Whitman-Hanson Express

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Subscribe
  • Rates
    • Advertisement Rates
    • Subscription Rates
    • Classified Order Form
  • Business Directory
  • Contact the Express
  • Archives
You are here: Home / Archives for Tracy F. Seelye, Express Editor

Sports changes reviewed

October 21, 2021 By Tracy F. Seelye, Express Editor

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.

Filed Under: Featured Story, News

Hanson seeks COVID tracker

October 21, 2021 By Tracy F. Seelye, Express Editor

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.

Filed Under: More News Right, News

Whitman sets strategic plan session

October 14, 2021 By Tracy F. Seelye, Express Editor

WHITMAN — The Board of Selectmen are holding a day-long strategic planning workshop on Saturday, Oct. 23 and are seeking selected members of the public to participate in or observe sessions.

Five members of the public will be selected from those expressing interest to Town Administrator Lincoln Heineman to participate in the morning session articulating the town’s mission and the general public is welcome and encouraged to attend and observe that and an afternoon discussion session.

“I just want to make sure the right people are in the room there, who the board wants,” Heineman said. Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski said there has to be enough publicity about the workshop so that interested citizens know about it. “This is a public meeting, so anyone can attend. I think the key is who is participating actively in the small groups and who isn’t.”

Heineman said there have already been some members of the public who have expressed interest in participating.

“There are some members of the public you would expect to show an interest, who didn’t know about it,” Kowalski said. “We do need to make sure that we reach out enough so that enough interested people are here at the meeting. … Otherwise it’s not a vision that’s shared with the town — it’s something that a small group of people come up with.”

Consultant Ann Donner updated the board on the process at it’s Tuesday, Oct. 12 meeting.

“One part is focused on Phase 2 strategy development and assessment,” Donner said. “Following that is Phase 3, which is really developing and articulating mission, vision, values and priorities and providing a framework for the two over the next five years.”

The morning mission session will focus on “defining and prioritizing a range of overarching strategic priorities” and to think about what the outcomes would be — “coming up with the language that people feel captures what the town of Whitman stands for,” she said.

Donner will facilitate that activity.

“It’s a great solace to know that we’re not just sitting there with a blank piece of paper,” Kowalski said.

The afternoon session will discuss how “everything that we all do contributes to all those strategic priorities” even though it may not be obvious.

She offered mission statements and strategic outlines of communities around the nation, including Fort Collins, Colo.

Selectman Justin Evans asked who else the board should be inviting to the meeting, besides Selectmen, Whitman School Committee, department heads and members of the public to ensure a productive session Oct. 23.

“Or are we getting too big,” he asked.

“The number of participants shouldn’t matter,” Donner said. “Whoever you would like to participate, there’s a way to participate through the way it’s organized.”

Kowalski asked how she envisioned the physical makeup of the Town Hall auditorium for the most effective session — whether, for example, there would be people seated at “a set of tables with X-number of people at it and sharing the results of our conversation at those tables?”

Donner said that was a good setup and that, often, there are guiding questions, depending on the number of people, providing opportunites for breakout sessions.

Selectman Randy LaMattina asked how the regional school district could be completely included.

“To just come up with Whitman’s strategic plan for the school district is only including half the team,” he said, asking how Donner would advise integrating the Hanson School Committee members or that town’s officials, perhaps taking part in their own breakout meeting.

“I see a complete conflict that, we go ahead and establish something that works for Whitman, but it really isn’t a strategic plan for education in the regional school district,” he said.

Donner conceded that is an excellent point, saying critical information to examine prior to Oct. 23 is the district’s own recently completed strategic plan to ensure they are in alignment so there are not two competing documents.

Evans said that it is important that what comes out of the Oct. 23 session should be coming from Whitman residents and town employees for the credibility of the strategic plan, but it is also worth at least inviting at least School Committee Chairman Chris Howard, who is a Hanson resident to at least be in the audience for questions. He also suggested Hanson’s Selectmen Chairman Matt Dyer would be a good person to invite as an observer.

 “It does make sense if the town’s financial plan is in line with their plan, where we’ve struggled with that and still — unfortunately, even with this — will not be addressed,” LaMattina said. “We run on parallel roads, but financially we’re not in the same place.”

Donner suggested a priority could be concerning the schools and the town’s role in the schools with meeting focused on that.

Selectman Dan Salvucci noted that most town departments also have five-year plans, if not written then in mind, a financial strategic plan would also have to be formulated to achieve those goals.

Salvucci also pointed to the previous survey of residents about strategic goals as a way that the public has been given a voice.

Donner also said there would be a public comment period for people unable to attend to make their voices heard.

“I’m slightly disappointed because I thought we were a little beyond this, that we were actually going to implement a plan, that we were beyond the fact-finding,” LaMattina said, noting there has already been a public survey. “When are we actually going to get the team together and develop a plan?”

He also wondered if the five or six public participants would really be providing a snapshot of what the town wants, or what they want.

