Whitman-Hanson Express

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Some A’s to SST’s frequently asked Q’s

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As South Shore Regional Vocational Technical High School (SST) approaches its district wide election on the proposed building project, the Express asked Superintendent-Director Tom Hickey to provide some information on a range of topics, including the background on the project, details about the new building and the associated costs of the project.
Q: What is the rationale for the project?
A: Opened in 1962, we are the second oldest regional vocational school in Massachusetts. The district has been applying to MSBA for several years, citing the age of the building and its systems, the lack of space, and a growing waiting list of students interested in attending. District wide we currently have 428 applications for 180 seats in next year’s grade 9 class. Both Whitman and Hanson have consistently had more applicants than allotted seats (almost 4 applicants for every seat), which is part of a strong trend with the growing interest in vocational education.
Q: What is the project being proposed? What is its timeline?
A: The construction would be for a new 900 student school built behind the current school on Webster Street in Hanover. Construction would run from mid-2026 until mid-2028 and the building would be open for the 2028-2029 school year. The current building would remain fully operational during the construction phase.
Q: Are any new vocational programs being added?
A: Yes. We would add Plumbing and Veterinary Science programs, two programs with a high level of interest. More project design information can be found at www.southshoretechproject.com.
Q: What should readers need to know about the special district election?
A: Date/Time: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday Jan. 25, 2025
Poll locations: Hanson votes at Hanson Middle School; Whitman votes at Whitman Town Hall
Our town clerks have information on the respective town websites about absentee ballots and other details. The ballot question will determine if the project moves forward based on a combined vote tally within the district’s nine towns.
Q: Why does the ballot question language reference the total project budget, if each town will share in the costs?
A: It is required by statute and MSBA to have the same ballot question language in all 9 towns and that the language includes the total project budget cost (the $276m). In the ballot question’s second paragraph, it states that the MSBA is committed to paying a maximum state grant up to 61.86 percent of the eligible costs of the project, which is the maximum grant of $111 million.
Q: What is the projected local share after the MSBA grant?
A: After subtracting already paid for feasibility costs and using some stabilization funds we can put back into the project, we are projecting approximately $162m between the 9 towns, financed over 30 years. The household tax impact information we are providing on our project website includes principal and interest. Please see www.southshoretechproject.com/tax-impacts.
Q: How will the local share of $162m be divided?
A: Per our regional agreement, it is based on student enrollment trends over time at the school. We anticipate Hanson’s share to be 10.28 percent and Whitman’s share to be 17.17 percent by the time the bonds roll on in FY30. Our towns recently adjusted our regional agreement to have debt share adjusted based on a rolling four-year average, so this is a projection based on enrollment trends.
Q: What is the projected tax impact at the household level? When will it roll on?
A: When: The highest amount of borrowing will take place in FY29 or delayed to FY30.
Impact: It depends on how the money is borrowed. Paying back debt can be done with (a) level debt payments which are lower initially but include more interest over the term of borrowing or (b) level principal payments cost more up front but that leads to lower total cost over the life of the borrowing.
The bottom line: At our highest borrowing in FY30:
The average assessed home in Whitman would see a $296 per year ($74 per quarter) increase using a level debt payment model. In Hanson the level debt payment amount would be $235 per year ($74 per quarter)
As an alternative, a level principal borrowing model in FY30 would be higher ($367 yr/$92 qtr for Whitman and $290 yr/$72 qtr for Hanson) but level principal borrowing declines over time.
All of these projected amounts have interest costs baked in.
Q: When will you decide the borrowing model?
A: The district won’t make borrowing decisions without first consulting with towns, and that decision won’t happen until closer to FY29. We show both borrowing models on the tax impact documents on our project website to give readers a comparison.
Q: What should people do if they need more information?
A: If readers have questions or want to double check information, the project website, www.southshoretechproject.com is a good resource. Readers are also encouraged to contact Superintendent Tom Hickey at [email protected] or 781-766-4002 with any questions or suggestions for content for the project website.

