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Charges filed in Florida crash

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The driver in a fatal crash that killed four members of a Whitman family last month  will be charged with careless driving.

Dos Reis Laurindo is currently being held on a visa violation at the Glades County Jail, according to a prepared statement through Lieutenant Kim Montes Public Affairs Officer for the Florida Highway Patrol.

“Under Florida law, the strongest charge that could be made against him is a ticket issued for careless driving,”

The crash, which occurred on Florida SR-429, on February 18 of this year, killed Julie Smith, her daughter Scarlett Smith, 5, and her mother Josephine Fay, who were pronounced dead at the scene of the crash.  Smith’s son Jaxon Smith, 11, died at the hospital on the following day.

The family of eight was on vacation in Orlando, Fla. when they were involved in the fatal crash.

Dos Reis Laurindo, was behind the wheel of a  2016  Dodge Ram 3500 truck when he failed to slow down hitting the van the Smith’s were in causing it to flip on its side.

“The investigation included the actions of Dos Reis Laurindo at the time of the crash as well as his driver’s license status. The result of the crash investigation has determined that Dos Reis Laurindo was at fault for the collision,” said Montes in the prepared statement.

Dos Reis Laurindo was issued the ticket last week. Under Florida law there is a mandatory court appearance for the violation. He was taken into custody by federal law enforcement for a visa violation, on February 28.

The Florida Highway Patrol has been in contact with the families involved in this horrific crash and continues to send our condolences, as they recover, the statement read.

A Super Tuesday for Biden, Sanders

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After their first-choice candidates had withdrawn — and then endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden on Monday — supporters of Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar and Beto O’Rourke delivered.

On Tuesday, Biden carried Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas and Massachusetts — where Buttigieg, where the former South Bend, Ind., mayor had a strong grassroots organization; Minnesota, which is represented in the Senate by Klobuchar; and Texas, where O’Rourke had been a congressman — as well as Alabama, Oklahoma and North Carolina. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders won his home state, Colorado, Utah and California. Maine had not yet been called as of 5:30 a.m., Wednesday.

The delegate count now sits at 399 for Biden, 322 for Sanders, 44 for former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg and 42 for Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren — with 536 still to be awarded. Buttigieg had released his 26 delegates to Biden.

Bloomberg suspended his campaign on Wednesday and endorsed Biden. Warren’s campaign told the Boston Globe that they will press on, still seeing a path forward.

In Whitman, Biden garnered 996 votes to Sanders’ 754, Warren’s 350 and Bloomberg’s 288. Buttigieg took 127 — mostly from early voting the week before his withdrawal, with Klobuchar receiving 44.

In Hanson, Biden garnered 676 votes to Sanders’ 508, Warren’s 250 and Bloomberg’s 231. Buttigieg took 68, with Klobuchar receiving 29.

The primary was an educational experience for two WHRHS students volunteering as election observers in the Whitman Town Clerk’s office. Ian Brown and Samantha Thompson are co-presidents of the school’s History National Honor Society.

They hosted a voter registration at W-H for students who will be 18 by the Nov. 3 Election Day and then asked Town Clerk Dawn Varley if they could observe the election “to see how the whole process works,” Thompson said.

Because Hanson Middle School is a polling location, there was no school in the district on Tuesday.

“I’m seeing a lot of people post on their stories to get out and vote,” Brown said of his fellow students sharing of their interest in the election on Snapchat. He plans to study international affairs through an economics/political science major at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. next year.

“It’s nice to see,” said Thompson of the interest. “I’ve always been very interested in politics, and making sure everyone’s rights are respected,” She will be a nursing student at Curry College in the fall.

While sign-holders were unusually scarce at local polling places for a Presidential Primary, Hanson Democratic Town Committee member Kathleen DiPasqua-Egan was volunteering to provide visibility for Warren.

“We want everyone to vote, we’re unified in that,” DiPasqua-Egan said in agreeing to a photo with fellow sign-holder Benjamin Fletcher, a member of the Hanson Republican Town Committee.

“I really am quite a true believer in Warren,” she said. “Her ideals are ones I believe in and I’m hoping that she prevails as far as the convention — and maybe even further. I think she’d make a great president.”

Rather than being concerned about former  Democratic candidates’ endorsements of Biden, DiPasqua-Egan said she supported that development.

“I’m happy that they are coalescing around Biden, because at least they are coalescing around someone who’s a viable candidate to beat Trump. I want Elizabeth Warren to be the one, but if she’s not the one, I’m happy to have it be Biden.”

She disagreed with the perceived need in some quarters of the party that the support of Biden is needed to control Sanders.

“I don’t want to get Bernie under control, I think his ideas are great,” she said. “So I’m happy to have his ideas … which are basically what Elizabeth Warren had, but maybe not everything. … I think any of them would be a huge improvement over our current president.”

DiPasqua-Egan said the country can’t go back in time, it has to move forward.

While Warren, who finished third in her home state of Massachusetts, had a paid full-time staff operating here, supporters of Buttigieg — and to a lesser extent — Klobuchar, throwing their support to Biden were seen as the difference.

