HANSON – Any way you look at it ARPA regulations and the calendar have worked out to give town officials the more pleasant headache of how to spend $350,000 in unused federal money – but a question over if funds approved at Town Meeting for a libarary/senior center generator could be spent on a larger model to help address “catastrophic emergencies” have complicated things.
The remaining projects – totaling some $319,000 were approved and town counsel’s opinion will be sought about the generator issue.
The town has some unexpended ARPA money, that the town didn’t know about, according to Town Accountant Lisa Green.
“Plymouth County reached out and gave us an exact amount of how much we had,” she said.
But Select Board Chair and Town Accountant Eric Kinsherf said $150,000 had been set aside for a library feasibility study and some of the projects that were approved and the task being funded didn’t come to fruition.
“What’s driving this is, by Dec. 31, you have to have the money spent or at least a contract to spend it,” he said.
The total for that unexpended cash is approximately $350,000, and there are, Kinsherf said, some suggested projects on which to spend it, that had already vetted by Green and department heads.
Select Board member Joe Weeks asked what, exactly, happened to the projects? He was already aware of the library project.
Green said under Plymouth County’s oversight, the town applied for ARPA funds for the generator for the senior center and library, which was denied. The library had also requested $200,000 for a new HVAC system, but Facilities Director Charlie Baker was able to bring in a company to maintain and service the current system, which bought an additional three years of life for the systems. The library then sought $150,000 and, through Town Meeting, set aside $150,000 if they were to receive a state grant for the building. But the town was not eligible for the grant after Town Meeting rejected that opened up the $150,000.
Kinsherf said among the projects that could be funded with the remaining funds are:

• $9,600 to Guilfoil Public Relations;
• $10,000 for Highway Department overtime;
• $6,500 for Select Board staff stipend;
• $8,800 for Assessors’ map software;
• $26,750 to replace Police Department computer battery backup;
• $26,900 for a Police Department motorcycle;
• $5,360.34 for a Smartboard for the Police Department training room;
  •$56,000 for a concrete walkway and handicapped ramp at Town Hall;
• $25,000 for five Fire Department radios;
  Police cruisers, storm water management bylaw update, Highway office improvements and additional funds for a portable generator round out the funding projects.
  “I know that at Town Meeting we did appropriate money for a generator specifically for the library and senior center,” Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
  She added that she had received a couple of calls from the library and the senior center to remind her that the generator funds had been approved specifically for the library and senior center.
  “When you and I had discussed it,” she said to Fire Chief Robert O’Brien Jr. “you had said this would give us more versatility with a generator we could move around. But then it gets into some questions about who decides who the priority is?”
  O’Brien said that is fairly simple.
  “Between the Police Station and the well field, those are the priorities in town,” he said. They found, after Town Meeting approved exterior hookups on the buildings, they found that all the generators that are in this region will not do the well field or the Police Station because their loads are greater than what he has at the Fire Station.
  “We needed a minimum of a 125-kilowatt generator,” he said they were told by a technician testing the Fire Department generator. During their talk it became apparent to O’Brien that, “if the Police Station goes down, the Fire Station goes down, the Town Hall goes down and the library/senior center goes down.”
  The new phone system in town offices are based out of the Police Station as is the majority of the town’s IT system.
  “That is why we went to the external hookups a year ago,” he said.
  Legal
  considerations
  FitzGerald-Kemmett countered that the Town Meeting vote was specific about a generator going to the library/senior center, and the Water Department runs its own budget.
  “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be that way, but the Water Department has their own money that they control,” she said. “That’s what we pay our water bills for and I think, if they need a generator then they ought to make the case for a generator out of water funds.”
  O’Brien countered that all the buildings have generators, but a portable generator should be prioritized as a back-up.
  “We know Town Meeting had voted for a generator for the library/senior center, but what I was personally looking at was trying to be more feasible,” he said. “As we know, money is tight, and if we’re able to get one generator that, while it is the library/senior center’s [and is housed there as the main user] if, during a major storm, the Police Station goes down, Charlie Baker or somebody can go take it, tow it there and hook up their stuff.”
  He did agree with FitzGerald-Kemmett that the issue will have to go back to Town Meeting.
  The difference between the generators being discussed is $30,000. The generator O’Brien discussed has an $80,000 price tag plus another $41,000 to do the transfer switch at the library/senior center and the outside hookups, as have been installed at the other buildings and the well field.
  “So we’re still talking about a generator for the library/senior center, it’s just a different type of generator,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “We don’t need to take a vote tonight.”
  But she wanted to hear where the board was leaning.
  “I think it’s incredibly smart,” Weeks said. “But it just comes down to what the town voted for vs what they’re potentially going to get. It’s overlapping issues we’re dealing with.”
  He wanted to hear the library/senior center opinion as well as a legal one from town counsel.
  SST vote
  South Shore Tech Superintendent-Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey for a “preliminary discussion” on the Jan. 20, 2025 town Election on the school’s building plan.
  “Once that ballot goes through, the town will move forward with how we pay for [it],” Town Administrator Lisa Green said, indicating the discussion was just to establish a time line and introduction.
  “It’s a special District Election that the same ballot question will be on at polling places at all nine of our disrict towns,” Hickey said. “The question is really not a debt exclusion, it’s not an override. “It’s merely a question of, ‘do the voters in the nine towns support the project or not?’ So, it’s a yes or no vote.”
  If the project passes, each community will have to figure out its own path to figuring out how its community is going to pay for it,” Hickey said, adding that nearly all the district’s communities will go for a debt exclusion.
  But if the project passes on Jan. 25, the most popular choice would be to ask voters to approve a spending formula on a spring ballot question.
  He’s been telling towns that the high-water mark of their bonding costs would hit in 2030 of 2031.
  In the first year, the district would probably borrow about $11 million, paying $350,000 in interest, 12 percent of which would be Hanson’s cost as the fiscal 2016 installment, based on a division by enrollment percentage.
  “I’m hoping that, by the end of this month, I’ll have a projection of tax impact,” Hickey said.
  The MSBA approved the project at the end of October, costing about $164 million in total, divided between nine towns, as Marshfield has joined the district.
  “When we put out our numbers, one of the things that I’m looking at carefully is separating fact from projection,” Hickey said. “I can tell every town what their share would be in fiscal 2026 and ‘27 because we have those enrollment numbers in the can.”
  But for 2028 and beyond, the predictions take on the accuracy of a 10-day weather forecast.
  “I do feel comfortable saying that Hanson is one of four communities out of the nine who consistently wants to enroll more children than there are available seats,” he said. “I can look at that [available unused seats] and make a projection.”
  Right now, he said Hanson is probably looking at a 10.5-percent share of the cost, if all towns stay constant with their enrollment.
  Select Board member Joe Weeks asked what happens if the issue fails at the ballot in some towns, but a majority votes yes.
  “It’s a district-wide election, so it’s treated as one entity,” Hickey said. “It’s not town-specific.”
  Voting would be only in-person or by absentee voting.
  The School Board will officially vote the warrant on Nov. 20.
  Weeks then asked what happens if towns that approved the project in January fail to pass the funding articles at Town Meeting or Town Election?
  “That’s probably the best question that could be asked at this early stage,” Hickey said. “If the project is approved, then each community is obligated, so the messaging has to be clear … if there’s a municipal debt exclusion and the debt exclusion fails, the project dies.”

