The Whitman 12U Little Leaguers celebrated the end of the season June 23 by graduating from the Little League Field and were presented with custom sweatshirts with their name and number on them. They are now on to play on “The Big Diamond” next year.
The Home Run Derby came down to the wire between Dylan Dias and Malia Kahoalii. Dias ripped a pair of Dingers in the Final to earn the title of “Home Run Champ”
Whitman American All Stars led by Coach Doyle then battled Whitman National All Stars led by Coach Tele. The players had some fun requesting their favorite Walk-Up Songs! Whitman National came out on top. The Minors also hosted an All Star Game and had some fun brother vs brother moments and all around fun times.
There was even the First Game of the Williamsport Tournament under the lights that featured Whitman-Hanson vs Cohasset. Will we see one of these teams on ESPN in August at the Little League World Series?!
A huge thank you goes out to The Little League Families, Sweetie’s Shaved Ice, Papa Gino’s, The Fans & The Whole Community that came out to make this a special night.
Hanson native uncorks a thriller
Hanson native uncorks a thriller
ByHANSON – Is Tim Wirzburger clairvoyant, or just an apt history student with the patience to see the value in a story idea that was worth countless rewrites?
About 15 years ago, the Hanson native began work on the idea for what became his first novel “In Plain Sight” [Palisade Media, 2022, 368 pages, trade paperback. ISBN#2370000893932] about a summer camp in western Pennsylvania with a sinister mission: hand-pick the teens to be indoctrinated into a group mentality toward a specific goal – for which some would be later selected for clandestine roles.
“Camp Bohr was supposed to be a normal summer camp: cabins in the woods, a beautiful lake, and dozens of teenagers just like Chris. However, strange things begin happening almost immediately – and Chris seems to be the only one who’s noticing,” Wirzburger writes on his website timwirburger.com.
Social media, the use of technology in such plots and other modern tools of politics and social movements also come into play, but any similarities to coup attempts, real or imagined, is purely coincidental, as the movie disclaimers read. But the novel’s fictional anti-government plot hinged to a date of Oct. 6 was not an attempt to reflect real events.
“I think we all know these kids,” Wirzburger said. “It’s supposed to be universal. … It’s not any political commentary. It’s a story, and I think it’s just coincidental that events in the last couple of years [mean] you might see some of that in there.”
The backstories of some characters and an ambiguous time period lend themselves to helping the imagination to wander into all kinds of scenarios.
“People have always said that something like this could happen,” Wirzburger said of the plot central to his story. “At the time I was first writing it, I was a teenager and I wasn’t plugged into anything political. I think the best books are ones that don’t have to live in a specific time, they can meet the reader whatever’s going on in their lives or in the world around them.”
He started it when he was about 17 and is now a 32-year-old digital marketing, living in Charlotte, N.C.
“It’s been about 15 years [in the writing],” he said during an interview with the Express during a visit home to see family.
What it definitely is, is a page-turner of a suspense yarn – and don’t ask, there will be no sequels to this story. Despite a suspenseful ending, he’s not planning to revisit Camp Bohr, the deep woods surrounding the fictional location in Pennsylvania, or the girls’ camp nearby.
When he began writing “In Plain Sight,” the TV show “Lost” and the film “The DaVinci Code” were both popular, and the plot twists and multiple storylines at work in both, appealed to Wirzburger.
“I never went to summer camp, believe it or not,” Wirzburger said. “But I like that idea and, looking back, I think it’s very similar to ‘Lost,’ in that the camp is like an island where it’s a controlled environment.”
If writers are told the best advice for writing is to write what you know, perhaps there are exceptions to that rule. While not having that summer camp experience for himself did present a challenge Wirzburger said creating those social interactions was fun.
“The suspense – I loved that, and I remember thinking I wanted to write something like that,” he recalls. “I kind of started outlining a story and would show a couple of friends, and it evolved a lot over the years.”
At times, he set the project aside for as much as a couple of years at a time while he was in college, studying history and communications at St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H, working or just living his life in other ways. He wrote for the college paper and alumni magazine while at St. Anselm.
“Writing and history have always been two of my biggest loves, so there’s a lot ot both in there, “Wirzburger said. Each time he came back to it, the story still had its pull, even though he admits, whatever he had already written “wasn’t that good.”
“It sounded like a 17-year-old had written it, but the story was still good and I wanted to tell it, so I would start over,” Wirzburger said. Each draft still had its own technical problems, but the story itself kept getting better.
