HANSON – The Select Board on Tuesday, May 13 voted to take a two-pronged approach to enforcing the town’s “nip” alcohol bottle ban, on the books – but ignored by at least some alcoholic beverage retailers – since Jan. 1.
“The cleanest, best way to proceed would be to move down two tracks,” Town Counsel Matt Provencher told the Select Board. “When you issue a liquor license under Chapter 138, whether it’s a restaurant license or a retail [alcohol] license, you’re acting under power that the state legislature gave to the Select Board … as the licensing authority.”
Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said she would have Town Administrator Lisa Green work on a letter of non-compliance with a timeline of 30 days, after which the board approved the motion.
Those two tracks involve the placement of “reasonable conditions” on the issuance of a license, and the board can issue regulations that apply to licenses issued in the town.
“The first thing you can do is send these folks a notice that, based on their failure to voluntarily comply [with town regulations] … that you’re going to contemplate bringing them in for a hearing to determine whether their licenses need to be modified to include an expressed condition that they’re not allowed to sell nips,” Provencher said.
Licenses already awarded and not due to go into effect because the contracts didn’t have that because the law didn’t go into effect until Jan, 1, 2025.
The board can also issue a notice to hold a public hearing on some regulations that you’re going to adopt,” Provencher said.
“I’d like to do both,” said FitzGerald-Kemmett.
“I think we should do both,” said Committee member Joe Weeks. Member Ed Heal also agreed to that approach.
One of the retailers, Irwin Patel, apparently admitted to selling nips in violation of the ban during discussion of an annual attempt by various residents by citizen’s petition at Town Meeting. A 2024 Town Meeting vote had placed the ban on the books. [See related story]
I don’t care whether we ban nips or not,” said Town Moderator Sean Kealy, who had purchased a nip bottle at Hanson’s Village Mini-mart in April to use as a prop proving at the May 5 Town Meeting that the ban was being ignored. “What bothers me, what really disgusts me, is when people don’t follow the law that this Town Meeting passed.”
Kealy said he would be seeking a conversation with the Select Board about methods of enforcing the ban and for other issues on which Town Meeting took votes.
Town Administrator Lisa Green said she would work with town counsel and we’ll get the regulations together and, if a hearing is held she said she would comply with all of the regulations as far as hearings.”
Provencher said setting up a hearing would involve being authorized to send a letter to retailers noting she is aware that they haven’t been in complete compliance. If they were going to issue a notice of non-compliance hearing to determine whether their license should be modified, suspended or revoked.
Providing the retailers notice of public hearings while the town prepares the Municipal regulations, will include a copy of the proposed regulations, and everyone will have the opportunity to be heard, Provencher said.
“Since we do have this being somewhat of a groundhog day, with the [attempts at repeal] continuing, and there is a potential that somebody Could submit a citizens petition to, yet again, repeal the nip ban,” she basically asked if they believed there was a bylaw.
Hanson passes $3M override proposal
HANSON – Hanson Town meeting voters are giving the town’s voters another chance to be heard on the proposed operational override to fund town departments and the schools.
Meeting at Whitman-Hanson Regional High School to accommodate a larger crowd, the Town Meeting voters agreed, by a vote of 230-118 to place the override on the town’s annual Town Election ballot for a Saturday, May 17 vote.
A brief informational slide presentation on the basics of overrides and town revenue sources, preceded Article 5 and Article 6, which encompass the fiscal 2026 town budget.
“Usually, we just vote on one budget, but because we have a Proposition 2.5 override on the ballot coming up May 17 … whatever we do tonight, that question will be on the ballot that day, and whatever the vote comes out will be what is done – whether we have an override or we reject it, Moderator Sean Kealy said.
The meeting then addressed Article 5 – without the override – and if the override passes, as it did, the Article 6 budget will be used. If the override is defeated at the ballot box, Article 6 will have no legal effect.
“[The budget] is entirely contingent on how the town votes,” he said.
Hanson Finance Chair Kevin Sullivan spoke frankly about the “serious budget challenges” Hanson faces, and why after an extensive review, the $3 million operational override has been recommended by his committee to maintain the services Hanson residents rely on every day.
Hanson receives 85 percent of its revenue from property taxes
“Under the limits of Proposition 2.5 our allowable revenue growth simply isn’t keeping pace with the rising costs of operating the town, especially in the face of inflation, contractual obligations and the increasing demands on our services,” Sullivan said. “This isn’t about funding new programs, this is about preserving the level of service that we have come to expect:”
- Police and fire departments, already operating with lean staffing and increasing call volumes;
- Town Hall, library, recreation and outdoor spaces, which provide vital functions for residents and businesses alike;
- School, essential not only for the education of children, but also for the town’s strength and stability.
“Without an override, we will be forced to make extremely difficult decisions, including depleting free cash reserves, which are largely meant for capital expenditures, or making deep cuts across every department,” Sullivan said. “The Finance Committee has scrutinized this budget. We worked with every department head. We’ve reviewed every line item. We have prioritized needs, not wants, but the numbers don’t lie, the gap is real and we can no longer stretch our limited resources without damaging the core of what makes Hanson work.”
He emphasized that the picture he painted was not intended to be a scare tactic, but is a fiscal reality.
The lower school budget number in Article 5 than was approved by the School Committee would have been a rejection of the school budget if approved, which only the School Committee has the authority to reduce and send back to the town.
Richard Road resident and former School Committee member Jim Armstrong said the state supplied 74 percent of the school budget until it convinced Hanson and Whitman to regionalize.
