Whitman-Hanson Express

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Hanson plans for bicentennial in 2020

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HANSON – In two years, the South Shore will have a lot to celebrate. 

Plymouth will be observing 400 years since the arrival of the Pilgrims in the New World. Closer to home, Hanson will also be celebrating anniversary in 2020 – the bicentennial of the town’s founding — and plans are already under way.

Joshua Singer, of Edward Jones Investments, who chairs the Hanson Business Network and is a member of the Hanson 200 Committee, recently updated the Board of Selectmen on the committee’s work and offered a glimpse of the coming celebration. He said they will keep the board, and town, updated as definitive dates and plans are set.

“We are currently very much in the planning stage,” Singer said. “We are starting our actual calendar of events for the 200th anniversary. We’re focusing on three key areas right now.” Those areas of focus are fundraising for events; promotion and planning. A logo de- sign contest will be used as a way to include Hanson student artists in the planning at both the middle school and high school.

There is currently an open position on the Hanson 200 Committee and a subcommittee will be formed for those who don’t have the time for a monthly meeting commitment, but wish to take part in planning for specific events.

Singer said the Hanson committee is looking to work together with the committee planning Plymouth’s 400th anniversary celebration, perhaps to gain mention during events there as well as to borrow ideas.

“They’re so close, we might as well piggyback out of all the notoriety they’re going to get,” he said.

Among the events being considered for development in connection with the celebration is a kickoff event on Feb. 22, 2020, which is the anniversary of the actual date of Hanson’s founding in 1820. Singer said a gathering of the town’s founding families is also being looked at close to the founding date.

“We’re looking to get that declared as Hanson Day by the state,” Singer said. That would be accomplished by proclamations by the General Court.

A gala ball, town parade, a town tailgate party, concerts by local bands and choirs – specifically those at WHRHS – a fireman’s ball, fitness events, a family photo contest, geocaching, a carnival day and 200 days of paying it forward.

“In short, clear your social calendar for 2020,” said Selectman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett, who also serves on the Hanson 200 Committee. She said the School District has also made a commitment to incorporate the bicentennial into the Hanson schools’ curricula. “Even if it’s just one day, where they talk about Hanson’s history and what kind of town it was.”

A July 4 celebration is also planned that year to mark the bicentennial.

“A carnival day would be terrific,” said Selectmen Chairman James McGahan, noting that he and Selectman Kenny Mitchell had tried to organize a carnival day more than a year ago and ran into challenges that prevented success. “That company [they tried to book] did make a contribution to school activities. So, if you guys can come through, the kids really need it.”

“You have to start now,” Mitchell said concerning booking a carnival company. “It’s all about the dates. They have dates that are already set for the next five years.” Singer said they would be aiming to schedule it as close to July 4 as possible, noting that July 4 itself may be difficult to book.

Fund-raising ideas include a themed ball, perhaps three – an 1800s themed event later this year, the 1900s in 2019 and the 2000s in 2020. A Hanson’s Got Talent competition is also being considered, to be perhaps staged at the Dr. John F. McEwan Performing Arts Center at WHRHS as well as potential Mr. Hanson and Mrs. Hanson pageants.

The Hanson 200 Committee began its work with $19,000 remaining from the 175th celebration and a recent allocation from Town Meeting. Donations are being accepted with details on that being posted on the town’s website at hanson-ma.gov.

A pop-up marketing opportunity for Hanson and 200th anniversary merchandise at the former Plymouth County Hospital site is also being considered. The committee is also working with the Final Plymouth County Hospital Reuse Committee to plan some sort of commemoration of the land as either a bicentennial park or incorporating the 200th anniversary into future plans there.

Whitman budget talks continue

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WHITMAN — The town’s budget remains out of balance, even as some requests for funding have been removed and officials continue to work toward reducing the deficit.

“As we speak today, based on revised requests, and a number were removed, we’re still $1.2 million over the levy limit, with all requests,” Town Administrator Frank Lynam told Selectmen on Tuesday, April 3. “That includes an increase of almost $1.5 million to the Whitman-Hanson School District, as well as some other pretty significant increases.” Lynam said he will contin ue meeting with the Finance Committee in order to present the final Town Meeting warrant to the Board of Selectmen, which meets next on Tuesday, April 24.

A scheduled vote on the amended W-H Regional Agreement has been delayed due to the need for another meeting of the School Committee’s subcommittee in order to review some provisions of the agreement.

