Voters in the nine towns sending students to South Shore Technical High School —Abington, Cohasset, Hanover, Hanson, Marshfield, Norwell, Rockland, Scituate and Whitman — go to the polls on Saturday, Jan. 25 to vote on a new building proposed for the school.
Polls for voters in the nine towns are open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with Whitman voters casting ballots at Whitman Town Hall Auditorium and at Hanson Middle School gymnasium in Hanson.
A simple majority of the votes cast in all nine communities will decide the issue.
The proposed building project is to construct a new, 900 student school with two new, high-demand vocational programs: Plumbing and Veterinary Science. The building would be constructed on the current athletic fields in the back of the property. Project construction would start in mid 2026 and the school would be opened for the 2028-2029 school year. SST is the second oldest vocational school in Massachusetts, opened in 1962.
Hanson absentee ballots are now available at the Hanson Town Clerk’s Office. Absentee voting is done at the Town Clerk’s office and can be done up until noon on Friday, Jan. 24. For more information, call the Town Clerk’s office at 781-293-2772.
To vote by absentee ballot in Whitman,an application has to be filed before an absentee ballot can be sent. The deadline for applications for absentee voting must be on file by noon on Friday, Jan. 24. You may vote absentee only if you are unable to vote at the polls on election day due to absence from town during the hours polls are open, physical disability or religious belief.
You may vote in person during regular office hours. Office hours are Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Tuesday from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
For more information call the Whitman Town Clerk’s office at 781-618-9710.
Hanson moves ahead on accessory dwellings
HANSON – Town Planner Anthony DeFrias discussed with the Select Board on Jan. 14, the accessory dwelling units amendment to the town’s bylaw, which would to bring Hanson into alignment with new state legislation involving Section 3 of the Zoning Act, aimed at improving housing affordability in Massachusetts.
The board voted 4-0 to accept the proposed bylaw amendment, and forwarding it to the Planning Board for their recommendation. Member Joe Weeks was absent.
Approved almost six months ago, the legislation goes into effect on Feb. 2. Hanson’s public hearing will be Jan. 27, putting the town ahead of the Feb. 2 enactment date of the law.
If the town has a public hearing and notice before that date, anyone coming to the town for an accessory dwelling unit will follow these new bylaws until such time as they are approved at Town Meeting.
“If we do not have something in place, our current bylaw will become null and void on Feb. 2 and, in essence, we will not have any bylaw,” DeFrais said. “We’re doing this to be pre-emptive and protect the town.”
With the regulations in place, the town can go through the process of putting it before the Town Meeting in May for approval, according to DeFrais. As part of that process the Planning Board is asking the Select Board to consider the bylaw, and send it back to the Planning Board for a report. The Select Board would then hold a public hearing and make any amendments, adjustments or edits as it has in the past with other bylaw changes.
Town Counsel prepared the language for the Planning Board request.
“Currently, as our bylaw stands, accessory dwelling units, whether attached or detached – attached, under our definition of ‘in-law apartments,’ detached would be a separate structure on the site that would be a dwelling,” he outlined. “We require that a special permit process be followed to obtain permits for an in-law apartment and a detached accessory dwelling through the Zoning Board of Appeals.”
The new legislation changes that process to an “as-of-right building” process.
“A person will be able to, as-of-right, apply for an attached or detached accessory dwelling unit,” he said.
Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett asked if the bylaw change would come under the purview of the Planning Board or ZBA going forward.
“I do like the idea of more consistency,” she said. “I think they could be a wonderful attribute if done properly.”
DeFrias said it would come under the ZBA purview.
“One of the things that we are asking for is that there be a site plan review required, so it’s not just a wild west show,” he said. “It wouldn’t be a situation where the ZBA would just shoot it down, but they could condition it, and it also gives the abutters the ability to come in and know what’s going on in their neighborhood and have some input.”
Getting out override facts
HANSON – The Select Board on Tuesday, Jan. 14, voted 4-0 after nearly an hour of discussion, to use Guilfoil Public Relations to assist them in presenting the case for an override in the run-up to the annual Town Meeting and Town Election in May. Member Joe Weeks was absent from the meeting
Guilfoil, already on a retainer of unused hours under which had initially been hired with ARPA money, to help the board deal with an election-related issue at the town’s water tower in October, had presented a media plan, including guest editorials to the Express and website information on the potential financial effects to the town if an override failed.
Select Board member Ed Heal balked at the whole idea, before finally voting on the proposal, because of concerns about cost and ownership of the site, how much of the work the board might be expected to do and whether it might come cross as an attempt to “sell” the public on supporting an override.
“When you say ‘educate the community,’ I think there’s probably going to be people out there who are going to say, ‘You’re not educating us, you’re trying to sell us,’” George said.
Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said the intent is that the board is fulfilling its job responsibilities of fully informing the public.
“We’re not trying to sell anybody,” she said. “It’s just the facts. … I would say ‘inform’ is a better term [than educate].”
Concerns aired
All four members present had some initial concerns on one point or another, but were swayed by the closing window for getting information before the public.
“I’m looking for the value in it, and I’m not seeing the value in what they are providing,” Heal said at the outset. “We’re still providing the data and information to them. They’re just going to host it.”
“They are going to work with us,” Town Administrator Lisa Green said, noting that her office had approached John Guilfoil Public Relations Agency and said they would be working with the town on press releases, the website posts, fliers and mailers, slide show presentations and guest columns for the Express.
“They were very good with helping us respond to inquiries and things like that,” Green said about the water tower issue. “With the hours that they gave us for that proposal, we only used about seven hours out of 36 [contracted for]. We still have 29 hours, which they [can use] to help us with communication of budget education and override education for our residents and the public.”
Green also pointed out that, at mid-January, time is not on the board’s side for getting information before the public to be of use for a May Town Meeting and Town Election and that, if not used, the ARPA funds would be lost. She had already spoken to department heads to have them start getting information to Guilfoil.
“We are working as quickly as we possibly can to start getting this information to them,” she said. “There’s a lot of moving pieces on this.”
She said their proposal includes creating a website for the town that will present all information regarding the budgets the budget process, an override and that process, look at town departments to provide “as much information as we can get out there” on town finances, services it provides to residents, to potential effects if an override fails.