“Every so often we have to go back and remember we used to get spoiled,” he said. “We’re not anymore and we have to start paying our way, and that’s really what it comes down to, because the state’s not supporting us like they used to so over the years we’ve had to figure out how to get there and once in a while we have to do an override to get there.”
Another resident asked why the departments were linked together in the budget.
Sullivan replied that they were not, but to fairly budget, all departments were asked to cut their budgets by 5 percent.
“But if you say yes to the override, you’re saying yes to everyone equally,” she countered.
“The override is just a method for overcoming a monetary threshold,” Sullivan said. “It has nothing to do with the town departments.”
“I think what you’re asking is, ‘Why not separate [them]?’” Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “Because we have gotten some feedback on that and we did look at that as a board in terms of how to present it.”
She noted that the town conducted an override just for the schools last year.
“That did not go well because … at Town Meeting, people got up and ended up eviscerating the Town Hall budget in order to fund the educational budget,” she said. As a result, small cuts had to be made affecting individual services like transfer station hours.
“This year, we had more than one department that really made a compelling argument, so it made sense to bundle it,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
“This is sort of resetting the baseline,” Sullivan, noting that $3 million is the largest override they’ve recommended. “For too many years we were too far behind.” The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education switched the funding formula and that left Hanson in a pretty significant hole, as well, which served to set the town even farther behind, he explained.
“This is resetting the number to get all the town departments the correct personnel that they want for the needs that we have and continue us on a path where, hopefully, we won’t need another override three to five years from now,” Sullivan said.
School Committee member Kara Moser, while stressing that the school budget is level-serviced, sought to explain why that department’s expenses keep increasing. For example, regional school districts are responsible for paying employee benefits, just as a municipality would and W-H employs 600 people who are eligible for benefits. Then there are the state and federal mandates for services the school district is legally required to provide – such as special education – and not all are funded – such as out of district transportation for homeless students. Students going to charter or some vocational schools are also not always funded.
Two residents asked about the procedure if the override were to fail Town Meeting, but pass at the ballot box.
“We would go again,” Sullivan said. “We have another option to hold another Town Meeting and revote the override again.”
“It seems like it’s pointless to vote no on the override thing tonight,” one resident said. “Even if you are very, very against the override, you still should vote yes on six because the actual vote that kills the override is at the ballot – not tonight.”
FitzGerald-Kemmett said that may be, but it wouldn’t alter the town’s dilemma of having a school budget left unfunded.
“Ultimately that sends it back to the School Committee about whether they’re going to lower the budget or seek the same assessment,” she said.
Resident Mike DiCarlo of Indian Head Street made a motion to separate the school and public safety budgets into to override questions instead of one.
Kealy said the motion would be more properly made during discussion of Article 6, and that the ballots are already printed and cannot be changed.
Town ballots form up
With all the debate swirling around the Proposition 2.5 override question on Town Election ballots in both Whitman and Hanson, it’s been a comparatively quiet news cycle surrounding the rest of the ballot as residents head to the polls on Saturday, May 17.
There is only one contested seat in either town, and that is between incumbent School Committee members Glen DiGravio and Steven Cloutman vs newcomer Thomas Raffey Jr., in Hanson. DiGravio and Cloutman are both incumbents and Raffey is a newcomer who moved to Hanson in 2020, but who’s wife, Alexandra, a nurse who provides in-home care to disabled veterans, is a 2007 graduate of Whitman-Hanson Regional High School. Raffey, an electrician is a member of the IBEW 103, who has also worked for a year as a teacher at Central Catholic High School in Lawrence.
Raffey stated in his candidate announcement to the Express [see page 10] that both he and his wife are committed to giving back to the community.
“My civic involvement—serving on the Hanson Master Plan Subcommittee and currently as Chair of the Hanson Conservation Commission—has provided me with valuable experience in working collaboratively to address the needs of our community,” Raffey stated.
DiGravio and Cloutman, serving his first term on the committee have provided dependable representation to Hanson’s conservative residents on the committee.
While there is only one candidate for Town Clerk, it is worth noting that it’s a race that represents another kind of change, as incumbent Elizabeth Sloan is retiring from the post she has served in for 15 years. Newcomer Jessica Franceschini is on the ballot to succeed Sloan.
Other candidates on the Hanson ballot are: Edwin Heal, running unopposed for Select Board; Anne Merlin for assessor; incumbent Peter Butler for Board of Heath; Justin M. Robertson for Planning Board; incumbent Dianna McDevitt and Pamela French running for Hanson Library Trustee (vote for two); Michael A. Hunter for Hanson Housing Authority; and Gilbert Amado, Don Howard and Kevin R. Perkins are on the ballot for the three available seats on the Water Commissioners.
In Whitman, incumbent Stephanie Blackman, elected last year to fill a vacancy on the School Committee when Fred Small passed away is seeking re-election, as is incumbent Christopher Marks, elected last year to fill the vacated seat of David Forth. Other unopposed School Committee candidates are incumbent Chair Beth Stafford and newcomer Ryan J. Tressel, who said in an announcement to the Express last week that as the parent of an autistic child, Tressel is running, “so that every student, not every family, has had as positive an experience with school as we have.”
Other uncontested races on the Whitman Town Election ballot are: Emily T. Millet, running to fill a vacancy in the office of the Treasuer-Collectors Office.
Incumbent Select Board members Justin Evans and Shawn Kain are running unopposed for re-election; as are Christine McPherson running unopposed for assessor; Lauren A. Kelley and Margaret P. McEwan running for two seats the Library Trustees. Anne M. Holbrook is running for Housing Authority and Adam J. Somerville is seeking a seat on the Planning Board. Jamie L. Rhynd is running for unopposed for the Board of Health.