The town will finally be able to sell a vacated property at 1030 Temple St., a property taken in foreclosure about 16 months ago.

The town is required to wait a year before taking action to dispose of it and there were also people living there who had to be removed from the premises, according to Lynam. The last residents left on March 7.

“We also had to secure the property — it’s already been broken into once — and I’d like to move ahead with the sale,” he said.

In other business, Selectmen approve requests by Dollars for Scholars President Michael Ganshirt to declare April Dollars for Scholars month in Whitman and to erect a fundraising thermometer on the Town Hall lawn through the end of May.

Selectmen lauded Ganshirt’s work for, and commitment to, the scholarship program.

“I want to commend Mike for doing such a great job,” Selectman Brian Bezanson said. “For so many years, now his group has been unbelievable with their concern and tireless devotion.” “I second that,” said Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski, who has known Ganshirt since they both served on the School Committee together. “He’s been a man whose been dedicated to this town.” 

Kowalski also noted the receipt of an anonymous letter concerning the issue of town supplies — including a veiled reference to an enclosure. While underscoring the board’s policy not to reply to anonymous letters, he urged a group calling themselves “Wiped Out” to bring their concerns before the board at an open meeting. 

The board also approved license applications for The Garage II at 849-851 Temple St., and the Hungry Coyote at 372 South Ave., pending the receipt of license fees and other stipulations required from the town. Both business owners were afforded the opportunity to put in a plug for their shops during the meeting.

“We see an opportunity to bring a nice product into the town of Whitman,” said Eric Schneider of the Class II auto dealership he is opening. The second-generation business also owns a dealership in Brockton, where it has done business for close to 50 years. The business also holds a finance license and a Class II license in Bridgewater. Sharing space with Sparky’s Automotive offers “one-stop shopping” where people can bring their vehicles in for repair.

The Hungry Coyote’s common victualler’s license approval will hinge on surrender of the license for the site under the name Avocado’s as well as a copy of the eatery’s declaration of fees for workmen’s compensation.

The Mexican restaurant has been on site for three year’s under the name Avocado’s and is changing the name to reflect a real Mexican Aztec approach to its fare. The owners also plan to make improvements to the shop inside and out.

Building priority plan is mulled

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WHITMAN — The Buildings, Facilities and Capital Expenditures Committee is considering the appropriate role for the board toward the ultimate goal of creating an operating plan to identify and prioritize capital needs.

The committee plans to meet again at 4:30 p.m., Thursday, April 26 to discuss their impressions of a planning guide and manual from the state’s Department of Revenue Division of Local Services as a blueprint for a town capital planning bylaw proposed by Finance Committee member Shawn Kain.

“I don’t disagree,” said Town Administrator Frank Lynam, who chairs the Buildings Committee. “What I do disagree with in his recommendation is the immediate implementation, because until we have a sense of organization and how we’re going to approach it, putting a bylaw on the books is not going to accomplish much.”

He said it would be up to him, the Finance Committee and department heads to work through the numbers in department requests, instead of bringing them back before the Buildings Committee.

“I would rather devote our efforts to building a plan, creating a process — a matrix — and then begin to follow it,” he said. The aim is to accomplish that over the next few months and “really start in August” to begin meeting with people. “I’m going to ask in July that all these proposals come in so that they can be footed into the matrix so that we can then look at them and start setting priorities.”

Lynam said that, given the town’s financial condition, which as of March 29 has Whitman $1.3 million short of balanced, if all warrant items are funded — with a number of articles still to be reviewed and vetted.

“I should have better prepared this group for the changing assignment of capital expenditures,” Lynam said. “It’s something we can’t do right now because we simply don’t have a revenue plan. … Our process for capital spending has been a reactionary one.”

Finance Committee member Vice Chairman David Codero, who also serves on the Buildings Committee, said the FinCom has similar concerns and questions about goals.

While Lynam credits Kain with being relentless, “one size doesn’t fit all,” he said, noting any capital committee and plan must fit Whitman’s specific needs.

A separate capital investment account, for example, would require long-term planning.

“It’s a great idea, but the money isn’t there [right now],” Lynam said. “It may even take a little pain on the part of the town to find where those funds are going to come from.”

Since the pie can’t be increased in size, it would have to be redistributed, according to Lynam. Codero suggested it could mean asking department heads to take a step toward presenting a plan before the “end goal” of specific warrant articles.

Lynam said that would mean, should the Buildings Committee take on that charge, to start the planning process as early as July for a next fiscal year to review plans with department heads and develop a matrix of long-term needs.