“Their proposal was very, very reasonable,” Green said. “We will be using ARPA money to pay for this. They [will] keep the website up to date …”
“Can we talk about funding?” asked FitzGerald-Kemmett. “Where is the money coming from for this? We are in fiscal crisis and we’re heading into an even bigger fiscal crisis.”
Green said the town had ARPA money that had already been paid for the October crisis communications services and the remaining contracted hours will be used toward the budget education services.
“In other words, we bought a package of hours and we didn’t use them all up,” said member Ann Rein.
The $9,000 in ARPA funds would now be used toward the website design, Green explained.
“We have a year’s worth of service on this and the website is ours always,” she said. “I believe they’ll make a link to it so that people can go on our website and click on the link and come right to this website that will have calculators, questions, answers, it will have budget information for each department …”
Website
FitzGerald-Kemmett asked if it would be similar to the one that South Shore Technical High School has for their project, which is like a micro-site devoted to the building project.
“Which I really love, because it I don’t want to read about everything else related to [SST] I don’t need to,” she said. “I can just go to this thing to read about the SST article and everything I want to know is right on that link. … It’s been very thoughtfully put together.”
Green said Guilfoil has done the same type of project for other towns and school districts, noting that they are professionals who know how to word things.
“And they understand that we’re not advocating…” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
“It’s the facts only,” Green said. “It’s going to be beneficial because we’ve never had something like this before. We haven’t had an IT director, so having somebody with this knowledge build [the site] and, once we do get our IT director on board, they can help build it, as well.”
Earlier in the meeting the Select Board had voted to approve the hiring of Steve Burke as IT director on the recommendation of Green and Planning Board Chair Joseph Campbell (who has extensive professional experience in IT and helped with the interview process).
“But for now, we have these folks on board and they can start the process,” she said.. “We’re going to start feeding them the information – the budget process, and things like that.”
“If it’s ours afterward, I would truly love to use it prospectively, for future town meetings, to help with all the information that people need for Town Meeting on that one site,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
Rein said the town is paying the monthly fee after the first year of the website for domain registration.
“We’re going to own that, all we have to do is host it,” she said.
Heal said he had asked the same questions FitzGerald-Kemmett was posing and made notes on the proposal sheet and hadn’t received answers.
“Basically, we get the first year for free,” Green said of a budge webpage. “There’s no charge for the first year of hosting and supporting a website. After that, it’s $199 a month that we put into the technology line, but they will continue to host the site, software updates, nightly backup .. 24/7/365 support.’
He countered that, while the town owns the domain, and as long as the town pays Guilfoil, they will keep the site up and the town’s URLs will work.
“The minute we stop paying them, our URL that somebody gave somebody else is gone and we can’t get it back,” Heal said. “We can’t take it in-house. The domain is not the data.”
Rein said she would want the details looked over with respect that the town would have the ability to take the site over.
“This does not allow that,” he said.
“We could negotiate it, is my point,” Rein replied. “We can’t afford $200 a month. … It would be nice to know that we have that option to buy our stuff outright.”
“We could make it more sustainable for us to take the wheel,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
FitzGerald-Kemmett said it wasn’t a deal-breaker, but that the board would feel “a lot more encouraged about it” if they were able to get some assurances that Guilfoil would be good partners and give the town the wheel at some point.
“For at least one year, they’ll get us through, the information we need to get out there,” Green said.
But Heal’s objection was that Hanson would be providing the data and words to Guilfoil.
“They’re not massaging our words,” he said. “They’re basically putting them up on the site. Correct?”
Seeking value
Green said that was, indeed, correct, but if Guilfoil decided a submission could be worded better, they will put their PR skills to work. She said she would ask the firm for the specifics Heal and George were seeking.
Heal agreed on that point, but said he was “looking for the value in it.”
“They need to clear it up,” George suggested.
“The reason you hire a PR firm is to do this kind of work,” Rein said. “I don’t think there’s anything nefarious here. I think we’re getting what, at least we understood what we’re going to get.”
FitzGerald-Kemmett said that, when she spoke to them, Guilfoil staff said that is what they said they would be doing.
“They’re going to be managing the communication project, which we do not have the staff to do,” she said, including suggested website postings and press releases.
“I would feel comfortable if Steve Burke feels comfortable with this,” Heal said of the data management plans. FitzGerald-Kemmett said she would like to hear his thinking on sustainability and cost.
Whitman discusses extent of override
WHITMAN – Any override to help resolve the town’s budget should be one to level-service departments as the Select Board should also the difference between a one-year override and a multi-year override. The Select Board intends to delve into the issue deeper when they meet with the Finance Committee on Tuesday, Jan. 21.
“I’m kind of leaning – just my own personal opinion – that we should consider simply a one-year override, the major variable being the hold-harmless situation that the schools’ [are] in,” said Select Board member Shawn Kain. “It’s very difficult to predict out [and it] has a major impact on the town’s finances.”
While the town is not in a deficit now – it was able to balance the books this past year, Kain noted – projections put the fiscal 2026 budget at “a little bit of a deficit.”
“That’s the gap we have to keep our current services,” he said. “Each year our books have to be balanced” between costs vs. revenues coming in.
He added that is a difficult to calculate specifics because the numbers from the state are so difficult to compute effectively, said Kain, who provided a to the Select Board on Tuesday, Jan. 7. Kain, indicated that what he had in mind was, a “bit more of a quick discussion, or at least the start of a discussion.”.
“It wouldn’t be a great scenario if we looked for a three-year override and we came out of [hold-harmless] early,” Kain said. “That would mean, in a sense, we’ve asked for more money than we kind of needed, and I don’t think the town would appreciate that.”
Chair Dr. Carl Kowalski said that appraisal of the situation was correct.
“It doesn’t feel good to say, ‘Hey, we’re asking for a small override and it might be the case that, to hold onto services next year, we’d also have to have an override,’” he said. “But it does feel like the right thing to do.”
“Take it a year at a time,” Kowalski agreed.
Hold-harmless is a provision that ensures school districts receive at least the same amount of aid from one year to the next and can include supplemental funding for districts with declining enrollment. Calculating state aid amounts based on past enrollments and ensuring that all districts receive at least a minimum amount of aid, plus additional per-pupil funding.