As one of the most acrimonious political seasons in U.S. history draws to an electoral deadline on Tuesday, Nov. 5, there’s no guarantee the division will automatically heal.
That will require work, specifically in listening to each other and offering respect. It was the message of speakers during a Unity Night presented at W-H’s Dr. John F. McEwan Performing Arts Center on Thursday, Oct. 24. The Whitman Freedom Team, whose mission is to explore ways of offering dialogue and support to the entire community, with a goal of promoting love, inclusion and trust, produced the program. The group aims to “move beyond tolerance, to embracing, celebrating and sharing our community’s diversity.”
“The key to unity is better understanding,” said psychologist Dr. Joshua Twomey, PhD, a member of the Freedom Team’s Board of Directors, and an assistant professor of family medicine at UMass Medical School.
“I fundamentally believe that an essential element in pursuit of unity is the practice of listening.”
Bridgewater State University’s Assistant Vice President for Student Success, Diversity and Inclusion Yolany Gonell continued that thought, saying, “unity requires us to work across difference.”
The evening’s discussion was aimed at fostering a return to civility in discussing “tough and difficult conversations, particularly in the political climate we find ourselves in today,” founder Tom Evans, a retired teacher, said in opening the event.
The evening’s theme was civility and respect, featuring speakers who devote their lives to promoting those goals.
After opening with a series of quotes on the meaning of communication, Evans introduced each speaker before they offered their message for the program.
“All of our stories are subject to bias,” Twomey said. “They are influenced by our fears and our disappointments and our needs. … Bias is not inherently good and is not inherently bad, either.”
Gonell began by asking who in the audience were athletes in school or parents of an athlete now, or if any are active-duty service members or veterans. She was greeted by a smattering of applause to each question.
Both these categories that people can fall into, forge community – and help build unity.
“Unity requires common ground,” she said. “We ask questions. Do students and employees feel a sense of belonging here? If they don’t, what do we do as a community to break down barriers?”
Conversations, celebrations and shared learning communities are created.
“The more welcoming we are, the more economic progress we can make,” she said.
“Listening is where change takes place,” Twomey said, noting that telling someone how they should feel – in daily life as well as counseling – simply doesn’t work,
“Genuine listening allows for people to examine biases of their own stories and allows them to be open to a multitude of other perspectives,” he said, and agreement is not required.
“The only thing that is required is to see them as a person,” he said. “Listening establishes trust.”
The evening’s first speaker had been Dr. Carl Kowalski, an educator, former member and chair of the School Committee and chair of the Whitman Select Board.
“Historians tell us that past is prologue, that one way of getting to tell what is, might be to review what has been,” Kowalski began and leaned on poets to paint a picture of humanity’s continual struggle against darkness.
“The only way to shed light is to join with, and be true to one another,” he said. “How fog-covered is our world? How can we find happiness in a world filled with hate, fake news and division?”
In seeking the answer, Kowalski turned to Aristotle and said, “If it’s in our nature to think, we can only be happy if we think logically. If it’s in our nature to feel, we can only be happy if we feel deeply. … The first step toward happiness is to know oneself.”
State Sen. Mike Brady, D-Brockton, touched on the theme of happiness, too, as he recalled a fundraising play he and Kowalski had performed in “many years ago,” to benefit the Brockton Library in an effort to make it more accessible to handicapped patrons such as their mutual friend the late state Sen. Thomas Kennedy.
“We used to do these plays called ‘Murder in the Library,’ and Dr. Kowalski and myself were the two suspects and it was a computer virus that caused a disease,” Brady recalled. “We sang a song that was to the tune of ‘Making Whoopie,’ and the theme was computer viruses.”
Brady said that experience, along with another in a community watch program, demonstrated the value of community.
“Nobody does this job alone,” he said. “Unlike what we hear in the media, and the division in this country is unfortunate, we have a good team in the commonwealth. We have Republicans and Democrats who work very well together.”
That cooperation will be needed for some of the rumors being spread in efforts to widen divisions.
“This past weekend, there were some rumors floating around [in Whitman], mostly on social media,” he said, noting he had seen screenshots that showed symbols appearing to be swastikas. “I’ve been in conversation with the chief of police, Tim Hanlon [who is a member of the Freedom Team], and I’m taking his advice and saying that the police will handle it and are well aware of it.”
Hanlon told Evans that he would say, “there are so many rumors out there, [and] people are getting all upset.” One of those rumors was that Gov. Maura Healey was going to use the Whitman Armory to house immigrant families.
“It’s not true,” Evans said. “But these are the kind of things that are out there and are making it difficult for people to stay calm and it causes a lot of dysfunction.”
State Rep. Alyson Sullivan-Almeida and the Rev. Michele Matott, rector of the All Saints Episcopal Church in Whitman, had also been scheduled to speak, but Sullivan-Almeida, had a scheduling conflict and Rev. Matott was ill with COVID, so neither were able to attend.
Dr. Michael Kryzanek and the Rev. Adrian Millik of the Holy Ghost Church filled in for them.
Kryzanek, filling in for Matott, is an author and retired professor of political science, and has served on the Board of Directors of Father Bill’s Mainspring as well as that of the Freedom Team.
“All people in Whitman should be involved in the common good,” he said. “And unity brings stability and strength and opportunity.”
He listed the ways the founding documents of the United States pertains to unity and diversity.
“Diversity is a goal worth pursuing,” Kryzanek said, referring to Unity Day as the beginning of a movement to make the values of our Founders come to life. “Diversity will only strengthen what we have here in Whitman.”
The Rev. Millik offered a blessing to the group following his remarks, as a person whose parents grew up in Poland before the Soviet-backed regime was removed.
“Totalitarians pit people against each other,” he said.
Former School Committee member Christopher Scriven, an unscheduled speaker, was also invited to speak, arguing that those who don’t have advanced degrees have something to contribute to community-building, too.
“I recognize what we’re dealing with in this situation, and it breaks my heart that our community is going through this,” he said. “I want to make a point about how important it is for all of us to be involved. … have a voice that’s no more, no less important, and that’s something we should all exercise.”
He noted that many in the meeting have been leading in Whitman and serving the community for a long time and more people should join in that work.