— Dr. Thomas J. Hickey

Blind ‘dates’ and tall tales

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Bookstores are doing it, Etsy alone seems to have an entire cottage industry devoted to it, and libraries are doing it – the “it,” for those not up on the latest internet craze or marketing trend – is “Blind Date with a Book.”
It started in bookstores, including larger chains such as Barnes & Noble. Shoppers would encounter tables, usually in the fiction section, where a table would feature books wrapped in brown paper, with a clue about the book inside written in fancy script.
For “The Wizard of Oz,” on might imagine a clue like, “Midwestern girl needs a better weather forecaster.”
Hanson Public Library’s program, is called a Mystery Box, which many online retailers have begun to take to dizzying heights.
“Truthfully, it’s not my program, it’s Julia’s [Nee] program,” said Adult and Youth Services Librarian Hanley Callahan a recent college grad who started in November. “She’s no longer with us, but she spear-headed it from the start. It’s been really popular. We get 20 out of 20 sign-ups every single month.”
Circulation/Customer Service assistant John Carrozza said Nee has always had a talent for coming up with concepts of things that people might like after doing some field research.
“She visits libraries and wherever I go I try to visit libraries and try to get ideas,” he said. Carrozza and Nee borrowed one of the more popular visual puns in the library – a handful of books on a rafter labled “Books for Tall People” – from the Truro Public Library.
At Whitman Library, Senior Library Technician Mary Casey, said a “Blind Date with a Book” will be offered as part of the library’s Valentines Day programming in February.
But Whitman’s promotional project through April is the Non-fiction Reading Challenge, which is taking something of a literary Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride through the Dewey Decimal System.
“We’re going through each category – from the 100s to the 900s, including biographies – and for each category that people read, we give them a raffle ticket and there’s a prize at the end,” Casey said, noting that it is aimed at bringing more attention to the non-fiction titles as Library Technician Petra Reitz conducts the lengthy regular process of “weeding” those shelves.
“That’s what spurred this,” she said. “I think we’re also so programmed with our phones, it leads you to the next read. I wish we could move the Circulation Desk to force people to walk through the collection and look around. The serendipity is no longer there.”
The hope is that the non-fiction challenge pairs off people with something they might not ordinarily read – just as the “Blind Date” and mystery box programs are designed to do.
Casey said more people come to the library in winter anyway, and they are seeing an uptick in use of the study rooms, especially post-COVID if they work from home and want a change of scenery.
The library’s Head of Youth Services/Assistant Director Stephanie Young, is also conducting a children’s reading challenge with two gift card prizes to be awarded.
“Ideally, somewhere in the future, I’d love to be able to extend it,” Callahan said about Hanson’s Book Box program.” “Instead of 20, maybe 25 or 30, as more people become familiar with it.”
Any patrons interested in donating items for inclusion in a month’s boxes, would certainly be welcomed to, she said.
Libraries, however, have focused on the idea as a way to bring more patrons to the library while introducing readers to new writers, while throwing in a bookmark and a craft or two.
“There’s mystery box these days for any interest,” said Julia Nee, a former staff member at Hanson Library, now working as director of the Pembroke Library, who introduced the program at Hanson. “There’s a seasonal one for fashion or jewelry and there’s monthly ones for kids’ events with different craft projects. I can’t remember the library that did it first, but it seemed such a good idea to combine a book and a craft and other fun stuff for readers.”
Nee said her intent was to put a Mystery Box program together that could also be done for free, especially since library budgets can’t support some of the more elaborate offerings in the retail arena.
“We tried to do fun things,” Nee said of her work in Hanson. “It’s the little things. But I also love picking out books for people or recommending books, so that was already a fun part, too.”
While some online vendors still favor brown paper packaging, others go in for fancier paper, often color-matched to the page-marking sticky notes, highlighter or pen for making notations, stickers galore, a reading list to fill out, a tea sachet or packet of hot chocolate, a bookmark and sometimes floral decorative touches. More deluxe sets might include soft, fuzzy socks, a bakery item, special water bottle and perhaps some under-eye patches for a mini-spa treatment while you read.
Then there are the deluxe boxes, which can run $100 or more and include candles, a small cheese board, makeup samples, a bigger assortment of treats and more.
The idea has, from the beginning, been to entice readers to read a genre they might not have considered before. But questions have cropped up.
“Is it really just a marketing ploy to get rid of unpopular books?” some critics have wondered. Is it too good to be true? Aren’t you taking a risk ordering them online sight-unseen?
The answer to all these is – yes. While one can end up with a really interesting book – or one you may have already read, as is similar to the risks of a human blind date, but there are also rip-offs lurking in the internet, so buyer beware.
Online vendors’ order forms usually ask what genre – fiction, romance, thriller, historical fiction and the like – and some may ask an open-ended question for a few lines about what people like to read about, just as Hanson Library does. They are honest about the fact that most books, while new, were overstocks in an effort to save them from landfills.
“I stick with brand-new books,” Nee said. “It was a way to get a book that you didn’t even know that you wanted yet. When people sign up, they tell me what they’re looking for in terms of genre and up to a paragraph about what they wanted. Some people did that, some people didn’t, and there were people who did that month after month and I kind of got to know what they are gravitating toward.”
Hanson Library still offers the Mystery Box program, with the first boxes distributed last week to the 20-or so people planned on to sign up.
Nee, who said she doesn’t recall where she got the idea – the internet, a bookstore or another library, but the program began during COVID, when a lot of libraries were looking for virtual or distance programs. It was a natural extension of the take and make craft kits they were already offering in Hanson.

Boards to meet on tax bill errors

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WHITMAN – The Select Board on Tuesday, Jan. 7 accepted a recommendation from Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter to set up a joint meeting with the Board of Assessors as soon as possible.
In her report to the board, Carter outlined in a lengthy statement, billing errors by the Assessors that have could have cost Whitman taxpayers millions of dollars on real estate bills before they were due, while failing to collect boat excise taxes or to mail other bills last year.
The current Board of Assessors has a total of 21 years of combined experience as board members, Carter noted.
When the Select Board holds its joint meeting on the budget with the Finance Committee on Tuesday, Jan. 21, the will schedule a February meeting with the Assessors.
“The magnitude of these recent errors is alarming to both the assistant town administrator and me,” Carter said, noting that just this past weekend the town’s printing vendor had found a fiscal 2025 Actual Real Estate Bill issue: the square footage on the bills is incorrect and it was confirmed that the file sent to the temporary treasurer-collector for printing by the Board of Assessors contained a database error.
Similarly, in December 2023, warrants to collect for actual real estate bill liens totaling $926,534.32 were not voted or signed by the Board of Assessors until May 21, 2024.
Warrants to collect are required by the Department of Revenue to be issued by the Board of Assessors to the treasurer-collector before payments can be accepted, Carter pointed out.
On Dec. 17, 2024, the Board of Assessors signed the official fiscal 2025 Actual Real Estate Warrant to Collect – the document empowering the treasurer-collector authority to collect real estate payments for the town. However the warrant and the corresponding billing file initially sent to temporary treasurer-collector Sharon LoPiccolo for third and fourth quarter real estate bills had an erroneous total that was $16,124,289.21 greater than what should have been billed to taxpayers. The fiscal 2025 real estate lien file, which should have consisted of unpaid water, sewer, trash and water bills from fiscal 2024, had an erroneous total $750,508.24 less than what should have been billed to taxpayers, according to Carter.
“Luckily the new temporary treasurer-collector realized there was an issue, and she reached out to me to review the warrants to collect before she posted the bills for printing and mailing to our taxpayers,” she said. LoPiccolo alerted the Board of Assessors of the erroneous files, which were replaced with corrected real estate and lien files.
“These two recent billing issues are quite concerning,” Carter said. “If the real estate bills had been sent out, as a result of these bills, the taxpayers would have been billed for basically a total of six quarters instead of the usual four quarters in fiscal 2025.”
They were only some recent examples.
In April 2024, the Board of Assessors sent a warrant to collect to both the treasurer-collector and the interim town accountant for 11 boat excise tax bills. But the Assessor’s office never sent the corresponding billing file, Carter said. As a result, the May 2024 boat excise bills were never issued and the revenue unable to be realized last fiscal year.
It was, in fact, never sent to the treasurer-collector for billing and the file was deleted from the Assessors’ software module titled “Add new accounts and omitted bills” on Nov. 25, 2024.
“I am hopeful that the Board of Assessors will commit the 2024 boat excise bill in fiscal 2025, so the revenue can be realized this fiscal year,” Carter said. “An additional concern is the fact that only 11 bills were voted on by the Board of Assessors. In the previous five years the town billed about 53 bills each year.”
From the data that Carter and Keefe were able to review, they “strongly believe” that data voted for the 2025 boat excise bills should have contained about 53 bills, as I has for the last several years, not just the 11 bills they intended to commit.
“The assessments and the related billing produced by the Assessors’ Office, which are under the control of the Board of Assessors, directly impact the revenue and, therefore, the town budget,” Carter said. “I feel it is imperative that the Select Board and the Board of Assessors meet in open session to discuss the numerous issues that have come to light regarding billing issues, as the enormity of the issue has escalated over the past year and a half.”
Carter also said that the Board of Assessors had made it “abundantly clear” in open sessions during more than one of their meetings last year that they “didn’t want any interference from the Assistant Town Administrator or me.”
“For well over a year now, the Assistant Town Administrator Kathy Keefe and I have been extremely concerned about several billing issues, which have been brought to our attention regarding the Assessor’s Office,” Carter read from her prepared remarks. “To avoid any confusion, it’s worth noting that the Select Board does not govern the Board of Assessors. The Board of Assessors is a separately elected board that is comprised of three members. Thw Board of Assessors is solely responsible for the operations in the Assessor’s Office.”
She added that, while the Select Board does not have authority over Assessors, “I feel that we need to take this action to call for a joint meeting between the two boards to better discuss our ongoing concerns.”
Carter had met with the Chair of the Board of Assessors John Noska early last year and in August with another Board of Assessors member she described as interested in those ongoing concerns.
“I presented and reviewed the issues that were brought to our attention up to that point,” she said. “Rather than Board of Assessors being receptive to our comments and concerns, they instead issued a letter dated Aug. 29 to the Select Board, accusing both Kathy and me of harassment and interference. More importantly, to date, the Board of Assessors has not taken corrective action on several of the billing issues that were revealed to them.”
The Select Board sent a letter to the Board of Assessors on Oct. 24, 2024 to inform them that, after reviewing the information in the Assessors’ letter, they had determined that the Board of Assessors allegations of harassment and interference were not supported and asked Carter and Keefe to continue making them aware of any future concerns about billing.