About a half-dozen years ago he took an online Masterclass.com course taught by novelist James Patterson. A commercially successful writer, Patterson taught a method of outlining that Wirzburger found the answer to what he needed.
“He talked about having everything in your outline – the plot, character arcs, if you think of bits of dialog, throw it in – and each chapter [would be outlined by] a full, meaty paragraph about what happens in that chapter,” Wirzburger said. “Then you can see all the pieces fit together.”
His outline for the 368-page book was 30 pages all by itself.
He also enjoyed writing the plot twists that keep the reader off guard.
Interweaving chapters about key characters’ origin storylines of service in Vietnam and the difficult return home, family dynamics and a police officer’s crises as all they stories merge together make for a real page-turner.
“I don’t know what it was about Vietnam specifically, or that timeline-wise it worked out,” he said. “I also like shows and stories that teach a little bit.”
Getting published was almost a story in itself, but after looking into the jungle of processes in the publishing world, he sent out 20 or 30 queries – “not that many,” he said – before deciding to self-publish.
“Lucklily, with my career, I have a background in marketing and digital marketing and I built my own website, I can do social media stuff and a little bit of graphic design, copywriting,” he said.
As for marketing the book, he has already begun plans to reach out to libraries, his college alumni and local bookstores. He has left a copy of “In Plain Sight” with the Hanson Public Library.
A book club in Hanover has also read the book and hosted Wirzburger for a Zoom-based discussion of it.
“They had such good questions, and I love talking about the character and the writing choices,” he said.
Wirzburger is currently working on the outline of his next book, a suspense story he will only say has a more adult story line as teenagers try to save the world from Russians and monsters.
“If this book is Netflix, the next one will be HBO,” he said.
Stay tuned.
Soccer plan gets ‘yellow carded’
WHITMAN – While encouraging Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter to continue exploring Select Soccer’s proposal for a youth soccer field complex at the Camp Alice Carlton property, Select Board Chair Dr. Carl Kowalski agreed with a resident’s request that the process slow down while a committee is formed to explore other options.
After Town Meeting, the town had agreed to continue analysis of the Carlton property, Carter reminded the board, pointing out that meant continuing surveys of the Whitman and Rockland parcels in order to determine if the matter should be pursued further. Carter stressed that she was not presenting a proposal, only seeking board consensus to direct her efforts.
“We are still awaiting the results of the Whitman tract,” she said, noting she, Assistant Administrator Kathy Keefe and former Town Administrator Frank Lynam met with Select Soccer’s owner, reviewing the results of the Rockland land. “The survey they had done reveals areas of wetlands that would limit what could be developed in Rockland.”
Select Soccer is still interested in the property, but there is still a question as to whether it can be used for soccer fields will depend on the Rockland Conservation Commission.
It might also depend on potential opposition from a group of Whitman residents who question whether that use is in line with the intent of the Carltons when the property was bequeathed to the town.
Select plans to lay out soccer fields, but they also mentioned walking trails around the property which would be open to the public and connecting to the Whitman parcel – one of the uses opponents preferred.
Carter suggested if the soccer facility was something Whitman would consider, a long-term lease of the Rockland property to Select Soccer would permit the town to retain land ownership while providing revenue that could improve the Whitman parcel for recreational use.
Carter was seeking a consensus from the board on whether to continue exploring the option, but the four board members present were divided – Laura Howe and Shawn Kain saw merit in the opponents’ objections, while Kowalski and Vice Chair Dan Salvucci favored continued exploration of the Select Soccer proposal. Member Justin Evans was away on vacation.
Pine Street resident Eric Joubert voiced objection to the proposal as counter to the Carlton family’s intent when the land was bequeathed for recreational purposes.
“You think putting a commercial business on that land is what the family planned?” he asked.
Salvucci said soccer fields were recreational, but Joubert objected to the fields benefitting a commercial business. He compared it to baseball fields already in place in Whitman because families pay a fee for their kids to play in Little League.
“They’re not putting up buildings and they’re not restructuring the land,” Joubert retorted about the baseball fields. “How are you going to level [the Carlton property] for fields without doing major damage to the forestry area?”
He warned it would destroy woodlands and noted that the natural purpose of trees is to clean carbon dioxide from the air and produce oxygen – and people enjoy hiking in the area. A 1988 plan had outlined using the forest area on the property as green space, with a Girl Scout camp tying into it.
“I think the potential of the town [using] it as greenspace, as the family intended, would be a much better option for the future of the town,” Joubert said. “We could have a committee and we could work on it.”
