HANSON – It’s beginning to look a lot like cookie season, so who better to learn the fine art of sugar cookie decorating from than a woman wearing a “Your neighborhood cookie lady” T-shirt?
Joanna Letourneau, owner of custom home cookie bakery, the Blackbird Baking Co., in Pembroke, and friend Gina Kirk, owner of online coffee and apparel retailer, Mom Life Must Haves and her barista business Mug & Moment in Middleborough, hosted a breakfast and cookie decorating workshop at Camp Kiwanee’s Needles Lodge Sunday. Nov. 5.
Kirk also hosts the “Permanently Exhausted Podcast” devoted to what “life is like behind the scenes of it all,” on several platforms including I-Heart and Spotify.
“I feel like this is the perfect time,” Letourneau said – not only for cookies, but also to think of neighbors who count on the food pantry. “The food pantry is always in need [and] everybody forgets about Thanksgiving.”
She also is keenly aware of the need for the food pantry through her work with the Plymouth Housing Authority.
“I know that the elderly and disabled [especially] don’t have a lot of family,” Letourneau said. “They don’t have a lot of money and I know a lot of them rely on the Fire House Food Pantry. A call for donations to those signed up for the cookie workshop brought in a tote and a couple bags of donations for the Thanksgiving dinner fixings.
Then the group of about 28 women got down to the business of learning to make six seasonal-themed cookies – a puffy pillow, stack of pancakes, a white pumpkin, a travel coffee cup, a sweater and an ‘Ugg boot’ – in order to learn the techniques of working with royal icing.
In the process, they were supporting area women-owned businesses, including those of Letourneau, Kirk and A Fork in the Road restaurant and catering of the Bryantville area in Hanson, which supplied the breakfast of quiches, pastry, fruit and yogurt parfaits, as well as those they in turn support with their business.
“This time of year is kind of my ‘cookie marathon’ from Halloween to Christmas,” Letourneau said. “There’s baking cookies, a lot of classes and I do pre-orders – essentially ahead of time.”
She posts a form with the season options at eatgoodcookiesma.com from which customers can choose, along with inventory levels. Letourneau has just completed a rebrand of her website that went live Monday, Nov. 6.
“People go on and purchase it, with a pre-designated pick-up time, so that I know exactly how much to make and when people are coming,” she said.
“I do custom cookies and cookie-decorating classes,” Letourneau said. “Myself and Gina, who owns several businesses, one of which is the coffee subscription and apparel business, thought it would be fun to have a ladies’ event on a Sunday – coffee, breakfast, cookie decorating – and we kind of put a turn on it by having women-owned businesses donate raffle items.”
The prizes ranged from $100 gift certificates to gift baskets.
“All of these businesses are ones that I personally use,” she said of her way of advertising them and giving back.
Once cookie class commenced, Letourneau walked participants through the techniques of outlining and then ‘flooding’ decorative designs after participants learned to knead their tubes of homemade icing to warm them and evenly distribute the coloring as they practiced the steps in decorating.
“We are going to skip around a lot,” she said of the varied steps involved in each type of cookie.
A practice sheet afforded participants the chance to practice piping designs ad flooding them in before transferring the skills to a cookie.
Letourneau, who works for Plymouth public housing and with the police academy and the sheriff’s department, began the cookie business after dabbling in homemade cookies for family and friends while on family leave from the sheriff’s department.
“I’ve always been a kind of go-go-go kind of person, and it was something to kind of pass the time,” she said. “I’ve always kind of been a perfectionist/crafty person, so it was like a hobby.”
Then friends began asking for custom cookies for their kids’ birthday parties and before she knew it, she was doing a firefighter set as favors for a first birthday party on a professional basis.
“It kind of snowballed,” she said, noting she is a licensed residential kitchen owner through the Pembroke Board of Health, which inspects her kitchen. “I had never anticipated it being a business and now it’s kind of like the juggling act of work and business to grow the business, but also in a place where I can still manage my life.”
Kirk was doing barista duty with a menu of three choices: a cold brew with choice of sweet cream, white chocolate or dark chocolate cold cream; sugar cookie of gingerbread flavored hot coffee and a DYI hot or cold brew coffee bar,
She started her own coffee line in 2018 under the name Surviving Motherhood Coffee, Kirk explained.
“My kids were all younger and things kind of evolved over the years,” she said. “But I have always worked with a local roaster.”
Her Mug & Moment coffees are all roasted in Bridgewater in small batches. Kirk works with her roaster to develop exclusive flavors in small batches. That small family-owned roaster, in turn, works with small family-owned coffee growers in Brazil and Colombia.
“Basically, it was born out of a desire to have better coffee,” Kirk said. “It’s been a journey.
She rebranded from Mom Life Must Haves to Mug & Moment last year just to be a little more inclusive.”
The business’ website is now mugandmoment.com, and while she started in a storefront in Middleborough, the business is all online now.
“I pick up the coffee in Middleborough and ship it out from my little space,” she said.
For more information, contact Letourneau at eatgoodcookiesma.com, or email at [email protected]. Contact Kirk at mlmhandco.com or visit @mlmhandco on Instagram, fb.com/mlmhandco on Facebook or email [email protected].
Hanson Legion holds membership drive
HANSON – American Legion Post 226 needs you – especially if you are a veteran who might be interested in joining their ranks.
The post is now conducting a membership drive as its membership is aging and it’s become more difficult to attract younger members.
While there are currently about 250 members on the books, many are elderly and rarely attend events.
“We’re trying to get the younger generation in here,” said David George, Post 226 vice commander and a Select Board member. “I think everybody associates the American Legion with old World War II veterans and Vietnam veterans. We need younger veterans.”
George said a recent meat raffle fundraiser, in which a small crowd raised about $1,5000 provided a reason for optimism amid a troubling trend of dwindling membership.
Another meat raffle is planned for Veterans Day – starting at 4 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 11 – with an additional raffle of a 40-inch Amazon Fire TV, 50/50 scratch ticket raffle, other door prizes, food, and Veterans Agent Joe Gumbakis to provide information on veterans services, among the highlights.