He explained that the town could be in hold-harmless for a year or two before emerging from it, or it could be for the next three years, or even just for this year, if the town starts to pull out of it, according to Kain,
Without updated numbers since the presentation he provided at the last budget meeting, he suggested a discussion of the type of the override Whitman is considering.
Finance Chair Kathleen Ottina has said her board is interested in meeting with the Select Board on Tuesday, Jan. 21, according to Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter.
“The obvious [question] being, should this be an override where department heads should consider new services or opportunities to add the things that they’ve been hoping to add over the last five years,” Kain said. “We’ve been asking them to hold off, so that when we put forth the override there’ll be not just be level-service, but … some additional things as well, or should we set the directive that the override that we’re really looking to create is one where we’re just trying to get by. What we’re looking for is not to add an additional financial burden on the people of the town, given the climate with debt that’s going to be added to the rolls.”
Kain, putting himself in department heads’ position, said, “If I knew an override was coming, it might be my opportunity to put in the things that I haven’t been able to get over the last five years that I couldn’t get,” he said. “Which is understandable. But, from my opinion, I don’t think that should be the case.”
Kain argued that, if residents are going to be asked to sacrifice for the town by way of higher taxes, it’s very important that the town demonstrate the sacrifices it is making.
“I think that’s going to be a critical component this year, in particular,” he said. “If people think that we’re adding one more thing and they feel like their taxes are going up that much more, it’s a bad kind of vibe, and a message that’s difficult to stand behind.”
But, he argued if the town can show they are making every effort to get by and in as efficient a way as possible without losing services while asking for more of a tax contribution, that would be a more acceptable message.
“I couldn’t agree with you more,” Kowalski said, “You’re right.”
“One hundred percent,” agreed Select Board member Laura Howe.
“It also should be clear that the override is not specifically dedicated to one department or another,” Kowalski said. “It’s an overall town override because we need some money to keep our services steady, if not exuberant.”
Carter said most of the department heads have submitted their budgets and she has begun scheduling meetings with them individually on their budget submissions.
Vice Chair Dan Salvucci said the board should wait until the final budget bottom line is apparent before they decide if an override is necessary or how much of an override is necessary.
“I don’t want to go for a $3 million override, let’s say, and all of a sudden the budget comes in $1 million more than we need or .. the budget comes in lower, the department heads say, ‘Well, then I want to add this, add this, add this,’” he argued.
Kain agreed, noting that as they file final budgets, the overall aim is to just get by and not adding new items.
Select Board member Justin Evans suggested a multi-year override be considered because of a pension obligation expected to “fall off the books” within about five years.
“It should get us to that point when we see more revenue staying in-house, rather than going to the county to cover pension obligations,” he said. “Also, we really need to be having this conversation both with the school district and with Hanson because, looking at a townwide override including the schools, their budget only works if Hanson also funds it.”
Evans pointed out that Hanson is also considering an override, but added it wasn’t clear if it was planned as a one-year or multi-year override.
“There should be some coordination here so we’re all on the same page,” he said. “Otherwise, the district gets a half-funded override.”
Resident Bob Kimball reminded the board that an override is “going to be tough for a lot of people in town,” noting that in his neighborhood on Auburnville Way, there has been one bankruptcy this year as well as on person who has moved out of town and two or three people with reverse mortgages so they can pay their bills.
“If we’re going to do an override, I want to make sure that the [Select Board], the Finance Committee, everybody, understands the hardship that’s going to go on,” Kimball said. “I want you to consider that when you do your deliberation.”
Some A’s to SST’s frequently asked Q’s
As South Shore Regional Vocational Technical High School (SST) approaches its district wide election on the proposed building project, the Express asked Superintendent-Director Tom Hickey to provide some information on a range of topics, including the background on the project, details about the new building and the associated costs of the project.
Q: What is the rationale for the project?
A: Opened in 1962, we are the second oldest regional vocational school in Massachusetts. The district has been applying to MSBA for several years, citing the age of the building and its systems, the lack of space, and a growing waiting list of students interested in attending. District wide we currently have 428 applications for 180 seats in next year’s grade 9 class. Both Whitman and Hanson have consistently had more applicants than allotted seats (almost 4 applicants for every seat), which is part of a strong trend with the growing interest in vocational education.
Q: What is the project being proposed? What is its timeline?
A: The construction would be for a new 900 student school built behind the current school on Webster Street in Hanover. Construction would run from mid-2026 until mid-2028 and the building would be open for the 2028-2029 school year. The current building would remain fully operational during the construction phase.
Q: Are any new vocational programs being added?
A: Yes. We would add Plumbing and Veterinary Science programs, two programs with a high level of interest. More project design information can be found at www.southshoretechproject.com.
Q: What should readers need to know about the special district election?
A: Date/Time: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday Jan. 25, 2025
Poll locations: Hanson votes at Hanson Middle School; Whitman votes at Whitman Town Hall
Our town clerks have information on the respective town websites about absentee ballots and other details. The ballot question will determine if the project moves forward based on a combined vote tally within the district’s nine towns.
Q: Why does the ballot question language reference the total project budget, if each town will share in the costs?
A: It is required by statute and MSBA to have the same ballot question language in all 9 towns and that the language includes the total project budget cost (the $276m). In the ballot question’s second paragraph, it states that the MSBA is committed to paying a maximum state grant up to 61.86 percent of the eligible costs of the project, which is the maximum grant of $111 million.
Q: What is the projected local share after the MSBA grant?
A: After subtracting already paid for feasibility costs and using some stabilization funds we can put back into the project, we are projecting approximately $162m between the 9 towns, financed over 30 years. The household tax impact information we are providing on our project website includes principal and interest. Please see www.southshoretechproject.com/tax-impacts.
Q: How will the local share of $162m be divided?
A: Per our regional agreement, it is based on student enrollment trends over time at the school. We anticipate Hanson’s share to be 10.28 percent and Whitman’s share to be 17.17 percent by the time the bonds roll on in FY30. Our towns recently adjusted our regional agreement to have debt share adjusted based on a rolling four-year average, so this is a projection based on enrollment trends.
