WHITMAN – Every good story needs to touch on the five W’s – and an H, when possible; the old Who, What, Where, When and Why, with How tossed in for good measure – that we all learned about in school.
But a story can be improved by canceling at least one out, usually the Why, and when the How and Who get fuzzed out, you’ve really got a yarn that stands the test of time, especially when the mystery is real.
All three of those questions come into play in the tale of Bathsheba Spooner.
Her involvement in the murder of her husband is one of those real-life mysteries historians love to delve into, and independent scholar Andrew Noone is no exception.
“It’s not just infamous for the sensationalism of it,” Noone said of the case. “But she was the first woman executed in the United States, it was the first capital case in the United States, the court transcripts are the most complete of the American 18th century. It was the first mass hanging in the United States and Prudence, an enslaved tavern maid, gave what’s likely the first [court] testimony of an African-American in the United States.”
Noone, who holds graduate degrees in musicology and art history as a Florence Fellow at Syracuse University, has also completed the U.S. Department of Education’s three-year Keepers of the Republic history program, which is hosted by the American Antiquarian Society. He has taught humanities at colleges throughout Massachusetts, is a former member of the Worcester Historical Commission and is a docent for Preservation Worcester.
He brought the tale, and his self-published book, “Bathsheba Spooner: A Revolutionary Murder Conspiracy” to the Whitman Public Library on the eve of October – Saturday, Sept. 30, to be exact.
The defendant’s name alone, Bathsheba, draws one in. But add the fact that her father was loyalist colonist Timothy Ruggles (those familiar with the MBTA stop in Boston might recognize the name); her defense attorney named Levi Lincoln (yes, a distant forebear of Abe’s); who went on to become a governor and attorney general in the Bay State – and acting Gov. John Hancock had organized the trial. Signer of the Declaration of Independence, Robert Treat Paine, prosecuted the case.
But it was a twist of justice in the end, and one may wonder why all this hasn’t been made into a movie by now.
A small crowd of history and mystery buffs attended the talk in the Library’s Community room for an overview of the history, a slide presentation on the players and the mystery and the chance to ask some questions about this fascinating case with more questions than answers hovering over it, even after nearly 250 years.
Bathsheba (Ruggles) Spooner was sixth of seven children born to Ruggles and his wife Bathsheba Newcombe, who had given birth to eight children in her first marriage. Ruggles was born in 1711 to a family long-steeped in the colony’s politics. He had been a brigadier general in the French and Indian War and was Speaker of the House in Massachusetts but became a pariah when he refused join the protest movement while a delegate to the 1765 Stamp Act Congress in New York, becoming a loyalist to the Crown.
“Few men were as detested in Massachusetts in the year 1774,” Noone said. That year, Ruggles was banished from Hardwick, the town his ancestors had founded, remaining in British-controlled Boston until Evacuation Day, March 17, 1776 when he and most other Tories were removed to Staten Island.
Bathsheba had married businessman/land speculator and lumberman Joshua Spooner of Boston, before settling in Brookfield where the couple raised four children.
Others involved in her husband’s murder – or at least executed for it were militiaman Ezra Ross of Topsfield, who was 16 in 1777, when he had been nursed back to health by Bathsheba after being wounded action in Peekskill, N.Y. and had been on his way home to Topsfield. He returned to serve in the Battle of Saratoga.
Sgt. James Buchanan and Pvt. William Brooks were escaped British prisoners of war who were being marched to Boston when they gave their American captors the slip and met in Worcester.
On Feb. 17, 1778 the three men ended up seeking shelter from a fierce storm in the Spooner home – which led to the murder of Mr. Spooner, whose body was stuffed down a well on March 1.
“It’s a Keystone Cops in reverse,” Noone said of the farcical case which involved a very dramatic and free-living main defendant. “She had a sharp temper, was involved sexually with at least two men, more likely five men, none of whom were her husband,” he said. “She willingly admitted two enemy POWs into her home – and a handsome teenager – in her husband’s presence.”
But then, that could have just been a sign of the times, Noone argued.
“We think the 18th Century is prim and proper,” he said. “No, that’s the 17th Century. The 18th Century was a whole other game. Puritanism was long gone.”
There are doubts as to whether Ross was involved at all, though he had tried to poison Mr. Spooner in the past.
Joshua Spooner, who had dined with a friend and his wife at a tavern, returned home alone through the snow, was assaulted near his well, beaten to death and thrown in (through a seemingly too-small wellhead) – while his wife at home was finishing her own dinner. The clothes he wore and all those he owned, along with his cash were distributed among the three men, who fled the area.
All four defendants, including Mrs. Spooner, were arrested the next day and the trial was held in late April in Worcester. After a trial lasting little more than a day all four defendants, including Bathsheba Spooner, were convicted and sentenced to hang.
Bathsheba claimed pregnancy and asked for enough time to bear her child, but an examination was permitted by the court, proving she was not pregnant. However, an unsanctioned examination proved she was, but the first exams results were accepted, and she was executed on July 2, along with the male conspirators.
An autopsy she had requested before her sentence was carried out, proved she had, indeed, been five months pregnant with a male child. To this day her grave in Worcester’s Green Hill Park, where she had supposedly been buried has never been found. Her case was referenced as one argument why Lizzie Borden was acquitted, Noone said. There was concern even before Borden’s trial that a jury would not convict her because Spooner had been discovered to be pregnant during her autopsy.
Spooner’s family had a checkered history after her trial. Her father had been given exile and a large farming estate in Nova Scotia. He died there in 1795.
Of Bathsheba’s surviving children, one son became a successful Boston businessman, the other died in a shipwreck off England and her daughter died “hopelessly insane” as an elderly woman, but Noone said that could mean anything from genuine bi-polarity to Alzheimer’s or dementia related to old age.
WMS project heads to voters
WHITMAN – The Whitman Middle School is officially on the ballot for the Saturday, Nov. 4 special Town Election after the Select Board on Tuesday, Sept. 26 voted to place the question before the voters.
Member Justin Evans attended the meeting remotely via Zoom and Chair Dr. Carl Kowalski was absent from the meeting.
A question for a debt exclusion to fund the DPW building project was delayed until 12:30 p.m., Friday, Sept. 29, so that the board can hear from Town Counsel on whether the town can use water/sewer rates to help fund the DPW project. [see below]. Town Counsel is seeking the opinion of a municipal finance board that only meets on Thursdays before offering advice on the matter, according to Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter.
The deadline for that decision is close of business on Friday.
Board member Shawn Kain read from a debt analysis he wrote on the town’s levy capacity [see page 7].
“The current tax levy is about $30 million,” he said after reading the analysis. “So when we’re talking about the red line, 12 percent of $30 million, that’s where that red line is.”