“I 100-percent agree with you,” Howe said. “I hope, maybe, we can figure out a way to do that, because Peaceful Meadows is now, obviously moving on and I respect that, also there is a lot of other land being donated for different things, and we don’t have a lot of greenspace.”
She said wildlife is also running out of habitat because of that trend.
“I just saw land sitting there unused, and thank you for enlightening me,” Salvucci said. “I didn’t realize people were walking there.”
Kain said Joubert had changed his mind.
“You certainly won me over,” he said. “[Keeping] this either open space or conservation, greenspace, it is really what I would like to see happen with it.”
Carter said she had not yet seen specific plans, but synthetic turf fields, hard court and a small playground area and a parking area had been discussed by Select Soccer. She said the only intent at this point was to explore the issue further.
Joubert said the proposal seemed like it was being “pushed through rather fast” and did not pass the “smell test” with him. While Kowalski challenged the suggestion that the Select proposal was being rushed and agreed that a committee could be formed while the exploration of Select Soccer’s proposal continued.
“There’s been a big time out on that,” Kowalski said.
Resident Gloria Knox also argued that the Carlton’s intent was to provide an opportunity for young people to “get into nature” and enjoy the recreational opportunities provided by the properties.
Peaceful Meadows headed for auction
WHITMAN – Peaceful Meadows is slated to go under the auctioneer’s gavel for sale on Tuesday, Aug. 29 – and that prospect has been the talk of the town, and beyond for several days.
Real estate sales firm JJ Manning Auctioneers of Yarmouthport, has been contracted to hold an auction of properties owned by Peaceful Meadows along Route 18 (Bedford Street) in Whitman. The properties are at 67, 81 and 94 (lots 1 and 2) Bedford St.
“After many successful decades in business, beginning in 1962, the family has chosen to divest of these valuable assets through auction,” the firm’s website described the reason for the sale, further stating that the properties will be “offered individually and in the entirety to the highest bidder, regardless of price.”
JJ Manning President Justin J. Manning, said no other property the firm has handled before has engendered so much interest.
“I’ve never seen our Facebook [page] blow up like I have with this property,” he said. “I think between Friday and right now, we’ve had more than 350,000 hits on this. It’s absurd. It dwarfs anything that we’ve ever listed – there’s a lot of passion about this one.”
Two others running close behind were Foxboro State Hospital and a Nashua, N.H. rectory of the Sisters of Mercy.
Manning said he met with the three sisters who are the owners/decision makers of the property.
“At this point, they have worked really hard to continue the legacy that their parents started, and have been very proud of and have done well by it and [they] understand the following that has continued to provide a nice living for their family,” Manning said. “At this stage in their lives, they’re all very ready to move on. No one wants to continue running the business and [they] have other life expectations at the moment.”
A call for comment directly from the ice cream stand business phone on Tuesday was unanswered..
Select Board members Justin Evans and Dan Salvucci said, while they didn’t know the particulars of the sale, Whitman’s Facebook pages have been filled with conversation about it all weekend.
“They want to retire,” Salvucci said. “That’s a lot of land down behind there.”
Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter recalled that her first job was at Peaceful Meadows, but stated that the town has not received official notice of the sale.
“Once the Town receives official notification of the impending sale of the properties it will review and consider its options,” Carter said in a prepared statement Tuesday. “We are so sorry to see Peaceful Meadows close and we thank them for the many years they have operated their business here in town.”
Carter said the assessor was visiting Peaceful Meadows on Monday, because it is agricultural land and the town wants to make sure it is coded correctly.
“Peaceful Meadows Farm has been a Whitman landmark since 1920, with the Hogg family opening Peaceful Meadows Ice Cream in 1962. The news of the upcoming auction of the multiple Peaceful Meadows properties in late August has been a topic of conversation among residents since the news was announced,” Carter stated. “The Hogg family has provided delicious ice cream treats as well as many other dairy products and baked goods which have been sold at their dairy store. Peaceful Meadows Ice Cream has been an iconic family destination for so many Whitman residents as well as residents from many surrounding towns. The Town has not received any formal notification since the news was announced late last week.”
The land is described as: “four assessor’s parcels on Bedford St. (Rt. 18):
- Sale 1: 94 Bedford St. (Lot 1): Ice Cream Stand k/a “Peaceful Meadows Ice Cream” w/ barns, home/offices, Equipment;
- Sale 2: 94 Bedford St. (Lot 2): 55+/- acres of agricultural land;
- Sale 3: 67 Bedford St.: a single family home; and
- Sale 4: 81 Bedford St.: a two-family home.
A final plan concerning how the property components will be sold will be forthcoming, but Manning said there are, indeed, four components.
