WHITMAN – While, the town’s new DPW building is “very close” to completion, having received its substantial completion certificate, Committee member Scott Lubker said, there are still items on a punch list that need to be completed.
The building is now slated to be completed by Sept. 30, but the department hopes to be in the building by the beginning of September.
“That list has gone down quite a bit, but there are still some open items inside and outside the building,” he said during the committee’s Monday, Aug. 11 meeting. Landscaping, moving the island, capping the hill in the back and completing the removal of contaminated soil there, among some of the larger items.
The soil must be tested for each 100 cubic yards, as required by the receiving facility – and there are 400 to 500 cubic yards still on the property. The last test result is expected any day, but the slow pace is delaying parking lot paving. The cost for removal of the tank is $250,000 in cleanup costs and removal and other punchlist items brings the net interest of the project costs, but overall the project is still within the $19,010,000 building cost, punchlist work is funded by the contingency line in that budget.
Lubker said the contractors were not liable for that cost because the tank had been slowly leaking for years.
He said Pompeo pavers have been talking to the town and Page Contractors almost daily and Boston Green Environmental is doing the managing of the soil removal.
“I expect it to be done within the next two weeks, but I don’t expect it to be done tomorrow or the next day,” he said, reminding the committee that goes into a busy time for pavers.
Soil that was contaminated by a leaking oil tank is stockpiled and ready for removal, but it is a slow process to have it hauled to a site in Chicopee.
Another problem would be encountered if the paving begins but is interrupted by the pace of contaminated soil removal. Rescheduling to complete paving in such a case would add a $5,000 “remobilization fee” to the cost of paving.
Chair Kevin Cleary asked what “substantial” exactly means, as the punch list had been issued to the company involved, Page Contracting, on July 15.
“I don’t know how our contract reads, but we only have 21 days after that to add to the punchlist and we want to make sure that some of the things that are coming up are on there, or are going to be on there,” Cleary said. Items had been added to the list after the July 15 communication.
Lubker replied that items that had been previously discussed were on the punchlist, but he was not certain why the contractor had not updated the date.
Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter asked if the list had been signed off on yet, and Lubker said it had not.
Member Rick Anderson asked if the list had been distributed to the committee. Lubker replied it was included in the substantial completion certificate in the bid documents file the committee can access.
“Once we sign the certificate, the meter starts,” said Committee member Frank Lynam.
“A lot of those items – I’m not going to say most of them – but a lot of them have been walked through with Page, and it seems like they’re complete … but we’re not responsible for back punching,” he said. “They need to come in. We’ve asked them for several weeks, after each meeting, as it relates to getting the building turned over, taking off the builder’s risk and putting it on the schedule of locations to the town.”
A Page vehicle was seen arriving at the building site on Tuesday morning, Aug. 12.
“The builder’s list needs are more current,” Carter said. “They need one dated within two weeks to when they converted on the schedule. That’s what we’ve been waiting for. We haven’t signed off.”
Cleary said it made sense to have DPW superintendents David Lemay and Bruce Martin or anyone in the department to “at least take a look at that list.”
Lynam said it probably also makes sense for someone from the architectural firm to walk the property with Lemay and Martin to get a final list, as he had received from Facilities Director Todd DeCouto.
Other punch list concerns include copper piping in the pressure washer unit, there is also some IT work to be done by the town.
“He needs to come out,” Cleary said. “He needs to tell us that the punchlist is done. … Ultimately, he needs to sign off. … Obviously, there’s still a lot of work outside, but as long as they’ve finished paving the parking lot … we’re covered. I’m more concerned with inside the building and the little stuff on the operational things and design things that need to be done.”
Committee member Dan Salvucci agreed that DPW officials should walk the building with the owner’s project manager (OPM), point out items and see if they are on the punchlist.
“They’re the ones who work with it every day,” he said. “Like the hose to wash the trucks on the wrong side. …Looking at that, someone should have said, ‘Well, this isn’t right,’ before they even connected the hose.”
“They have the scope of the building,” Lynam said. “They should know exactly [what might be falling short], because what we’re talking about are defects. We’re talking about incomplete items and defects.”
He said that, at this point in the process, it should not be necessary to extend the punchlist.

Change can be hard, but it is inevitable.
With that in mind, I am announcing that next week’s Whitman-Hanson Express will be my last in the role of editor – I am retiring from full-time journalism after nearly 40 years of working for community newspapers.
Many of you may be aware that I’ve been dealing with Parkinson’s nearly as long as I’ve been at this paper, and lately the symptoms have begun to intensify. It’s time.
As a generally introverted person, this had always been an unexpected path for me to traverse, but I came to love it, and refused to give it up, even as coworkers over the years and newspaper gigs, left the profession for more lucrative careers, but there’s another major reason why I stayed.
I come from stubborn stock – the family tree is full of bull-headed Irish from both sides of the religious/political divide in the auld sod – and I was raised by reticent Yankees from northwestern Connecticut.
None of us has ever liked throwing in the towel.
My grandfather, Norris Seelye, “retired” from dairy farming at 83. At least, that’s when he sold the last of his cows. The Shetland pony had expired of old age a few years before. Dad discovered this when he encountered his father heading to the pasture with a shovel on one shoulder on a hot and humid summer morning in 1983.
Asked where he was going with that shovel, my grandfather merely replied: “Pony died.”
I can only imagine the negotiations involved in convincing him to put the shovel down, while my dad called a local friend in the contracting business to come to the farm with a backhoe to bury poor Smokey, who had nearly been forgotten amid the goings-on.
When I was trying to think of the best way to announce my retirement, I thought of Norris – affectionately called grampy by my brothers and me. We’re not blood relatives – my father was adopted – but I doubt many people could nurture grandchildren to the point where it wasn’t clear where nature left off and nurture began.
