Whitman-Hanson Express

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No serious injuries in Hanson house fire

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HANSON–The Hanson Fire Department extinguished a house fire Wednesday evening, according to Hanson Fire Chief Jerome Thompson.

The Regional Old Colony Communications Center received a report of a house fire at 66 High Street around 7:45 p.m. The first responding firefighters arrived to find heavy fire in an enclosed area under a rear porch of a home, which sits off the road. Firefighters gained entry to the home and knocked down the fire.

All of the occupants were out of the home when firefighters arrived. Paramedics evaluated one of the occupants at the scene for a minor injury, but the occupant was not transported to a hospital. No other injuries were reported.

The enclosed area under the porch suffered heavy fire damage. The home is uninhabitable due to heavy smoke damage.

The American Red Cross is assisting two adults and three children who lived in the home.

A working fire assignment brought firefighters from Whitman, Pembroke and Halifax to the scene to assist. Hanover firefighters provided station coverage. Hanson Police provided traffic control.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation by the Hanson Fire Department and the State Fire Marshal’s office. The fire doesn’t appear to be suspicious at this time.

Boards debate budget partnership

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What had been billed as a discussion of the effect of the school district’s budget on town finances, on Tuesday, March 8, devolved for a time into a debate on the intentions of the Whitman and Hanson Select boards and the meaning of partnership, but concluded with some firm ideas of how future budget planning should be conducted.

Whitman Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski chaired the joint select board meeting, as Hanson Selectmen Chairman Matt Dyer unable to attend due to work commitments.

Kowalski said he and Dyer “had a nice talk” about the meeting objectives on Monday. 

“There’s been, apparently, some varying opinions about what this meeting was all about,” Kowalski said, opening the session. “Matt and I kind of agree [on] what we think the meeting is about, so we wanted that, in his absence, I communicate that to you all, too.”

That focus was to be simply a joint meeting of the two select boards, stemming from a meeting among the town administrators and selectmen Randy LaMattina of Whitman and Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett of Hanson, who thought it would be a good idea for the two boards to meet together to look at the fiscal 2023 district budget and — at some point, pay some attention to the long-range school district sustainability, according to Kowalski.

While he concluded the meeting saying it may have been a mistake to set up a meeting just between the select boards, even as he said some objectives had been met. What needs to be worked on, he said is a process for next year’s budget cycle, not this year’s.

 “I see the meeting as our giving the schools advice for their certification meeting next week,” Kowalski said. “As the two boards of selectmen get together, might be able to let them know what we think we can handle for the next year over this year and what might happen in the future.”

When Hanson Selectman Joe Weeks offered appreciation for both the Whitman Selectmen and the School Committee for meeting with them, less than 20 minutes into the session, School Committee Chairman Christopher Howard complained that he was not invited, although Whitman Selectmen did express their intention that Howard, Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak and Business Manager John Stanbrook to be invited to the meeting.

“Wow,” someone could be heard whispering into an open mic.

“We’re here to observe,” Howard said. “Before we talk about partnerships, we’re here to listen, but we were not included or invited to this conversation.”

Hanson Selectman Jim Hickey said he was against the meeting, while he favored the premise, but excused himself because he was under the impression that a formal invitation had been extended.

“I don’t have any authority,” Howard said, stressing that he is only one of 10 votes on the School Committee.

Kowalski suggested there may have been a communication problem between himself and Howard.

“I made it clear that I did not want the Superintendent to feel he needed to make a presentation … and was clear that they be included in the meeting,” Kowalski said.

Heineman wanted to make it clear that he wanted to send a formal email invitation … but his explanation was cut short by Hickey’s walkout. He later said that Szymaniak asked him to hold off on a formal email until he could talk to Howard, who issued his own email saying he would be there.

“The question is not the invitation, it’s the expectation,” Howard said. “We do not have the authority to work with the boards of selectmen on the budget.”

FitzGerald-Kemmett said a process needed to be documented to settle the issue by discussing best practice and a possible timeline for solving it, for another meeting.

Whitman resident Shawn Kain lauded Howard’s five-year budget plan to foster sustainability in the regional budget.

“If the schools are laying all their cards on the table for the next five years, it would be very helpful for both towns to do the same,” he said. “Then you have a more productive conversation about this year and you could predict what’s going to happen in the next couple of years.”

Whitman Selectman Justin Evans had expressed concern at the outset about the schedule of budget talks between the towns and the school district, which has, over recent years, waited until the statutory deadline to vote a budget before presenting it to the towns.

“That begins our process of trying to make everything work out,” Evans said. “If the whole process could be moved forward a little bit, it would make balancing the town budgets a lot easier on our side, for Whitman, at least.”

He said that he imagined Hanson was in a similar predicament.

“If we wait until we get numbers from the schools, it’s often mid-March, late March mid-April by the time we’re all sort of in agreement — one year, even up to town meetings,” he said.

Kowalski asked the town administrators about what they foresee as the assessment figures their towns could handle.

Whitman Town Administrator Lincoln Heineman said the assessment figure, which called for a 5.76 percent increase, presented by Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak on Feb. 2, would require the use of one-time revenue — free cash — in Whitman. The 3.67 percent increase quoted on Feb. 16 would fit within Whitman’s levy without the use of free cash, but he expressed concern about that being the case for fiscal 2025 and beyond.