“It’s too early right now for me to tell you exactly how it is going to happen, but I can tell you that there will be at least four rounds of bidding for those four different components,” he said, indicating there is a possibility of combinations of properties.
The website stipulates that pre-auction offers must be tendered on a signed JJManning approved purchase and sale agreement and accompanied by a 10 persent certified deposit in certified or bank check or by confirmed wire transfer in order to be considered.
Up to a 2 percent Buyer’s Broker Commission is offered with a mandatory 24-hour broker pre-registration.
A viewing date of the properties up for auction is scheduled for 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Tuesday, Aug. 22 with the auction slated for 11 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 29.
Manning said that some sales use the term “highest and best” for choosing” a buyer.
“In auctions, there’s only highest,” he said. “Ultimately, everyone is bidding under the same terms, everyone is bidding using the same purchase and sale agreement, so it only comes down to who’s the highest.”
He did say interest has been strong already, with similar ice cream companies, agricultural companies showing intertest since the posting on June 6 or 7.
“For those who have been hoping it will continue on as Peaceful Meadows ice cream, that’s only going to apply if the high bidder has that intent,” Manning said. Buyers who have a kennel, equestrian or landscaping-related business would be free to make their own business decisions after purchasing the property.
The ice cream stand/dairy farm are only one component of the sale.
“It depends on who is the high bidder, and it could be a different type of business,” he said.
Manning said his firm has a “basic outline” for how the sale will happen and they are working with the sellers’ attorneys to make sure everything is done properly.
“When a property’s been in the hands of a family for so long, it’s almost like it has no history,” he said. He likened such a situation to the sales they had handled of Lakeville and Foxboro state hospitals, where deeds were hand-written.
“You just want to make sure there’s nothing that’s going to interfere with having a clean, straight-forward closing and clear title,” he said. Then further information may become clear. There may be financials regarding the ice cream shop that will be available to potential buyers willing to fill out and sign non-disclosure agreements.
He said there he understands there is also a recorded subdivision plan that is expected to show how the ice cream shop and dairy barn are divided from the 50+ agricultural acres.
“This is just some pieces that we don’t have,” he said. When more information is available, it will be posted on jjmanning.com.
JJManning Auctioneers has been engaged in the marketing and sale of high-end commercial and residential real estate at public auction throughout the U.S., with a focus on New England. During this period, the firm has conducted over 16,000 auctions totaling more than $5 Billion Dollars for private individuals, corporations, estates, financial institutions, attorneys, builders/developers, government agencies and others.
Private ways and pond management
HANSON – Acceptance of the private road known as Alden Way must go back before Town Meeting to clear up an issue regarding an amendment to the acceptance plan, Select Board told a number of the private roadway’s residents attended the Tuesday, June 27 meeting.
Residents at the May 1 Town Meeting voted to accept Alden Way among a list of private roads as public ways.
“In taking that next step to doing the takings that we need to do in order to make sure that we’ve got access to those properties to do the things that we would need to do as a public way, we’ve run into some technical difficulties,” Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said of the citizens’ petition for the May Town Meeting.
Jane Medeiros oan associate of Town Counsel Kate Feodoroff, said the Town Meeting vote did not reference one or more of the correct plans.
“I’m not sure if they layout vote of the Select Board [knew of an amendment made to that plan],” Medeiros said. FitzGerald-Kemmett stated they had not known.
“This is a technicality,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “It is a technicality that we intend, as a board, to correct at the next Town Meeting. … We cannot unilaterally decide to do that. Anything having to do with public ways, or takings, or any of that, all have to be decided – as it should – by Town Meeting.”
FitzGerald-Kemmett said Feodoroff wanted the board to inform the residents they are aware of the issue, and that they intend to place, as a Select Board article, on the October Town Meeting warrant.
“It’s good that the missing plan was noticed right away and will be corrected promptly,” Medeiros said, explaining that residents should want to avoid a situation years, from now, when a surveyor might go out to check property lines only to find “what’s on the ground is not in the layout that was approved by the town and recorded.”
“My understanding is, what was approved is not exactly where the road is,” she said. “There was a modification.”
“Your plans are fine,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said of one resident’s question as to whether modifications to the plan were properly made prior to Town Meeting. “But what isn’t fine is the article that was presented to Town Meeting – what we accepted were the old plans before those changes were made.”
Then as the law firm tried to figure out what needed to be taken as right-of-way from each of the respective homeowners, it was discovered that the lines of demarcation for the roadway were different from what Town Meeting vote on in May.