Endorsements

Buttigieg did not have an office in the commonwealth, but instead ran a grassroots campaign focused on relational organizing, according to Laura DeVeau of Newton and Marilé Borden of Northborough, grassroots volunteer co-leads for Buttigieg campaign in Massachusetts.

“Pete was the adult in the room, he pulled us all together, he did exactly what he said we needed to do since Day One, which is we need to come together and unite this party to defeat Donald Trump,” DeVeau said. “You know what last night meant to me? It meant we won Massachusetts.”

She said Buttigieg would have surprised people in every state where Biden did well, with the possible exception of North Carolina, on Super Tuesday.

“What this whole experience tells me is that a candidate can light a fire under people and then become an army of happy warriors who want to spread the word about that candidate,” she said.

DeVeau said she could not count the number of people called her or sent her direct messages on social media Tuesday for advice on for whom they should vote.

“These were not volunteers,” she said, but knew of her support for Buttigieg. She did not advise them as to for whom they should vote.

“No one could have anticipated a win by Joe Biden in Elizabeth Warren’s home state,” Borden said Wednesday morning. “But, then again, no one knew the weight that Pete Buttigieg carried in Massachusetts.”

Borden and DeVeau pointed to the grassroots nature of the organization that had been building through volunteer efforts for the past 10 months.

“When our candidate dropped out and endorsed Joe Biden, mountains were moved,” she said. “I have no doubt that we impacted the outcome of the race in our state, and across the nation.”

GOP primary

Benjamin Fletcher, a member of the Hanson Republican Town Committee was among GOP members in both towns out holding signs for state committee candidates Geoff Diehl and KathyJo Boss, while reminding voters that President Trump was also on the ballot.

In Hanson, Diehl won with 723 votes for committeeman to 129 for Gordon Andrews and 21 for Lawrence Novak. Boss won for committee woman with 596 votes to 237 for Jeanie Falcone. In Whitman, Diehl won with 992 votes for committeeman to 89 for Gordon Andrews and 21 for Lawrence Novak. Boss won for committee woman with 774 votes to 273 for Jeanie Falcone

Trump received 805 votes in Hanson to 61 for former Mass. Gov. Bill Weld, 12 for Roque De La Fuents, and 7 for Joe Walsh. In Whitman, Trump garnered 1,012 votes in Hanson to 69 for former Mass. Gov. Bill Weld, 3 for Roque De La Fuents, and 9 for Joe Walsh

“I’m giving some support to Geoff Diehl and KathyJo Boss for the Mass. GOP and also to give President Trump some support,” he said of his reason for sign-holding. “I like his agenda, I like what he’s doing for our country. I like the fact that the economy’s doing well with jobs for people.”

Asked for his reaction to several Democratic candidates’ assertions that the economy still requires many people to hold down more than one job, Fletcher said he agrees.

“I don’t think you’re going to get an argument out of me with that one, because I tend to agree with that logic,” he said as a disabled American. “I do know that President Trump has stated that people with disabilities have — their job number have gone up, too. I personally, living in Massachusetts, have not seen that, so I won’t argue with that point.”

‘Every kid gets an imagination’

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HANSON — He used to hang sheet rock, working alone, and did roofing in the midst of winter, but while author Andre Dubus III, a native of Haverhill, was grateful for the work and income, it left a sour taste in his mouth.

“Every kid gets an imagination,” he said during a Sunday, Feb. 23  visit to the Hanson Public Library to discuss his latest book, “Gone So Long.”

Dubus, author of the New York Times No. 1 best seller and National Book Award finalist, “The House of Sand of Fog,” as well as “Townie,” which won and Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, “Dirty Love” and “The Garden of Last Days,” spoke of imagination, the writing process and story editing.

“For me, it’s character, character, character, and then story, story, story, and last is plot,” he said of his process. “[Once] you’ve written a story, you get smarter about what it’s about.”

He described his program as an opportunity to talk a little bit, read from his book much less, and have a conversation about the human imagination.

“There are four institutions, without which democracy will die. One: A free press. Two: Public Schools. Three: An independently-owned bookstore — don’t buy my book on Amazon — and four: the public library,” Dubus said.

One of four kids growing up in Haverhill, imagination was an outlet for Dubus. His brother taught himself guitar by listening to the recordings of Spanish classical virtuoso Andrés Segovia, and by drawing and painting.

“I remember having the sentence in my head, ‘Oh, he has an imagination, we’re just normal,’” Dubus said. “Every child gets an imagination.”

From his experience as a professor at UMass, Lowell, however, he has come to believe no one person’s imagination is any better than anybody else’s. The difference for creative people is the tools they use to bring out their imagination.

Truth has to be present in the art, but he argued it is possible for an artist to portray someone else’s truth.

“The deeper you go into your imagination … there is no ‘other,’” Dubus said. “We are one.”

Noting that as a white male he is a member of the most privileged group of people on the planet, but he argued that does not mean his imagination is only white and male.

As Faulkner once put it, Dubus said, curiosity is key to developing character and story.

