Whitman-Hanson Express

You are here: Home / Archives for Tracy F. Seelye, Express Editor

Town Meeting articles ready for votes

By

Whitman and Hanson select boards discussed outstanding issues in their last meetings before the Monday, May 2 town meetings in both communities — though most of those issues were concentrated in Hanson as the town continues to work its way out of a deficit.

Hanson’s annual “dress rehearsal” for it’s town meeting on Tuesday, April 26 saw several articles up for a final recommendation vote by Selectmen, following Finance Committee votes — some of which featured a strong difference of opinion between the two boards.

Articles concerning the request for an outreach person for the Council on Aging and requiring the audio or video recording of all town boards and committees were the subject of particular debate.

“We’d love to add more people to provide better services for this town, but the money is not there,” Finance Committee Chairman Kevin Sullivan said. “You’re digging a bigger hole.”

“That is part of the social contract we all sign when we’re in a town and we have to provide services — to our elder folks, to the schools and highway, etc.,” Selectman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said, arguing that the town has given “extremely short shrift” to senior residents.

“I look at this as the need for my snowplow,” Collins said, noting that the town’s mission in budgeting is to give departments what they need to successfully do their jobs. “Services are equally as important as the tools that you need to clean off the roads.”

The snowplows, meanwhile — sought by the Highway Department — to replace vehicles that were 18 and 22 years old were recommended by both boards — at a total of $299,000.

In Whitman, Selectmen briefly discussed the warrant article seeking security cameras at Whitman Park in view of an agenda item concerning a draft of a security camera policy for the police and fire station and Town Hall where they are already in place and for and the library parking lot, where cameras are planned.

No action was taken, as it was the first time the draft appeared on the agenda, but Town Administrator Lincoln Heineman noted that, after conversations with IT Director Josh MacNeil, it made sense to have a policy in place regarding authority over cameras and data storage.

Hanson’s debate over a Council on Aging outreach position began before the full Select Board convened, as the Wage and Personnel Board took issue with the Finance Committee’s unanimous vote against recommending it. Selectmen Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett and Jim Hickey were especially vocal in their disagreement, but postponed the conversation until the full meeting, which Senior Center Director Mary Collins was attending.

Selectmen voted to recommend the article.

“This past year, during open enrollment for Medicare, I saw over 100 clients in about a 30-day period,” Collins told the joint meeting of Selectmen and the Finance Committee. “It was incredibly intense, it took up a great portion of my time and I had other issues that I needed to attend to in my position as the director of Elder Affairs.”

She requested a part-time outreach person be hired to assist with both the Medicare paperwork as well as the outreach she now does.

“I find that I have to be in two places at the same time, which is virtually impossible,” Collins said.

The annual budget for the Hanson Multi-Service Senior Center is a little over $100,000, including Collins’ salary as well as a 19-hour administrative assistant and part-time custodial position.

She classified the expenditure as a “very small amount in the $32 million budget for the town.”

“The last few years have been very, very difficult with COVID in addressing the issues that our seniors have,” she said, noting that many have become quite isolated and have needs that need to be identified. That work is more difficult when the time is not allotted to get out of the office and address the need.

The position Collins is seeking pays $19 per hour. Selectmen Chairman Matt Dyer said the yearly salary range on the position is $14,381 to $22,824 for a position without benefits.

Even attracting a qualified person at the midpoint of that range might be challenging, Collins said.

“It is a very competitive job market,” FitzGerald-Kemmett noted.

Hickey said he and Collins have talked about the need for an outreach assistant quite a lot, and he told her he would speak for it to both boards and let the voters at Town Meeting decide.

“I know you can’t change your vote,” he said to FinCom Chair Kevin Sullivan and member Erin Barr. “But I would be talking directly to you and to the rest of the board tonight.”

He argued that the article language describing 30 percent of Hanson’s population as being over 55 is wrong. It’s really 41 percent, with 33 percent being age 60 or over.

“That’s why, in the last couple of years it has become more of a workload for Mary and her staff,” he said. Hickey serves as the board’s liaison to the Senior Center and is there at least three times a week. He also said that older residents throw away less trash, which affects the solvency of the transfer station and their lower incomes affect the school budget.

FitzGerald-Kemmett suggested that, perhaps, people don’t understand that the senior center provides a social outlet as well as assistance for benefits and legal services.

“You are literally a connector for all of these services,” she said to Collins. “I’m not surprised that our population over 55 has increased dramatically, and in fact, we’re going to continue to see it increase.” She pointed to recent developments of over-55 housing communities in town and said the trend can be expected to continue as school enrollment decreases.

“I’ve said it many times, and I’ll say it until the day I die, ‘Mary is a saint and we’re lucky to have her,’” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “We’ve [received] a lot of positive feedback over the years about an unsung hero she is.”

