WHITMAN – The gavel, as they say, has been passed to a new generation with the election of Randy LaMattina, on Tuesday, June 7, as Whitman’s Select Board chair – after former Chair Dr. Carl Kowalski announced his intention to step aside after 12 years.

During the Select Board’s reorganization session, Dan Salvucci was re-elected as vice chair and Justin Evans was elected clerk. 

The votes were delayed by the absence of Select Board member Justin Evans on May 25, due to the birth of his first child the day before. The board strives to reorganize during meetings with full attendance.

“I have been chair, as you all know, for a long time,” Kowalski said, in beginning his nomination of LaMattina. “I’ve enjoyed it. It’s been an honor, it’s been a pleasure to work with the people of Whitman, but I feel it’s time for a change.”

Kowalski said the town is entering a “new phase” with a strategic plan in place for the first time.

“The bases for that strategic plan were a couple of things,” he said, including a town-wide survey and a committee that LaMattina chaired, dealing with town finances and whether an override would be needed. That work led to the Madden Report, which “looms large in the strategic plan and what we’re looking forward to,” Kowalski added, pointing to LaMattina’s work on school budget matters, as well.

“That’s obviously going to be a continuing emphasis here,” he said. “I thought it would be a good time to transition the chairmanship to Randy LaMattina.”

Select Board member Dan Salvucci seconded LaMattina’s nomination, calling it “a good choice.”

Evans, pointing to work he has also done on the school budget committee, nominated himself to provide a choice. Member Shawn Kain seconded that nomination, but cast his vote for LaMattina.

“I have a tremendous amount of respect for both Randy and for Justin, I’ve been following both you guys for a number of years,” Kain said. “I think both of you overlap a lot with my own priorities, so I think both … could be excellent at the role.”

“Trouble is, you have to vote for one of them,” Kowalski quipped.

Kain supported LaMattina.

Salvucci said he was sorry to hear Kowalski’s decision to step aside, but understood it, adding that he felt LaMattina would be a “good fit.”

“We might as well make it unanimous, I’ll vote for Randy,” Evans said. 

“I’m kind of taken aback by it, but I’ve lived in this town basically my whole life,” LaMattina said, his voice breaking as he thanked the board for the honor. “The people of this town have given me a great opportunity.”

He said it was an honor to work with former Select Board member Brian Bezanson, as well as Salvucci and “one of the longest-running” town administrators.

“But there are two Selectmen who stand out from my childhood and now – I would say the Mt. Rushmore of Selectmen – for me personally in this town,” LaMattina said about former Select Board member Dick Cole and Kowalski.

“Getting the nomination from [Kowalski] means the world to me, I’ll tell you that,” he said. “Both men were different, but their commitment to this town is the same.”

He said the way Kowalski has conducted meetings over the past 12 years is “probably unprecedented” in the amount of work he has put in to prepare for meetings and making them flow properly, is a testament to his commitment to the town.

Kowalski also placed Salvucci’s name in nomination for vice chair as someone who has been a “terrific help to me over those years,” always being there when needed, as well as being a dedicated and kind person. The nomination was uncontested.

“I thank everyone,”  Salvucci said on his re-election. “We have a little bit old and a little bit new.”

Cannabis agreements

Kowalski also nominated Evans for clerk, which was seconded by Salvucci.

In other business, the board discussed the process ahead for negotiating host community agreements with cannabis businesses.

“We have had interest from several folks, serious interest from a few entities,” Town Administrator Lincoln Heineman said in seeking feedback from the board about how and when the town should proceed with discussions with the interested parties. “In some ways, there isn’t really a lot to negotiate, it’s really to decide who the board wants to enter negotiations with.”

The town limits the number of cannabis businesses to five, of which no more than three can be retail. Agreements are limited to five years before they can be renewed and the host community agreement and impact fees.

The board may also decide if it wants to encourage local hiring, hours of operation an lock systems, but the latter two may be more accurately with the ZBA.

LaMattina said he has reached out to some surrounding communities on their agreements.

“It seems like it’s a very litigious process and, obviously, in any negotiation, town counsel is going to have to be heavily involved, it appears,” he said. “The agreements themselves seem to be fairly cookie-cutter.”