“Your story will walk away, I have found over the years, if I’m not curious about it,” he said, describing his work on a novel about a conman who kills lonely women, only to follow his curiosity about a woman he had seen in Miami some 30 years before. She had been waiting in her car at a bank drive-through window, “a large, pretty, very solitary-looking” young woman.

She became the muse for the conman’s first victim, and beside her the conman character seemed false. He ended up with a 50-page story about a woman looking for love.

“There’s a difference between making it up and imagining,” he said. “We’re either drawn to something or not. … I think it’s almost a sacred trust, that whatever visits your psyche — you’re supposed to write about it. You’re not always ready to, that’s a whole different thing.”

He said “Gone So Long” is material he had resisted the most, including a character based on a former prison inmate he found a likeable person he was interviewing for a screenplay, only to find out that the man had been convicted of killing his wife.

“I detest violence against women,” he said. “I hate injustice. I hate cruelty.”

Because of those feelings, he wanted to get away from the man as fast as he could. Yet Dubus could not deny he still liked him and could not erase the fact that he had enjoyed talking with the man. On the way out of the restaurant where they talked, Dubus asked if the man had any kids.

“He said, ‘Oh, yeah, but they don’t want to see me,’” Dubus recalled. “And that is the sentence that stayed in my head for, like, three year.”

He kept seeing him in his imagination before he finally included the character suggested by the man in his book.

3 killed in Florida highway crash

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WHITMAN — The town of Whitman awakened with heavy hearts Wednesday as they learned that a local family has been involved in a fatal crash in Florida, claiming the lives of three family members.

Julie Smith, 41, and her mother — grandmother Josephine Fay of South Weymouth were both killed along with daughter Scarlett Smith, 5, of Whitman. All three were pronounced dead at the crash scene, according to reports.

The family was on February vacation in Orlando.

The fatal crash occurred Tuesday around 5:30 p.m. in Osceola County, Fla. The crash is actively under investigation, according to Florida Highway Patrol Public Affairs Officer Lt. Kim Montes, in a prepared statement.

The multiple vehicle collision occurred on the southbound side of Route 429. The van the family was in rolled over after it was struck from behind.

Shane Smith, 43, of Whitman along with the children’s maternal grandfather William Fay, 76, of South Weymouth were released from the hospital on Tuesday night.

Two other daughters, Shalie, 10,  and Scarlett’s twin sister Skylar, 5, were also released from the hospital.

Jaxon Smith, who is 11, remained in critical condition on life support Wednesday morning as of press time.

Additional support of state troopers and a victim advocate were assigned to the family, according to Montes.

More information, including comments from the Whitman Hanson School District and services for the community, were expected to be announced Wednesday afternoon.

Budget work begins

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W-H school officials outlined two possible budget packages — a required spending plan of $55,017,938 to provide level services and a $57,492,938 recommended plan that seeks to restore or add programs and teachers either cut or not included in fiscal 2020.

“Gone are the days of the worksheet with ‘this is the increase we want … and this is a 1 percent increase, this is a 2 percent increase on that sheet,’” said Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak. “We don’t do that sheet anymore with the statutory formula.”

Last year, cuts made to balance the budget put it below level service in terms of programs.

The budget presentation and hearing was held Wednesday, Feb. 5.

“There’s been quite a bit of conversation, dialog, emotion about the school budget and the method of assessment,” Szymaniak said about the process that began in August 2019. “Many people worked both publicly and behind the scenes to put together this presentation here, using the statutory method.”

He noted that officials in both towns’ administrative offices, select boards and finance committees have been meeting and discussing ways to make the fiscal 2021 budget work for the students of Whitman and Hanson.

“This isn’t the only piece of information that will be available to the community and the School Committee,” Szymaniak said of the PowerPoint printout and budget worksheets made available to the committee and audience members at the meeting.

“We are currently working on feedback we received last year concerning a history of our line items,” Szymaniak said. “That document will be available and I ask people to be patient.”

The required budget would represent an overall increase of 4.94 percent, or $2,592,200. The recommended budget would increase the bottom line by another 4.72 percent, or $2,475,000 — a total increase of 9.66 percent, or $5,067,200.

Local assessments for the required budget would mean $11,903,983 for Hanson, with $200,345 in non-mandated busing; $141,080 in capital/technology for Hanson school buildings and $292,252 for high school debt service. Whitman’s assessment would be $14,974,512, with $300,016 in non-mandated busing and $427,648 for high school debt service.

Local assessments for the recommended budget would mean $12,894,973 and $16,458,522.

“The recommended number includes everything that we are looking for as a regional school district now and in the next five years,” Szymaniak said.

Required expenses include salaries (52 percent or $29,693,543), pension costs, regular day transportation, custodial services, utilities, health insurance, trash, special education transportation and tuition, facilities and curriculum costs. Non-salary expenses, which make up 48 percent of the budget total $27,799,395. Of that figure, $5 million represents under-funded or unfunded mandates.

Per pupil costs of $12,740 put the district at 19th from the bottom in the state, compared to Abington at $13,461; Rockland at $15,567 and a state average of $15,952. The district has been as low as fifth from the bottom in past years.