But that unsung hero status has translated into many years when FitzGerald-Kemmett suspected deeply that Collins needed help, but didn’t want to ask for it. 

“The fact that you’re here asking for help says a lot to me and I would like to find a way to 100-percent support this,” she said, noting that the vote taken that night to remove the free cash subsidy from the transfer station could help with that.

Sullivan said that, starting with a deficit of more than $1.1 million in the town budget, cuts had to be made, the use of free cash carefully controlled and none of the staffing requests from any department were funded.

“The only way to [add positions] is through free cash and free cash isn’t quite free,” he said. “So how do you hire these people and then fire them next year?”

Right now, he said free cash is the only way to pay for the position. The override last year was enough to keep the town above water, but Sullivan warned that taxes would have to be raised in the next few years as it is.

“That is a fact,” he said. “We pay the lowest taxes around. … That is unsustainable. The only way to add these positions is to raise taxes.”

FitzGerald-Kemmett acknowledged the hard work the Finance Committee has done to close the gap as closely as it has, but suggested there were other areas where more savings were possible. She offered the suggestion of not refinishing the gym floor for $25,000, citing the opportunities to raise the meal tax as all surrounding communities have done, revenue from taxes and community impact fees from the new marijuana business, and new building projects are also in the pipeline.

“This is $22,000 and I, in all good conscience, cannot vote against it,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.

On recording equipment for meetings, Sullivan said the money to purchase equipment was not available, but Dyer indicated WCHA-TV has cameras available for use. Health Board member Arlene Dias said the community access station also trains volunteers to use the equipment. Sullivan argued that could pose an undue burden on committee members, to which Dyer objected, noting that he also has used his own computer to audio record meetings and prepare minutes.

“I think this is what the town needs because there’s a lot of speculation out there where we don’t know what’s going on on these committees” he said.

FitzGerald-Kemmett agreed, saying that minutes frequently don’t capture the nuance of a meeting the way a recording does.

“If we’re going to have a more transparent town government … I think [this] is very important to the town,” she said. 

The Health Board has approved the $100 transfer station sticker fees, according to Health Agent Gil Amado projected it would take three years to make the facility solvent and no longer in need of free cash subsidies. This year’s subsidy is $165,000. Other towns working on a pay-as-you-throw basis are “hitting the fees pretty hard,” he said.

“I asked for a plan, a sheet to be able to break everything down instead of just throwing numbers around, and we don’t have that tonight,” Dyer said. “I don’t support just continuing to use free cash to fund the transfer station. … There doesn’t seem to be the will from the Board of Health to charge what it costs to operate the transfer station.”

Sullivan said the FinCom is taking the transfer station on as its focus to try turning things around.

Budgets on a roll

By

HANOVER — Both Abington and Scituate have approved the South Shore Tech budget for fiscal 2023 at their respective town meetings, Superintendent-Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey reported to the School Committee on Wednesday, April 13.

“We now go into a bit of a town meeting lull and we head into the first Monday of May  — the Super Monday [May 2] — where the other communities’ town meetings are scheduled,” he said. “I believe, at this point, we’re done with any finance committee or advisory committee meetings, but stand by to answer any questions between now and the town meetings that are left.”

Hickey also asked the committee to establish a building committee for the renovation expansion program for which they are seeking MSBA funding. 

The committee, consisting of Hickey and the School Committee, was approved.

The district was advised of the invitation to into the MSBA’s Core Program last month.

“The letter basically puts us in a pretty exclusive club — at least 17 schools out of at least 58 received this letter saying, ‘Your needs that you identified and our own research confirms that you have been invited to show us in the next nine months that you are ready to begin this process,’” Hickey said at the time. “We’ve been applying since 2015.”

He said those previous applications, and the funds set aside during those years, puts SST in a position to move very quickly through this first phase.

“They want to make sure you have local support, that you have feasibility funds that you need, that you have plans that make sense,” Hickey said last month said of the MSBA’s caution not to get ahead of things. “[SST] has put some thought and time into this. I have every confidence that they’re going to fulfill all the particular requirements.”

A building committee is one of the earliest concrete steps in the process MSBA requires, but, Hickey said it is unlikely that the committee would have any tangible goals or tasks until later in the process when permission is received to appoint an owner/project manager and an engineering firm.

MSBA has approved a questionnaire to determine whether current programs should be augmented, he said.

“These are all vision statements,” Hickey stressed adding he is more interested in responses to a Chapter 74 program document comparing data from applications and wait list against programs in place or that might be offered against a labor market analysis.

“They want to know, if we had the ability to offer new programming, what might we want to offer?” Hickey said. “If we had the opportunity to expand programs that are currently here, what might we want to expand?”

Hickey said the MSBA looks at enrollment data, including the percent of total students in the district are applying for entrance, as well as attrition rates as part of enrollment projections.

At some point, MSBA would discuss the size of an expansion sought, based on the number of students the district could reasonable attract. They could set a range of students such an expansion could handle, including in the eventuality that another town might join the region.

