Whitman-Hanson Express

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Future of Lite Control eyed

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HANSON – The Lite Control property, long eyed by the town as a location for a new Highway Department building, has drawn interest from potential buyers or renters.

The property was donated to the town in 2019 for that purpose, but the two remaining buildings have been vacant since. Any disposition of the property would have to go before the May Town Meeting.

Selectmen Chairman Matt Dyer urged Green to ensure the buildings are secured, while moving ahead on parallel tracks — with the Highway Building Committee doing its work while Town Administrator Lisa Green and town counsel investigate the options for disposition of the property. The board concurred with that approach.

“There’s not enough information available now to make an informed decision,” Selectman Joe Weeks said.

The property has become a hangout for people who have been breaking into the buildings — and making bonfires inside the buildings — Green said, adding that Impressed LLC is interested in the property, but that the town would have to follow the procurement process prior to any sale or lease agreement.

“[The vacant buildings are] extremely dangerous since they are surrounded by very dry vegetation,” she said. “We’ve had some interest in the buildings and the property. People who either would like to purchase it or lease it.”

She said the windows are also being used for “target practice,” leaving the floor covered with broken glass.

Green said in either case a procurement process for municipal property disposition would have to be followed. Town counsel is already reviewing the restrictions on use of the property help with that complicated process.

“I just wanted to get the board’s feelings and thoughts on this,” she said. “We know, by the donation deed, there’s a lot of restrictions that follow this.”

For example, the property cannot be used for any residential, medical, day care or outdoor recreation or noncommercial gardening purposes. Wells may not be drilled, but town water is available to the site.

Green said the parties expressing interest are “looking at the buildings as they are” for a particular purpose.

“It would be interesting to get this back on the tax rolls,” she said. “It could bring jobs to the town instead of sitting there being an abandoned property that is a fire risk right now.”

Dyer reminded the board the property was being looked at for a future Highway garage site and asked if she had discussed the matter with Highway Director Jamison Shave in view of the town’s need for a new Highway facility.

“He was actually out there with us [when] we walked around the property. He knows a party is interested,” she said. “I don’t know if a new Highway Department is ever going to see the light in that particular location.”

Green said there is a lot of work to be done there and she is not certain the town has an appetite to fund that kind of project right now.

“The problem that I see is we did a feasibility study for that property that we’re only 70 percent done — $365,000,” Selectman Kenny Mitchell said. “Before we make any decisions, we need to determine whether Highway is going to go up there or not. You may be right, maybe it won’t be, but I think before we exercise this option — for our employees, we need to find out if it’s feasible to put a Highway Department there and, if it’s not, maybe then go to Town Meeting.”

Mitchell, who chairs the Highway Building Committee, said it hasn’t met in over a year because an override was coming last year and the cost was starting to increase. A couple of Highway employees who had served on the committee have retired, as well.

“I’m not even sure we have a quorum, but the Highway Building Committee needs to meet first and discuss this and kind of see where we’re at before we start making plans for that property.”

He also asked if the deed limited the property’s use to municipal purposes.

Green said it did mention municipal purposes, but argued it could go before Town Meeting to see if that restriction could be removed.

Mitchell said he understands the desirability of making the property a revenue-generator, but stressed the continuing need for a Highway garage.

“Our employees need to go somewhere,” he said.

Selectman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett agreed.

“I do think we need to see that process through to figure out what is the price tag we’re looking at?” she said. “In my mind, there’s no denying that the space that our Highway folks are in is not acceptable.”

She said the current building is “literally falling apart at the seams.”

FitzGerald-Kemmett said that process would not only provide an indication of what a new Highway facility could cost the town –— between $5 and $7 million when last calculated, not including the takedown and cleanup of the old building —  it would provide an indication of how to leverage the town’s existing assets and get some revenue.

“I’m wondering, do we actually end up getting those Highway guys in a building by somehow making a deal on that Lite Control property and getting money,” she said. “That’s a revenue stream that we don’t have right now.”

“I think Lisa’s absolutely on the right track as far as thinking outside the box, but I do think we’ve got to look at the Highway [Department],” Mitchell said.

Selectman Jim Hickey pointed out that the RFP process that Green was proposing would take “months and months” to complete. In the meantime, he suggested, if she starts it now, it will be complete by May Town Meeting. That would give residents something to compare — the potential revenue compared to projected costs and what has already been spent investigating the feasibility of using the site for a Highway barn.

“All the effort that’s gone into this [Highway building] RFP wasn’t specific to this … building,” Dyer said. He also suggested that the most environmentally responsible thing to do — as well as the cheapest and easiest thing to do – about the current building is to knock it down and build new.

“You can take the building on this piece of paper and move it anywhere,” Mitchell agreed. “I think there’s a few things we need to look at before we move forward.”

FitzGerald-Kemmett said there could also be a use for the property that hasn’t been considered that might make the property attractive. Green reported on Nov. 2 that the building commissioner is gathering quotes for boarding up the doors.

In other business, As Darkness Falls paranormal investigations was granted permission by the board to conduct an investigation of the old Plymouth Hospital property provided they not go near the food pantry building, particularly Tuesday nights when the food pantry’s clients pick up their parcels.

 Green said she forwarded the request to Police Chief Michael Miksch who said he did not have a particular issue with the request so long as there is no damage done to the property.