“There’s a lot of good things that we could do here,” George said, noting that Gumbakis could hold informational sessions, or hours in which to answer veterans’ questions.
Recent news reports from around the country show the post is not alone, as younger veterans seem to be looking elsewhere for the post-service comradeship the Legion or Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) posts used to attract.
“The young guys don’t want to come in here because they think its all old grumpy people sitting at the bar, drinking, and it’s not that way,” George said.
Younger vets from all over the U.S. are pointing to generational differences over minority memberships, including issues such as race or the attitudes toward LGBTQ veterans in the wake of the 2011 repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” as some of the reasons behind falling membership in established veterans’ organizations, accoring to news reports.
For George, none of that is a concern, if veterans are looking for a place to gather, socialize and reminisce about service days, he said the Hanson legion has the welcoming space and events.
“There’s no discrimination here – male/female, black/white – anybody could come here,” said George, an Army and Army National Guard veteran.
Post bar manager Richard Wassell sees a national trend in dwindling participation in groups of all kinds at work.
“A lot of people lose interest,” he said, adding it’s a great place for veterans and a great place for the public.“A lot of people don’t want to go out much anymore. Who knows? It’s not an exclusive veterans’ club,”
There are ways to join the Legion even if one is not a veteran, as well.
“We have three memberships here,” George said. “Veterans – and you could be male or female. This isn’t like a fraternity.” Sons of veterans is a male auxiliary and the Women’s Auxiliary round out the membership categories.
While there are challenges in attracting members, it’s not your dad’s Legion Hall, anymore, he said.
But the national Legon, in its membership tab on the website legion.org, sees enough cause for concern to post in June 2023, to post an article about how posts might attract younger members. The Legion had hosted a story about a training session on boosting membership based on getting posts involved in the community and, as a result, attracting community involvement with posts.
For example, Post 257 in Battle Creek, Mich., had 55 members in 2017. Since then, the post has grown each year thanks to its community outreach and engagement efforts. For 2023, Post 257 has about 268 members.
“You have to go out into the community and let them know what you’re doing or else you’re not going to attract new members,” The Legion’s Department of Michigan Membership Director Brian Mohlman said. “If you don’t go out in the community, your community doesn’t see you.”
George is looking for that kind of spike in interest.
One of its steps will be a Veterans Day meat raffle at 4 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 11.
Recreational outlets could also be expanded at the post, George said.
A pool league could be convinced to include the post if there was enough interest and the Minuteman Dart League, which Post 226 had been part of once, could return. Recreational league participation do not require Legion membership.
With the burgeoning popularity of cornhole, George said forming a team for that could also be popular.
“We have so much stuff to offer,” he said, noting the hall at 92 Robinson St., in Hanson has a full kitchen including two pizza ovens, a second bar downstairs in the function room, and an outdoor pavilion. “It’s a place for people to meet and have a good time. It’s all good people here.”
Members may rent the hall for $25 to $50 right now, and non-members can rent spaces for from $100 to $200 – and that can include bartender service.
New members can also help, through dues, with the materials needed to repair the roof – estimated at a cost of about $10,000.
“If we had the materials, we have the manpower that would put it on,” George said. “We have carpenters that are members here. There’s a lot of good people here, and there’s a lot of good things that can happen here,” George said. “We need more members to make it happen.”
For more information about joining the American Legion or its auxiliaries, email [email protected].
Middle School project heads to ballot
WHITMAN – The Whitman Middle School building project will be settled by voters at the ballot box on Saturday, Nov. 4 at Whitman Town Hall. The debt exclusion question is the only item on the ballot during voting hours of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The ballot question would allow the borrowing of the $135 million for the project, minus the $59,159,000 MSBA reimbursement, the MSBA’s required language in a debt exclusion.
A crowd of 336 voters – ony 100 are required for a quorum at special Town Meetings – turned out Monday, Oct. 30 to voice overwhelming support for the project, for which the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), will reimburse the town $59 million. The MSBA had increased its reimbursement by about $13.6 million on Oct. 26, bringing that figure to $76,129,555. The new school is anticipated to last at least 50 years.
Before the MSBA vote, the town’s share was $89 million.
WMS Building Committee Chair, and School Committee member, Fred Small opened the discussion of the project with his thanks for the encouraging turnout, followed by a brief video on the project, narrated by Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak.
Officials opted to borrow for the project based on a level-principal bond, which puts the snapshot of the tax impact for the average taxpayer – which in Whitman is a house valued at $420,530 – at a $1,264.21 increase for the first year calculated on a 5.5-percent interest rate, and gradually declining over the life of the 30-year bond because so much of the interest is paid early. The average bill over the life of the bond is estimated at $860.71. The last payment on that average home would be $502.59.
After 10 years, the town can refinance the bond, according to Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter, who said a level interest bond would cost the town another $19 million in interest on the project.
“The most cost-effective way is to go with a level principal,” she said. “This article will simply allow the Whitman Middle School building project to proceed to a ballot question to be ultimately decided by the voters at the special Town Election … Nov. 4.”
That first year’s tax increase would not go into effect until 2027.
Beal Avenue resident Julia Sheehan asked what the cost to the town would be to make repairs alone to the current middle school.
Small said the estimate for repairs alone is about $60 million, none of which is eligible for MSBA reimbursement.
“It would have to be bonded differently,” he said. “It would be a 20-year bond. … Who knows what a project like that would look like? Would it be done in stages? And that’s the town’s responsibility. Period.”
While several residents spoke in favor of the project as a much-needed replacement for a building that was constructed before modern building codes and has been plagued by mold problems in the gymnasium area. The new middle school’s auditorium, while the focus of much discussion Monday, is only one of the details of the plan that is needed for the school’s educational plan. The video also included information on the use of natural daylight and light-weight solar technology to reduce utilities costs, and safety features of the building as well as community use opportunities and small-group learning spaces and concentration of each grade level into its own wing or “neighborhood” to facilitate team teaching and collaboration as well as healthy social interaction between students.