He said that the total levy was about $15 million when the new high school was built 20 years ago, and noted it could be $50 million 20 years from now.
The high school will come off the books in 2027, but Kain said, when it does, it will be at $350,000, but more than $8 million for the first year of the middle school will be there.
“That’s a big difference to consider,” Kain said. “The school [district] has made a very good presentation of their arguments for the school and even how much it’s going to cost individually, and people have to answer that question: ‘How much can I afford?’ The question we’re evaluating here is what can the town collectively afford – and that’s a different question, collectively, all together.”
He said that is why the town works with consultants and writes policy – to keep the town on sound financial ground.
Finance Committee member Rosemary Connolly, while thanking Kain for thinking about how the town handles debt, but said that happened a long time ago and there have been times in the last 20 years when the town carried no debt.
“Buildings erode, and we didn’t plan for this,” she said. “We had no rolling debt.”
She also argued, where the middle school is concerned, the town can’t give voters the “illusion that there is a choice – that there’s a cheaper option out there.”
“By law, we have to provide a building,” Connolly said. “This is the cheapest option, whether we want to pretend it’s not. Unless you figure out a way to stop inflation – and we’ve seen it with the DPW building and everything else – this is the point at which we can get the cheapest building.”
She said the real question is whether the town pays for the most it can get now, or comes back later and pays more for less building.
Renovation would trigger accessibility and fire codes that would also increase the cost, which the town would have to shoulder alone.
“We have to tell the truth to the public,” she said. “The truth is, we did not handle our capital and we did not handle our infrastructure well and now it’s come to a tipping point.”
Kain said he appreciated Connolly’s comments, but asked why the high school was so affordable and the middle school is not. While the building costs are high, he suggested that building the high school as a regional project is one of the reasons why it was more affordable.
“Did they consider a regional option?” he asked.
Building Committee Chair Fred Small, while cautioning he wasn’t trying to play Monday morning quarterback, said a regional middle school was an idea he had in 2013.
“It had been discussed in the past,” he said. “We do need a new middle school.”
The current building has outlived its useful life as far as systems – electrical, plumbing and HVAC – the major things, and special requirements have changed.
“The levy doesn’t move fast enough to encapsulate today’s construction costs,” Small said, noting that overall construction costs increased by about $7 million in the last six months.
Former WMS Building Committee member John Galvin also pointed to the building project South Shore Tech is planning, cautioning it would “catch us all by surprise.”
“We all knew they were accepted by the MSBA, but I think we were all surprised – or at least I was surprised – at how quickly they’re moving,” he said. “They were a couple of years behind us originally, but now they’re only about 10 months behind us. … They don’t have numbers yet, but they will soon.”
Galvin said SST’s website is projecting total costs at between $250 million and $300 million. Because Whitman has about 24 percent of the SST student body, 24 percent of the municipality share of that building – about $40 million – will come to the town.
“One of the things that bothers me is this debt is going to bring a lot of hardship to a lot of people,” Select Board member Laura Howe said. “I can’t speak to financial decisions of the past. … There’s nothing to be done about yesterday.”
She expressed fear that the costs of such projects would cause a “mass exodus from the town,” and said she is also concerned about the Duval and Conley schools, which are 20 years older than the middle school. “They have to look at what’s best for them,” she said of project costs vs household bills. “That’s why a voter votes.”
Lynam said he didn’t think the board was going to get anywhere with an 11th-hour discussion.
“A committee was formed,” he said. “They did an analysis. They met publicly over [three years] and they came up with a plan. The next step in that process is to present the plan to the public.”
That will be done at the Oct. 30 special Town Meeting and Nov. 4 ballot initiative.
“The discussions we’re having here are probably nothing compared to what we’re going to see at Town Meeting,” Lynam said.
The Select Board had questions as to whether a DPW ballot question should be on the same ballot as the Whitman Middle School project.
“I certainly have reservations about this,” Kain said. “I’m not comfortable going back to the voters for more money on a project … I’d rather find creative ways to get the money or be more disciplined about finding ways we can make the project work.”
Evans agreed, suggesting the decision on whether to place the question on the ballot should wait until they hear from counsel on Friday.
“My concern there is that, if the middle school project were to fail, we wouldn’t have a clear answer from the voters to say, ‘it’s because of the project,’” he said. “It could be we were confused because there were two questions on the ballot. I kind of want a clear direction from the voters on the middle school project, and I’m afraid this will muddy the waters.”
Salvucci said the question is only to provide a fallback in case Plymouth County ARPA funds were not an allowed use for completing the sewer force main project in order to free up other revenue sources for the DPW building.
He said the extra money is intended to address soil contamination at the site, which needs to be taken care of whether a building is placed there or not.
“We’re just setting [a question] so that, if something happens that we have no control over, which I don’t think is going to happen, we’re just covering ourselves to be able to get this project going and to clean up that soil.”
Howe said both questions should be left to the voters.
“We should give our voters the choice,” she said. “I think our voters are smart enough to know where they want our money to go.”
DPW building
During its joint meeting with the DPW Commissioners, the Board approved use of $2.2 million in Plymouth County ARPA funds to help pay for the sewer force main project to enable a Town Meeting article asking for the transfer of borrowing authority to the DPW building project.
A ballot question was delayed until Friday just in case the funding transfers were not approved by bonding counsel.
We are looking at the potential of not having to do a debt exclusion vote,” said Frank Lynam of the DPW Building Committee. “We may have to, it all depends how this final piece comes together. … I think, at this point, we’re all pretty confident that that’s going to work.”
The DPW committee had met just before the Select Board to discuss the need to raise additional funds for the project as Carter has been researching potential options, according to Lynam.
“This is only possible because so many previous articles came in under budget,” Evans said, thanking the DPW commissioners for conducting a well-run sewer main project. “We’ve caught every lucky break possible.”
He stressed the public is not being asked for additional money.
“We’re reallocating debt,” he said.
In addition to financial sources previously discussed, they also talked about borrowing funds, Lynam said.
“Our biggest concern was layering an additional level of borrowing on top of what is already being presented to the town,” he said. “Mary Beth suggested we look at the possibility of utilizing county ARPA funds to free up some of the debt commitment we’ve made to the sewer main replacement program.”
Discussions have been going back and forth on the issue between bond counsel and local counsel.
“I think it’s now in the hands of the umpire,” he said, but the committee expects to be able to commit about $2.2 million less on the sewer water main than previously voted and suggested extending that borrowing authority to the DPW building project. “We would not be borrowing any more money than we’ve previously committed, but we would be utilizing available funds to reduce the borrowing in one area to enable us in another without significantly increasing the cost to the ratepayer and the taxpayer.”
They are also looking at enterprise funds for a portion of the project funding.