There is a contested race for a seat on the DPW Commissioner between incumbent Kevin Cleary and Mark A. Poirier and Thomas A. Pistorino.
And, of course, both towns will be voting on a ballot question about overriding the Proposition 2.5 cap on the tax levy to fund town business as well as the W-H Regional School Distrit.
A second ballot question in Whitman again asks residents about changing the Treasurer-Collector position from an elected to an appointed one.
RA panel to leave busing regs as is for now
The W-H Regional Agreement Committee on Wednesday, April 16, held further discussions about non-mandated busing, but ended up voting to leave the transportation section as-is for now.
During the session Chair Hillary Kniffen, she asked for feedback on the discussions at its last meeting. In February, she had asked members to present their ideas or opinions about revising that portion of the Regional Agreement.
“I think I know, based on what I’ve watched and seen, but for the record for people who are going to watch this meeting,” she said she’d like to hear them.
Hanson Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said her board has talked about it multiple times.
“The board’s view is that they do not want to present any Regional Agreement that includes this,” she said. “It doesn’t mean we wouldn’t talk about it at some other point, but now is not the point and now is not the time.”
FitzGerald-Kemmett said she felt the committee has made a lot of progress on a number of points (and) some members of her board feel particularly passionate about non-mandated busing, in particular.
“To the point where – we didn’t take an official vote on this, but we did discuss it,” she said. “And I’ve had feedback from people that they wouldn’t even be willing to present any agreement that would include this.”
Kniffen agreed.
“We’ve made a lot of progress with knocking things off and I don’t think that all that work should be in vain,” she said of any effort to revise non-mandated busing regulations now.
Whitman Select Board Justin Evans said he brought it before that board before the last Regional Agreement session.
“They were, as you could imagine, in favor of making the switch and simplifying the transportation assessment process … even if we remove the change in how we assess now, there could still be a benefit to changing the way we send the assessments to the towns,” he said. “Even if the same calculation is performed, including that in the one assessment that gets sent to the towns.”
In that case, even if the amount in dollars were to go up the first year, there wouldn’t be the threat of voting it down.
“I’m focused more on the financial savings,” he said.
Hanson Finance Committee member Steve Amico said his committee has also discussed the issue and “are kind of in concert with the Select Board.”
“It was a discussion, but it wasn’t anything that was in-depth,” he said.
Whitman Finance Chair Kathleen Ottina said that, with a 50-percent rookie committee, so she said she simply informed them that there is a learing curve to understanding transportation costs.
Her committee has also not taken a vote.
Kniffen, who said she attended the last School Committee virtually, said her understanding was that the towns were split.
“I don’t want to make a Regional Agreement where one town feels strongly against something, [and] the other town feels strongly for something, because then it’s not going to go anywhere,” Kniffen said. “I don’t think that’s wise at this point.”
They had already added a provision into the Regional Agreement to look at it every three to five years, and determine of further revisions are neeeded.
“Right now is not the time to say, ‘Oh, and we’re going to add more costs. “That’s not the way to go to get anything sold,” she said. “I’m not comfortable saying, “Oh, we’re going ahead and changing things.”
“No matter how you clean up that language, the end result is convoluted,” Ottina said. “You’ve got one way of assessing mandated costs, and you’ve got a different way of assessing non-mandated costs.”
School Committee member Rosemary Connolly, however, said the message was clear that the message that came back from the School Committee meeting Kniffen referred to was that “they didn’t understand the breakout and the financial impact to the towns,” which is what the School Committee needs to be voting on the breakout and the total financial impact for them to revisit.
She maintained she would not be “budged for a second for political gains.”
Kniffen said the spilt between the towns on the issue was the reason she was not asking for a vote and did not think the RA committee should move forward with it.
“I think to keep insinuating that ‘people from the other town don’t understand,’ is incredibly insulting,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “Just because we don’t agree with a proposal doesn’t mean that we don’t understand it.”
FitzGerald-Kemmett maintained that she hasn’t said the issue is “forever off the table,” but there needs to be some recognition – if the towns are supposed to be partners – that Hanson has had “ a very tough pill to swallow” with the change to the statutory assessment formula.
“We can get into whether it should have been done earlier and all that,” she said. “[It] doesn’t really matter because that’s where we’re at now, and I can tell you it will detonate the relationship.”
She said she hears what Connolly is saying and appreciates her passion, but added, “My modus operando is, ‘do you want to be right or do you want to get what you want?’ If you want to be right, beat your breast and go on soapboxes and all that other stuff. If you ultimately want to continue with a partnership … then there does have to be some recognition that you can represent your consitituents, but do it in a way that does no harm.”
She said the $50,000 difference at stake is not a question of bankrupting one town for another.
Ottina said the Regional Agreement Committee has accomplished a lot so far.
“As much as I would like to propose language change for Section 5—Transportation, it’s not going to go anywhere. I’m pragmatic, but down the road we have to be careful about leaving non-mandated busing as a target on the warrant.”
She said it either has to become part of the schools’ operatin budget or, in future years, it’s a sitting duck.
Whitman Fire Lt. saves crash victim
WHITMAN — For firefighters, there are really no “days off.”
Chief Timothy Clancy proudly reported Monday, April 14 that an off-duty firefighter from the Whitman Fire Department jumped into action to help save a woman from a burning vehicle after spotting the aftermath of a crash on the opposite side of the highway in Raynham the day before.