One resident argued that a grade six to eight school without an auditorium would be the more economical way to go. Older residents, especially, voiced concern about the effect the project would have on their taxes – and their ability to stay in their homes.
“We’ve examined one-story, two-stories, three-stories, [grades] five through eight, six through eight, with an auditorium, without an auditorium,” Small said. “The Building Committee has been very diligent in doing a lot of exploring.”
He said when the vote on cutting the auditorium and moving to a grade six through eight school was rejected by the building committee, it could not be reconsidered.
While not a component covered by MSBA reimbursement, several in the audience stressed the importance of an auditorium for the benefit of Whitman’s students.
One mother, who graduated W-H in 2007 and attended both the old and new high schools, recognizes the same challenges of water damage and accessibility issues, as well as failing and insufficient facilities at the current middle school, which her child attends.
“Back when we first started – back when the word COVID meant nothing to anyone we were discussing what the cost of the project would be,” Small said, noting the range as recently as three years ago was $50 million to $80 million. “Costs grew … the will of the committee was an auditorium and a grade five through eight was the most educationally proper and sound project to be putting forward.” At that time, as recently as a year ago, the town’s share was estimated at between $67 million to $73 million.
Whether one favors or opposes the project, Small said it was wrong to suggest that the town doesn’t need a new middle school, because it does.
“It’s disgusting and it’s despicable,” he said of the current conditions at WMS.
Parent Heather Clough of Beulah Street said her son could not attend WMS because the school could not meet his special needs. Building a more accessible and inclusive school could save the district in placement costs, among other issues, she said.
Assistant Superintendent George Ferro, who was principal at WMS for 15 years, said the age span of students in grades five to eight – ages 10 to 14 – is very appropriate to place in the same building.
“If you look at the changes that take place in the human body and the changes that take place in the minds and feelings of students in ages 10 to 14 … at fifth grade, they are too old for their elementary school years,” he said. “That age range of 10 to 14 should be together and that is what research shows.”
He also pointed to Hanson Middle School’s grade five to eight population and the presence of an auditorium in that school.
“We should not deny our children the right … in developing who they are – developing their skills, developing what they want to do,” Ferro said. “We have ball fields. We have turf. … But every single student deserves the right to learn how to express themselves.”
Former Town Administrator Frank Lynam noted the 336 people attending and said there would be about 2,000 citizens able to make that decision at the voting booth.
“I think we would be a lot better off forwarding and giving a larger part of the populace the opportunity to say yes or no,” he said.
Select Board member Shawn Kain said the town’s work with a financial consultant to manage Whitman’s debt.
“Before we make what will be the biggest investment in the town’s history, we should have an understanding of our debt, how we came to be this way and the repercussions, if we do support it, moving forward,” he said.
Both Kain and Small pointed to increased building costs and lower reimbursement that the W-H region received from MSBA – including that this is not a regional project – as to why the project will cost so much more than the high school did in 2007
“With this in mind, we recommended that this be a 30-year bond, not a 20-year bond, to help with our kids,” Kain said. But he also pointed to future debt – the DPW building and a proposal for a building project from South Shore Tech – as things to be aware of when voting on the project, as well as capital needs of other town buildings.
“It’s a difficult decision,” he said. “Two of our strategic priorities are education and finance.”
But Small argued the WMS Building Committee has worked hard to repeat the success of the WHRHS committee.
“It would be my intention [to do] the same as for the high school,” he said. “We came in on time and on budget.”
Carter said the $17.8 million DPW project approved by voters last year calculates out to an added $352.28 on the first year of a 20-year bond for that $420,000 average home taxes – down to $170.39 in the last year. The DPW bond rate is based on the town’s rating, while the school’s borrowing cost will be based on the district’s rating.
Leila Donovan of Old Mansion Lane asked if there was a representative from the assessor’s office present who could provide information on tax abatement programs for residents. Assistant Town Administrator – and former Assessor – Kathleen Keefe said there are programs that can assist elder residents, veterans and blind people in applying for abatements. A call to the Assessor’s Office can offer that help, she said.
Select Board member Laura Howe said the issue has divided the town and this was a decision that should be made in an effort to bring the town together.
“When I make a budget, I make it to be what I can afford,” she said. “I hope … that we all reach out a hand to each other, because there’s nobody in this town that does not like children.”
Finance Committee Chair Rick Anderson said Building Committee Vice Chair Kathleen Ottina, also a FinCom member, has – along with other FinCom members – evaluated the various options and MSBA grant process.
“Following lengthy discussion, the Finance Committee recommends this article unanimously,” he said, while they are also members of the community who pay taxes.
“Our students and educators deserve something better,” he said, pointing to the unanimous consensus of the FinCom, Capital Committee, School Committee and Building Committee in support of the article. “The time to act is tonight.”
Whitman OK’s DPW building funding
WHITMAN – Monday’s special Town Meeting wrapped up with the near-unanimous approval of two articles pertaining to the planned DPW building project.
The first appropriated $1,143,271 to pay additional incidental and related costs for the project transferred from excess funds originally borrowed or appropriated to pay the costs of other varied capital projects at town meetings in 2017 and 2019.
The second appropriates $2,200,000 for any additional costs involved in the design, construction and equipping of the building – funded with Plymouth County ARPA funds from the sewer force main project.
Neither needs to go to a ballot question as the original $17.8 million approved at the polls last year did.
“The town has the ability to use American Rescue Plan Act funds for certain types of projects,” Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter said. “The town sewer force main project is one of the eligible projects. The DPW building construction was not an eligible project.”
A paving grant for the sewer force main project, helped bring it in under budget, Carter said, and the use of $2.2 million in ARPA for the DPW building also helped.
The total increase in rates will be 70 cents for the second half of the force main project and a notice that was to go out Oct. 15 that rates were going up by $1.25 was therefore not sent out.
While a debt exclusion dies when the debt is paid, the rate increased become part of the base rate.
A $1.50 rate increase last year was entirely related to replacing the force sewer main, former Town Administrator Frank Lynam said.
