HANSON — Candidates for town offices faced the voters for a question-and-answer session Sunday, May 3 in a forum jointly sponsored by the Democratic and Republican Town committees.

The forum, moderated by Town Moderator Sean Kealy, proved the opportunity for all candidates to present an opening statement and answer any questions asked.

Most candidates, running unopposed, received no questions, but the four candidates vying for two seats on the Board of Selectmen — incumbents Donald Howard and James McGahan and challengers Annmarie Bouzan and Joseph Weeks fielded questions from the audience for almost 90 minutes of the two-hour forum.

As in a recent Whitman Hanson Community Access TV forum, questions Sunday ranged schools to economic development and the selectmen’s role in government.

The show is being rebroadcast periodically on the Hanson local access cable channel.

Bouzan, the mother of three grown children and 26-year resident of Hanson, was first by luck of the draw. She has worked at Camp Kiwanee and on the Finance Committee before becoming administrative assistant to the Building Department.

“I really believe I can bring a better sense of community to the town,” she said. “We need to work together. We need to work things out and we need to work cohesively to move the town forward in a positive matter.”     

McGahan, 53, is also a parent of three and had won a recall election last summer, unseating Steven Amico.

“One of the reasons why I decided to run was I because I felt that I could being some positive change, and I believe I’ve been able to demonstrate that,” said McGahan, who has also served community sports leagues in town, focusing on his continuing commitment to overseeing repairs to Hanson’s schools.

Howard, a resident of Hanson since 1948, also has three grown children, said he is running again because he loves the town and serving the public. He is a member of the Plymouth County Advisory Board, the Plymouth County Central Water Division and attends Monponsett and Jones River watershed meetings.

“I keep myself busy,” he said and thanked his fellow volunteer elected officials for their dedication to the town.

Weeks, a 2003 WHRHS grad and father of two small children also stressed his commitment to the community as well as his status as a member of the Planning Board, Capital Improvement Committee and Housing Authority as well as being a small business owner.

“Hanson has always been the town I wanted to live in,” Weeks said. “Giving back is something I jumped into right away.”

Town Administrator Contract

While Kealy aimed to keep specific personalities out of a question asked about the town administrator’s contract, Town Administrator Ron San Angelo’s name crept into some responses. Kealy allowed responses to the general idea and called out candidates who slipped into personalities.

Howard said the town administrator is being paid to do his job as personnel and budget manager. McGahan urged people to compare the current town administrator’s contract with his predecessor’s.

“There are key differences,” he said without going into specifics, in keeping with Kealy’s instructions. “You have to ask yourself, what’s in it [and] is it good for the town of Hanson? I believe the current contract is not.”

Bouzan said, “The contract is the contract,” and said the town has the right to renegotiate it at the end of the contract’s three-year term as long as the general feeling is that the job is being done.

Weeks, who slipped into references to San Angelo from time to time, agreed with Howard and Bouzan.

“My biggest question is that the contract itself was moved up to May 19,” he said, noting there is the potential of having two new members on the board when the issue comes up. “I find that unsettling.”

McGahan countered that May 19 was selected to prevent the issue from becoming a political football.

Selectmen Liaisons

Candidates also divided along the issue of Selectmen liaisons to town departments, with Bouzan stating the recent policy has had an intimidating effect and all but McGahan opposing the policy to some degree. Howard and Weeks agreed with Bouzan.

“The people voted for us to have a town administrator to run the town,” Howard said. “I don’t believe in the liaison. If an administrator has a problem he can always go to the selectmen and ask about [it].”

“People come here, they’ve got a job to do, they get it done,” Bouzan said. “If there’s an issue, they know who to go see — the town administrator’s [door] is always open. … We’re getting to the point where we’re micro managing and it’s just not a good feeling. You can feel the tension in that building.”

She did say the idea has some merit with public safety departments, but that all departments should report to the town administrator. Weeks agreed the policy should at least be reconsidered.

McGahan said there is value in the liaison policy as it allows selectmen to learn for themselves the needs of various departments.

School issues

Weeks said he just wants to see something done — whether repairing or building new — in the most economical way possible and credited the Priority Repair Committee’s work so far. Bouzan agreed that common ground must be found. She had voted against the new school because it became so divisive, but Weeks and Howard had supported it, while Weeks allowed it would have been difficult for him financially as well as many others had argued at the time.

McGahan said, while he would love to see “a new solution to the Maquan School,” he felt the wrong path had been followed before, but since then there has been a cooperative effort to address the schools’ needs.