Whitman officials present budgets

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WHITMAN – A level-funded budget year is making for some simpler meetings between department heads and the Finance Committee.
The Building Department and the assessors met with Finance during it’s final meeting for 2024 on Dec. 17.
“Some of these early departments, that were quick about getting back to us, really don’t have a lot of requests,” Vice Chair Mike Warner said after the presentations. “It’s been very standard, so that’s OK.
“We are trying to arrange a joint meeting with the Select Board for January,” said Warner, who added all other January meetings have been scheduled. “We had an issue this evening.”
Warner said he was unaware that he needed to state on the Finance Committee agenda that the meeting with Select Board members would be taking place.
The Select Board met Jan. 7 and plans an additional meeting Jan. 21.
“I don’t know that it matters to anybody which night,” Warner said. “They did share by email the material they were planning to discuss with us.”
The Select Board’s Jan. 7 agenda did not list a joint meeting with the Finance Committee, leaving Jan. 21 as the date for that session.
Warner, Michael Flanagan and Ralph Mitchell attended the meeting, meaning there was no quorum so no votes could be taken on minutes or other pending business
Warner noted that the town’s reserve fund remained at $35,000.
“We have no requests up against it at this point,” he said, adding that no changes or updates had been received from any of the subcommittees, either.
Building Commissioner Robert Piccirilli said he was presenting a “pretty basic” request for a level-funded budget, with a 2.5 percent projected addition to salaries.
“It’s about as simple as it gets,” he said.
Warner asked if Piccirilli had any concerns about line items in his budget.
“I don’t,” he said. “The only one that you’ll see here is the assistant building inspector. We carried over the $510, because that’s what we spent over and above last year for his continuing education and covering for me when I was on vacation.”
Piccirilli said the department had to come back to seek the additional money last year, so for fiscal 2026, the department’s budget projected forward the $510 spend last year.
No longevity issues were involved, based on time in the position this year, but Piccirilli said he would have that next year.
“We’ve got some building that’s coming in the town soon,” Warner said, asking if Piccirilli if there was anything the committee needed to be aware of.
“We do, but this is what we’ve projected that we should be spending,” Piccirilli said. “We’re going to go with it.”
He did add that his department was waiting on receipt of the deputy fire chief’s former vehicle, as the Building Department vehicle is “falling apart, day by day.”
“I do not have any money and it’s not worth putting any money from my budget into repairing it,” Piccirilli said.
Piccirilli also said there are a lot of building code changes coming up, which will require the purchase of new books, but added that hopefully he would have that in the budget to take care of the need.
“The 10th edition will be coming out,” he said. “It’s already out. It’s promulgated. There will be a congruency period until, I think, next June, but we are getting into the new books, so I’m going to have to buy 2021 books.”
That expense would come out of his budget.
“If there’s an education budget [for his department], I’d love to take it out of that, so it doesn’t come out of mine,” Piccirilli said. “But…”
The town administrator’s office maintains an educational training budget, Warner noted.
“There’s been some bits and pieces of it other places, but there’s been some discussion about maybe just centralizing it, but it might be best to see if it’s there, first,” Warner said. “I’m sure that there’s other uses, as well.”
Piccirilli said the energy code is a big change, so his department will be anticipating the need for educational funding.
Board of Assessors Chair John Noska, Principal Assessor Wendy Jones. Christine MacPherson and Heidi Hosmer attended the meeting.
Noska, echoed Piccirilli’s comment that there isn’t much change to the assessors’ budget.
“We’’re looking at the average 2.5 percent increase for wages,” he said, adding that union negotiations could potentially change that.
Jones said it is not anticipated that new building projects might change things at least for fiscal 2025.
“There were a lot of no-starts,” she said. “I think that might have been impacted by the interest rates, because we did go out and revisit some of those properties that were going to start – the car wash on Bedford Street, four units on Temple Street – not as many as the year before. There were 55 condos [built] in fiscal 2024, but it might change with interest rates coming down.”
Warner mentioned the town’s movement toward the MBTA Communities project, asking about its potential impact on building.
Jones and Noska agreed that it would, as Jones added that a part of the new Affordable Housing Act coming online in February will depend on what the town is going to do, and mentioning the town’s bylaw for accessory dwelling apartments, but not an accessory dwelling unit.
The Select Board on Monday, Dec. 2 voted to refer a proposed amendment of a town bylaw governing accessory apartments in town (Sec. 240-616 accessory apartments) to town counsel and the Planning Board.
The bylaw change would, according to ZBA Chair John Goldrosen, would allow town counsel to review it and refer the issue back to the Planning Board so it can schedule a hearing on the amendment.
Planners are moving quickly on the issue because the state law’s provision takes effect on Feb. 2, but the Planning Board can place an advertisement in the newspaper by the end of January, making everyone subject to the bylaw, even athough it cannot be acted on until the May Town Meeting.
“That’s why we moved quickly on this,” Goldrosen said. The reason behind it is to encourage more housing units, Goldrosen pointed out in response to a question by Select Board Vice Chair Dan Salvucci Dec. 2. He added that the measure covers not only such housing space within a structure, but also free-standing structures on a property.
“It’s a boring department, which is good,” Noska said at the board’s lack of other issues to bring up. “It’s well-funded, it’s structured.”
Jones did mention one of the biggest expenses is the valuation contract with Catalyst Tax & CAMA (computer-assisted mass appraisal), with which Whitman is in the midst of a three year contract right now, ending in 2026.
“Their contract includes … they do all the data collections,” Jones said. “They do all the building permits, inspections, entries, sketchings. They do all the utility valuations as part of the [$7,000] contract.”
The Assessors would do a request to submit proposals (RSP) with three major companies – Catalyst, PK Valuations and Envision Government Solutions.
Any cost differential would not be fully known until the contract is put out to bid, Noska said. He noted that, sometimes when companies grow, they lose that attention that, at one time, they’d give to all towns.
“We’re going to do a big analysis on several things,” Jones said.
Warner, assuming that all companies have their own proprietary data handling method, asked if the shift to a new company might mean some kind of data migration?
Jones and Noska said it would, depending on what the Board of Assessors decides to convert and what they could, potentially keep in-house.
“We’re going to look at all the options,” Jones said.
Earning merit
Scouts from Troop 22 attended the meeting as a requirement toward a communications merit badge, perhaps not expecting to have a discussion on what the Finance Committee does, while the committee waited for members of the Board of Assessors and the Building Commissioner to arrive at the meeting.
“Does anybody know what the Finance Committee does?” Warner quizzed the Scouts.
“Budget for the town, arrange what [funds] will be put where,” one Scout answered.
“OK. So, interestingly, kind of,” Warner said. “Our job is an advisory role. We don’t actually set the budget, we help to define it, figure it out and then work with various departments to talk about money and where it might go and how it might be best used for the town.”
He apologized to the Scouts that the committee’s attendance was down because of illness and holiday demands, but thanked them for coming to the meeting.