So, here I am, faced with the same decision Norris had to make a little while before I began my career, and at a younger age than he called it a day.
Still, for years after he retired, he’d put on his work clothes in the morning, pull on his heavy Wellington-style barn boots and start meandering around the place, puttering. When he got tired, he’s stop and scan the sky, “looking for airplanes.”
I can see myself a bit in this picture.
Friends in need
This is only fitting, especially as I have promised my publisher Deb Anderson, that I would stick around for a bit and write the odd meeting story, even when the meetings are not odd themselves.
I can’t thank Deb enough for all she has done for me since buying the Express from Josh Cutler before he made his foray into politics. While I’m at it, thank you, Josh as well for giving me that chance when it was much needed.
You gave me a fresh start after I was laid off so my former publisher opted to have one less squeaky wheel in the newsroom — and he could redecorate it with what he’d been paying me, he decided.
But it is Deb Anderson’s generosity and support that has made the most difference, in the past five years or so, especially. As my Parkinson’s progressed and my medical needs changed, you gave me a way to earn a paycheck and the insurance I needed, while putting off your own retirement.
Your editorial support has also been deeply appreciated, as you have backed me when you could and corrected me when it was called for, a much-appreciated sounding board and wind at my back for those tough decisions.
I hope you can arrange your own exit while you can still enjoy your piece of heaven in Plympton, where it is so quiet, one could begin to think the world just went away.
Here’s to many years of being Ms. Debby to your grandkids and being a friend and ally to humming birds and your grand-dogs, too, whether or not the latter eat your furniture.
Getting here
I never had a plan when I started my career, and I don’t really have one now. In fact, I had never really planned anything about my life, and about two weeks before my graduation from Litchfield [Conn.] High School, which is now incorporating into a regional school. Eerie, isn’t it?
I had a mailer from Post College in Waterbury, Conn., which offered Journalism as one of its associate degree programs. That sounded interesting to this post-Watergate era student.
When I graduated there, I transferred to Bowling Green State University in Ohio. After graduation, I was among a group of J-School interns working one or both major party nominating conventions as an Associated Press photography interns. Cost prohibited me from doing both unpaid internships, so I worked at the Democratic National Convention that summer of 1980, because it was in New York and was close enough for my dad to drive me. The Republicans were convening in Detroit.
I had the opportunity to send photos to delegates’ hometown papers all over the country and chat a bit with photo editors. The last night, after hearing Jimmy Carter’s acceptance street from the photographers’ scaffolding tower in the middle of Madison Square Garden, I was handed a huge camera lens, advised of its $3,000 price tag and advised: “Don’t drop it.”
That was really the start of a career where I found that “Don’t drop it” can apply to so many things.
It computes
Computers, for one.
At Bowling Green, I had a two-minute introduction to a CompuGrapic – word processer, I guess. The professor actually let us turn it on and off as he marveled that we would soon be able to “cut” and “paste” copy without having to actually tear a paragraph from one page and tape it to another.
My first job, split between the State Line Free Press in North Canaan and Falls Village, Conn., and its big sister the Torrington Register-Citizen, reporters’ favorite feature about CompuGraphic was the ability to post interoffice memos on the command bar. Usually, the message was, “Take a chill pill,” when things got tense in the newsroom on composing days.
I can trace my career in terms of hardware.
The typewriters used in college gave way to CompuGraphic units the size of small Volkswagens. The Free Press used Apple IIe’s with their annoying absinthe-green screen and eternally blinking cursor. When the Fitchburg-Leominster Sentinel & Enterprise brought in C-Text computers, we cursed the need to do math. You had to calculate how the column inches of a story would stretch over a number of columns. I was not a fan.
Then it was back to Apple, as the iMacs arrived at the office, along with the publisher’s rain on our parade when he told us we were all getting aqua. None of the company’s trademark choice of red or orange or blue.
I was leaning to orange just to be different. The internet arrived and a choice of Mac or PC for page design through the Quark software system.
It crashed a lot no matter which software you chose.
Here at the Express, I had to learn another production software on both Macs and PCs.
The places I went
The reporting itself has been largely the same wherever you go, town boards and committees struggled with budgets from North Canaan and Brooklyn, Conn., to Leominster, Southbridge, Whitman and Hanson here in the Bay State. Graduations, elections, land use disagreements and the like rolled by.
The kindergarten pupils whose photos I would take at school events in North Canaan are middle-aged now.
But there were also the rare opportunities to cover something really cool – covering the Oct. 26, 1994 senate debate between Sen. Ted. Kennedy and former Gov. Mitt Romney in Holyoke, and with the small team of coworkers from the Sentinel & Enterprise dispatched to Hartford for the Oct. 6, 1996 presidential debate between President Clinton and Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan.
At the former, a cousin who worked advance for Kennedy asked me if I was covering it for my college paper. I was 36 at the time, but he might have made the connection because the event was held at Holyoke Community College. Still…
We were wide-eyed babes in the woods at the presidential debate, even though we were stuck in the vast media overflow room and watched it on TV, like everyone else. I had been fascinated, watching the Arabic characters on a Saudi reporter’s laptop fill the screen from right to left, and was blown away by the organized chaos of the spin room after the debate.
The Sentinel & Enterprise had also granted me two leaves during the fall of 1993 and January 1994 to volunteer on Red Cross disaster relief efforts in the Midwest floods of 1993 and the Valencia, Calif. Earthquake a few months later in return for a story or two.
Assigned as a public relations volunteer at both. In Quincy, Ill., it was rather routine stuff by that time of the relief effort, that had begun in April 1993. But on the day Gov. Jim Edgar was visiting the destroyed town of Hull, I was on hand – and first was nearly overcome with heat exhaustion, and then, when the governor’s helicopter arrived, the flying dust stuck to my face, arms and any other exposed skin where I had liberally applied sunscreen.