He suggested it would be a good idea for a couple members of the board, Heineman and town counsel “sit down and see where we’re at and start the process rolling.”

Evans expressed interest in that, having already begun to look at other towns’ host agreements. Kowalski said he would be happy with Justin and Heineman meeting with town counsel. Scott Lambiase was also suggested as a potential member of the group.

Kain asked if there was a way to roll the process out slowly.

“It’s entirely up to the board,” Heineman said. “As long as the process is fair, it doesn’t need to be quick.”

“I’d prefer to be thorough and fair than quick,” Kain said.

An update on the process will be included on the June 21 agenda.

Roads and sidewalks

Heineman said he and DPW Superintendent Bruce Martin, who oversees parks and roads, have been meeting to discuss an acceleration of road and sidewalk repairs in town.

The financing of such work will focus on three approaches, Heineman said: maximizing state Chapter 90 funds, maximizing free cash through June 30 and reviewing planning board performance bonds to determine which ones may be closed to increase free cash amounts available.

He said his work with Martin is aimed at identifying and making sure the list of town roads the state has is as complete as possible to maximize both road miles in town and Chapter 90 funds. Town income level and the number of publically accepted roads are also factors in allocating that funding.

They have identified 12 roads have been accepted that need a state review of paperwork; 16 roads are not on state list, but have been accepted at town meeting; and another 17 unaccepted roads would be acceptable, according to Martin.

State DOT officials have said in writing to the town that road adoption does not necessarily have to go to town meeting, with the Select Board able to do that.

Town accountant Ken Lytle and Heineman have been reviewing old town meetings originally funded by free cash and closing them out by June 30 to return the funds to free cash so they can be certified in 2023. 

There is currently $216,996 in outstanding performance bonds, which developers pay to ensure developments are finished according to Planning Board requirements. There are nine with have significant funds outstanding for at least 10 years, Heineman said. The aim is to find old documentation from the projects to determine what was required an whether it has been accomplished. If they are complete, funds can be released to developers.

“In most cases, it’s likely that these will not be completely finished in that way, but because of the time that’s elapsed, we can … go back, with a Planning Board vote [and] release these monies back to hit our free cash,” he said.

The final four projects under consideration are most recent, where developers may indeed still be working on the projects.

“Nevertheless, I predict there is at least $71,000 there and probably a little bit more … to have released by the Planning Board,” Heineman said.

Heineman also provided an update on the Strategic Plan, something that Kain urge the board keep as a regular agenda item.

“It provides an intellegent and quick way for us to get updated about something we’ve all collectively agreed upon.” Kain said, adding it would keep the town headed in the right direction.

“For a lot of us paying attention, we see that stuff happening, but I think to make it more explicit for the every day citizen so they can be that much more  knowledgeable at Town Meeting, I really support that,” he said.

One might title it Two Reorganizations and a Baby.

After opening the meeting with what has become the usual somber moment of silence in honor of the people of Ukraine – as well as in memory of the children and teachers slain in a mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas – Whitman Select Board Chairman Carl Kowalski said he wanted to open the meeting on a lighter note.

“You’ll notice there’s an empty chair here tonight, Justin Evans is not able to be here because he and his wife Kathy had a baby daughter this afternoon,” Kowalski said. “Eight pounds, five ounces, 21 inches – a good-sized daughter – and so he’s going to be with them for a little while and he won’t be able to be here this evening, which means we won’t be reorganizing the Select Board this evening.”

Kowalski said it has been the board’s practice to wait for the first meeting at which we have a full board after a town election to reorganize.

“I talked to Justin on the phone just a little while ago and he does plan to be here on June 7,” he said, indicating the reorganization should happen then.

The School Committee and Select Boards welcomed new members and reorganized their slates of officers last week, following the Saturday, May 21 town elections in Whitman and Hanson.

The Hanson Select Board and the W-H Regional School Committee did reorganize last week.

Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak, presided until the School Committee re-elected Hanson’s Christopher Howard as chair in an unusual Monday meeting on May 23.