Hickey expects to bring motion language for a feasibility study before the committee in May. He said early indications are that a reimbursement of 55 percent are to be expected at the end of the project.

“We’re in very good shape for completing the homework assignments,” he said of the process MSBA has put in place with the ability to move to the next step expected in the fall.

Leaving workdays in the dust

By

HANSON — When Town Administrator Lisa Green has a bad day, we all do from time to time, she has a unique way to vent frustration — she burns rubber.

Heck, she gets behind the wheel to leave ’em in her dust when she’s had a good week, too.

“It’s a great stress reliever,” Green said. “When I’m sitting at that starting line, I’m not thinking about, ‘I have to get the warrant for Town Meeting printed out,’ or I have to address this records request, or that personnel item, or this budget request. It’s just focusing on the lights and trying to win the race.”

Her results may not be setting the world on fire — yet — but then, she is basically bringing her car back from the dead. While Green is still awaiting that first win, she said she doesn’t go into a race day thinking she has to win, she is simply aiming to improve at this point as she hones both her car’s mechanics and her drag racing technique.

“I got beat in the first round, but that’s OK. That’s to be expected,” she says of her first competition this season. “My win light will come.”

Last weekend at Epping, she said her car ran really well, even in a loss. She put in a speed of 122 mph in 11.26 seconds over a quarter-mile.

“It is so much fun,” she said of the sport recently. “There’s a strategy to it … learning how to do a burnout is not easy.”

Driving through water and spinning the tires both dries the tires and warms the rubber so it sticks to the blacktop easier for faster takeoffs.

“You have to watch the ‘tree,’” she said. “As the lights come down, you have to make sure you accelerate as soon as that green light goes on.”

Those who fail that, get a red light indicating a false start, and they automatically lose.

So, how many times has that fate befallen her?

“Once,” she said. “It happens even to the most experienced racers.”

Green, who has been interested in cars her whole life through her father Les Lucier,  who was also involved in racing.

“He raced, and ever since I basically could walk, he’s been racing, so I’ve spent my whole life growing up [spending] weekends at New England Dragway,” she said of the Epping, N.H. course where she races the 1983 Camaro that once belonged to her dad while he raced from 2006 to 2009. The car was put away after that — sitting in one place for 10 years.

Getting it back in shape to race has been an investment. The whole bottom had to be sanded, mice had found their way into it and established a lot of nests. The roll bars had also rusted and needed to be restored.

The car itself has a new paintjob and the engine required a lot of work — as well as new brakes, rotors and front tires. After all the work had been completed last season, Green spent it on the “test and tune” phase to see what more needed to be done to get back on track — literally.

“Back in the day, when my father raced that car, the fastest it did was 120 mph down a quarter-mile,” she said. “It did a quarter-mile in 11.023 seconds.”

Last year she drove it in 111mph — in 11.47 seconds.

Over this past winter, a whole new fuel system was put in the car, because a lot of the engine components were old and needed to be rebuilt, sand-blasted or replaced. The rear tires were also replaced this go-round. Hanson mechanic John Sandahl, who owns Tube Chassis Designz on off Franklin Street near the Meadow Brook Restaurant, worked on the fuel system.

She was just hoping for a weekend that was not cold and rainy for another test and tune — she got that this past weekend and her first race in the BP Fuels Points Race Series.

She got the sun, but with a temperature of 47 degrees and a 38-degree wind chill, it still was not perfect weather. It cut the track distance to an eighth-mile because of the track conditions and required recalculations to determine how fast the car would have gone at the full quarter-mile.

“I call myself right now in the ‘PeeWee league,’” Green said, compared to the funny car circuit.

“My father’s crew chief, who is Jimmy Reed from Reed Automotive in Whitman, his son, Jim Jr., and myself are a month apart in age,” she said. The younger Reed has also been racing for a long time.

While racing may run in her family — and that of their friends, Green’s father was not a fan of her wish to take up the sport.

Her dad had three cars through his racing career, the 1983 Camaro being his last one.

Jim Reed, Jr., is now racing a 1952 Corvette, Green said. That one is a nine-second car.

‘Let’s play two!’

By

‘Let’s play two!’

WBSA teams and coaches ring the main ballfield at Whitman Park for ceremonies following the Saturday, April 23 Opening Day Parade, above. Enzo Valentin, right cheers during the ceremonies. As Chicago Cubs legend Ernie Banks used to say, ‘It’s a great day for a ball game; let’s play two!’ See more
photos, page 8.

Photos by Carol Livingstone

The end of an era in Whitman

By

WHITMAN — It’s something David Menard, 69, has been thinking about each Christmas for the past few years now, but this past holiday season he made up his mind — he’s retiring.

“We had our best Christmas ever, we had our best Valentines ever, had my best March ever,” he said. “I’m going out on a winning streak.”