“I am a little bit concerned,” FitzGerald-Kemmet said. “We’ve got the food pantry up there and I want to ensure that people’s privacy is preserved.”

For that reason she requested that the applicant not be permitted to have cameras there, while she also voiced concern for the security of the pantry building.

“I think that’s reasonable to tell them to stay away from the pantry building,” Dyer. “But if they wanted to go to the old paint shack, or down to the incinerator, or wherever, I think that’s fine.”

Green also reminded the board the group would only be there at night.

Whitman mulls finance plan

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WHITMAN — The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday, Oct. 26 discussed the potential direction for a financial policy for the town.

Forest Street resident Shawn Kain had indicated that he would like to see some additional financial policies instituted for the town, according to Town Administrator Lincoln Heineman who said he appreciated the suggestion.

Selectmen asked Kain, who attended the meeting to sit in on discussion of the issue.

Heineman said the policies now followed are very good ones, but that he appreciated Kain’s bringing up the topic for further consideration and possible revision — the disposition of surplus property, in particular.

The town’s auditor has also recommended revising of the town’s federal awards and procurement policy.

“The current policies that we have are a cash receipt and petty cash handling policy, a fund-balance policy, an investment policy statement for investment funds and, as I mentioned, the disposition of surplus property,” Heineman said. “What Mr. Kain had been talking about having some policies dealing with the appropriate level of debt for the town and what an acceptable level of debt, in the policy view of the town, is.”

Heineman said Whitman does not have a lot of debt in comparison to other towns of its size and valuation in Massachusetts, and that many towns do not have an acceptable debt policy.

“We had a great conversation,” Kain said of his discussions with Heineman concerning the number of reasons why such a policy makes sense. “I think why this is important now … is that financial policy helps guide your spending and borrowing practices.”

These practices can affect bond ratings and set limits and signals the public that town leaders are making decisions that will maintain the town’s financial health and good standing.

“I think it’s relevant now because there are a couple of big projects on the horizon,” Kain said, noting that a new Whitman Middle School and DPW building could be on that list. “Immediately people get concerned [about] borrowing more money, another debt exclusion, that kind of thing, and I don’t think people have a good frame of reference of how much debt do we have currently on the books. Are we in good shape or are we not in good shape?”

A debt policy would provide a good frame some of the difficult financial decisions that may lie ahead, Kain said. Without it, making the arguments for needed projects when they crop up.

Heineman noted that a recommended debt level policy would effectively raise the town’s acceptable level of debt.

“Our level of debt is so low right now, as compared with similar communities, that effectively, if we … wanted a policy that laid out an acceptable level of debt — presumably somewhere around the average of like communities — then … we would be saying it was fine to have relatively significantly more debt than we do now.”

Selectman Justin Evans, a member of the budget working group in 2018, said that group drafted some financial policies, including a limit of excluded debt service costs at less than 12 percent of tax levy at all times, and that general fund debt service should be limited to 1 and 2.5 percent of general fund operating revenues.

“I don’t know if the board ever adopted those policies,” he said. “But that might be a place to start.”

Neither Kain nor Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski recalled that happening, either.

“We have to be careful and clear that the levels that we recommend have some data behind them,” Kowalski said.

Heineman reminded the board that Proposition 2 ½ limits debt to 5 percent of the total assessed value of property — whether residential personal property or industrial/commercial property – in a town.

“We’re nowhere near that,” he said.

Selectman Dan Salvucci noted that past practice was to keep in mind the conclusion of one bond before borrowing to do another project. 

Cheer takes first at B-R

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Make it two straight for the Whitman-Hanson Regional High cheerleaders. 

A week after capturing the Duxbury Invitational — their first live completion in two years — the Panthers took first place at Bridgewater-Raynham last Saturday, Oct. 30. 

“Another great day with these Panthers,” tweeted the team. “After a week of sicknesses and weather cancellations these athletes pulled it off. Now begins the journey to leagues.” 

And the Panthers will host that Patriot League championship this Saturday, Nov. 6 at 10 a.m.

Harmony comes from adversity

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WHITMAN — For many performing artists, the COVID-19 pandemic meant more than an inconvenience — it interrupted a major source of their income.

But for Whitman musicians Jon and Juli Finn, it also created opportunities to explore new avenues of teaching, and composing new music. They are also preparing for a performance — Great Guitar Night — from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m., Friday, Nov. 5 at the Regent Theatre, 7 Medford St., Arlington. The gathering of Boston’s finest performing guitar artists and educators, including the Jon Finn Group will primarily feature Jon’s compositions which he describes as progressive instrumental rock — with some classical blues and jazz influences. Tickets are $30 plus a $3 fee online, by phone or at the box office

Vaccinations or a negative COVID test are required to attend.

“It appeals to a very specific group of people,” Jon said of his compositions, but with the Internet, he said one finds members of that very specific group all over the world. 

“The people who do like it, love it, and the standard joke is anywhere in the world we go, there’s like three or four people in any given town that know who we are,” he said. “But that’s it.”

Generally his music is a philosophy of producing music that makes it impossible for the listener to determine if it is easy or difficult to play.

“What I want them to listen to is the story being told and all the emotions and feelings that go along with that,” he said.

Their strings want to resonate with your heartstrings in a way.