New year, a new world in 24 hours

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WHITMAN – The rock group Chicago’s hit from their debut album may have asked the famous philosophical question about time as a hook for a hit song, but while anyone actually does know the precise time might be debatable, yes, people do care.
They care enough that there are at least 40 calendar systems in use around the world today – two in the Christian world alone – and the small nation of Kiribati spread out over 1,800 miles of islands and atolls in the Pacific Ocean began a process in 1994 to successfully petition to have the International Dateline moved by 2000. But, we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
Retired Plymouth teacher Nancy A. Franks, who has built an enthusiastic audience for her monthly lecture visits to Whitman Council on Aging’s senior center, appeared there Monday, Jan. 6 with Moon Pies, gummy bears, New Year’s greetings and a talk on New Year’s celebrations and traditions around the world and closer to home, including ball drops – and twists on that theme.
Whitman briefly joined in the latter category with a Toll House cookie drop in 2015 and 2016, but a trend of frigid temperatures both years cut the tradition off before it could take root and the larger-than-life cookie – crafted by SST students for the town is now in storage.
So, why the hoopla over Jan. 1 anyway?
“I really do two different kinds of presentations,” Frank said, “I do the historical ones, or I pick a topic like this and just jump around to anything that comes to mind.”
Julius Ceasar introduced the months of January (for Janus, the god of beginnings, endings and time) and February (for Februus, the god of purification), creating a 12-month calendar in 45 BC. Pope GregoryVIII then introduced in 1582, the calendar we still use today, replacing the Julian calendar.
The difference?
The Julian calendar was not entirely accurate, but Franks argued it was close enough. His inaccuracy is about 11 minutes short of the 365 ¼ days per year in the Gregorian calendar.
“I think it’s amazing that anyone was even thinking or figuring that out that long ago as a reform of the Roman calendar,” Franks said, putting words in Julius Caesar’s thought bubble.
“Eleven minutes? What’s the big deal?” Franks said. “Well, it’s because we would have gained eight days every 1,000 years. Does that really matter? I’m not sure it does.”
But the Julian calendar is still used in astronomy.
“When they started the Julian calendar on Jan. 1, 45 BC, and they recorded events in the stars and the planets, they began counting on that day … and they still use it,” she said. “They didn’t bother to change it over to a new calendar.”
It’s also used and as a religious calendar by the Greek and Eastern Orthodox Christian churches and by the Amazigh people of North Africa.
Ball droppage – and other things
New York City began its ball drop at midnight tradition in 1908 and it was last updated in 2008.
The ball, is 12 feet in diameter, and is now made of 2,688 Waterford crystal triangles imported from Ireland and 32,256 LED lights, weighs 11,875 pounds – mostly electronic hardware.
The ball is able to create 16 million vibrant colors in billions of patterns, the theme of which changes each year.
Around the United States, New Year’s celebrations include the midnight drop of, among others:
The Mobile, Ala., 12-foot in diameter electrified Moon Pie; The Cherry T. Ball in the “Cherry Capital of the U.S.,” Traverse City, Mich., saluting the charitable fundraising purpose in the name; Mt. Olive, N.C.’s three-foot long pickle drops into a giant pickle jar; the Boise, Idaho potato drop; Port Clinton, and Ohio’s Walleye drop on the Lake Erie shoreline. Miami raises an orange in homage to the state’s big cash crop as well as the Orange Bowl Festival parade and football game.
Points of pride
Kiribati, in the central Pacific Ocean, includes a largely uninhabited Caroline Island, renamed Millenium Island thanks to the nation’s effort to move the International Dateline so the island with the rest of the island and atolls on the same side of the line.
It was, you guessed it, a publicity stunt to draw tourists to be the first nation on earth to celebrate the new millennium in 2000.
“It would [also] eliminate the confusion caused by having a part of the country cn a different day,” she said.
The United Arab Emirates also spared no expense this year in its annual quest to keep their record for the largest drone display this New Year’s Eve.
Traditions
underneath it all
Countries around the world have some interesting – and a few strange – New Year’s traditions. Here are a few:
Philippines – Round objects mean good luck so Filipinos wear polka dots, carry coins in their pockets and eat 12 to 13 round fruits, which also symbolize a sweet and happy new year.
Romania – where brown bears are revered symbols which their mythology indicates the animals have the power to protect and heal, the people don bear costumes – often real full bear skins – to dance the death and rebirth of the bear’s spirit. While some of the costumes are now made of faux fur, and many of the real bearskin costumes have been carefully preserved and handed down in families, the brown bear is now endangered in Romania.
Brazil – revelers jump seven waves head on, while making a wish at the beach, often while wearing white, the color of good luck. The color of underwear one puts on for the occasion also symbolizes your hope for the new year – White is for peace and harmony; blue is for tranquility and friendship; red is for passion; yellow is for money and luck; pink is for love; green is for health; orange is for professional success and purple is for inspiration. Brazilians also carry a bay leaf, also called a priest’s leaf, in their pocket as a spiritual token that sharpens intuition and extra good luck.
Denmark – Danes throw plates and glasses on their neighbor’s door to leave all the ill will from the previous year behind. When one awakens in the morning, lots of smashed dishes outside your door mean you will have better luck in the new year – not that it’s a stellar commentary on your previous year. Germany and the Netherlands also practice this tradition.
Famous birthdays
Dec. 31
Anthony Hopkins, 1937, John Denver, 1943, Donna Summer, 1948
Jan.1
Paul Revere, 1735; J. Edgar Hoover, 1895, J.D. Salinger, 1919.