“Your deeds, your plot plans … are all accurate,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. The resident further said residents were told there would be no land-takings.
“This has all been about land-taking,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “In order to make this road public, there has to be land-taking.”
“We’re trying to fix it for you, so it gets totally fixed.” Board member Ann Rein said. “If it’s not fixed totally right now, it’s going to come up again and again.”
Member Joe Weeks said that, by sponsoring the new article, the board can also make sure it is vetted prior to Town Meeting to ensure no more clerical errors are included. The board had no standing to vet a citizen’s petition before it went before Town Meeting in May.
In other business, pond management responsibility was discussed, stemming from a discussion at the Conservation Commission since its not in that body’s jurisdiction and is a town resource, Selectman Ed Heal said.
FitzGerald-Kemmett said it’s a “weird thing” as it is not a wetlands issue and there can be Board of Health components, too. While past town meetings have allocated funds for pond management, it does not seem there are clear jurisdictions for it.
“But it doesn’t seem there’s anyone whose sole responsibility is to manage the ponds,” she said.
Conservation Commission Chair Phil Clemons said he believes it is true that most Hanson residents like the fact that there are so many ponds in town.
“I think it’s also true that we can’t trust the ponds, lakes or whatever term you wish to use, just to take care of themselves and be fine,” he said. “There’s too many people, having too many impacts over too many years and decades for that to be true anymore.”
Water quality, largely affected by plants, are issues that have been addressed in different ways by area communities, with Hanson mostly been paying attention to what has been done elsewhere.
“We’ve had the luxury of not having to do a whole lot, but we think those days are pretty much past,” Clemmons said.
Since the Wetlands Protection Act and Rivers Protection Act, the work load of Conservation Commissions and agents has increased.
“Despite our ambitions and things we actually have done in some cases already it probably is not realistic to expect the Conservation Commission to also assume pond management.”
He suggested it might be time to look at things done in other communities, with the need to build up a methodical approach, comparing it to the way a physician analyzes the symptoms of illness.
“There definitely has to be interplay with the Conservation Commission,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said to Clemmons’ agreement.
She asked Town Administrator Lisa Green to think about the issue and think of ways the town might address it and organize around it, reporting back in the fall.
SST prepares for changes
HANOVER – Some change is going to come to South Shore Tech, as the school has said farewell and good fortune to Principal Mark Aubrey, as they begin the visioning process with the Massachusetts School Building Authority and project team for a renovation expansion project expected to begin in 2025.
The renovation project team is made up of a cross-section of students and parents.
“The purpose of the visioning session is akin to … a menu of options [and] the vision is where we choose the ingredients,” Superintendent-Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey said during the recent School Committee meeting on Wednesday, June 14. “We talk about what we value in a school, we talk about what we value in terms of its architecture, how it responds to the community and what we need for instruction.”
The first of three such sessions was held on Tuesday, June 13. A public session will be held on Thursday, July 13. The sessions are held via Zoom virtual meeting and representatives of town governing bodies from the district’s member communities will be sent out to the July 13 session, Hickey said.
“These documents are an essential part of the beginning process for design,” he said. “It will eventually, by the end of this calendar year, lead us to narrowing down with the School Building Committee, a preferred option, and it should eventually lead to an action of this committee for something – probably in early 2025 – to go to the voters.”
Hickey said that, while there is still a long way to go with a lot of work to do on the project, he was glad to get it started with a strong response from parents and staff to get that started.
The committee approved budget transfers for three expenditures, including renovation design, a lease contract for three propane buses and vocational equipment purchases.
A stabilization transfer for $73,366 from the FY 2023 surplus revenue account for design and renovation purposes was approved.
“We scrubbed the numbers – both on the revenue said and the expense side to come up with a number as far as was there anything left in order to move money around at the end of the year,” said Treasurer James Coughlin.
A transfer of $434,760 for the lease/purchase of three new propane buses.
“With the surplus this year, we have a contract,” Coughlin said. “We can encumber the money and, by doing it now, we’re saving $45,000 in charges, so it’s a financially savvy move to pay off the lease as, pretty much a purchase of three buses.”
The district has been running propane buses for a few years now, which have proven to run cleaner, quieter and with fewer maintenance issues than diesel buses. This purchase makes the school bus fleet all propane vehicles.
The third transfer of $90,000 will fund the purchase of vocational equipment in need of replacement.
In other business, Assistant Principal Sandra Baldner reported on the end-of-the-school year activities as well as the annual summer program set to begin July 10 with 150 middle school students registered to explore nine vocational programs.