“I play all guitars,” Juli said over coffee at Whitman’s Restoration Coffee last week. “My main guitar is an electric guitar, though. The same with Jon. He’s a guitar professor.”

Jon said there is no appreciable difference between the way you play a six-string guitar vs a 12-string guitar.

“They’re different sounds,” he said.

Juli might add a four-string ukulele, which she has been teaching online during COVID. Something akin to “advanced plunking,” she said with a laugh.

“We did collaborative videos,” she said. “We did a few live streams.”

She said that she saw a lot of the trend of people spending the pandemic perfecting hobbies or trying new ones. So she offered a four-week beginner ukulele course, and a 2.0 intermediate course — “advanced plunking” — and Juli’s Ukulele Club.

“It was definitely a change,” she said. “We had to say, ‘Come on, let’s get busy,’ and do everything differently.”

For Jon, when COVID hit, his first job was to try to create a Zoom environment that allowed the best performances given the platform’s limitations. Minute time lags still exist and make live performances difficult, even while edited recordings can solve that problem.

“Instead of just becoming an awkward silence, the music just becomes out of sync,” he said. “I spent a lot of the pandemic trying to find the best way to present myself over a Zoom lesson, and I learned a couple of tricks along the way.”

The Finns both worked on improving video making skills. Jon said he wrote, authored, filmed, notated and released a video course called Blues Building Blocks.

Now, while they are, seeing more requests for gigs, they are also doing some artistic soul-searching, Juli said. After decades of performing other people’s work, she said they decided to concentrate more on writing their own music.

“This is our time to put out new music and record,” Juli said, adding they plan to produce a new album in the spring while she is working on her own project — a tribute to Bonnie Raitt.

“We’re hoping to come out of the pandemic with a more focused approach to what we’re doing,” Jon said.

Juli, who was born in South Africa and later moved to the United States, first living in Utah and then Colorado for many years. She moved to Tacoma, Wash., when she was 14 and later to Massachusetts to complete her degree in guitar performance at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. At the time, Jon said, Berklee was the only college in the United States offering any type of performance degree in electric guitar. 

“At the time, it was not a real instrument in their eyes,” he said. During the national tour of “Rent,” Jon played guitar and keyboards at the Boston production at the Schubert Theatre for 228 performances.

“I had the show memorized after about a month and a half,” he said, but a week after it closed, he said he forgot most of it. “My brain kind of did a massive memory dump. … There’s always a lot of projects I’m doing, so once it’s in your rearview mirror, you get used to the idea that now you’re on to the next thing.”

While practice is alwys he said he accepts the fact that he will never be fully satisfied with what he does.

“You just try to get better at it,” he said.

Juli is currently working on her master’s degree in songwriting.

Berklee is also where she met Jon, who was a professor at Berklee — but she did not study with him. His degree is in traditional performance.

“Of course, there was some concern because that’s kind of a taboo in the college [world],” he said. Jon made sure his superiors knew of the relationship and that he was dating a student, but was not a professor in any of her classes.

“Of course, in his infinite wisdom, he said, ‘Is it Juli?’” Jon said with a laugh.

He grew up in Westwood, and lived in the Boston area before buying a house in Whitman.

SST’s upgrades delayed

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HANOVER — Supply chain issues are delaying the replacement of exterior windows in the 1992 wing of South Shore Tech until spring, its School Committee was told at the Wednesday, Oct. 20 meeting.

“We are not immune to these issues,” Superintendent-Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey said, adding that the delay would not involve any additional cost to the school. “The contractor will continue to work on the premise that they’ll do the work on the second shift or it won’t involve the displacement of students, but they can’t install what they don’t have.”

Hickey also reported that the school is beginning to work with engineering firm DRA and the district’s project manager regarding two projects that would lead to some construction being done next summer, if they stay on SST’s desired schedule.

Those projects are replacement of the roof on the 1992 wing and a the use of a portion of funds from the recent debt authorization approval to add some square footage.

The Capital Projects Subcommittee will hopefully begin meeting with a DRA representative by the end of October, but certainly before the committee’s mid-November meeting to hear a report on some “potential ideas,” Hickey said.

“We’ve talked for years about a lot of ‘what-ifs’ and we have operated under the premise that we’ve got to move some things around in order to make certain footprints better,” he said. He said the project would not only add space, but would also reorganize some existing space at the school.

One example would be the consolidation of automotive programs in order to allow them to share one space instead of two. The HVAC program could be moved to a slightly larger space and horticulture could be moved closer to a bay where it could access the use of some heavy equipment.

“We would expand the space of our electrical program, which consistently, we are unable to satisfy the annual needs of the students who want it,” he said.

The engineers would be assessing what the cost of the expansion project would be.

The construction, seen as the first step in the project, would likely be done in summer 2022, with students “to the greatest extent possible,” do the interior work during the 2022-23 school year, according to Hickey. 

He said that an estimate within the debt service portion of the budget, should be ready for examination in December.

The MSBA recommendation process has also been delayed because of COVID.

“We already have the funds available to engage feasibility … just give us the [MSBA] invitation and we’ll jump into the HOV lane for the MSBA and move this forward,” he said. “Hopefully, the seventh time’s the charm.”

In other business, three parents spoke during the Public Comment period regarding questions and concern about mask and potential vaccine mandates regarding COVID-19. The questions included whether the school could or would challenge state mandates and how students were disciplined for improper mask wearing. The Committee does not respond to issues raised during public comment because they may not be reflected in the posted agenda.