As no one else in the family wished to carry on with the store, that means Menard Jeweler is going out of business after 73 years as a  family business, and 44 years of his own work in helping customers celebrate and commemorate holidays, engagements, weddings, anniversaries, graduations, birthdays and life’s other milestones.

“I’ve got a lot of friends my age that, health wise, have a lot of problems and I’m lucky I’m still good,” he said.

COVID-19 also played a role in the decision to retire.

“It was kind of a wakeup call for me, when we had to shut down for those three months,” he said. “All of a sudden instead of waking up at 3:30 or 4 a.m. [thinking about a particular order], I’m starting to wake up at 6, 6:30 …all the stress was gone and I’m thinking ‘Is this what life is like?’ Maybe my wife is right.”

He’s enjoyed working with customers, solving problems, creating pieces for people and restoring antique watches, but now it’s time to enjoy life. But no specific retirement plans have been made.

“Right now, my only focus is on taking care of our customers,” he said. “That’s basically where I’m at.”

His father started the business in 1949 after his service in World War II. With a background in a family jewelry store, the elder Menard attended the Waltham School of Watchmaking and moved to Whitman because it was between his hometown of Taunton and Rockland, where David Menard’s mother was raised.

“My dad worked for A.C. Tucker,” he said. When they were retiring, they asked if the Menards were interested in buying that store at 27 South Ave. The current location at 31 South Ave., was purchased from the Spellman family in 1960. The building was constructed by Cardinal Spellman’s father in 1885 as a grocery store.

Years ago, Menard came across a bronze medal the cardinal used to present to people, and fashioned it into a keychain for the store’s keys.

It’s been a career full of characters and coincidences David Menard will never forget — from attending watchmaking school at the North Bennett Street Industrial School in Boston, with one of the original Brink’s robbers, Vincent Costa, to graduating on Feb, 6, 1978 – the day of the Blizzard of ’78. But most, of all it’s the customers he’s met over the years and the community he felt a connection to that he’ll miss.

He hasn’t reached for the tissues yet, but some of his customers have.

“There’s been generations — ‘my grandmother was here, my great grandmother was here,’” he said. “We’ve had several women crying last week, this week.”

When asked if he had started feeling the tears welling up, Menard said he hadn’t yet.

“I will,” he said. But he hasn’t had time to think about what the store’s last day will be like.

“We’ve been so incredibly busy,” he said. “It was amazing. We put the signs up last Wednesday night and Thursday, Friday, Saturday last week were just absolutely crazy.”

Some other customers have sent gorgeous flowers.

“It’s been such a nice business over the years,” he said. “People give us food, and candy, and gifts, and tips, and flowers, and just nice comments, thank you cards all the time. It’s really amazing.”

One person who is very happy with his decision is Menard’s wife Doreen. 

“Have fun,” is her plan.

“Basically, it’s freedom,” he said. “I worked for years and years [and] never took any time off, and for many years did six days a week. It’s just what we had to do.”

“Everyone has such nice comments,” Doreen said.

Menard gives Doreen a lot of credit for the business’ success, including her work on the front window displays.

“Without her support in handling so many aspects of the business, I would not have been able to carry on and do what we’ve done,” he said.

After buying the business from his parents in 1980, there was a big mortgage to contend with.

On Tuesday, shortly before closing, Menard waited on a couple purchasing a gift. The woman asked about who he might be referring customers to in the future.

That he has not nailed down yet, he said, noting that a close friend he has “known for decades,” is looking to open a business in town, but hasn’t decided where or what the focus of the business might be.

It appears, however, that a supportive customer base awaits him.

“We’ve been friends our whole life,” realtor and fellow Winterfest Committee member Richard Rosen said. “He’s a wonderful guy.”

It appears, however, that a supportive customer base awaits him.

Town Administrator Lincoln Heineman said the town will miss the vital part of the downtown business community Menard’s has been.

“We really appreciate their contribution to the whole town over many years and they’ll be missed.” he said.

“Menard’s has been a staple of the town for over 70 years,” Selectman Justin Evans said Tuesday. “I wish the family a well-deserved retirement and thank them not just for their business, but for all they’ve given back to the community over the years.”

Selectman Randy Lamatina also lamented the end of the era.

“It is sad to see Menard’s closing,” he said. “The store truly is a Whitman landmark. I’d like to thank the Menard Family for their many years of dedication to our community. I wish the Menards along, healthy retirement.”

“Menard’s has been one of the foundations of Whitman,” Selectman Dan Salvucci said, noting Duval’s Pharmacy is another. “They are just on a pedestal. The entire family has done a lot for the town.”

Rosen agreed Menard’s closing will be kind of a loss for Whitman Center.

“It’s the next to the last original businesses in Whitman Center,” he said. “Duval’s is the other one. Back in the late ’40s and early ’50s there were a number of businesses that all started around the same time.”