“What the schools are asking now we can handle within our levy,” Kowalski confirmed.

Hanson Town Administrator Lisa Green said she and Town Accountant Todd Hackett had to use some placeholders to calculate the budget, working with a 3.25, 3.5 and 4 percent assessment variables. 

“We thought we were safe with a 3.5 percent assessment [increase],” she said. “When we came to the meeting and saw the 5.76 [percent] and they rounded it down to 3.7 [percent] … The tuition-free all-day kindergarten is a huge chunk of money ($740,000) … Hanson cannot afford that.”

She said Hanson is hoping to find some ground with schools so they don’t have to tap into one-time funds to make the budget work.

“We don’t want to decimate our town departments, which we have just really built up to where they need to be,” she said.

Kowalski asked what percentage Hanson can handle. Green said Hackett is comfortable with 3 percent. Whitman was comfortable with the 3.67 percent figure the town had already received from the schools.

Whitman Selectman Dan Salvucci said that, while W-H doesn’t need to certify a budget as early as South Shore Tech, which has member towns that hold April town meetings, but said budget figures should be available sooner than they currently are.

He urged using the governor’s January budget numbers, which he said were “99 percent” solid and develop a budget to present to the towns in January or early February.

“The sooner we know the numbers, the better,” Salvucci said.

FitzGerald-Kemmett agreed with Salvucci’s suggestion, adding that, “something has jumped the tracks in the last couple of years.” In past years, selectmen received the budget in an email from the superintendent, who would come to a selectmen’s meeting to make a case for the budget they were presenting.

“I recognize COVID may have complicated that, from happening — I think it still could have happened virtually — but I would like to see us get back on track with an earlier conversation, more documentation, more engagement and partnership with the two boards of selectmen so that we aren’t making hasty decisions on the fly. That really isn’t a way for us to make budget decisions.”

While she said selectmen to a person value and respect schools, but that it is disrespectful to town employees to have to make important budget decisions last-minute.

LaMattina said he is looking for a more transparent process.

“If we’ve learned anything over the last few months of the school budget, it’s been active citizens that have notified us … of Circuit Breaker issues,” he said. “We now see a transportation issue that wasn’t addressed over a year and a half ago that, with better management, you’ll see a savings to both towns.”

He also reminded those at the meeting that he has called the FY ’23 school budget reckless because it is not a 3.94 percent overall increase.

“If you look at the amount of money that’s being tucked into this budget with one-time funds … dedicated last year and now have somehow changed … the process has jumped the tracks,” he said.

“We talk about partnerships, well, where is the partnership?”

LaMattina said he really does not see much partnership from the school district, pointing specifically to a remark at the last school committee meeting that Whitman Selectmen were trying to cut transportation to save a dollar, when they were merely advocating for better management of it.

“This budget is disastrous for the towns,” LaMattina said. “If they’re allowed to put this much one-time money in, by their business manager’s own accounting … serious deficit in 2025.”

He’s said the same thing for the last three or four years.

“If we’re talking partnerships, then be a good partner,” he said.

Weeks agreed that the towns are looking at a massive fiscal issue that won’t be solved this year and that it was important to have a civil conversation about it.

“I think there was some confusion around what was the purpose of this meeting,” Howard said. “I said [Szymaniak] and I would be at the meeting to listen … we are certainly willing to share and add perspective but we [were] not preparing any presentation or prepared to discuss what should or should not be in the budget.”

FitzGerald-Kemmett said she never thought there was an intention to negotiate any portion of the budget, so a full presence of the School Committee was not needed.

“There was never any notion that we’d be asking you guys to negotiate, on the spot, some budget thing,” she said. “That wasn’t ever a concept, so it was unnecessary to have a full School Committee there.”

Salvucci said he doesn’t understand why it is so difficult to provide a number of what they may need to run the school district, recalling past W-H budget presentations on a Saturday with all members of the towns Select boards and Finance committees attending.

Szymaniak said those weekend budget releases fizzled out because half the people didn’t show up. He said budget work begins when enrollment figures are available in October, but it’s the January governor’s budget that really sets the tone.

“I don’t know what Whitman and Hanson can afford because no one has given me the numbers, either,” he said. “So when I say it works both ways in a partnership — send me something.” He admitted that the budget uses one-time funds, but said it was the best that could be done.

“I have a solid office, now, financially,” he said. “If we need to have a joint meeting like this, I’m all for it … I can make a presentation.”

But he needs a commitment from both towns that people will attend. Weeks said a substantial amount of time had been spent on an email, and he wanted to see some process in place to get beyond the email conversation.

“We have to move forward,” he said.

FitzGerald-Kemmett said that, while there’s a lot of work to be done by all three partners, what she was hearing was a willingness to partner and to process.

“That gives me hope,” she said.

MSBA invites SST into Core Program

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HANOVER — The Massachusetts School Building Authority has voted to invite South Shore Tech into its Core Program, Superintendent/Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey has announced.

The MSBA board made the decision on the first step in the process of determining which schools might win eventual approval for a renovation or new building at its Wednesday, March 2 meeting.  SST’s eligibility period extends from April 4 to Dec. 30, 2022. 