That would entail creating a database of the town’s capital assets, the condition they are in and short-term vs. long-term needs, coupling that with purchases the town makes, including large-scale purchases such as vehicles.

“These expenses can add up quickly and, periodically, you have to upgrade them and that’s when it becomes a capital expense,” Lynam said.

The DPW, for example, has withdrawn requests to buy two of three vehicles sought in warrant articles for the May 7 Town Meetings after discussions about the town’s financial outlook. The one item they are now putting through is a plow truck with dump body.

As a capital planning entity, the Buildings Committee would meet with department heads in that way, confirm early requests already made, identify new requests and analyze those needs in light of other departments.

“I do credit the schools with an analysis process that they use for the town buildings and the regional buildings,” Lynam said. “They have a matrix. It goes on the matrix and stays on the matrix until it either gets done or the building goes away.”

Another concern for the town is the change in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) coming in February 2019 that will make towns subject to OSHA regulations. That would require changes — especially at the DPW — that are not now required.

Buildings Committee member Donald Esson, who is an electrical enginer, asked if the town has a risk manager, which Lynam said yes — through the Mass. Interlocal Insurance Association (MIIA), a self-insured group that constantly runs risk-management scenarios for member towns. MIIA also helps with grants, training, inspections and recommendations for improvements.

“As a group we need to prioritize, but we need to go back to the requestors and get their feedback on why [certain requests are made], Lynam said.

“I think that is step one — we need to understand the budget, understand the funding of what we have,” Esson said. “We have to be realistic, we can only spend what we have and get them on board [about] how do we do it?”

Lynam said the Buildings Committee can go a long way toward outlining needs, what is being done and why because it could identify and get into the details involved in requested projects.

Chiefs defend budget process

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WHITMAN — Fire Chief Timothy Grenno addressed the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday, March 20 to defend his department and budget priorities against comments made at the March 6 Selectmen’s meeting and a March 1 Buildings, Facilities and Capital Expenditures Committee session.

The Selectmen’s public forum discussion led to some ideas for an earlier start to the municipal budget process.

“There have been accusations of greediness, untruthful statements and comments or decisions made by unqualified persons related to my proposed budget articles and needs requests for equipment,” Grenno said. The Selectmen’s meeting was broadcast by Whitman-Hanson Community Access TV.

He characterized Finance Committee Chairman Richard Anderson’s assertion on March 6 that, “Whitman has a spending problem,” as a “rather strong accusation coming from someone who has little experience with our town budget.” He also reminded selectmen that a year ago, Town Administrator Frank Lynam said the town has a revenue problem.

“I have a high opinion of Frank’s financial expertise related to the town budget — far more than anyone else out there. His years of experience is telling when working on budgets,” Grenno said in his prepared statement. “This year, the town’s financial needs were turned around and made into what I believe is an attack against department heads — accusations that we spend too much and that we are the problem.”

Grenno focused on comments made by the Finance Committee to the effect that a number of departments continue to appear at budget meetings “with extraordinary expectations,” in Anderson’s words.

“Those are the most unethical, accusatory statements I have ever heard from a recommending committee,” he said. “The department heads of this town work together every year to put the best financial option for this community forward.”

He said the “premature” presentation of a draft form of Article 2 during the March 6 meeting was “in my opinion, irresponsible” and a personal attack to discredit department heads “who are simply trying to do what is best for our departments and our customers.”

He said the Fincom’s presentation left taxpayers with undue anxiety and a “picture of financial disarray.” The first round of budget talks, Grenno stressed, usually includes the “wants,” while the second round boils the items down to what is needed.

Grenno also pointed to misstatements made during the March 6 Selectmen’s meeting, including that firefighter personal protective gear is contractually mandated. It is, he noted, recommend by national firefighting safety guildelines that gear be replaced every 10 years as cancer-causing agents are released in fires more frequently than in the past and become embedded in protective clothing.

“Cancer is killing firefighters at an alarming rate,” he said adding that two Whitman firefighters have been diagnosed with it in the past five years.

Police Chief Scott Benton also said a Finance Committee comment that a request for additional rifles and ammunition was never explained by his department was incorrect. He countered that he had explained to them that department shotguns are more than 20 years old and his goal to place a rifle in every cruiser.

“I don’t think I have to speak about school shootings to drive that point home,” Benton said. “But when this type of misinformation gets out to the public people start asking, ‘why do they need rifles?’ and I get it.”