“If the success of this plan is dependent on buy-in and a shared vision, then the most important people are the other department heads,” LaMattina said. “I think it will make for a more productive meeting, personally.”

Pubic forum

In other business, Selectmen discussed the public forum process, which had recently been suspended.

“We have to make sure that we still observe the Open Meeting Law,” Kowalski said. “People should know what we’re going to be discussing and acting upon each week when they get an agenda.”

But, he agreed, there ought to be a way to raise concerns with the board that are not on an agenda, so long as they understand that no action nor meaningful discussion will be taken up at that time, but that may be placed on a future agenda.

Evans noted that the School Committee had made a similar decision earlier this year.

Selectmen also extended an invitation to DPW Highway and Parks Supervisor Bruce Martin to attend an upcoming meeting to discuss why the DPW Commissioners had recommended placement of cameras in Whitman Park.

Selectmen voted not to put park cameras on the Capital Improvement plan at this time. 

Filed Under: Breaking News, News

Mahoney  promoted at WFD

October 14, 2021 By Tracy F. Seelye, Express Editor

WHITMAN —The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday, Oct. 12 welcomed new fire Capt. Jason Mahoney during a promotional ceremony in the Town Hall auditorium before their regular business meeting.

Town Clerk Dawn Varley administered Mahoney’s oath of office while his daughters Haley and Ryan pinned on his new badge as his wife Christina and several members of the department and their families looked on.

Fire Chief Timothy Clancy said Mahoney, a Hanson resident, began his fire service career in 2002 as a firefighter/paramedic for the town of Hanson, becoming a firefighter/paramedic for Whitman in 2008.

Mahoney has a master’s degree in public administration and is also a registered nurse. He has attended multiple fire service academy classes and is certified in two instruction areas.

“Jason has always taken advantage of every opportunity to seek education to become a better firefighter and a better leader,” Clancy said.

“We wish you all the luck in the world in the new position,” Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski said. “This is the best part of the night.”

Filed Under: Featured Story, News

A personal journey through history

October 14, 2021 By Tracy F. Seelye, Express Editor

HANSON — When COVID-19 regulations meant novelist Martha Hall Kelly couldn’t hold her scheduled book talk and signing at Camp Kiwanee’s Needles Lodge as scheduled on Thursday, Oct. 7, Zoom was there to help the show go on.

Sponsored by the Hanson Public Library, the author of the Lilac Girls series of books discussed her third book, “The Sunflower Sisters.”

“I’m here to admit that I am a big fan — I have an ‘author crush,’” said Library Foundation Director Diana McDevitt in her introduction to Kelly. “Not only does Martha write my favorite genre of historical fiction, but she also does so in a way that pulled me deep into the story, and once I’m finished reading, I can’t help but dig deeper into the characters.”

Originally from the South Shore area, Kelly began her career as an advertising copywriter. 

McDevitt said Kelly uses multiple narrators for her audio books to “make the transition of characters so genuine.”

Kelly said she couldn’t say how much she had been looking forward to the talk and warmly thanked McDevitt for her introcduction.

“I have such fabulous memories of Hanson,” Kelly said, noting it felt like it was only yesterday that she was living in the town. Her home had been on Old Pine Drive.

“It’s definitely on my bucket list of places that I need to get back to,” she said.

Kelly now lives in Litchfield, Conn., and said she missed the South Shore accent. The mother of three had just retired from her job as an advertising copywriter. She had met her husband in Chicago when she was in graduate school at Northwestern University. He was also in the advertising business.

She started her half-hour talk by discussing the true story behind her first book, “Lilac Girls,” about

Her mother had died in 2000 and on Mother’s Day that year, Kelly’s husband encouraged her to go to Bethlehem, Conn., to a house she had always wanted to see — New York philanthropist Caroline Ferriday’s country home in “Lilac Girls.” Ferriday worked at the French Consulate during World War II and helped rescue 35 Polish women from the Ravensbruck concentration camp. The book gets its name from the lilac garden at Ferriday’s Bethlehem home, in which she cultivated specimen lilacs from around the world.

“He did not have to ask me twice,” she said.

Kelly saw a photo of the women on Ferriday’s desk during a tour of the home in which she was the only visitor. The docent explained how the women were used in laboratory experiments by the Nazis and were known as “the rabbits.”

“I just wondered how did that story get lost?” Kelly said. She had no intention of writing a novel, perhaps a pamphlet because there was no pamphlet about it at the house, she said.

“But I started going up there … because I was so curious about Caroline and they have archives where she researched Ferriday for years.

After stopping for her usual decaffeinated order at Starbucks one morning after dropping her son off at high school in Atlanta — where her husband had taken a job in the business office at The Weather Channel — the barista gave her caffeinated coffee instead.

When Kelly got home, she started writing.

A book editor friend of her husband’s had told her that her research would make a great book and that Kelly should start sending her chapters.

She had to hit the books to fill in some of the historical details, noting that she was a “horrible history student in school.”

“I always felt like the men in the class — the boys — loved history,” she said. “But I didn’t like it until I went to Notre Dame Academy and had a female teacher junior year who taught history. Then I really liked it.”