By Tracy F. Seelye, Express editor
editor@whitmanhansonexpress.co
HANSON – A lengthy agenda of business planned for executive sessions on Tuesday, Oct. 15 curtailed the open meeting agenda – with eight items of new business, a license hearing, a one-day liquor license approval, seven committee reports and the town administrators’ report scratched off the list of topics for discussion and/or action.
“We have an extremely abbreviated agenda this evening,” Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said, as she opened the meeting.
What business was covered were votes on a reserve fund transfer for repairs at the food pantry and approval and signing of the State/Presidential Election Warrant.
The Hanson Food Pantry, Town Administrator Lisa Green reported, had recently sustained some $19,000 in water damage.
“We needed to have a company come in to do any further damage assessment,” she said. “They brought in dehumidifiers and dryers to dry all the water up. The cost of that was about $19,000. In our Municipal Buildings, Maintenance and Repair line there’s only $20,000. Paying this company would have depleted that line completely.”
She said that asking for the reserve fund transfer, which the Finance Committee approved Oct.7, would be used to replenish that fund so the town will have money for any needed municipal maintenance over the rest of the fiscal year.
“Is it true that there’s ARPA money that’s going to be [available]?” FitzGerald-Kemmett asked.
Green said it is currently in the third phase of the review process.
“I am hoping to hear some very good news on that funding very shortly,” Green said.
The Board approved the transfer 4-0-1, with FitzGerald-Kemmett abstaining since she also serves on the Food Pantry board.
Nov. 5 State/
Presidential
Election Ballot
After Board Clerk Ed Heal read the Election Warrant, the Board voted to sign it.
Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. On Tuesday Nov. 5, for all three of the town’s precincts, at the Hanson Middle School for the State/Presidential Election which includes the following offices and questions:

• Electors of the President and Vice President of the United States;
• Senator in Congress;
• Representative in Congress for the 9th District;
• Governor’s Councilor for the 2nd District;
• Senator in General Court for the 2nd Plymouth and Norfolk District;
• Representative in General Court for the 5th Plymouth District;
• Representative in General Court for the 6th Plymouth District;
• Register of Deeds for the Plymouth District;
• Clerk of Courts for Plymouth County;
• County Commissioner for Plymouth County and
• Register of Probate.
  Ballot questions include;
• Question 1 – Initiative petition to specify that the state Auditor has the authority to audit the Legislature.
  A YES vote would specify that authority.
  A NO vote would make no change relative to the state Auditor’s authority.
• Question 2 – Initiative petition to eliminate the requirement that students pass the MCAS exam to graduate high school.
  A YES vote would eliminate the requirement, but would still require students to complete course work to meet state education standards.
  A NO vote would make no change in the graduation requirements.
• Question 3 – Initiative petition on unionization for transportation network drivers.
  A YES vote would provide transportation network drivers the option to form unions to collectively with transportation network companies regarding wages, benefits and terms and conditions of work.
  A NO vote would make no changes in the law relative to the drivers’ ability to unionize.
• Question 4 – Initiative petition relative to the limited legalization and regulation of certain natural psychedelic substances.
  A YES vote would allow persons over age 21 to use certain natural psychedelic substances under licensed supervision, grow limited quantities in their home and create a commission to regulate the substances.
  A NO vote would make no changes in the law.
• Question 5 – Initiative petition establishing a minimum wage for tipped workers.
  A YES vote would gradually increase the minimum wage an employer must play a tipped worker over the course of five years at which point employers could pool all tips and distribute them among non-management workers.
  A NO vote would make no changes in the law.
  The full text of the questions as well as detailed arguments on either side of each issue can be found in the “Massachusetts Information for Voters – 2024 Ballot Questions – State Election,” published by Secretary of State William F. Galvin and mailed to registered voters or online at VoteInMA.com.

Early voting hours are held in Hanson Town Hall from Oct. 19 to Nov. 1. [See list of specific days and hours on Page 7].
A special voter registration session will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., on Saturday, Oct. 26 in Hanson Town Hall. This will be the last day to register to vote for the Nov. 5 election. Any citizen may also register to vote at the Town Clerk’s office during regular business hours: Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. And Tuesday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Registration may also be done by mail or online at rec.state.mass.us. Any citizen who will be 18 by Nov. 5, 2024 is eligible to register to vote by Oct. 26.
There is no school in Whitman or Hanson on Nov. 5 because Hanson Middle School is used as a polling place.