Requiring a two-thirds margin to pass article 15, Town Moderator Michael Seele had ruled it achieved that threshold, but a standing vote. The resulting 213-4 counted vote vindicated that call.
Discussion of both articles centered on why, as with most articles on the warrant, funding sources were those originally approved at past Town Meetings for other purposes.
Auburnville Way resident Robert Kimball also asked why the extra $2.2 million was required.
DPW Highway Superintendent Bruce Martin said it was because the actual cost of the low bid was higher than the estimates due to soil conditions at the site as well as inflation.
“It’s across the board,” Martin said. “It’s happening to a lot of municipal projects.”
He said former Water-Sewer Superintendent Dennis Smith found leftover funds still on the books after some projects were finished. The route 18 and 27 projects came in under budget as did others listed in the article as funding sources.
Cindy Landreville of Harvard Street asked why it has taken so long for all that funding to finally come back to the town while nothing has been done to lower water and sewer rates for taxpayers.
Martin and Smith said the funds came from water-sewer enterprise accounts had to return to those accounts.
“It would be available to be spent on other water-sewer projects, but not other town projects,” Martin said.
“I’m sorry to be picking on you, but most of the monies tonight are coming from unexpected, unexpended funds from 2016 forward?” Landreville said.
“By leaving it in the articles mentioned, it’s still water and sewer money,” Smith said. “It’s a similar problem that fits within the language of the article.”
The DPW had considered using the funds from the routes 18 and 27 intersection project on emergency power supplies for traffic lights, Smith said. With nothing left on that project to spend it on after the lighting work didn’t happen, “it made sense to turn the money back in.”
Carter said the $17.8 million for the DPW was done as a debt exclusion and went onto taxes, while the $2.2 million in Article 15 will not be, but there will still be a debt payment due each year through water-sewer rates.
SST project moving ahead
HANOVER – A joint meeting of the South Shore Tech School Committee and School Building Committee on Wednesday, Oct. 25 voted 7-0, with one member absent, on the procedure for bringing a school renovation or expansion project to the voters in its eight member towns.
They also voted to authorize the building project team to submit the preliminary design program (PDP) draft to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) including the educational plan.
The Building Committee meets again on Thursday, Nov. 2 and the SST School Committee meets next on Wednesday, Nov. 15. A community meeting in Whitman is scheduled for 7 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 14 in Whitman Town Hall. Similar meetings are scheduled for Nov. 9 in Marshfield and Dec. 5 in Rockland.
All those attending the Zoom session have a vested interest in knowing how the district would ask their communities to weigh in on an eventual school project, according to Superintendent-Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey, in introducing bond counsel Rick Manley from the firm Lockelord.
“Rick has been a huge help to us over the years – including all the years when we were hoping we’d get in [to the MBSA project pipeline] and a lot of ‘what ifs,’” Hickey said. The School Committee has the power to determine how the district will ask its voters for their approval or disapproval of a project.
“It is on our agenda tonight for you to take action,” he said, noting it requires a two-thirds of all committee members voting to pass.
Assuming regional school debt can be done in two different ways, Manley said.
“It sounds as though, at this preliminary [point] you’d like to consider going to the towns in a district-wide election to seek approval,” he said. A majority of voters – 51 percent – casting affirmative votes during that election, regardless as to town, would pass the measure by voting un favor.
The district could also opt for a town-by-town election process.
“When you know what the total amount’s going to be, that you’ve gotten approval from MSBA, you then vote to approve the debt, subject to an election happening, on town meeting warrants,” based on the committee’s vote, Manley said.
Not only question, but the polling hours – no longer than eight hours on an election day for each town – should be the in all eight towns. The district is not required to go before town meetings to appropriate the money.
Whitman representative Dan Salvucci asked if ballot questions would include what each town’s share of the project cost would be.
He noted that both Whitman and Abington have projects going at the present time, which could affect the response from those two towns, he said.
“If we decide to put on the cost for each town – Whitman is 24 percent, a quarter of the bill – and we’ve got a DPW project that’s going on right now, so I don’t know how the residents of Whitman are going to feel about that,” Salvucci said. “Because we need the school.”
Manley said it is possible to do that, and has been done by a couple other district, but indicated the best information that could be offered is the approximate share of the principal of the borrowing.
“This ballot question is not asking a town how they’re going to pay for it,” Hickey said. “Some communities would handle that separately.”
Manley agreed that there is no legal authority for a district to put a debt exclusion question on its ballot. Select Boards must do that.
Communities must also come to agreement on the number of polling places being operated for the vote.
“We try very hard as we advise on one of these to kind of bring everybody along to a consensus to that,” he said. Because turnout is lower for this kind of election, Manley’s firm has advised all communities they work with, including cities like Chelsea and Revere to have just one polling place open.
Voters would also be limited to voting on the day of the election or through the absentee voting process.
“We’ve been advised at the Secretary of State’s office that early voting is not permitted for one of these elections,” Maley said. “The reason for that, I believe, is because the activity of early voting can be opted in or not.”
That would create problems for the requirement of uniformity in access to the voting process.
Hickey said the special election on the school would be in January 2025 – after the 2024 general election.
“There’s enough time to orient everyone, to bring our town clerks together,” he said. “They’re the experts at how to do this. Let’s work with them to develop a mechanism with doing nothing last-minute.”
The educational plan amended during the meeting is part of the preliminary design program (PDP) summary.
“This is a significant next step in our process,” Hickey said.
Jen Carlson from project management firm Left Field reviewed building options and comparative cost analyses.
Carl Franchesci of architectural firm DRA, said the four components of the PDP are the educational program for a range of student populations between the current 645 and the maximum 975 which the MSBA would consider; an existing conditions assessment; site development requirements and preliminary options.
More than half the current building space is insufficient and/or fails to meet today’s standards for the current enrollment. Site development requirements are also addressed in the PDP.
Of the four options facing the district at the start of the process – base repair, renovation, addition/renovation and new construction – base repair and renovation have been ruled out.
The addition/renovation and new construction options could add from 188,000 square feet to 278,000 square feet to the building in one of five design choices, for a total of 25 options. The options also include choices of the site layout with the building and athletic fields in differing locations.