It was humbling.
Last, but not least, I thank the Whitman and Hanson communities. You have trusted me with your truths in good times and bad. You’ve offered me the occasional pat on the back or thank you for a job well done enough times to make up for the brickbats coming my way for the errors that happen when human beings report the news.
They, happen, too, and it always helped when a call for a correction recognized my sincere efforts to get things right.
If I had to sum up these past 40 years, I’d say any career can be an adventure, and you never know what will make you laugh at yourself.
Now I know why my grandfather had been reluctant to let go, but if he were here today, I believe he’d be the first to tell me – it’s time.
What’s next?

WHITMAN — No injuries were reported as the Whitman Fire Department quickly extinguished a house fire that started in a pet snake enclosure on the second floor of a home on Morgan Road Sunday night.
Whitman Fire responded to a report of a house fire at 12 Morgan Road, a two-story wood frame house at about 10:45 p.m., Sunday, July 27, according to Fire Chief Timothy Clancy, who said a faulty electrical connection was a likely cause.
The residents made it safely outside before Whitman firefighters arrived on scene. The occupants of the home advised firefighters that the fire was based in the second-floor bedroom.
Under the command of Capt. Jason Mahoney, Whitman firefighters stretched a line through the front door to the second floor, finding a small fire in a pet snake enclosure, before swiftly extinguishing the flames. The fire did not spread to any other rooms in the house.
A python was found alive in the room, and it was removed by Whitman firefighters, who returned the pet reptile to its owners.
Clancy said the snake was found “very much alive” in a corner of the same room where the fire began and a firefighter managed to get it into a cloth bag. There had been no need to call the Animal Control Officer.
Chief Clancy then called the Whitman Board of Health, the Whitman Electrical Inspector, and the Massachusetts State Police assigned to the State Fire Marshal’s Office to the scene for inspections and to assist in the investigation.
The initial investigation by the Whitman Fire Department and Massachusetts State Police determined that the occupants had been at home during the evening, when they smelled smoke and eventually discovered the fire in the second-floor bedroom. An occupant of the home attempted to extinguish the fire with a fire extinguisher, before closing the bedroom door and exiting the building.
Inspectors determined that the home was equipped with working smoke detectors at the time of the fire.
All Fire Department units cleared the scene by 1 a.m.
Mutual aid was provided by the East Bridgewater Fire Department, including East Bridgewater Tower 1 and Fire Chief John Dzialo; Hanson Engine 1 and Fire Chief Robert O’Brien; and Abington Engine 4. The Whitman Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Rehab Unit, Halifax Ambulance and Whitman Police also provided assistance at the scene. Rockland Engine 11 provided station coverage for the duration of the incident.
“I would like to thank everyone who helped respond to this incident and commend them for their professionalism,” Chief Clancy said. “We’re glad that no one was hurt as a result of this fire, including the pet snake. We were able to quickly put out the flames before they spread elsewhere throughout the house preventing further damage to the property, which is always good news.”

Few people achieve an internet presence by 10 months old.
But for little Castiel Kelly. there is little choice, whose devoted aunt, Mekailia Gabbert of Whitman, is using platforms like GoFundMe – as well as TikTok (castielvscancer), Instagram (castielvsneuroblastoma) and Facebook (Castiel Crushes Cancer), to ensure that her precious nephew has a fighting chance against Stage 4 High-Risk Neuroblastoma. She and a team of friends are also working offline to plan fundraising events in the community to help him and his family.
A social worker had sat with his parents about a week into Castiel’s treatments and told them their uncovered medical expenses, including travel and related expenses, typically costs families between $100,000 and $200,000 for this type of cancer, according to Gabbert.
The GoFundMe Goal is set at $100,000. The last time Gabbert checked, the fund had reached nearly, $34,000.
“We just don’t want this to ruin them completely,” she said of her aunt an uncle, Michae and Leidiane Kelly of Weymouth. A basket raffle will be held at the Whitman Knights of Columbus on Aug. 9, for which a lot of businesses have contributed.
“It’s what you do for family,” Mekailia said of the fundraising work. “I’ve always been very blessed with the people in my life – they show up for me. … and this has been a group effort.”
Her friends, calling themselves Castiel’s Crew, have helped hand-deliver more than 250 letters to local businesses in Whitman, Abington, Weymouth and the Bridgewaters, seeking donations door prizes. They also donated to events already held, as well as working to write those letters to businesses, picked up raffle tickets and have helped get T-shirts printed and are wearing the shirts.
“They’re stepping up every way that they can,” she said
“Castiel is a very loved little boy, and most of the people who are doing this haven’t met him … because he can’t have visitors,” she said.
Mekailia’s parents have also gone the extra mile for their nephew who, she jokes, they may love more than their own kids.
“They’re very hands-on,” she said. “[They] always know what’s going on medically, always knowing what his parents need, and that allows me to focus on the fundraising part.”
Diagnosed on April 30th at just over 7 months old, Castiel had endured “intensive chemotherapy, six surgeries, blood transfusions, emergency room visits and multiple infections” Gabbert stated in a press release to the Express this week.
“He had a couple symptoms like fatigue, and loss of appetite – a few of those generally concerning, but, where he was a baby, he got brushed off a lt,” Mekaiia said. “His parents got brushed off. It wasn’t until a lump formed on his neck and one on his head, that the family was taken a little more seriously. Even still, trying to get in for a scan of those was difficult.
After waiting a few days, Castiel was scheduled for an ultrasound.
“They got a call almost immediately after the ultrasound was done.” Mekailia said Monday, July 21. “They weren’t even off the [hospital] property yet, I don’t think, and they were told to go to Children’s Hospital. They drove straight there [and found that] there was a medical team waiting for them in the lobby. … It was awful, obviously, probably the worst-case scenario to have doctors there, waiting for you.”