“I’m grateful to the professionalism and dedication of the school administrators, teachers and paraprofessionals who are making SST a year-round, day and night destination,” she said.
Baldner was appointed the school’s new principal effective July 1.
Aubrey, who is leaving to take a position at Blue Hills Regional, said he wanted to thank the committee – and the “brethren before you” – for the last 24 years.
“I will be gone and I wish nothing but the best for South Shore Tech,” he said. “You guys are going be a fabulous school, and I will be touring when you get that new school, because I want to see it.”
Hickey, on behalf of all the school’s graduates for Aubrey’s service, presented him with an Adirondak chair crafted by carpentry shop students, with a nameplate made by students in the manufacturing shop..
“I’m, not sure if we pulled this off or not,” he said, unveiling the chair that was hidden in the back of the room.
July 4th Family Fun in Whitman Park
STAR-SPANGLED BIKES — Some clouds and rain were no match for the patriotic spirit of these entrants in the annual Bike and Carriage Decorating Contest during Tuesday’s July 4 Family Fun Day in Whitman Park. Balloons were a popular addition to the traditional use of flags and bunting this year. See more photos, Page 6.
Photos courtesy, Whitman Recreation Commission/Michelle LaMattina
Disabled now have seat at MassDOT directors’ table
BOSTON – Governor Maura Healey has announced new appointments to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s Board of Directors. For the first time, the board will have representation from a member of the disability community, Dr. Lisa Iezzoni. Governor Healey also appointed to the board Thomas M. McGee, who served as the Mayor of the City of Lynn from 2018-2022; Rick Dimino, current President Emeritus of A Better City after serving as the President and CEO from 1995 to April 2023; and Ilyas Bhatti, Associate Professor holding the Douglas C. Elder Endowed Professorship in the Department of Construction Management at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston.
“Our administration is committed to ensuring that our state’s transportation system is safe, reliable and accessible for all, and we’re confident that this talented, diverse group of leaders will drive that work on the DOT Board of Directors,” said Healey. “We are particularly proud to be appointing a member of the disability community for the first time in the board’s history. As a user of the DOT and MBTA systems herself, Dr. Iezzoni will bring a critical perspective to this board that will help us ensure that our transportation system is accessible for people with disabilities.”
“I’m pleased to welcome our new members to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation Board of Directors,” said Transportation Secretary and CEO Gina Fiandaca. “Together, they bring a wealth of lived experiences and expertise that is crucial in serving our communities throughout the Commonwealth. We are focused on creating safe, equitable, and reliable transportation for all and I look forward to working with the MassDOT Board to further these goals.”
Dr. Iezzoni is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, based at the Health Policy Research Center and the Mongan Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital. For 25 years, her research has focused on improving the lived experiences, healthcare quality, and health equity of adults with disability, particularly mobility disability.
McGee served as Mayor of the City of Lynn from 2018 to 2022. Previously, he served as Massachusetts State Senator from the Third Essex district. He was a member of the Senate Joint Committee on Transportation starting in 2003 and served as Chair of the committee from 2011 to 2018.
Dimino currently serves as President Emeritus of A Better City after serving as the President and CEO from 1995 to April 2023. Under his leadership, A Better City achieved major organizational accomplishments and influenced a wide range of city and regional infrastructure projects.
Bhatti, P.E., D.WRE, M.ASCE is currently an Associate Professor holding the Douglas C. Elder Endowed Professorship in the Department of Construction Management at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston.
The MassDOT Board of Directors serves as the governing authority for MassDOT. The MassDOT Board is comprised of eleven members who are appointed by the Governor. Each member is required to fulfill specific criteria with expertise in transportation, finance, and/or engineering.
The future is now at Hanson Fire
HANSON – The Select Board on Tuesday, June 27, reviewed the fire department’s last six months, as it prepared for the future by celebrating the swearing in of two new fire lieutenants.
Lt. Tyler Bryant was a fire department intern when in high school in 2008, joining Halifax in 2010 and serving that department until 2014, when Chief Robert O’Brien said Hanson “stole him away from Halifax.” He was promoted to lieutenant with the retirement of Kevin Mossman.
“He is incredibly talented when it comes to hazardous materials and hazmat stuff,” O’Brien said. “He deals with all that for gas meters and we’ve got a plethora of them that have to go on all the apparatus.”
He calibrates the meters every month.
“Tyler, honestly, is always there to help people out,” he said. “He’s helped me immensely with the transition. He’s done an excellent job, he and his shift, in a short period of time training wise – as all the lieutenants have.”