HANSON – As the voters of Hanson get down to business for the Tuesday, Oct. 7 special Town Meeting, they will face differing opinions from town boards and committees on how to return hours to some town employees while balancing the budget.
One thing on which there is agreement, however, is free cash.
“It’s seemingly uncontroversial, which I’ve now just called the universe in on us,” Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said after a review of the on Tuesday, Sept. 24.
“You did, because you didn’t look [to your] left before you went there,” said Board member Joe Weeks, asking Town Accountant Eric Kinsherf for the total amount of free cash is being deferred to Town Meeting?.
He was trying to determine – if all the budget-balancing things in the warrant that are going to hold the town to salaries and benefits that the town voted against funding in May – how much will that put the town in a hole by funding them now?
“One of the things I’m very much against is balancing the budget using free cash,” Weeks said. “A lot of the things we’ve decided to defer as a Select Board to Town Meeting [were] things that are going to balance the budget using free cash, which is a huge difference from using free cash to fund capital items and things along those lines.”
He expressed a fear that “the budget is going to get away from us, especially given in May, where we were supposed to do budget-related things, it’s going to put us deeper and deeper into the hole without anybody realizing it.”
Kinsherf said he and Town Administrator Lisa Green sat down to do a pre-Town Meeting overview of what will be needed in FY 2026 to fund the budget without free cash, and the town will be about $2 million short.
“At the end of this Town Meeting, if all the articles pass, I think we’re going to have [about] $2.3 to $2.4 million left,” he said. “So, it’s a policy decision.”
Kinsherf said that, ideally, we’d have an extra $2 million in revenue over so, and do an override or something and we be in a nice position having $2.4 million of untapped free cash we could use in capital or whatever. That’s a business that you could be in, but what happens when you have free cash available to you in May will allow you a little bit of one-stop Band-Aid … you see where we’re going with this.”
To keep the morale high would cost about $13,000, he said.
“It’s a decision on your part,” Kinsherf concluded.
Weeks said it wasn’t normal to fund articles one year only to cut them back the next.
“If we’re going to do it, I want to do it for the right reasons, not because people are asking us.”
Kinsherf said, if all the articles were funded, he could almost guarantee they would be cut in May.
“We haven’t said we’ve found extra money,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “We’re saying we took another look at the money we have and, given the fallout from Town Meeting, we’re saying that a judicious amount of money – $100,000 , which is not material in the grand scheme of what we’re looking at overall – could make a huge difference in the services that we’re able to give and in the morale of the staff that we have here.”
She said the voters would ultimately decide whether we’ve made the case or not.
Vice Chair Ann Rein said she was “a little surprised about the amount of free cash.”
She said she was thrilled with it.
“I don’t see, really, the problem with spending that small amount to restore services,” she said. “I think that services are something we have to think of as more important than capital projects,”
Both Weeks and FitzGerald-Kemmett agreed.
“That’s my point,” Weeks said.
High Street Park
In other business, the High Street Park Committee updated the board on that project.
Planner Anthony DeFrias said the committee has worked with him to finalize the plan. The Park Committee asked him to reach out to engineers and make recommendations on who to hire a peer review to assess the design to ensure it is meeting all state and federal regulations.
The board voted to empower the Committee to work with Green on finding an engineering firm to conduct the peer review.
It also has to go before the Planning Board, which has required the peer review.
“If we require that from residents, we should also require it for our own projects, DeFrias said.
He has also sought estimates from three companies – and the committee has earmarked money to pay for the peer reviewer.
The design, which DeFrias reviewed for the Select Board will go before the Planning Board for a public hearing, probably at the end of October, and includes basketball courts, a playground, a dog park, amphitheater for concerts or other performances, walking trails and open lawn area.
Plantings intended to mitigate the impact on abutters’ privacy, which had already been expressed, have been planned.
“Because of the cost, there’s going to be phases, so this could be a project that goes over a period of years,” DeFraias said.
The lowest bid for the peer review was for $3,950. A mid-range bid was $4,000 and the high bid was for more than $12,000.
“We’re going to go with the lowest person, Alan D. Majors, because they had a very good, detailed, estimate,” he said. The committee had also asked DeFrias to get an equipment estimate for the playground, which did not require a quote because he said they’re not even close to that, but estimates on the general cost to kit out a playground would be from $39,000 to $125,250.
“I think it’s a destination place, the way it’s getting laid out right now,” Weeks said, but I do think it was laid out strategically well in that it puts minimal issue with abutters, but again, I’m not an abutter, so I can’t speak for them.”

WHITMAN – The town has received two requests for the use of the DPW administration building once the new DPW building is completed, according to Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter during the Select Board’s Tuesday, Sept. 17 meeting.
“The Select Board will consider various requests as the [DPW building] project nears completion,” Carter said. “But we still have quite a way to go before the DPW building is finished and the actual admin building is vacated. These are just two and I’m sure you’ll consider everything that comes before the board.”
One of the two requests received, came from the Whitman Food Pantry, which is dealing with an increased need for its services, and the other advocating for a Whitman museum, to honor John and Natalie Campbell and Marie Lailer, came from Ken Lailer.
“We are delighted to see a new building being built and that a DPW office will be part of the new structure,” wrote Food Pantry President Richard Clark, asking to be considered of a future occupant of the existing DPW building. “Currently, St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry is housed at the corner of Whitman Avenue and Blake Street. We occupy the middle bay of the building owned and used by Milligan’s Safe Co. We could not have asked for a nicer, more cooperative owner, but we have also realized … that we should be looking at a space that meets the needs of increased food requests from our neighbors in Whitman.”
He said the pantry staff would like to think it’s services would not always be needed.
“But the reality is that food insecurity is high in our town,” Clark said. “We would like to be considered for building occupancy once a new DPW structure is completed.”
He said the food pantry staff is aware they would have to evaluate the building to see if it meets the pantry’s needs going forward and that their needs meet the occupancy requirements established by the town.
“We see the site of the existing DPW office [as] an important addition to assist us in advancing our mission, and providing food for the needy,” Clark concluded.
Lailer, meanwhile, advocated for the museum as a way to honor the Campbells and his late wife Marie, all of whom were searching for a site for the museum they envisioned.
“[The Campbells and] Marie were active in the history of this town – one in the Historical Commission and the other with the Historical Society – before their demise,” Lailer wrote. “If a location were found, then the general public would be able to view the town history and the many artifacts currently in storage.”
He said the Historical Commission also needs a larger space. It is now located in an office in the Town Hall.
“I am deferring to the Select Board for their insight into the various projects within the town,” he said. “If a building or spaces become available and are appropriate for town use, then I ask that you take action to acquire such a facility.”
Board Vice Chair Dan Salvucci, who also serves on the Building Committee, said that when incorporating the administrative offices in the new building and vacating the old administration building were first discussed told the Committee it “would be perfect for a historical museum.”
“I didn’t think about the food pantry because they already have a building,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s too small …”
“I believe it is,” Carter said.
“But they have a building and my opinion is the Historical Commission doesn’t have one,” Salvucci said. “Everything is just boxed in the Armory and I think we’re doing the town an injustice not to show what this town is made of.”
“Both good ideas,” Carter said.
Salvucci also indicated the DPW might want to retain the administration building for records storage.
“Forget it,” he said. “That can be taken care of.”
Select Board member Justin Evans said there is plenty of space for records storage in the old police station area in Town Hall.
“It would be nice to hear [from the DPW] about what their opinions are,” Select Board member Shawn Kain said.