Franks returns to Whitman Senior Center on Feb. 3 to speak about Valentine’s Day. She will give a talk on them there “Eyes” in Kingston on Feb. 7 and the California Gold Rush in Kingston on March 7.

Boardwalk options limited

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HANSON – The town may still lean on a proposal to use a boardwalk to Burrage project to draw tourism dollars to Hanson, without ending up having taken a long walk on a short pier.
It all hinges on planning, prioritizing and voting to divide $170,000 in state budget earmarks between the Bonney House restoration, High Street part development and a boardwalk connecting Main Street access to trails in the Burrage Wildlife Management Area
The Select Board was updated on the boardwalk project eyed for Main Street about a month ago on Dec. 3, 2024.
“The reason I’m bringing this to the board is, obviously, the earmark says the construction of a boardwalk from Main Street to the Burrage, and – I’ve said to you before – when you tell an engineer, ‘You can’t do that,’ we always say, ‘Challenge accepted.’” Planner Anthony DeFrais said at the time. “But we also know where there’s a point of saying, ‘Sure, we can make this work,’ you know 10 pounds of sugar in a two-pound bag, but by the time its cost [analyzed], it’s not worth doing.”
He suggested a pivot to a secondary option.
“I wanted to show you what the options were and the real-world logistics of what would work and what wouldn’t and how we have to pivot,” DeFrias said. “There’s also a timeline for using these earmarks and getting them spent.
The town had received “a few earmarks” from the state budget in 2022, one of which totaled $170,000 going toward three projects – the Bonney House, the High Street park and a boardwalk along Main Street at the Burrage wetland.
DeFrias said the spending deadline for the earmark covering those three projects is 2027. How it is divided between the three projects is a responsibility of the Select Board as they set priorities and spend accordingly, Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
Weeks made a motion to divide the earmark funds among the three projects and the board unanimously approved it.
“We have had a consultant, a company named Perdantis, take a look at that concept and see if it is actually a feasible project,” DeFrais said of the boardwalk at the Dec. 3 meeting. “They’ve given us a breakdown of three different options, and created [a] map that talks about the different options.”
Once an option is chosen, it will be easier to get an idea of the cost, according to DeFrias.
Option 1 is a new boardwalk through Burrage, traversing south from the former fire house on Main Street that can either be 3,600 feet long, connecting to an existing unnamed trail, which is on privately owned property; or 4,600 feet long to connect to the Bay Circuit Trail. The shorter of the two would head toward the former Hubble property and Crooker place.
“You would need an access agreement to go through the Mass. Wildlife property and, obviously, the private property,” he said. “This particular option doesn’t comply with the Mass. Division of Fisheries and Wildlife walking trails policy … and it would require exceptions from Mass. Wildlife.”
Those policies include the requirement to use existing trailbeds unless the agency approves an exception, according to DeFrias.
“The policy also notes that Mass. Wildlife rarely grants approval for trails that are not inherently compliant,” he said. The regulations also “strongly discourage wetlands crossings,” which is a major portion of Option 1’s proposed pathway.
“It is not likely to be approved,” DeFrias said.
Option 2 falls in line with previous proposals at town meetings to purchase parts of the Hubble property to create a 1,000-foot trail along an “unconnected trail” that exists in the Crooker Place area, also connecting the Bay Circuit Trail.
“This option is minimal disturbance … however, a wetlands crossing would be required on property to be purchased by the town,” DeFrias said.
The property in question had already been purchased by the town and would minimally alter the Burrage Wildlife Area, but a wetland crossing would still be permitted. said
“One is too expensive, three doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense and two, from what I’m hearing even now, isn’t even the best option,” Weeks. “It’s just the best of the three options.”
DeFrias agreed that it is a tough project to accomplish.
“The one thing about Option 2 is that it works into what you’ve aready started,” he said.
Option 3, also near the Main Street fire station, would “provide a vista to the Burrage Wildlife Management Area, but doesn’t directly connect to the Burrage,” according to DeFrias. Also partially on private property, this option would also require access agreement from te property owner(s). A stream crossing at Meadow Brook is also involved. A stand-alone vista with no connection to Burrage (situated on town property) would require no access agreement and would not cross wetlands or streams.
Th consultant concluded that Option 3 as a stand-alone vista, with no ecological impacts but requiring no access agreement, also fails to provide direct access to Burrage.
“Which is exactly what the whole purpose is,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
“You’re on your own property and you can kind of see it through the trees,” DeFrias said.
Option 2 is the most likely permittable option to provide access to and through Burrage, and provides the missing connection to the Bay Circuit Trail.
“Option 1 is likely not to be approved by Mass. Wildlife, would have the greatest ecological impact to build and would have the highest construction cost, exclusive of property purchases,” he said. “Combining two and three would provide visual access to the Burrage on currently owned town property and provide direct access Bay Circuit Trail through currently owned and expanded town property.”
“Vista, schmista,” said FitzGerald-Kemmett of the approach the Economic Development Committee was taking in an attempt to bring people into town for recreation, potentially leading to economic benefits. “That wasn’t what we were trying to do. We were actually trying to get people out to the Burrage.”
She noted that while Option 1 had been the hope, she said she understood the Wildlife policy roadblocks.
“Our hopes are dashed frequently,” she said, adding that the only real problem with Option 2 is that it is further down Main Street. “We’re not trying to attract people to Crooker Place. … I’m concerned about parking and additional traffic, going through there, and on top of that, it really isn’t meeting what our original objective was.”
“The vista one to me is…” she added.
“That’s dumb,” Select Board member Ann Rein said, finishing the thought. “What I like about Option 2 is that you’re bringing together the Bay Circuit Trail. … It’s important. To have that all connected through Hanson is kind of cool.”
Select Board member Ed Heal noted that a lot of Option 2 already exists.
FitzGerald-Kemmett raised the concern that of a lack of a sidewalk along Main Street to the access area.
The sidewalk drops off opposite High Street at the new Egan buildings.
“If we could somehow get connectivity to that area via a sidewalk there … part of it is we want walkability,” she said.
FitzGerald-Kemmett suggested that, in light of the required connection between state grant funding and the MBTA Communities program Hanson rejected, perhaps a solution is more budget earmarks.
She had already spoken to state Rep.-elect Ken Sweezey about that need weeks before he was sworn in last week.
“That’s not contingent on us being an MBTA Community, so we’re going to need more earmark money, Mr. Sweezey, bring it home,” she said.