Carter said the DPW project shortfall is $3,088,760 and by searching out remaining funds from previous projects, totalling $1,043,271.15 that there is $2.73 million remaining in Plymouth County ARPA funds. She recommended using $2.2 million of the ARPA funds toward the sewer force main project because the DPW building project is not one of the limited areas for which they can be used, but sewer/water project is.
A matching Town Meeting article for $2.2 million will ask voters to trade borrowing authority to the DPW building.
“I’ve checked with everybody, and everybody said that should work,” she said.
Public forums slated for WMS project
WHITMAN – Residents will have more opportunities to hear about the deficiencies of the current Whitman Middle School building – and tour the facility to see them first-hand – while learning details of the new school project in the weeks ahead of the Monday, Oct. 30 special Town Meeting on the proposed building project.
The Building Committee firmed up those dates and reviewed the message being put forth at its Tuesday, Sept. 19 meeting.
Christopher Scriven attended the meeting virtually.
“We’re working hard to get back on track with our outreach plan,” said WMS Principal Brandon Frost. “The biggest change that we need to make right now, is the [Select Board] meet on Sept. 26, and we don’t want to be on the same night as them. … There’s no sense to compete.”
The fifth community forum is planned on Thursday, Sept. 28 [see schedule].
It will require “yes” votes at both the Oct. 30 special Town Meeting and a Saturday, Nov. 4 ballot question.
“I think it’s good for us not to compete with the Select Board,” said Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak, noting that members of both committees might want to attend each others’ meetings.
The forum on Sept. 28 was to feature a slide presentation to outline the cost of the project including the town’s contribution of $89,684,133 as well as the anticipated Mass. School Building Authority grant of $45,605,539; debt options; an overview of the project history and schedule; MSBA acceptance rate and reports and investigations conducted on the existing building.
“The existing building was constructed prior to the first state building code, back in 1975,” Frost said. The first accessibility code was published in 1967.
Vice Chair Kathleen Ottina said the existing school is assessed at $9.8 million. The accessibility code gets treated at 30 percent — $2.9 million – to fix the school. Fire protection codes get triggered at 33 percent – or $3.2 million.
The roof repair and HVAC replacement, which are the heart of the problem, are about $13 million.
“It more than triggers the need to meet the codes for the ADA and fire protection,” she said. “The base repair is throwing good money after bad. It’s not the solution.
“If a building is made before a code is established and then you have to go into it [to make major repairs or replacement] you have to bring it up to the 2023 codes?” asked Assistant Superintendent George Ferro.
“Any new work needs to be compliant with the most recent code,” said Architect Troy Randall. “There are many stipulations related to that, and there are triggers that we will go through … on what that means from an accessibility standpoint.”
Building Inspector Robert Curran explained there is a dollar amount that triggers that requirement, but if the entrance is touched, they have to make all entrances handicapped-accessible, as well.
“Then you get into the fire code if you do major renovations,” he said. “We didn’t even talk about seismic requirements.”
The new middle school would have to be built to meet seismic requirements, but any renovation to the existing school would mean it has to be brought up to that code, too.
“There are a lot of variables,” Randall said. “There are unknowns related to that.”
The cost of portable classrooms will also be discussed.
A sampling of educational shortcomings of the building are also included in the presentation as well as photos for residents who have not had a chance to tour the school.
“We sometimes get caught up in the Whitman and Hanson,” Ferro said of the educational aspect of the need for a new building. “You didn’t see a Hanson Middle School picture in there because what you saw is what other schools in the Commonwealth who have been through MSBA projects have been through.”
When eighth-graders are deciding between attending vocational or public high school and whether Whitman is providing what other students in the Commonwealth have, becomes clear “as a parent, a voter, a person” whether students in W-H have the skills to be successful in their life choices.
Building Committee member Don Esson expressed doubts that is was a good “apples to apples” comparison, arguing it would be better to compare WMS to communities with similar economic profiles to Whitman.
“I think it would be better if we could find closer like schools,” he said. “I think it sells itself that way. I think some people might get a bad impression if we tried to paint this area as a Natick or Beverly.”
Ferro said it was a good point.
School Committee member Beth Stafford said the architects were making comparisons with projects they have done but agreed that their Abington project might be a better comparison.
“I think these discussions are helpful,” Ottina said, noting they are discussions being conducted in the community.
Benefits of a new middle school will also be covered in the community forums, including academic, arts and athletic opportunities as well as community features of the site.
Traffic flow and parking will also be addressed.
Breathing some life back into history
HANSON – Canadian novelist Guy Vanderhaeghe once wrote that “History tells us what people do; historical fiction helps us imagine how they felt.”
Perhaps that best explains not only how the books of Martha Hall Kelly affect her readers, but how she came to write them in the first place.
The author of the New York Times bestselling novel “The Lilac Girls,” about Polish victims of Nazi medical “research” in Ravensbrück concentration camp.
She revisited her World War II setting – and Hanson on Thursday, Sept. 21 to talk about her new novel “The Golden Doves” at Camp Kiwanee’s Needles Lodge.
Introduced by Library Trustee, and Kelly fan, Dianna McDevitt, the author spoke of her first novel “The Lilac Girls,” and how it led to her latest – “The Golden Doves,” which tells the tale of two former Resistance workers who discover that Nazis are being helped to escape Europe after the war through Rome, and with the help of the U.S. government.
“It’s no secret that I love historical fiction, and one of my favorite authors happens to be here tonight,” McDevitt said, “We are so delighted to welcome Martha Hall Kelly again to chat with us Hanson Library patrons about her latest book, ‘The Golden Doves,’ as well as her previous books.”
She hugged Kelly as the audience welcomed her with applause. But Kelly is no stranger to Hanson, besides having visited last year to discuss her books, she spent a good deal of her childhood in Hanson after her family had moved to Mattakeesett Street, in the Bryantville section of town, when she was a very young girl.
“You may have read one of her previous books – I’ve got them all, I’m a fan,” McDevitt said, noting that “The Lilac Girls” has sold two million copies on the New York Times Bestseller list. “That’s truly a feat for a first novel.”
McDevitt said she loved how Kelly’s books not only explore the “untold stories of World War II,” but also have expanded to other periods in history.
“The Lilac Girls’” sister novels “The Lost Roses” set in Imperialist Russia and “The Sunflower Girls,” about Civil War nurses also carried on the floral theme, while the new book covers different themes.
“I have to tell you how wonderful it is to be here, and how emotional,” Kelly said on her homecoming of a sort. “I didn’t think it would be that way.”
She reviewed the process she followed in writing “The Lilac Girls” for new readers of her books.
Following her mother’s death, her husband suggested she visit the Bellamy-Ferriday House & Garden in Bethlehem, Conn., known for its lilac garden, which Kelly had always wanted to visit, as a way to deal with her grief. Kelly’s mother had loved lilacs, and it seemed a natural diversion.