“For any of these enrollments that are being considered, greater than what you have today, it’s highly likely … we’re going to need a wastewater treatment plant,” Franchesci said.
Preliminary cost estimates – for comparative purposes only – at this stage, which are based on square-footage alone,
The numbers provide an indication of what options could be close in price or preferable to another, but are not actual construction cost numbers.
“It might influence us to make some decisions, but it’s not the headline that we’ve got the answer on how much it’s going to cost,” Hickey said.
“We’ve tried to account for where the costs in each option will be so we can compare apples to apples,” Carlson said.
She indicated the MSBA was planning to increase the cost per square foot on Oct. 26, which they did.
Very preliminary figures – for comparison purposes only – for all complete project costs in all design options for a new building range from $293,737,225 for a 645-student building to $329,912,113 for a building that can accommodate 750 students. Total construction costs are estimated at $234,989.780 to $263,929,690 for a new building.
Salvucci noted that portable classrooms for an addition/renovation option are projected at $11 million all by themselves.
“It’s kind of like a waste of money to go renovation rather than new,” he said.
“That’s the trend we’re seeing right now across all of our projects, that an add/reno is either becoming more expensive or as expensive as new construction,” Carlson said.
Salvucci said the committee has to decide how many students they think will be enrolled in the school by the time it is built as well as in the future, especially as more towns have expressed interest in becoming member communities.
“That becomes the sweet spot question of how much access can we afford to give a very popular form of education in our region,” Hickey said.
SST enrollment is now at 671, according to Hickey, but the MSBA required the district to consider what a building at that enrollment would cost.
“In my opinion, if you were to put a feeling behind some of these enrollment numbers, I would say the 645 [option] makes things worse,” he said. “Whatever I’m saying is going to have to be attached to a price tag, and ultimately, we’ve got to find something affordable, but if we can limit the question to ‘Can we service kids with these numbers? The 645 is less capacity than what we have now … 750 students would be kind of like our current situation plus Marshfield.”
At 805, the school would begin to solve its waiting list issues, but that is not the MSBA’s concern in approving a building. Hickey said the question of enrollment permitted by the design phase will continue at the Nov. 2 meeting.
“They want to make sure that the spaces in the building match up to the ed[ucational] plan,” Carlson said. “That’ll also help you to make decisions.”
Whitman holds special Town Meeting
WHITMAN – It’s up to the voters now.
The Whitman Middle School project is one of the 15 articles on the warrant for the Monday, Oct. 30 special Town Meeting at 7:30 p.m., in the Whitman Town Hall auditorium. The $135 million project will now cost the town about $76 million, with the the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) voting on Wednesday morning, Oct. 25 to increase its funding for the project by $14 million — to $59,159,717, according to Building Committee member Kathleen Ottina. The vote lowers the amount the town would pay.
Voters must approve it at both the Town Meeting and a special Town Election held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 4 at Town Hall.
School district officials have been holding public informational forums and tours of the Whitman Middle School to demonstrate the need for a new building, with the last one held Saturday, Oct. 21. Beginning in the school’s cafetoruim, the tours included an overview of the MSBA process and determination that “we needed a project,” Building Committee Chair Fred Small said on a Sept. 28 tour [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ti9g2SzvtQ]. Project architects, School Committee and district officials, and former Building Commissioner Bob Curran were on hand to discuss the project.
Videos of the tours are posted on the WHCA-TV YouTube channel for those who were unable to attend one of them.
“We wanted to make sure this got out on cable,” Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak said. “[There’s] a lot of information here. It’s going to be pretty detailed.”
The video is also posted on the district website whrsd.org.
The district has had a statement of interest for a new middle school before the MSBA since 2018.
Szymaniak became superintendent in February 2018 and former WMS Principal George Ferro was named assistant superintendent in March 2018.
“By July [2018], when we walked into Central Office, one of our first goals was to get an SOI (statement of interest) for this building because we thought five years before there should have been an SOI and it didn’t happen,” Szymaniak said. “In 2014, there was a major mold issue in the [WMS] gymnasium, similar to what we had a couple years back.”
But discussions about getting a new roof never got off the ground, Szymaniak said. He and Ferro decided their first priority was for it to happen this time, knowing it would take a while.
“Given the history I’ve had with the MSBA, you never get it the first time,” he said of acceptance into the project pipeline. “We wrote the statement of interest, they brought it to the core program, who did a site visit out here and the comments were: ‘Oh, my goodness, this building needs to be fixed. Who’s your facilities director?’”
But, Szymaniak said the facilities department has to do a lot without a lot.
“Rubber bands and paper clips,” he said.
The district was invited to Boston in December 2019 and were accepted.
“First time,” he said. “First run. I was there with people sitting next to me who had been [to MSBA] five times. … I’m nervous about having to reapply somewhere in the future because MSBA is very selective.”
Curran outlined how the town would have to fund repairs without MSBA help, if that choice is made, and once repairs reach 30 percent of the building’s value, code upgrades for fire safety – the school predates the first fire code in 1975 – as well as the Americans with Disabilities Act (1991) apply for the entire building and would increase the cost.
“This building has been a problem since I started,” he said, noting he had been building commissioner in town for 24 years. “This building was never built to be accessible. I don’t think they thought about that much back then.”
A slide presentation illustrated architectural and systems deficiencies of the building as well as for amenities that can bolster academics in a new school, such as the need for small, flexible learning spaces to help students catch up after the pandemic.
The forums also delved into the various options considered by the Building Committee and the financial implications of them.
Other articles on the Town Meeting warrant include:
- Appropriate the sum of $1,143,271.15 for a new DPW building and determine whether funds shall be raised by a transfer from excess funds originally raised for other capital projects;
- A $21,400 wing snowplow for the DPW;
- Portable radio replacement [$9,138.65] for the fire department, from the original appropriation for Whitman’s share of resurfacing the WHRSD track;
- Matching funds for a fire department brush truck [$14,090.72] and a $5,554.29 fire training grant also from the track appropriation remainder.