Less than 24 hours after the ultrasound, the family received the devastating diagnosis – Stage 4 Neuroblastoma. After a biolpsy and blood work it was also determined to be-risk, as well, which is worst-case scenario.
Mikailia went right to work to help her family.
“They’re bouncing back and forth,” she said of her uncle and his family. Originally from Weymouth, where her uncle Mike grew up there. He and his wife Leidy, had moved to Nashua, N.H., not long ago for work, and must now drive to Children’s Hospital whenever Castiel needs care.
“The out-patient [care] is where it gets really expensive – with the back and forth,” Mekailia said. “If the Boston House or the Ronald McDonald housr doesn’t have a room for them that night, then it’s a lot of either driving all he way back to Nashua or paying for a hotel – and then there’s the medical bills and everything like that.”
Despite all the medical care he’s been going through, Castiel is a “sweet. Happy baby,” his proud aunt said, but she noted that the last couple of weeks have been the hardest so far. “He hasn’t been so much of his happy self of late.”
The 10-month-old has been through four rounds of chemotherapy, seven surgeries, with an eighth scheduled for Friday, July 25, being done to go after his primary tumor, which is right beside his kidney, according to Gabbert. From there, another round of chemotherapy is planned, as well as an appointment with an audiologist, because the specific type chemo he has been getting is known to damage hearing.
A full body scan is also being scheduled at that time to figure out if the tumors are responding to the doses of chemotherapy.
Besides raising some awareness of the disease, as well as raising funds to help Catiel’s parents, who have another child with special needs. .

HANSON – A little more than a week after following Chief Michael Miksch in the job of Hanson’s Police Chief, Michael Casey was officially sworn into the role during the Tuesday, July 8 Select Board meeting.
Miksch, who had served in the job for 13 years, retired effective July 1, and had recommended Casey, who had come up through the ranks at the department, was most recently serving as deputy chief.
But first, there were two retirements to honor – the first of those being Miksch’s, “who you know loves to have attention paid to him,” Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said, with a touch of irony.
Chief Casey had hosted a retirement party for his predecessor and former boss on Sunday, June 29. At their July 8 meeting, the Select Board presented Miksch with a citation, read by FitzGerald-Kemmett, which saluted his nearly 30-year career in law enforcement, as well as the 12 years he has served Hanson residents.
“I’ve said this before, I really value the leadership you have brought to this town, the support that you’ve given all of us in some very weird moments … and you’ve always been on the other end of the phone, talking us off the ledge and giving us sound advice,” she said.
The Board also presented a citation to Michelle Hughes as she retired from a 32-year career in law enforcement. She had been the Hanson Police Department’s first female officer.
“Thirty-two years, raising kids and giving back to the community – amazing,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “We’re so lucky to have such dedicated employees … but, it’s more than that.”
Then it was Casey’s turn in the spotlight as Town Clerk Jessica Franceschini swore him in and Casey’s wife pinned on his new badge.
“We want to wish you the absolute best on this new chapter,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “You’re inheriting a force that’s in really good shape and Chief Miksch has laid an amazing foundation and we can’t wait to see what you do with it as you make it your own, and you’ve got a great staff to do it with.”
Casey thanked the Board for honoring him with the position and a unanimous vote.
“I’ve always dreamed it since I got here 30 years ago, and it means a lot,” he said, noting that he and the retiring Michelle Hughes started on the department together in 1996. “I’m excited for a new chapter.”
In other business, the Select Board heard an update on the MBTA Communities issue from Town Administrator Lisa Green.
“We need to wait and see what’s going to happen,” Green said, noting the town would be in compliance until July 13. “On the 14th we may know, or we may not know what action the attorney general’s going to take, because there are [fewer and fewer] communities that are going to be noncompliant,” she said. “More and more communities who were non-compliant, have adopted some form of a zoning district,”
“If we can come up with our own plan, which is compliant. then we maintain control” said Select Board Vice Chair Ann Rein.
FitzGerald-Kemmett also said the Select Board could use some clarity from the Planning Board on the matter.
“Are they planning on reproposing it, or are we going to talk with them about 40R?” she said, noting that board had been looking at 40R regulations before the state received Supreme Jucicial Court,
Middleboro was among a small group of towns that successfully took the 40R route successfully, but FitzGerald-Kemmett said Town Counsel’s opinion is that Middleboro has been successful mainly because they had their 40R program in place beforehand.
She added that Hanson’s Planning Board as already done the work toward implementing 40R zoning in the town.
“I want to check back with them what kind of timing are we looking at and then check with our town counsel – does he feel as though he could have a conversation and influence some outcome there, so perhaps we can use that as some leverage,” she said.
Green said she had already begun a conversation with Town Planner Anthony DeFrias and would check back with him on what further steps are needed for the town to pick up the 40R again. The Board also voted to again sign intermunicipal agreement governing the ROCCC 911 call center so the town’s emergency calls would continue to be answered.
“I know when we originally entered into this contract part of what was extremely appealing to us was that there was a portion of our costs that were being reimbursed by the state,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “Of course, that gravy train has stopped and we’re now bearing the full cost of that.”
Aside from that, she asked Green if there were any other major changes. Green replied that there were none. The board voted to re-enter the agreement and to empower Green to do so, as well and to negotiate any changes the Board might seel.

HANSON – In Court papers signed by Plymouth Superior Court Justice Brian S. Glennny on May 27, 2025, another legal salvo was fired in the ongoing dispute between the town and owners of a commercial building at 1057 Main St.
This particular outbreak has been building over several years of motions and delays as Hanson officials have tried to achieve what Glennny ruled in response to requests of the Court from Hanson Fire Chief Robert O’Brien, the Building Inspector and the Hanson Fire Department..