That visit turned out to be the launchpad for her career, inspiring her first book after she spied a photo of “the rabbits,” as the Ravensbrück victims of Nazi medical experiments were known.
The surviving girls, who had been Polish Girl Scouts before the war, were brought to the Bethlehem farm by its owner at the time, New York socialite Caroline Ferriday to help them recover from their ordeal. When Kelly discovered that photo, she had found the inspiration for researching a non-fiction book that later became her first novel.
Fast-forward to a book tour stop in Florida for “The Lilac Girls,” where and she met a Hungarian Jewish woman, who told her about an encounter with the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele at Auschwitz.
“That really changed me,” Kelly said, deciding that after the remaining books she was under contract to write for the “flower” series, would be a book on how the Nazis escaped Europe after the war.
“There were three ways the Nazis escaped,” she discovered from her early research for “The Golden Doves.” They were either released from prison by the U.S. government during the Cold War, the space program’s need for German scientists or a route through Italy and the Vatican.
“I wanted to feature all of that in my book,” she said. Her heroines were “Josie,” a fictionalized version of American WWII spy Virginia Hall, and “Arlette,” a German-French Resistance member who both ended up in Ravensbrück, like “the rabbits.” Her heroines hunt down the Ravensbrück version of Mengele after the war.
To research the book, she took her husband on a post-COVID tour of Italy and the Vatican, tracing the route the Nazis would have taken in their escape from Europe. At one point, they “blended” with a group of German families visiting a secluded cemetery where their wartime Nazi family members were interred along with clergy that aided them to sniff out information.
“If anyone ever says to you, ‘Why don’t you go see that house you always wanted to go see, or that museum, or that whatever,’ go,” Kelly said. “You never know. It might be worth it.”
Audience questions included the order in which she wrote the books, which she said were in “backward chronology” because her husband told her, after “The Lilac Girls,” that she had a moment of leverage to decide how she would write, but she had already done research on “Roses” and “Sunflowers.”
She said that, despite her exhaustive research for her novels, she said it was unlikely.
“You know, once you get used to making stuff up …” she joked. “If I know it’s true, I use that, but I really want to be able to take liberties.”
As for her next book, she said it will be another visit to WWII historical fiction, set on Martha’s Vineyard where GIs were rehearsed the D-Day invasion.
“I just today hit the send button to send it to my editor,” she said.
Great Pumpkin car show set
Whitman & Hanson Dollars for Scholars will host its fifth Annual Great Pumpkin Classic Car Show from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 8 at Whitman-Hanson Regional High School followed by a trophy ceremony at 2 p.m. The rain date will be Sunday, Oct. 15. Proceeds from the event will benefit Whitman & Hanson Dollars for Scholars.
Admission fee is $5 per person or $15 per family for the event which will include a kids costume contest (beginning at noon), music, raffles, food trucks and Halloween candy. The entry fee for vehicles in the show is $10 per show car. Dash plaques will be issued for the first 50 cars registered. Show car entry begins at 8:00 AM. Awards will be given in the following categories: Best of Show; Best in Decade—pre-’40s; Best in Decade —’40s; Best in Decade — ’50s; Best in Decade —’60s; Best in Decade — ’70s; Best in Decade — ’80s; Best in Decade — ’90s; Best Special Interest Car; and Best Decorated Car.
The event is being sponsored by Platinum Auto-Abington, Sparky’s Automotive, and Trillium Fuel.
For more information, please contact Lisa Green at 781-293-2131 or email [email protected].
Hanson’s sobering financial forecast
By Tracy F. Seelye, Express editor
[email protected]
HANSON – Finance Committee Chair Kevin Sullivan recommended that a free cash balance of 5 percent of the total be kept in reserve after Town Meeting and is recommending to his committee that they maintain the highest possible level of free cash as they vote on whether to recommend Town Meeting article requests.
Capital improvement and highway requests were among the few areas he saw room for trimming. While they are important, he said maintaining free cash was more critical and, if cuts were needed, those would have to be priority areas as opposed to other requests that appear absolutely necessary.
“We made promises in May that we’d fund in October and we’re running a razor-thin budget here,” Sullivan said.
Grants and other funding avenues would also need to be looked at, he said, and made the “unpopular statement” that, when the tax rate is set in November, he would advocate raising taxes.
“If we don’t do something now, we are going to be in significant dire straits,” he said. “It’s not sustainable.”
He is currently comparing the rates of surrounding communities and crunching numbers with Town Accountant Eric Kinsherf.
“Right now, out of a $34 million budget, that would require us to have a free cash reserve of $1.7 million,” he told the Select Board, on Tuesday, Sept. 12. “If we spend all the free cash that we’ve allocated for the articles, we’ll be at between $300,000 to $400,000, which is well below the 5 percent threshold.”
He said that figure has not yet been certified.
When the free cash is certified, Sullivan said the belief is that it will be at about $1 million, but the Town Meeting articles are proposing expenditures on almost $800,000.
Cutting the capital and highway improvement articles would bring the spending requests down to about $550.000, but Sullivan said that would not help the free cash reserve problem.
“We don’t even have that now,” he said. “If we didn’t spend a dime, we still don’t have it [a 5-percent reserve], because … the absolute minimum is 3 percent.”
The state recommends the 5 percent figure to maintain a community’s bond rating as well as to maintain a “rainy day fund.
Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said spending nothing is not an option, but spending less is an option.
“We’re estimating that, come the springtime, it will have deficit of over $1 million,” Sullivan said. “So we’re taking a hard look at a lot of the free cash [requests]. I’ve never been a proponent of using free cash in an operational budget.”
Sullivan said he understands that promises have been made and things were discussed, but he sounded a note of caution.
“October has generally been a period where we get projects done that are nice to have, [but] there’s a real concern right now with the [free cash] balance. We’re under 1 percent if everything is funded.”
He said the final decision is, of course, up to the voters and they can vote free cash down to a zero balance if they want, but he stressed he is warning them about his concern for the springtime that they run into a risk of talking about cuts and overrides and not having a revenue base to support what the town is doing now.
“To be clear, we’re going to be having that conversation, even if you trim it to the bone now,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said, “I’m not saying throw caution to the wind now … but I want to be clear that [a reserve] will soften the blow a little bit, but it’s not going to completely [eliminate it].”
Sullivan said he was aware of that, but that the town finances are at a point where if free cash drops below a certain level, it’s not going to meet the town’s needs.
“None of us want to affect the bond rating,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said, noting that they have not voted on it as a board. “None of us want to go below 5 percent. We’re in the process of having some financial projections done.”
While they had not previously had solid numbers from Town Accountant Eric Kinsherf, now that they do, that information would definitely shape some of their decisions that night.