Benton said he would have preferred an opportunity to more fully explain the request.

Grenno said he has never been invited to review capital requests with that committee at the March 1 meeting. The armory renovation request is intended to protect vehicles as well as to address space needs, he said.

“Did I expect $300,000 to move forward? Absolutely not — wish list stuff,” Grenno said. “I do expect discussions on the Fire Department’s space needs and a solution for the future.”

Ambulance costs were the source of most of Grenno’s disagreement with Lynam. The chief reminded officials that the $25,000 per year in ambulance maintenance comes out of the $600,000 to $700,000 in ambulance revenues each year — as well as $35,000 in billing charges, $100,000 per year in debt service for the 2001 building project, $285,154 in salary costs all of which — plus already voted lease-purchases, administrative assistant’s salary and regional dispatch — total $661,63.40 for fiscal 2019. Much of it, he said, would otherwise come from within the levy limit.

“You tell me where you can find $661,000 within the tax levy limit,” he said. “The ambulance account assures that we have the basic tools necessary to provide our critical mission of public safety.”

Lynam said he has, for years viewed the ambulance account as a captive fund that provides a great opportunity for the Fire Department to purchase capital equipment, but is at the expense of the general fund because most Massachusetts towns don’t have that account. General funds — $800,000 of a $3.2 million budget — do support the Fire Department, he added.

“I have not once, and I challenge [Grenno] or anyone to say that I have recommended discontinuing that account,” Lynam said. He said his comment was editorial in nature, and something he has said it before and would likely say it again — that the town has been fortunate enough to have decent equipment because of that fund.

“We stand equal in some areas of equipment and we stand less than [equal] in some areas,” Grenno said, noting that he has made strides to reduce costs since becoming chief. “There is no excessive or frivolous spending.”

Proposals

Selectman Randy LaMattina suggested getting rid of the “wish list” process to start off, noting that the Finance Committee is a group of hard-working volunteers already working in a limited amount of time.

Grenno agreed, but said the department heads do not have a complete financial picture by the time budgets are due in December.

Selectmen Vice Chairman Dan Salvucci suggested early, prioritizing after the first round of talks with the Finance Committee before it comes to Building Needs.

“I really think we need to try a different approach,” Lynam said. “We’re working on numbers now that were initially calculated in December. With few exceptions, those numbers aren’t going to change. … We ought to start talking about budgets toward the end of the summer, not in December because we can do a first pass in September and have a pretty decent idea of what’s available.”

He said talks with both chiefs have resulted in the removal of a couple of articles that “we just know we don’t have the money to fund.” One is the armory renovation project and the other is the radio system, the latter of which will be addressed with funds voted at the December special.

Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski asked if the answer lies in Finance Committee member Shawn Kain’s suggestion to take a step backward in favor of long-range planning over always catching up.

“What you’d have to be prepared to do is to actually sit down, somehow, as a town and figure out what we value and then the money would flow that way,” Kowalski said. “It might come out completely different from what we have now.”

Whitman man charged with motor vehicle homicide

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PLYMOUTH – A Whitman man has been arraigned on charges that he was operating under the influence of alcohol when he caused a crash that killed a Carver man, Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz announced Wednesday afternoon, March 28.

Alec Dowie, 51, of Whitman, was arraigned in Plymouth District Court on one count each of Motor Vehicle Homicide and Operating Under the Influence, third offense. He pleaded not guilty today in Plymouth District Court and was held on $5,000 cash bail with conditions that he does not drive, he submit to daily drug and alcohol monitoring, and that he surrender his passport.

On Febr. 6, at 6:45 p.m., Halifax Police and Fire personnel responded to the area of 38 Monponsett Str., for a report of a two-car crash. Upon arrival, police found that a 2018 Dodge Challenger operated by Dowie, had crossed into oncoming traffic and collided with a 2005 Honda CRV operated by Richard March, 78, of Carver. Both operators were transported from the crash scene for treatment of their injuries.

March was taken to Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston where he succumbed to his injuries just after 9 p.m. that same night.

Halifax Police contacted State Police Detectives with the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office and an investigation commenced with the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Department BCI and State Police CARS Unit.

The investigation found that Dowie had a Blood Alcohol Content Level of 0.084 and Dowie tested positive for Fentanyl, Heroin, Cocaine and Opiates in his system. Dowie told investigators that he took a Percocet prior to the crash.

Dowie was arrested by Whitman Police on Monday, March 26 on an outstanding warrant. He is next scheduled to appear in court on June 6 for pretrial conference.