Hickey did say the school is reporting to parents about the status of active COVID cases on a weekly basis. As of, Oct. 20, there were no active cases among the school population.

Hickey reported that the entire school population — including students, staff, and coaches, both on and outside of faculty — vaccination rate is at 60.5 percent. Students are vaccinated at a rate of 55 percent and faculty and staff is about 80 percent, when calculated separately.

The current state guideline for concluding a mask requirement is 80 percent of school population, but local communities could decide to retain the mask back to the optional/strongly recommended level even at that point.

“We have to see what the guidance is,” Hickey said. “If [DESE] removes the mask mandate, then it becomes a local matter.”

The school’s MCAS results reflected the reduced number on in-school instruction days, Principal Mark Aubrey said in his report to the School Committee.

“They also reflect the year before, when they were not in school for three months,” he said. “Overall the students and staff did an incredible job. Do we have places we need to work on? Of course we do, we would never say we don’t.”

Just under 80 percent of students received a score of advanced or proficient in science, which is what the state requires, 17 percent need improvement and a small percentage (six students total) did not make the grade yet, according to Aubrey. There were 163 freshmen, 162 sophomores and 23 juniors taking the exams (for Adams scholarships).

In English, 15 percent of sophomores and juniors exceeded and 60 percent met state goals, with 2 percent not passing. Math scores showed the need for teacher/student interaction, Aubrey said.

Teachers are made available to help students who need remediation on the subjects they did not pass.

Assistant Principal Sandra Baldner reported that the Allied Health program has received a $2506,000 skills capital grant, which will fund a doctor’s office, industry standard oil immersion microscopes, AEDs and CPR mannequins. A $100,000 Mass Life Sciences grant will allow construction of a biotech lab inside a classroom space.

Hanson begins probe of zoning board

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HANSON – The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday, Oct. 19 voted to investigate the members and alternates of the Zoning Board of Appeals.

Town Counsel Kate Feodoroff advised the board about legal considerations surrounding citizen’s petition, Article 34 approved at the Oct. 4 special Town Meeting, which requested Selectmen to consider the removal of all members of the ZBA, at the Select Board’s next regular meeting.

All ZBA members will be investigated by, at Feodoroff’s suggestion, an investigator with no ties to the town of Hanson. She is seeking proposals, to be presented to the board Tuesday, Nov. 2, with a cap on the potential cost.

“I’m not telling you what to do here,” she said, explaining that her job is to tell Selectmen what she would do if she were prosecuting any type of legal action.

Selectmen Chairman Matt Dyer sought clarification on Feodoroff’s core recommendation – that they conduct an investigation to gather relevant details and then go forward with a hearing if it is warranted. She concurred that that was her recommendation. 

“Tonight, what we have to talk about is how to respond to that affirmative vote,” Feodoroff said. “Employees, and under [town by-laws], these are employees, are entitled to due process, so under your own bylaws you have to find just cause to remove any of your appointees.”

She said they are, in addition, entitled to notice and a hearing. That notice would take the form of a letter advising them of the reason for removal and justifications for it, so they may adequately prepare a defense if the so choose.

Dyer called for an outside investigator to look into the facts of the issue prior to a hearing.

“Over the past six weeks to two months, this is all I’ve been hearing,” Selectman Jim Hickey concurred. He said he had started looking into it and was ready to ask the Select Board to move ahead with a hearing on one of the ZBA members.

“I believe I have enough information, I have enough evidence that a member of the board is misrepresenting himself,” Hickey said. He didn’t rule out any other members, but said he felt he had enough evidence to convince him that one member needs to be removed.

“We don’t need to go after the entire board,” Hickey had said. “If the other two members decide they want to resign … then so be it.”

Selectman Joseph Weeks said he has somehow become the “figurehead” of the issue, but that while he is not there, there had been a reason why he always wants to vet the people who apply to sit on boards and to talk to specific people.

“I want to see what the investigation is,” he said about the ZBA. “Quite frankly, all of them need to be investigated because it took all of this to get to this point, when it didn’t have to.”

He said the ZBA has lost the confidence of the town.

Feodoroff also advised Selectmen about the implications of an investigation on a 40B project now before the ZBA as part of the permitting process.

“The other thing, that’s a little tricky about this article is that there is a current application pending before the [ZBA], which is relatively controversial,” she said of the 40B project proposed for Spring Street. “While I won’t speak to any particular project, as a general matter when you’re looking at these issues, what you look at is litigative risk.”

Feodoroff said that when there is a permit pending before any permitting authority, the risk of being sued hinges on whether or not there is evidence of a civil rights violation.

“In the land use context, that’s a very high bar to establish … absent racial animus or gender bias or some other kind of compelling circumstance,” she said. But, she noted, the town of Hopkinton was recently hit with a $1.5 million jury judgment for working to thwart development of a parcel of land.

“What that case stands for is, where there is more of a conspiracy-type theory, where multiple boards and public officials are working collaboratively against a particular type of development … that risk exists whenever there is an application pending before any body,” she said. “There’s also an obligation on the part of an appointing authority to make sure that they have the right people in the jobs and they are doing their jobs correctly and within the confines of law.”

