WHITMAN – The Select Board voted 4-1 to close the warrant for the Monday, Oct. 30 special Town Meeting, at its Tuesday, Oct. 3 session after member Shawn Kain expressed concerns about article 15, which is aimed at closing a funding gap for the DPW building project after a recent cost increase. He voted against the warrant closure.
“To be honest, as I’m thinking about our borrowing situation and projects coming ahead of us, I feel like it’s not a great precedent to set for projects to come back to the table and ask for more money,” he said.
While he said he liked the way town officials have identified money sources to free up, he said he wouldn’t mind spending $500,000 to $1 million from stabilization with the remaining to come out of the project itself by reductions to things like soft costs or other areas.
“I’m really hesitant to go back to the people knowing that, even if there are some trade-offs with a past project, it’s still going to be passed on in rates,” Kain said. “I’m not really comfortable doing that right now, given our current climate.”
Carter replied that the notice has been pulled from the printing because ARPA funds will reduce one of the rate hikes officials had discussed during the borrowing authorization meeting for the sewer force main project.
“It’s going to be less of an increase than what was initially projected,” she said. “The rates of $1.25 [in a second round of increases going out Oct. 15] because of the ARPA, doesn’t need to go up quite that much.”
After running some calculations and noting that Town Accountant Karen Clancy planned to run more calculations Oct. 4.
“Because the town is applying for $2.2 million in ARPA funds, we won’t be borrowing $2.2 million for authorization for the sewer force main, and instead, will be borrowing for this project.”
The force main is being paid for through rates, which were increased $1.50 a year ago for the first half of the increase with another $1.25 in bills going out Oct. 15. Those two rate increases were 100 percent of the projection for the sewer force main project.
Doing the force main project with $2.2 million in ARPA funds being applied, as well as it’s coming in under budget, and then having $2.2 million in the new DPW project – where the rate increase will be split between water and sewer, where reductions on the force main and proposed new borrowing plus the $1.50 we went up last year will come in under what the town projected for just the sewer force main project.
Kowalski said, that, a few weeks ago, when it was discovered the DPW needed the $2.2 million because of soil problems on the property, which is a problem that had to be dealt with, the board asked them, in a joint meeting, if they could find some ways to come back in two weeks and say it’s going to be less.
He credited the DPW, Carter and Evans with working hard to come up with a solution.
“What’s really impressive is two weeks later, they come up with a solution that’s not going to cost the taxpayer any extra money,” he said. “I think they deserve a lot of credit for that. It wasn’t an easy ask for us to make of them and they came through with flying colors, from what I can see, so I personally don’t have a problem with Article 15 at all.”
Kain said it was hard for him to disagree because he thinks they did a lot of good work that is beneficial to the town in the use of ARPA funds, but in totality, the amount of borrowing the town will be doing over the next couple of years is great.
“Any way that we can lessen the burden on the taxpayer, I think is something we should really consider,” he said. “It’s OK for you to disagree, but for me, I think I would rather go into the stabilization a little bit and keep the rates lower and have them cut some things out of the project.”
He agreed making those cuts would be tough, “but I think it’s one of the hard truths of running a project,” arguing they wouldn’t want the middle school project to follow a similar path.
“That, to me, seems more fair and balanced, considering the overall projection of debt,” he said.
Evans suggested that, because the source of funding for a lot of these articles are prior articles being returned, it might be helpful to start a Town Meeting to explain the decisions made, so they don’t have to be revisited with everyone.

HANSON – How the town spends its money, drew more discussion than how much it spends during the annual special Town Meeting on Monday, Oct. 2.
Finance Committee Chair Kevin Sullivan has already cautioned the Select Board that the town will enter the next budget cycle more than $1 million in the hole.
“You’re running into tough financial times in the spring,” Sullivan said Monday night. “We can’t just keep approving money.”
He referred to transfer station funds approved by the 2020 Town Meeting for the purchase of a compactor that has not been spent yet. The article, which passed, will use those funds to increase salaries at the transfer station to keep it running and avoid layoffs. The Town Meeting is posted on the WHCA-TV YouTube channel and is being rebroadcast on the cable access channel.
On that issue, Health Agent Gil Amado said it was due, in part to the prohibitive cost of compactors and a decision had been made that it was cheaper to rent the machines.