“Congratulations to incumbent members Beth Stafford, Dawn Byers and Chris Howard for their re-election and [to] our newest member Glen DiGravio for his successful election,” Szymaniak said.

Howard was re-elected chairman with Scriven also returning in the post of vice chair. David Forth was tabbed as secretary/clerk. Steve Bois was elected treasurer and Dawn Byers won the post of assistant treasurer.

 Bois had placed his own name in nomination for chair post and Christopher Scriven nominated Howard for another term as the head of the meetings. Member Fred Small nominated Beth Stafford.

Szymaniak conducted a roll call of members, with a majority to decide the selection. Abstentions were deemed to be no-votes.

Bois failed to receive a majority with a vote of 4-5-1. Howard was then elected with a unanimous 10-0 vote, rendering a vote on Stafford’s nomination unnecessary.

“Thank you all, I look forward to working with you,” Howard said.

Bois also nominated himself for consideration as vice chair, with Scriven and Stafford also nominated. Bois failed to win a majority with a tally of 3-6-1. Scriven was elected by a 7-3 for the win.

The vote for secretary/clerk was between  Forth and  Small. Forth was selected by a 6-4 vote.

Bois’ name was again placed in nomination, this time by Dawn Byers for treasurer. With no competition, Bois was elected unanimously. Forth then nominated Byers for assistant treasurer, as was Stafford, again nominated by Fred Small. Byers was elected 7-3 with one abstention.

The committee then entered into executive session to discuss strategy in regard to collective bargaining with non-union personnel (a new special education director).

The next night, Hanson Select Board reorganized.

In Hanson, this process raised a bit of unexpected drama.

“Tonight we are welcoming and congratulating two new members to our select board – Ann Rein and Ed Heal,” said Town Administrator Lisa Green, who presided until a chair was selected.

Laura  FitzGerald-Kemmett was elected chair with Joe Weeks as vice chair and Rein as clerk.

FitzGerald-Kemmett nominated herself for chair, seconded by Rein. Member Jim Hickey also nominated himself, seconded by Joe Weeks.

“That’s alright, Joe, you don’t have to,” Hickey said. “You don’t have to, that’s OK. I withdraw my nomination.”

FitzGerald-Kemmett was elected by a 4-0-1 vote with Hickey abstaining. When FitzGerald-Kemmett opened the floor to nominations for vice chair an awkward silence was followed by Weeks nominating himself almost in unison with Rein’s intention of the same thing.

“Just so people don’t have to stare at a [silent screen],” Weeks said with a laugh. The vote was unaninmous. Rein nominated herself as clerk when no one else spoke up.

HANSON — Town officials are looking for some influence in the final cleanup phase involved in removing munitions pollutants from the watershed and ponds around the former National Fireworks site in Hanover.

Hanson’s Select Board met jointly with the Board of Health and the Conservation Commission on Tuesday, May 17 to hear an overview of the plan for the ponds and streams on the property, which borders part of the town in the area of Winter and King streets.

“There are some new developments,” Town Administrator Lisa Green, saying that prompted her to invite the company to brief town officials.

While Hanover is “leading the charge” on the project, Select Board member Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said.

“We have a piece of it in Hanson and we thought we needed to have a little bit more of a voice — or, at least, a voice — in what was happening,” she said, noting at least four board members wrote in during the remediation plan’s public comment period for Phase 3. She asked if the towns were being consulted on remediation plans before they proceeded with the “full-on cleanup.”

“Because none of the people responsible own any of this property, the preference was [to] get rid of it and take it away,” said Ronald Marnicio, Tetra Tech’s national discipline lead for risk assessment. “When you get to that point, there’s not too many other choices.”

The company Tetra Tech, a global consulting and engineering firm that helps clients address water, environment, infrastructure, resource management, energy and international development challenges based in Pasadena, Calif., is cleaning up munitions at the site. The munitions response is scheduled through 2024, while that is being done the design is being completed and permitting will take about a year, so the first digging would likely not happen until 2025 or after.

Looking ahead

Select Board member Kenny Mitchell asked what the area would look like in five to 10 years.

“It’s up to you guys,” Marnicio said. “It should be clean and useable for just about anything.” Hanover would remain classified as recreational land, but most of the land in Hanson is private property.