Revenue sources, meanwhile, are $28,249,836 (51.03 percent) from assessments, $25,200,534 (45.52 percent) from net state aid, $1,313,976 (2.37 percent) from grants, $450,000 (.81 percent) in Circuit Breaker funds and $150,000 (.27 percent) from local receipts.

Programs included in the recommended budget are returning four teachers cut last year and an additional 10 teachers to return foreign language and reading services at the middle schools. It also includes new programs — a robotics program the BRYT medical transition program for students returning from mental or physical health hospitalization at the middle schools, expansion of special ed programs, as well as full-day kindergarten and adjustment of the school start time.

Szymaniak said some items on the recommended list, such as all-day kindergarten and a change in start times are not things he is looking to incorporate into the budget this year, but he also wants to outline programs and materials the district needs.

The high school also faces and issue about capital items reaching end of life, such as phone wiring, which has not been addressed once the school was built.

“When I say we are going on Amazon to fix things, we are,” Szymaniak said. “We’re at end of life for support.”

The governor’s budget came out two weeks ago, and District Business Manager John Tuffy is part time, which limits the time he could spend on those figures.

Tuffy explained how the state calculates the district’s foundation budget of $40,719,547 and required district contribution of $20,274,291.

He also went through the state-required steps toward calculating the statutory assessments. The budget figure, less reimbursement, aid and tuitions determine the net budget — $26,452,087 or a $52,357,657 budget and subtracts the required minimum local contribution — $9,328,114 for Hanson and $11,117,142 for Whitman — to determine the total to be assessed, $6,006,831. Divided by the towns’ enrollment percentages, Hanson’s assessment is $2,405,135.13 and Whitman’s is $3,601,831 plus non-mandated transportation costs, additional operations and debt service costs for totals of $12,104,327.84 for Hanson and $15,274,529.16 for Whitman.

“The hope was to show you the method that we have, give you the chance to think about it — certainly the finance committees and the town administrators — and the, perhaps, respond to questions from the towns or the school committee,” Tuffy said.

Szymaniak said all the budget information will be posted on the district’s website.

“What we really wanted to present was the here and now, what we’re looking for and [where] we’re looking to go in the next few years,” Szymaniak said.

Enrollments, meanwhile are decreasing — down from 4,104 in 2015 to a projected enrollment of 3,755 in 2021.

“Decreased enrollment means a decrease, potentially, in state aid,” Szymaniak said. “We’re fighting that battle of losing kids.”

He pointed to vocational schools for those programs as well as charter schools and school choice because of full-day kindergarten. Smaller families are also a factor, Szymaniak said.

Staff reductions in fiscal 2020 included 9.2 teaching positions, six paraprofessionals, one special ed out of district coordinator, three duty aides, a central office staff member and one person from facilities. Three elementary counselors were added, bringing the net staff reductions to 19.2.

Additionally, $590,000 was taken from excess and deficiency and $290,000 was cut from supplies to help balance the budget.

“I also want to be careful talking about the two towns and what they can afford,” said School Committee member Dawn Beyers. “It also comes down to what they can afford.”

She said that 96 percent of the state’s kindergarten pupils attend full-day kindergarten, in Whitman 60 percent of kindergarten pupils attend a full-day program.

“We’re losing kids because of all-day kindergarten, and we lose them for the duration,” said School Committee Chairman Bob Hayes.

State grants offered to set up such programs ended in 2016.

“You have teachers in this district who are working hard day and night, weekend and night, because we don’t provide them as a school district with what they need, research-based in 2020 in order to teach students effectively, in my mind, as the assistant superintendent,” George Ferro said.

Splitting region not ideal

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WHITMAN — Town Administrator Frank Lynam updated the Board of Selectmen about WHRSD audit process on Tuesday, Jan. 28, expressing concern about the emergence of a group that is, perhaps seeking to develop a method to de-regionalize the school district.

“I could not be more opposed to that concept,” Lynam said. “This audit would not have any relationship to that type of an analysis. We simply want to understand how the money comes in, how it’s allocated, what the growth factors are and see if we can project out.”

Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski agreed that getting the information the audit would supply is extremely important, but cautioned that no one should take it as an expression that the board favored de-regionalization.

“We’re still firm in our stand that the statutory should be used this year,” Kowalski said he told Hanson Selectmen Chairman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett in a phone conversation. “We are also not in favor of de-regionalization.”

He said FitzGerald-Kemmett understands the situation and is trying to get through a difficult time in her town with some “dicey” input from some of the members of her town about the relationship between the towns.

Kowalski said he reminded her of the budget cycle a couple of years ago when Whitman thought it could only do 5 percent and his board’s “most fiscally conservative member,” Brian Bezanson said Whitman should just give the towns what they needed. Within the levy limit, using free cash, Whitman came up with about $800,000 to match what Whitman needed to match for the children.

“We are partly where we are today fiscally because of that move that we made,” Kowalski said. “Whitman has shown that it is interested in the health of the school system. It has shown it by making a sacrifice when it was hard to make it. That is a fact, and that ought to be clear.”

Since 2017, Whitman has sacrificed $3.3 million.