Sullivan said this would be the third budget cycle in which the town has not put any money in the stabilization accounts, which also has the potential to affect the bond rating.
“It looks very innocuous,” he said. “There’s really nothing very egregious in these articles … they all have their merits. I struggle because we’re approaching, I think a critical point.”
There’s also not a lot of flexibility, with some articles such as school transportation, but they will be asking if capital projects can be put off for another cycle.
“We’re at one of the tougher positions I’ve seen,” Sullivan said. “We’ve done this many times in October … it’s when we expend free cash. … Then the spring comes and we’re talking about cutting people’s jobs, and I don’t think anyone wants to do that.”
“No, we don’t want to do that,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. She noted that the town did manage to put a modest amount into stabilization in May, but agreed it was no game changer.
“That’s a good lens for us to look through,” she said.
The Board reviewed warrant articles for the Oct. 2 special Town Meeting, with Town Administrator Lisa Green saying there were no substantive changes in numbers since the previous week’s meeting.
Green said WHRSD Business Manager John Stanbrook has sent emails to Hanson regarding capital items approved at past town meetings for which money can be released – capital items that came in lower than what was budgeted for, but Kinsherf has already incorporated those figures into the free cash balance.
She said that is likely an installment of what will be released as Stanbrook’s office continues calculating.
Kinsherf, who joined the discussion late, said the 5 percent the state wants to see set aside should be a combination of savings in free cash and satbilization.
“In my opinion, you’d be at 5 percent even if you did those [capital and highway improvement] articles,” he said of the combined accounts. But, Kinsherf said, the town can’t go wrong by avoiding the use of one-time money for operational budget items.
“All through that warrant there’s operational stuff that, when you go back, that probably should have been in the budget,” he said. “Any decision you can make that saves free cash is definitely saving this yar but also projecting up to next year.”
Green also said she received some news about a transportation request for a Norfolk Agricultural student centering on which school district is responsible for the expense.
“There’s movement to the new district becoming responsible for that transportation,” she said, regarding a potential transfer of the student to the regional school district where they’re being housed right now.
“That’s awesome, but it’s still in flux right now,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
The Board made final recommendations on warrant articles and voted to close the warrant for the Monday, Oct. 2 special Town Meeting. Selectman David George was absent.
Among the articles referred to Town Meeting was a capital projects article, which included $125,000 in ARPA-eligible dirt replacement for the town’s ballfields. The remaining $322,282 of articles for school technology upgrades for the schools is sourced from free cash “that we’re getting a very strong read that FinCom is not going to recommend,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
Board Vice Chair Joe Weeks said that, with in the next 12 months, maybe two budget cycles the board is going to have to be “really transparent with townspeople around where they want to spend their money and where they want to see their tax dollars go.”
“Being fiscally responsible is where we’re at right now,” he said. “Conservatism implies that we have the money and we’re just trying to spend it conservatively. We’re not. We’re trying to be responsible with it.”
By referring to Town Meeting he said he was not trying to punt a decision to be made, but that people who show up on Oct. 2 need to make a decision on where they want to see their money go.”
“We’ve done a really good job of not raising taxes through the roof,” Weeks said. “We’ve done a really good job of stretching the dollar as far as we can
The board split the ballfield portion into another ARPA-funded article to clarify the issue, but FitzGerald-Kemmett said the two ARPA articles should be separate and the board voted to recommend the infield dirt article.
WMS plan goes to voters
The School Committee, during its Wednesday, Sept. 13 meeting, unanimously voted to approve sending the $135,289,673 plan for a new grade five to eight Whitman Middle School building — with an auditorium — intended to last and serve educational needs for 50 years, to the voters at the Oct. 30 special Town Meeting and to a Nov. 4 special election ballot.
The town stands to obtain $89,673,000 in reimbursements from the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) for the project.
The plan had been approved by the WMS Building Committee at its Aug. 15 meeting and survived an effort to rescind it in favor of a grade six to eight plan with a cafetorium instead of an auditorium at the building panel’s Aug. 28 meeting.
“We were accepted [by MSBA] in our first go-round because they saw the need for a new middle school,” Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak said, asking if that was a common occurrence for school projects. “If you postpone, you start rolling the dice.”
He said the project is at a critical point, if a middle school is to open in 2027.
“If I had a district calling me today … I would say to expect to potentially get in within three to five years,” said the committee’s Owner Project Manager Michael Carroll “It’s very unusual to put a statement of interest in the first time and get accepted right away.”
Carroll attended the School Committee meeting to brief them on the plan and the events of the Aug. 28 meeting.
“The Building Committee voted 9-0, with one abstention [former member John Galvin] to move the project forward,” said Szymaniak. He noted that the Whitman Select Board, on the other hand, had voted 3 to 2 [with Justin Evans and Shawn Kain against] on Tuesday, Sept. 12 to ask the School Committee to consider not voting on the project Wednesday.
impact of delay
Carroll was also asked to explain what could happen if the School Committee postponed its vote.
“Would we be out of the queue?” Szymaniak asked. “Would MSBA turn its back to us?”
He noted that Carroll is “relatively new to us,” having come on board with the project three weeks ago, but Szymaniak added, he had hit the ground running.
“There was a lot of discussion about budgets, there was a lot of discussion about the project, and we looked at different options,” Carroll said of the Aug. 28 meeting. “At the end of that meeting there was a vote taken to move forward with the school project as it currently stands.”
Carroll described an atmosphere of urgency as the committee worked on a schematic design package to submit to the MSBA, sending it to the building authority on Aug. 31 after the Aug. 28 vote.
“They’re reviewing it, they’ve given us a few questions,” he said. “They’re actually looking to talk to us about budgets next week. [The week of Sept. 18-22].
The MSBA project coordinator and project manager, who work specifically on the WMS plans, review it first and then with authority higher-ups with the ultimate objective to bring it before the MSBA board on Oct. 25.
“The assumption here is that they would be approving us,” Carroll said. When that happens, MSBA will forward a project funding agreement to the district and town. Carroll said that defines the funding agreement and, therefore, the overall project budget, which would go to Town Meeting and then the ballot question on Nov. 4.
Szymaniak asked how a postponement, as the Select Board had urged them to do, would affect the process.
“The MSBA would have to grant us a postponement, is that correct?” he asked. “It’s not a done deal?”
“When we entered into our agreement and feasibility study, we agreed to provide them our schematic design package within a certain time period,” Connor said, noting that, while he did not have that date on him, he believed it was Oct. 17. “If we were to withdraw our proposal, or ask to withdraw our proposal, one of the first things that we’d have to do is ask for an extension of that time. We’d have to explain to them why and … if we hadn’t submitted our package already … the MSBA is very accommodating.”
He said they do not want to continue to extend and extend and extend, but if there is a logical reason you need to do some reconsideration, there’s really typically no problem there.