That is why there is a hearing process to remove people from their jobs.  Feodoroff said she prefers to conduct a complete investigation when there are complaints. Employment lawyers examine the facts of a case and supporting evidence.

She said the board may opt to investigate the board but that they should not interfere with a pending application and the rights owed to a landowner.

“There’s litigative risk in every decision that you, as a body, make,” Feodoroff said.

She also said 40B guidelines require a ZBA to process an application within 180 days and must render a written decision 40 days after that.

“Absent them taking those steps, you have what’s called constructive approval, and to me … that’s the worst result, because … this is almost a protected use,” she said. “There is a statutory presumption that this use should be installed in any town across the state because you need affordable housing.”

Conditions are a town’s best way to respond to a 40B proposal, Feodoroff advised.

“If the ZBA is removed, beware that the public hearing process would have to start from scratch,” she said, explaining that prior testimony at public hearings could not be used, otherwise the town could have a project with no conditions approved by the state.

Weeks asked what would happen if the ZBA members resigned on their own. Feodoroff said it would put the town in the same situation. 

He then asked what would happen if two voting members resigned.

“You can’t rotate people,” Feodoroff said of the potential for moving alternate members into voting status. “You’d be in a pickle regardless.”

“The issue is we’re being held hostage by the conflation of two issues,” Weeks said – the process of removal for cause and the main question being asked.

“The issue I’ve had from Day One with this entire process, is we’ve found a way to mismanage this entire thing to make it seem like it’s about a project, when it’s about people,” Weeks said. “No one cares about the 40B project, we’re talking about the people.”

He said he appreciates the backdrop of the 40B project, it’s important for people to recognize the possible implications, but conflating the issues does not help solve the problem.

“We’re all municipal employees, so we have to look through that lens,” Selectman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “I really don’t think we have any choice but to investigate. We had not one person stand up at Town Meeting and say, ‘I object, this is ridiculous,’ … not one person stood up.”

She also noted that resident Kevin Cohen was able to gather enough signatures to get the article onto the warrant.

She said she also “highly doubts” that Hopkinton had a citizens’ petition at town meeting to remove a ZBA. 

“A quick Google search reveals quite a bit that we were not necessarily aware of when we appointed these people,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “One of the things that I’m extremely concerned [about] is the lack of full and transparent disclosure by people who are applying for positions.”

She joined Weeks in calling for a more complete vetting process.

Selectman Kenny Mitchell disagreed with “going after the whole board,” preferring Hickey’s proposal to investigate one member. He also said he sees evidence that the 40B issue is involved because that Precinct 1 is the only one he has heard from.

Weeks disagreed, saying he has heard from residents from all over town and his call for an investigation does not necessarily mean removal.

Hickey asked if the ZBA would be the subject of a hearing together or separetely. Feodoroff said every ZBA member is entitled to an individual hearing.

Towns deal with storm’s aftermath

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By Thursday afternoon, 25 percent of Whitman residents had power — if not cable and Internet service — restored after the fierce Nor’Easter that knocked out power for the entire South Shore area.

“What we had been hearing from National Grid is it was a Type 3 event,” Whitman Town Administrator Lincoln Heineman said Thursday. “They categorize that as 72 hours from power first going out, but certainly that is a positive development and a little bit quicker than we were originally hearing from National Grid.

At the Tuesday, Oct. 26 Selectmen’s meeting he had said that “quite a bit of storm prep” was underway, including the Emergency Management team on standby to deal with it.

“We do know that we’re expecting possible winds of 75 mph, so that’s certainly serious and may very well result in power outages,” he said. But he said the WEMA team was in close contact to “make sure we’re up and running as soon as possible.”

The magnitude of the power outages was unforeseen, according Hanson Town Administrator Lisa Green.

National Grid was estimating it would be anywhere from 11:45 p.m., Thursday to over the weekend before power is fully restored. Heineman noted that Comcast has been “having a lot of problems, as well.”

“Despite our best efforts, we have not been able to get a reliable answer regarding Comcast,” he said. “I’ve been trying to get that answer.”

Several major routes heading into town had been blocked Wednesday, but are now open, with only a few streets still blocked.

To help with residents’ communication issues, Whitman has set up charging stations where they can go to recharge cell phones and warm up.

Town Hall auditorium, the high school and the Whitman Council on Aging were available until 4 p.m., Thursday.

“We had a lot of people here [Wednesday] night,” he said. “We’re trying to put something together at night.”

“Nobody expected a 100 percent power outage,” Green said on Thursday as the entire South Shore from Avon and Randolph down to Provincetown on the Cape were looking at continued outages until into the weekend.

“We spent yesterday — myself, Selectmen Chair Matt Dyer, and our IT Director Steve Moberg — spent a lot of yesterday, sending emails, text messages, trying to figure out who had what going on. We tried to get in touch with our staff as best we could with what minimal resources we had.”

Emails kept receiving server rejection messages.

“Nobody expected the magnitude,” she said, noting the long lines at Ferry’s Sunoco across the street for the second straight day and full parking lots at Shaw’s.

Green said she did not yet have an estimate on the number of trees felled in the storm, but National Grid is treating it as a Rate 3 event, which means they are still assessing and repairing the infrastructure before they can start restoring power.

“This lets us know what work we need to do going forward and being ready for this winter of updating and making sure our communications are in good shape,” she said.