Q: What is the projected tax impact at the household level? When will it roll on?
A: When: The highest amount of borrowing will take place in FY29 or delayed to FY30.
Impact: It depends on how the money is borrowed. Paying back debt can be done with (a) level debt payments which are lower initially but include more interest over the term of borrowing or (b) level principal payments cost more up front but that leads to lower total cost over the life of the borrowing.
The bottom line: At our highest borrowing in FY30:
The average assessed home in Whitman would see a $296 per year ($74 per quarter) increase using a level debt payment model. In Hanson the level debt payment amount would be $235 per year ($74 per quarter)
As an alternative, a level principal borrowing model in FY30 would be higher ($367 yr/$92 qtr for Whitman and $290 yr/$72 qtr for Hanson) but level principal borrowing declines over time.
All of these projected amounts have interest costs baked in.
Q: When will you decide the borrowing model?
A: The district won’t make borrowing decisions without first consulting with towns, and that decision won’t happen until closer to FY29. We show both borrowing models on the tax impact documents on our project website to give readers a comparison.
Q: What should people do if they need more information?
A: If readers have questions or want to double check information, the project website, www.southshoretechproject.com is a good resource. Readers are also encouraged to contact Superintendent Tom Hickey at [email protected] or 781-766-4002 with any questions or suggestions for content for the project website.
— Dr. Thomas J. Hickey
Blind ‘dates’ and tall tales
Bookstores are doing it, Etsy alone seems to have an entire cottage industry devoted to it, and libraries are doing it – the “it,” for those not up on the latest internet craze or marketing trend – is “Blind Date with a Book.”
It started in bookstores, including larger chains such as Barnes & Noble. Shoppers would encounter tables, usually in the fiction section, where a table would feature books wrapped in brown paper, with a clue about the book inside written in fancy script.
For “The Wizard of Oz,” on might imagine a clue like, “Midwestern girl needs a better weather forecaster.”
Hanson Public Library’s program, is called a Mystery Box, which many online retailers have begun to take to dizzying heights.
“Truthfully, it’s not my program, it’s Julia’s [Nee] program,” said Adult and Youth Services Librarian Hanley Callahan a recent college grad who started in November. “She’s no longer with us, but she spear-headed it from the start. It’s been really popular. We get 20 out of 20 sign-ups every single month.”
Circulation/Customer Service assistant John Carrozza said Nee has always had a talent for coming up with concepts of things that people might like after doing some field research.
“She visits libraries and wherever I go I try to visit libraries and try to get ideas,” he said. Carrozza and Nee borrowed one of the more popular visual puns in the library – a handful of books on a rafter labled “Books for Tall People” – from the Truro Public Library.
At Whitman Library, Senior Library Technician Mary Casey, said a “Blind Date with a Book” will be offered as part of the library’s Valentines Day programming in February.
But Whitman’s promotional project through April is the Non-fiction Reading Challenge, which is taking something of a literary Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride through the Dewey Decimal System.
“We’re going through each category – from the 100s to the 900s, including biographies – and for each category that people read, we give them a raffle ticket and there’s a prize at the end,” Casey said, noting that it is aimed at bringing more attention to the non-fiction titles as Library Technician Petra Reitz conducts the lengthy regular process of “weeding” those shelves.
“That’s what spurred this,” she said. “I think we’re also so programmed with our phones, it leads you to the next read. I wish we could move the Circulation Desk to force people to walk through the collection and look around. The serendipity is no longer there.”
The hope is that the non-fiction challenge pairs off people with something they might not ordinarily read – just as the “Blind Date” and mystery box programs are designed to do.
Casey said more people come to the library in winter anyway, and they are seeing an uptick in use of the study rooms, especially post-COVID if they work from home and want a change of scenery.
The library’s Head of Youth Services/Assistant Director Stephanie Young, is also conducting a children’s reading challenge with two gift card prizes to be awarded.
“Ideally, somewhere in the future, I’d love to be able to extend it,” Callahan said about Hanson’s Book Box program.” “Instead of 20, maybe 25 or 30, as more people become familiar with it.”
Any patrons interested in donating items for inclusion in a month’s boxes, would certainly be welcomed to, she said.
Libraries, however, have focused on the idea as a way to bring more patrons to the library while introducing readers to new writers, while throwing in a bookmark and a craft or two.
“There’s mystery box these days for any interest,” said Julia Nee, a former staff member at Hanson Library, now working as director of the Pembroke Library, who introduced the program at Hanson. “There’s a seasonal one for fashion or jewelry and there’s monthly ones for kids’ events with different craft projects. I can’t remember the library that did it first, but it seemed such a good idea to combine a book and a craft and other fun stuff for readers.”
Nee said her intent was to put a Mystery Box program together that could also be done for free, especially since library budgets can’t support some of the more elaborate offerings in the retail arena.
“We tried to do fun things,” Nee said of her work in Hanson. “It’s the little things. But I also love picking out books for people or recommending books, so that was already a fun part, too.”
While some online vendors still favor brown paper packaging, others go in for fancier paper, often color-matched to the page-marking sticky notes, highlighter or pen for making notations, stickers galore, a reading list to fill out, a tea sachet or packet of hot chocolate, a bookmark and sometimes floral decorative touches. More deluxe sets might include soft, fuzzy socks, a bakery item, special water bottle and perhaps some under-eye patches for a mini-spa treatment while you read.
Then there are the deluxe boxes, which can run $100 or more and include candles, a small cheese board, makeup samples, a bigger assortment of treats and more.
The idea has, from the beginning, been to entice readers to read a genre they might not have considered before. But questions have cropped up.
“Is it really just a marketing ploy to get rid of unpopular books?” some critics have wondered. Is it too good to be true? Aren’t you taking a risk ordering them online sight-unseen?
The answer to all these is – yes. While one can end up with a really interesting book – or one you may have already read, as is similar to the risks of a human blind date, but there are also rip-offs lurking in the internet, so buyer beware.
Online vendors’ order forms usually ask what genre – fiction, romance, thriller, historical fiction and the like – and some may ask an open-ended question for a few lines about what people like to read about, just as Hanson Library does. They are honest about the fact that most books, while new, were overstocks in an effort to save them from landfills.