They have, however, already submitted the schematic design plan and, while it has not gone to the MSBA board for a vote yet, he said he would think they would allow the district to withdraw it, but “we certainly ought to have a discussion on that before I would say that we could.”
Chair Beth Stafford, who pointed out that it would cost about $60 million just to get the current building up to code, said her concern was losing time as they worked to vote on whether to trim the $5 million in Teir 1 options from the plan. Funds for repairing the current school would also not be reimbursable, nor would the cost of the portable classrooms that would be needed while work is done.
Connor confirmed that they would have to confer with MSBA on how changes might impact the project.
While MSBA has not finalized their budget form, which will feed into the project funding agreement and what the vote entailed could have lowered that number.
“If we raised the number, we’d have to withdraw it, but if we’re lowering the number, I don’t know what the answer is,” Connor said. “We’d have to have that discussion.”
If a change is made to the project, it makes the process less definitive, he said. Building costs are also escalating, he explained.
“We can’t make that decision on this without talking to them and getting advice from them,” Carroll explained. The town could reconsider and do nothing, reconsider and ask for an adjustment to the overall project, ask the MSBA for an adjustment or to withdraw the proposal, which would require their input on what that withdrawal would mean and what duration they would be thinking about.
“The important thing here is, once they vote – if we do nothing – if they’ve approved us for a funding agreement, that’s kind of the point of no return,” he said. “Once they’ve done that, we’ve got to move forward with that project.”
Carroll said contingency funds are built into the budget in case change-orders come about.
“Virtually all my jobs, I’ve had the ability to send some of that contingency back,” he said.
Parents’ support
A quartet of residents spoke in favor of the project as approved by the WMS Building Committee on Aug. 28. expressing concern about the “near certainty of increased building costs” if the project is rejected or delayed.
“As we debate this huge topic, it’s important to remember that in order to just renovate the building and get it up to code has approximately a $60 million price tag on it and that would be 100-percent on the residents of Whitman,” said Leah Donovan, of 81 Old Mansion Lane, said during the public comment period. “There’s no funding available from the state. That’s a hefty sum or money for fixes that need to be done again and again and again.”
Small pointed out that the $60 million would not be a renovation, it’s a repair of what is broken and bring things to code.
Donovan said the town wants to take advantage of available MSBA funding, and that means a new school.
“That price tag is between $73 and $89 million at this point,” she said, noting that $10 million of that is contingency that might not be needed and residents would not be taxed on that. “That’s a staggering number for sure – I get it – but that price is not going to go down.”
Contingency funds are budgeted in case an unforseen problem adds to the cost of a project after a building budget is approved.
She said her fear is that, if the district doesn’t go ahead with a new school, they will end up paying the same price for a lesser school at some point down the road.
“We have an opportunity to do what’s right for the younger residents of the town,” Donovan said, asking the committee to give residents a chance to speak through their votes at Town Meeting and a ballot question.
Elizabteh Dagnall of 316 School St., also spoke in favor of the new WSM plan during the public forum.
“There seems to be a lot of fear surrounding this project,” she said. “Fear that it’s too large in scope, fear that it won’t be voted through, and fear as the main motivation in any situation can be a very damaging thing.”
She noted that, as the mother of a 13-year-old boy, she could be scared all the time, if she allowed herself to be.
“I can tell you that worrying amounts to nothing more than a state of worry,” Dagnall said. “What I’m learning as the parent of a teen is that Trust is far better than fear. Trust. When I allow for trust, the answer to ‘Are we going to be OK?’ surprises me. It often turns out to be something like this: ‘We are going to be more than OK. We are going to be great.’”
She challenged officials to, instead of fearing that it won’t pass at the ballot box, that “we trusted that it can.”
Julia Sheehan of 38 Beal Ave., thanked the committee and the building committee for their work on the WMS project so far.
“At this point, there is no way to drastically change the scope of the project without significant delays and even risking our grant from the MSBA,” she said. “Given that, I hope this committee will move forward with the Oct. 30 Town Meeting and the Nov. 4 vote. I believe the people of Whitman should have the opportunity to get out and vote.”
Julia Nanigan of 28 Forest St., who was born and raised in Whitman, said of all the schools she attended in Whitman, only WMS is still here and exactly the same as when she grew up.
“It’s pretty awful,” she said of the need for a new middle school. “We have to do this, and kicking the can down the road, we know is going to end up costing us more money. I think we just need to do it.”
School opening earns good grade
Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak gave high marks to the opening of school on Thursday, Aug. 31, despite some “blips in the road with busing,” thanking public safety personnel for participating in what has become their tradition of meeting incoming students at the schools for high-fives and smiles.
“The positivity from our emergency service workers is outstanding and I can’t thank them enough,” he reported to the School Committee at its Wednesday, Sept. 13 meeting.
New guidelines for buses went into effect this school year, and the Safety Committee met on Sept. 1 to review “each and every concern,” Szymaniak said, noting that panel meets annually.
“When parents have concerns around transportation, we gather the Safety Committee,” Szymaniak said. “It always includes public safety [officials], but this year, it included the superintendent, assistant superintendent, our building-level principals, the chair of the School Committee, and our two school resource officers, as well as our transportation director, her assistant and two members from First Student.”
Every complaint or busing issue was reviewed, Szymaniak repeated, changing or modifying some guidelines and not others. Both he and Transportation Director Karen Villanueva followed the buses around town to ensure the stops were safe.
“I ventured out and took some videos of some of the major concerns and I will be taking a couple of concerns back to the safety team,” Szymaniak said. He anticipated meeting with the Safety Committee again on Friday, Sept. 15 to make modifications based on his observations. “I have two public safety officers who travel the road, and we take it from an educational perspective, from a bus perspective and they take it from a safety perspective, and when they make recommendations or say that those stops are safe, we as a committee have to go on what they say.”
Szymaniak stipulated that some people are not happy with the decisions made, but he said he will review what he feels “might be debatable with the safety team.”
Additional modifications may be made to some stops when it snows, he said. “Even on sidewalks, if we’ve had heavy snow, we’ve had special bus pickups where parents can drop off their kids in certain areas for [safer] bus pickups,” he said.
During the course of the winter, buses will also stop to pick up students who are walking in the snow.
“I’m confident with the safety team’s decisions, although I looked at something today and I’m going to bring something back to the safety team,” he said. “I think we’re in a good spot with times. I haven’t heard many complaints about times in my travels.”
Szymaniak did hear, on a hot day, that it was hot on the buses and some drivers had the windows up, but a parent clarified on social media that the windows were not up and that someone was reposting incorrect information they had seen or heard.
Parents are encouraged to call the Transportation office at 781-618-7491 from 6:15 a.m. to 4 p.m., when the office is staffed.