At night she read books about World War II and crafts and, during the day she wrote — for five years, after researching for four or five years.

Then she decided that she needed to go to Germany and Poland.

“I had Caroline’s voice, but I couldn’t really write from the point of view of … the Nazi doctor and from the point of view of one of the rabbits,” Hall said. “As soon as we went to Poland, the chapters started coming.”

After hitting it lucky with responses from four prospective agents, she worked with one that advised more research into why the Nazis did what they did, and an editor who promised that, even if she was not chosen for the job, would champion the book because she felt Ferriday’s story needed to be told.

“I was really lucky,” she said, adding that the book also became an immediate New York Times bestseller.

Her husband advised her to go back to Random House and tell them she wanted to do more books.

“Lost Roses,” about Ferriday’s mother and the Russian Revolution, and “Sunflower Sisters,” Caroline Ferriday’s great grandmother and the Woolsey family during the Civil War.

For each book, she immersed herself in research again and again.

“I had an embarrassment of riches for that book,” she said of  “Sunflower Sisters.”

Sadly, “Sunflower Sisters” came out during the pandemic, so Kelly was unable to go on a traditional book tour. But virtual stops like Thursday’s were possible.

One person attending asked if it was difficult to research the conditions on plantations that informed the hard-to-read scenes of the treatment of slaves in the book.

“They’ve all been difficult in different ways,” Kelly said. “[‘Sunflower Sisters’] was personal. More personal than the other ones in different ways, because … writing about your own country is very different and it was so emotional.”

She didn’t want to shy away from the difficult parts of the stories.

“I know it’s hard to read those things … but I feel it’s important to show the good and the bad of those kind of settings.”

She said that, rather than writing sequentially, she “braids” characters’ experiences together to create a narrative.

She is currently working on two books. A followup of  “The Lilac Girls,” set during the 1950s, and a thriller about a woman who writes poetry, but plagiarizes from a person she should not have plagerized and what happened to her.

The Hanson Public Library is posting the talk on it’s Facebook page or people to view and travel down memory lane along with some Hanson residents who knew Kelly when she lived in town.

Filed Under: More News Right, News

Hanson voters seek transparency

October 7, 2021 By Tracy F. Seelye, Express Editor

HANSON – Voters at Hanson’s special Town Meeting Monday, Oct. 4, took several steps to make local government more transparent, including postponing one citizens’ petition article on residency requirements for holding office to the May Town Meeting.

An article seeking special legislation outlining the process for removal for cause of appointed board, committee or commission officials, amended to remove contradictory language about the petition signature process, was approved.

Selectman Joseph Weeks said that article’s purpose was to trigger a hearing by the appointing board.

“This article is designed to give a voice to people that, if they truly feel an appointed official that they do not have direct control over, is doing something that’s against what the wishes of Hanson are, this triggers that hearing,” he said.

An article proposed by the Board of Selectmen, requiring that all Hanson office-holders have their primary residence in Hanson was also approved, without comment.

A non-binding citizen’s petition, seeking the immediate removal of the entire membership of the Zoning Board of Appeals, by the Board of Selectmen as the ZBA’s appointing authority, was also approved. Kevin Cohen of Spring Street, and 167 co-signers, asked that the ZBA be removed at the first possible meeting after Town Meeting.

“The Hanson ZBA has recently reorganized three times,” Cohen said. “A lot of people in town were not aware of this. … There’s also been many complaints to the state ethics commission with regard to several members of the board, involving alleged self-dealing. The state Ethics Commission is looking into the personal relationships on this board. … It does warrant an investigation.”

Another article approved Monday night, revised a bylaw to require all board and committee members report to the Board of Selectmen, any potential conflicts of interest.

When the Town Meeting — held in the McEwan Performing Arts Center at WHRHS — was posted, masks for the session were optional, but since the high school is mandated to require them until Nov. 1, Moderator Sean Kealy urged residents to observe that rule, even though he was not willing to remove anyone for failure to do so.

“It is a state law, however, and the school is very concerned about it,” Kealy said. Not everyone complied.

Former School Committee Chairman Bob Hayes was honored for his service on that committee.

Before the night’s business got under way, there was $2,210,786 in free cash; $1,365,131 in the stabilization fund; $187,182 in the school stabilization fund; $1,540,002 in water surplus; $20,949 in the Recreation retained earnings; and $25,058 in the solid waste retained earnings account.

Funds for a temporary recording secretary for the Selectmen’s office and a proposed .75-percent meals tax were among the few articles rejected or passed over.

 A requested $9,179 for a recording secretary in the Selectmen’s office was rejected by a 63-41 vote. The meals tax request was passed over by a vote of 56-52.

Recording secretary 

The Finance Committee did not recommend the recording secretary expense, which was intended to help catch up with a meeting minutes backlog and assist with Economic Development Committee minutes, according to Town Administrator Lisa Green. The part-time, temporary employee would have had no benefits and the requested funds were expected to cover pay for the position through July 1, 2022.