Citing safety violations which “have continued over a long period of time,” Glenny ruled that Joseph Marangiello, in his capacity as Trustee of J&M Realty Trust, and owner Plymouth County Superior Court Justice Brian S. Glennny of the building at 1057 Main St., in Hanson is in civil contempt for failing to comply with the court’s July 16, 2024 order to evacuate some building tenants, permit safety and health inspections and to maintain a safe building.
Meanwhile, Maria Marangiello insists that the properties she and her husband own as J&M Realty Trust at 1011 and 1057 Main St., have been the target of hostile filings made by the town.
“In reality, their (the buildings) are old, they don’t want to see them there, they feel its unsafe, but, my thing is, we haven’t had any issues with fires in there – or anything, to be honest,” Mrs. Marangiello said Tuesday, so I don’t see the logic of being singled out just because it’s old. It was being used correctly. It wasn’t being abused.”
“We’re not making this guy tear this building down,” said Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett. “We’re not making him sell the building. We’re merely holding him to a standard that everybody else is being held to, which is, if you’re going to own a property, it needs to be safe an if you’re going to rent it, it needs to be safe for other people to be coming in and out of the building.”
“We don’t stand a chance,” Maria Marangiello said on Tuesday, July 8. “Everybody’s moving out. There was an auctioneer in.”
Mrs. Marangiello said she understands that town officials are concerned about public safety, but questions why that same concern is not evident toward similarly aged commercial buildings in town. As to the reason, she just looks to the two new mixed-use commercial/residential buildings not all that far down the street.
“Personally, I think whoever owns those apartments is paying off, to be honest. I don’t care what anybody says. We were doing fine. We didn’t have any issues there,” she said, adding that she and her husband are fine and have accepted the situation. She added that, for town officials like the Select Board, just because they are elected, does not make them perfect.
“For over two years, we’ve been going to Plymouth Court [to challenge Hanson’s demands for those inspections and improvements,” said; “The judgment was that the building is technically condemned, so he has to move everything out. He had tenants in there who were kind of pushed out and everything.”
“The thing that pisses me off is that people are saying [largely on social media] that,’ the town is just doing this because they want to develop [the property],” Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said Monday. “No. We literally had the state fire marshall come to the site, as well, on more than one occasion.
Deputy Fire Chief Charles Barends could only confirm that the court order was made “after a long take with code enforcement.
“That’s pretty much all we have,” he said. “Everything else is a legal matter at this point, so unfortunately, we’re limited as to what we can say.”
Is the town trying to take possession of the building?
“Nope. No. Not at all,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “No. No. No, you don’t want to own that liability.”
FitzGerald-Kemmett said the town, especially, the Select Board, had been trying to help Marangiello with his plans to develop the property.
“We offered him a TIF,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “I personally offered a TIF (Tax Increment Financing plan) to him, with [then-Select Board Administrative Assistant] Merry Marini. We said, ‘If you want to do the work to bring his building up to code, we will defray taxes until you get the building up to the point where it needs to be, and then we’ll tax you. We figured the town would win because we’d get the building fixed up and we’d ultimately get taxation on a more improved building.”
But, she said Marangiello had turned down the offer.
Before her, former Selectmen David Soper and James McGahan had also sought to assist Marangiello.
Mrs. Marangiello countered that “everything was an issue, from Day One.”
“They’re just trying to clean up shop. It’s very discriminatory in my mind If I had the money, if I was that rich, I would definitely try to sue that town, she said, pointing to the town’s fight against th MBTA Communities program.
“It’s not right, people have to live,” Maria Marangiello said, noting that the town is “very cliquey, they have the lawyers that they hire which are paid for by the town.”
She also charge the building commissioner with having the mission of shutting them down.
“We have a whole group of people, ready and willing to work with him – the Select Board, building commissioner, our Planning Board and our planner, all ready to work with this guy,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “He’s been offered help multiple times. He just doesn’t want it,”
In 2016, he had also been approved for converting some of the building into apartments, but that was never done. FitzGerald-Kemmett said there is a problem on the property, but was uncertain how much that contributed to the lack of follow-through on the apartments.
She did say that the DEP recently reached out to the Select Board to let them know the agency “has some problems with 1057 Main St.,” concerning contamination of the property.
“He’s put so much money into fighting the town instead of just doing what he should do,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “You don’t get to have all the benefits of owning a property and making money off of it, without having the responsibility of keeping that property up to code. … It’s not your house. It’s a commercial property.”
Even after the court order to evacuate the property, FitzGerald-Kemmett said Marangiello had been advertising for commercial tenants on Craig’s List and other outlets, and the building is still for sale, for $1.25 million.
“It takes up such a huge chunk of Main Street, that every single person who’s run for Selectman has come in and said, ‘I’d love to see something come in and get improved there,” she said. “And I have tried … and it killed me to know that court order was going to mean that some businesses might not have a location, but I knew there was available space across the street, so if they’re legitimate businesses they can relocate, or find another spot because we do have some vacancies in town.”
On the other hand, Assessor Denise Alexander has told FitzGerald-Kemmett that she is not certain the town is receiving revenue from any of the businesses at 1011 or 1057 Main St.
“A different path we could have taken – had we had a competent building inspector at the time – would have been to have that building condemned and then order [Marangiello] to have it taken down, but we didn’t take that path, its for sale,” she said. “We thought maybe someone will buy it … The main thing we’re concerned about is fire hazards and the tenants that are in there.”