Mascot resolution heads to MASC

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The School Committee on Wednesday, Oct. 13 voted to support this year’s round of policy resolutions from the Mass. Association of School Committees.

The panel approved six of nine resolutions without discussion, but policies about zero tolerance, school committees in receivership and prohibiting use of Native American sports mascots drew discussion. A vote by the MASC delegate assembly is slated for Nov. 6, when it considers resolutions submitted in conformance to its by-laws.

“The School Committee voted 9-1 in favor of supporting Resolution 9. The resolution called for: ‘regulations prohibiting public schools from using an athletic team name, logo, or mascot which names, refers to, represents, or is associated with Native Americans, including aspects of Native American cultures and specific Native American tribes,’” Chairman Christopher Howard stated after the meeting. “The Whitman-Hanson Regional School District does not have any athletic team name, logo, or mascots associated with what is described within this resolution.”

Members submit resolutions to be considered at the Assembly, which often result in the filing of legislation by the MASC or the establishment of official positions on legislative or other issues, according to the MASC website.

Committee member Fred Small spoke up for the tradition behind sports names at some schools.

“I don’t think there’s any malice in any mascot name,” he said. “Granted, we’re Panthers, so it doesn’t effect us.”

Whitman member Beth Stafford noted that Hanson’s elementary school is called Indian Head and that the resolution specifically mentions images.

“We can’t change the name of a school in a town, I don’t think, as a School Committee,” Jones said.

Howard reminded the committee that the resolution focuses on mascots, not the name of schools.

Committee member Hillary Kniffen noted that two years ago Hanover changed it’s mascot from the Indians to the Hawks, after having Native Americans speak about how the Indian mascot was offensive to them because of their heritage.

“I’m not native American, so I can’t speak to the offensiveness of something, because that’s not me,” she said. “That’s what we have to keep in mind when we’re looking at this. We don’t know what’s offensive if we’re not that ethnicity, race, gender – any of those things.”

Committee member Christopher Scriven said among other members of his family his mother is a full-blooded Blackfoot Indian, so the subject is a sensitive one for him.

“If you go back in history, look at what we did to these people …” he said. “But, even now, you go into these communities and you see the devastation … It’s important for us to remember that.”

He asked if a name or logo change “really impacts us to the degree that it matters?” He said he doesn’t think so.

“I have a very hard time with people getting uppity about this because it comes from a position of privilege,” he said. “That’s just a matter of fact. You’re not on a reservation. Your culture wasn’t devastated, so that’s something to think about.”

Committee member Steve Bois, who volunteers at schools, said the Indian Head School students embraced a name change for its mascot to the Eagles several years ago.

“The kids embraced that like there’s no tomorrow,” he said. “We moved on.”

Committee member David Forth suggested that youth sports in both towns should be called the Panthers, as the high school teams are.

The committee voted to support the resolution.

Committee member Dawn Byers said that the zero tolerance advocated that the legislature enact or amend legislation to encourage the use of restorative, therapeutic and educational approaches to incidents as soon as possible over the use of “zero tolerance” policies in order to help keep students in the school system. Whitman resident Shawn Kain had spoken in the meeting’s public forum about such an approach to vape use at the high school.

“Sometimes those are necessary in certain circumstances … but there are other areas where we have zero tolerance in the district community and perhaps there are other alternatives to better support students so their first offense might not be a suspension so they are out of school and it might snowball from there,” she said.

Bois pointed to exceptions in the resolution language where violent, criminal or drug-related situations are involved and vaping could be considered drug use.

Thar policy was supported by the committee.

Byers also noted that online feedback sought to differentiate between receivership and state control of schools. The regional school committee advocacy group supports the measure because school committees lose all their powers when the state takes over under receivership. While W-H may never go into receivership, which happens when a district underperforms educationally, it should support other districts.

Small, however, argued if a School Committee performed so poorly that a district goes into receivership, that committee deserves to lose their jobs.

The committee voted to support the policy.

School council

Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak said school councils have been so far this year, set up at the elementary level, where there are formalized PTOs, which make it easier to do than at the middle and high school level.

PTOs vote as to who will serve on school councils, required by state law to help principals develop school improvement plans and/or discussion on the budget. Students, teachers, parents and  at-large community representatives are included on the councils.

“It has to be equitable,” he said. “If you have two students, you’re supposed to have two parents.” He said the elementary PTOs have selected parent representatives.

“The middles [schools] are struggling mightily,” he said, noting the principals in both towns have sent out “multiple communications to parents” with no response.

The high school does not have a PTO, so Principal Dr. Christopher Jones is holding a meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 27 to proceed with deciding how and who to elect to that School Council. The meetings to appoint council members are public meetings.

Howard asked that Jones outline the selection process for the high school, in view of a resident’s expression of concern on the matter in the meeting’s public forum.

“The fact that community members don’t necessarily want to participate is another challenge for us,” Szymaniak said.

He also said the law, on the books since before the Education Reform Act, needs to be updated regarding how members can be selected.

“The fact that community members don’t always want to participate is another challenge for us,” he said.

Szymaniak also asked committee members for ideas in getting the word out that he is seeking residents who wish to join a school council. Representatives are needed for all school levels.

The School Committee tabled a proposal for a Student Advisory Council at the high school. Szymaniak said he meets with all student councils in the district on a regular basis.