“We have to repair the schools for our children,” Howard said.

Weeks and Bouzan also agreed with School Committee Chairman Bob Hayes, who had also been questioned on the issue, that the two-thirds vote on school borrowing issue is one for voters to make and that they would abide by that decision. McGahan personally favors it, but Howard personally favors a majority vote.

Hayes had said residents who hold the view that, under a two-thirds requirement, one-third of Town Meeting voters could control any decision have approached him. [See related story]

Attracting business

While he said he’d love to attract a lot of business to town, Howard said Hanson’s status as a bedroom community with no sewerage system and poor drainage in many areas, makes the prospect difficult. McGahan would like to see — perhaps on a monthly basis — continued meetings between the town and businesses to permit an avenue for them to express concerns.

Bouzan and Weeks, himself a small business owner, also voiced an eagerness to work with business owners, with Bouzan suggesting a Chamber of Commerce could be established. All four agreed that businesses would be required to comply with town planning, conservation and health regulations.

Candidates also fielded questions on the town’s emergency preparedness, which all said functions well while welcoming a fledgling Citizens Emergency Response Team (CERT) program. They also agreed that a public forum during Selectmen’s meeting is an idea worth exploring, but Bouzan and Howard noted it had been tried before only to be abandoned due to lack of participation.

WHITMAN — The Southeastern Philharmonic Orchestra comes home to Whitman Town Hall auditorium to perform a free pops concert in celebration of its centennial at 2:30 p.m., Sunday, May 10 — Mother’s Day.

Conductor Robert C. Babb said the concert is the perfect gift for mom, an afternoon of music and family.

“It’s going to be a great opportunity for people to treat their mothers to something special and make it a very special Mother’s Day,” Babb said. “It’s going to be a pops-type of concert. A lot of the music comes from around the time the orchestra started.”

Irving Berlin tunes will be included in the repertoire as he was “incredibly popular with the songs he was writing at that time,” Babb said, adding that Gustav Holst’s “The Planets,” composed in 1914, will also be featured as well as other favorites the orchestra continues to play.

Now based in Weymouth for about four years, the SPO was founded in Whitman by Frank Burnett and Dr. John Coughlin in 1915 as the Whitman Orchestral Club and rehearsed as well as performed in the Town Hall auditorium. Having performed concerts for every year since its inception, the SPO is the oldest continuing community orchestra in the nation, according to the SPO website. Its purpose remains to provide fun and experience for amateur musicians of all ages and levels of accomplishment.

“I’ve been there a couple of times and the sound just bounces off the walls,” Babb said of the venue. “The acoustics are incredible.”

This is Babb’s 36th season with the SPO, which boasts musicians ranging in age from 15 to 90. Many of the musicians have been SPO members for decades

“Right now we have musicians from all over the South Shore,” Babb said. That 55-musician roster includes Whitman resident and violinist Sheila Kinch.

Sunday’s concert is supported in part by a grant from the Whitman  Cultural Council, a local ageny supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

—  Tracy F. Seelye

WHITMAN — It took several appeals to residents watching at home, Facebook posts by town officials, cell phone calls and a mention in the benediction prayer, but a quorum of 150 was eventually achieved by 8:58 p.m., Monday, May 4 to allow the business of Whitman’s special Town Meeting to convene within the annual.

The special had been posted to begin at 7:45 p.m.

It was almost 8 p.m. when the annual Town Meeting convened, still 17 short of a quorum for the special to vote on about $1 million that had to be moved in that warrant to continue this years’ operations until June 30.

The Rev. Crystal Gardner of the Whitman’s United Methodist Church included an appeal for more voters in her prayer.

“We ask that you give us the 17 people that we need,” she prayed. “If we don’t have the votes, then it’s not your place to complain … we ask that you find it in your hearts to ease on down the road and come to this meeting.”

She also prayed that each article be respectfully analyzed before it was criticized.

“It’s frustrating,” Town Administrator Frank Lynam said after adjournment. “The form of government we have is the ultimate in citizen participation. People who have something to say, can come here and say it. People who want to know what’s going on, can come here and participate. It’s great to watch it at home on cable, but you’re not participating.”

Lynam said sooner or later lack of participation will reach the point where there is not enough for government to work.

“That’s what I’m concerned about because I can see us moving to a representative form of town government and that is not something that people come here and participate in year in and year out want to see,” he said.  “The citizens who attended seemed to understand and were comfortable with all of the requests … very few items even had a lot of discussion.”