“Since we are mid-budget cycle, adding staff or hours just, for us, we prefer to see that at the beginning of the budget cycle,” said Finance Committee member Patrick Powers.

Resident Bruce Young urged voters to follow the Finance Committee’s recommendation and moved that each of the lines up for adjustment in Article 2 be voted separately. When that was approved, the motion to reject the recording secretary line was approved.

“The executive assistant to the Board of Selectmen has always handled the preparation and the transcribing of the minutes,” he said. “The minutes are as difficult as you want to make them.”

Selectmen Chairman Matt Dyer countered that the office is only staffed with two people and the work hasn’t been accomplished within a 40-hour work week in years.

“In the past, we’ve had a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful  employee — [Meredith] Merry Marini — who would stay and work 60 hours a week,” Dyer said. “She would come in during the weekends, she would do the minutes from home — she took a lot of work, and she did it on her own time.”

He said the town benefitted from Marini’s work over the years, but that over time, state mandates have increased. The office is understaffed.

“We had a global pandemic come through, and that really took a lot of our bandwidth and we got a little bit behind in our minutes and this is just to help us get caught up,” Dyer said.

Meals tax

The narrow vote margin to pass over an article instituting a .75-percent meals tax meant that the town continues as one of only three in the region to fail to adopt a meals tax. Opponents argued that, on the heels of the COVID pandemic, it is not the time to impose a new tax.

“My only concern is that, at this particular time, after the pandemic, I’m not sure imposing a meals tax on our restaurants in town — where we don’t have an awful lot of them and they’re struggling — I just don’t think it should be brought up at this particular time,” said resident Kathleen Marini, moving to pass over the article.

Dyer explained the sales tax is on diners, not restaurants and that the small difference the tax would make, in an effort to fund municipal and school costs, would not affect business. He said a $100 tab and Venus III, for example, would only bring a 75-cent meals tax.

Pond management

Discussion of two pond management articles, for treatment and preventive measures and establishing a budget line item, was also the focus of much of the evening’s discussion.

Woodbine Avenue resident Joe Campbell asked if the $25,000 from free cash sought for Article 12 included litigation costs against surrounding towns that are violating waterways.

Conservation Commission Chairman Phil Clemons said Article 11 doesn’t provide funding, but rather a mechanism for possible future funding. 

“They don’t dictate what we do and don’t spend the money on, it’s just that, at the moment, the town doesn’t have a mechanism for spending any money to fund anything regarding any pond,” Clemons said. “This is simply a way to begin paying that attention. … This will enable us to start doing something.”

For one Lakeside Avenue resident said that it appeared to her that Pembroke officials play a role in clearing up the algae.

“I’ve lived there over 40 years and the ponds are getting worse,” she said, noting she has joined a Pembroke watershed group, but now finds Hanson is not treating its side of the pond. “I don’t know how that works out, because I’ve got all this green algae growing everywhere.”

Powers again pointed to the Finance Committee’s preference that the proposal wait for a full budget year to seek funding. Kealy added that while Article 11 puts the budget line in place, Article 12 puts some money into it until the May Town Meeting, but that the fiscal 2023 budget cycle really begins to get going in November. 

Resident Frank Milisi expressed concern over bladderwort, which contain small, hollow sacs that digest tiny animals such as insect larvae and water fleas, would be a plant at the Cranberry Cove beach that Recreation officials want to get rid of by the time swimming starts. May would be too late for that.

“I appreciate that Finance has to do their job and go through and make recommendations at the May Town Meeting, but we really need to start getting a handle on at least the Cranberry Cove bladderwort issue,” he said, describing the situation as dangerous to have children learning how to swim there until the plants are eradicated.

Former Finance Committee member Pepper Santalucia, while he greatly respects the work that they do, said that the October Town Meeting is to meet needs and address issues that have come up since the May Town Meeting and may need to be addressed before the spring.

“It strikes me that it’s a good policy to be cautious about what expenditures you might recommend or approve at the October Town Meeting, but to make a blanket assertion that, because it’s coming up as a need in October, it’s not worthy of consideration … I’m asking for some clarification,” he said.

Powers said the Finance Committee did not recommend Article 11 at this time because it adds and establishes a budget line, which is procedurally done in May.

Both articles were approved, with Milisi’s request to add an additional $10,000 for what Selectman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said would fund not only a study, but plans to do something to address the ponds.

Union contracts

Union ratified contracts for public employees were also funded, including the police union — which received public funds in support of their education through the Quinn Bill and base raises (2 percent for the first year and 2 ¼ for the last two) added over the course of three years, a tenure step increase, and an increase for a sergeant to differentiate his rank from the top patrolman, Town Counsel Kate Feodoroff said.

All unions received Juneteenth as a contractual holiday. Juneteenth for nonunion personnel was approved in a later article recognizing it as a local holiday, as well as on the state and federal designations.

The fire department’s union personnel agreement contained the same base raises as the police contract, a 10-year step, an increased for the paramedic certification stipend and EMT basic stipend.