“I stick with brand-new books,” Nee said. “It was a way to get a book that you didn’t even know that you wanted yet. When people sign up, they tell me what they’re looking for in terms of genre and up to a paragraph about what they wanted. Some people did that, some people didn’t, and there were people who did that month after month and I kind of got to know what they are gravitating toward.”
Hanson Library still offers the Mystery Box program, with the first boxes distributed last week to the 20-or so people planned on to sign up.
Nee, who said she doesn’t recall where she got the idea – the internet, a bookstore or another library, but the program began during COVID, when a lot of libraries were looking for virtual or distance programs. It was a natural extension of the take and make craft kits they were already offering in Hanson.
Boards to meet on tax bill errors
WHITMAN – The Select Board on Tuesday, Jan. 7 accepted a recommendation from Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter to set up a joint meeting with the Board of Assessors as soon as possible.
In her report to the board, Carter outlined in a lengthy statement, billing errors by the Assessors that have could have cost Whitman taxpayers millions of dollars on real estate bills before they were due, while failing to collect boat excise taxes or to mail other bills last year.
The current Board of Assessors has a total of 21 years of combined experience as board members, Carter noted.
When the Select Board holds its joint meeting on the budget with the Finance Committee on Tuesday, Jan. 21, the will schedule a February meeting with the Assessors.
“The magnitude of these recent errors is alarming to both the assistant town administrator and me,” Carter said, noting that just this past weekend the town’s printing vendor had found a fiscal 2025 Actual Real Estate Bill issue: the square footage on the bills is incorrect and it was confirmed that the file sent to the temporary treasurer-collector for printing by the Board of Assessors contained a database error.
Similarly, in December 2023, warrants to collect for actual real estate bill liens totaling $926,534.32 were not voted or signed by the Board of Assessors until May 21, 2024.
Warrants to collect are required by the Department of Revenue to be issued by the Board of Assessors to the treasurer-collector before payments can be accepted, Carter pointed out.
On Dec. 17, 2024, the Board of Assessors signed the official fiscal 2025 Actual Real Estate Warrant to Collect – the document empowering the treasurer-collector authority to collect real estate payments for the town. However the warrant and the corresponding billing file initially sent to temporary treasurer-collector Sharon LoPiccolo for third and fourth quarter real estate bills had an erroneous total that was $16,124,289.21 greater than what should have been billed to taxpayers. The fiscal 2025 real estate lien file, which should have consisted of unpaid water, sewer, trash and water bills from fiscal 2024, had an erroneous total $750,508.24 less than what should have been billed to taxpayers, according to Carter.
“Luckily the new temporary treasurer-collector realized there was an issue, and she reached out to me to review the warrants to collect before she posted the bills for printing and mailing to our taxpayers,” she said. LoPiccolo alerted the Board of Assessors of the erroneous files, which were replaced with corrected real estate and lien files.
“These two recent billing issues are quite concerning,” Carter said. “If the real estate bills had been sent out, as a result of these bills, the taxpayers would have been billed for basically a total of six quarters instead of the usual four quarters in fiscal 2025.”
They were only some recent examples.
In April 2024, the Board of Assessors sent a warrant to collect to both the treasurer-collector and the interim town accountant for 11 boat excise tax bills. But the Assessor’s office never sent the corresponding billing file, Carter said. As a result, the May 2024 boat excise bills were never issued and the revenue unable to be realized last fiscal year.
It was, in fact, never sent to the treasurer-collector for billing and the file was deleted from the Assessors’ software module titled “Add new accounts and omitted bills” on Nov. 25, 2024.
“I am hopeful that the Board of Assessors will commit the 2024 boat excise bill in fiscal 2025, so the revenue can be realized this fiscal year,” Carter said. “An additional concern is the fact that only 11 bills were voted on by the Board of Assessors. In the previous five years the town billed about 53 bills each year.”
From the data that Carter and Keefe were able to review, they “strongly believe” that data voted for the 2025 boat excise bills should have contained about 53 bills, as I has for the last several years, not just the 11 bills they intended to commit.
“The assessments and the related billing produced by the Assessors’ Office, which are under the control of the Board of Assessors, directly impact the revenue and, therefore, the town budget,” Carter said. “I feel it is imperative that the Select Board and the Board of Assessors meet in open session to discuss the numerous issues that have come to light regarding billing issues, as the enormity of the issue has escalated over the past year and a half.”
Carter also said that the Board of Assessors had made it “abundantly clear” in open sessions during more than one of their meetings last year that they “didn’t want any interference from the Assistant Town Administrator or me.”
“For well over a year now, the Assistant Town Administrator Kathy Keefe and I have been extremely concerned about several billing issues, which have been brought to our attention regarding the Assessor’s Office,” Carter read from her prepared remarks. “To avoid any confusion, it’s worth noting that the Select Board does not govern the Board of Assessors. The Board of Assessors is a separately elected board that is comprised of three members. Thw Board of Assessors is solely responsible for the operations in the Assessor’s Office.”
She added that, while the Select Board does not have authority over Assessors, “I feel that we need to take this action to call for a joint meeting between the two boards to better discuss our ongoing concerns.”
Carter had met with the Chair of the Board of Assessors John Noska early last year and in August with another Board of Assessors member she described as interested in those ongoing concerns.
“I presented and reviewed the issues that were brought to our attention up to that point,” she said. “Rather than Board of Assessors being receptive to our comments and concerns, they instead issued a letter dated Aug. 29 to the Select Board, accusing both Kathy and me of harassment and interference. More importantly, to date, the Board of Assessors has not taken corrective action on several of the billing issues that were revealed to them.”
The Select Board sent a letter to the Board of Assessors on Oct. 24, 2024 to inform them that, after reviewing the information in the Assessors’ letter, they had determined that the Board of Assessors allegations of harassment and interference were not supported and asked Carter and Keefe to continue making them aware of any future concerns about billing.
Whitman officials present budgets
WHITMAN – A level-funded budget year is making for some simpler meetings between department heads and the Finance Committee.
The Building Department and the assessors met with Finance during it’s final meeting for 2024 on Dec. 17.
“Some of these early departments, that were quick about getting back to us, really don’t have a lot of requests,” Vice Chair Mike Warner said after the presentations. “It’s been very standard, so that’s OK.