He also serves as the department’s mechanic and has begun working toward an associate degree in fire science administration.
He was pinned by his fiancée Christina and children Cameron and Caden. Town Clerk Elizabeth Sloan administered the oath of service to both men.
Lt. Thomas J. White also graduated W-H in 2008, is an Army reservist, where he has also served as a firefighter with the 468th Engineering Detachment, deployed to the Middle East in 2020. A Hanson native, he was hired as a Hanson call firefighter in 2015 and as a full-time firefighter in 2018. He was promoted to lieutenant in April.
“TJ is our fire prevention lieutenant,” O’Brien said. “He has hit the ground running. There’s quite a few changes that the deputy and I are starting to put together.”
On personal note, O’Brien said that when his son, Christopher was deployed with the infantry during the same operation White had served in the year before.
“TJ was able to sit him down and go through everything ahead of time,” O’Brien said. “That just goes to the type of person that TJ is. Even with Christopher home now, he’s like, ‘Here’s all the things you need to get done for the military’’”
White’s mother Susan pinned on his new badge.
We thank all of you guys for stepping up,” Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “I know a transition’s been a little tricky, as transitions always are, but we appreciate what you guys are doing to make it happen, and everything you do every day.”
Department review
O’Brien then provided his report on the department for the board.
The department has responded to 1,008 calls – 911 or service calls only, not inspection requests – over the last six months as of 7 a.m. Tuesday. Of those, 168 have been multiple runs at the same time, and it had happened twice in the previous 24 hours – including mutual aid and ambulance being brought to both responses.
“We’re not the only department dealing with this,” he said, noting Hanson has received mutual aid 28 times and provided it to area towns 58 times so far this year. “We could be quiet for four hours and then the floodgates open up.”
The department tracks multiple runs, to the depth of multiple call runs, as there have been occasions were seven calls have come in at once, O’Brien said.
The department is currently staffed with one lieutenant and three firefighters per shift, with two new hires reporting for service in September.
“Eventually, we’re going to have to look at staffing,” O’Brien said, explaining he is looking at the prospect of putting five on a shift in order to ensure there is a lieutenant is in town to cover the station and manage responses when multiple medical calls are going on and both ambulances leave town.
“I’m asking everybody to think outside the box and let’s throw it against the wall and what sticks works, and whatever doesn’t, we go back to the way we’ve been doing it,” O’Brien said of his taking over as chief with the retirement of former chief Jerome Thompson Sr.. “It has been a big change for everybody.”
FitzGerald-Kemmett said the energy is palpable.
“Everybody is very engaged and forward-thinking and it’s wonderful to see,” she said.
“It’s just fun watching you guys just love being firefighters and just enjoying it,” said Vice Chair Joe Weeks. “Not that it wasn’t happening before, but sometimes shaking things up, people in new roles, everyone just seems so enthusiastic and so engaged and so positive.”
“We’re excited to see what this team can do,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
O’Brien gave Deputy Chief Charles Barends a lot of credit for that.
He also credited his firefighters and lieutenants for the creative ideas they’ve brought forward to address challenges facing the department. That includes grants such as the SAFER Grant, which covers medical insurance, cost of living costs and much more, excluding overtime costs, for the first three years of a new hires’ work.
“If we were to hire four people, through health insurance and everything in, you’re probably looking at $100,000 a firefighter,” O’Brien said.
He also cautioned the Select Board that he grants are not awarded next until in March or April 2024, and would not actually be seen in action for two years and five years before the town would have to budget for those funds.
“If it’s not going to be sustainable, then obviously, we can’t do it,” he said, pledging to work with the board and finance committee to determine if the grant could be sustainable.
FitzGerald-Kemmett said if the five-year financial planning approach the town is moving toward, the SAFER Grant becomes something they should want to think about.
“We’re going to need to build that in,” she agreed.
October Town Meeting needs include a simple correction to one of the department’s articles for two staff members’ overtime while new recruits were attending the fire academy were mislabeled as for fiscal 2023, when it was for fiscal 2024. He also said capital improvements, including $390,000, from the ambulance account to replace Ambulance 1 is needed. The 2014 ambulance could take as long as 18 months to two years from the date an ambulance is ordered until it is delivered.
Tower 1, the department’s aerial ladder engine, dates back to 1995. Federal grants have proven elusive for this need, however, O’Brien said.
“The last two years, it has made it to the very end [of the grant process], and then been denied,” he said. “We’re going to see how far along it goes this year, because the further along it goes and the older it gets, the more likely it is that the federal government will give us some grant money toward it, up to $1 million.”