Voters during the annual Town meeting focused the bulk of discussion on a by-law change regulating open burning devices [See related story above] and a non-binding referendum petition urging the state to discontinue Common Core standards and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) testing.

“This is to send a message to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and to Gov. Baker,” said Michele Frank of Country Way. “Massachusetts does not want unfunded mandates. We are committed to quality education and want to keep local control.”

State Rep. Geoff Diehl, R-Whitman, said he has three issues with Common Core/PARCC: It was adopted with no public hearings; it was put through via the Governors’ Association and there is a conflict of interest DESE’s Commissioner who is also chairman of the board of the private corporation that developed the PARCC test. He said, while the ultimate decision is up to the state, the ballot question is a chance for the public to weigh in.

Vocal PARCC opponent, School Committee member Fred Small, was among the no votes in the 75-54 vote in favor of the ballot question.

“My fear is that by people authorizing that nonbinding referendum they don’t think they have to do anything else,” Small said after Town Meeting adjourned. “I personally am against PARCC and I’m against Common Core. I am for Massachusetts creating their own superior standards as we had before in our own testing.”

Small urges Common Core/PARCC opponents to write letters to the Statehouse, governor and state Board of Education — as the best method by which they might influence decision-makers on the issue.

“I’ve already written mine and sent them,” he said.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Ruth  Gilbert-Whitner said after the meeting that PARCC has been controversial.

“There are many, many concerns there,” she said. “I don’t think what happened was surprising … and at least people are thinking about student assessment.”

A citizen’s petition to discontinue the Common Core and return to the MCAS test was passed over because Town Meeting lacks the authority to act on educational matters, Lynam said.

Little discussion centered on the fiscal 2016 budget.

Resident Tom Evans of Temple Street questioned what duties the assistant town administrator’s salary paid for and Lynam responded, “Everything I do with a few notable exceptions,” including Greg Enos’ function as town procurement officer.

Another resident questioned spending $7,000 on Annual Town Report books in a tight budget year, noting the same information is available online.

Lynam replied that state statute requires towns to print one for every registered voter in town.

“We do not do that,” he said. “I print 1,000 books. They are displayed and available for people who come to Town Meeting and for people who come to elections.”

He said the typical cost is $5,000 with any remaining money returned to the general fund at the end of the year.

Whitman Middle School teacher Beth Stafford called a question on the school budget for the purpose of commenting on the status of W-H schools’ finances.

“This is short about $1 million, and this has been happening year after year,” she said. “I’m standing up here because I’m making a plea to everyone on all sides — if we could please start to work together to figure out some way to make this community look at the school system … to help it out. Right now we are not at level service for next year — there will be cuts.”

Lynam flagged the line items for salaries of library staff who are members of the SEIU in light of the lack of quorum for the special Town Meeting at the time the general budget was voted.

The recently negotiated collective bargaining agreement was up for ratification in the special’s warrant, as the budget article was drafted on the predication that the contract would be approved. It was approved when 150 people had signed in so the special Town Meeting could be held.

Evans supported the article calling for a one-year capital exclusion vote to raise $836,500 for Whitman’s share of a technology upgrade for the schools

“We’ve built … the high school, renovated our middle school and our elementary schools [but] we haven’t done anything to keep up with technology,” he said. “This would be the first thing we should do. Next year we should support the schools.”

After adjournment Gilbert-Whitner said she was excited to see the technology upgrade pass so easily, while noting it still faces a ballot vote.

“We’ll be making sure that the taxpayers, parents [and] citizens are aware of the importance of replacing our aging technology,” she said of the leadership team’s next task. “If it fails in both towns we just keep limping along with what we have.”

If only one town passes it, she said they would have to look to the October town meetings.

HANSON — Voters at Town Meeting on Monday, May 4 defeated proposals to require two-thirds Town Meeting votes to approve capital borrowing for Hanson school buildings and to increase the elected Board of Health from three to five members.

Voters accepted a donation of former Lite Control land and buildings, authorized borrowing to implement a desktop virtualization and “cloud” computing method throughout the Whitman-Hanson regional school district, and endorsed a nonbinding referendum to discontinue the use of federal Common Core education standards and associated PARCC testing in Whitman-Hanson schools.

When Town Meeting was called to order in the Hanson Middle School auditorium Monday night, 202 Hanson voters were present, according to Town Moderator Sean Kealy.

Voters disposed of all 56 warrant articles over the course of four hours.
Finance Committee Chairwoman Barbara Arena thanked voters for coming out and participating in the deliberations.
“This is very important and it validates what we do as a town,” she said.