A state law provides that schools should have a Student Adisory Council, with five members elected by students.

“Kids deserve to be heard, especially now,” said committee member Michelle Bourgelas. “It’s not easy for them. It’s not.”

Howard said he knows students need to be heard and is a proponent of student engagement, but is concerned with putting the committee in a pretzel over process.

“I want to do what’s required, but I want to do things thoughtfully,” he said. He also wants to hear more than just from high school students, suggesting the committee give it more thought and return to the issue at its next meeting.

Forth pointed to Boston where the student rep is involved in meetings to the point of being an unofficial 11th member, and is seeking home rule legislation to give that student voting rights on the committee.

“That’s how much they believe it’s such a central role,” he said. “If there isn’t someone here to be the eyes of the students, how will the students know what is going on?”

Byers noted there is a W-H student on the Southeast Advisory Council, but Superintendent Jeff Szymaniak said that is a different committee.

Howard said the number of councils and committees is what makes the situation confusing. Scriven suggested the Policy Subcommittee be charged with forming such a council and really sell it to students to spark involvement.

COVID report

 Only one school district in Massachusetts has achieved the 80-percent vaccination rate required for rescinding mask requirements — but don’t plan on removing masks yet — with four more districts pending. W-H schools reported no cases of COVID at the high school as of Oct. 6, none at Hanson Middle School; three at Whitman middle and one staff member, two students and one staff member at Conley, one student at Duval, none at Indian Head and none at the preK program. No positive cases stemmed from contacts at school.

The high school has more vaccinated students than they had thought, according to Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak, mainly because reporting has been poor. When the district hits 80 percent, he said he would petition to be granted permission to lift the mask requirement.

MCAS report

For the 20th year in a row, W-H MCAS scores are in line with state averages, according to Assistant Superintendent George Ferro

“I’m not quite sure what MCAS measured last year during COVID,” he said. School districts had many different learning programs because of the pandemic, but W-H still had upwards of 90 percent of students taking the tests. He said a lot of districts had trouble even finding their students, let alone getting them to take the tests.

No district did well in writing essays W-H did well in constructed responses from prompts and short answer objectives. Ferro pointed to remote learning and the effort to keep students engaged, which does not translate into writing essays.

W-H did not do well in a lot of the grade seven and 10 math standards, which are generally taught at the end of sixth grade — during the pandemic lockdown and remote learning. The data does provide information on how to approach remediation of skills, according to Ferro.

Sports changes reviewed

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Athletic Director Bob Rodgers updated the School Committee on a waiver proposal, MIAA team rankings and other athletics issues on Wednesday, Oct. 13.

The MIAA has a waiver process through which eighth-graders may be allowed to participate at the lowest level of sports that offer waivers when it is needed to sustain a program.

“It’s something that you try not to do,” Rodgers said, noting that in more than 20 years at W-H it has never been done. “However, it is becoming very common right now. Because of the pandemic, participation numbers have decreased, so it’s a way to try to get more interest in the programs and to sustain some of the programs.”

The School Committee approved the waivers on a year-to-year basis.

While, it doesn’t guarantee they will be used, Rodgers said W-H has applied for and received waivers for the co-op girls’ ice hockey team with Silver Lake and for the softball team. Both middle school principals support the waivers, if they are needed.

“I won’t know if we need it until we actually see the numbers,” he said. The school will only do it if it doesn’t displace a high school student.

This year there are not enough girls to field a JV softball team and he hopes the waiver will create some interest and establish a feeder system to help sustain the program.

“It will be kind of like a game-time decision,” Rodgers said based on attendance and outcomes of preseason meetings. It’s a one-year decision he said he hoped would not have to be repeated.

He also announced to the committee that he plans to apply for an eighth-grade waiver for wrestling.

“Because of the pandemic, our numbers were so low last year — and the wrestling season was done in the spring,” Rodgers said, noting he is uncertain if the low numbers were due to the time of year the sport was offered.

School Committee member Mike Jones asked who makes the decision to determine whether it is safe for an eighth-grader to play certain sports. Rodgers said it would be a coaches’ decision and it could not be used to find an individual player for a team. Tryouts would have to be held and player decisions made after that.

While he was abstaining from the issue and would only help with the discussion, Chairman Christopher Howard said a parent had approached him about the issue.

“What we’re doing here is to support the high school students that otherwise would not be able to participate in the activity,” Howard said he told the parent. “This isn’t an opportunity for the eighth-graders to play up. That’s a by-product.”

The waivers have also raised a complication for the WHAM co-op swim team with Middleboro, which received a waiver to enable them to have their own swim team as of last year. W-H students already on the team were allowed to finish, but W-H is now without a team or a pool.

Rodgers has been working with Cardinal Spellman to form a co-op swim team, which could be a good fit because they swim at Massasoit. But the schools being in different districts has made for some rough going.

He also said parents have begun asking why coached have not been making substitutions off the bench when the teams are winning by lopsided margins.

“The state is going through the most radical change that we’ve ever had in terms of how the MIAA is operating,” Rodgers said, reporting that W-H has voted against the changes. “I think it’s bad for kids, I think it’s bad for educational athletics.”

Sectional play is no longer done, now championships are statewide, with no regional play ahead of tournaments. If the field hockey team was in the tournament, its first game would be against Nashoba Regional or Longmeadow.