- A $36,459 municipal fiber technology grant from the balance of unexpended funds from the original appropriation to reimburse WHRSD for a chairlift installation at Duval School;
- A $142,793.60 appropriation from the Cable Access account to fund PEG cable access services;
- Acceptance of Little comfort Circle as a public way; and
- A Right to Farm bylaw.
Hanson revisits strategic planning
HANSON – Town officials tackled questions of better communication and efficient use of town properties as the Select Board hosted another strategies planning session on Tuesday, Oct. 17 at Camp Kiwanee’s Needles Lodge.
Following brief updated from Town Administrator Lisa Green, IT Director Steve Moberg, Town Accountant Eric Kinsherf, and Planner Anthony DeFrias, the officials from town departments toward solving problems in the session that lasted about an hour.
The focus of their work was in the areas of interdepartmental and intra-departmental communication; communication with the community; and maintenance and optimization of assets such as town buildings.
“How do we make money out of the buildings that we’ve got and the assets that we have?” Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “We need to take care of things, but how do we get the money out of them as well?”
Green said IT director Moberg, who was unable to attend, has worked on a new web platform for the town, which has a site map and Moberg is beginning to reach out to departments and committees to determine if links need updating with information such as committee membership.
Kinsherf provided a post-town meeting financial snapshot of town finances, including the $1.4 million, $1.4 million in stabilization, another “couple of thousand” in school stabilization for projects, $145,000 in Camp Kiwanee retained earnings and $772,000 in the ambulance fund.
“I think we’re in pretty solid shape,” he said, but still expects to see a $1.3 million shortfall when the budget process for fiscal 2025 begins. “[But], the more eyes and ears on the budget, the better. I actually like that.”
DeFrias reported that the town has received grants for pedestrian improvements near the MBTA station on Main Street and another toward the town’s master plan for which the Old Colony Planning Council had met with the Planning Committee to develop a steering committee by next June.
Green said grant funding is also pending for a new heating pumps at Town Hall and two hybrid police cruisers. Another grant is funding the capital improvement plan.
“We’re making strides in terms of getting information out there,” Green said.
Facilitator Ann Donner, instead of having officials break out into groups they were already involved in, asked the meeting as a whole to “look at particular challenges or issues … and to think outside the box,” encouraging officials to be involved in areas they may not have been involved with before.
“It’s that outside thinking that really helps advance our work in these areas,” she said, breaking the meeting into three groups to examine problem areas and come up with specific actions to help arrive at an answer or solution.
Following the 30-minute break-out sessions, the groups reported on their discussions to the meeting as a whole.
DeFrias, speaking on communication with the community pointed to social media as a major tool the town might use with links placed on the town website. Tying the town’s newsletter to the website and submitting information to the Express and cable access channel were discussed. The newspaper and cable access information could also be linked to social media in an effort to get more exposure to the public, he said.
Outreach to schools and the use of an information kiosk at Town Hall were also options.
“Obviously, as we all know, the town as well as the country and the state, are aging, and how do we get other people involved?” he said, describing the need for reaching out to the schools. “You need to get younger citizens involved. … At some point, they’re going to become voters and Hanson, like many towns, has one of the last forms of democratic government – it’s people that vote.”
Fire Chief Robert O’Brien Jr., reported on the discussion about internal communications. He said an ad hoc group between the fire and building departments, the Board of Health and the town administrator, has been meeting weekly for the past couple of months.
“It’s been very well-received within our departments and … we’ve been able to fix a bunch of things before they become issues,” he said. A monthly meeting between all town departments to increase the number of people involved and able to have input and the resources that can be put to work.
“It doesn’t have to be just department heads,” he said. “We’ve already got a meeting for that.”
Frank Milisi reported on the discussion about optimizing the use of town properties, beginning with making an inventory of town assets and the condition of them.
“We have to ask ourselves three questions: Is it serving a public purpose? What are the maintenance costs? And, if we’re not using it, is there an opportunity to rent, lease or sell?” he said.
“It’s a matter of prioritization,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “We’ve got a lot of good feedback, and hopefully you guys have felt like, even just from the first meeting to now, some of the ideas that have come up, you have moved on them. Lisa has moved on them, the board has moved on them, you guys have moved on them – there’s discernable progress.”
Hanson hosts real-life bruin
HANSON – Evidently the lesson from the old Yogi Bear cartoons has failed to take hold: Do not feed the bears. That also means do not accidentally feed the bears.
In recent weeks black bears – maybe one, maybe more, it’s hard to tell, really – have been eating their way around the backyards of Hanson, Pembroke and environs.
A bear ate a pygmy goat recently. They have also made meals of domestic ducks and chickens in Chelmsford. A bear had to be tranquilized in Brookline recently – not all bears that come into contact with humans are as lucky.
Mass Wildlife said a bear also made its way across the Cape Cod Canal and made its way to Provincetown.
“You could literally trace the movement of that bear by the 911 calls to local police departments. People had never seen one before and they panicked over it,” said Mass Fisheries and Wildlife District Director William Davis of the Cape Cod bear.
Just because a bear is in your area, does not mean it is a threat, Black Bear Project Leader Laura Hajduc-Conlee said, noting there has never been a bear attack in Massachusetts, even though there have been fatal attacks in the Northeast. In fact, Mass Wildlife says most of the Bay State is Bear Country.
Black bears are omnivorous, and they try to increase their calorie intake in the fall to prepare for winter, but they will take advantage of easy food sources any time of year.
“They eat small mammals,” said Hanson Police Chief Michael Miksch, whose department has posted information about the dangers of inadvertently attracting bears, along with links to Mass Wildlife’s black bear page. “It was chasing two goats around a yard yesterday in Pembroke.”
The Hanson Police Department is emphasizing that owners of small domestic animals should take measures, against foraging predators.
“My goal is to get people to start educating themselves,” Miksch said, noting people have been asking why public safety and wildlife officers don’t just tranquilize bears and move them. “It or another one’s going to come back … and, if you keep feeding them, you’re feeding them accidentally by leaving trash out, or feeding them on purpose, because you think it’s cute, then they’re going to lose their fear of humans and we have to put them down.”