The School Committee and Whitman Select Board face an embarrassment of riches in guise of the 13 applicants expressing interest in the two vacancies on the committee.
“That’s more than I expected,” said Hanson member Glen DiGravio of the 13 applicants to fill vacancies left by the death of Fred Small and the resignation of David Forth over the past two months..
“It’s more than we all did,” said Chair Beth Stafford. “Which is wonderful, but …”
The School Committee must have their homework done by the Oct. 1 joint meeting with the Whitman Select Board when the applicants will be interviewed and selected.
“Because of the number, and we have been working with town counsel – it had to be town counsel because this is a town election, town process.” Stafford said. Whitman’s town counsel has said the joint boards must interview all 13, but suggested a couple different ways to do it.
“We cannot do it over two days, because that is inappropriate, according to Town Counsel,” she said.
It was decided the applicants would receive a letter mailed out on Sept. 11, explaining the process and they will be given 10 minutes to speak to the two boards.
“You have a resume to know what they have to offer,” Stafford said. “We really don’t need to hear that again.” She echoed Select Board Chair Dr. Carl Kowalski’s view that the applicants should address what they would do to benefit the School Committee, the students and the region.
“There will be no questions by us,” she said [as of the Wednesday, Sept. 11 meeting date]. “Right now, Carl and I are still discussing this because we both kind of agree, but counsel suggested other.” Kowalski said the members of the two boards would take their turns casting a vote, Stafford suggested everyone be put into nomination and then giving the post to the first two candidates garnering five votes.
“Their position is only good for eight months,” she said, noting they would have to run in May if they want to stay on the committee.
“This is the best way we could do this with that many applicants,” Stafford said.
The Committee unanimously voted to present a list of 10 high-priority capital projects totaling $434,760.55 approved by the Facilities Subcommittee, for consideration by town meetings. The list had to be submitted to Whitman by Oct. 1 for their spring annual Town Meeting. Whitman’s share is $248,330.05 and Hanson’s would be $186,430.
Hanson capital items have already been sent to Hanson because they were due in July for the October special Town Meeting. The capital items include 10 items the district is moving forward from the schools’ capital improvement committee for the towns.
“Nine of them are the exact same ones that were last year,” Assistant Superintendent George Ferro said. “There is one new one and that is the boiler replacement is not a full replacement of the boiler at the Hanson Middle School, it is simply making the boiler more sufficient … and that is equitable for rebates.”
The Facilities Subcommitttee also went through all the cost breakdowns.
Among the items on the list are the high school’s 20-year-old chiller component of the HVAC system; the high school fire panel is end-of-life/end-of-support and has been on the repair matrix for the last few years.
If the high school alarm panel is not repaired, the school must have a fire watch, a firefighter would have to maintain watch on the building, which runs into overtime, Ferro noted.
“We try to do our best to just say, ‘What is the most critical that we think we can either put off or move forward?’” he said. “In a perfect world we would be able to work something out, hopefully through a Regional Agreement that says X-amount, based on percentage, based on inflation is put aside for the schools and then the proper diligence, respect and needs of the schools would be taken into account so we would know what’s coming in and what could be earmarked in normal years.”
After that the schools would be able to prioritize that on their own.
Committee member Dawn Byers said she has asked Szymaniak if he would submit the entire capital matrix to the towns.
“These are not the only 10 needs of the district,” she said.
DiGravio asked if there was a reason the towns couldn’t synch up their budgeting processes, since waiting between town meetings often leads to increased costs.
In other business, the School Committee took a look at the state of class sizes in the district.
“I tried to be as efficient as possible with class sizes in the district,” said Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak. “We’ll see some changes at the high school with some numbers that are a little bit more than what we’re used to.”
That resulted from the combination of a few staff positions reduced and a change to an eight-period day on the schedule.
“Every student picked up a seventh class,” he said. As a result, elective classes are “really, really full, but some of our core classes [have] a little bit more than I’d like.”
Szymaniak suggested that might be something to be addressed next year.
“I know we’ve had diminishing enrollment, but I’m not super-comfortable having 28 kids in a class,” he said.
All high school students have a study hall as well, he noted.
Committee member Kara Moser said, thinking through the lens of a parent as well, she is always mindful that the cohorts of kids going through the high school are the same kids who had oversized elementary classes and reductions in services.
The intangibles involved in predicting enrollment include declining birth rate, student transitions in and out of the district and the amount on developable land in the towns, especially Hanson – and “Indian Head is full and Hanson Middle could be full,” Szymaniak noted.
“This high school can handle more kids,” he said. “But our elementaries going to be more challenged, especially on the Hanson side.”
Right now, class averages are in the 20s for kindergarten to grade five; middle school in the “23s-ish” and about 25 in the high school Szymaniak said.
“It’s nice to see these numbers,” Stafford said. “I was with [Ferro] when the numbers were huge and we had everyone… I did have the classes if 28-29 students while I was teaching.”
Member Rosemary Connolly suggested a study of what types of construction produces what percent of new students, such as occupancy permits.
“We’re using historical numbers as we’re shifting,” she said,
He is really happy with the focus on elementary as a straw poll he conducted showed class sizes at that level are “better than our neighbors.”
The bubble class is Conley’s grade five, the district’s biggest elementary class, and the anomaly seems to be Duval’s second grade, which is one of the smallest classes the district has ever had, he said, but otherwise class sizes are relatively consistent.
“What we’re doing is working,” he said.
“Even though – and I am by no means begrudging these class sizes at the elementary schools, I think those are good class sizes, although I think the smaller the better – I do worry about these high school numbers because these are kids who, as they’ve moved through, have unfortunately gotten the short end of the stick every time,” Moser said, noting the cumulative effect of that is food for thought.
“That’s good feedback,” Szymaniak said.
The high school freshman class, at 225, is the “smallest we’ve ever had,” he added.
“That’s why I see the kindergarten numbers coming back up, that’s a good thing,” he said. “We have to remember, though, we lose about 60 kids a year to vocational schools from eighth grade.”
Members Hillary Kniffen and Dawn Byers also called attention to the different levels and need for English language instruction for students in the district’s middle schools, which are also affected by class size.
The district had 398 students enroll between May and September, including kindergarten, 20 school choice students and 41 English learners. Righ now, school choice students entering the district are offsetting those going out.
In other business, Director of Equity and MTSS, Dr. Nicole Semas-Schneeweis presented a slide show on summer programs in the district.
“We wanted to give you the opportunity to see and enjoy some of the experiences out students have,” she said.
“We’re busy all summer,” Szymaniak said. “We never, ever close – and I think that gets lost sometimes because, trying to get the building ready for opening when your last program ends two weeks before … our maintenance teams really work hard to get things ready for the school year.”
Semas-Schneeweis touched on the district’s unique free summer enrichment program supporting the two middle schools and the high school – this summer it included 141 students; sports clinics; science camp for grades two through eight; a four-week robotics camp for rising seventh through ninth graders; 3-D printing camp; Camp Conley’’s academic reinforcement, arts and cratfs and physical education activities.
“We’re keeping our buildings open for our communities,” Semas-Schneeweis said as the YMCA summer programs and enricment are offered at Duval.
The enrichment program includes a paid internship for seniors. Science, robotics and 3-D printer camps have to limit numbers of participants due to the cost of materials.
“The programs we have at the high school, its important to know that because we have such different age ranges … you get students familiar with what the high school looks like,” said Assistant Superintendent George Ferro. “It keeps our students here and wanting to go here as they continue their education.”