“In Hanson, it might look pretty much like it’s looking right now,” he said.

Conservation Commission Chairman Phil Clemons said he would like the work approached less like a regular engineering project and more like the “visionary, large-picture, long-term fix that it ought to be” and that no one would regret.

Marnicio said Phase 3 of the cleanup, what is being called the “final remedy,” is addressing chemical contamination in most of the ponds and streams on the property in both Hanover and Hanson. Most of the work is being done in Hanover.

“When the facility closed, it was quite apparent that there was a lot of burial and dumping down there,” Marnicio said.

Most of the contamination has been found in Hanover. Hanson’s land is located at the bottom third of the fireworks site around what is known as Factory Pond, was used as a test site and disposal area when the fireworks factory was in operation.

The site is being cleaned up under the Mass. Contingency Plan, which according to Marnicio, is not quite like the federal Superfund program. MCP is voluntary program.

Site assessment has been going on for “quite a few years,” partly because of the size of the site and the impact on soil, sediment and groundwater.

“Originally, our clients [owners of the fireworks property] were paying for all of this, so it was phased to keep the ball moving,” Marnicio said. “But it took a few years to get the whole thing characterized in terms of what was out there and what do you have to do to clean it up.”

The second phase of the MCP process in 2019-2020, drew up options for cleanup efforts and evaluation. In June 2021, the Mass. Department of Environmental Protection approved the remedial action plan, laying out requirements of the cleanup, including how much sediment would have to come out and acceptable levels that could remain.

Because none of the responsible parties own the property

“One of the things that has changed over the last couple of years is the magnitude of the munitions response,” Marnicio said. “[It] has to be completed before the cleanup of the sediment in the ponds.”

The discovery of additional munitions has extended the phase before the final remedy.

That was FitzGerald-Kemmett’s concern. 

“We’ve been pulling things out of there since 2017,” Marnicio said. “These numbers are really kind of staggering — 18,300 items were explosive and were removed and exploded by the Mass. State Police Bomb Squad.”

There was also a lot of inert material, which resembled munition, but would not detonate. Still, Marnicio said it was “not a good thing to have in a public property.” More than 10,000 tons of contaminated soil has been shipped off the site. The cleanup in the upper portion of the property is about 75 percent done.

 “We believe when the place closed down, they bulldozed a lot of things into [Factory] pond,” he said, noting that a copper dam will be installed on the outside of an upper area of the pond to bring water level down and remove contaminants in dry conditions.

Final remedy is designed to remove mercury and lead from the sediment in ponds. Estimated cost of Phase 3 is between $64.7 and $95.1 million. State figures the cost as being between $72.6 and $106.5 million.

“This is not going to cost the taxpayers in either town any money, I’m assuming,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “And I’m assuming … ‘the potentially responsible parties’ will be paying, or who will be footing the bill for this massive cleanup?”

Marnicio said the potentially responsible parties were paying for it, the trust fund set up when one party went bankrupt has been paying for all the munitions response work and some of the characterization work.

MassDEP and the Department of Defense have been working on a consent decree to figure out who pays after the trust is depleted. 

FitzGerald-Kemmett said the town does not have the money to do so and did not contribute to the problem, and should not be expected to pay any costs.

After digging

“After we dig, there’s always been the question of to what degree do we need to put material back in,” Marnicio said. “Do we need to restore wetlands?”

Exposing material that had been underwater also triggers more regulation and they have to work with private citizens who own property along the Hanson portion of the property.

“I am really shocked at the thought of draining such an important little ecosystem,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “We all know restoration, once those things go backwards, it’s hard to restore them … only time does that, with the right conditions.”

Marincio said most of the area has contamination within the top six inches of the sediment.

She asked what would happen if a resident did not give permission for remediation on their property.

“I honestly don’t know how that would be handled,” Marnicio said.

Health Agent Gil Amado noted that everything has to be approved by DEP.

“The balance is you destroy it to save it,” Marnicio said. “There are requirements to re-establish wetlands and there are multiple-year monitoring that the restoration requires. It is risky, but that’s part of the plan, to put things back.”