The administrative professionals’ union settled for a flat 2-percent raise over three years, some library positions — children’s, youth and reference librarians —were added to the union, assistants in the collector, treasurer and clerk’s offices will receive a $1,000 stipend for certifications they have attained and a $350 stipend to maintain a certification for the conservation clerk and eye glasses reimbursements up to $500 every three years.

The Highway Department contract carried no further appropriation for the fiscal year.

Filed Under: Breaking News, News

Whitman carnival back at Rec panel

October 7, 2021 By Tracy F. Seelye, Express Editor

WHITMAN – The Board of Selectmen have directed Town Administrator Lincoln Heineman look into who is responsible for issuing permits to use town property and what protocols should be followed by applicants.

The issue cropped up when Real estate agent Brittany Cavallo and mortgage agent Nicole Gifford attended the Sept. 28 meeting to seek approval for a fall carnival from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 30 at Memorial Field hosted by their business and sponsored by other businesses in town.

“We have this past history, but it’s not written down,” Heineman said. “I would strongly recommend to the board that there be a written policy that lays out exactly what the process is, particularly with respect to independently elected boards and commissions so that [people know] the Board of Selectmen is the policy-making body for the town.”

Heineman volunteered to draft a policy with the assistance of Selectman Randy LaMattina.

It had not been their first stop at Town Hall for an event permit.

Cavallo said she had initially sought approval from the Board of Health for an event on Oct. 23, where she was directed to go to the DPW Commissioners. The Recreation Commission and director were also asked for a permit, where they were asked to move their request to Oct. 30 due to scheduling conflicts at the field, and the women were granted use of the field, according to Heineman.

But it is the Board of Selectmen that is empowered to grant such permits.

Selectmen voted to approve the permit, pending state ethics officials and town counsel rulings on the ethical questions raised at the meeting. Town counsel reported to Heineman Monday that the Recreation Commission is the deciding body and will meet about it at 5:30 p.m.,  Wednesday, Oct. 6.

“Town Counsel’s opinion, in looking at past Town Meeting votes, the law, etc., is that the field is currently is under the jurisdiction — as a result of a Town Meeting vote in 1975 — of the Recreation Commission,” Heineman said. “No one’s been told to change their venue.”

Heineman said Oct. 4, that he recognized the frustration in the situation that he strongly believes a policy is needed to clarify things.

“In other words, the DPW, which granted a permit, really isn’t in line to grant permits for functions like this?” Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski asked Heineman.

“I wouldn’t say the DPW granted a permit,” Heineman replied. “They did go before them, and the DPW gave their blessing, so to speak. I don’t think I would call it a permit. What the Recreation Director issued, they do, in fact, call a permit … but it’s not a permit to hold the event, per se.”

Cavallo said they went to the Board of Health first, because she felt that COVID concerns warranted consulting that board first.

“If there’s something online that could tell us what the protocols are … I would have been here first,” she said. “It was not meant to circumvent any type of protocol.”

Heineman added that events held at Whitman Park require DPW approval, but events on other town-owned lands can come under the purview of the Board of Selectmen. 

Selectman Randy LaMattina strenuously objected to approving the permit because, he argued it was intended to market a private business, and that the women had included the Whitman Food Pantry as a last-minute beneficiary.

“I’m kind of upset at the process,” LaMattina said. “The DPW Commissioners have no authority to grant [permits to] events like this.”

He added that the Recreation Commission basically sent an email to them, basically telling them what they had approved and that, so far as he is aware, that permit has not been signed by the Recreation Commission.

“They have not voted on this,” he said, largely because a quorum of members had not been available.

Selectman Brian Bezanson asked for a brief overview of the carnival event. 

“Originally the game plan was to have [attractions] like bouncy houses, games – everything free to the public,” Cavallo said.

But after speaking with the Recreation Commission and obtaining the rider on their insurance policy that was required, they scaled back the games and have rented lawn games from Busy Bee Jumpers in Whitman, and have contracted with four food trucks and a local woman who runs a fully-licensed bakery – Sweet Standards – from her home. All food vendors will have to be inspected and license before they participate, Cavallo said. A raffle intended to go to the Whitman Food Pantry for the holidays will also be included.

“I personally have an issue with this, because up until right now, there’s nothing that we received that said anything about a charity being involved,” LaMattina said. “It seems like a promotional event.”

He said, while it sounds like a great event, “I don’t know if we’re in the promotion for private business business, letting town services be used for that.”

LaMattina suggested it could present an ethical problem. To address that concern, Selectman Justin Evans suggested consulting the state Ethics Commission.

Kowalski said he favored approving the one event and then placing a hold on others “until we get our own act together” as a town. Bezanson suggested the board’s approval be contingent on a clean report from the Ethics Commission, and LaMattina amended that to request a ruling from Whitman’s town counsel, as well.

“I personally have an issue with this, because up until right now, there’s nothing that we’ve received that said anything about a charity being involved,” LaMattina said. “It seems like a promotional event.”