No one expected voter turnout to set any records during the Tuesday, Sept. 3 State Primary – and they were not wrong.
“Boring,” was how Hanson Town Clerk Elizabth Sloan described the morning as voters trickled in one or two at a time. There were only 961 total Republican ballots and 868 total Democratic ballots cast in Hanson, or 21 percent of about 8,500 registered voters, during the primary. In Whitman, there were 1,708 Republican ballots and 2,172 Democratic ballots cast, representing about 17 percent of Whitman’s 11,915 registered voters.
Whitman Select Board member Justin Evans, noting that the only contested race in that town’s Democratic ballot was for governor’s council, spent the day, dressed in a “Parks & Recreation”-themed shirt featuring American flags, eagles and the likeness of Leslie Knope the deputy director of the namesake town department in fictional Pawnee, Ind. – offering his services to Democrats in other towns.
“I’m thinking of going to Halifax, next,” Evans said. Earlier, he had dropped off a load of signs for volunteers who showed up to hold in Whitman, at the Democrat’s favored visibility location in front of the Dunkin Donuts store next to Town Hall.
While there were also no challengers to Hanson Democratic state Rep. candidate Becky Colletta, visibility ensured she didn’t get forgotten as Republicans Ken Sweezey an Jane Cournan vied for the Republican nomination in the 6th Plymouth District race to fill the seat vacated by state Rep. Josh Cutler, D-Duxbury, when he took a job with the Healey Administration. Both Republican candidates had sign-holders just outside the no-electioneering zone in front of the polling place at Hanson Middle School, chatting about the nice weather and generally ignoring each other.
Senate finale
There were three candidates vying for the Republican nomination to face-off against incumbent U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, with attorney and Marine veteran John Deaton of Bolton carrying the majority of votes in both towns vs. engineer and political newcomer Robert J. Antonellis of Medford and Ian Cain, Massachusett’s first black and out gay City Council member in Quincy. Deaton, a crypto-currency advocate has pledged to vote for Donald Trump in the presidential race.
Democrats in both communities had a four-way race to choose from for Governor’s Council with attorney Sean Murphy of Brockon besting associate probation officer and legal advocate Tamisha Civil, Air Force veteran and social worker Muriel Kramer and Brockton lawyer David Reservitz. District Court Judge Francis T. Crimmins Jr. was unopposed on Republican ballots.
In a three-way race for two seats as County Commissioner, Gregory M. Hanley and Rhonda L. Nyman easily bested Scott M Vecchi on the Democratic ballot. There were only two candidates on Republican ballots – Jared L. Valanzola and Anthony T. O’Brien Sr.
With a sparse slate of candidates and several offices with no challengers, there were few surprises in the result.
For results, See page 14.