At approximately 11:43 a.m., Sunday, Whitman Fire Lt. Brian Trefry was off duty driving on Route 24 southbound with his wife in Raynham, on the way to pick up his children from his mother-in-law’s home, when he saw smoke in the distance on the other side of the highway. When he got closer, Trefry saw a heavily damaged SUV that had caught fire, before pulling over and then carefully crossing both sides of the highway to make it to the vehicle.
Trefry then realized that a woman was trapped inside the vehicle, which was stuck in a ravine on the side of the road following a rollover crash, with a fire starting to spread from the engine compartment of the SUV into the surrounding vegetation in the area.
On his way over to the vehicle, Trefry looked around for something to bust open the window to free the woman, finding a boot on the ground and then trying to break the glass, causing a “spider crack.” Then a woman on the scene offered a window punch, which also failed to break the glass. Finally, Trefry was able to pry open the unlocked door, despite the dirt from the ravine that was blocking it.
“I had to move some dirt around, but was able to get the door open a bit, enough to grab her,” Trefry said. “At first it was a struggle. Luckily, I pulled her out. She was conscious, but I noticed a little blood. Me and another gentleman moved her about 30 feet away to get her away from the fire, so when it took off it wouldn’t affect her. I checked the back seat to make sure there was no one else inside the vehicle. Then there were a couple of nurses who showed up, along with State Police, and they started rendering aid to her.”
Trefry is used to helping people escape from the wreckage of car crashes while at work, but this was the first time he did so while off-duty.
“I’ve never been in a situation like this,” he said. “It definitely wasn’t on my Sunday morning bingo card. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.”
Trefry was able to carefully cross all lanes of the highway to get to the woman but had to signal to drivers to brake for him.
“It was definitely crowded. People were slowing down for the accident and looking.” he said. “I put my hand up to get people to stop, and I was able to slowly make my way over. I climbed over the guardrail and did the same thing on the northbound side.”
Any one of his colleagues from the Whitman Fire Department or their fellow firefighters from around the state would have done the same, Lt. Trefry said.
“It’s what anyone in the fire service in Massachusetts would have done,” said Trefry, who became a full-time firefighter in 2012. “I’d like to think we all would have done the same thing.”
The Raynham Fire Department also responded to the crash and quicky extinguished the fire. The Raynham Fire Department stated that the vehicle rolled over, before catching fire amid the vegetation on the side of the highway.
The vehicle operator was then transported by a Raynham Fire Department ambulance to Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton in stable condition.
“I’m hoping she’s alright,” Lt. Trefry said.
Without realizing a fellow firefighter was involved, the Raynham Fire Department thanked the good Samaritans who helped the woman escape from the burning SUV.
“Their actions certainly made a difference and may very well have saved the driver’s life,” said Raynham Fire Chief Bryan LaCivita.
After the rescue, Massachusetts State Police stopped traffic to allow Lt. Trefry to return to his vehicle on the other side of the highway.
Whitman’s Chief Clancy said the episode is an example of how the members his department are dedicated to aiding the public at any time – on duty or off.
“I’m very proud of Lt. Trefry, as I am of all our firefighters,” Clancy said.
Whitman kicks off 150th celebration
WHITMAN – As the lights of the out-sized Toll House Cookie – crafted by South Shore Tech students in 2013 – sparkled on the stage of the Spellman Center on Saturday, April 5, Whitman 150th Chair Richard Rosen welcomed those attending the kickoff diner to the first of the events celebrating the town’s sesquicentennial.
The cookie, created to top off the 75th anniversary of the Toll House cookie by Whitman’s Ruth Wakefield, when the town held a First Night celebration ending the year and welcoming 2014 with a “Cookie Drop” in the frigid night of Whitman Center [See end for trivia].
The Toll House was among the many past and present business Rosen featured in his keynote address.
Noting that, at the 125th celebration in 2000 a guest speaker rose to give a speech, apparently covering Whitman’s history from the “Ice Age to the Present,” and it caused a bit of discomfort.
“By the time he got to the part where the ice was melting, I saw that people began to fidget,” Rosen said in the speech recorded for rebroadcast and streaming on WHCA-TV and on the cable access YouTube Channel. “After about 45 minutes, people were sticking forks in their eyes. I do not want to see anybody lifting a fork while I’m speaking tonight.”
He did speak about history – but from a different chapter: the flourishing business community Whitman once enjoyed as the “backbone of our town.”
While there are businesses in town that trace their own histories to the 1800s and 1900s, Rosen’s focus was on “history that many of you remember.”
“I want to talk about the history that’s fading – and I want to make sure its preserved,” he said.
While reciting a long list of businesses that included every manner of commerce except used car dealers – “because we have to be out of here by morning.” – Rosen started with the oldest business in town, D.B. Gurney.
“David Gurney is here representing the eighth generation of Gurneys” in a business started in 1825,” Rosen said. “Harding Print, that’s still in operation, goes back to 1891.”
Beginning with shoe manufacturers, to tool and dye companies, news stores, bakeries, emporiums supplying kids with penny candy … “We had a bunch of funeral homes,” he said, Rosen’s list was an oral timeline of changing business climates and fortunes in Whitman and the national and global marketplace.
“We had lumberyards, believe it or not.” he said. “A lot of these things, people don’t remember, didn’t know about and don’t exist anymore – and that’s what I felt [was] important to bring up.”
At one time there were five new car dealerships in town. McLaughlin Chevrolet, established in 1922, is still one of the country’s oldest Chevrolet dealerships still run by the same family.