Hanson reviews cannabis policy

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HANSON – Sometimes just because you’re told you could, doesn’t mean you can.
The Select Board on Tuesday, Dec. 10 reviewed the cannabis social equity policy in the wake of new regulations recently put forth by the Cannabis Control Commission, and unanimously approved it – more as a protection vehicle than anything else, they said.
This requirement gives teeth to the CCC determination that social equity factors such as race and gender must be considered in awarding cannabis licenses by communities.
“The CCC requires each community to adopt and put into place a social equity policy with regard to cannabis, whether its retail or medical type of sales within a community,” Town Administrator Lisa Green said.
Hanson’s specific policy was drafted by town counsel, and Green reminded the board that Hanson has not approved any retail licenses, and that Town Meeting voted not to allow types of that business in town.
The language under consideration, however, is language town counsel added showing that Hanson has restricted cannabis to the point where, so far, a grow facility is the only marijuana business in town.
Once adopted, the bylaw just outlines the social equity guidelines in the program and how the town would go about making decisions on the license applications, if anything would change in the future.
“This policy [also] contemplates that we will limit the licensing to the one license we already have, but that we would not be offering any additional licenses,” Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “That’s more protective of us and more in keeping with what we talked about. Absent that language, we don’t have any limits on the number of establishments.
She did point out than any applicants would still have to meet planning requirements and location limitations.
“That’s just additional protection for us,” she said.
Selectman Ed Heal said the limit on the present business the town has is not clearly spelled out.
Town Planner Anthony DeFrias said, in a purely hypothetical example, if someone wanted to increase the number of cannabis businesses to two or three, and a social equity business applies to the town, they must receive the second license first. Until that business is up and running, if a third business applied, but did not meet social equity criteria that business could not be approved for a license until the social equity business is up and running.
“Right now, you have just one license,” DeFrias said. “This is almost like a liquor license. You have only X-amount of licenses.”
Board members, including FitzGerald-Kemmett and Heal were left with the impression they could hold at the one licensee they approved.
“This is your policy,” DeFrias said. “You’d have to go to town meeting is you want more than one license.”
“Which we’re not planning on doing,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
“This keeps you in conformance with the law,” DeFrias said.
The Select Board voted to accept, with regret, Frank Milisi’s resignation from both the Camp Kiwanee and Capital Improvement committees – a development Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said was “rather sad.”
Milisi is going back to school, which she said is a wonderful thing for him and his family.
“We fully support that and really want to thank Frank for all the excellent work that he’s done over both of those committees and a number of other things,” she said.
Heal asked, in a light-hearted vein, if she had tried to talk him out of it.
“That’s the first thing I did when I got the call was, ‘What can I do to keep you?,’” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.

