to provide to the public. The latter prompted a question as to how it would affect the numbering of paper surveys.

Tarsi said she could think of potential coding mechanisms for the paper survey to track them while making them available to more people.

Length, especially for online surveys, has to be considered to help get the information required while respecting people’s time.

Wording a question order will be an important consideration.

“We know from survey research that the way you write a question has a direct influence on the way someone’s going to respond to the question,” she said. “If you answer certain questions before others, it’ll change your response to subsequent questions.”

Most of the questions during her hour-long presentation dealt with how the survey would be conducted, publicized, distributed and safe-guarded against individuals submitting multiple responses while allowing that more than one voter might live in a house using the same computer for online responding.

Multiple paper copies could be mailed to a single address and they could also bear a QR code, which could direct people to the online survey, if they preferred, according to Tarsi.

“Qualtrex does allow us to block repeated attempts from one IP address,” she said. “That’s the only identifiable information that Qualtrex collects.” All IP address information is stripped off before data analysis is conducted. Data analysis can help determine if IP addresses indicate a few people filled out the survey from an out-of-town work site or whether others try to affect the outcome.

“The incidence rates for double-dipping are really low because it would require people to really want to go out and expend additional time,” Tarsi said, noting that checks could be included to determine if a person has responded to more than one survey. The cost could be paid by a research budget Tarsi has through Bridgewater State and using the university’s mailing system as a way to demonstrate to BSU how such programs need to be budgeted.

Businesses could also be included in the survey.

“The more information we can collect, the better,” Tarsi said.

One homeowner wanted to know how the information would be used.

Tarsi said it is intended to help town boards with short- and long-term planning based on information they would receive from residents, some of whom may not feel comfortable making comments or asking questions at town meetings.

In Millbury, 77 percent of people answering the survey indicated they had never attended a town meeting, according to Tarsi.

She also noted social media is not a reliable method for people to express those opinions.

Lynam asked how detailed questions would be.

Tarsi said critical issues would be included, but the Bridgewater State internal review board’s confidentiality requirements limit how detailed responses can be.

Another resident asked how the survey would be publicized.

“If you drive into our town right now, you know that it’s time to sign up for Youth Soccer because there’s a sign on every yard,” he said. “But this meeting tonight, there’s not even anything on the town sign.”

Tarsi advocated for advertising by as many means as possible, including signs and the town’s online platforms. She said the concern about how town meetings are publicized could also be the subject of a question on the survey.

Opinions of young residents, who tend to respond to online surveys, are just as important as older residents as are those of new as well as established residents and those with or without children.

Resident Mary Box, former teacher, said this is an opportunity for residents to support the schools.

“I think what it’s going to come down to is money … and the primary things in this town are services for old and young,” she said. “You owe what you are today, a taxpayer, a citizen, to a teacher. … I’ve invested my life and I will gladly invest taxes in the youth because they are our future.”