“This is welcome news for the school district (on its seventh application!), and we will begin the orientation process with MSBA in April,” Hickey wrote in a letter to town administrators and managers. “An important factor to mention early is that this invitation will not require any additional funds from our towns as part of our FY23 budget.” 

He shared the letter, and one to him from MSBA Executive Director John K. McCarthy, with The Express last week.

“The letter basically puts 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 Sunday. “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.

An important part of the news for SST down the road — as a vocational school — is they have to tell MSBA what school officials think the school’s program of study should look like. What programs in a revamped school does SST want to offer?

Hickey said they will get a few months to outline that on paper, something the school has been doing internally for a long time.

“Is there a chance that we might want to consider offering new programs? Yes,” he said. “But that has to be tied to a local labor market.”

Electrical is the best example, Hickey said. 

“There’s a strong market,” he said. The school could only place 20 out of 38 students who wanted to take electrical after the shop exploratory phase this fall.

“We need a bigger instructional space so we can take more kids,” he said. There are other programs that are adequately sized based on student demand, and others that are not now offered, but for which there might be a labor demand if they were offered, including the growing EV market.

“Part of what I want to do is make sure our programming is not so rigid and siloed that we could not be adaptive,” he said. “If, down the road,  what we need to do is to have some of our automotive majors take courses taught by electrical teachers, we need to make sure that we’ve got the space to do that.”

For example, the school would need to adapt space for electric vehicles and charging stations, he said. 

MSBA will be forming its own team of experts to examine SST’s vision for what the school should offer for the next 50 years. The school has also been approached by Marshfield to see how that town might be accepted into the district. The school currently fits 650 students. For next year, he already has 292 applications for 170 seats.

While about 20 percent who are offered admission decline the offer, he estimated they could still end up with a waiting list of between 50 and 70 kids. Non-resident students can no longer be accepted as freshmen.

“We’ve been very supported by our eight towns and we’ve been able to set aside funding for the feasibility study,” he said. “That’s one of the biggest reasons they give the schools nine months to get things in order.”

But McCarthy was careful to warn that school officials should not “get ahead” of the MSBA without MSBA approval, or they will not be eligible for grant funding.

“All that we need to do right now is show the MSBA that we are willing to set aside the funds if we get moved to the next step,” Hickey said. “The good thing is we don’t have to go back to our eight towns in the middle of a budget cycle and say, ‘Oh, by the way, we’re going to need about $800,000 for a feasibility study.’ We’ve been saving that money in our stabilization fund.”

A vote of the SST regional school committee is all that is needed to show that the district is ready to undertake a feasibility study since they have the fund in place, according to Hickey.

The next step is a series of procedural votes demonstrating that district officials understand the terms and conditions of the program and forming a building committee. 

Another positive is that SST can act toward the next steps in less than the nine months allotted, placing them at the top of the list to onboard. While SST has been given an April start date for that phase, some other schools have been slated to begin it some six months after that.

“This is a multi-year project … and if we can expedite some of the easier parts of it, that’s great for everyone, I think,” Hickey said.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said state Rep. Josh Cutler, whom Hickey said has been very helpful in advocating for the school, including speaking at the MSBA meeting.

“It’s a first step, it’s a big step,” Cutler said of the MSBA letter. “The fact that they’ve been invited to this round is very significant… There’s still lots of work ahead.”

Cutler also credited state Rep. David DeCoste, R-Norwell, with who, he teamed up on a bipartisan way to advocate for the school, for helping achieve the successful outcome.

“They want to make sure you have local support, that you have feasibility funds that you need, that you have plans that make sense,” he said of the 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.”

Despite the “don’t get ahead of things” warning, Hickey said he thinks the letter is good news that’s worth getting excited about, because there is support for the project that would permit SST to go before the MSBA with a project team and manager in place before working with the MSBA on design.

Standing with Ukraine

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 A Whitman homeowner banded trees on the front lawn with the colors of Ukraine’s flag in support of the nation now under invasion by Russia. Americans have been stepping up to help in many ways, including thousands of veterans from the United States volunteering for miltary service to Ukriane. Americans are also donating to charities like Chéf Jose Andrés’ World Central Kitchen, which is feeding refugees, and to Airbnb, through which donors are booking stays in Ukraine homes with no intention of traveling there — to raise funds for Ukranian families. As of Sunday 61,000 nights were booked by Airbnb donors in the U.S., U.K., and Canada.

Photo by Tracy Seelye

Whitman budget moves ahead

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WHITMAN — Town Administrator Lincoln Heineman updated the Board of Selectmen on the fiscal 2023 operating budget, during the Tuesday, March 2 meeting, noting that the Finance Committee is currently reviewing items department by department.

The topic will remain a regular item on the Selectmen’s agendas until Town Meeting in case there is a need for discussion about it.

Selectman Justin Evans, noting that iy came up at a recent Finance Committee meeting, pointed out that under the current budget proposal, there is no one-time money being used in the operating budget.

“I know that’s been a misconception out there in certain circles and that is correct,” Heineman said. “There will be no use of one-time monies used toward the operating budget under this scenario.”

