HANSON – As the voters of Hanson get down to business for the Tuesday, Oct. 7 special Town Meeting, they will face differing opinions from town boards and committees on how to return hours to some town employees while balancing the budget.
One thing on which there is agreement, however, is free cash.
“It’s seemingly uncontroversial, which I’ve now just called the universe in on us,” Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said after a review of the on Tuesday, Sept. 24.
“You did, because you didn’t look [to your] left before you went there,” said Board member Joe Weeks, asking Town Accountant Eric Kinsherf for the total amount of free cash is being deferred to Town Meeting?.
He was trying to determine – if all the budget-balancing things in the warrant that are going to hold the town to salaries and benefits that the town voted against funding in May – how much will that put the town in a hole by funding them now?
“One of the things I’m very much against is balancing the budget using free cash,” Weeks said. “A lot of the things we’ve decided to defer as a Select Board to Town Meeting [were] things that are going to balance the budget using free cash, which is a huge difference from using free cash to fund capital items and things along those lines.”
He expressed a fear that “the budget is going to get away from us, especially given in May, where we were supposed to do budget-related things, it’s going to put us deeper and deeper into the hole without anybody realizing it.”
Kinsherf said he and Town Administrator Lisa Green sat down to do a pre-Town Meeting overview of what will be needed in FY 2026 to fund the budget without free cash, and the town will be about $2 million short.
“At the end of this Town Meeting, if all the articles pass, I think we’re going to have [about] $2.3 to $2.4 million left,” he said. “So, it’s a policy decision.”
Kinsherf said that, ideally, we’d have an extra $2 million in revenue over so, and do an override or something and we be in a nice position having $2.4 million of untapped free cash we could use in capital or whatever. That’s a business that you could be in, but what happens when you have free cash available to you in May will allow you a little bit of one-stop Band-Aid … you see where we’re going with this.”
To keep the morale high would cost about $13,000, he said.
“It’s a decision on your part,” Kinsherf concluded.
Weeks said it wasn’t normal to fund articles one year only to cut them back the next.
“If we’re going to do it, I want to do it for the right reasons, not because people are asking us.”
Kinsherf said, if all the articles were funded, he could almost guarantee they would be cut in May.
“We haven’t said we’ve found extra money,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “We’re saying we took another look at the money we have and, given the fallout from Town Meeting, we’re saying that a judicious amount of money – $100,000 , which is not material in the grand scheme of what we’re looking at overall – could make a huge difference in the services that we’re able to give and in the morale of the staff that we have here.”
She said the voters would ultimately decide whether we’ve made the case or not.
Vice Chair Ann Rein said she was “a little surprised about the amount of free cash.”
She said she was thrilled with it.
“I don’t see, really, the problem with spending that small amount to restore services,” she said. “I think that services are something we have to think of as more important than capital projects,”
Both Weeks and FitzGerald-Kemmett agreed.
“That’s my point,” Weeks said.
High Street Park
In other business, the High Street Park Committee updated the board on that project.
Planner Anthony DeFrias said the committee has worked with him to finalize the plan. The Park Committee asked him to reach out to engineers and make recommendations on who to hire a peer review to assess the design to ensure it is meeting all state and federal regulations.
The board voted to empower the Committee to work with Green on finding an engineering firm to conduct the peer review.
It also has to go before the Planning Board, which has required the peer review.
“If we require that from residents, we should also require it for our own projects, DeFrias said.
He has also sought estimates from three companies – and the committee has earmarked money to pay for the peer reviewer.
The design, which DeFrias reviewed for the Select Board will go before the Planning Board for a public hearing, probably at the end of October, and includes basketball courts, a playground, a dog park, amphitheater for concerts or other performances, walking trails and open lawn area.
Plantings intended to mitigate the impact on abutters’ privacy, which had already been expressed, have been planned.
“Because of the cost, there’s going to be phases, so this could be a project that goes over a period of years,” DeFraias said.
The lowest bid for the peer review was for $3,950. A mid-range bid was $4,000 and the high bid was for more than $12,000.
“We’re going to go with the lowest person, Alan D. Majors, because they had a very good, detailed, estimate,” he said. The committee had also asked DeFrias to get an equipment estimate for the playground, which did not require a quote because he said they’re not even close to that, but estimates on the general cost to kit out a playground would be from $39,000 to $125,250.
“I think it’s a destination place, the way it’s getting laid out right now,” Weeks said, but I do think it was laid out strategically well in that it puts minimal issue with abutters, but again, I’m not an abutter, so I can’t speak for them.”

WHITMAN – The town has received two requests for the use of the DPW administration building once the new DPW building is completed, according to Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter during the Select Board’s Tuesday, Sept. 17 meeting.
“The Select Board will consider various requests as the [DPW building] project nears completion,” Carter said. “But we still have quite a way to go before the DPW building is finished and the actual admin building is vacated. These are just two and I’m sure you’ll consider everything that comes before the board.”
One of the two requests received, came from the Whitman Food Pantry, which is dealing with an increased need for its services, and the other advocating for a Whitman museum, to honor John and Natalie Campbell and Marie Lailer, came from Ken Lailer.
“We are delighted to see a new building being built and that a DPW office will be part of the new structure,” wrote Food Pantry President Richard Clark, asking to be considered of a future occupant of the existing DPW building. “Currently, St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry is housed at the corner of Whitman Avenue and Blake Street. We occupy the middle bay of the building owned and used by Milligan’s Safe Co. We could not have asked for a nicer, more cooperative owner, but we have also realized … that we should be looking at a space that meets the needs of increased food requests from our neighbors in Whitman.”
He said the pantry staff would like to think it’s services would not always be needed.
“But the reality is that food insecurity is high in our town,” Clark said. “We would like to be considered for building occupancy once a new DPW structure is completed.”
He said the food pantry staff is aware they would have to evaluate the building to see if it meets the pantry’s needs going forward and that their needs meet the occupancy requirements established by the town.
“We see the site of the existing DPW office [as] an important addition to assist us in advancing our mission, and providing food for the needy,” Clark concluded.
Lailer, meanwhile, advocated for the museum as a way to honor the Campbells and his late wife Marie, all of whom were searching for a site for the museum they envisioned.
“[The Campbells and] Marie were active in the history of this town – one in the Historical Commission and the other with the Historical Society – before their demise,” Lailer wrote. “If a location were found, then the general public would be able to view the town history and the many artifacts currently in storage.”
He said the Historical Commission also needs a larger space. It is now located in an office in the Town Hall.
“I am deferring to the Select Board for their insight into the various projects within the town,” he said. “If a building or spaces become available and are appropriate for town use, then I ask that you take action to acquire such a facility.”
Board Vice Chair Dan Salvucci, who also serves on the Building Committee, said that when incorporating the administrative offices in the new building and vacating the old administration building were first discussed told the Committee it “would be perfect for a historical museum.”
“I didn’t think about the food pantry because they already have a building,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s too small …”
“I believe it is,” Carter said.
“But they have a building and my opinion is the Historical Commission doesn’t have one,” Salvucci said. “Everything is just boxed in the Armory and I think we’re doing the town an injustice not to show what this town is made of.”
“Both good ideas,” Carter said.
Salvucci also indicated the DPW might want to retain the administration building for records storage.
“Forget it,” he said. “That can be taken care of.”
Select Board member Justin Evans said there is plenty of space for records storage in the old police station area in Town Hall.
“It would be nice to hear [from the DPW] about what their opinions are,” Select Board member Shawn Kain said.