HANSON – The “runway’s too short” to land the budgetary plane with an operational override this year, according to officials discussing the fiscal 2025 town budget on the eve of the certification of the W-H regional school budget.
“I think it’s a bit premature for us to zig or zag since we don’t know what the assessment’s going to be set at,” Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said at the Select Board’s Tuesday, March 19 meeting. “But we certainly need to be ready and be agile, depending on what that amount is set.”
Finance Committee Chair Kevin Sullivan agreed the town’s last override experience demonstrated that it takes a lot of education and groundwork to pass an operational override.
“I don’t think we have time,” he said “You have to make the citizenry aware that, while you’re approving the $5 million [for an operational override], it is the Select Board that decides how much of that is tax. … There’s no bank account where this money is sitting.”
He argued for going for a full operational override next year.
That said, Sullivan said he has done the math and personally has thought “for years, thought we needed a significant override,” to reset town finances.
Stressing that a decision on any form of an override, if any, is needed this year it would have to be a school override, FitzGerald-Kemmett said. She added she had spoken with Whitman Select Board Chair Dr. Carl Kowalski and School Committee Chair Beth Stafford this week, telling both chairs where Hanson is at and what the board has discussed in open session – “to the extent that, if the assessment didn’t come down to a point that we had felt comfortable with that we might entertain an override, but if we did, it would probably be a school override.”
By the end of their discussion, the Hanson Select Board reached an unenthusiastic consensus for accepting a 5 percent school assessment increase, but member David George refused to budge from 3.8 percent.
“That, combined with [consultant John] Madden’s presentation to us last week, indicating that next year we would need an operational override, it seemed ill-timed for us to do an operational override this year, with such short notice, such a short runway,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “We really need to educate people on what that money would be used for [in] an operational override.”
Even if the board decides to seek an operational override next year, they have a lot of education of the public ahead of them concerning what it means, how it would work, whether to do $5 million up front or break it up into annual overrides, how the average tax bill would be affected, and other issues she argued.
“Like I said, the runway’s too short for us to do an operational override this year.” she said.
Board member Ann Rein urged the board to stick to 5 percent.
“We’re not the only ones that should have to cut budgets,” she said.
FitzGerald-Kemmet agreed.
“I feel 3.8, but I’m going to be reluctantly, saying 5 percent,” Board member Ed Heal said. “But other departments are sticking to 3.8, by the sounds of it on average.”
“Or making a case [for more],” FitzGerald-Kemmett said, something she said the schools should be doing again as they did when Dr. John McEwan and Dr. Ruth Gilbert-Whitner had done.
At a 5 percent assessment increase, Select Board Vice Chair Joe Weeks said there would be just enough free cash to balance the budget with the remaining $44,000 easily wiped out with capital projects.
“No matter how you do the math, it comes out somehow to $1.4 million – which is exactly what we have,” he said.
Sullivan said the Finance Committee was willing to use that figure one more year, yet it would cause the spending of all the town’s free cash.
FitzGerald-Kemmett said Town Administrator Lisa Green and Town Accountant Eric Kinsherf have been thinking through different financial scenarios in preparation for the school budget certification.
“None of them are particularly bright spots,” she said.
Green noted that she and Kinsherf had calculated the effects of the different scenarios Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak outlined March 13 to get a broad picture of the increases and their effects on Hanson and what its budget shortfall might be.
“We don’t know what direction the School Committee is going to go into, but this will give an idea of where we will be should any of these assessments be voted in,” Green said, suggesting that the reduced schedule of the Building Department for a few weeks, due to the prolonged sudden absence of an employee, could offer a vision of what Town Hall could become if the town was forced to cut staff.
Green admitted when asked, that she had not yet discussed the potential for layoffs with department heads as yet.
“I want more information to provide them with,” Green said.
Anticipating that the schools may set a 5-percent increase, Kinscherf said the choice becomes balancing the budget with free cash this year or implementing budget cuts.
“If we have a 5 percent increase with the schools, the town of Hanson will have to use free cash to fund the budget, there’s no doubt about it, unless you want to cut the operational budget,” he said. “We’re either going to use free cash … to get us through one year as another Band-Aid, or do the budget cuts this year.”
If the schools are over 5 percent, Kinsherf said it leads to an override for the amount over the 5 percent. Right now, Hanson has $1.4 million on hand in free cash and there are already $396,000 in expenditures included in the Town Meeting warrant.
“I think we can balance the budget with the approximately $1 million that’s left over,” he said, cautioning it would leave the town with zero. FitzGerald-Kemmett asked about grants or other funding sources could be used to help town finances.
Kinsherf said he and Green were searching past warrant articles for unexpended funds, but warned any money found that way can only be used for capital projects – not to fund the operational budget.
“We’re already putting ourselves in the hole for $1 million next year,” Weeks said. “I feel like we’re just in this hamster wheel of the same conversation every year.”
“We did not have the data to make any decisions last year,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said, noting that was when they brought in Madden. “Now we’ve got that. Now, if we don’t act, it’s on us.”
Weeks replied they didn’t need John Madden to go over the numbers.
“We knew this,” he said.
Weeks then asked Sullivan if the Finance Committee supported using free cash that way.
“I know that, while we haven’t voted any actions, I know as a group, we are not fans of using free cash for the operational budget, but we are realists of the fact that sometimes, you’re just not going to get there [otherwise],” he said.
“To me, it’s a school override, and I know some people disagree,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said, acknowledging some people see a domino effect happening if it should fail. “But we just can’t keep using free cash.”