During the meeting Selectmen also voted to accept the resignation of June O’Leary from the position of Member of the Recreation Commission, effective Feb. 16., and approved her appointment as a non-voting Associate Member for a three-year term, through June 30, 2022, in order to fill an existing vacancy.

Selectman Brian Bezanson thanked O’Leary for all she has done for the community.

“Between Recreation, the Historical, Friends of the Park, and, I’m sure, many other boards and committees, she’s been [volunteering] for a long time,” he said. “I want to personally thank her, I know her work ethic and what Whitman means to her. I wish the best to her family, and hope she can find time to occasionally come to the meetings.”

“Well said and well-deserved,” Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski said to punctuate Bezanson’s remarks.

Selectman Dan Salvucci noted, after the board voted to appoint Ryan Tully to the Recreation Commission to fill the remainder of a vacant three-year seat. Tully’s appointment is through June 30.

Salvucci also asked if there was any plan to change the bylaws to permit, if a Recreation Commission seat goes unfilled for an extended period, an associate member “can step in and become a voting member.”

Heineman said he was working on a draft warrant article for town meeting calling for such a change.

“That may resolve some of the issues that they have,” Salvucci said, noting that he and Heineman recently  discussed the Recreation Commission’s recent difficulty filling its vacancies, making a few phone calls to find some volunteers.

“I thank all who volunteered, and I’m hoping now, in a couple of weeks, we’ll be having a meeting … so they can start the business of getting things started in the parks program and the pool program,” Salvucci said, indicating his intention to attend remotely. “Hopefully this ends the problem and, right now, the Recreation Commission will come in and get the job done and do the great job that they’ve always done for the kids in the park.”

Next steps in Whitman’s front office?

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WHITMAN — Does the town need a new assistant town administrator or would a human resources, procurement and grants director better meet the town’s administrative needs?

The Board of Selectmen discussed the issue on Tuesday, March 1. Their selection to become assistant town administrator, Rogeria Medeiros-Kowalczykowski of Stoughton, and the town were unable to reach a contract agreement last month. The board will continue the conversation at its March 15 meeting and will work to develop a common list of expectations in the meantime.

Selectman Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski said the board received two job descriptions — one for a human resources, procurement and grants director and one for the assistant town administrator position — as the board had requested.

Selectman Dan Salvucci noted there were no schedules included, such as a five-day work week or a requirement to attend all the different meetings. Town Administrator Lincoln Heineman said he would ordinarily include that information in the job posting, but it could be added to the job description.

“This is basically a choice that we can make, whether to look for an assistant town administrator or someone who is specifically labled as a human resources, procurement and grants director,” Kowalski said.

Salvucci said his question would be which position is more valuable to the town.

“The fact that we have an assistant town administrator, first of all, when Lincoln goes on vacation, or is sick or something like that, who steps into your shoes at that time?” Salvucci said. He also had questions about responsibilities of making certain decisions and getting things done on a day-to-day basis.

If an assistant town administrator was opted for, he asked if that person would take on a human resources role, or would that stay with Heineman?

Heineman said he called some colleagues in other towns to “shake the trees a bit more” and get some more comparison points.

“If the board’s intention is that the town would post a position at maybe a slightly lesser range for a salary … that if it is not titled assistant town administrator, but instead, an HR director — I would suggest focused on HR director and grants —  if the board’s intention is we pay a little less, we might attract some other folks,” he said. “We won’t know for sure until we get it out there.”

He said there are communities in the midrange, are whatever reasons, are offering salaries a bit less than the midrange for town administrator positions.

“I think it’s true, with all these factors in play, that we … would likely be offering less than a very similar position in similar community,” he said.

Salvucci touched on some of the areas on which the town had some flexibility, Heineman suggested — the possibility of working from home on Fridays and attendance at night meetings, for example.

Selectman Brian Bezanson said he did some research on the positions through some of the online employment sites, and got the sense that the nationwide average for a straight HR position was about $70,000.

“I do think we could pay less than a town administrator,” he said. “But, based on the climate you described in the localities you talked about, I’m no sure how much less we’d be paying and would we be putting ourselves in a little bit of a pickle not having a town administrator.”

He said that was one reason he made the suggestion about an HR director/grant writer.

“It’s a give and take as to do you want to save money or do you want to have the proper people in place?” he said. “I think we have to decide what the real goal is here.”

Kowalski said at this point, he is not certain on the issue.

Selectman Justin Evans said he is concerned that making the switch may make it harder to return to the current model down the road, and favored keeping the assistant town administrator position.

“There’s a certain amount of work that needs to be done, and two people [himself and executive assistant Laurie O’Brien] aren’t enough to do that,” Heineman said. Grants are a concern because there hasn’t been enough people to tackle the mountain of paperwork involved.

He did see it as a professional position, rather than a leadership position.

“I personally don’t want to get bogged down by the title,” Selectman Randy LaMattina said. “I think it’s the qualifications that we need to, as a board, decide that we’re looking to fill.”

Besides the human resources and grant writing, he said going to meetings is important.

Heineman said dealing with HR issues such as COVID requirements, family medical leave and other matters is a lot and is growing all the time, making it difficult for him to take care of that since Whitman has been without an assistant town administrator.