Curriculum queries discussed

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The School Committee on Wednesday, Dec. 11, discussed MCAS, the Am I Ready diagnostics and the state assessment, so parents and the community could see how students are doing.
MCAS scores, officials reported are commensurate with end-of-year performance compared with other schools in the state, but the bulk of discussion focused on curriculum in the wake of some parental concerns.
Assistant Superintendent of Schools George Ferro said the district is making moderate progress toward educational targets.
“We’ve done this in the past,” said Ferro of the review. “We’ve done this in different ways. We’ve done it with, simply, what have we done with our curriculum, We’ve done it with an MCAS presentation, we’ve done it with the diagnostics and what our students are learning. Today, we’ve combined it all, because we do live in a different time as far as the threat to the internet.”
He said educators are still not completely certain of where the issue is going to go with respect to graduation requirements.
The district now knows that’s no longer a graduation requirement and that the district has received two different FAQs (frequently asked question filed) from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education as to where they might be going, according to Ferro.
He and Assistant Superintendent of Equity and Compliance, Dr. Nicole Semas-Schneeweis offered the presentation together.
“We’re going to try to give you a synopsis of what we do, why we do it and the reasons for it,” Ferro said. “What we do is based on credible laws.”
Two federal laws govern curriculum – No Child Left Behind and the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), both of which require proof of effectiveness in some way in order to secure continuing funding.
“Basically, the feds tell the states what needs to take place, and the states come up with what they do, they enact it and we have to cooperate,” Ferro said.
Semas-Schneeweis added that No Child Left Behind, demanded that interventions required since 1955 had to be scientifically based and ESSA added the requirement that they also be evidence-based.
“We are mandated to follow this federal law and choose curriculum material that are evidence-based that meet that criteria,” she said. “We don’t determine that. Curriculum developers must go out and make their own studies, submit those studies and then they get vetted. So, when you see a curriculum developer partner with an agency or a third party, that is what they are mandated to do under this law, and that is not always clear.”
Ferro emphasized that no decisions are made without evidence and a proper process.
DESE does that work and lets school districts know which curricula meet those requirements.
“There are regulations and requirements about digital learning as well,” Semas-Schneeweis said. “The pandemic just exacerbated the digital learning requirement.”
The state also has a digital literacy component to its education regulations.
She stressed that digital learning programs must also be active, rather than having students merely sitting at a computer.
Some curricula, such as My Path, adjust to the deficiencies an advancements of students. Ferro and Semas-Schneeweis said.
“Sometimes a parent will say, ‘My child is exposed to material he has not learned,’” Ferro said. “Yes, because at that point in time his diagnostic is saying he’s at a higher grade level than where he’s at.”
Semas-Schneeweis said teachers are an important part of the equation as the instructional piece, making the time to work with those students about 10 minutes a day in a station model.
Committee member Glenn DiGravio asked about the curriculum’s adjustment to students with a deficit and whether they are tested at that deficit level and how students catch up.
“There are no grades on your path,” Ferro said. “It’s helping you in your deficit skills while you’re still in math class at that grade level. … The goal of this is to say where you’re at, what grade level you’re at, what your deficits are, and then give you a plan to catch that up.”
“That’s awesome,” DiGravio said. “I just didn’t want to see students getting left behind and still getting the trophy.”
Member Rosemary Connolly said she assumed the discussion came up because of questions to the schools, asking what the path is if a child is not comfortable in their spaces and with technology at the same time, or a particular tool is helping a child.
Semas-Schneeweis said a teaching team might decide supplemental work is needed,
“No program, curriculum, technology is perfect or is going to replace good teaching,” said committee member Kara Moser. “As a teacher, I also use I Ready, not as a core curriculum, but as with the diagnostic and the My Path – there are some areas that are not perfect, However, I think it is part of thinking holistically, especially when we’re thinking about elementary level.”
Committee member Stephanie Blackman said it is also important to determine if a child who is struggling is it an issue is not being comfortable with the technology or an issue with not being comfortable with the material.
“We have a core curriculum, and this is a supplemental curriculum,” Ferro said.
Committee member Dawn Byers, going into budget season, asked that the committee be able to review the cost vs life cycle of curricula.
Following the curriculum discussion, the committee got down to talking about that parent letter.
The School Committee received a parent letter via the U.S. Postal Service Monday, Nov. 18, which was opened the next day. The letter addressed kindergarten and some of the curriculum features.
“I usually don’t get [mail that way],” Superintendent of School Jeff Szymaniak said. “I usually get everything by email.”
Semas-Schneeweis reviewed the letter to put together some information to present to the committe, according to Szymaniak.
“I didn’t want you to get something blind, because I knew the next question we were going to get was, ‘what is this and what do we do about it?’” he said to the committee.
School Committee member Dawn Byers said her concern centered around parental consent, which was bullet point number three on the letter’s reverse, which outlined the requirement for “parental consent if there is a potential for data collection.”
“This parent seems concerned about consent and approval,” she said, noting that she did a search through district school policy documents, which are available online, including [Sec. IJND] curriculum and instruction, where a section headed “permission and agreement form.”
“My question to follow up, is that our policy says, ‘a written parental request shall be required prior to the student being granted independent access to electronic media,’ and that the required permission agreement form shall be signed by the parent, and also by the student,” Byers said. “I’d be happy to make a motion to send this to our policy subcommittee, if we need to review ‘pemission and agreement form.’”
She made a similar motion to allow discussion on Sec. IJNDb, which is the access policy where there is another signature access agreement, primarily concerning the laptops that go out with students, but also mentions parental signature and agreement.
“Educational software companies don’t collect students’ personal data,” said Committee member Hillary Kniffen, who is also a teacher in another district. “It’s education policy beyond us that companies that bring in educational material electronically do not collect private data from students.”
Byers said that wasn’t her biggest concern. “The concern, actually, is the student was given a device and started using it, and the parent said, ‘What if I don’t want my child using it?’” she said. “So, we’re offering consent – it might actually exist.” She questioned if the district was asking a kindergartener to sign a form.
“I don’t see a problem with bringing that to the policy subcommittee,” Szymaniak said.
“It was probably written before all of this, too, so it probably needs to be looked at anyway,” Chair Beth Stafford said.
Szymaniak said a motion may not even be needed, but agreed to work within one if the Committee wanted to. The Committee gave unanimous approval to referring the issue to the policy subcommittee.

So, just how cold was it?