Conditions
The court’s conditions include evacuating the property at 1057 Main St. fortwith except for nine businesses and a residential unit occupied by Joseph Marangiello Sr., “and no others;”

• permit inspection and evaluation for building, fire, health and sanitary code issues, specifically for tenant businesses King’s Ransom Antiques, the cabinetry warehouse/supplier, a gunsmith/firearms dealer and any areas, units or portions of areas within the property used as storage;
• keep the property free of occupants for all areas, units and businesses not already exempted unless the town explicitly allows reoccupancy in writing or the court rules otherwise. Use of some areas for storage only – and no other occupancy – may be permitted with written guidance from the Hanson Fire Chief to the defendant through counsel and reinspection of storage units;
• arrange for and complete the inspection and certification of the building’s automatic sprinkler and fire alarm systems and provide reports and confirmation tp the Hanson Fire Department; and
• correct any and all violations of state building and fire code violations.
• Marangiello was given 14 days to complete the terms of the order, but it could be extended so long as good cause was shown, and King’s Ransom Antiques.

HANSON – If you arrived a few minutes late, you missed it.
The Wednesday, June 25 special Town Meeting to decide whether the town would approve the assessment proposal put forth by Whitman, which had accepted it at their special Town Meeting two weeks before, must have set some sort of speed record for town meeting government.
The whole thing, from pledge of allegiance to Town Moderator Sean Kealy’s final gavel for adjournment clocked in at 3:18.
The session was held in the Dr. John F. McEwan Performing Arts Center at W-H Regional High School, as the Hanson Middle School auditorium had already been booked for the evening for a dance recital.
Therefore, we present to those unable to attend a transcript ot the entire proceeding:
KEALY: “Welcome, everybody, to a special Town Meeting. My name is Sean Kealy, I’m the town moderator. To my left is the Finance Committee. To my right is the Select Board, and we have town officers behind me. Before we get going, as we always do, would you please rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance.”
Following the salute to the flag, Kealy returned to the podium for his traditional opening greetings.
KEALY: “So, one – I think we only have, really, one piece of housekeeping.
“The rules of tonight’s Town Meeting will be governed by “Town Meeting Time,” which is the official handbook of parliamentary law by the Massachusetts Moderators’ Association, and, as I said, we onl have one article.
“I’m hoping that we can all get back to the air conditioning as quickly as possible, and so, what we’ll do is, I’ll read the article, it’ll be seconded and then we’ll have an explanation.
“So, Artcle 1 – to see if the town will vote to transfer $262,669 from free cash to supplement Article 5, line 57, as appropriated at the May 5, 2025 annual Town Meeting to meet the Whitman Hanson Regional School District assessment, or take any other action in relation thereto.
“Seconded by Mr. [Robert] Hayes.
“Explanation. …”
Town Clerk Jessics Franceschini corrects Kealy out of range of a microphone.
KEALY: “Oh, thank you very much.
“I’ve been corrected for the very first time by our new town clerk,”
[Applause for Franceschini]
KEALY: “I won’t tell her it was just a test,” he said in a mock stage whisper as a joke.
“But, I hereby declare that we have a quorum. More than 100 voters have checked in, and are in attendance. And I see the youngest voter right over there. She’s doing magnificently,” he said, gesturing to the small child a resident was holding in the audience.
He then returned to the explanation of the article.
KEALY: “So, we have a motion and it has been seconded. Explanation – This article is to supplement Article 5, Line 57, as appropriated at the May 5, 2025 annual Town Meeting to mee the Whitman Hanson Regional School District operating assessment to the town of Hanson.
“Do I see any questions or concerns?” he asked, scanning the audience.
He did not
KEALY: “Seeing none [his emphasis], all those in favor of Article 1, signify by saying, ‘Aye.’”
AUDIENCE VOICES: “Aye.”
KEALY: “All those opposed, ‘nay.’
FEWER AUDIENCE VOICES: “Nay.”
KEALY: The ayes have it, Article 1 is adopted.
Scattered applause was heard.
KEALY: “And, with that, I will adjourn this special Town Meeting, sine die.”
[“Sine die” adjournment means a legislative session is adjourned without setting a date to reconvene – a Latin phrase meaning “without day,” effectively ending the session.]

By Linda Ibbitson Hurd
Special to the Express
My Uncle Sandy was my mother’s step-brother and served in the Air Force during WWII as a U.S. Army pilot first lieutenant.
His full name was Sandy Royal Austin. In 1944 on July 22 while flying a B-17G over the Ploiesti oil fields in Romania, his plane had engine trouble and dropped out of formation before being shot down by enemy fighters. All on board bailed out right before the plane exploded; it was a parachute landing and the men were taken prisoners. The POWs were held in a schoolhouse in Bucharest, Romania until Rumanians surrendered to Russians Aug. 23, 1944. Sandy was among the 1,150 POWs flown out on B-17s early in September 1944 to return home.
Sandy somehow rescued his parachute for his bride-to-be so she could make her wedding dress out of it, as fabric at that time was scarce. After the War, Sandy and his wife Jean moved to Alaska and then they moved to Dover Foxcroft Maine with their three children. Their son Dale was my age and their two daughters, Diane and Janet were about the same ages as my younger siblings. 
In the Summer of 1961 when I was 14, Sandy and Jean invited our family to spend Fourth of July with them in Maine. My mom’s father and stepmother, who was Uncle Sandy’s mother, lived twenty minutes away from Sandy and Jean. Since we had not seen any of them for several years and Dad had the week off, he and Mom decided to go.
The Fourth of July was on a Tuesday that year; we left for Maine on Monday and pulled into their driveway four hours later. Every building and house we passed was decorated with flags and patriotic bunting, including theirs. 
 Their spacious yellow and white Victorian house was set back from the street with a flagpole beside it flying the American flag, the POW flag and an Air Force flag. There was a big olive drab colored tent on one side of the expansive lawn. We found out that it was for us kids if we wanted to sleep outside instead of upstairs in the house.