“When the last bus is done, I have somebody on the phone,” he said.
School Committee member Hillary Kniffen noted that there is still a problem with motorists passing stopped buses, as email traffic has shown that to be a concern or something people have seen happen.
“Is there a way that we can get more police presence – more visual public safety out in the morning on these routed [such as routes 14, 18, 27 and 58] roads?” she asked. “People who live in these towns aren’t the ones we’re worried about.”
She suggested a safety sign such as those used in work zones might be something to remind people of the safety issues because the bus stops are new this year.
Assistant Superintendent George Ferro said it’s usually the overlap of the night shift officers to the day shift where police presence is not as available for school bus safety as they could be.
“We can ask them to be on those high-visibility roads because it is new for everybody,” he said.
“Nobody’s going to be happy with all the solutions,” Chair Beth Stafford said.
Committee member Fred Small brought up stop sign cameras as a possible deterrent, but he also said speed indicator signs also come equipped with cameras that transmit via cellular signal back to the police stations so they know when someone is speeding.
“You’d almost think they’d know when someone is going around a bus,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, I’d love to see a police presence and I hope they throw the book at anyone who goes around a school bus like that.”
“We all know this is happening,” Stafford said. “It’s an ongoing situation. It’s awful.”
Szymaniak said the district’s legislators have reported that regional transportation reimbursement, meanwhile, has been level-funded for the third year at 79.5 percent, but Committee member Fred Small took issue with that.
“It’s time to dig up the votes,” Small said.
With an extra $2 million infused in regional transportation, Szymaniak said Rep. Josh Cutler, D-Duxbury, calculated that W-H could expect a reimbursement rate of between 85 and 90 percent this coming year.
Business Manager John Stanbrook said Cherry sheet figures show revenues up $620,825 over last year and assessments are up by $308,444 for a total increase of $3122,381 – or 1.25 percent.
However, the district receive $21.799 on revenue and an additional assessment of $220,000 over what was voted – down $242,391, “which is almost the entire amount of regional transportation,” he said. “We overbudgeted actual costs … and the reimbursements will be at what the commonwealth decides to give us.”
Author Martha Hall Kelly to speak about latest book tonight
The Hanson Public Library welcomes back former Hanson resident and New York Times bestselling author Martha Hall Kelly for an author talk about her most recent book, The Golden Doves, from 6:30 to 8 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 21 at the Camp Kiwanee Needles Lodge. Inspired by true events, The Golden Doves tells the story of two former Allied spies who reunite following World War II in a mission against ongoing Nazi activity in Europe and French Guiana. We hope you’ll join us for this informative presentation! The event it free, but signups are required.
This program is co-sponsored by the Hanson Public Library Foundation and Hanson Recreation Commission. There will be a book signing following the author talk talk. Storybook Cove will have copies of Martha’s books available for purchase.
Martha Hall Kelly is a former Hanson resident and the New York Times bestselling author of Lilac Girls, Lost Roses, and Sunflower Sisters. With more than two million copies of her books sold and her books translated in fifty countries, she lives in Connecticut and New York City.
Building project costs raise concern
WHITMAN – Voters at the special Town Meeting on Monday, Oct. 30 will have a lot of important decisions to make regarding the scope of a new middle school building – and how to fund a cost overrun of the new DPW building approved last year.
The Select Board met jointly with the DPW Building Committee during its Tuesday, Sept. 12 meeting before discussing the school plans with members of that building committee.
Former Town Administrator and Building Committee member Frank Lynam said the panel has been working through the bidding process in which numbers received last week caused concern.
“To say they were not what we expected would be something of an understatement,” he said, pointing to “probably the worst bidding environment that we’ve ever been in” for new building projects and soil conditions at the site.
They sought consideration to increase the debt authorization for the project by $2 million, as they work on “other possibilities that could, ultimately reduce what they are going to spend, but if the project is to move forward, the committee must be able to demonstrate that the project has been approved and funded for the work that needs to be done, Lynam cautioned. The committee is unanimous that, in order to move forward, the additional funding is necessary.
“We need to go before the voters and say, ‘We need another $2 million. We can’t complete the project without it,’” Lynam said about the cushion. “And we may not need $2 million. We may need $1.5 million, but nothing else has gone positive that way.”
On the Whitman Middle School front, Select Board Chair Dr. Carl Kowalski – who noted the price increase for WMS, which is the reason for the October Town meeting, handed the gavel to Vice Chair Dan Salvucci in order to make an impassioned plea to scale down that project in order to save it. He made a motion to ask the School Committee, at its Wednesday, Sept. 13 meeting, to reconsider their vote and consider reducing their ask. Select Board members voted to support that motion.
“I really believe that we need this building so much [that] we need to cut the costs down a lot and ask the School Committee to reconsider putting the fifth-graders there … and having an auditorium, if it’s going to cost as much money as I understand it.”
Former Building Committee member John Galvin, who resigned after the Sept. 28 meeting vote said his actions – and his vote, with which Kowalski was agreeing were for a simple purpose:
“I say let the people decide,” he said.
The Select Board was also concerned about the DPW project cost overruns but saw some reason for optimism in the work being done to find a fiscal solution there.
Kowalski said he would prefer that Lynam keep working to cut down that $2 million somehow, between now and the warrant closing on Sept. 26.
“I’m not asking for a vote tonight,” Lynam said. “I’m asking you to hear us out and what we think we’re asking for.”
Initially the DPW Building Committee had hoped to be able to construct a building for $18 million. Town Meeting and a ballot initiative had authorized the borrowing of $17.8 million for the project and $1 million had already been appropriated for the feasibility study and design.
“Our best guess right now [as of Aug. 17 when the low bid was calculated], our budget appears to be $22,186,000,” Lynam said, speaking in round numbers. “We’re short $3,289,000.”
The DPW has looked at completed, or nearly completed projects as sources of potential funding $1,049,000 leftover that might used to close the gap:
- $229,414 in remaining funds from water main project;
- $500,000 remaining from water meter project;
- $69,000 cleaning, surveying for right of way;
- $15,000 from sewer main repair;
- $36,000 generator surplus; and
- $200,000 from engineering of the force main replacement.
Town Meeting could approve those transfers. Assuming those were approved and discretionary ARPA funds the town has not yet allotted [$166,119], as well as Plymouth County discretionary ARPA funds [$583.881], it brings the project to a shortfall of $1,489,000.
“When we started down this road, we did examine the site,” Lynam said. “We did test borings, we identified how deep we would have to go to put supports into the ground.”
A lack of funding, however, prevented an examination of the soil contents, according to Lynam, who said it was a fortunate turn of events.
“If we did find something, we would be required to remediate it,” he said. Problems that have been found include lead in the soil, of which a lot is unsuitable and will have to be replaced, which added $2 million to the project cost.