Whitman Democrats
U.S. Senate
Elizabeth A. Warren – 991
Blanks and write-ins – 95

U.S. Rep – Eighth District
Stephn F. Lynch – 1, 017
Blanks and write-ins – 69

Councilor – Second District
Tamisha L. Civil – 282
Muriel E. Kramer – 93

• Sean Murphy – 505
  David S. Reservitz – 122
  Blanks and write-ins – 84

State Senate – 2nd Plymouth & Norfolk
Michael D. Brady – 984
Blanks and write-ins – 102

State Representative – 7th Plymouth
(No announced candidate on ballot)
Blanks and write-ins – 1,086

Clerk of Courts – Plymouth County
Robert S. Creedon Jr. – 962
Blanks and write-ins – 124

Register of Deeds – Plymouth County
John R. Buckley Jr. – 987
Blanks and write-ins – 99

County Commissioner – Plymouth County
(Vote for two)

• Gregory M. Hanley – 766
• Rhonda L. Nyman – 550
  Scott M Vecchi – 249
  Blanks and write-ins – 607

Whitman Republicans
U.S. Senate
Robert J. Antonellis –182
Ian Cain – 108

• John Deaton – 546
  Blanks and write-ins – 20

U.S. Rep – Eighth District

• Robert G. Burke – 357
  James M Govatsos –155
  Daniel Kelly – 247
  Blanks and write-ins – 95

Councilor – Second District
Francis T. Crimmins – 664
Blanks and write-ins – 190

State Senate – 2nd Plymouth & Norfolk
(No announced candidate on ballot)
Blanks and write-ins – 854

State Representative – 7th Plymouth
Allyson M. Sullivan-Almeida – 725
Blanks and write-ins – 129

Clerk of Courts – Plymouth County
(No announced candidate on ballot)
Blanks and write-ins – 854

Register of Deeds – Plymouth County
(No announced candidate on ballot)
Blanks and write-ins – 854

County Commissioner – Plymouth County
(Vote for two)
Jared L. Valanzola – 367
Anthony T. O’Brien Sr. – 576
Blanks and write-ins – 763

Hanson Democrats
U.S. Senate
Elizabeth A. Warren – 810
Blanks and write-ins – 58
U.S. Rep – Ninth District
Bill Keating – 829
Blanks and write-ins – 39

Councilor – Second District
Tamisha L. Civil – 204
Muriel E. Kramer – 76

• Sean Murphy – 398
  David S. Reservitz – 89
  Blanks and write-ins – 101

State Senate – 2nd Plymouth & Norfolk
Michael D. Brady – 802
Blanks and write-ins – 66

State Representative – 5th Plymouth
(No announced candidate on ballot)
Blanks and write-ins – 310

State Representative – 6th Plymouth
Rebecca W. Coletta – 520
Blanks and write-ins – 38

Clerk of Courts – Plymouth County
Robert S. Creedon Jr. – 796
Blanks and write-ins – 72

Register of Deeds – Plymouth County
John R. Buckley Jr. – 799
Blanks and write-ins – 69

County Commissioner – Plymouth County
(Vote for two)
*Gregory M. Hanley – 520

• Rhonda L. Nyman – 549
  Scott M Vecchi – 202
  Blanks and write-ins – 465

Hanson Republicans
U.S. Senate
Robert J. Antonellis – 191
Ian Cain – 113

• John Deaton – 623
  Blanks and write-ins – 34

U.S. Rep – Ninth District
Dan Sullivan – 828
Blanks and write-ins – 133

Councilor – Second District
Francis T. Crimmins – 800
Blanks and write-ins – 161

State Senate – 2nd Plymouth & Norfolk
(No announced candidate on ballot)
Blanks and write-ins – 961

State Representative – 5th Plymouth
David F. DeCoste – 252
Blanks and write-ins – 37

State Representative – 6th Plymouth
Jane L. Cournan – 241

• Kenneth P. Sweezey – 424
  Blanks and write-ins – 7

Clerk of Courts – Plymouth County
(No announced candidate on ballot)
Blanks and write-ins – 961

Register of Deeds – Plymouth County
(No announced candidate on ballot)
Blanks and write-ins – 961

County Commissioner – Plymouth County
(Vote for two)
Jared L. Valanzola – 541
Anthony T. O’Brien Sr. – 645
Blanks and write-ins – 736

• Denotes winner of contested race