“We need to have people understand why we’re doing what we’re doing,” Rein said.
“Personally, it’s just a matter of what [the schools] can justify the spending of,” Weeks said.

HANSON –The Select Board on Tuesday, Feb. 27 voted to issue a letter to the Natural Resource Damages fund (NRD) supporting a vision for restoration of the Indian Head River and potential dam removal at the as well as the safety and security of the State Street bridge.
The conditional letter of support all three towns are being asked to sign says they believe that dam removal and river restoration are ideally what their vision would be for the site and river, according to Becky Malamut, of the North and South Rivers Watershed Aassociation (NSRWA).
Hanover submitted its letter earlier that week and Pembroke had not yet committed their letter as of the Hanson board’s Feb. 27 meeting, although a majority favor it. Two other members want to see the letter first.
“It’s tough for me, because you’re telling me you can’t tell us the dollar amount, we can’t know for certain what it’s going to cost us,” said Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett.
Malamut said the whole project has a probable cost $600,000 with town asked to put in between $50,000 and $100,000 to show “skin in the game.”
In response to a question from Vice Chair Joe Weeks about whether commits the town to a project or specific course of action, Malamut said it was non-binding.
“This is just telling NRD and DEP that you’re still interested in seeing what happens,” she said. “You haven’t just decided that dam removal is off the table.”
Malamut said the feasibility study was completed about a year ago. Town officials and about 160 residents had been updated on that completion at a public meeting in December, which found that dam removal is possible and would not increase flooding either upstream or downstream nor impact infrastructure in the area, she said.
“To no one’s surprise, the big question is sediment,” she said.
Composite sampling has been done behind both dams, focusing on the State Street area in Hanson, Malamut said.
“There was one area where we found the level [of lead] exceeded the state thresholds for soil [or] sediment,” she said. Lead and mercury were below the MVP thresholds.
Select Board member Ed Heal asked if samples were or are being done on the other side of the dam. Malamut replied that only the upstream side had been tested.
By removing the dam, she said there is not going to be much difference in sediment levels, according to Malamut and two areas of sediment would not mobilize, the study concluded.
Based on conversations with the state DEP, it is believed they would approve removal of the dam without having to do any major excavation or taking contaminated sediment off-site because they don’t believe that sediment will move, Malamut said.
That brings up the end of the study and of SuperFund, she told the board.
“We don’t know, obviously, what’s going to happen upstream, but what we do know is that State Street [dam] is already breached in two places,” she said. “We have some extra funding left in the contract and we have an opportunity to extend the contract and do some additional work with that funding.”
She said the NSRWA would like to further the designs for State Street to 60 percent, from the 30 percent mark where the design process now stands, as well as designing scour countermeasures needed to make sure the bridge maintains its footings and water levels are maintained lower. They also want to begin preparing permit documents. None of that means approving the dam removal, it is, rather, the next step in the process.
“This is not, ‘go ahead and remove the dam,’ this is continue to do more of the study to determine is it something you guys are ultimately going to propose,” Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett asked.
“Exactly,” Malamut said. “Specifically, we’re focusing on State Street with the additional funds because it’s already breached. Whatever is upstream is already flowing downstream.”
The EPA will do an assessment to enable communities to understand what their plan will be for the Fireworks site and do additional sampling behind both dams and to better understand the extent of sediment contamination and how to remove it.
FitzGerald-Kemmett asked how the town could commit to a dam removal without the full facts about contamination, but Malamut said the letter was simply committing to the vision for the site.
Select Board member David George asked whether State Street would have to be closed for the work if and when the board approved the work. But Malamut said she didn’t think that was necessary.
“It depends on the scour countermeasures,” she said.
“The town of Hanson will not be responsible financially whatsoever for what happens to that bridge, including future problems that might happen because of the removal of the dam,” Select Board member Ann Rein asked, noting the project is fraught with danger of contamination of the North River all the way to the seaboard.
While acknowledging it is an important question, Malamut said she didn’t have that answer.
“I think it’s important for us to read the letter,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
Funding for the Natural Resource Damages Fund is unique Malamut said, in that the majority of dam removal projects don’t have a bucket of money in pocket.
“There is $7 million there,” she said. “I think we’ve got about $400,000 for this project. … It’s also important to think of costs moving forward.”
While the “bucket of money” available will be used, the town will also be asked to put in some money for the project because funders want to see dam owners doing that.
“[We] won’t be reliant on the town to fund the removal of the dam itself in addition to these scour countermeasures for the bridge,” she added.
Hanson’s letter to the NRD, which FitzGerald-Kemmett read aloud during the meeting states the town supports moving forward with river restoration as the objective of the site with the understanding that Hanson doesn’t have all the data needed to determine how to safely remove contaminated sediment through the Indian Head River, and requiring following conditions: EPA to complete an assessment of the fireworks site upstream to determine the extent of contamination, who is responsible for the cleanup and an appropriate plan for it; and project partners must set up an appropriate sediment management plan for contaminated sediment behind both dams, which could be mobilized as a result of dam removal.”
The letter also states dam removal is possible and is the preferred alternative for Hanson, after reviewing the feasibility study, if funding is available, as well as the vision of returning river fowl and fish. It is also aware soil samples from the dams exceed soil standards for upland reuse and that further sampling is required to better understand the scope of the contamination and an appropriate sediment is needed to determine the extent of contamination and an appropriate management plan.
Rein said a third bullet point about the safety of the State Street bridge must be included.