“We are trying to arrange a joint meeting with the Select Board for January,” said Warner, who added all other January meetings have been scheduled. “We had an issue this evening.”
Warner said he was unaware that he needed to state on the Finance Committee agenda that the meeting with Select Board members would be taking place.
The Select Board met Jan. 7 and plans an additional meeting Jan. 21.
“I don’t know that it matters to anybody which night,” Warner said. “They did share by email the material they were planning to discuss with us.”
The Select Board’s Jan. 7 agenda did not list a joint meeting with the Finance Committee, leaving Jan. 21 as the date for that session.
Warner, Michael Flanagan and Ralph Mitchell attended the meeting, meaning there was no quorum so no votes could be taken on minutes or other pending business
Warner noted that the town’s reserve fund remained at $35,000.
“We have no requests up against it at this point,” he said, adding that no changes or updates had been received from any of the subcommittees, either.
Building Commissioner Robert Piccirilli said he was presenting a “pretty basic” request for a level-funded budget, with a 2.5 percent projected addition to salaries.
“It’s about as simple as it gets,” he said.
Warner asked if Piccirilli had any concerns about line items in his budget.
“I don’t,” he said. “The only one that you’ll see here is the assistant building inspector. We carried over the $510, because that’s what we spent over and above last year for his continuing education and covering for me when I was on vacation.”
Piccirilli said the department had to come back to seek the additional money last year, so for fiscal 2026, the department’s budget projected forward the $510 spend last year.
No longevity issues were involved, based on time in the position this year, but Piccirilli said he would have that next year.
“We’ve got some building that’s coming in the town soon,” Warner said, asking if Piccirilli if there was anything the committee needed to be aware of.
“We do, but this is what we’ve projected that we should be spending,” Piccirilli said. “We’re going to go with it.”
He did add that his department was waiting on receipt of the deputy fire chief’s former vehicle, as the Building Department vehicle is “falling apart, day by day.”
“I do not have any money and it’s not worth putting any money from my budget into repairing it,” Piccirilli said.
Piccirilli also said there are a lot of building code changes coming up, which will require the purchase of new books, but added that hopefully he would have that in the budget to take care of the need.
“The 10th edition will be coming out,” he said. “It’s already out. It’s promulgated. There will be a congruency period until, I think, next June, but we are getting into the new books, so I’m going to have to buy 2021 books.”
That expense would come out of his budget.
“If there’s an education budget [for his department], I’d love to take it out of that, so it doesn’t come out of mine,” Piccirilli said. “But…”
The town administrator’s office maintains an educational training budget, Warner noted.
“There’s been some bits and pieces of it other places, but there’s been some discussion about maybe just centralizing it, but it might be best to see if it’s there, first,” Warner said. “I’m sure that there’s other uses, as well.”
Piccirilli said the energy code is a big change, so his department will be anticipating the need for educational funding.
Board of Assessors Chair John Noska, Principal Assessor Wendy Jones. Christine MacPherson and Heidi Hosmer attended the meeting.
Noska, echoed Piccirilli’s comment that there isn’t much change to the assessors’ budget.
“We’’re looking at the average 2.5 percent increase for wages,” he said, adding that union negotiations could potentially change that.
Jones said it is not anticipated that new building projects might change things at least for fiscal 2025.
“There were a lot of no-starts,” she said. “I think that might have been impacted by the interest rates, because we did go out and revisit some of those properties that were going to start – the car wash on Bedford Street, four units on Temple Street – not as many as the year before. There were 55 condos [built] in fiscal 2024, but it might change with interest rates coming down.”
Warner mentioned the town’s movement toward the MBTA Communities project, asking about its potential impact on building.
Jones and Noska agreed that it would, as Jones added that a part of the new Affordable Housing Act coming online in February will depend on what the town is going to do, and mentioning the town’s bylaw for accessory dwelling apartments, but not an accessory dwelling unit.
The Select Board on Monday, Dec. 2 voted to refer a proposed amendment of a town bylaw governing accessory apartments in town (Sec. 240-616 accessory apartments) to town counsel and the Planning Board.
The bylaw change would, according to ZBA Chair John Goldrosen, would allow town counsel to review it and refer the issue back to the Planning Board so it can schedule a hearing on the amendment.
Planners are moving quickly on the issue because the state law’s provision takes effect on Feb. 2, but the Planning Board can place an advertisement in the newspaper by the end of January, making everyone subject to the bylaw, even athough it cannot be acted on until the May Town Meeting.
“That’s why we moved quickly on this,” Goldrosen said. The reason behind it is to encourage more housing units, Goldrosen pointed out in response to a question by Select Board Vice Chair Dan Salvucci Dec. 2. He added that the measure covers not only such housing space within a structure, but also free-standing structures on a property.
“It’s a boring department, which is good,” Noska said at the board’s lack of other issues to bring up. “It’s well-funded, it’s structured.”
Jones did mention one of the biggest expenses is the valuation contract with Catalyst Tax & CAMA (computer-assisted mass appraisal), with which Whitman is in the midst of a three year contract right now, ending in 2026.
“Their contract includes … they do all the data collections,” Jones said. “They do all the building permits, inspections, entries, sketchings. They do all the utility valuations as part of the [$7,000] contract.”
The Assessors would do a request to submit proposals (RSP) with three major companies – Catalyst, PK Valuations and Envision Government Solutions.
Any cost differential would not be fully known until the contract is put out to bid, Noska said. He noted that, sometimes when companies grow, they lose that attention that, at one time, they’d give to all towns.
“We’re going to do a big analysis on several things,” Jones said.
Warner, assuming that all companies have their own proprietary data handling method, asked if the shift to a new company might mean some kind of data migration?
Jones and Noska said it would, depending on what the Board of Assessors decides to convert and what they could, potentially keep in-house.
“We’re going to look at all the options,” Jones said.
Earning merit
Scouts from Troop 22 attended the meeting as a requirement toward a communications merit badge, perhaps not expecting to have a discussion on what the Finance Committee does, while the committee waited for members of the Board of Assessors and the Building Commissioner to arrive at the meeting.
“Does anybody know what the Finance Committee does?” Warner quizzed the Scouts.