Kowalski agreed that asking them to work in the office on Fridays and attend meetings should not be an untoward requirement.

“The problem I’m trying for us to avoid is repeating what we just went through,” Bezanson said. 

Talking budgets

A joint meeting with Hanson Selectmen, and Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak has been set for 6 p.m., Tuesday, March 8 to review the school district’s fiscal 2023 budget and long-range school district sustainability, Heineman said.

“It’s not like a command performance,” Kowalski asked about an invitation extended to Szymaniak, schools Business manager John Stanbrook and School Committee Chairman Christopher Howard.

“We’re inviting them,” Heineman said. “I just heard before this meeting, that the School Committee might have posted that [meeting], it’s up t the School Committee. If the choose to post it, if they intend to have a quorum there, but our intent is a joint meeting between the two boards of selectmen.”

A meeting must be posted if at least a quorum of a board’s members plan to attend any given meeting or decide to gather to discuss committee or board business.

Kowalski said he had been texting with Howard that day, noting that Howard expressed  a concern that the two boards intentions were different.

“He had heard that the Hanson board wanted a budget presentation, and I said that wasn’t really part of our intention,” Kowalski said. “Our intention was to, hopefully, come together with the Hanson board and come up with some common views about the budget that would help the School Committee in their deliberations.”

Heineman agreed that was Whitman’s intention.

LaMattina said he spoke with Hanson Selectman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett and said that, while there may be individual intentions regarding questions, he does not believe that they were looking for a full [budget] presentation.

“I think the superintendent should be there to speak on a budget that he presented,” LaMattina said. “We should be able to ask questions about it.”

Salvucci suggested any selectman with questions could also watch a recording on WHCA-TV’s YouTube channel of the School Committee meeting in which the budget was presented.

“I’m thinking maybe the schools are looking for direction as to where both boards are standing as far as funding goes,” Salvucci said.

“I think that’s our intent,” Kowalski agreed.

“There’s been so much conversation over partnerships and, ‘We’re all in it together,’ I’m kind of taken aback that some people seem to think it’s unreasonable that two entities that fund this are not entitled to ask questions,” LaMattina said.

Sewer update

The town’s sewer force main project has received a bid that came in about $2 million under the amount appropriated, Heineman reported.

“Another piece of hoped-for, and we’re cautiously optimistic about [news] regarding the cost of the project, is that part of the force main is going underneath an old dump in Brockton,” he said. The land is between Whitman and Massasoit.

The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) had previously said it would require directional drilling rather than trenching, which would be more expensive. The town’s consultant is inquiring about the possibility of being permitted to do some test borings in the dump area to see if digging a trench for that stretch of the pipeline would be environmentally permissible. The DEP is considering the request.

Estimated cost savings would be between $500,000 and $1 million in total project costs, if a trench is permitted.

In other business, Heineman reported that, on the COVID-19 front, the Board of Health had voted on Tuesday, Feb.15 to recommended removal of the mask mandate in town buildings. The state DPH has removed the mask recommendation effective except for those at increased risk due to health reasons, age or someone in the household with health risks or is in an at-risk age group. The mask requirement for schools ended Monday, Feb. 28.

The DPH continues to recommend masks for unvaccinated persons and in settings such as health care and public transportation. The CDC is recommending masks for people in “zones of high transimission.”

“We are now, according to their guidelines, in a low-transmission zone,” Heineman said, noting the people who are sick or coming off a five-day quarantine continue to mask. 

The CDC is no longer requiring masks on school buses, Heineman reported.

Whitman capital panel weighs budget role

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WHITMAN – The Capital Committee members, meeting remotely Thursday, Feb. 17, took a look in the mirror to assess the panel’s role in addressing the funding of capital projects for the town.

They also reviewed some of the DPW’s requests for capital equipment in the fiscal 2023 budget.

“For the longest time, I’ve struggled with seeing if our role actually meant something,” said Chairman Don Esson, who has served on the committee for almost five years. “It didn’t seem like we had funding information to support the capital projects, so that’s what I’d to try to get my arms around.”

Essen said he was willing to take suggestions from anyone on the committee.

“The best way to understand what we can spend in capital improvements is to understand what we have for money, first of all,” he said. “If we don’t have the money, we’re talking about things we just can’t get, or we’d have to go out and get some bonds or something else.”

He said it would be easier to pick the low-hanging fruit if it was clear how much was on the tree. That way they would be able to at least authorize funds for immediate needs — and then come up with a long-term plan for projects the town really needs, but can’t afford right now.

Town Administrator Lincoln Heineman sought to redirect committee members to remembering and reviewing what was approved by Town Meeting last year via amendments to what had been the Building Improvements and Capital Expenditures Committee — the precursor to the Capital Committee. 

The new committee’s charge is to evaluate the town’s capital needs, and facilities with the assistance of the town’s facilities manager, and presenting projects and funding requests to Town Meeting. The committee also makes recommendations for purchasing equipment such as vehicles and equipment, including IT devices and software worth $20,000 or more.

“That’s where our authority flows from – from that vote of Town Meeting,” Heineman said. He said an evaluation of available funds will make those funds apparent as they receive final capital requests from town departments.

Free cash, the primary funding source for most capital needs, appears sufficient to cover all requests received so far, he said.