He said groundwater was something that’s been measured since the ’90s.

“Fortunately, groundwater has not been a concern,” Marnicio said.

FitzGerald-Kemmett also spoke to the groundwater contamination and long-range health concerns residents have been speaking about and posting on social media.

“That kind of problem depends on your exposure over time,” he said. “I don’t think there’s been an increase in contamination.”

As they do the munitions removal they are cleaning soil cleanup goals for the final remedy, Marnicio said.

He also spoke to Select Board concerns about air-quality during the soil and sediment removal.

“What we’re most watching is particulates,” Marnicio said, noting that wind-direction is constantly monitored to make sure they are not going off-site. Work is stopped with air quality monitors sound alarms.

“Truck traffic on-site when it’s very dry will beep,” he said. “We determine what the cause is, [and] if we can determine that cause right away we can try to fix it or use water sprays.”

While it’s never happened yet, if the cause can’t be found, work will stop until it is found and addressed.

“There needs to be some robust communication,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. Marincio said Hanover’s website tracks needed information and makes it available to residents.

Select Board Chair Matt Dyer said he would prefer 24-hour monitoring of the ponds to the continuous monitoring being planned once digging begins.

During the second year of the work the wetlands will be allowed to fill back up and close the dam down. Hanson areas are relatively shallow with a limited amount of sediment needed to be removed.

WHITMAN – The town has again received a green light to design a new DPW building.

During the special Town Meeting on Monday, May 2, Whitman voters unanimously approved the expenditure of $1,098,100 for creating shovel-ready architectural plans for a new DPW building at 100 Essex St.

The funds, to be spent under the oversight of the Building Committe and Town Administrator Lincoln Heineman will also be used to hire an owner’s project manager.

The funds would come from three sources  – $713,765 from water and sewer retained earnings, $234,335 from free cash and $150,000 from the capital stabilization fund.

Engineer Ziad Kary from Environmental Partners Group, who worked with the DPW on the conceptual design, gave a brief PowerPoint presentation on his work.

“The existing facility is dated, it is beyond repair, and the driver behind this is a new facility to replace the old one,” he said. The 170-foot by 100-foot – or 17,500-square-foot – plan replaces the 200-by-100 plan the town had previously rejected. The old building would be razed and utilities would be relocated into the new facility.

“This would bring in all water, sewer and highway [equipment] under one roof,” he said. “This is a basic, basic building, comprised of structural steel and insulated panels.”

There will be vehicle wash bays, storage and maintenance space as well. The next step is to appoint an owner’s project manager, who would bring in a design engineer to see it through construction – anticipated to be a two-year project. 

Harvard Street resident Cindy Landeville asked if the town has looked into any grants for the building.

Heineman said the project is still in the early stages.

“Certainly, if there are any grants that may be available, we [the town] will agressively seek them,” he said. “At this time, there’s no grants that we’re aware of, that would assist us in building the Department of Public Works building. … These monies, if approved by Town Meeting, would allow for the project to move forward.”

He said the two DPW superintendents are always looking for grants and the town is working to fill a position, part of which would entail writing grant applications.

Elm Place resident Jerry Blumenthal asked if the building plan includes the DPW administrative offices and where equipment will be maintained and stored while the new building is being constructed after the old one is torn down.

The administrative offices will remain in the current building and equipment will be maintained and stored where they in other buildings on the property.

Highway and parks Superintendent Bruce Martin said the maintenance operation will stay in the back garage, where it is currently run, and costs have been calculated for temporary buildings so employees can work and equipment that must be inside can be stored. Some equipment would be outside during construction.

Another resident asked whether the funds for the actual construction work would come out of a debt exclusion or free cash.

Beyond seeking grants, Heineman said that since 60 percent of the building would be used by the Water and Sewer Department, they would seek funds from the retained earnings balance in the water/sewer enterprise fund.

“After all those pieces are drawn down, I think it’s likely to assume that there will be some portion that will be in a debt exclusion,” he said.

If the Town Meeting does not approve the funds for a debt exclusion, the building would not be built, according to Heineman. 