One problem with that, he said, could be “cutting the legs off” from local community charities like Dollars for Scholars.

Cavallo said she did not understand how the event involves a cost to the town if the women’s businesses were paying for the event costs and rented the field. She said they had held a movie night for the community this summer that was not questioned. LaMattina said there was an issue with that, as well.

But as to costs for the town, he said they had not paid a fee to the Recreation Department, the cost for detail officers and trash pickup.

“An event like this, although you might not see it, does cost the town money,” he said.

Cavallo said no Recreation fee had been asked for and they have spoken to police about footing the bill for detail officers.

LaMattina compared the plans to those of the old WinterFest Committee, which, at no point, involved any self-promotion. 

Cavallo said they have approached all businesses in the town center and are gaining nothing except exposure.

“That’s what this event is about, bringing community together,” she said.

“We’re in the process of getting the businesses to donate,” said Gifford, who used to be an event planner. “ … I feel like, after COVID, everyone’s looking for things like this. Everyone’s missing community.”

Filed Under: Featured Story, News

DiOrio’s ‘bucket list’ marathon benefit

October 7, 2021 By Tracy F. Seelye, Express Editor

WHITMAN – Running the Boston Marathon for the first time on Monday, Oct. 11 is one item checked off Chris DiOrio’s bucket list — as well as an opportunity to raise funds to research childhood cancer.

But one has to hope is music shuffle won’t serve up the 17-minute arrangement of “It’s a Small World” just as he hits Heartbreak Hill.

More on that later.

“You can learn to love to run,” DiOrio says. “It’s something that I feel like I have to do it every day, now.”

He didn’t feel that way when he started, however. It hurt in the beginning.

But he had started thinking about doing the marathon as a “bucket list thing” when he was in his 40s, the 54-year-old DiOrio said last week. It didn’t have to be Boston, but he wanted to at least try a 26.2-mile race.

“But I was just not physically able to do it,” he said, noting he was “pushing 400 pounds at points” and finding just walking the stairs to be a challenge. He underwent gastric bypass surgery to lose weight two years ago, and has dropped almost 120 pounds so far, and said his diabetes disappeared after five days.

So he felt it was time to think about a marathon again.

“I start losing the weight, the pain in the legs goes away and now I give it some thought,” he said. He laced up his sneakers again last year to start the long training process.

“It was difficult,” DiOrio said. “I’ve run a 5K about eight years ago. The most I ever had to run as an athlete in school was, at the beginning of summer football practice, you had to run around the football field four times and you had to do it in a certain time.”

When he started running again he found he was crossing items of his list of running goals.

Two miles. 

Running a 5K last summer. 

A 10K last October for Dana Farber, walking seven miles of the Boston Marathon course before the starting point of the 10K race.

“It was a reckoning,” DiOrio says.

The daunting part of the marathon is, of course, the infamous Heartbreak Hill, so hills have been a feature of this running program – on a stretch Dewey Avenue near his home that features a 20-degree incline – for the past several weeks. Heartbreak Hill is a deceptive 23-degree incline.

“It’s long,” he said. 

When you get to the first of the four hills – four and a half miles – with a steady increase in elevation interspersed with flats, it can fool runners.

“It’s four separate hills,” he said. “With the actual Heartbreak Hill being the last, steepest one.”

He trains with Heartbreak Hill Running Co. owner Dan Fitzgerald (a six-time marathoner), who is working with the Mass General Hospital team with which DiOrio is running. A friend of his is a nurse in the hospital’s pediatric oncology department.

“When I said I’m going to run, and I’m going to run Boston, I’m no near a qualifier … but she said MGH has teams,” he said. MGH has three separate teams, one for pediatric oncology, one for the emergency department and one for the veterans’ program Project Home Base.

“As a parent, and knowing people in my life who have kids who have suffered – and some that have died – from pediatric cancer, it’s not something that a lot of research funds go to,” he said of his reason for raising funds.

His run is dedicated to Maddie McCoy, whose mother is a regional theater performer DiOrio has worked with. Maddie had a soft-tissue cancer that matastisizes all over the body. She was diagnosed at age 10 and was 11 when she died, but throughout her illness continued with gymnastics and art.

“If you see kids suffering, you cannot help but be moved,” he said. “It just hit me.”

A singer, DiOrio has performed at a benefit for the nonprofit Maddie’s Promise last year. That has also led to his unique fundraising idea. For pledges of $25 or more, he records requests for his marathon playlist. He’s raised $6,500 so far – at least $2,000 has come from the playlist requests. Because he was a late entrant, MGH only required him to raise $500, but his personal goal had been $2,000. A lot more donations typically roll in during the last week before the race.

Donations can be made until Oct. 22 at givengain.com.

Some donors had asked for inspirational music, but others have been playing with his brain – asking for some songs that make DiOrio cringe. Some have chosen “Let It Go,” from “Frozen,” for example. His wife, who holds a degree in vocal pedagogy, found a musical based on “Silence of the Lambs” and requested a song from that. It was another friend who requested the extended-play earworm “It’s a Small World.”