He listed cleaners, tax preparers, a “slew of attorneys,” King’s Castle, several businesses on Bedford Street, real estate businesses, pharmacies, jewelry stores, a draft board, farms, furniture storms, doctors’ and dentist’s offices, insurance companies, hardware and clothing stores, electrical businesses, builders, beauty parlors, florists, plumbers, oil firms, mechanics and auto parts stores, a “ton of grocery stores” and several miscellaneous businesses.
“Of course, we had the world-famous Toll House on Route 18,” Rosen said to applause.
He had opened his remarks by thanking his committee.
“I’ve been involved in many committees over the last 40 years,” he said. “This one is probably the best one I’ve been involved with.”
He also gestured to an empty table that, he said, would be full in a couple minutes.
“That’s the Fire Department table and, unfortunately, prior to our sitting down to dinner, the Fire Department had to go fight a house fire,” Rosen said. “But they’ll be here shortly.”
In fact, the firefighters arrived while Chair Mary Joyce of the Historical Commission was beginning her remarks, and she lead the applause to welcome them.
During her remarks, Joyce provided an update on project being done around town with grant funding that the Commission had been acquiring for the town, including funding obtained, in collaboration with the Fire Department and the Whitman American Legion, to renovate the WWI memorial arch at the fire station on Temple Street.
Thar work is expected to be completed by June 8 – when the Whitman 150th Road Race is slated to begin by passing through the arch.
Joyce said the commission is also working with high school students conducting interviews with a number of town seniors for an oral history to be broadcast on radio and WHCA-TV through April 2026, releasing an interview a month.
A grant from the Mass. Historical Commission, with matching funds from the Community Preservation Committee, is also funding an inventory of historic homes in Whitman. An early September ceremony is planned for presentation of a full documentation of their property, as well as plaques for the homeowners to hang on the street-facing side of their homes.
“All of these projects will provide a visual and audio record of what was before for generations to come,” she said.
Rosen presented to Select Board Chair Dr. Carl Kowalski a certificate of special Congressional recognition of the town’s anniversary from U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, Kowalski also accepted proclamations or citations on behalf of the town from state Sen. Mike Brady, D-Brockton and from state Rep. Alyson Sullivan-Almeda’s office and from Register of Deeds John Buckley.
All were dated March 13, 2025 – Whitman’s official anniversary date.
Plymouth County Sheriff John McDonald, DA Timothy Cruz and Clerk of Courts Robert Creedon also offered brief remarks.
Toll House Trivia – How many years has Whitman celebrated First Night and the cookie drop?
Town budget numbers reviewed
After meeting with Select Board and/or Finance Committee members from Whitman and Hanson during the previous week, district officials painted another gloomy picture of the school year to come without an operational override for both town and school budgets.
“No matter what, Whitman needs $2.4 million to balance for next year,” Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak reported to the School Committee at its Wednesday, March 26 meeting.
“Without that override in Whitman the number is very sobering to us,” Szymaniak said.
The overall WHRSD proposal, after all, is $66,306,206 at a 5.6 percent increase – the contingency budget, based on current figures without an override, would be $64,306,274 or a 2.19 percent – a $2 million reduction.
“Based on the budget we received from Whitman … in their contingency budget, if the override doesn’t pass, we are asking them in our 2026 proposed operating assessment, for $20,982,307 – a 9.65 percent assessment increase,” Szymaniak said. Whitman’s contingency number is $19,759,924 – a 3.26 percent assessment increase, or $1.22 million.
The contingency budget in Hanson, without an override the district would be asking for $16,452,000 – a 9.87 percent increase. Hanson’s contingency number is $15,674,746 – a 4.67 percent assessment increase.
“Overall it would be a $2 million cut, if the overrides do not pass,” Szymaniak said. Who said he has had “very good” conversations with finance and select boards. “Both towns are seeking an operational override for everyone.”
“What I got was, it’s an operational override to exist with level services for both communities,” Szymaniak said. “I’m not hearing, at least from the Whitman side, that there are add-ons – Hanson may, as far as fire and services. … But $2 million is breathtaking to start.”
Committee chair Beth Stafford echoed Szymaniak’s observations about the across-the-board cuts Whitman was expecting would be necessary if the override failed.
“It certainly was not any pitting one department against another,” she said. “It was overall, everybody across the board, this is what’s going to happen.”
While a three-year Whitman spending package would carry them through with a $4.25 flexible number with increments of: $2.4 million to fiscal ’26, another amount to FY ’27 and another amount to FY ’28, Szymaniak explained.
“That will carry us through, as well through FY ’28, to the numbers that [Business Manager Steven] Marshall has appropriated through the Whitman Finance Committee and the Select Board, as far as numbers that would sustain our budget – and potentially add to our budget moving forward, depending on how things shake out with the state,” he said.
No decision was made by the Whitman Select Board that night (March 25), but after the joint session with the Finance Committee, FinCom members unanimously voted to support a one-year override.
“But no matter what, Whitman needs $2.4 million to balance for next year,” Szymaniak said.
“The three-year would carry them through – and I think it’s 4.25 with a flexible number with an increment of 2.56 in February of 2026,” he said.
School panel OKs assessments
Now it’s time to show their work, School Committee members say, as they gear up for town meetings and their mission of gaining passage of the budget completed at town meetings – as well as the ballot box.
This time, the overrides are aimed at funding all departments in Whitman and Hanson – not just the schools.
Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak recommended that the committee affirm the assessment figures he provided in the February – a $66,306,276,19 level-service spending plan that is up $3,375,931.19 over the $ 62,530,345 budgeted in FY 25 – a total budget increase of 5.6 percent.