Joubert’s and Temple Street Garage, owned by Rosen’s father, were all established in a four-year period.

“I understand David wants to retire, and I don’t blame him,” he said, “But it is a loss to the center. He’s done a great job down there for all those years and he served with me on the WinterFest Committee for 20 years. I wish him all the best.”

Community involvement for David Menard has included the silver bowls presented to the top four WHRHS students each year, a buy local program with fellow merchants in Whitman Center, volunteering with the Winterfest Committee for 20 years, — “one of the most enjoyable things that I did,” he said — helping create the “chocolate chip cookie” for the First Night Cookie Drop in 2015, he served on the playground committee and has supported youth soccer and baseball, the food pantry

“I just wanted to give to the town,” Menard said. “There was a Eugenia Lovell Medal. We used to do that, but over the years that got too expensive and I think we transitioned to the bowls instead.”

The bowls were intended as a salute to accomplishment.

“We just wanted to commemorate the students’ hard work,” he said. “Those kids work really hard for the what they get.”

Graduation will be different from here on, Dollars for Scholars President Michael Ganshirt agreed.

“They’ve always been very nice and generous,” Ganshirt said. “They’ve never said no. They’re genuine, giving people that the community will miss greatly. … We always appreciated what they did for us.”

While Menard wasn’t certain that the silver bowl project was also done at South Shore Tech that Ganshirt alluded to, he did take a welding class there that came in handy.

“I just wanted to learn it,” he said. “I do goldsmithing and I work on cars as a hobby. When we did the Toll House Cookie Drop several years ago, I kind of instigated the [making of] the cookie.”

The Winterfest Committee had been discussing a change to a first night celebration and he told them about his welding class, offering to talk to the teacher about the midnight cookie drop idea.

The event ushered in 2015 and 2016.

Menard almost followed a career path in medicine, graduating from Bridgewater State with a degree in biology and worked briefly at an area hospital he declines to identify.

“I didn’t like the politics there,” he said. “It was awful, I kind of felt like I was in junior high school again.”

He told his dad he wanted to work in the jewelry business at the family store, but his parents tried to dissuade him, because of the time demands of the retail business.

At watchmaking school — a two-year program of 10 months each year — he spend the first year without ever touching a watch. Instead he had to make his own tools. 

“The second year we got to work on watches,” he said.

While the jewelry business has not changed much in the course of his career, he has concentrated on dealing with American jewelry makers.

“A lot of really nice manufacturers have gone now,” he said. “There’s [also] very, very few people going into the business.”

Some new businesses don’t want to get involved in the repair end of the business, either.

District looks to busing savings

By

School district calculations on an alternative transportation formula may bring retroactive reimbursements as far back as fiscal 2021, district officials told the W-H School Committee at its April 13 meeting.

“I don’t want to speculate to put a wrinkle in what we’re talking about tonight,” Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak said, thanking the residents who suggested new ways of looking at the problem. “But, I think this is positive for the district and for both communities in that we could get more mandates reimbursibles and we also cut the cost of non-mandated busing tremendously.”

The committee voted unanimously to amend the fiscal 2023 costs for non-mandated busing for Hanson at $55,234.19 and unanimously to amend the fiscal 2023 costs for non-mandated busing for Whitman to $216,059.44.

They also voted 8-1 amend the operating assessment to Hanson to $13,245,052.04 and to 8-1 set Whitman’s operating assessment at $16,741,119.30. Committee member Dawn Byers voted no to each operating assessment change.

“This is what being a good partner is, working together with members of the community, finding savings, passing them along,” said Committee Vice Chairman Christopher Scriven. “I don’t see the benefit to anyone of doing anything else at this time.”

After two recent Zoom meetings with DESE following a suggested alternative transportation funding formula, Szymaniak then had a conversation with “the men from MARS (the Mass. Association of Regional Schools),” who asked if the district had ever looked at busing and mileage.

“When you take an Über, you pay so much from Point A to Point B … and if it’s 10 miles further, Über charges you more,” he said. He and Committee Chairman Christopher Howard, after discussing the idea, asked Business Manager John Stanbrook to investigate the option.

“He spent quite a bit of time analyzing every student, where they live … and he came up with a theory on mileage and transportation, for mandated transportation and mileage,” Szymaniak said. “The goal … is to try to maximize the amount of state money we could get in reimbursement — and I think we found a solution.”

After running it by DESE funding expert Jay Sullivan, he suggested an easier way to do it.

“That methodology is accepted by the state, and retroactively to fiscal 2022,” Szymaniak said. When a Whitman Finance Committee member asked if the amended calculation could be applied to fiscal 2021 as well, Sullivan said it could.

“I don’t know what that means yet, so I don’t want to discuss numbers, but Jay has John working on fiscal ’21’s actuals to see what we can get for reimbursements,” he said. “Thank you [Kathleen] Ottina for throwing that suggestion out there.”