“If you want to make me hate this run, I’ll take your money,” he said. “MGH is going to benefit. … I don’t care. My minor time of suffering through your garbage song is going to pale in comparison to some kid going through chemotherapy.”

“Guys and Dolls” is his favorite musical, though.

For the last week of his training, DiOrio is alternating between 12- and eight-mile runs maintaining his marathon goal pace as he tapers distance, having run 20 miles the Saturday before. He also does some treadmill work, including a program that mimics the hills.

There were off days on Wednesday and Friday – when he walks.

Listening choices range from podcasts on walks and everything from Beastie Boys, TLC, and Lady Gaga to Foo Fighters on runs.

“What I have found out,  over time, is there are some songs that fit perfectly into my pace,” he says. “The mental stuff will come. Every marathoner I’ve spoken to says, ‘If you can run 20 [miles], you can run 26.’ But, with Boston, 20 is at the base of Heartbreak Hill.”

Nutrition is a challenge for any marathoner, but as a gastric bypass patient, DiOrio has to find big benefits in small amounts. Hyrogels, which are glycogene support gels, are one of those keys, as are “Clif Bloks”, 90-calorie glucose chews.

Carbo-loading before the race is also out of the question. He had also consulted his MGH gastric surgical team about whether the gels were tolerable for nutrition. They had to have a meeting about it before advising him which nutritional gels would work best for him.

“I’m learning,” he said. “I’ve already got people telling me about other marathons. My line to folks is, we’ll see if I survive this one.”

Filed Under: More News Left, News

Fire Prevention Week: Learn the sounds of fire safety

October 7, 2021 By Tracy F. Seelye, Express Editor

 WHITMAN — Fire Chief Timothy Clancy and the Whitman Fire Department urge all residents to “Learn the Sounds of Fire Safety” and to follow several basic tips to help protect their loved ones during Fire Prevention Week, which is being recognized this year from Oct. 3 to 9.

Fire Prevention Week is organized by the National Fire Protection Association, and has been recognized for over 90 years. The goal of Fire Prevention Week is to educate the public about simple but important ways they can keep themselves and those they live with safe.

This year’s theme of “Learn the Sounds of Fire Safety” focuses on beeps, chirps and other noises coming from your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, and how knowing what they mean could save your life.

“Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms are important lifesaving devices that need to be properly maintained,” Clancy said, urging everyone to recognize these common sounds to help better understand smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.

• A continuous set of three loud beeps — beep, beep, beep — means smoke or fire. Get out, call 9-1-1, and stay out.

•A single chirp every 30 or 60 seconds means the battery is low and must be changed.

• All smoke alarms must be replaced after 10 years.

• Chirping that continues after the battery has been replaced means the alarm is at the end of its life and the unit must be replaced.

The NFPA offers the following tips for those who are deaf or hard of hearing:

• Purchase smoke and CO alarms that include strobe lights that flash to alert people when the smoke alarm sounds. 

• Pillow or bed shakers can also be purchased and linked to smoke and CO alarms to awaken people from their sleep. These work by shaking the pillow or bed when the alarm sounds. 

• The use of a low-frequency alarm can also wake a sleeping person with mild to severe hearing loss.

Filed Under: More News Right, News

Mask recommendations questioned

September 30, 2021 By Tracy F. Seelye, Express Editor

WHITMAN — The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday, Sept. 28 engaged in a terse discussion about mask mandates, during which one derogatory name for the protective face coverings was tossed out in an argument supporting CDC mask and vaccine guidelines.

While the Board of Health’s recent recommendation in accordance with the CDC, to wear masks in Town Hall and it’s two main meeting rooms and limiting the number of public attendees, was in place, three Selectmen — Randy LaMattina, Dan Salvucci and Brian Bezanson — did not wear masks at the Tuesday meeting. Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski, Selectman Justin Evans and Town Administrator Lincoln Heineman wore masks and all were seated at six-foot intervals.

“We’re not in the torrid zone, but we’re not in the easy zone, but we still have to be careful and we have to remember that this is something that is still with us,” Kowalski said in opening the meeting.

No one in the public gallery wore masks at the meeting.

Heineman said Fire Chief Timothy Clancy continues to provide weekly updates about positivity rates. There are 52 new cases in town out of 1,220 tests administered as of Sept. 22.

The town’s COVID positivity rate is now 4.28 percent, the same as the week before, but higher than the state rate of 1.99 percent and while there has been an increase in vaccination rates of all ages between 16 and 74 over the past three weeks, the town’s vaccination rate is only 57 percent, compared to the state’s 67.8 percent percent rate of fully vaccinated persons and 77.3 percent for those having received at least one dose. All ages from 12 to 110 are tracked, but 12 to 74 was the only range showing an increase in vaccinations.

“No rise, so take your masks off,” Salvucci joked, but Kowalski chided him for making a silly remark.

“You can not follow the advice of our Board of Health, that’s on the front door,” he said. “It’s OK, Dan, it’s fine.”