“The overall expectation of the project includes these monies this evening, and if these monies are appropriates by Town Meeting this evening, it would reduce the overall projected cost of the project,” he said.

Two residents asked why the design and OPM costs would be sought when the funds had not been secured to build the building.

Building Committee member Fred Small said the Whitman Middle School funding process, governed by the state’s MSBA, operates in a similar way. It provides an accurate barometer as to what a building is going to cost.

“This is the right way to do this, it’s proper and lord knows, it’s overdue,” he said,

Former Town Adminstrator and member of the DPW Building Committee Frank Lynam noted that he has been through a number of projects with the town.

“In order to appreciate what’s being presented to you today, you need to understand the ground rules,” he said. The Public Works Law requires that any building project exceeding $2 million done by any municipality to hire an OPM and a designer or architect can’t be selected until an OPM is hired.

“In order to start this process – and we have been looking at this since 2008 – we first have to get enough money to hire an OPM and to seek an architect to design the building,” he said.

With the final designs and cost estimates are done, it can be brought back to Town Meeting for ultimate approval and funding.

In other business, the Town Meeting approved a raise in the minimum wage paid to seniors taking part in the tax abatement program.

Article 47 on the annual warrant sought to set the maximum seniors can work off their property taxes to 125 service hours each year. In response to a resident’s question, Heineman said if the article passed the Select Board would discuss the amount each participant could receive in exemption per hour. Right now the maximum amount a single person could work off is $800, roughly coming out to $8 per hour, working a total of 100 hours.

“If this passes … I want to suggest that $8 an hour is not enough and that is should be higher,” he said, noting that the board had recently adopted a policy to pay all municipal hourly employees at least the minimum wage.

While the minimum wage is not necessarily what will be decided on, he said, it would be higher than $8 per hour.

Municipalities are exempt from minimum wage regulations, but may choose to raise salaries.

An article to lower the number of people required to achieve a quorum at town meetings – to 50 for an annual town meeting and 100 for a special town meeting – was also adopted, without discussion.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Selectmen voted to recommend the article.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The three projects total $700,000.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

HANSON — The owners of an Anatolian Shepherd dog have until Tuesday, April 26, when the Board of Selectmen meet again to review the case after a dangerous or nuisance dog complaint was filed against their pet.

The Board would then follow up to ensure a fence has been completed, secured and inspected, and to check into whether the owners of the injured dog were offered some restitution.

“You’ve got to assure us that you take this seriously and that it won’t happen again,” Selectman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “There needs to be follow-up here.”

Selectmen held a hearing Tuesday, April 5 on the complaint filed by David and Louise Coates after an incident on Saw Mill Lane Thursday, March 24.

Animal Control officer Joseph Kenney recommended that fences be secured and non-breeding animals be altered. He also recommended the dog be muzzled and kept on a six-foot leash when walking off the property and confined on the property by a six-foot fence.

Coates said he would not be comfortable so long as the dog was there and urged the dog be removed from the neighborhood.

“We have no authority to have that dog moved for one incident,” Selectman Jim Hickey said. “You can’t ask us to do something that is out of the question.”

The attacking dog came from the address 808 West Washington St., according to the incident report, Town Administrator Lisa Green said. 

“We had a small dog that was attacked by a larger dog,” Green said of the complaint. “There were significant injuries to the smaller dog and the police were called.”

Incident described

The Coates, of 59 Saw Mill Lane, said that when David had taken the dog out for it’s morning walk around 6 a.m., and was walking through his side yard to the front of the house, what he initially thought was a coyote that attacked his dog.

“I tried to get the dog off [his dog], I was holding onto the leash, and trying to kick it,” he said tearfully. “I’m fine until I have to talk about it.”

He said his dog slipped her leash and all he could do was hit the attacking dog with the leash. His dog ran to the front porch with him behind her and the other dog seemed to follow them, he added.

“It didn’t seem interested in me, it wanted the dog,” he said.

After he was able to get in the house, he called the police.

“The dog was just wandering around the front, over the neighbor’s yard … tail wagging,” David Coates said about what he could see out his window. “It didn’t seem like the police had any issues to get it under their control.”

Police walked the dog down the street.

