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.

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.