An article to petition state lawmakers for special legislation to require a two-thirds vote by Town Meeting, instead of a majority vote, to approve borrowing for capital costs for regional school projects in Hanson failed by 70 to 90 votes.

Selectmen Chairman Bruce Young said the measure would have restored the public’s trust in their government by keeping the school department in line with other town departments and closing a loophole that lets school borrowing questions bypass Town Meeting voters.

West Washington Street resident Joseph O’Sullivan said requiring majority vote is the right way to act because it takes half of the voters to stop a school capital borrowing measure. A two-thirds vote would be the wrong way to act, he said, because in that case a lesser number of voters, one-third, could stop it.

“That’s undemocratic,” he said. “Everyone should have a chance to vote on it.”

Voters approved a home rule petition for special legislation that would let the selectmen negotiate a contract for up to three years with the appointed highway surveyor.

An article that would have increased the elected Board of Health from three to five members failed by 72 to 80 votes.

Petitioner Helen M. Vess of High Street said, “Having a five-member board would create more transparency.”

Board of Health member Richard Edgehille said a five-member board would have worked better and be more professional than a three-member board and there would be no shortage of candidates.

Board of Health candidate Kimberly King said there are two health board candidates running and there is a great deal of interest in two additional positions.

Town Clerk Elizabeth Sloan said she opposed the measure and believes there would be a hard time getting candidates to fill a five-member board.

“To increase this board from three to five members is only going to make the situation worse,” she said.

By a voice vote, Town Meeting accepted a gift of land and buildings from Hubbell, Inc., a portion of the former Lite Control property on Hawks Avenue.
Hubbell is offering Hanson two acres of land, an 18,000 square-foot building that could be used for a highway department barn and a 15,000 square-foot building that could be used as a salt storage building.

The balance of the 10-acre property is being donated to the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife for the Burrage Pond wildlife management area.

Hubbell is demolishing buildings and cleaning up the site and working with the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The two buildings being donated to Hanson are steel buildings built in the 1990s, with a modern septic system, are fully insulated with gas heaters and have a sprinkler system, according to Selectman William Scott.

Scott said Hanson would need to spend an estimated $1.5 million to renovate the buildings for highway department use.

The current highway department facilities do not meet required state and federal mandated codes for environmental and safety standards.

It would cost an estimated $744,000  to upgrade the current facilities and bring them up to code, Scott said.
Scott said Hubbell would take full responsibility for cleaning up the property to the satisfaction of the state Department of Environmental Protection, and Hanson could reuse the current highway department site for an added baseball field, football field, playground or for additional parking. The land donation, Scott said, is like a gift that would keep giving to the town.

The Finance Committee recommended Town Meeting pass over the article.
Arena was on the Lite Control committee, and said there are enough significant capital projects that Hanson is responsible for, and to add additional buildings is not the best fiscal use for the town.

Finance Committee member Stephen McKinnon said the town has not done its due diligence on the measure and finance committee members saw Scott’s presentation for the first time Monday night.

“Let the buyer beware,” he said.

Monponsett Street resident Jim Egan said the town already owns property it cannot maintain.

“The cautionary tale is Plymouth County Hospital,” he said.

Voters approved borrowing of as much as $633,500 to buy and upgrade computers in Hanson’s elementary and middle schools, and for Hanson’s portion to do so at Whitman-Hanson Regional High School.

Network equipment is 10 years old, at the end of its life, and no longer supported by the vendor. Instead of removing all desktop computers now being used and replacing them with new desktop computers, the same method that has been used for two decades, the plan implements a method called desktop virtualization.

According to a school district Town Meeting handout:
“After conducting a pilot program this year, virtualization was determined to be the best way to keep us current and on pace with ever changing technologies, rather than replacing each old computer with a new one. With virtualization, we anticipate a 10 year life span while replacing computers one to one would be four to five years. Virtualization centralizes the individual’s hard drive and operating system in the district’s data center, creating an on premise ‘cloud’ network. This enables users to access technology, anytime, anywhere, and with any device or platform whether they are at school or at home.

“The existing school desktops are reused as ‘thin clients’ because only the keyboard, mouse and screens are needed. Because individual hard drives are no longer needed, replacement device costs are less than $200. All items under the virtualization project will be covered under a three-year contract.”

No action was taken on an article that would have removed Hanson’s elementary and middle schools from the Whitman-Hanson regional school district.

By a voice vote, Town Meeting approved a nonbinding referendum to discontinue the use of federal Common Core education standards and associated PARCC testing in the Whitman-Hanson regional school district, and instead use pre-2009 Massachusetts standards and MCAS testing.