Assistant District Attorney Russell Eonas is prosecuting the case, which was investigated by State Police Detectives assigned to the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office, Halifax Police, the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Department BCI and State Police CARS Unit.

Whitman writer finds muse on old block

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WHITMAN — Sometimes a safe corner can change your whole life.

Whitman artist and writer Russell DuPont has explored his world on canvas, through a camera lens and with poetry. Now he has turned his direction toward prose, and his lightly fictionalized memoir “King and Train,” the story of his youth on the tough streets of South Boston and Dorchester — available as an e-book through Amazon — is the result.

Names are changed and characters he has developed for the story are composites based on “a number of people” or invented to serve the story, according to DuPont.

“I try to keep the incidents, what actually occurred, as close to fact as possible,” he said of his writing process. “It’s sitting down [to write] and seeing where these characters take me.”

The title refers to the intersection of two streets in Dorchester where he and his friends would hang out “in what I consider one of the most significant periods of my life,” DuPont, who moved to Whitman in 1975, said in a recent interview.

“I grew up in the projects in South Boston, where every day I fought,” he said. “I had to fight — I wasn’t a member of a gang — the local gang was the Mustangs, and for some reason, I was targeted.”

One reason could have been that his girlfriend at the time was connected in some way to one of the gang members. His family moved to Train Street in Dorchester when his fights “reached a danger point.”

“I ran into a group of guys there who were just terrific guys,” he said of the corner at “King and Train.” The concept of fights and gangs was unheard of there and when the owner of the corner store, “a grouchy elderly woman who hated to see us around there,” sold it to two Armenian brothers, and the new owners allowed the guys to hang out there.

“In turn, we’d do things for them and clean up, and make sure there was no mess and no noise,” he said. “It was just the opposite of South Boston. I never had to look over my shoulder or around corners.”

The non-fiction piece published as “The Corner” in the poetry anthology, Streets of Echo, was expanded and fictionalized to become the novel, “King and Train.”

While DuPont says his poetry is based on observation of detail in a scene, his prose, both fiction and non-fiction is based on large incidents and experiences that have affected his life: including “canoe trips over dams and finding, up in Wisconsin, hearing my name in the middle of nowhere.”

One of his two non-fiction works, “Up in Wisconsin,” had brought him face-to-face with another Russell DuPont in a bar in a remote community on the Michigan border.

“We tossed that around for awhile,” he said. In fact checking for his story, he called a county office and was told “we have loads of DuPonts here, they all came down to log from Canada. She said the whole county is full of them.”

If he had it to over again, DuPont said he would still be moved to write the book, but would hold out for a book-publishing contract for “King and Train” as he is doing for a subsequent book, despite the time and effort agents and publishers now require.

“I feel like I rushed into Amazon [eBooks] too quickly,” he said. “I wish I had not been so anxious to get it out there.”

He just finished another novel titled “Waiting for the Turk,” which stems from an old football saying about the process of making cuts during training camp. It’s the kind of noir-ish detective story DuPont says he’s always wanted to write. Set in South Boston it’s about a former football player who reluctantly joins the Vermont-based detective agency started by his father, a retired Boston Police detective.

He has also started a sequel to “King and Train.”

DuPont has done four previous limited-edition, hand-made books — two of poetry and two non-fiction — as well as in Streets of Echo and in two issues of Boston Seniority, a magazine published by the city for its elder population. He has also been a freelance sportswriter for the Patriot-Ledger and has also reported for the Melrose Free Press and the Dorchester Community News, where much of his writing was columns on politics — particularly the Boston school busing issue which engulfed much of the ’70s.

“I started writing poetry in my late teens and had some published in local literary magazines,” he said. “I had my own magazine, The Albatross, back then and I was working both in journalism and [creative] writing.”

When his family began to include children, however, he found that carving out time to “lock myself in a little room after work” was difficult to fit into family obligations. That’s when he put down his literary pen and picked up a camera.

While he became a teacher in the Sharon School District to support his family, he eventually became interested in painting, and a grant from the school of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts helped him take a year off from teaching in 1993 to develop his talents in that genre.

“It was one of the most wonderful, productive years of my life,” he says. “When I was there, I decided this was it, as soon as my kids are gone, this is what I’m going to do.”

In 1990, he resigned his teaching job and obtained the first of a couple of different studio spaces, which included Rockland’s erstwhile Fourth Floor Artists, which he had helped found. In 2010, he returned to photography and about two years ago began working through Boston’s Elder Affairs office Memoir Project to hone his prose skills.