“The only caveat to that is the schools’ budget request is not directly in our purview as the Capital Committee, but it affects how much free cash we have and it affects what we have to spend for our one-time revenue source,” Heineman said. The schools have until March 19 to certify their budget and Heineman said they intend to take that vote by March 16.

Esson asked Heineman to take a first pass at the budget to determine what projects the Committee could afford to recommend to Town Meeting. Heineman suggested he would be able to that by early last week.

Esson also asked for Committee members’ input on whether his concern was in determining the panel’s direction.

“I think this committee, the last couple of years, has been most effective when we get into some of the technical aspects of projects, such as the generators at the elementary schools,” said member Justin Evans, who is also a Selectman. “We’d rather the projects be done right than done fast and we kind of pushed back on those.”

Evans said the question isn’t always one of determining what they can afford to address through free cash, but one of vetting out the projects themselves.

“With the technical skill set here, I think that is what we bring to the table,” Esson agreed. “I just don’t want to spend a ton of time on things that we just can’t afford.”

Member Fred Small, who also serves on the School Committee asked if is up to them to decide what the town can’t afford or, rather to make a recommendation on a project’s validity and, if it is wanted, how it could be paid for, because — technically —  anything could be affordable through a debt exclusion.

“I sort of look at our committee as being the vetting [agents],” he said.

Esson said he sees the committee’s charge is one of prioritizing.

“It’s important to vet and push back,” Member Justin Casanova-Davis said, noting that it’s easier to achieve capital goals when the free cash is more than the bottom line for the capital improvement projects. But he sees a role for the committee.

“I do think it’s the roll of the committee to present a priority list, [when there it not enough free cash to fund everything] for Town Meeting to know what we would do with X amount of funds,” he said.

“It’s up to Town Meeting to decide if they want to fund something, whether we recommend it or not,” said member Aaron Taylor.

Member Josh MacNeill, the town’s IT director, agreed, noting there is now a lot of confusion going on as far as who’s actually doing what, pointing to instances when the committee’s recommendation against a project had been overturned by the Finance Committee.

“We’ve got multiple decisions being made across various committees,” he said.

Esson agreed, but said he does not see the Committee’s role as overruling department heads, deciding that projects are a “waste or money” or not necessary.

“We need to let our department heads run their departments, but maybe with some our skill sets that we can bring to the table,” Esson said. “Maybe to help them look at things a little bit different or to actually expedite something or to make it a better system or a different design — or whatever.”

Esson said he didn’t think they should ever nix a project, but could perhaps add to it.

The Committee members agreed solidly with that approach.

Building Inspector Robert Curran pointed to the Madden Report’s recommendation that the town should be putting so much money a year into a capital improvement account.

“We don’t have that number,” he said. “I think we should start getting that.”

Absent that, Curran suggested asking departments if there is a funding source for projects, and where there isn’t one, “they’ll have to go somewhere else to figure that out.”  He said, however, such an admonition should come from the town administrator.

Heineman said money is being set aside. In June 2021, Town Meeting voted to set aside $100,000 to the capital stabilization fund. He is cautiously optimistic that funds could be added to the fund this year.

In other business, the Committee discussed DPW requests, including the need for a new building, which Esson fully supports.

“I drive by it three or four times a week and I can see that it’s falling apart,” he said. “I know they need a building.”

He does have questions, however, including whether enough time is allotted to study and analyze data concerning requests. 

Curran said requests for public safety vehicles or generators need not always be put off for further study. 

The tool truck used for response to water main breaks needs replacement, Water Superintendent Dennis Smith said a new vehicle could allow the department to place a compressor and generator in it. The estimated cost is just under $160,000 with all equipment on it, but because of supply chain concerns, he said it could be at least a year until they obtain it. The vehicle would be used daily — as the present truck is. The funding source is water and sewer retained earnings. Additional emergency generators, to replace those lost during the January nor’easter, are also being sought.

“That was certainly an unexpected storm and we certainly learned a lot of lessons of how [for example] we can’t rely on the cell carriers — that was probably the biggest lesson. How they fell down,” Heineman said. “People should know how much we need this.”

Esson also said he would like to see a five to 10-year plan for more stationary generators.

Heineman urged that a vote on the capital requests be delayed until all departments’ capital requests are in, to vote on them at the same time.

“I think the time that would make the most sense is probably early April,” he said. The Capital Committee is slated to meet with the Finance Committee on April 19.

Rec policies under review

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HANSON – The Board of Selectmen has approved a revised policy and procedures document – minus a few points of concern on which they sought clarification or amendments.

Recreation Commission Chairman Frank Milisi reported on its revised policies and procedures for the Board of Selectmen’s approval at its Tuesday, Feb. 22 meeting.

The 20-page document, according to Milisi, corrects previous amendments not yet approved by Selectmen and adoption of a clause in the vendor contract, as well as fixing typographical errors. 

“There was some Recreation director positions that were in here and we added to some teams we had at the commission level, and things like that,” he said. “I don’t think we’ve had Board of Selectmen voted-on policies and procedures from four-to-five-years, so we’re just trying to shore things up with the rate increase that we did.”