Article petitioners distributed a handout that included a memo to Hanson voters from state Rep. Josh Cutler, D-Duxbury, who has co-sponsored a billed called “An Act Relative to a Moratorium on High Stakes Testing and PARCC” (H.340).

According to Cutler, the bill would put a three-year moratorium on the use of PARCC, the test used with Common Core standards.

The bill would also put a three-year moratorium on the use of standardized testing to determine high school graduation, evaluation of teachers and assessing performance of schools or districts. It would also establish a task force of stakeholders to meet during the first 18 months to measure the use of high stakes tests as a high school graduation requirement, in evaluating educators and in assessing schools and districts against the paramount goal laid out in the Education Reform Act of 1993. Six statewide hearings would be held and a report issued at the end of the period.

“The substance of testing is a mater I believe is best left to local educators, parents and community stakeholders to determine,” states the Cutler memo. “High standards and a comprehensive assessment system for students and teachers are a critical part of our education system, but there must be an appropriate balance. I believe this legislation will help to restore this much needed balance.”

The bill is awaiting a Joint Committee on Education hearing date and has garnered broad, bipartisan support in the state legislature, according to Cutler, who has also co-sponsored another bill, H.351, which would place a broader moratorium on any new education program mandates from the state.

PLYMOUTH — Whitman-Hanson lacrosse lost a heartbreaker on the road in Plymouth Thursday, April 23. The Panthers fell in the final seconds of regulation to the Plymouth North Eagles 10-9; despite erasing an early 4-0 deficit.

Plymouth North’s Noah Cully and Jackson Haley each tossed in two first quarter goals to put the Panthers down 4-0. With less than two minutes remaining in the quarter Joe Arico put Whitman-Hanson on the board, and Colin Downing followed suit just thirty seconds later.

The Panthers fired back in the second quarter; tying the game at 6-6. Kyle Bina and Brett Connors tossed in a goal apiece in the second, while freshman Jake Long scored two to close out the half.

“We were able to come back to tie the game at halftime, after going down 4-0 to start the game” said second year head coach Rob White. “The guys never quit, and battled hard to stay in it.

Early in the third, Arico went down with an apparent knee injury, and left the game as a precaution. Senior Devin Lydon scored the only third quarter goal for the Panthers, who trailed 9-7 going into the fourth.

Cully scored the eventual game winner for the Eagles, despite goals from Ryan Kennedy and Connors late in regulation.

“This game was defined by ground balls, which we were visibly beat in” added White. “We need to come out stronger and not go down early.”

Whitman-Hanson nearly tied the game in the last thirty seconds. The Panthers recorded five shots on goal in the final seconds, including one with three seconds remaining that hit off the pipe, bounced around and was finally kicked away by North’s goaltender as the final horned sounded.

Despite the 10-9 loss, the Panthers remained over .500 with a 5-4 record. Whitman-Hanson will look to gain five wins in their final 11 to clinch a postseason berth, but suffered a setback Tuesday, as a 15-1 loss to Hingham bumped them back to 5-5 for the season.

The team defeated Milton 16-8 last week. Bina had quite a day with eight goals. Junior Captain Dylan Thomas had two goals along with Junior Arico and Long. Connors had four assists. Senior Captain Conor Campbell lead the defense all day with numerous ground balls.

BOSTON — Former Whitman Hanson soccer star Kristie Mewis and the rest of the Boston Breakers made their home debut in their new stadium on the campus of Harvard University Sunday afternoon.

The Breakers christened Soldiers Field Soccer Stadium with a 3-2 victory over the Houston Dash in front of 2, 372 roaring fans, to move to 1-1 on the season. The Breakers made the move across campus as Harvard Stadium, the clubs former home, is undergoing major renovations.

Mewis grew up just a short 40-minute drive from Soldiers Field, donning the black and red for the Panthers in high school, and lacing up her cleats on the grass soccer fields in Hanson. In a storied high school career, which she finished with 74 goals and 34 assists.

Mewis had earned many honors as Panther, including being named a three-time NSCAA All-American, three-time All-New England and All-Massachusetts team honoree and a three-time Eastern Massachusetts Girls Soccer Association Div. 1 First-Team All-Star. In 2008, Mewis was named the NSCAA Youth Player of the Year and the U.S. Soccer Young Female Athlete of the Year. In 2009, she was named to the Parade All-America team. Mewis also played for the Region 1 Olympic Development Program (ODP) team from 2003–2007.