As of now, operational assessment totals are 61.12 percent or ($20.9 million, a 9.65 percent increase over last year – $1,846,621.19 by dollars) for Whitman, and 38.88 percent ($16.4 million, a 9.87 percent increase – $1,477387.35 in dollars) for Hanson.
The committee voted to certify the fiscal 2025 operating budget at $66,306,219.,9 by a vote of 9-1. Both assessment increases, non-mandated busing costs and each town’s debt assessment were also approved by 9-1 votes.
Steve Cloutman of Hanson voted no each time.
“I’m coming from a different perspective,” said School Committee member Rosemary Connolly, a former Whitman Finance Committee member. “The town is supposed to be working from a financial perspective. The town is supposed to be working with numbers and a plan that we gave, although when we made this plan, we didn’t have the risk of pullback of state and federal aid that we do now.”
The day after the Wednesday, March 19 meeting President Trump signed an executive order eliminating the federal Department of Education, a president has no legal authority to do that to a Congressionally established department.
That action should be factored in by the towns Connolly said.
“Jeff [Szymaniak] put forward what would have been, to me, a responsible, level-service plan with some risks, that we might not get the aid,” she said. “So, I’m with some [in thinking] that this isn’t enough, because there are risks. We are the only department that holds so much aid and grants – risky finances.”
For those reasons Connolly said, while she understands the district’s position, there’s a risk that the budget – and by extension, the assessments – are too low.
“We want every kid to be successful and we want to be those roots for their lives, and if we don’t have a budget, we don’t have good roots for those kids,” she said noting that all district children, including those who go to South Shore Tech start in W-H Schools.
Szymaniak spoke about a legislative breakfast he had attended the week before when budgets were the topic of conversation.
There are 45 towns across the state going for overrides this year as of last week, and 245 districts are in hold-harmless right now, Szymaniak said.
“Everybody’s concerned about that,” he said. “What we got from the legislators is they are working on a safety net in case that happens because we wouldn’t be the only town or district devastated.”
“The only thing that can be done this year is, if this does not pass is we’re cutting people,” Chair Beth Stafford. “There’s no fat.
The district doesn’t have the E&D to do it, she said, adding the district have done their cuts there already, leaving it bare minimum last year.
“That’s not happening this year,” she said.
The state is also looking at the Fair Share Act as a potential funding mechanism, as well, he said.
“That is a risk that is uncertain,” he said.
In rough numbers, federal grants account for important programs, with the “heavy” one being the 240 Grant’s $1.9 million, Szymaniak said. Title 1, after-school grants are included in that figure.
“I don’t know if I could fiscally put that on the town in case that doesn’t happen,” he said. “There’s money out there that could be wiped away with the loss of [the Department of Education] and some funding.”
“I think that’s a concern for everybody, no matter where they are,” Stafford said. “We need to really push for this budget. We need to be really careful, but we need everybody to be at the Town Meeting when this does go through.”
Noting that both towns would likely seek an override, Stafford told School Committee members that they must be supportive and attend town meetings.
“If we don’t, and that override does not happen, we could lose, probably, if we don’t get what we need to get,” she said. That means a minimum of 21 employees – 14, plus another seven whose salaries would be needed to fund unemployment costs – could be lost.
“I’m all for foreign languages,” she said. “I’m all for robotics, and hopefully, when we are putting forth, that the town has requested, what we want coming up, we can put those in the budget,” she said. “It’s not just what we want, it’s what we need. … We need to show up, and have our voices heard, that’s our job.”
Hanson Committee member Glenn DiGravio asked if the assessment numbers could be rejected.
“They can’t be rejected,” Szymaniak said. “We can always lower that number.”
But he said it could end up back at the School Committee it will have to take up the issue than.
“To me that’s a financial crisis,” DiGravio said. “That’s a lot of money. What we’re asking is for us not to be affected by that money – we’re going to push this to the town, and either the taxpayers are going to pick up the slack or the town’s going to cut jobs, but we’re asking not to cut anything, correct? We don’t want to cut anything, you guys [the towns] have to cut and you guys have to pay, but we’re not changing what we’re doing.”
“We’re not changing because they say they’re going for an override,” Stafford said.
DiGravio asked if the other departments are making cuts, and schools officials said they don’t believe so.
Szymaniak said that, from what he’d seen in published reports, Hanson is not planning cuts to other departments at this point and Whitman is not offering up an alternative budget reflecting any forecast cuts.
Whitman Select Board member Justin Evans said his board has been working through various budget scenarios, as well.
“I think it would be our intent to vote the budgets as contingent budgets either way, The entire town and school budget as contingent,” he said. “If it fails on May 17 [as a ballot question], we have to come back and vote a budget, as well as it would be a rejection of the School Committee’s budget. We’re not sure exactly which way we’re going to go yet.”
South Shore Tech also has to keep a wary eye on school budget votes around its district, according to Evans.
“If Whitman and Hanson reject it, and one other town rejected it – there’s a lot of overrides on the table this year, that’s quite possible – their budget would also fail,” he said. “Actually, we’d need four of their nine towns to fail for SST to be rejected.”
Connolly said it seems as though select boards are not having honest conversations about what it reasonably costs to educate a child.
“In our history of our relationship with the towns, it has never been the question of anybody in the selectmen’s offices – are we really educating kids to go on and have great educations and good foundations?” she asked. “That’s really concerning, because it’s not a number. It’s a whole entire life, a foundation for every job they’re going to get.”
Szymaniak said, to be fair, neither town gave him a number to keep to.
“I just presented them with what was needed this year and neither town has said no,” he said.