He also thanked Selectmen Randy LaMattina and Justin Evans, Town Administrator Lincoln Heineman and residents John Galvin — who also serves on the Finance Committee — and Shawn Kain for helping the district “look through a different lens” at the problem of non-mandated busing costs.

The “mile method” — assuming a 90-percent state reimbursement method and approval of the method — Whitman’s assessment could be about $17.3 million, the operating assessment $16,741,000, non-mandated busing $216,000, and capital assessments would stay the same. In Hanson, the assessment could be about $13,782,199, the operating assessment $13,245,052.04, non-mandated busing $55,234 and capital assessments would stay the same.

While the bottom line of the certified budget of $58,492,314 would not change if the mile method were approved, Whitman’s assessment would go down $420,603.92 and Hanson could see a $163,001.20.

Criteria for non-mandated busing services would not change, only the manner in which cost is calculated.

“This is a permanent change,” Howard said of the decision to be made. While that is good, the committee has to keep in mind that reimbursement rates change, he cautioned.

School district counsel, meanwhile advised the assessment breakdown forwarded to towns be continued so it is clear what the process will mean.

Committee member Dawn Byers suggested a single line item for the school costs in accordance with Mass. General Law, but member Beth Stafford urged that a detailed breakdown was needed this year to show the work the committee has done to lower costs.

“It’ just a matter of seeing it,” Stafford said.

Member David Forth, who has been critical of the implementation of the Regional Agreement in the past, suggested continuing the present method of calculating non-mandated busing costs until a Regional Agreement Amendment Committee could hash out what changes should be made.

Both Heather Kniffen and Fred Small expressed concern that the change could create an inequitable situation.

“The way it’s done right now is equitable for both towns, it distributes the costs where they should be distributed, and to whom they should be distributed,” Small said. “And that’s fair and I think both towns should feel that that’s fair.”

Forth said the 80-20 split, in place since at least 2001, is more of an inequity.

Hanson Selectman Jim Hickey agreed there have been problems with the regional agreement for a while and characterized the regional district as a “bad marriage for Hanson.” 

“I can tell you that people in Hanson think that the School Committee has somehow lost their way and forgot why they were voted into the seats,” he said. “I think it can be fixed. I think we have to sit down at the table and start from the beginning.”

He said there is a need to fix the system now in place.

“I’m a bit gobsmacked that I’m hearing for the first time about legal opinion that has been received about a busing issue, that have been received that our town has not seen,” Selectman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett. “We have not been asked for an opinion.”

She said she has not seen either the Whitman town counsel or the school committee counsel’s opinion on the busing funding.

“That feels extremely wrong to me,” she said. Talk of breaking non-mandated busing as a separate warrant article does not help Hanson, either, as the town voted the night before to place articles onto their warrant with a deadline of Friday, April 15 to close it. Any additions past that date would require an emergency meeting.

“It feels very much like the line of communication is broken,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “What feels like a very unilateral discussion of the budget is not going to help heal the wounds that we’ve still got from the change in the methodology.”

She did agree with those who suggested the need for a new Regional Agreement.

“We need to sit down and have the hard conversations and come up with a regional agreement that we all feel accurately represents what each town should be bringing to the table, and then we just move forward,” she said. 

Howard noted that Whitman folks have been present at about four or more public budget subcommittee meetings where busing has been discussed. The School Committee received a letter from Whitman town counsel after its last meeting and then consulted its own counsel in turn.

He, too, agreed that a new Regional Agreement needs to be negotiated.

“The cleaner we can make this, the more better off we will be,” Howard said.

Adding up the cost of trash

By

HANSON — A discussion on transfer station expenses, its deficit, and how the Board of Health plans to close that gap has been postponed to Tuesday, April 26 as detailed information on the revenues coming into the facility that Selectmen want to see are compiled by health officials.

The Board of Health and Health Agent Gilbert Amado met with the Board of Selectmen, Tuesday, April 12 to discuss the ongoing issue.

Amado said the Health Board did vote on a $100 sticker fee at the Transfer Station for a two-year period, and $50 for an extra sticker at the same address.

“That’s going to make things look a lot better,” he said about operations at the Transfer Station, noting there are $37,000 in retained earnings in the account.

The free cash subsidy sought to balance the Transfer Station line item at Town Meeting is $165,000, including $37,200 in retained earnings, according to Town Administrator Lisa Green.

There are plans for the Health Board and the Finance Committee to met in July or thereabouts to review retained earnings and exactly how much money the sticker fees are actually generating.

Selectman Chairman Matt Dyer asked if the increased sticker fee would close the deficit at the dump, noting that July is in the new fiscal year.

 “That’s what it appears — that’s why we are going to do it,” Amado said. “We know that the existing sticker expires in July, so we have to re-sticker the town by July 1.”