Kristie stayed close to home in college and attended Boston College on a full soccer scholarship from 2009 – 2012. In her time at The Heights Mewis became the Eagles all-time points’ leader, finishing her collegiate career with 39 goals, 38 assists, nine game-winning goals and 21 multiple-point games. She was also one of only two players in program history to register a goal in five straight games.

After a short three week stint with Canberra United FC in 2013 where she scored her first professional goal, Mewis was selected In January 2013, third overall in the 2013 NWSL College Draft to FC Kansas City for the inaugural season of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL.)

In November 2013, FC Kansas City traded Mewis to Seattle Reign FC for Amy Rodriguez. Days later on Nov. 18 Mewis was traded alongside Michelle Betos and two 2015 NWSL College Draft picks to the Boston Breakers for Sydney Leroux.

“My dream has always been to play professionally and the fact I can do that in my hometown is the best feeling in the world” said Mewis after the Breakers 3-2 victory. “It allows my friends and family to come to the games and for me to be able to play so close to home is extremely lucky.”

Mewis signed a three-month contract with Iga FC Kunoichi of the Japanese Nadeshiko League first division during the NWSL off-season. Wearing number 31 and playing as a forward, Mewis scored five goals in seven games. During matches in which Mewis played, Iga FC recorded a 6-1 record.

“I knew I needed a confidence builder because I had a rough season last year, as well as coming off an injury so I wanted to get away and try something new and get my confidence back. Being with a new team and playing in a new environment definitely helped me and it was a great experience.”

This upcoming weekend Kristie will face younger sister Sam Mewis, who is two games into her rookie campaign with the Western New York Flash. On Saturday, May 2 the former teammates will battle for Mewis household bragging rights until Sam makes her homecoming June 28 when the WNY Flash travel to Boston.

“I never played against Sam in college, and it’s been awhile since we played with each other, but we know each other’s tendencies’ and playing style” Mewis said about playing Sam this upcoming weekend in Rochester, New York. “We will probably exchange a laugh or two during the game but it’s going to be a fun experience and I am looking forward to seeing her.”

Be sure to follow Whitman-Hanson writer Brian McLoughlin on Twitter at @bmcloughlin22 for updates from Rochester, New York all weekend long as he covers the battle of the Mewis sisters.

 The following students have had their work selected for the VFW Patriotic Art Contest and Exhibition: First Place – Katryna Crowley, who went on to win second place in the state; second Place – Mimi Wang; third Place – Tyler Sansone and Honorable Mention – Stephanie Kariuki, Alexandria Bowden and Kristina Woodward. Also representing Whitman Hanson: Emily Gonzalez, Alex Tobin, Paisley Haskell, Jenna Kimball, Emma Kennelly, Leah Ricciarelli, Kevin Guerney, Kaitlyn Daly, Brie Holmes, Kristina Woodward, Angelina Guiducci, Jason Goveya, Kristen O’Leary, Lily Sullivan, Elana Wood.

The artwork  will be on display from May 19-May 21 during the Art in Bloom exhibit in the WHRHS Library. The top five finishers will also be displayed at Mutual Bank in Whitman center.

The work of the first place winner was sent to compete with other first place winners from around the state to represent Massachusetts at the national level.

W-H extended special thanks to Rachel Eaton and the Whitman VFW Ladies Auxiliary for years of commitment to the program.

Tyler Sansone’s work reflects on the poppies of Flanders Field and won third place locally. Courtesy photo

Mimi Wang won second place in the local competition for her depiction of the joy of welcoming a soldier home. Courtesy photo

Local VFW Patriotic Art Contest winner Katryna Crowley’s drawing (above) of a soldier comforting a child won second place in the state competition. Courtesy photo

Flooded in history

BOSTON — Almost 100 years later a nagging question remains how did the Great Molasses Flood happen?

A group of about 20 people taking part in the Whitman Reads project centering on Stephen Puleo’s book, “Dark Tide: The Great Molasses Flood of 1919,” travelled to Boston Friday, April 24 to hear a presentation on the latest theory and visit the site of the disaster. The community reading program concludes tonight with a second visit by Puleo at 6 p.m., in the Whitman Library.

Ronald Mayville, a senior structural and metallurgical engineer with the Waltham firm of Simpson, Gumperts & Heger, outlined his research — which is pointing to metal stress on a low-manganese type of steel used in the tank, as well as design flaws.

The type of steel, which becomes brittle in cold conditions, used in the molasses tank that collapsed on Jan. 15, 1919 was also used in building the Titanic, which sank in the icy north Atlantic April 14-15, 1912.