Changes in the salary structure for the Town Planner and to the town’s vacation by law, as well as use of town funds for repairs to a nonprofit group home and federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) for a floor-to-ceiling file cabinet system were the main subjects debated, as well as revolving funds used for required mitigation plantings in conservation buffer zones were also questioned.
The group home repairs were tabled until more information could be provided by the Housing Authority, but the other articles were approved.
The only other article passed over during the evening involved the finalization of two streets in the Stonewall Estates community. The remaining 30 articles on the warrant were all approved, to varying degrees of enthusiasm by residents attending the meeting.
Planner pay
Within Article 2, which amended salaries for town employees within the Wage & Personnel Bylaw, Town Administrator Lisa Green was asked – in order to inform residents who may not be aware, and it had a direct effect on two other articles – for an explanation of the increase in salary range for the Town Planner.
She outlined how Planner Antonio DeFrias had been “head-hunted” by another community offering a higher salary. The salary range had been $45,000 to $90,000 and was being increased to a range of $70,000 to $105,000.
DeFrias had resigned from his position to accept the higher salary elsewhere, which he originally turned down, only to accept an offer from that town when he was offered a higher figure.
“Based on all the really crucial projects that he had been so critical in helping us plan, and the grants that he’s helped us get … we came together with the Select Board and the Planning Board and offered Mr. DeFrais a higher salary to keep him here in Hanson,” Green said. “We actually offered him a higher salary that he did not accept. … He’s aware of the budget situation of the town and didn’t want to put us in a predicament, but losing him would have been devastating to the town.”
She said his work on grants – which has brought in about $500,000 so far – has prompted the state to look very favorably on the town.
Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett also stressed that, by doing a competitive analysis of salaries in similar surrounding communities, Hanson was way below what was being offered elsewhere.
“Even if Mr. DeFrais were to leave, we would need to increase this salary line,” she said.
The Town Meeting approved the salary range adjustment.
Vacation policy
While Article 15, allowing employees to carry over vacation leave was passed without comment, Article 16 to amend the vacation leave section of the Personnel Classification and Compensation Bylaw [Sec. 12D (7)] raised a question. The change grants 15 vacation days for newly hired employees with additional days possible after five years plus – in the interest of employee retention in the best interests of the town – and the Select Board and Wage and Personnel Board may grant. Currently, five more days of vacation time for existing employees. Any such decision would be final and not subject to any grievance procedure.
It takes five years of continuous service before additional vacation time is available.
The concern centered on the potential problems such a precedent for unions with contracts coming up for negotiation, but the Town Meeting approved the article without further discussion.
A proposed transfer from the Community Housing Reserve to fund exterior repairs to a group home at 53 West Washington St., raised a lengthy debate on whether the funding would be properly used in that project.
Group home repair
Corrine Cafardo of Winslow Drive said she thought such group homes were required to raise the money for repairs themselves.
“Wouldn’t this fall under something like the Housing Authority?” she asked.
CPC member John Kemmett said the Housing Authority could best answer the question, as they are supposed to approve such projects.
“I don’t believe they have,” he said, asking if someone from the Housing Authority could speak to the issue.
Housing Authority member Daniel Pardo said the authority had no comment on the matter at this time.
Town Counsel Kate Feodoroff said a restriction in the Community Preservation Act (CPA) prohibiting the use of CPC funds for affordable housing to rehabilitate existing properties not purchased through the CPA, caused her to have some initial concerns about the article.
“On digging a little further, I was provided some guidance [from state housing officials],” she said. “They drew a distinction between … rehabilitation vs preservation. … These improvements, to the project, like the roof, are considered preservation.”
She said the policy question of how the town spends its CPC money is up to Town Meeting, but it is legally compliant with the CPA, she added.
A Washington Street resident asked if the town funded a recent septic upgrade at the site last year and, if not, why the town was being asked to fund this round of repairs.
Both FitzGerald-Kemmett and Noelle Humphries the nonprofit Neighborhood Counseling Solutions, which owns the property said the town did not fund the septic work.
Speaking for himself as a private citizen, Finance Committee member Pepper Santalucia, whose wife Teresa is on the Housing Authority, said of the different affordable housing programs in the state that work with different populations, not everything that goes on regarding affordable housing in Hanson is within the purview of the Housing Authority.