There are about 2,800 previously allotted stickers in circulation. Allowing for about 400 lost stickers, Amado said the new fees should still “fix the deficit” of anticipated revenue.

However, he did not have a total number for income generated by the Transfer Station.

Selectman Kenny Mitchell said that was a vital number to have.

“How much total are we bringing in — including mattresses, including bags, including everything that’s any dollar that’s generated to the Board of Health,” Mitchell asked. “What is that? … I want to get back to your original statement that this is going to cover the deficit.”

Looking at the numbers so far, he said he disagreed.

“I want to be wrong on this,” Mitchell said.

Dyer asked if it would be helpful to postpone the discussion. Amado said it would and asked for about a week and a half to compile the figures.

Dyer said he would be looking for operating costs, revenues coming in and “how we are getting to zero” [for the level of subsidy required] as well as plans to mitigate inflation.

“I would love to see a business plan where the Transfer Station is net zero,” Dyer said.

“I don’t completely understand how this is going to completely solve the deficit,” Selectman Laura Fitzgerald-Kemmett said of the sticker increase and free cash transfer.

The total operating expense of the Transfer Station is $392,027, Amado said in response to Dyer’s question — $127,000 for attendants’ salaries and wages; $9,200 goes to utilities, uniforms, water and other expenses.

Fees to help defray those costs come from cardboard, stickers [from which about $120,000 after production costs], leaving an operating deficit of $272,000.

Amado said the cost of trip tickets and every disposal item for which a fee is charged also increased by $5 per item, according to Health Board Chair Arlene Dias.

Fitzgerald-Kemmett asked if any consideration has been given to reducing hours at the facility.

“We haven’t really discussed that — reducing hours — the main thing has been trying to reduce the cost of things,” Amado said. “You’ve got to get the mainstream waste reduced.”

Fitzgerald-Kemmett agreed the staff has a tough assignment in that.

Selectman Jim Hickey said closing the facility for one extra day per week would only save about $20,000, arguing that Hanson should consider curbside pickup with a single carrier.

Amado said the Health Board is also seeking recycling grants, and have signed a contract with Big Brothers and Big Sisters to remove almost 962 pounds of textile waste.

“Textiles are now banned from mainstream waste,” he said.

Residents are pitching in to help, as well.

“Residents of Hanson do a pretty good job of recycling and they do clean trash,” Amado said. “They don’t do nasty trash.”

A resident suggested it should also be factored in how many sticker holders would be lost to private haulers with the price increase.

Slower increases might make better sense, he argued.

“The whole trash industry is changing now,” Amado said noting that the 95-gallon bins private haulers once provided are now 65-gallons as haulers were losing profits.

Hauler are merging and state regulations are also changing. Finance Committee Chairman Kevin Sullivan said pay-as-you-throw would have required 100-percent participation to work.

“We didn’t want to jump to a town contract, because once they get here, it’s going impossible to get out and, if they keep increasing the price, we’re sort of right back where we started,” Sullivan said.

There are also a lot of questions on how the landfill would be capped and the environmental regulations involved.

HERE’S THE PITCH

By

Owen Cadres fires one in from the stretch as he pitched for the Tag Team Fitness Mets during opening day of Hanson’s Little League season Saturday, April 9. The game followed a parade from Town Hall led by a Hanson Fire Department engine and ceremonies at Boiteri Field. Whitman’s opening day parade is Saturday, April 23 at 9 a.m. See more photos, pages 8 and 9.                                                                                                     

TM articles eye playgrounds

By

WHITMAN — There are three school playground-related articles — Articles 20 through 22 — on the annual Town Meeting warrant, according to Town Administrator Lincoln Heineman.

The three projects total $700,000.

“The schools had requested that those all be in one article,” Heineman told Selectmen at the Tuesday, April 12 meeting. “My recommendation is that, I think they are different things.”

Heineman said there will be plenty of masks and test kits will be available at the Town Meeting, Monday, May 2 but no other COVID-19 protocols are being planned at this time.

There are two different playgrounds at Conley and another at Duval.

“Two [articles involve] entirely new playgrounds and one would be a retro-fit,” he said, leaving it to the Board whether they wanted three articles or one.

The Capital Committee also discussed that there is about a bit more than $250,000 in the Duval roof account that Heineman suggested the funds maybe needed for “incidental, smaller repairs,” but not for a larger replacement because the town would not be eligible for the MSBA’s accelerated roof repair program for at least a few more years. 

“Rather than have that money sit there and not be put to good use, we in the warrant apply $235,000 of toward the same building [Duval] for a playground that the schools are indicating is in dire need of replacement,” he said. “There wasn’t any objection to that from the superintendent.”

Selectman Dan Salvucci asked how long the schools could keep the roof repair money and if they could use it for what they want, or do they need the town’s approval.

“It was appropriated for a specific task and they didn’t do it,” he said. “Should that money come back to the town after a certain time?”