We were warmly greeted with hugs that were returned and all the usual comments of how big or tall some of us had grown in both families. My sister Penny and I remembered Aunt Jean, Uncle Sandy and Grandma and Grandpa Austin and although our brother Dave and sister Barb were too young to remember them, it didn’t take long for them to warm up to Grandpa Austin, who was a kind, loving man.
The first night’s supper was lobster for the adults and burgers or hot dogs for us kids. The younger kids were a little shy with one another but by the end of the meal they were running around laughing and playing. My cousin Dale was now taller than me with a reddish cast to his light hair and a few freckles across his face that brought out the blue in his eyes. He was a bit less standoffish than he used to be.  
After supper all of us kids played outdoor games that even the little ones could play; from Hide and Seek, Simon Says, Blind Man’s Bluff and more. Our parents and grandparents watched from across the yard as they reminisced, caught up on family news and had many laughs under a beautiful full moon until bedtime. I slept in the tent that night with the other kids, except for Barb and Janet, the two youngest, who wanted to be with their mothers.
 Fourth of July dawned bright and beautiful. Mom and Aunt Jean told all of us to get dressed and to be at the breakfast table if we wanted to eat before the parade started. Dover Foxcroft was a small town that reminded me of Hanson.
People were friendly and you couldn’t get away with much as everyone knew who you were. All along the sidewalk that went through the main part of town, people were sitting or standing as Clowns entertained and interacted with the crowd. My cousin and I watched our younger siblings having a good time, and our Dads and Grandpa as the Antique cars passed by sounding their horns.
Grandma Austin was on a float that went by with other ladies and all their delicious looking homemade pies. Our moms liked the Float from J.J.Newberry’s and the one from the Textile Plant. I loved everything about the parade, especially the patriotism, the tradition and the meaning of it. 
Off to the lake
When the parade was over, we spent the rest of the day at beautiful, scenic, Sebec Lake. Uncle Sandy had a roof rack on his truck to secure his canoe. He also hitched his boat and trailer onto the back of the truck. He had his fishing gear, plenty of beach toys, chairs, food and Grandpa Austin and Dad in the front seat with him. Grandma Austin and the rest of us rode with Aunt Jean in her station wagon.  
 When the vehicles were parked and the boat was tied to the dock, we found a beautiful shade tree and put our chairs under it. Uncle Sandy asked who wanted to go for a boat ride and all the younger kids were jumping up and down yelling in unison. We all got in the boat except our grandparents, who wanted to sit in the shade. My brother Dave sat up front with Sandy and Dad; my cousin Dale and I sat way in the back and everyone else was in the middle. 
After the boat ride Dale and I challenged our mothers to a race to see who could swim the furthest. My cousin Diane blew her whistle to start the race. We swam out to a boulder and back again, both our mothers keeping up with us. Both Dale and I reduced our pace as we wanted them to win, and they did. Even though they knew what we did, we were proud of them and impressed with what excellent swimmers they still were. There were big hugs all around. The rest of the day the younger kids were jumping off our Dads’ shoulders and being caught by our Moms. Dale and I took turns pulling the kids around on the rubber rafts.
We loved climbing on the rocks and helping the kids to dig holes while Grandpa and our Moms took pictures. Before we knew it, we were packing up to beat the sunset home, as Uncle Sandy put it. 
Fireworks were not allowed in Dover Fox-croft, Maine at that time so Uncle Sandy drove home by way of Bangor, Maine, which was closest to his house, so we could see them. Quite a few of their neighbors were there; it was the perfect end to a perfect Fourth of July day.
When we got back to the house, everyone got ready for bed. When Gram and Grandpa Austin left to go home, they invited us all to their house the next day to teach us how to make homemade ice cream the old fashioned way and to see Grandpa’s clock collection from when he was a clock maker, which made us excited and Mom happy. When I was getting ready to go into the tent where Diane, Penny and Dave were, Dale tapped me on the shoulder and wanted me to follow him.  
He asked me if I knew what a cherry bomb was and I told him yes, we have them in Hanson, too. He blushed a little and grinned, telling me he has one and wants to set it off on the pond in the center of town as the grand finale of today’s celebration. I looked at him and grinned and said okay and off we went.
The moon lit our way as we walked to a sizable pond surrounded by a metal split rail fence. Swimming wasn’t allowed and there were benches to sit on and shade trees all around. We walked towards a hollow tree and he pulled a box out of it that contained a board with the cherry bomb wired to it. He flattened the box and threw it in the water. I could see the street and the town beyond the benches and was glad there were no lights on. He picked up a long stick, put it down on the ground beside him, took out his matches, set the board on the edge of the water, lit the cherry bomb, pushed it gently with the stick until a breeze sent it out onto the pond, grabbed my hand and we started running until it was safe to stop. We stood in the silence until the explosion shook the night and sent us running again.
Lights began to come on as we ran through the woods and we heard a siren. We kept running until we reached his yard. We practically leaped into the tent, relieved the kids were asleep and that all the lights in the house were off. It was so hard to keep from laughing, we kept putting our hands over our mouths. He finally raised his hand to mine, shook it and whispered, thanks. We finally settled down and went to sleep.  
During the remainder of the time I was there, to our relief, nothing came of it. In 1966 The Child Safety Act came into being and they were banned. The more I grew up and the more I learned about these particular explosives and how many people had been harmed, the more I realized how foolish we had been and how very fortunate we were that nothing happened.  
 

By Tracy F. Seelye, Express editor
editor@whitmanhansonexpress.com
WHITMAN – It was, to say the least, a busy Sunday on Temple Street.
The members of Whitman Fire Department observed Firefighters’ Memorial Day, with ceremony at the fire station and parade to Colebrook Cemetery to place memorial wreaths in honor of firefighters lost in the line of duty.
Once back at the fire station, color guards were included in a solemn rededication of the WWI Memorial Arch, after it’s face lift courtesy of restoration stone cutters. At the same time, entrants in the 5K road race were arriving and registering for the event that sounded the starting gun after the rededication ceremony ended.