“That got me back into writing again regularly and I produced the piece for the anthology and pieces for the city of Boston,” he said.

Hanson revisiting by-laws

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HANSON — Selectmen have appointed an enforcement officer for a town earth removal bylaw already on the books, as well as a placeholder article on the May 7 Town Meeting for a resident’s proposed petition bylaw to govern the storage of sand, soil, mulch and similar materials.

The storage measure will have to be reviewed by Town Counsel before the board votes on specific language, however. The removal bylaw was approved by a vote of 4-1, with Selectman Kenny Mitchell voting against it during an unusual Thursday night session — due to last week’s nor’easter — on March 15.

Town Administrator Michael McCue said the draft soils storage bylaw was composed by Town Counsel Jay Talerman of Mead, Talerman & Costa LLC, and was given back to Talerman and concerned residents in the Robinson Street area where an ongoing agricultural soil removal operation has been an issue.

McCue suggested that a placeholder article sponsored by Selectmen would negate the need for the resident seeking the bylaw to rush for signatures before the vote to close the warrant March 20. The board was not voting on any proposed language yet.

“The feeling that I’ve gotten from the board, in a general sense, is that the board would be in favor of putting something like this in place as long as it was reasonable and didn’t unduly burden the average person,” he said. An example would be someone with a small pile of mulch they are going to spread around their property.

Specifics would be ironed out before the warrant is printed.

“You don’t have to vote the same way every time you look at it,” said Selectman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett. “If this evolves and you don’t like it, then you can vote against it.”

Town attorney Katherine M. Feodoroff of MTC said the petitioner had wanted the language to include retail enterprises in the bylaw’s regulations, but businesses are already governed by existing regulations. Commercial farms could be included under the retail umbrella.

Selectmen Chairman James McGahan said his only concerns centered on defining limits to amounts allowed for storage and

“Anybody who has large amounts of material of this type on their property, its impacting other people’s quality of life,” he said.

The board voted 5-0 to sponsor the placeholder article.

The earth removal bylaw vote was a revision of the existing bylaw, intended to clarify that the enforcement authority would be the building inspector.

“When you look at the bylaw online, there’s a small link at the bottom that says enforcement, and that basically says who enforces these bylaws,” McGahan said. “I clicked onto that, and I was educated to know the Board of Selectmen do that. … I didn’t know that we were the policemen of that bylaw.”

The board has the authority to appoint a different enforcement officer, with McGahan suggesting Building Inspector Bob Curran, adding that Curran had agreed to take on that responsibility.

McGahan also urged a review of other policies in which the board does not have expertise in an effort to appoint enforcement officers who do.

“I think it is appropriate, very appropriate, for the Board of Selectmen to authorize — and in all honesty, I think it should be the building inspector, to authorize someone as the enforcement officer, aside from the Police Department,” McCue said. “I wouldn’t expect an officer of the law to go out and interpret these sorts of bylaws.”

He did suggest he come back to the board at a future meeting with an omnibus recommendation of enforcement authority for other bylaws as well.

“I think it makes sense to do it all together instead of piecemeal,” McCue said.

McGahan argued that recent windstorms made the earth removal bylaw enforcement more urgent and the issue has been going on with no enforcement officer for too long.

“I think he might have other things he may be enforcement officer over,” Mitchell said of Curran. “I think we should take a couple weeks and have [McCue] review everything so we’re not calling Bob every other week, going, ‘Here’s another one.’”

FitzGerald-Kemmett agreed with McGahan that residents have become frustrated and that she has been receiving calls on the issue and enforcement of the bylaw, especially centering on the soil removal operation near Robinson Street

Planning Board member Joe Campbell suggested an alternate from either the building or health departments for situations when issues come under one of those two agencies. McCue said he wanted to confer with potential alternates to ensure they could do the job before they were appointed.

In other business, Campbell and Planning Board members Don Ellis and Joe Weeks attended the Selectmen’s meeting to discuss street and private road acceptance policies.

McCue agrees with them that there were some key gaps that could be filled. A private way is a road not yet accepted by the town as a public road, which requires betterments to bring a roadway up to standard first.

“The town is very limited on the funding and the man hours that can be spent in this kind of repairs,” Campbell said. “This way, we’d have a policy in place to actually have those roads accepted onto public roadways.”

McCue added that a policy would also ensure consistency.