“Budget for the town, arrange what [funds] will be put where,” one Scout answered.
“OK. So, interestingly, kind of,” Warner said. “Our job is an advisory role. We don’t actually set the budget, we help to define it, figure it out and then work with various departments to talk about money and where it might go and how it might be best used for the town.”
He apologized to the Scouts that the committee’s attendance was down because of illness and holiday demands, but thanked them for coming to the meeting.
New year, a new world in 24 hours
WHITMAN – The rock group Chicago’s hit from their debut album may have asked the famous philosophical question about time as a hook for a hit song, but while anyone actually does know the precise time might be debatable, yes, people do care.
They care enough that there are at least 40 calendar systems in use around the world today – two in the Christian world alone – and the small nation of Kiribati spread out over 1,800 miles of islands and atolls in the Pacific Ocean began a process in 1994 to successfully petition to have the International Dateline moved by 2000. But, we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
Retired Plymouth teacher Nancy A. Franks, who has built an enthusiastic audience for her monthly lecture visits to Whitman Council on Aging’s senior center, appeared there Monday, Jan. 6 with Moon Pies, gummy bears, New Year’s greetings and a talk on New Year’s celebrations and traditions around the world and closer to home, including ball drops – and twists on that theme.
Whitman briefly joined in the latter category with a Toll House cookie drop in 2015 and 2016, but a trend of frigid temperatures both years cut the tradition off before it could take root and the larger-than-life cookie – crafted by SST students for the town is now in storage.
So, why the hoopla over Jan. 1 anyway?
“I really do two different kinds of presentations,” Frank said, “I do the historical ones, or I pick a topic like this and just jump around to anything that comes to mind.”
Julius Ceasar introduced the months of January (for Janus, the god of beginnings, endings and time) and February (for Februus, the god of purification), creating a 12-month calendar in 45 BC. Pope GregoryVIII then introduced in 1582, the calendar we still use today, replacing the Julian calendar.
The difference?
The Julian calendar was not entirely accurate, but Franks argued it was close enough. His inaccuracy is about 11 minutes short of the 365 ¼ days per year in the Gregorian calendar.
“I think it’s amazing that anyone was even thinking or figuring that out that long ago as a reform of the Roman calendar,” Franks said, putting words in Julius Caesar’s thought bubble.
“Eleven minutes? What’s the big deal?” Franks said. “Well, it’s because we would have gained eight days every 1,000 years. Does that really matter? I’m not sure it does.”
But the Julian calendar is still used in astronomy.
“When they started the Julian calendar on Jan. 1, 45 BC, and they recorded events in the stars and the planets, they began counting on that day … and they still use it,” she said. “They didn’t bother to change it over to a new calendar.”
It’s also used and as a religious calendar by the Greek and Eastern Orthodox Christian churches and by the Amazigh people of North Africa.
Ball droppage – and other things
New York City began its ball drop at midnight tradition in 1908 and it was last updated in 2008.
The ball, is 12 feet in diameter, and is now made of 2,688 Waterford crystal triangles imported from Ireland and 32,256 LED lights, weighs 11,875 pounds – mostly electronic hardware.
The ball is able to create 16 million vibrant colors in billions of patterns, the theme of which changes each year.
Around the United States, New Year’s celebrations include the midnight drop of, among others:
The Mobile, Ala., 12-foot in diameter electrified Moon Pie; The Cherry T. Ball in the “Cherry Capital of the U.S.,” Traverse City, Mich., saluting the charitable fundraising purpose in the name; Mt. Olive, N.C.’s three-foot long pickle drops into a giant pickle jar; the Boise, Idaho potato drop; Port Clinton, and Ohio’s Walleye drop on the Lake Erie shoreline. Miami raises an orange in homage to the state’s big cash crop as well as the Orange Bowl Festival parade and football game.
Points of pride
Kiribati, in the central Pacific Ocean, includes a largely uninhabited Caroline Island, renamed Millenium Island thanks to the nation’s effort to move the International Dateline so the island with the rest of the island and atolls on the same side of the line.
It was, you guessed it, a publicity stunt to draw tourists to be the first nation on earth to celebrate the new millennium in 2000.
“It would [also] eliminate the confusion caused by having a part of the country cn a different day,” she said.
The United Arab Emirates also spared no expense this year in its annual quest to keep their record for the largest drone display this New Year’s Eve.
Traditions
underneath it all
Countries around the world have some interesting – and a few strange – New Year’s traditions. Here are a few:
Philippines – Round objects mean good luck so Filipinos wear polka dots, carry coins in their pockets and eat 12 to 13 round fruits, which also symbolize a sweet and happy new year.
Romania – where brown bears are revered symbols which their mythology indicates the animals have the power to protect and heal, the people don bear costumes – often real full bear skins – to dance the death and rebirth of the bear’s spirit. While some of the costumes are now made of faux fur, and many of the real bearskin costumes have been carefully preserved and handed down in families, the brown bear is now endangered in Romania.
Brazil – revelers jump seven waves head on, while making a wish at the beach, often while wearing white, the color of good luck. The color of underwear one puts on for the occasion also symbolizes your hope for the new year – White is for peace and harmony; blue is for tranquility and friendship; red is for passion; yellow is for money and luck; pink is for love; green is for health; orange is for professional success and purple is for inspiration. Brazilians also carry a bay leaf, also called a priest’s leaf, in their pocket as a spiritual token that sharpens intuition and extra good luck.
Denmark – Danes throw plates and glasses on their neighbor’s door to leave all the ill will from the previous year behind. When one awakens in the morning, lots of smashed dishes outside your door mean you will have better luck in the new year – not that it’s a stellar commentary on your previous year. Germany and the Netherlands also practice this tradition.
Famous birthdays
Dec. 31
Anthony Hopkins, 1937, John Denver, 1943, Donna Summer, 1948
Jan.1
Paul Revere, 1735; J. Edgar Hoover, 1895, J.D. Salinger, 1919.
Franks returns to Whitman Senior Center on Feb. 3 to speak about Valentine’s Day. She will give a talk on them there “Eyes” in Kingston on Feb. 7 and the California Gold Rush in Kingston on March 7.