Kara Moser, using a special education tuition line item, which doesn’t even reflect all placements because they are funded by grants and programs outside the budget, such as federal grants and circuit-breakers, as well as charter school costs. It also shows charter school reimbursement is down
“I think a lot of the chatter … is ‘Just stay within your budget,” she said adding that the district is given requirements for populations of our students that we don’t have an option to “lean down,” Moser said.
“The only option is it gets cut from other places,” she said.
Kniffen said she and Moser attended a Hanson Select Board meeting about the special education, “And I’m not sure it resonated,” Kniffen said. “If your child sees a counselor at school, those are mandated, she said. Schools are mandated to offer such programs – and the funding general education, not special ed and staff.”
Whitman Select Board member Shawn Kain, who has been very active in amassing the town’s budget said he would never want to send the message that the schools are easy to beat up on, as one School Committee member did. The real issue in Whitman is that it has only taken in about $1 million in revenue above last year.
“Just the district’s assessment [increase] is $1.8 million, so you can see how we’re in a difficult bind, just on what we can naturally afford,” Kain said. “I think you’re all good people, and I think you’re practical and logical, and if the override failed, I would respect your opinion and figure out how we can do this together.”
With one budget, if the override fails, a special town meeting would be needed anyway, Evans explained.
Elder tax fund and panel formed in Whitman
WHITMAN – The Select Board on Tuesday, March 11voted 3-0 to appoint a tax relief fund and committee to aid elderly and disabled taxpayers.
Committee members Justin Evans and Laura Howe were not present.
Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter said that the assessor had asked on Thursday, Feb. 27 about Whitman Aid Taxation Fund that had been approved under Article 65 of the May 2001 annual Town Meeting.
The provisions, under MGL Ch. 60 Sec. 3D authorizes the town to design and designate a place on municipal tax bills, motor vehicle excise tax bills or a separate form to mail with such bills to permit taxpayer the opportunity to voluntarily check off, donate or pledge and amount not less than $1or other designated amount. The tax bill would be increased by the amount designated, with proceeds to go into an Elderly and Disabled Taxation Fund in order to defray the real estate taxes of elderly and disabled persons of low income.
Donations received must be deposited into a special account in the custody of the treasurer,
Any town setting up such a fund must also form a Taxation Aid Committee consisting of the Board of Assessors Chair, city or town treasurer and three residents appointed by the mayor or select board. The Committee will adopt rules and regulations under which it will carry out its function and to identify recipients of tax aid.
“While this provision was voted in 2001, I can’t find any evidence that a Whitman Aid Taxation Committee was formed,” she stated. “Tonight, I’d like to ask the board to establish a Taxation Aid Committee. If it’s done, then any resident interested in serving on the committee can certainly contact the Select Board.”
“Twenty-four years ago and nothing’s happened,” Select Board Chair Dr. Carl Kowalski said before the board voted to change that.
Resident John Galvin volunteered to serve on the committee as soon as it was voted.
“I did hear about this and I want to commend the assessor’s office for finding this, because this is something I’ve been pushing for for a while,” he said. “The way I understand it, is that is would be like Community preservation, except it’s voluntary.”
Former Select Board Chair Randy LaMattina spoke during the public forum about questions he had for the Town Administrator concerning the schools’ bond position and how it will affect the overall payment for the WMS school project and whether there was any situation where a town employee would work 80 to 90 hours per week without compensation, as he recently saw posted on social media and for an explanation of the animal control officer position in town.
Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter said, regarding his first question that she attended a meeting with the state’s Municipal Finance Oversight Board as the WHRSD needed to contact them to become state-rated, rather than on their own, because the 2022 and the 2023 audits were not available to the district, as they are required to have to go out for bids on the open market. The MFOB approved the district’s request to go out to bid with state-rated bonds, which she said have a better rate than the district’s rating when they last had an active rating.
LaMAttina asked if the rating from MFOB is higher.
“Yes, it is a little higher,” Carter said. “I have a [preliminary] debt schedule right now … we plan on borrowing $30 million in May.” She said she thinks that rating is estimated at 5 percent.
On employee hours, Carter said she was not aware of any employee, whose hours match what LaMattina saw on town social media pages.
LaMattina said he knew there are two ACOs working for Whitman – one during the day and one at night who also covers, asking for information on the position’s pay scale and how it is covered.
Carter said both positions were 19 hours each and Carter confirmed they alternate weekends on call.
“It’s no one that I’m asking about specifically,” he said. “It’s just things I’ve read online and unfortunately, it comes from a person that represents this town, and it’s really bothered me for quite some time.”
Green: ‘People need us’
HANSON – Back an override or make deep cuts in the budget – that’s a decision being made in town halls around the state this year.
Hanson Town Accountant Eric Kinsherf, who said all town department and school budgets were in, told the Select Board in a budget update at its last meeting on Feb. 25 the facts of budgeting life in town today.
“I’m going to just cut to the chase,” he said. “The best thing for the town to do financially, and maintain all these services, the town would need to vote an override. I’m thinking $2.9 million, and – if that happened – we’d be able to fund this [he said, holding up a sheaf of department budget documents] and we would not be touching any of our reserves, like free cash and so forth.”
An override amount could also go as high as $3.4 million, if new firefighter positions are included.
“It’s not an easy conversation to have,” he said.
“I think we need to have it, because people need to know, if we don’t pass an override, what’s going to happen – not in a threatening way, but in a factual way,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
That would bring the override question a $3.4 million one.
The board asked to see something more closely resmbling a final budget with harder numbers for Kinsherf’s next update.
Kinsherf argued there are two ways to decide the matter: Hold another department head working group session at Camp Kiwanee, as they did under the Madden Group’s strategic planning exercises; or give each department a dollar figure and ask them to come up with a budget to match it.