“We’re not asking for it back, we’re not assigning blame or responsibility for what happened,” Kowalski said. But it’s a thing that happened — and it hurts, quite frankly. It hurts to hear from a town we’ve partnered with for a long time that we are hard or we don’t care. We all know that we do. We’ve shown that we do.”

He thanked Selectman Randy LaMattina for getting on top of the issue a couple years ago and for getting the town in a position where the town can look forward with some clarity.

“There are some misguided, misinformed statements going on on social media right now that speaks on our current relationship and in our standings,” LaMattina said of the meetings he, Lynam and Selectman Justin Evans have had with Hanson town administrators, FitzGerald-Kemmett and Selectman Matt Dyer. “There has not been much progress, but there is no negativity and we are going to meet again.”

The group’s consensus is to wait until after the School Committee meeting Wednesday, Feb. 5 when the fiscal 2021 budget is presented.

Lynam said the audit is looking for information, but not to assign blame.

Both Lynam and Kowalski lauded the efforts of Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak to work through the crisis.

Lynam was slated to meet on Wednesday, Jan. 29 with budget managers to review and update submitted budgets to “hopefully bring forward a budget that will conform to the guidelines the board voted last week.”

In other business, Selectmen voted to approve seeking an exam for the open position of fire chief when Chief Timothy Grenno retires.

Lynam met with Civil Service representatives last week at a Mass. Municipal Association conference.

“As of this moment, we do not have an exam for fire chief,” Lynam said. “It’s important for the board to know that it reserves its rights in the event that we don’t have a timely opportunity for an exam, should we need one.”

The board may seek a written exam through HRD, or return to a previously discussed option of an assessment center. He recommended that a written exam be sought.

“It doesn’t mean that our current chief is going anywhere, it simply gives us a list from which to appoint in the event he does leave,” he said. “We should always have a standing list.”

Once the list is issued, it is good for two years.

Lynam announced that the town was notified on Friday, Jan. 24 that changes need to be made to the flood plain in order to continue the town’s participation in the National Flood Insurance Program. Selectmen approved sending the recommended bylaw change to the Planning Board for review and hearings.

A Merry send-off

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HANSON — The Board of Selectmen, state legislators, family and former colleagues came together Tuesday, Jan. 28 to say goodbye to interim Town Administrator Meredith Marini after 21 years as the Board of Selectmen’s administrative assistant.

She served as interim town administrator several times during her tenure, the most recent delaying her retirement a month until new Town Administrator John Stanbrook could settle into his role.

“This is really a surprise, and surprising me is kind of hard,” she said while opening the gift from the Board of Selectmen.

Her family presented her with flowers, Selectmen presented her with a clock with the Seal of the Town of Hanson on its face. State Rep. Josh Cutler, D-Duxbury, and state Sen. Mike Brady gave her a mirror — to reflect on her retirement — and a reception with cake was held.

“Cake?!?” Marini said. “For people who aren’t here on a regular basis, cake is what we do.”

She counted off the 25 selectmen and eight town administrators in her 21 years on the job.

“It has been a blast,” Marini said. “It’s been the best job ever. … Remember who you’re working for, remember why we’re here and everybody will be fine.”

She credited the people she works with at Town Hall for making her work so pleasant and noted the reason she never wanted to be a full-time town administrator was because her family comes first.

Her family also surprised her, with one son, Jeff Scozzari, coming from his home in New York to join his brother Steven Scozzari and his girlfriend Suzie, daughter Trish Glenn and Marini’s husband Fran in attending the meeting.

“What can I say about Merry that each of you don’t already know?” said Selectmen Chairman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett. “It isn’t an overstatement to say that Merry has been the heart and soul of the town of Hanson and Hanson Town Hall for many years.”

She has answered questions from residents and town officials, and oriented “scores of freshmen selectmen” on their jobs.

“She is one of the hardest-working women I have ever met,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said, noting there’s a lot to Marini’s dedication that people don’t see. “She has single-handedly been responsible for some semblance of stability … in the selectmen’s office as we’ve had the revolving door of town administrators, which we’re hoping to break that chain.”

She has also continued to do her own job, while doing the little things that make Town Hall run smoothly like organizing the decoration of Town Hall for the Holiday Festival and taking part in the town’s Halloween Extravaganza.

Case in point was what Marini was doing the weekend before Stanbrook began working — spackling and painting his office so he would have a “nice, sparking office when he arrived,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.

U.S. Rep. Bill Keating sent a Certificate of Congressional Recognition, presented by an aide, to Marini and Brady and Cutler presented citations from the Senate and House of the General Court.

Cutler related attending a Scouting event at which he was asked what a state representative did, asking if it was akin to being a mayor.

“No, that’s Merry Marini,” he replied. “We know when we need something done, we’d always call Merry and she’d always have the answer or know where to get the answer.”

The gift from Cutler and Brady was wrapped in wallpaper from the Statehouse because giftwrap wasn’t available.

“As you reflect on your many years of service to the town of Hanson, you can reflect,” Cutler said as Marini opened the mirror’s packaging.

“We get it,” a voice in the room replied.

“I can’t say much more than has already been said, other than the fact that I’m glad I checked up on you every morning, and days that I missed, you were afraid I was sick or something,” said former Selectman Don Howard, who said she was still welcome to stop by his house in the summer for zucchini from his garden.