“This is our third attempt to build a DPW since I’ve been onboard,” Lynam said. “It hasn’t improved with age and we’re at the point now, where there’s no more opportunity to say, ‘Let’s wait and see,’ and every time we do, it ends up costing us more money.”
The added $2 million the committee sought for the DPW building provides more contingency for unknown site cleanup costs and would put them in a position to finalize bidding and contracts. That would be placed on the Oct. 30 Town Meeting warrant.
“If we are able to reduce the amount this project is going to cost us, the net result would be that we would borrow less and end up spending less,” he said.
The town has 120 days to develop a plan for soil remediation on the site.
Select Board member Justin Evans asked if the $2 million would be handed to the taxpayers or the ratepayers to shoulder.
Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter said the $17.8 million already approved for the DPW building was done as a debt exclusion through taxes, the sewer force main project is being paid off through rates. She said the additional $2 million would be paid off via taxes along with the $17.8 million.
“The initial thought was another debt exclusion,” she said.
Lynam said they had hoped to use ARPA funds to close the gap, but it is not one of the qualifying uses, because the balance of ARPA funds is restricted and cannot be used for construction projects.
“I’m slightly frustrated,” Select Board member Shawn Kain said, noting questions he had sent the architect in April – before the spring Town Meeting. He had been uncomfortable voting on the project before the completed design was presented. The response was that the 50-percent estimate was as good as a 100-percent estimate, he said.
“Based on the information you’ve presented, the issue with the soil was known at that time,” he said. “There was a deliberate choice not to test the soil until we got approval, but, obviously, with the understanding that there could be contamination in the soil.”
Lynam said the testing could not be done because it is part of the construction project and – until the project was funded – it could not be done.
Kain said a contingency should have been included to deal with the issue.
Lynam said the refuse material in the soil, which was a former dump site, was expected, but the environmental issues such as lead were not. Because of the site’s location in proximity to an Zone 2 aquifer and a public garden, the testing standards were higher.
“We’re not even sure where that came from,” he said of the lead, adding that they have applied to the state for remediation funding, that they are not certain will come or when. “It isn’t a, ‘Let’s hide this and do it later kind of thing. It’s something that we couldn’t do until we had the funding.”
Now that it is known, they can either move ahead by identifying the cost and remediating it, or they could stop the project and do the remediation. DPW Commissioner Kevin Cleary said there was contamination remediation contingency – an extra $600,000 carried for foundation improvements in the original design of the project.
“Is there a way that we can appropriate the restricted ARPA funds … to the force main project?” Evans asked, then used rate increases the DPW commission has already voted to pay the money for the DPW project. Those restricted funds can only be used for COVID expenses, water/sewer projects or broadband infrastructure. “We have $2.2 million in ARPA that can be used for water/sewer projects,” he said. “It’s just finding the right water/sewer project to apply that to, so it minimizes the cost to everybody.”
Carter said $700,000 in Plymouth ARPA funds are unrestricted.
She also worked to find out how much the town received in reimbursements, discovering Whitman has received 60 percent – $8.7 million – leaving $4 million the town can still requisition.
Seeking those funds would lower the amount the town borrows to $10,698,000 on the sewer force main, down from about $12 million, meaning an article could be supported to seek the extra $2 million could be borrowed for the DPW facility. The restricted ARPA funds could possibly be used to make up the difference in the sewer force main borrowing.
“It will end up being the same level of debt,” Lynam said. “It will just be in two different classes.”
WMS project
Carter briefed the Select Board on the WMS Building Committee’s Sept. 28 vote against rescinding a vote in support of the architectural plan for the project, and notes some members of the committee preferred adjusting the plan to a grade six to eight middle school without an auditorium.
“There’s no doubt that a new Whitman Middle School is needed,” she said. “However, at a $17 million increase in cost – from $72 million to $89 million – the impact to taxpayers is significant.”
Kowalski mentioned concerns about equal opportunities between middle schools in each town, since Hanson Middle School is a grade five to eight school, adding that both town’s fifth grades have the same educational experience.
“It’s just in a different location and the fact that [Hanson students] spend 20 more minutes a day in school because of busing,” he said. “It started to sound to me like we were being asked to spend $20 million to have an auditorium and to allow 150 fifth graders in Whitman to get 20 minutes a day, and that just didn’t make sense to me.”
Evans, who succeeded former Select Board Chair Randy LaMattina on the WMS Building Committee voted to continue with the current plan on Sept. 28, saying the Select Board, even before his election had vetted the project to put forward what was needed.
“I just didn’t think it was our place to step in at the 11th hour and change direction,” he said.
Select Board member Laura Howe, who’s daughter and two grandchildren attend WMS, said she wants students to have the best of everything, but the town can’t afford it.
“I’m really torn,” Kain said. “I can’t imagine that our vote tonight is going to change their mind tomorrow.”
He said the Building Committee did its job with the plan they are presenting, even if the Select Board disagrees.
Select Board Vice Chair Dan Salvucci said he had a problem with out-of-town members on the Building Committee because they serve in School District jobs.
Building Committee Chair Fred Small said that the committee members Salvucci referred to sit in the committee because the school is looked at by the MSBA as a regional school project.
“We were shell-shocked,” by the change in numbers,” he said.
Galvin said his concern is people think there are two options – a grade five to eight option and a base repair option.
“But there isn’t,” he said. “There’s a third option … a six to eight option without the auditorium. … None of us have the final say. The final say comes at Town Meeting, and lots of things can happen at Town Meeting – we’ve all seen it. The people need to decide what they want.”
He supported the grade six to eight school with an auditorium, because he felt, at the time, that the $2.5 million price tag for an auditorium was worth it.
At the committee’s last meeting they were told the auditorium would cost $9 million – and a six to eight school without one could save $25 million, but it would cause a $350,000 per month delay as it went back to the design stage.
“Town meeting needs to have the option,” he said, “Town Meeting needs to decide.”
Galvin said he resigned because it is his intention to educate the public on their options.
Committee member Kathleen Ottina also explained some of the votes’ back story, including discomfort on the part of the Finance Committee with the increased price tag.
“There were not four votes to go with this reduced-cost building,” she said of the Sept. 28 meeting. “There were four votes to rescind the Aug. 15th vote.”
She didn’t vote for Galvin’s motion.
“This is 11th hour and 59 minutes,” she said. “This is not a time to pull the rug out from underneath the Middle School Building Committee. … Let the voters decide.”
She said the cost of the building may have gone up $6 million, but the town’s share increased by $60 million because of aspects the MSBA deemed ineligible.
“This is not the end of the discussion,” she said. “This is maximum exposure. It’s a long, detailed process. … and these decisions aren’t easy.”
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 28
- 29
- 30
- 31
- 32
- …
- 166
- Next Page »