Ellis said the problem arises when a developer fails to meet requirements for seeking acceptance of development roads when projects are completed.

“Some of these guys just don’t care,” he said. “The poor citizens on that street want it accepted at that time.”

McGahan said that’s where it gets complicated as people are paying town taxes and they can’t receive services for the upkeep of their road.

“The developer owns the road until he wants to relinquish it.” Ellis said. Some towns take those roads by eminent domain when the road is complete.

Feodoroff said the question becomes whether the town wants to accept a private road with all the expenses that the process incurs. She said a policy does a good job of educating the Planning Board about the condition of a road before it is accepted and hearings should be required first.

Engineer, attorney and construction costs must be borne by residents of the road — another source of concern for Feodoroff.

“For the residents to be able to afford that on the front end is probably very unlikely,” she said, especially on shorter streets and cul de-sacs. The language also has to clarify whether the street residents or the town bear the cost of betterments and urged that the language be refined.

“I think with a couple minor tweaks we’re good to go,” she said.

Campbell said it is meant to indicate the costs should be shared.

Pot sales ban is passed

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WHITMAN — Voters in the town’s Saturday, March 17 special Town Meeting voted nearly two-to-one in favor of a protective zoning bylaw banning all forms of recreational marijuana sales in Whitman.

The vote was 543 supporting the bylaw and 307 against the ban with 850 registered voters casting ballots. Town Clerk Dawn Varley said the light turnout was not entirely surprising for a one-issue special election and that quite a few voters had questions about the wording in a situation where a “yes” vote was against recreational sales while a “no” vote would support it.

“I think it was pretty much the average for a special election and a special interest,” she said. “I think people knew what they were voting for … they weren’t undecided.”

The wording of the question was “the worst part about it,” Varley noted.

“Some people were unsure of what ‘yes’ meant and what ‘no’ meant,” she said. “My election workers were told that, if there were any questions to send them to our office so it couldn’t be misconstrued that they were directing someone to vote a certain way.”

Two town officials — Selectmen Vice Chairman Dan Salvucci and School Committee member Fred Small — attending the results reading following the 5 p.m., polls closing expressed satisfaction at the result.

“No pot shops in Whitman,” Salvucci said. “Although the people want marijuana [legalized] in the state of Massachusetts and in Whitman, but the town of Whitman does not want it sold here.”

Voters had supported the 2016 state ballot question that legalized recreational marijuana in the Bay State.

“I voted yes,” Salvucci said of the ban. “I did not want the sale of marijuana in Whitman.”

Small described himself as a “happy School Committee member” in view of the result during an interview with WHCA-TV at Town Hall.

“I’m very glad, personally, that this didn’t pass,” Small said. “Although I do understand it is legal, it’s just not the image that I want to see projected for our hometown.”

Salvucci said marijuana could be a gateway drug to more addictive narcotics.

“I can understand the medical [use],” Salvucci said.

School budget certified

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The School Committee has certified a fiscal 2019 budget at an 11 percent assessment increase to the towns — a $1,387,777 increase in Whitman and an $840,705 increase in Hanson over last year. Without that assessment, the school budget is in deficit by $2,228,482 after transferring $450,000 from excess and deficiency last week.

The fiscal 2019 a foundation budget of $50,706,972 is up 4.1 percent from fiscal 2018. The current fiscal 2018 budget is $48,688,029.

The 11 percent assessment increase would fund a level service-plus budget that adds two middle school special education teachers, an elementary-level family liaison, the first of a multi-year technology plan and adds curriculum materials for the elementary science program.

“At 11 percent, we’re not going backward, we’re going forward,” said Committee member Fred Small. “There are items that the leadership did recommend that are in the 11 percent. … It is moving forward.”

The 7-3 vote, with Chairman Bob Hayes joining members Steven Bois and Alexandra Taylor in opposition, came during a rare Tuesday session. The March 20 meeting was pushed up a day due to a pending fourth nor’easter this month.

A first vote, to seek a 13.65-percent increase to include free all-day kindergarten, failed to garner the two-thirds vote margin with only Bois, Taylor, Michael Jones and Robert Trotta voting in favor of that assessment level. That assessment would have meant a $1,654,229 increase in Whitman and a $1,111,115.09 increase in Hanson over last year.

All 10 members support full-day kindergarten as a vital addition to the W-H curriculum, but several members argued it was more responsible to bring the budget closer to the minimum local share sought by the state for its funding formulas. Several members favored placing an all-day kindergarten program as an override issue, but that can’t be done with a program that must be funded through the year-to-year operating budget.