Former Town Administrator René Read, now Duxbury’s town manager also shared memories of working with Merry during a difficult financial period for the town, when they were trying to avoid layoffs.

“I can’t believe you’re leaving,” he said after giving Marini a big hug. “When I first got here things were rough.”

He recalled talking to his wife about it after one typically long day, marveling how Marini “just won’t stop, she’s just go, go, go.”

Years later, he asked Marini about how she did it.

“S**t, you were going so fast, I thought I had to keep up with you,” he related was her reply. “I said, Merry, I was trying to keep up with you. This is the kind of conversation we should have had when I first started.”

He added he always swore if Marini ever left the Town Hall would have to close.

“They better watch out, after you walk out of here if they have to shut the lights off, I wouldn’t be surprised,” he said, wishing her a long, healthy and happy retirement.

Halifax Town Administrator Charlie Selig, who has dealt with Marini over the years, also wished her well.

“In losing Merry, you’re losing someone great,” he said.

Boards talk budget

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WHITMAN — Prior to a joint meeting with the Finance Committee Tuesday, Jan. 21, the Board of Selectmen unanimously voted to accept the report and budget recommendations from the Budget Override and Evaluation Committee to avert a fiscal 2021 Proposition 2 ½ override. It was the only item on the agenda before the joint session with the Finance Committee.

All but one had the unanimous recommendation of the BOEC, and were based on the recommendations of the findings reported by consultant John Madden’s review of town finances.

“All of these measures defer the inevitable,” the budget committee’s report stated. “Even if all recommendations are adopted, an override will most likely be required in FY 2022, albeit a much smaller one.

BOEC Chairman Randy LaMattina said the key factor Madden determined to be at the heart of Whitman’s financial situation was where the operating budget — with an annual increase of 4.86 percent — is growing.

“He notes that school growth, from 7 to 8 percent, are not the norm,” LaMattina said. “His recommendation, and there will be a vote later on in this meeting, was to restrict operational growth to somewhere between 2 to 2.5 percent and a school assessment of 5 percent. … They’re not concrete numbers, there may need some adjustment here and there, but these are what he considers the norms for surrounding towns and towns meeting our demographics.”      

The recommended moves include:

• Restructuring of the ambulance account without taking needed funds away from the fire department;

• Moving funds from the motor vehicle fine account into general townwide operations;

• Use of sewer/water indirect costs to offset costs within the town budget article at Town Meeting;

• Controlling town operations increases to 2.5 percent of the overall budget increase and education not to exceed a 5 percent assessment increase;

• As a financial policy, refrain from using free cash to fund ongoing expenses;

• Seek funding for the feasibility study for a DPW building project;

• Funding the $750,000 for the first phase of the Whitman middle School Project (Finance Committee member John Galvin and Fire Chief Timothy Grenno abstained from this vote at the BOEC meeting);

• Development of a strategic plan for municipal finances; and the

• BOEC’s recommendation against seeking a Proposition 2 ½ override.

School Committee member Dawn Byers spoke about her dissenting vote favoring an override after Selectman Dan Salvucci asked for the reason for that vote.

She said that, while she saw a lot of information on how to infuse more money into the town’s operating budget, she saw no expenditure reports for how the new revenue would be distributed.

“I know that the schools did cut from their budget last year, so I feel that to recommend not having an override this year doesn’t serve the people in our community, the families in our community, working families in our community. I think we need to recognize our true expenditures with our real revenue.”

LaMattina said nine votes against seeking an override spoke to the dire nature of the move.

“We know we have a middle school, possibly, on the horizon, we know we have a capital service project,” he said. “We do not know what the number is for the school district. … If we look at our history, 5 percent will not be sustainable for the schools — we get it — they will need an increase.”

He said the town is trying to get through this year, working with Hanson.

“I think this override will be the last time we can ask taxpayers for money for quite a long time,” LaMattina said. “We better get it right.”

Moving into the joint meeting with the Finance Committee, the session reflected Finance Chairman Richard Anderson’s introductory remark that, “undoubtedly we will disagree on some of the paths” to get town finances where they need to be.

Town Administrator Frank Lynam advocated identifying the town’s budget tolerances as a first step in preparing a budget with a 2.5 percent increase limit as the goal.

Finance Committee member Kathleen Ottina advocated more transparency in that process.

“Right now, the general public in Whitman does not know the details of what was involved in last year’s decision to stay under an override,” she said. “The closed-door meetings, I understand, involve less formal discussions than when you televise, but they have to be open to the public so they know what’s at stake.”

She also questioned how an override could be taken off the table when they don’t have all the numbers yet, and argued it does not take six months to educate the public on the need for an override.

Lynam said he would be “hard-pressed to find 100 people that would regularly be interested in what’s going on, that doesn’t mean we don’t provide it.”

Most of what he does at the meetings is working with a calculator and the town has committed to a more open and fluid approach.

Ottina said she appreciated the difficulty, but said information coming out of the meetings should be publicized. Lynam agreed.