Bears will be euthanized when they become a perceived public safety threat, according to Mass Wildlife.
Keeping backyard food sources away from bears also helps to keep them wild, according to Mass. Wildlife. Bear populations are also increasing. In the 1970s, there were about 100 bears in Massachusetts, which grew to about 1,000 by the 1990s – and it’s estimated that there are about 4,000 in the state today – the third most densely-populated state in the country.
“Bears are remarkable in their ability to remember,” Davis said. During the year cubs stay with their mother, she is showing the cubs where to find seasonal food sources and places where people continuously feed bears.
Bringing in bird feeders; making sure trash is in secure outbuildings and never just in a bag or bin, where bears can get to it; and securing beehives or chicken coops with electrified fencing is important.
“We’re not going to change the bears’ behavior, but we can change the public’s behavior and how they respond to bears being in their community,” Davis said. “It’s very gratifying to us to see people learning how to coexist with bears.”
Bears climb trees to escape from people, who are advised to back away from a tree and leave them alone, until they climb down and leave the area.
“It’s really important to modify your behavior so that we can avoid conflict with black Bears,” Hajduc-Conlee said.
Hanson memories: Gramma’s Halloween surprise
By Linda Ibbitson Hurd
Special to The Express
My children are now grown but in 1974 when my son Brian was 7 and my daughter Heidi was 3 I experienced a Halloween with them I’ll always remember.
Heidi was born with a severe hearing loss and although she would be getting hearing aids soon after her fourth Birthday, she didn’t have them, yet.She was in a preschool program with other deaf children in Duxbury and was transported to and from school by a special cab company. She became very good at lip reading and sign language. Sometimes I drew her pictures if she didn’t understand something which worked very well for both of us. She had no understanding of Trick or Treating so taking her to see what it was all about was best.
The week before Halloween my son and the neighborhood kids were all trying to decide what costumes they would wear on the big night. By the 70’s kids were more interested in store bought costumes than home made ones but in our little group most of them put together their own with a little help from us parents. Disappointed because he had outgrown his Lancelot Link costume, Brian let Heidi wear it and settled for a beard and mustache put on with makeup.
It’s always a plus when the weather is perfect for Halloween. Brian came home excited and we put newspapers on the floor and table to make jack-o’-lanterns out of the pumpkins we had so we could put them outside with some candy and a sign ‘ONE BAG ONLY !’ I learned long ago that making anything but something simple for supper on Halloween is useless. After some grilled cheese sandwiches and roasted pumpkin seeds from the oven, the little group of kids that were coming with us arrived and off we went!
My grandmother and parents lived in Hanson and were expecting us but we did stop at a couple of friend’s houses in Halifax first. Jack-o’-lanterns on steps and porches flickered their lights as we drove by. Eerie sounds, witches, skeletons and huge spiders lurked at lamp posts and graveyards in people’s yards. A fat overstuffed scarecrow was propped up against a fence at the first house we stopped at. The kids got out of the car with their bags and went up to the house. Heidi was holding my hand and seemed undaunted by some of the sights and more interested in watching intently as candy was put in each bag. As I walked forward with Heidi to the door she stopped, shook her head no, so we left.
At the last stop in Halifax Heidi didn’t want to take the bag with her, she didn’t wait for me, she ran ahead with the kids to stand and watch, looking up at the people who were passing out the candy and then looked back at the kids and then got in the car. I didn’t think too much of it, I knew she was processing what was happening.
My grandmother lived in a big blue house near my parents. I parked the car and we walked down the well lit path beside the peony bed to the two spacious cement steps that led to the open door where Gram was waiting and smiling under the big overhead lights. She wanted to know who was who under the make up and behind the masks and when she saw Brian, she called him her pet name for her great grandchildren which was pollywog. The kids giggled at that and I was pleased at their politeness as they answered all her questions. Gram spotted Heidi and bent over to say hi to her and Heidi smiled back, smiled at me and pointed to Gram. I knew that meant she remembered going there during the Summer. The kids were just about wiggling out of their costumes as Gram asked if they were ready for candy. She started passing it out and all of a sudden Heidi ran off the bottom step with a determined look on her face. She picked up a nice smooth rock that was on the ground, then she stepped towards me wanting her bag. The other kids had come down off the steps and Heidi ran up to them and when Gram put the candy in her bag, Heidi smiled up at her, her eyes shining, and gave Gramma the rock. Gram had a laugh like musical notes that rang out at her delight with Heidi’s gift. She lifted her up in her arms, walked to the big mantle in the dining room and put the rock in a special place telling Heidi she loved it and thanked her. Heidi’s face glowed as she hugged Gram and smiled at me with a look of complete satisfaction.
Gramma kept the rock on the mantle and loved telling people the story about Heidi and the lovely gift she got for Halloween. Years later when Gram fell ill she asked my dad to give Heidi the rock to remember her by.
Paying for a school on principal
WHITMAN – Borrowing for the proposed Whitman Middle School will be done through a level principal approach the School Committee voted 8-1 following a joint meeting with the Select Board on Tuesday, Oct. 17.
That approach calls for a larger first-year payment of $8 million – $3 million in principal and $5 million in interest – in order to greatly reduce the annual payments for the rest of the 30-year loan. With a level-debt bond, the town pays $6.2 million not only for the first year of the bond, but for all 30 years.
School Committee Dawn Byers voted no, because, she argued a level-debt structure with even payments was the more affordable option for taxpayers. Member Glen DiGravio was unable to attend the session, which will be rebroadcast on WHCA-TV and posed on its YouTube Channel.
The town must approve the issuance of debt for the Whitman Middle School project at both the special Town Meeting on Monday, Oct. 30 and at the Saturday, Nov. 4 special Election ballot in order for the current MSBA project to move forward.
The town’s share of the $135 million project is $90 million, with the Massachusetts School Building Authority funding $45 million of the cost.