Selectmen Chairman Matt Dyer said he had a question and a comment about the changes.

“I know that we have a relatively new commission up there,” he said.

“Very new,” Milisi agreed.

“One thing I’ve been asking for [over] the last four years … was that we really need a business plan to really understand what’s going on up there operationally, because … the camp’s going to need another subsidy and one thing I would like to see, maybe before Town Meeting, would be a financial plan – a projection of what you guys are going to see over the next couple of years, just so we can get an understanding, because we keep hearing ‘it’s another subsidy, another subsidy.’”

Milisi said a meeting was scheduled for Monday, Feb. 28, and he was willing to out that on the agenda, but that he and Audrey Flanagan had previously present such a document with a rate increase that showed projected revenue for fiscal 2022 and 2023 with different rate increases that didn’t get voted on. That proposal could be shored up.

“We keep hearing it’s going to get better,” Dyer said. While he stressed that no one is going to be critical because of the global effects of COVID, it has been something he has been asking for and it always fell short.

“Yeah, we had the pandemic, but we still need to make a level business up there, that’s what it is, is essentially a business,” Milisi said, noting that they have other ways of generating revenue, including applications for American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA) funds and similar programs.

“Obviously those rate increases will do us a lot of good,” he said.

The Camp lodge is already booked for 2022 and the commission is now booking for 2023 when the new fees should take effect, according to Milisi.

He pledged to get a business plan before Selectmen before Town Meeting.

“I don’t take going to Town Meeting and asking for money lightly,” he said. “But we had a discussion the other day about ‘do we have enough money to have the caretaker paint the wall?’”

“That’s getting real,” said Selectman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett.

Milisi said it’s a double-edged sword – if they can’t pay caretakers for upkeep, then the camp will deteriorate faster and will then be unappealing for prospective leasees.

Dyer also mentioned that town counsel had advised against 80-20 fee splits anymore, and suggested another look be taken. Milisi agreed the split is also hard to audit.

Town Counsel Kate Feodoroff said she has asked them to shore up the contracts and is less concerned than she has been in the past about liability, but that Selectmen dictate policy.

“We shouldn’t be subsidizing people’s business, but we shouldn’t be making a huge profit off recreation – we make our profit off of weddings and things like that,” Milisi said.

He also said he believes the 80-20 split is equitable, but that the commission could try to rewrite the contracts to make them equitable, since Selectman Joe Weeks had indicated he would favor putting the issue off to another meeting to decide it and prepare for a discussion with the board.

“Twenty percent of one person’s revenue is not necessarily the same as 20 percent of somebody else’s, but there’s some programs that don’t make that much money, and 20 percent to them is still a good amount of money,” he said.

Dyer also mentioned the pre-COVID intention of the Commission to raise the rates at Cranberry Cove. While he voted for it, he said he was against the principal of raising the rates and an agreement – never really implemented – was placing two day passes with the Hanson Public Library to be checked out by families, as museum passes are already made available. He said he still wants to see that implemented.

Milisi said that could certainly be added to the policy.

“I applaud this, I think it’s very thorough,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. She did note “some ethics things,” including public meeting concerns, and advocated including a clause indicating that town bylaws and state ethics laws prevail over the policies.

Milisi indicated that policies where it is concern, that legal concern would be footnoted.

Preparing for spring at South Shore Tech

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BUDDING CAREERS: The hard work of spring goes on while the snow is still on the ground. Seniors Ryan Franceschini of Hanson and Jaylise Oehlschlagel of Whitman, above from left, and freshman Ryan McCosker of Rockland, from left at left, and seniors Ryan Franceschini and Brady Cook of Hanson, were among freshman and senior students practicing plant identification. The students will be taking part in the upcoming FFA State competition being held in Sturbridge in the middle of March and are all enrolled in SST’s new horticulture program. See more photos, page 7.

Courtesy photos, Keith Boyle, SST

Hanson faces tough budget season

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HANSON — The town is close to $1 million in the red going into the fiscal 2023 budget season, according to Town Accountant Todd Hassett.

“We’re not in the position to present you with a balanced budget, like we typically attempt to do,” he said. “We’ve got a bit of work to do over the next few weeks.”

He and Finance Committee Chairman Kevin Sullivan and made their initial budget presentation to the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday, Feb. 22. “Where we’re at right now, based on the requests, is that we have about a $966,000 shortfall,” he said, adding that he and Sullivan would be working closely together in an effort to close the budget gap in the town’s best interest. “We’ve got a number of decisions that we’ve got to really grapple with over the next few weeks.” He indicated the town would require “some partnership and cooperation” from the regional school district, or “we’re not in a position to fund the budget as initially requested.”

The $300,000 snow budget is already in a deficit position, as well, with more snow forecast on Friday, Feb. 26, Hassett said.

“We’re starting behind where we normally are,” Sullivan agreed, noting that he had little to add to Hassett’s report. “Even though the town came together last year with some heroic efforts, we still have a deficit to overcome — a fairly significant deficit — and I think we need to look at the individual departments.”

He said that, as personnel is a huge cost, he questions whether this is the right time to add new personnel and pointed to the subsidies provided to both the Transfer Station and Recreation Commission as the usual questions to be considered because the retained earnings “just aren’t there anymore.”