Boardwalk options limited
HANSON – The town may still lean on a proposal to use a boardwalk to Burrage project to draw tourism dollars to Hanson, without ending up having taken a long walk on a short pier.
It all hinges on planning, prioritizing and voting to divide $170,000 in state budget earmarks between the Bonney House restoration, High Street part development and a boardwalk connecting Main Street access to trails in the Burrage Wildlife Management Area
The Select Board was updated on the boardwalk project eyed for Main Street about a month ago on Dec. 3, 2024.
“The reason I’m bringing this to the board is, obviously, the earmark says the construction of a boardwalk from Main Street to the Burrage, and – I’ve said to you before – when you tell an engineer, ‘You can’t do that,’ we always say, ‘Challenge accepted.’” Planner Anthony DeFrais said at the time. “But we also know where there’s a point of saying, ‘Sure, we can make this work,’ you know 10 pounds of sugar in a two-pound bag, but by the time its cost [analyzed], it’s not worth doing.”
He suggested a pivot to a secondary option.
“I wanted to show you what the options were and the real-world logistics of what would work and what wouldn’t and how we have to pivot,” DeFrias said. “There’s also a timeline for using these earmarks and getting them spent.
The town had received “a few earmarks” from the state budget in 2022, one of which totaled $170,000 going toward three projects – the Bonney House, the High Street park and a boardwalk along Main Street at the Burrage wetland.
DeFrias said the spending deadline for the earmark covering those three projects is 2027. How it is divided between the three projects is a responsibility of the Select Board as they set priorities and spend accordingly, Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
Weeks made a motion to divide the earmark funds among the three projects and the board unanimously approved it.
“We have had a consultant, a company named Perdantis, take a look at that concept and see if it is actually a feasible project,” DeFrais said of the boardwalk at the Dec. 3 meeting. “They’ve given us a breakdown of three different options, and created [a] map that talks about the different options.”
Once an option is chosen, it will be easier to get an idea of the cost, according to DeFrias.
Option 1 is a new boardwalk through Burrage, traversing south from the former fire house on Main Street that can either be 3,600 feet long, connecting to an existing unnamed trail, which is on privately owned property; or 4,600 feet long to connect to the Bay Circuit Trail. The shorter of the two would head toward the former Hubble property and Crooker place.
“You would need an access agreement to go through the Mass. Wildlife property and, obviously, the private property,” he said. “This particular option doesn’t comply with the Mass. Division of Fisheries and Wildlife walking trails policy … and it would require exceptions from Mass. Wildlife.”
Those policies include the requirement to use existing trailbeds unless the agency approves an exception, according to DeFrias.
“The policy also notes that Mass. Wildlife rarely grants approval for trails that are not inherently compliant,” he said. The regulations also “strongly discourage wetlands crossings,” which is a major portion of Option 1’s proposed pathway.
“It is not likely to be approved,” DeFrias said.
Option 2 falls in line with previous proposals at town meetings to purchase parts of the Hubble property to create a 1,000-foot trail along an “unconnected trail” that exists in the Crooker Place area, also connecting the Bay Circuit Trail.
“This option is minimal disturbance … however, a wetlands crossing would be required on property to be purchased by the town,” DeFrias said.
The property in question had already been purchased by the town and would minimally alter the Burrage Wildlife Area, but a wetland crossing would still be permitted. said
“One is too expensive, three doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense and two, from what I’m hearing even now, isn’t even the best option,” Weeks. “It’s just the best of the three options.”
DeFrias agreed that it is a tough project to accomplish.
“The one thing about Option 2 is that it works into what you’ve aready started,” he said.
Option 3, also near the Main Street fire station, would “provide a vista to the Burrage Wildlife Management Area, but doesn’t directly connect to the Burrage,” according to DeFrias. Also partially on private property, this option would also require access agreement from te property owner(s). A stream crossing at Meadow Brook is also involved. A stand-alone vista with no connection to Burrage (situated on town property) would require no access agreement and would not cross wetlands or streams.
Th consultant concluded that Option 3 as a stand-alone vista, with no ecological impacts but requiring no access agreement, also fails to provide direct access to Burrage.
“Which is exactly what the whole purpose is,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
“You’re on your own property and you can kind of see it through the trees,” DeFrias said.
Option 2 is the most likely permittable option to provide access to and through Burrage, and provides the missing connection to the Bay Circuit Trail.
“Option 1 is likely not to be approved by Mass. Wildlife, would have the greatest ecological impact to build and would have the highest construction cost, exclusive of property purchases,” he said. “Combining two and three would provide visual access to the Burrage on currently owned town property and provide direct access Bay Circuit Trail through currently owned and expanded town property.”
“Vista, schmista,” said FitzGerald-Kemmett of the approach the Economic Development Committee was taking in an attempt to bring people into town for recreation, potentially leading to economic benefits. “That wasn’t what we were trying to do. We were actually trying to get people out to the Burrage.”
She noted that while Option 1 had been the hope, she said she understood the Wildlife policy roadblocks.
“Our hopes are dashed frequently,” she said, adding that the only real problem with Option 2 is that it is further down Main Street. “We’re not trying to attract people to Crooker Place. … I’m concerned about parking and additional traffic, going through there, and on top of that, it really isn’t meeting what our original objective was.”
“The vista one to me is…” she added.
“That’s dumb,” Select Board member Ann Rein said, finishing the thought. “What I like about Option 2 is that you’re bringing together the Bay Circuit Trail. … It’s important. To have that all connected through Hanson is kind of cool.”
Select Board member Ed Heal noted that a lot of Option 2 already exists.
FitzGerald-Kemmett raised the concern that of a lack of a sidewalk along Main Street to the access area.
The sidewalk drops off opposite High Street at the new Egan buildings.
“If we could somehow get connectivity to that area via a sidewalk there … part of it is we want walkability,” she said.
FitzGerald-Kemmett suggested that, in light of the required connection between state grant funding and the MBTA Communities program Hanson rejected, perhaps a solution is more budget earmarks.
She had already spoken to state Rep.-elect Ken Sweezey about that need weeks before he was sworn in last week.
“That’s not contingent on us being an MBTA Community, so we’re going to need more earmark money, Mr. Sweezey, bring it home,” she said.