“That’s not even the big problem,” he said. “The big problem is the power rankings.” The top 32 teams in the state by power rankings make it into the tournaments.

“About half the teams make it,” Rodgers said.

Teams are no longer seeded by winning percentage, but by point differential in all wins combined with opposing teams.

“It does affect how coaches will coach games,” he said.

Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak also said he was adamantly opposed to the change in rankings and offered to draft a letter to the MIAA if the committee wanted to go that route, and encouraged the committee to do so. The committee’s consensus was to seek such a letter be sent.

“The MIAA is all of us, it’s all of you,” Rodgers said. “I sit on several committees. This decision was not made by any executive at the MIAA or any personnel … their only job is to implement what’s been voted on — the state-wide playoffs were voted by the membership, which is the principals.”

Rodgers and WHRHS Principal Dr. Christopher Jones voted against the statewide playoffs. The power rankings were voted by the tournament management committee of athletic directors and principals, not anyone at the MIAA, according to Rodgers.

“I am super-confident that this will not last,” he said.

The School Committee also voted to authorize travel to out-of-state/overnight field trips to competitions or extra tournaments, which are funded by fundraising conducted by the teams. No school budget funds are expended on them.

School Committee member Heather Kniffen expressed concern over health of the students in view of travel to Florida and Texas.

Rodgers said the students would be required to take COVID tests when they return. School policy regarding masks will be followed on out-of-state field trips.

If the school has a team lucky to be in tournament play in a marquee venue like Boston Garden, may mean the entire team and traveling fans would have to be vaccinated or the team would have to play in a different location, Rodgers and Szymaniak said.

If there was a COVID surge in any destination, Rodgers said the trip could be canceled.

Hanson seeks COVID tracker

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HANSON — The Board of Health on Tuesday, Oct. 12 voted to accept the job description and hire a contact tracer to follow up COVID-19 cases in the community. They also discussed how to control costs and increase revenues for the transfer station.

The temporary part-time contact tracer position, instead of a public health nurse, is being sought to work exclusively on contact tracing for COVID cases, paid for by the remaining funds in the Norwell VNA line of Hanson’s budget.

The position will not be filled until the board’s question about liability is clarified.

“This will ensure that all of the contact tracing is done,” said Hanson Health Board’s Administrative Assistant Theresa Cocio.

Board member Arlene Dias said they would definitely need someone past December when CDC funding closes out.

The Board of Health will be posting the position, which will be a subcontractor for the town. The board will be contacting Town Administrator Lisa Green for liability coverage for the position in the event information about a COVID-19 case gets leaked somehow.

“Who’s liable?” said Vice Chairman Kevin Perkins about the need to do what is legal to protect the town. “Is the town liable because we hired this person and now it defaults to us because they don’t have an insurance policy?”

Health Board Chairman Denis O’Connell and Perkins expressed concern about what the cost of liability insurance would be, who pays it and what happens if there is a claim against the contact tracer. Dias, who is a care provider on a contractor basis herself, said HIPAA also covers liability for such work.

She said if she makes a mistake and/or releases information, she would be liable.

Cocio also said pay would likely be on a per diem basis.

“If there’s no cases, then there’s nothing for you to do, but if there’s an influx of cases then they would have more than enough to do,” she said.

The board also discussed revenue sources and keeping the transfer station functioning while reviewing the facility’s budget.

They had previously discussed eliminating the sticker program, which brings in about $24,000 a year, but heard back from Finance Committee Chairman Kevin Sullivan that he does not want to eliminate a funding source for the town. Trip ticket items have brought in $11,000 so far this year.

“We would have to find a way to [create another] funding source if we do away with the sticker,” Cocio said.

Dias asked why the board couldn’t institute a five-year sticker plan, increasing the cost and.

“I looked at surrounding towns and what it costs to use their transfer stations, but a lot of surrounding towns [use] curbside,” Dias said. “The only towns close that [still have stickers] are Kingston, where it’s $200 a year for residential — unless you’re a senior and then it’s $90 and you pay for bags — in Carver, you pay $140 a year and you have to use the bags to go to the transfer station.”

She said that, in terms of the stickers, “everybody charges a lot more than we do.”

“People don’t care what’s going on in Halifax or Kingston or Carver, they don’t want to pay,” Cocio said.

Dias argued that, even if the sticker fee was not increased per year and made it valid for five years (at $50 total), people still have to pay for their bags. She wondered if that would be enough to hire a person to issue stickers.

Another option would be to change fees for items currently covered by trip tickets and add fees for items not charged for now, Cosio said. Propane tanks and bicycles, metals, light bulbs and several other items come under the latter category.

“You’re still not able to control who uses it,” Dias said, arguing that uncontrolled access to the transfer station would greatly increase its use.

Rockland charges $5 and $10 for propane tanks, Halifax charges $1 or $15 for the tanks. Smaller propane tanks cost less to dispose of at the transfer stations.

“I think we have to get on par with what other towns are doing,” Perkins said. “I think it’s going to reduce the abuse of our people [from other towns] using our services and we’ve got to start bringing some more money in.”

He said what the metal recycling brings in does not offset labor costs.

“We need to take a look at all the things that we do, what the costs are, what the costs are to us and how are we going to replace $24,000,” Dias said.