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It sounds like the set-up line for a comedian – how cold was it?
It’s the coldest we’ve been in some time – and winter’s just getting started, but far from hostoric. And, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) continues forecasting a warmer than normal winter season overall for 2024-25.
Also, while the recent cold snap had the ice looking more enticing with each passing day for winter weather enthusiasts, public safety officials caution the public to be cautious on outdoor ice, particularly on lakes and ponds.
“All ice should be considered unsafe,” said Hanson Fire Chief Robert O’Brien said of the area’s ponds and lakes, adding that there hasn’t been a long enough period of freezing weather to ensure that ice is thick enough. That is true of Wampatuck Pond behind Hanson Town Hall and Maquan Pond, which is spring-fed.
Both ponds have been the sites of rescues after people have gone through the ice, accoring to O’ Brien, adding the department has also been summoned for deer and dogs that have been trapped on or fallen through the ice.
O’Brien pointed out that, as risky as ice rescues are, water rescues are more difficult because of the limited equippment for them.
“All our people are trained for ice rescues, but only a few are trained in underwater ice rescues,” O’Brien said. Those underwater rescue operations also involve longer response times – as much as 20 minutes or more – mainly because a mutual aid call is reqired.
The public’s best option is one that prevents an emergency – is to avoid one by checking ice depth, which is something public safety personnel are not able to do due to liability concerns.
“You can’t tell the strength of ice just by its appearance, the daily temperature, thickness, or whether the ice is or isn’t covered with snow,” stated information posted by the Marshfield Police Department on their website. “Strength of ice, in fact, is based upon all four factors plus the depth of water under the ice, size of water body, water chemistry, distribution of the of the ice, and local climatic factors.
Because of a dominant high-pressure area, forcasters warned of continuing cold, after the frigid morning temperature of 8 with wind chills such as -1 degrees on Dec, 23, according to a report by WBZ meteorologist Jason Mikell.
“When you think about yesterday, it’s hard to believe we’re actually colder, but we are,” Mikell said on his Monday morning forecast. “The next seven days … will be around the freezing mark in the daytime as well as the evening hours,” with a warm-up in view by the last weekend of the year.
The New York Times reported on Dec. 24 that 50 percent of the population in the United States – that’s 166 million people – “live in the areas expected to see freezing cold over the next seven days.”
That becomes a real problem as accompanying wind chills will present dangerous conditions.
“With prolonged exposure to very cold temperatures, another danger is frostbite,” The Times reported. “Your body’s survival mechanism in response to extreme cold is to protect the vital inner organs by cutting circulation to your extremities and allowing them to freeze.”
As South Shore residents woke up on Monday, Dec. 23, that caution was relatable.
Meanwhile, NOAA cautioned that its data showed no reason to panic about the cold just yet.
“Those recent trends show among the strongest warm trends across New England,” NOAA Head of Forecast Operations Scott Handel, who authored the outlook, told Boston.com. “New England has a lot of the strongest warm trends as compared to most places in the country.”
There is a 33- to 40-percent chance of above normal precipitation for the state of New Hampshire and for northern and western Massachusetts, he added.
Still, Handel said there is a lot of “variability.”
“Boston, oftentimes, gets decent snow, regardless of the year,” he said. “Be prepared for winter weather all through the season.”
NOAA’s 2024-25 winter outlook, highlighting a “slowly-developing” La Niña that could shape weather throughout the country from December through February.
“This winter, an emerging La Niña is anticipated to influence the upcoming winter patterns, especially our precipitation predictions,” said Jon Gottschalck, chief of the Operational Prediction Branch of the NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.

Vacation week ups and downs

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The Whitman-Hanson Regional High boys’ basketball team is rolling. 
The Panthers returned home from their annual swing through the Sunshine State with a perfect 4-0 record. 
Bob Rodgers’ bunch entered Florida with two wins and doubled it. 
On Friday, Dec. 27, senior captain Dylan Perrault poured in 22 points, while fellow senior Jah Estrela added 19 to pace the Panthers to a 60-55 victory over host Flagler Palm Coast (Florida) in the Bulldog Classic.
Then on Saturday, senior captain Jason Paretchan netted 16 points and Estrela added 10 in a 53-38 victory over Aubrey Rodgers (Florida). 
The girls’ team, meanwhile, continues to look for answers. 
Mike Costa’s crew returned back from the Amsterdam Classic in New York with a 1-3 mark. 
On Friday, junior Dylan Hurley scored a team-high 14 points but it wasn’t enough in a 48-44 loss to Shenendehowa (New York).
W-H dropped another close one on Saturday but in a different fashion, 71-67, to Webster Schroeder (New York). Sophomore Maliah Pierre scored 14 points in the loss. The Panthers look to rebound in league play against Hingham this Friday. 
Boys’ hockey beat Auburn, 3-1, on Saturday to win the Dartmouth Holiday Tournament. 
Junior assistant captain Chris Ryan opened up the scoring .40 seconds in to take a 1-0 lead. 
The Rockets would tie it midway through the second until senior captain Domenic Visocchi pushed the Panthers back in front two minutes later. 
Junior forward Jack O’Hearn tacked on another for a 3-1 final. Junior goaltender Nick Zaccaria made 31 saves in the win. 
The Whitman Hanson Varsity Girls Ice Hockey Team lost to Norwell/Scituate/Abington Dec. 21 at Rockland Arena.  Freshman Zoe Sullivan scored her first varsity goal with the assist from Cam Dematos.  Jenna Henley picked up the second goal for WHSL unassisted.
The Lady Panthers also lost a hard fought game 2-1 to West/East Bridgewater Dec. 28 at Bridgewater Arena.  Brooke Hohmann tied the game at 1 with a blast from the point assisted by Chloe Duff and Sammie Webb.  WEB was able to get the game winner with 12 seconds left in the game.  
WHSL was dropping the puck against Marshfield on Monday, Dec. 30 in the WHSL Winter Classic at Hobomock Arenas in Pembroke.  
Wrestling took part in the Marshfield Holiday Tournament on Friday and Saturday. 
Out of the 37-team field, Whitman-Hanson placed 13th with 120 points.  Captain PJ Katz led the Panthers with his second-place finish at 126 pounds with a tough 11-9 loss in the finals. 
Captain Tristan Forest took fourth place in the 138-pound division. Lawson Giove earned a respectable sixth place at 106 pounds. Captain Tim Donnelly and fellow senior Eric Sidlauskas both placed 10th at 144 and 215 pounds, respectively.
— Nate Rollins