Capital plans
The price tag for such a vehicle now stands between $1.7 million and $1.8 million, however with “no frills, off the showroom floor.”
“A lot of departments are getting away from custom-ordering big pieces like that,” O’Brien said.
Engine 1, dating from 2013, is out of service as work continues to determine just what is mechanically wrong with it.
The department has also been updating its Emergency Management plan, and is offering National Incident Management System (NIMS) class for elected officials outlining their roles and responsibilities during a state of emergency.
“You’re not signing your rights away … if, god forbid, there was a massive hurricane that blew through here and now federal urban search and rescue task forces were coming through the area,” he said. “Hanson is still in control.”
Select Board members expressed enthusiasm for such training.
He also discussed creation of a medical reserve corps of volunteer nurses, doctors and others to work with shelters when they are needed.
On the subject of emergencies, O’Brien noted that hurricane season has begun and with it, the fire department is stepping up social media campaigns on generator and home oxygen safety.
He is also discussing with Whitman Fire Chief Timothy Clancy, the potential for regionalizing Whitman’s Citizen’s Emergency Response Team (CERT). Open houses are being planned for those interested.
Initiatives begun over the last six months, which the department is continuing:
- A feasibility study for fire station renovation that O’Brien said is not planned for the near future;
- Drones, which require a pilot’s license to operate and are partially grant-funded, can be used to find people lost in Burrage Wildlife Management Area or in building preplanning or in assessing buildings during an emergency; and
- Use of the Maquan School for firefighter survival and/or active shooter training.
Whitman PD Civil Service hires OK’d
WHITMAN – The Select Board approved Police Chief Timothy Hanlon’s request to make conditional offers to police candidates on the Civil Service list on Tuesday, June 20.
Hanlon had requested, and was granted authority to call for the list on May 23, as he anticipated the need for an additional officer to address staffing concerns.
“We do have a need for an additional two officers [to replace those] who are going to retire in the next few months,” he said about the approved call for the list.
There were 13 candidates who signed the list, indicating they would accept a position.
“We started at the top, and concentrated on the first six candidates and they are all spectacular,” Hanlon said. Civil Service rules require that to request two, which Whitman did, “We are basically bound to the top five, but if someone washes out, or has something in their background … you can pass them over for another candidate. That is not the case here.”
He gave a short outline of each candidate, but recommended the first three. Roger Kineavy has been with the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office for about four years. A Marine veteran, the Whitman resident grew up in Weymouth and has also been a corrections officer. Joshua Kelleher, a lifelong Whitman resident, graduated from WHRHS and Bridgewater State University. He presently works with the Barnstable Department of Natural Resources and a volunteer with the West Barnstable Fire Department. A little farther along in the hiring process for the Environmental Police, he has said he would accept a position there if it opened first. Alyssa Andrews, a resident of Whitman since 2002, she is a WHRHS and SNHU graduate. Her college degree is in criminal justice and she is currently employed by the TSA at Logan and volunteers at the Pine Street Inn in Boston.
He recommended conditional offers of employment to the first two candidates and Andrews be offered a conditional offer should one other candidates be unable to meet the conditions of employment or decline the offer.
The board approved the appointment of John Cannizzo as auxiliary administrator for the Whitman Police Department, for a one-year stint effective June 30. His position as an auxiliary officer himself would terminate on June 20.
The position pays for the actual hours worked, usually about 24 hours per week, at the same rate as he had before.
Kevin Shantler, president of the Whitman Police Union, however, said his union opposed the appointment of Cannizzo, as he is a nonunion part-time employee as a special police officer who has been decertified by the state’s police reform law.
“Since Cannizzo is no longer a certified police officer, the union stipulates that only a certified police officer should oversee, train and schedule other police officers, including auxiliary officers,” he said.
The union also argued the job opportunity should have been put out to the public for interested applicants and a proper interview process should be held.
Shantler said Cannizzo is currently under internal investigation centering on allegations by another auxiliary officers, and, as the union believes, he performed vehicle maintenance as well as his stated job as an auxiliary officer. Considering him for the position could send the wrong message. The union recommended continuing tabling the issue of appointing Cannizzo until the internal investigation is complete.
Hanlon said he is more than qualified, has experience and would be working under the supervision of higher-ranking officers.
“I would see no reason to hire anybody else for the position, number one, and again, he’s held the position and done the job,” Hanlon said. “We tabled this last time to hear the union’s issues and, they’ve been heard. … and they haven’t been dismissed, but at the same time, they haven’t been validated, either.”
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