The bottom line is, if the override fails, the town would be see its reserves reduced to dangerously low levels and cutting services, Kinsherf said.
Town Administrator Lisa Green said the impact of an override failure would be devastating.
“All town departments, basically, are already operating on a minimal staff,” Green said. “So, this level of budget cuts is going to result in a loss of staff. The loss of staff is going to require office hours to be reduced significantly – 36 full-time employees will lose their jobs. That is taking most of the departments here in the town of Hanson, and putting them down to, maybe, one person.”
Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett asked if the $2.9 million included in those new positions Fire Chief Robert O’Brien Jr., has said his department needs.
“No. It does not,” Kinsherf replied, “That would have to be a separate vote.”
“In talking to the Finance Committee, they would like to have one amount,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said, “Is there a way you could work on getting that [included]?”
Kinsherf said that, if the Select Board wished, he could add the approximately $348,000 needed for the Fire Department position into the override figure.
“I don’t think we’d have to raise all that on the residents right away,” he said. “I think the chief is going to get a grant for the first three years.’
FitzGerald-Kemmett said O’Brien doesn’t know if it will happen or not.
“There’s no easy way to even do it, because it’s going to be impactful” Kinsherf said, recommending, as an alternative, using $1.1 million from free cash and cutting $1.8 million from the existing requests, including the schools. He said it would be hard to identify that many budget reductions.
“Mathematically, that would work, and the $1.8 million would include the schools, because the [W-H] schools are asking for a $1.1 million increase. If the town departments had to take that whole $7.8 million, it would not be good,” he said searching for a word to adequately describe the impact.
Thinking of contingency plans, Kinsherf said, a $1.1 million draw from free cash would leave the town with $1.1 million in unappropriated free cash and $1.7 million in the stabilization fund – or all the town’s reserves – forcing the need to drain those reserves almost to zero if the schools insisted on the full amount of their assessments.
Board member Joe Weeks, knowing the Select Board has already asked the question – asked if the rest of the town’s operating budget is limited to a 2.5 percent increase, how big an increase does the W-H school budget pose for Hanson?
Taking the non-fixed budget, Kinsherf said he calculated the school increase to be about a 9-percent increase.
The schools make up 47 percent of Hanson’s overall budget.
“To be fair to the schools, their total budget is only projected to go up 5.7 percent,” Kinsherf said. “But they’re in the same situation as we are … their state aid is next to zero [in terms of an increase].”
FitzGerald-Kemmett said the Select Board has a limited, if any influence on how the School Committee votes on a budget. They’ve had discussions with the Committee on the effect of school increases on town budgets in the past, as well.
“We really haven’t had a lot of success in partnering with the School Committee and with the district on tempering the spending there,” she said.
She acknowledged that they have no control over how the school budget reflects the Committee’s role in funding the education of the town’s children, but asked Green how they could handle the money the Select Board does control.
Green repeated that about 36 full-time positions will be lost.
“Everything has to be on the table,” she said. “It’s unfortunate because, again, we’re already operating with a minimal staff. Many offices only have two people, some have three … but all departments are going to be impacted in some way.”
Green said voters have to be aware of how budgeting works.
“People don’t understand that, once these cuts are made, and they go to the Senior Center the next day to find it closed, you can’t just say, ‘Oh, I didn’t realize that was going to happen, let’s put the money back,’” she said. “It can’t happen like that.”
She explained that, once services are cut, they are gone until the town goes through the whole process to bring them back with funding.
“These are services – and [Senior Center Director] Mary Collins is a perfect example of this – people need us,” Green said. “They need town services. Maybe people don’t realize it right away. You might not need us today, but you could possibly need us tomorrow.”
She had another question for people looking for the services after an override failure.
“Who are they going to turn to?” Green asked. “It’s not just Senior, it’s Highway.”
Weeks said he wasn’t certain the town even has 36 people they can cut, and said they’ve been through this before. Last year, positions were cut, only to be brought back at the October Town Meeting.
“I remember being very adamant that I didn’t want to bring them back because I knew we’d find ourselves right back to where we are now, where we’re talking about cutting things again,” he said.
Kinsherf was asked what decimating the cash reserves in an attempt to balance the budget do to the town’s bond ratings, but he was also concerned what would happen if the town needed those cash reserves.
“This is a little like DEFCON 5 on the budget cycle,” he said. “Good thing we have the reserves, because, if not, it would be even worse.”
FitzGerald-Kemmett asked what would happen if there was a catastrophic event after the town had tapped into its reserves.
Kinsherf said the town would need special permission from the Department of Revenue Division of Local Services to deficit spend and would have to go before the Emergency Finance Board and most likely placed under some type of receivership. Bonding companies would also likely put Hanson on a watch list if its reserves were low.
“I don’t want to over-dramatize it,” he said. “That’s what it is.”
Asked how the town got to this spot, Kinsherf reminded the board of past use of free cash. His first year on the job the town used $478,000 of that one-time money to fund the budget. Last year’s budget was balanced using $1 million in free cash plus $1.2 million in unused article money from past years.
“We have to make up that $1.2 million this year,” he said. Realistically, he said the override would be good for about three years unless something structurally changes the way it does business.
“It’s a misnomer that, over the years the budget’s been mishandled,” Weeks said. “We are on top of it.” He lauded Kinsherf for finding funds where no one had thought to look before.
“It was underneath the couch cushions and underneath those cushions,” he said. “It is not a manner of mismanagement. It is not a matter of money mismanagement. We just don’t have the dollars.”
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