Finance Committee member Rosemary Connolly urged that a working group could ensure the budget is accountable to the town’s budget survey conducted last year.

Finance Committee member John Galvin, who also served on the BOEC, disagreed that a working group meeting was necessary, because the FinCom is charged with hashing out that information and bringing it to the people at Town Meeting.

Anderson said that, if the next step is for the Finance Committee members to follow up with budget managers, “I think we’re in a good place.”

In discussing the Capital improvement plan, Lynam said the wording for any article would be tricky.

“We’re going to have to work out that process,” he said. “It would be a big change from what we’ve done.”

The capital committee will be holding its next meeting in the first week of February.

Noting that WHRSD is the biggest part of the budget, Anderson brought up the issue of paid school transportation.

“I think this is a discussion that needs to take place,” he said. “It’s time to consider alternate funding sources and maybe address some of the schools’ needs.”

School Committee member Fred Small, who attended the joint meeting, said students on the Superintendent’s Council had said last week that the early start didn’t bother them.

Connolly said early start times generally affects boys more than girls, and the Superintendent’s Council members who spoke were all female.

They also did say the time change was hard for them in the beginning, as well.

Lynam cautioned that the issue raises a myriad concerns, particularly when school doors don’t open before a certain time, which causes a hardship for working parents.

“Massachusetts has the earliest start time, generally, across America and we are one of the earliest within Massachusetts,” Connolly said. “We also have to think of how effectively our money is spent.”

Most buses arrive at the school empty because parents already drive their children, she said.

Finally, Lynam discussed the MSBA grant invitation for a Whitman Middle School project, requiring a vote at the May Town Meeting on whether to call for funding for a feasibility study. Components of that study will include demographics, utility and design.

“I don’t see anyone ever approving us renovating that building,” Lynam said. “If we’re going to do something there, we’re most likely looking at a new building.”

The first step is the assessment of need through a feasibility study which can be funded out or either a debt plan, free cash or a one-time capital override.

“I was persuaded that the feasibility study will give us the information we need to present to the public,” Lynam said.

Judge grants bail in child death

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WHITMAN — Shaniqua Leonard, 29, of Whitman was granted bail of $2500 cash following a dangerousness hearing on Monday at Brockton District Court in which she was deemed dangerous.

With strong conditions set in place by Judge Julie J. Bernard — who left the stand for half an hour before making a ruling — that Leonard not have any contact with her remaining six children she; have no contact, direct or indirect with minor children; refrain from using drugs and alcohol and submit to random testing, cooperate in a mental health evaluation, wear a GPS monitoring bracelet, and not possess firearms.

The judge rules Leonard may attend her daughter’s funeral,  if she stays 10 feet away from her children and notifies probation.

She had been held without bail on Friday January 10 charged with one count of reckless endangerment in the death of her biological child Lyric Farrell, 2.

On Friday, during her probable cause hearing, Leonard pleaded not guilty to one count of reckless endangerment of a child through her defense lawyer Michael Tumposky.

On Jan. 10, Assistant District Attorney Jessica Kenny entered into the record the details from the Whitman police 911 call and the medical examiner’s report regarding injuries Farrell had sustained including: a contusion of both the front and back of the skull, a brain bleed, multiple levels of bruising in different stages of healing, fresh, deep clawing and scratch marks about the head, neck and face among other injuries.

Kenny read from the police reports that Leonard had stated to police that the child had somehow harmed herself by hitting her head.

Continued testing through the medical examiner on Lyric’s eyes and brain will be used to determine the manner and cause of death.  A degree of head trauma such as Farrell’s could not be accidental in nature, Kenny stated as she read from the M E reports entered into the court.

Lyric’s father Chris Farrell was present at the court but declined comment to this reporter on Friday.

He had previously stated in published reports that his daughter was in his mother’s custody (Lyric’s grandmother) before being returned to her biological mother Leonard by the Department of Children and Families approximately four weeks before her death.

Leonard had seven biological children and lost custody of all of them in 2017. She had gradually regained custody of each child and had delivered a set of twins approximately a year prior to her regaining custody of Lyric. The child was returned only weeks prior to Christmas 2019 and pronounced brain dead Dec. 31.

Prosecutors played 911 calls entered into the record, including the initial call for help that Leonard placed stating her child was not breathing. The call took place around midnight on Dec. 28 and, for nearly three minutes, EMS could be heard pounding on the door on Washington Street before they were let in to assess the child.

Once inside EMS detailed the condition of the child in a blanket found on the couch, which prompted immediate care. She was taken  to the Brockton Hospital and  then airlifted to Boston where she was taken off life support two days later.

According to details read from the police officers’ reports the other children were all dressed and in their coats when first responders were let in the house on Dec. 28.

Leonard reportedly told officers that she had been waking the children to use the bathroom as she always did when she realized Lyric wasn’t breathing.

Video evidence

ADA Kenny entered more than a dozen cell phone videos into the record, which showed Lyric to be incapacitated, wheezing, eyes rolling and having trouble holding her head up, she said. She also read the documented length of time Leonard waited to take the child for medical attention. Other videos were entered that appeared to be taken by Lyric’s siblings on Leonard’s phone with taunting of Lyric as she struggled to breath and in one video a sibling threw water at Lyric; holding a cross to her to ‘get the demons out’ she stated. Her siblings were interviewed with the 9-year-old child reporting that her mother said, “Lyric is dead,” and instructed them to go get dressed.