“It wasn’t just a bite, it was a mauling,” Louise Coates said.

“The extent of the damage to your dog is significant,” Selectmen Chairman Matt Dyer agreed, looking over the photos accompanying the complaint.

Louise said they had just taken their dog to the vet Monday and said her pet had to be anesthetized so redo everything because there was so much dead skin the stitches weren’t holding.

“I’m sorry you went through that,” Selectman Joe Weeks said, asking how the Coates’ dog is doing.

David Coates said she us under medication to keep her quiet.

“Physically, they say she should be fine, mentally, I’m not sure,” he said. “She’s certainly acting different and we’re leery about going out at night, now, knowing the dog is still over there.”

Louise Coates said she arms herself with a golf club when she has to take her pet for a walk.

“You should be able to go out in your own yard and feel safe and secure and not have to take out a golf club just because there’s a dog in the neighborhood,” Dyer said.

The dog’s owners Hassan Prashkov of 808 Washington St., had just moved to the address four months ago, but had bought it two years ago.

“The dog got over the fence,” he said of a garden fence that he had just repaired. He said his dog’s breed was developed for guarding livestock.

Anatolian shepherds

The American Kennel Club does not recommend that the breed be around other dogs, stating that the mastiff-type sighthounds, may be aggressive toward people and dogs they don’t know, especially without adequate socialization when they are young.

“It’s an accident,” Prashkov said. “Every time the dog barks, now, I’m nervous, too. I never expect[ed] something like that from this dog, because we’re still calling him puppy.”

The dog is 2 years old. Dogs usually mature mentally at between 1 and 2 years of age, depending on size, breed, socialization and other factors, according to the AKC.

“They’re very friendly with the kids and the humans,” Prashkov said. “They’re great to protect the unprotected people.”

He suggested the dog had been chasing a fox or something when it got out of the yard and saw the Coates’ dog.

“I don’t know what pulled the trigger,” he said.

FitzGerald-Kemmett asked the Coates how much their vet bill had been. Louise Coates said it was up to nearly $3,700.

“And we’re not done,” she said.

Selectman Kenny Mitchell asked Prashkov if he was willing to help the Coates’ with their veterinary bills. He indicated he would and would secure the fencing. Prashkov said his dog has never had other incidents and is licensed. He indicated that about 75 percent of the property is secured with a chain-link fence. The remainder out back was old wire livestock fence, similar to chicken wire in appearance, because the previous property owner had horses.

FitzGerald-Kemmett asked if he was confident a chain-link fence was sufficient and if he would consider an electric fence for livestock.

“That’s, I think, one of the solutions,” Prashkov said, noting he also has friends with a farm in Maine where the dog could be sent.

“I can’t afford for this to happen again,” he said, noting the breed is hard to train.

“I understand what he’s saying,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said, noting her family owned a sheep dog when she was younger.

Hickey had questions for Hanson police officer Brian Rodday, who responded to the call, including how he managed to control the dog.

Rodday said he carries a leash in his duty bag because he frequently receives calls about stray dogs. He waited in his cruiser while the dog circled the vehicle a time or two so he could judge how it was behaving.

“It approached me, it didn’t appear aggressive,” Rodday said about its behavior after he got out of the vehicle. “It wasn’t showing its teeth, it wasn’t growling — anything like that.”

When another officer arrived, they used treats to try to calm the dog and get it into the cruiser, but walked it home when it refused. Rodday said there was an incident over the summer when the puppies got out, which was how he recognized the breed.

“It’s a unique dog for around here,” Rodday said, indicating that  Prashkov owned the male involved in the March 24 incident and a female that was at the property in July when the puppies were born. He said the litter of puppies was not planned.

“I’m a cat person,” Hickey said, “but I’ve never had an ‘accident’ with my cats. … We’ve always had our cats spayed or neutered.”

He asked if the dogs were altered. Prashkov said he was waiting until the dog involved in the attack to become 2 years old before having it neutered. Kenney said he was on vacation during the incident, but had been called when the puppy got out last summer.

“It sounds to me like it’s a perimeter issue and a security issue,” Selectman Joe Weeks said.