Kemmett disagreed.
“Just because there isn’t a letter from the Housing Authority, doesn’t mean that this isn’t an appropriate use of CPC funding,” he said.
FitzGerald-Kemmett said they applied for CPC funds like anyone else and the committee voted to support that, but she thought he CPC was under the impression that the Housing Authority had taken a vote on it and supported it, but it has since been discovered no such vote had been taken.
“If our needle had been moved on our own affordable housing that we had created in town, I’d have no problem funding a private entity to fix up their house,” she said, noting she was the dissenting vote on the article when it came before the Select Board. “But since our needle has not been moved, and we need that money desperately with the price of housing being what it is, to actually create new housing in town, I voted no.”
At that point, a motion was made to table the article until the Housing Authority could meet and discuss the issue.
Resident Frank Milisi, said he was under the impression that Camp Kiwanee had applied for CPC funds last year and was told the funds could not be used for regular maintenance.
FitzGerald-Kemmett said planned work fell under a matrix for permitted uses of the funds.
“Housing is different than rehabilitating a town building,” she said.
“Are we going to be in the business of providing $55,000 to private organizations?” Milisi asked.
Humphries said Neighborhood Counseling Solutions had met with the CPC four or five different times over the last year about the funding request. She added that, while private, it is a nonprofit organization that works with about 70 communities on the South Shore. The Hanson group home had been owned by another, Kingston-based nonprofit that built the home in the 1990s.
“The original program that it was funded under was a HUD program, but as the years went on, we were severely restricted with rents and, as most people know, expenses, utilities and everything else have increased over time,” she said. As a result, maintenance was delayed.
Still, Neighborhood Counseling paid 100-percent the $53,000 cost for the septic work done last year as well as nearly $200,000 in operating expenses over time. They felt the roof project was totally in compliance with the state’s housing rules, which led them to make the CPC application. Neighborhood Counseling estimates it would cost $600,000 for all the work they plan to do on the property. The roof and siding repair request was $55,000.
The CPC transaction would allow Neighborhood Counseling to extend the affordability of the housing there indefinitely beyond 2032 when it is expected to run out.
“Which means it stays on the town’s affordable housing,” she said. “You have to maintain 10 percent of affordable housing on the state inventory. … This preserves those eight units for the future.”
Planning Board Chair Joseph Campbell reminded the Town Meeting that Hanson was at 4 percent for its affordable housing stock.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do to get anywhere near 10 percent, where it’s going to help us with the 40Bs,” he said.
Kemmett said it would take state legislative changes to make such an expenditures legal use of CPC funds.
Residents Bob Hayes and Milisi noted that, regardless of its nonprofit status, Neighborhood Counseling has paid employees.
The Town Meeting voted to table the article.
The approval of ARPA funds for seven floor-to-ceiling file cabinets for the Select Board and town administrator’s offices left some voters exasperated.
File cabinets
Milisi moved to pass over the article, arguing that more than $19,000 for file cabinets is “absurd.”
Green countered that towns are required by law to maintain “lots of paper” files, including sensitive documents such as personnel files, legal documents, license applications and other sensitive information currently stores in file cabinets that do not lock.
It was also questioned how the file cabinets qualify for ARPA funds — intended for COVID-related capital expenses. Town Accountant Eric Kinsherf said it comes under the heading of revenue replacement, assuring some dubious residents that the use qualifies.
The file cabinet expenditure was approved.
Student transportation
A section of Article 3, calling in part, for a $63,000 transfer from Free Cash for the transportation of a student attending Norfolk County Agricultural High School also raised a question from Milisi. The article transferred a total of $114,000 to supplement an article approved at the May Town Meeting.
“I feel like I can Uber every day for less than $63,000,” he said asking if the town had options for what form of transportation they provided.
“The problem is, when you’re transporting students, they have to fall under certain criteria in the law,” Green said. “It’s a matter of availability. … We really didn’t have a lot of choices out there from people who could provide this transportation.”
The student, relocated to another town due to family issues, comes under the federal McKinney-Vento act, which requires the home community of such students to fund transportation even if it is from a greater distance than before they were relocated. Transportation firms must be vetted and go through background checks and other requirements.
“We cannot require the student to change schools,” Green said. “We are required to pay this amount.”

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.