Puleo points to court documents from the prolonged post-molasses flood litigation which also blame design flaws for the disaster.

“When I moved to this area nearly 30 years ago, one of the first things I thought of was, ‘This is Boston. This is where the molasses tank failure occurred,” Mayville said during his luncheon talk at La Famiglia Giorgio restaurant in the North End where the disaster claimed 21 lives and caused extensive damage.

Busman’s holiday

At the time he took his wife and some friends all over the North End waterfront, unable to find the site now graced with an historic marker.

“I’m an engineer and I work in the area of failure,” he said. “This has been something of interest to me for a long time.”

He said the molasses tank failure is a common subject of study in college courses dealing with the strength of materials.

Like Puleo, Mayville uses the 25,000 pages of court testimony in his research. As a project done in his spare time, Mayville is about 8,000 pages through.

Archival material left to Lehigh University, once owned by a consultant who was among experts testifying at the trial, has also been valuable, Mayville said.

“You can have your own molasses tank already broken,” he said of online directions available for building a model. “I have one. We keep it on our fireplace mantel.”

Mayville’s interest is in using modern research techniques, such as finite element analysis, to learn why the tank failed — he believes progress is being made.

He is currently working on a computer animation of how he believes the tank collapsed, which in effect presents a graphic illustration of Puleos’s desciption of observances reported by Suffolk County Medical Examiner Dr. George Burgess Meredith in the days following the disaster:

“Steel plates from the tank’s wall lay broken and partially submerged in molasses,” Puleo wrote. “But McGrath saw that the tank’s large circular roof lay right-side-up atop the concrete foundation, in sharp contrast to the violence and destruction on the waterfront. It was as if the molasses had spewed out in all directions from under the roof, carrying the tank’s walls in all directions, but the roof had settled gently onto the ground below.”

Molasses is 1.5 times heavier than water, which also played a role, according to Mayville. While the tank had been filled to capacity several times before, at least once to a higher level than on Jan. 15, 1919, that also contributed to the ultimate failure.

“You know the famous paper clip [example], if you bend the paper clip back and fourth enough times it will break, that’s known as fatigue,” he said. “I believe something like that was happening as well.”

What purpose?

Another of his hypotheses is that the reputable firm that built the tank may have designed it for water.

“That’s a big mystery to me, how they could have made such a big mistake,” he said.

Welding, which was known at the time, was not widely used. The tank, again like the Titanic, was assembled with riveted joints.

“Today I would say bolts and welding is stronger,” he said. “But [rivets] was the technology of the day.”

Rivets reinforcing the outside of the manhole on the tank roof were insufficient, Mayville argues. He points to “herringbone” marks in the steel that indicate where a fracture started — in this case the manhole.

“The way they made the rivet holes in those days was to actually punch through the metal,” he said. “If you didn’t do it carefully, and sometimes if you did, it tended to damage the  material around the edge of the hole — sometimes even leaving cracks.”

WHITMAN — It all started with a simple question.

As 8-year-old Conley Elementary School second-grader Grace Hughes watched television news coverage of Boston Marathon preparations — and the trial of marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev — she asked herself what she could do to help the bombing victims.

“I felt really bad for the people that got hurt that day,” Grace said.

A fan of making loom bracelets, she opted to make some to sell for $1 each at her school.

“She wanted to donate clothing or something like that,” her mom Danielle Hughes said. “I said ‘They don’t really need that right now, what they need is money to help them get back on their feet.’ She said she could raise money by making bracelets and I thought that was a great idea.”

“And she got tons of money … and I helped,” piped in her little brother Nick, 5. He helped Grace make some of the 95 bracelets she turned out. With her class helping, her goal was 100 bracelets.

“I’m pretty sure we’re going to get past that many,” Grace said.

They had raised $250 prior to the school sale through purchases made be friends and family.

“I had posted on Facebook how excited and proud of her I was,” Danielle said. “We were very surprised it was something Grace wanted to do.”

Where the money would go was an important consideration. One Fund Boston was no longer accepting donations, so they looked at other options and found The Martin Richard Charitable Foundation, which honors the 8-year-old bombing victim’s message of peace by investing in education, athletics and community.

Grace felt kinship with the boy who was her age in 2013.

The next step was getting permission from the school to conduct the sale. Since Principal Karen Downey’s sister in-law runs the marathon, it wasn’t a hard sell.

“I tried to look for her on the news, but I didn’t see her,” Danielle said.