“Understanding that these are not going to be exact numbers because we’re not there yet, we’re trying to give the taxpayers an idea of what’s to be expected to the best of our knowledge,” School Committee Chair Beth Stafford said. “It’s not going to be great and easy either way, but – and I won’t be here for the 30 years, I’m sure – I have to look at the future, too, for the town of Whitman, just as I look at the future for the children with a new school.”
She had initially been in favor of the level-debt structure, but hearing about the savings to the town changed her mind.
“I’ll find a way,” Stafford said.
The School District has also added website, wmsproject.org, providing information, videos, schedules and more about the project.
The $5 million in interest would be the same payment owed in the first year of the bond, but only $1.2 million of the principal would be paid that year under the level debt method.
“Basically, [on the level-principal approach], we’re paying more principal up-front and it’s working the interest down over the life of the loan,” Select Board member Shawn Kain said. “If you add the difference between the two over time, it’s about $19 million difference.” A level-debt bond, in other words, would cost the town an additional $19 million in interest on the life of the bond.
Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter said the cost of that $19 million difference to the average homeowner with an average assessed valuation of $420,530 over the term of the bonds will be $4,385.51 more under a level debt structure than they would under a level principal structure, projected on an estimated rate of 5.5 percent. She stressed that figures discussed are estimates based on $90 million in borrowing with an interest rate of 5.5 percent, on the average assessment on a home valued at $420,530.
“I do not recommend the level debt service structure for the Whitman Middle School project borrowing,” Carter said. “I recommend the level principal structure.”
The town can seek to refinance a bond structure after 10 years, Carter said. Kain noted that after 10 years the principal will have been paid down by about $31 million under a level principal – but only by $17 million under a level debt structure.
“That’s exactly what we did with the high school,” School Committee member Fred Small said. “It saved the towns on the assessment, while not lengthening the term at all.”
Carter said that both the district and the town share the same financial services firm advising them, Unibank, but each works with a different representative. The town’s advisor has stated that he cannot think of any reason why a municipality would choose a level debt structure over a level principal structure for a building construction project due to the “significance in interest,” Carter said.
School Committee member Dawn Byers said she “could think of every reason why we should not go level-principal, because at this moment, every taxpayer probably thinks both options are probably out of reach for them.”
She pointed to her own mortgage, which is level debt for 30 years.
“Maybe that’s not the best practice for municipalities, but we can look at the last decade, and I don’t see that some best practices have been followed here,” she said. “To now want to follow the largest jump, the most significant increase to our neighbors and ourselves, puts this building completely out of reach.”
She argued that a level-debt approach was a more stable approach.
“I’m hopeful the school department will do as it has done in the past and work with the town to choose the more fiscally responsible debt service structure for the Whitman Middle School project borrowing,” she said.
“If approved, the district will be the borrower of the debt for the Whitman Middle School project,” said Carter. “They will be what I consider to be the conduit for the borrowing for this project. The town votes to approve this project and the town votes to pay the debt through an assessment from the W-H Regional School District each fiscal year.”
The town will make the payments as a debt exclusion – debt outside the levy voted by the town, with the district making the payments to the issuer.
Both short-term borrowing called bond anticipation notes (BANs) and long-term borrowing, or bonds, with interest rates for each based on the district’s bond rating, not the town’s.
“It’s your decision to decide but [Stafford] wanted to talk to us about it – to decide which method of borrowing we would use for the new Whitman Middle School,” Select Board Chair Dr. Carl Kowalski said.
Carter and Kain prepared a presentation about the value of level principal borrowing over level debt borrowing.
“We’re very fortunate to have a town administrator who was a treasurer-collector for a long time,” Kowalski said.
Using information from the financial consultant the town has been working with, Kain outlined the difference between the two borrowing methods.
The Select Board recommended the level-principal method.
“What the level principal means is you take [the rounded-off] $90 million, which is how much you have to borrow and you divide it up into 30 years,” Kain said. “That’s $3 million a year – that’s the level principal.”
In the first year, the town would be paying the interest – at 5.5 percent – is about $5 million for the amount being borrowed. Carter compared a level-debt structure to a fixed mortgage in which, while the debt payment each year remains constant, reducing the early-year principal payback in order to lower principal and interest payments on the front end, but the level of outstanding debt-to-interest costs stay at a higher level, increasing interest costs over the term of the bond.
“Level principal pays of the outstanding principal faster over the term of the bonds and thus reduces interest costs,” she said.
Because the towns payment declines over time, the assessment to each homeowner will decline over time with level principal. Whereas with level debt the Town pays the same amount every year and assesses that amount to the taxpayers. For example (average homeowner with a 420K house) in year one might save $329 with level debt, by year 30 they pay an extra $569.
Stafford said that is a $26 difference between the two bond structures for the first year.
“In the beginning years, you’re paying less with level debt than you are with level principal, just the first 10,” Carter said. “People have to realize that that difference they see when the first year is quoted as a comparison is only in year one.”
By the eleventh year, however, the level debt structure is costing more than the level principal structure.
“With each year, you can see how it’s getting smaller with each year,” Kain said. “The reason it’s getting smaller is because, you’re still paying the $3 million principal, but the interest is getting slightly smaller each year.”
On the last year of the bond, the town would pay only about $3,150,000 in principal and interest to finish off the debt.
With a level-debt bond, the town pays $6.2 million not only for the first year of the bond, but for all 30 years.
“We also have to think about how it’s going to fit in line with some of the other projects,” Kain said of the school borrowing.
A rumor circulating in town, arguing that the school district can “use the next year to redesign the project as a grades six to eight school without an auditorium can stay in the MSBA pipeline” and still receive funding, is not accurate, school officials have stressed in public forums.
The MSBA has confirmed that the project scope and budget are locked in following the board’s approval and that the MSBA has never allowed a district to substantially change a project after a failed vote or continued a project to move forward under the same statement of interest. If a debt exclusion ballot vote fails the district has 10 days to update the MSBA on the failed vote and any re-vote must be for the same project.
The district would have to submit a new statement of interest and begin the MSBA process over again, with any changes or build any alternative plan at the district’s expense with no MSBA reimbursement.
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