The school assessment is less of a gap than the town has had to cover in previous years, but is still a concern. [See related story, page 1].

Hassett indicated Hanson would not be able to afford much more than a 3.5 percent increase in the school assessment.

“We are a little behind schedule, as you know, in terms of pushing forward the FY ’23 operating budget,” Hassett said, noting that they have developed a sense of the town’s recurring and nonrecurring funding sources available to support that spending plan.

The town’s primary source of revenue is property taxes, Hassett noted, followed by local receipts and, to a lesser extent, state aid, with the governor’s budget showing about a $41,000 increase in revenue — about 2.5 percent higher than current state aid.

Hassett said he anticipates a 5 percent increase in local receipts, related to motor vehicle excise taxes, permits, licenses and other departmental fees.

Property taxes in total are projected to go up about 3.4 percent — a combination of the statutory 2 ½ percent available, which represents about $613,000 — and estimated new growth estimated at about $250,000 — or about 1 percent. Hassett noted that figure is lower than in recent years as there has been a slow-down in construction related to the pandemic and subsequent supply chain issues. There has also been a reduction in permit revenue.

Recurring revenue is projected to increase about 3.5 percent, Hassett said.

There are also debt exclusions still on the books from the police station and the regional high school.

“The state aid is more of a factor for the regional school district that it is in the town,” he said.

“We have a healthy free cash [fund], the two enterprise funds have retained earnings — or their free cash — both of which are on the low side compared to prior years,” he said of funds available for one-time expenses.

Free cash is just over $1.7 million right now, but Hassett said he could foresee that being reduced to around $100,000 by the time Town Meeting is concluded.

Departmental requests include a second of a three-year collective bargaining agreement for all town unions except the water union, which is on a different cycle; 2-percent non-union cost of living adjustments; a few reclassified positions at the Library; the IT director being increased to a full-time position; and a change to full-time status for the building inspector and a request for another police officer. The Highway Department also filled a position and a part-time outreach position for the Council on Aging has been added.

A $5,000 audit bill for required oversight of federal grant programs, including the CARES Act and ARPA is also included in the budget. Every other year an actuarial review of OPEB is required, costing about $7,000 this year. A $20,000 increase has been requested for legal services.

There are also more expenses around elections for the year as 2022 is a midterm election year.

Projected subsidies for the Recreation and Transfer Station accounts were also included in Hassett’s presentation — about $300,000 from the general fund breaking out as $135,000 for Recreation and $165,000 for thee Transfer Station. The latter, a recurring cost, came from free cash this year. There was no subsidy in FY ’22 for Recreation. 

They propose to use $35,000 of about $36,000 in Transfer Station retained earnings to support the operating budget.

Hassett said the town’s five-year plan — which must be voted in May — will also depend on some input from Recreation, the Board of Selectmen and more than $13 million in system improvements from the Water Department.

In other business, Selectmen voted to refer a citizen’s petition to the Town Meeting Warrant to the Planning Board to ensure the proper language is included. 

The petition had been brought before the October special Town Meeting, but the petitioner agreed to table it so the language could be refined for the annual Town Meeting on May 2. Town Counsel Kate Feodoroff will be attending the Monday, Feb. 28 Planning Board meeting remotely to discuss the article, indicating it may be split into two articles.

“The good news for Hanson is that we’ve had a couple of runs at this so we have some templates to go off of,” Feodoroff said. “With all the iterations that went back and forth through various town meetings, etc., there needs to be a cleanup of that particular bylaw, regardless of whether the town wants retail marijuana or not.”

The first article would incorporate that overhaul and the second would involve a potential retail facility and where locations might be permitted.

Selectmen Chairman Matt Dyer asked if the article was limited to retail or if it included all the new business opportunities, including cafés.

Feodoroff said no one need worry about cafés, as the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) still has not “gotten its arms around cafés. A pilot program is still underway and Hanson would not even be eligible because the 12 communities selected for it has led to a need to tweak the regulations. 

“I just want to make sure we don’t unwittingly cut our legs off for what has already been permitted,” Selectman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “A grow facility, delivery, those are already kind of there and have gotten support.”

Feodoroff said that was a good point.

“That’s where I thought it was good to do two separate articles because retail is the one that’s going to generate discussion at Town Meeting,” she said, stressing the first article is purely to clean up legal language. If it were to fail, the old bylaw would remain in force.

“It’s just a messy old bylaw,” she said.

Selectman Joe Weeks wanted to be certain there is enough time to do all that work before Town Meeting.

“One of the things I don’t want to do is try and give too much of an expedient timeline on this and then have that be the reason for debate on Town Meeting floor vs the merits of the actual article,” he said.

Feodoroff said there is enough time, especially if the Planning Board submits a report.

“Because we have such a long history here in Hanson of various iterations of marijuana, it’s not going to be so big of a haul,” she said.

Frank Milisi, who brought the citizen’s petition to the October special Town Meeting, thanked Feodoroff and the board for working on it.

“I don’t think there’s any more of a clear indication for what Todd and Kevin just said, that we need some revenue in this town, how ever we get it,” he said. “Three percent [tax] on any [marijuana] business that’s in here could fund a new police car or fund things like that.”

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