On Friday, April 17, Grace gave a presentation on her project in front of the entire class on what she was planning.

“The day before I was nervous, but that day I wasn’t,” she said with a giggle. “My class decided to help me out making the bracelets.”

Danielle said they were excited to see how many bracelets they end up with.

Grace’s teacher Kerri Doherty has been an enthusiastic booster of the project.

“She’s really been quite an inspiration to all of us,” Doherty said Monday. “She had shared with the class during our morning meeting what she was going to do and they all immediately wanted to know how they could help.”

One student alone made more than 100 bracelets over April vacation, Doherty said, adding that other teachers at Conley have told her they have students who want to help, too.

“It’s really exciting — she’s really a special girl,” Doherty said.

HANSON — The Board of Selectmen Tuesday night voted 4-1 to approve a policy under which access to the town’s law firm — Blatman, Bobrowski & Mead LLC — by individual selectmen requires approval only by the Board of Selectmen’s chairman or vice chairman.

The town administrator would be notified of such requests, but will not have the power to approve or deny them.

Selectman Don Howard dissented, saying he has never had a problem going through a town administrator, and he has worked with three in his seven years on the board.

“I don’t see why we need a policy,” Howard said, noting that is why taxpayers fund the town administrator’s position.

“We never had a firm, written policy on access to town counsel,” Selectmen Chairman Bruce Young said, explaining a new request for legal services form he had drafted. “At least there’s a record that this happened because now we can get into the billing process.”

He said the request form represents an internal control system key to a well-run accounting system.

Town Administrator Ron San Angelo countered that the form stems from a disagreement between him and Young on the wording of the Town Administrator Act, and sought joint approval from the chairman and administrator on the forms.

“This is an interpretation kind of issue,” San Angelo said. “Like all good pieces of legislation, it’s debatable.”

He argued that his job is to act as liaison between town counsel, the Board of Selectmen and affected town departments or officials,’ other than selectmen’s, requests.

“I don’t believe the chairman, nor any single member of the Board of Selectmen, has the direct power to go to town counsel,” he said. “That has to be done in conjunction with the town administrator. … The power to go to a town attorney rests with the entire Board of Selectmen, not any individual selectman.”

San Angelo said he has never refused any selectman’s request to refer to the town attorney if there is a need for it and if there was a concern over need he would work with the chairman to solve it.

“I’m supposed to be the coordinator of that and to know what legal funds are being spent,” he said.

Selectman James McGahan said San Angelo’s reliance on the phrase  “I believe” regarding the issue required an opinion from Town Counsel Jason Talerman, who attended the meeting.

“I really don’t care how you get to me or how a board of selectmen wants to access me,” he said. “I care that it’s clear and that everyone is informed.”

Talerman has worked with more than 100 of the state’s 351 cities and towns and there are “just as many” policies on how to contact town counsel.

While he thinks San Angelo is a liaison to town counsel, he doesn’t see a prohibition of contact by the selectmen chairman. For individual selectmen to consult him, he said there does need to be a policy.

“You just make a policy on that — I’ll follow the policy,” he said. “When I’m contacted by a single member I have to think to myself, ‘Is that reflective of the entire board, or what at least a majority, says?’”

Two residents also weighed in on the issue.

“The town administrator reports to this board,” Richard Hickey, 43 Morton St. said. “He’s asking for full authority. He’s not an elected person in this town. …He does not need to cosign on anything. He works for you folks. He will be in the electronic loop.”

Mark Vess, 303 High St., agreed.

“I’ve never understood it that the Board of Selectmen could not go directly to legal counsel to address any concerns that they had,” said Vess, who served as a selectmen in the past.  “I heard what you are trying to do tonight and I could not agree with you more.”

In other business, the board voted 5-0 to approve appointment of Jared M. Meegan to the Hanson Police Department. The appointment of Meegan, now a member of the Wellfleet Police Department is effective Monday, May 18, but he may start later if his services are required in Wellfleet over Memorial Day weekend.

The hiring process began last August when more than 40 people applied for the position, according to Police Chief Michael Miksch.

Meegan has been a part-time officer in Wellfleet since 2009, becoming full time in 2013. He is a 2013 graduate of the Plymouth Police Academy and is state certified as a full-time police officer and passed an extensive background check.

“His chief was rather upset that he was going to lose him,” Miksch said. “He describes officer Meegan to be very responsible, motivated, dedicated and loyal. His chief further informed me he that he could see Jared as one of the next leaders in their department and is sad to see him leave.”