Heineman said the town accountant has aggressively looked at capital appropriations more than two years old in every department and asking about the status of projects for which the funds were appropriated.

“If it’s already been done and this is the remainder, fine, great, we’re going to take it back and put it back to free cash so it can be re-appropriated somewhere else,” he said. “That’s an activity we have gone through with the schools and will continue to do so.”

“Why aren’t the schools … on a regular basis, repairing and getting something fixed for $500 instead of $5,000 when they let it go,” Salvucci said. “That’s my question, and probably what I’ll raise at Town Meeting. They need to look at the equipment at each of the schools and maintain them like we do at our town park.”

Selectman Justin Evans, who also serves on the Capital Committee said the Duval playground was installed in 2000 and they have been maintaining. But, he noted, a lot of the maintenance has become a question of if it breaks, you take it out.

The school district had requested an article for $54,002 for mold remediation at Whitman Middle School, but it is not on the Town Meeting warrant. Town officials have stated that they do not view the work as a capital expense.

Heineman noted the School Committee would be discussing the budget the next evening [Wednesday, April 13], with the non-mandated busing issue possibly up for discussion. He noted that Whitman town counsel has opined any change to non-mandated busing should be contained in a warrant article submitted to the town from the schools.

“We don’t know if that may happen tomorrow night,” he said. “We don’t know what the schools may do regarding either the main operating assessment or the current non-mandated busing assessment that is on the warrant, as that is the number right now that is certified by the schools.”

Heineman said he and Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski are considering calling a Select Board meeting at 10 a.m., Friday, April 15 to react to whatever action the school takes.

“It makes sense for us to vote our final opinion on the warrant once we have that information from the schools,” Kowalski said. 

Selectman Randy LaMattina reminded the board there is now a formula that would save the towns of Whitman and Hanson “considerable amounts of money” in non-mandated busing costs and the state’s reimbursement.

“I think the town of Whitman saves, from just the assessment alone, about $271,000,” he said. The total for the towns of Whitman, Hanson and the district with the assessment change is about $583,000, he said.

“To see the full benefit, we need to see an assessment change,” LaMattina said. “Things are moving in the right direction on that.”

He credited the work School Committee Chairman Christopher Howard has done in trying to work out a solution to the issue.

Hanson’s budget gap is trimmed

By

HANSON — The town’s budget gap has been closed to within $278,572 — down from about $1 million a little over a month ago.

“With the cuts and sharpening of the pencils that we’ve done and [despite] the surprise of the schools that came out with a 5.5 percent assessment to the town on March 16, we brought our budget deficit down,” Town Administrator Lisa Green reported to the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday, April 5. “The school assessment came as a surprise, where the assessment that was forwarded to us on Feb. 16 was 4.1 percent.”

Green said the jump in the school assessment was not expected. After further budget computations, the bottom line came to within $278,572 or balance.

“We do continue to look for ways to cut any way we can without impacting personnel,” she said. “It’s a work in progress.”

Green said she is still hoping the school district will lower the assessment a little bit.

She also spoke with Whitman Town Administrator Lincoln Heineman, who has indicated that, if there is a change in the non-mandated busing formula, Whitman will be able to afford their 4.87 percent assessment within their levy.

She said that would put Hanson in a difficult position.

“If Whitman is saying that they can afford their assessment within the levy, there’s not going to be a lot of leverage and ground for us to ask the schools to lower their assessment,” she said. 

Green had advised the school district that Hanson could afford no more than a 3.5 percent increase, and said 3.3 percent would work within the levy.

In speaking to district business manager John Stanbrook, Green reported he is not aware of any changes to any of the assessments at this time.

“Is there a way to reach out to Whitman, as a partner — and knowing, in part, why we are where we are — and ask if they will partner with us and ask them to lower the assessment,” Selectman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “Just because they can afford it, doesn’t mean they necessarily want to put things on hold and want to pay all of that money, as well.”

She noted there have been past years when Whitman could not afford what they were assessed and Hanson successfully worked with them to work with the district to lower that assessment.

Town Meeting
warrant

A week after closing the Town Meeting warrant the previous week, Selectmen voted on two articles one of which was inadvertently left off the warrant through a printing error and the other, which had been with town counsel for a clarification on wording and was returned after the warrant had closed.

One was a citizen’s petition about amending the town’s recall provision, including giving residents their own grounds for initiating recall, requiring 300 voter signatures on the requesting petition and must name the official being recalled, which is required to be on the warrant. The other would allow selectmen to enter into a lease for if an RFP was agreed to regarding the Lite Control building.

Selectmen voted to place both articles and to remove another one that would place a generator at the transfer station, but that had not originated with the Board of Health.

Another three capital articles had been previously withdrawn by the Highway Department after Green had instructed departments to pare down their budgets.

Selectmn signed the approved warrant.