The discussion became more tense after that.

Heineman noted there are signs around town, most notably on the message board out front of Town Hall, the urging in conjunction with the Board of Health to be fully vaccinated — for those in eligible age groups.

“I’d like to think the outreach effort has had some effect over the prior three and a half weeks,” Heineman said.

While there is a Pfizer vaccine booster available to ages 65 and over or persons in certain occupations, the Moderna vaccine, which the town administered — and is still being used now —because it was the one available, has not yet been approved by the FDA for boosters.

Clancy has been working toward being able to administer the boosters once the FDA green-lights it.

“As this board knows, there was an OSHA [vaccine] mandate that has not been issued officially yet,” Heineman said concerning an earlier discussion by the board about vaccine mandates. “We know it’s coming, that will certainly apply to private businesses with 100 or more employees. What’s not clear … is whether or not it may apply to public employers, municipalities, in Massachusetts.”

Heineman said there is some question as to whether the OSHA mandate even exists. Most municipalities are awaiting the outcome of legal challenges with the state’s mandate for public employees before taking any action.

“Throughout the pandemic, the board [Selectmen] has been choosing to follow the Board of Health’s advice with respect to COVID-19 issues,” he said. That morning the health board voted to recommend that in the Selectmen’s meeting room and another in the basement attendance be limited to the board members and support staff — and no more than eight members of the public at one time.

Town counsel said the Selectmen have the authority to enforce that recommendation.

“I think administering this would be difficult, because … while the board may have the authority … I think the reality is I don’t know how we would enforce that absent having a police officer [do it],” Heineman said. He said the ability to meet remotely is in effect until April and suggested that might be an option or individual members could choose to attend remotely.

Kowalski wondered why those two meeting rooms were chosen, when the Finance Committee meets in a much smaller room.

“They’re packed in like sardines,” when holding budget discussions with departments, Kowalski noted. “I’d like you to find out from the Board of Health how did the Finance Committee room escape?”

He also noted that planning and zoning board meetings can attract a lot of people.

“I understand the spirit of worrying about capacity, but the logic, frankly escapes me,” Kowalski said.

Bezanson then remarked on the number of school board meetings, especially, around the country that have become flash points for people angry about masks, and football games are fully attended with masks rarely seen.

“I’d hate to see us go down that road,” Bezanson said of the mask protests. “I’m typically not a mandate person, I think it’s personal responsibility, and I think as we get higher vaccination rates … I would like to ask more questions of the Board of Health.”

LaMattina, like Bezanson, pointed to the Select Board’s continued adherence to Board of Health and CDC recommendations, but using a derogatory term for masks, he expressed his frustration with the issue.

“We have no change in our positivity percentage, but now we start enforcing stronger restrictions,” he said. “Why? … I don’t think we need to argue each other’s personal feelings or personal comfort level during the pandemic.”

He stressed the CDC also recommends vaccinations, which 47 percent of the town is not doing. He said he was not wearing a mask “for theater at this meeting,” because he doesn’t wear one anywhere else.

LaMattina said he and his family have been fully vaccinated so they wouldn’t have to wear masks.

“That is my comfort level with the vaccine,” he said, adding he was in favor of vaccine mandates, but would never vote for one. “I feel the mask is being used, not as a tool, but a pressure point right now to get people vaccinated.”

He argued that vaccines should be incentivized.

Evans noted that the Board of Health has been in step with DPH and the CDC, but seem out of sync with state and federal recommendations here.

Filed Under: Breaking News, News

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 74
  • 75
  • 76
  • 77
  • 78
  • …
  • 173
  • Next Page »

Your Hometown News!

The Whitman-Hanson Express covers the news you care about. Local events. Local business. Local schools. We honestly report about the stories that affect your life. That’s why we are your hometown newspaper!
FacebookEmailsubscribeCall

IN THE NEWS

Main Street impasse?

July 10, 2025 By Tracy F. Seelye, Express Editor

HANSON – In Court papers signed by Plymouth Superior Court Justice Brian S. Glennny on May 27, 2025, … [Read More...]

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK

Whitman-Hanson Express

FEATURED SERVICE DIRECTORY BUSINESS

LATEST NEWS

  • Jimmy Fund Walk aids cancer research July 10, 2025
  • Going by the book to pick a library design July 10, 2025
  • Main Street impasse? July 10, 2025
  • How you gonna call? July 10, 2025
  • 25 recent firefighter graduates now on the job July 3, 2025
  • Welcoming spirit of Whitman in art July 3, 2025
  • Someone, call Guiness July 3, 2025
  • Whitman feeling a budget hangover July 3, 2025
  • Heat wave safety for older adults June 26, 2025
  • Hanson OKs new cable access contract *UPDATED* June 26, 2025

[footer_backtotop]

Whitman-Hanson Express  • 1000 Main Street, PO Box 60, Hanson, MA 02341 • 781-293-0420 • Published by Anderson Newspapers, Inc.

 

Loading Comments...