“That’s what we do here at W-H, we’re ideas,” Bois said. “We’re moving forward, we’re innovative.”

“The only way to have full-day K is in the operating budget?” member Christopher Howard asked. “We’ve looked out there and there’s no other mechanism?”

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Ruth Gilbert-Whitner confirmed that, as salaries for the teachers involved in such a program are annual expenses, there is no other mechanism. She did add that, with recent budget increase, the district towns are much closer to target share.

“An increase of this magnitude could possibly put us at target share or very close, so down the road we could start to get the Chapter 70 [funds] we would need to get [to full-day kindergarten],” she said of the effort she has supported for 18 years. “The problem is revenue.”

She said the only way to obtain the funds outside of town budgets and state Chapter 70 funds is for state transportation and per-pupil costs, as well as the special education circuit-breaker to be fully funded.

“We get whacked on transportation,” she said. “We can meet with FinComs until we’re blue in the face and it’s not going to matter. … I do think we’re being ripped off on regional transportation and circuit-breaker, and the charges for Charter Schools are killing us.”

Small said he would “kick, scream and yell” for anything less than level services while taking small steps ahead.

“I don’t see what harm there is in asking for it,” Taylor said in view of the fact that the committee’s support of full-day kindergarten is well known.

“It’s our responsibility to do what’s best for our school district,” Trotta said in support of full-day kindergarten. “I think it’s about time we pushed ahead.”

“No one is against all-day K,” Howard said. “Everyone is for that. It’s just that what we have to do is build a sustainable budget.”

But member Kevin Lynam joined Dan Cullity, Robert O’Brien Jr., and Small in urging planning toward keeping the budget healthy year-to-year and keep kindergarten in mind for when the budget is healthier. O’Brien also said there is a critical need for social-emotional support for elementary students now.

“Last year we got 10 percent and we came back with an almost $2 million deficit,” Lynam said. “If you add just enough to close the gap and you add all-day K on top of it, next year is going to be another big deficit.”

Cullity was concerned that, if the committee shoots too high, the towns could counter with assessments lower than the 11 percent increase.

“There is absolutely no guarantee that you’re going to get 11,” Hayes said.

Duval Elementary School Principal Julie McKillop said full-day kindergarten is no longer a want, it is a need.

“We are dealing with haves and have-nots,” she said. “We are doing everything we can to catch these kids up, but no matter what, I can’t stand here and say half-day and full-day are exactly the same and they all get the same amount [of instruction]. They don’t.”

She also said full-day kindergarten improves property values.

And the band played on …

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By Chelsea Getchell
W-H student intern

The show will go on.

Postponed from March 3 due to a storm, a planned performance by the Whitman-Hanson Alumni Band has been rescheduled for 7 p.m., Friday, March 23 in the Dr. John F. McEwan Performing Arts Center at WHRHS.

Devin Dondero, the head of the Whitman Hanson band, is the conductor for the The Whitman-Hanson Alumni Band event — a night in which past band members, current band members and educators play about eight tunes together. It is widely agreed among those involved that having the community involved is exciting and beneficial. The evening is filled with music, knowledge and fun.

The pops concert brings current W-H students together with recent and veteran graduates for the eighth year.

“It’s nice to have the old guys come down and play with us. It’s interesting because the community band guys get to show people who haven’t been doing this for as long and give some advice,” said bassist James Segel, a senior from Hanson.

Not only do the student musicians get to perform in front of audience members, but they also get the positive learning experience that comes hand in hand with playing alongside other musicians. The alumni event offers more than one benefit to any beginner musicians in the high school band program.

This event attracts alumni and current Whitman-Hanson players alike, giving inspiration to the younger musicians who may be considering a future in music.

Matthew Gallagher, junior trumpeter, adds “It’s wonderful to have such a diverse group of players come down to the school and perform as one for entertainment.”

Networking notes

Many players love this event particularly because they can get tips and notes from mentors in their community, unlike any other event. The combination of community members serves to pass valuable knowledge onto young musicians and  to offer a night of fun.

The Whitman-Hanson Alumni Band event has been running annually for about seven or eight years, and the band program intends to grow and continue to host it. Each year more people participate in the great night making it bigger and more successful. Musicians of all ages are invited to join in on the fun and perform with the community.

Maeve Rooney, trumpeter, says “I’ve been playing since fifth grade and this concert is especially fun because we get to see our Whitman-Hanson alumni.”