In the continued dangerousness hearing on Monday Jan. 13,  a statement was released by the Office of Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz.

“The District Attorney respectfully disagrees but accepts the court’s decision,” Cruz stated. “State Police and Whitman Police have been actively investigating the circumstances surrounding Lyric Farrell’s death since she was brought to the hospital for treatment. That investigation continues, and additional charges will be sought if they are supported by the evidence once the Medical Examiner completes the autopsy. We moved today to have Ms. Leonard deemed dangerous and asked that she be held without bail due in part to concern for the safety of Lyric’s six remaining siblings. The Judge set a monetary bail with conditions for Ms. Leonard, one of the most important being that she not be permitted to have any contact with those children.”

Stanbrook sworn in as Hanson’s TA

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HANSON — The Board of Selectmen welcomed new Town Administrator John Stanbrook on board — and lauded the work of the town’s first responders, who rescued two men after a New Year’s Eve canoe accident, during their first meeting of the year Tuesday, Jan. 7.

Town Clerk Elizabeth Sloan administered the oath of office to Stanbrook before the meeting was recessed for a welcoming reception in the Town Hall kitchen.

“I’m so excited, I can barely contain myself tonight, and I may not — just a warning,” joked Selectmen Chairman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett. “This board has accomplished a lot in the past year, but I think the most important thing we accomplished was, with the help of [interim Town Administrator] Merry Marini and [Administrative Assistant] Greer Getzen, laying a foundation for the future.”

She said that future is embodied by Stanbrook.

“He comes to us with impeccable credentials and years of diverse municipal experience and skills, which we know will serve us in good stead,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.

Stanbrook’s family attended the ceremony and reception.

“I’m looking forward to working here. Day two is going very well,” he said to laughs. “There’s only 200,000 more, or whatever.”

After Stanbrook’s reception, FitzGerald-Kemmett kept the “good new train” rolling along as Selectmen applauded Hanson Police and Fire personnel who responded to the New Year’s Eve incident [see story, page one].  She began the congratulatory segment of the meeting before Marini suggested the recess for Stanbrook’s reception.

“I have cake,” Marini said.

“I’m sorry, you know me, I just wanted to cut right to [it],” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “For me, it’s not the cake — no carb thing.”

“At this end of the table, cake is important,” Marini said.

New Year’s rescue

When the meeting resumed, FitzGerald-Kemmett noted that, while most Hanson residents were ringing in the New Year on Dec. 31, the town’s first responders were addressing a “life and death drama on Maquan Pond.”

Police and Fire chiefs and personnel who were involved in the rescue were invited to the meeting so the board could “express its heart-felt gratitude to the life-saving measures that they took that evening,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.

Fire Chief Jerome Thompson Jr. provided an overview of the incident and said the first responders appreciated the recognition even though what they did was just part of the job.

He did acknowledge that the job they did that night was “more than routine.”

“From the beginning of this call, from dispatch getting all the pertinent information, relaying it to the crews out on the street, to the police officers getting there and locating these individuals quickly … we were also assisted by some bystanders who did a really good job attempting to help us,” Thompson said.

He called the rescue labor-intensive because the ice, while too thin to hold firefighters’ weight, was too thick to break easily. Police and fire personnel on shore worked together to pull the rescuers and victims back to shore with ropes.

“This was a team effort,” Thompson said. “It definitely made a difference that night — it was great work.”

He also credited Hanson’s mutual aid partnerships with Pembroke, East Bridgewater and Whitman for the three responding ambulances that were used to transport the victims and evaluate rescuers for signs of exposure.

Selectman Kenny Mitchell said he listened to the whole incident on his scanner, noting he had once thought he could be an on-scene incident commander, if the occasion called for it. Now he knows differently.

He learned that a generous resident was willing to launch his own boat to aid in the rescue, and thought that was a great idea. At first.

Police Sgt. Peter Calogero, however, then responded on the radio that Hanson Fire should get their boat in the water before they had a second rescue on their hands.

“That’s why Cal’s got the stripes and I don’t,” Mitchell said, relating the drama he followed along at home.

“There was a point where I was concerned you weren’t going to get to him,” he said.

Mitchell conceded there are things going on at a scene that the public may not be aware of as they listen to the scanner.

“Just listening to you guys work together was just unbelievable,” he said. “What a hell of a job by everybody.”

Bay Circuit Trail

Selectman Matt Dyer, who served on the Final Plymouth County Hospital Reuse Committee with Conservation Commission Chairman Phil Clemens, recommended an easement at Bonney Hill Way to allow the Bay Circuit Trail to skirt the former hospital property. The easement would be accessible to foot traffic only.

The trail goes through 37 communities from the North to South Shore for 200 miles. Selectmen’s approval for the easement was needed for a Mass. Trails Grant application, due in February,

The mile-long stretch through the PCH site would include bog walks and trails.