This was the kind of life-affirming energy that moved the planners of the Arch to place it here – next to the fire station, and under which the town’s young baseball players would have to pass to arrive at the ball parks where the Armory and the American Legion are now located.
Historical Commission Chair Mary Joyce introduced the speakers and thanked those who made the ceremony possible.
“No project is done alone,” Joyce said.
The event was attended by all five Select Board members, with Shawn Kain giving the main address as the liaison to the Historical Commission. Past Veterans Agent Shannon Burke and current Veteran’s Agent Declan Ware, Al Howe who helped with the research that went into the biographies of the men whose names appear on the arch.
Joyce also thanked the voters of Town Meeting who approved the funds for the restoration work.
“It may be difficult to remember the history that you learn in the classroom,” Kain said. “Facts that you memorized about WWI sometimes feel distant and not too relevant, but our ancestors that stood on this ground 100 years ago went to great lengths to make sure we remember.”
They wanted to remember the names of 21 men who sacrificed their lives abroad for their community back home. So, when the war ended, the Legion dedicated the arch to bear their names as a lasting memorial.
“But stop and consider why they chose this location,” he said, noting there were other prime locations in town, including Whitman Park. “They chose to place the arch here – and it was a deliberate choice. At the time, the Fire Station was built, but the armory and the Spellman Center weren’t there yet. Those were baseball fields.”
The fire department has been a pillar of the community and a symbol of public service throughout its history.
“They wanted the children and families of our community to walk beneath the arch on the way to a Little League game,” he said. “That is a powerful image and a beautiful gesture. Today we remember. We remember the names of the sons of Whitman who made the supreme sacrifice, so that our children can listen to the national anthem and have a safe place to play.”
Asking for an observation of silent respect, Kain slowly recited the names of the soldiers honored in bronze plaques on the arch.*
On the east side

• Peter Paul Brown, KIA – Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, Belleau, France;
• Leo Joseph Buckley, accidental drowning – buried at sea;
• Vernon Kendal Churchill, MD, influenza – Melrose Cemetery, Brockton;
• • Albert Henry Cook, influenza – Colebrook Cemetery, Whitman;
• Robert Lester Hain, influenza – Aulenbach Cemetery, Reading, Pa.;
• Charles Timothy Haynes, influenza — St. James Cemetery, Whitman;
• Warren Haven Joyce, KIA three weeks before armistice – Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, Lorraine, France;
• Hezekiah Rufus Lombard, KIA – Oise-Aisne American Cemetery, France;
• John Duncan Matheson – influenza, Colebrook Cemetery, Whitman and
• Raynor Bassett Nye,, MD, influenza – Colebrook Cemetery, Whitman.
  On the west side
• Martin Richard O’Brien, KIA -Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, Belleau, France;
• Walter Pease, influenza; Robert J. Pillsbury, influenza;
• George H. Simmons, influenza – Colebrook Cemetery – Whitman;
• James McNeil Smith – Dominion Cemetery, Hendecourt-les-Cagnicourt, Departement du Pas-de Calais;
• Julian Mozart Southworth, KIA near Cunel, France – Union Cemetery, Carver;
• Elwin Sweney, KIA – Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, Lorraine, France;
• Shirley Sampson Thayer, influenza – Colebrook Cemetery, Whitman;
• William MacIntosh Warwick, KIA with 1st Canadian Cavalry – body left behind, no burial site – Belgian Croix de Guerre;
• Leeson Albion Whiting, influenza – Mount Vernon Cemetery, Abington and
• Dwight Clifford Wood, influenza – Colebrook Cemetery, Whitman.
  Fire Chief Timothy Clancy spoke of Whitman’s pride.
  “We’re proud of who we are and what we do and where we came from,” he said, thanking the CPC for funding the restoration. “To sit here and watch, while we were coming and going, the restoration of the arch, was truly a feat, They meticulously worked on the arch to secure it, they made it safe, it was quite a feat and I’m proud of it.”
  Ware put the dangers facing U.S. Servicemen heading for France in 1917-18 in context.
  “I’m going to bore everybody with a history lesson, but it’s important that we know our history,” he said.
  In what was to be the final year of WWI, the Russian Revolution of 1917 ensured things would become more dangerous for the powers of the Entente – who, except for Italy, would be known as the Allies in the next war – as Germany could focus its full attention to the Western Front. The armies of the Entente were already badly bloodied.
  In 1916, the French Army suffered 400,000 casualties defending Verdun, that same year the British and Commonwealth forces suffered 57,000 casualties in the first day alone of the Battle of the Somme. They needed an infusion of fresh troops by 1917 and, when the United States entered the war in April 1917, they got them, and by 1918, the American troops were at full strength with 2 million men in France. Ware spoke of one of them, Pvt Peter Brown of Whitman
  Just two months after enlisting, Brown was already on the front lines in France, where his 77th Division fought in the 100-Days Offensive. He was killed on Aug.26, 1918.
  “Today, we rededicate this Memorial Arch to the brave servicemen like Pvt. Peter Brown,” Ware said. “Their sacrifices must never be forgotten. Not only must we honor the fallen, but we have a duty to remember the heroes of the American Expeditionary Force. They were regular people, just like you or I – they held jobs, they had families. They were members of the community.”

*Editor’s note – Select Board member Shawn Kain did not read out the cause of death or final resting place [as was printed in the Historical Commission’s program]. All these men were heroes who, after three years of viscous trench warfare and the German use of mustard gas, were well aware of what they were heading into – one of which was influenza, known then as the Spanish flu. Many of them had survived the shooting war, only to succumb to influenza at American bases when they were sent home, many military doctors and nurses also died after prolonged exposure while treating ill servicemen.