HANSON — The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday, Oct. 16 heard assurances from Columbia Gas of Massachusetts officials that, once a work moratorium ends on Dec. 1, it will continue in a safe manner.

“Help us make people in Hanson feel safe that you guys are going to be doing work here,” said  Selectman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett.

Whitman’s Board of Selectmen meeting the same night was canceled due to a posting issue. That board will meet at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 23.

Columbia’s Director of Governmental Affairs from the Westboro corporate offices Michael F. Kane and Field Engineer Nick Wilson out of the Brockton Division briefed Hanson Selectmen at the board’s request.

“We’re more interested in you guys’ assuring us that current gas project you’re working on at Whitman and Winter streets [is safe] — that’s been the kind of question that’s been asked by different residents,” Selectmen Chairman Kenny Mitchell said.

“We just want to make sure that you’re going to be putting protocols in place in our project that are going to prevent any type of catastrophic situation like there was in Lawrence and Andover,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.

Kane said he could not go into detail about the investigation still being conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), despite the release of a preliminary report from that agency.

“There’s still more investigation that goes into it,” Kane said. “They’ve asked us not to talk about any more of the investigation” What he did outline was the difference between the companies divisions and the work they do.

“Nothing is intertwined with any type of gas lines running in between those areas,” he said. “All serve differently from the pipeline distributor that would provide gas to us. There are three different types of system and no relation to the Merrimack Valley incident and our piping here in Hanson.”

FitzGerald-Kemmett asked if the contractor is, indeed, the same as was involved in work in the Merrimack Valley when last month’s explosions and fires occurred.

Kane and Wilson confirmed that.

“We have many different contractors that come in, and of our contractors, all of them run operator qualifications [reviews] that have to pass through our Northeast Gas Association,” Kane said. “All of them have Massachusetts hoisting licenses — all of the licenses that are required to be a gas operator in the field.”

Contractors must meet the same qualifications as Columbia Gas employees, Kane stressed.

Selectmen Wes Blauss noted the Dec. 1 moratorium deadline was in place, but asked where the project stood in general.

Wilson said safety measures in place in Hanson include an underground regulator pit that is being brought above ground and replacing the two-regulator runs with a three-run station.

“We are installing the Cadillac of regulators,” Wilson said. “These regulators have numerous controls, numerous safety features on them. It’s going to be an upgrade to the station and to the property.”

Once the work is done, it will be run parallel to the existing system for a while until safety tests are completed, according to Wilson. While most of the piping in the street is done, he said that there are additional excavations needed to “liven those gas lines up” after the moratorium is lifted, but most of the remaining work will be in the station itself and a building constructed over it.

WHCA update

In other business, Whitman-Hanson Community Access TV Executive Director Eric Dresser presented an update to the board, including progress in the investigation of a vandalism that damaged the sign at the Whitman office this month.

“We’ve been in the news a couple of times this week,” he said, noting that they also shared footage of the medical emergency during the Friday, Oct. 12 football game with other media outlets. “The other was the vandalism that occurred in our building, which — I’m happy to report — we have identified a suspect for that who has admitted guilt and is going to make right on that.”

He said anyone who helped share security camera footage they posted online was instrumental in helping resolve that crime.

Dresser reported that fiber-optic transmission has improved the quality of video broadcast from meetings and other events. They have also installed new windows and security cameras while bringing their edit lab online.

He also brought in letters of support he hoped Selectmen would sign onto to prevent franchise competition resulting from new 5G hardware, which can be posted on utility poles, competing unfairly with their funding source. The other legislation of concern would permit cable companies to seek charge-backs to local access channels for what they consider in-kind services.

polar plunge

Selectmen also approved a request from Melissa Valachovic on behalf of the Hanson PTO to receive a reduced fee for use of Needles Lodge and Cranberry Cove at Camp Kiwanee for a Polar Plunge fundraiser on Sunday, Jan. 27.

“As an active member of the PTO, I’ve been trying to think of ways to bring the community together — and in a way that also supports the children here in our community,” Valachovic said. “My husband has been talking about doing a polar plunge for years and it never fits in with his schedule … We have Cranberry Cove in our town, a body of water that we could jump into when it’s really cold.”

She shared the idea with the PTO and town department heads over the summer and, after some initial doubts, all of the groups came on board. Safety, traffic and potential snow removal concerns were also discussed with public safety personnel as well as school officials.

Participants will be registered online and will be asked to line up sponsors.

“If you can get [Selectman] Jim Hickey to sign up and jump in, you’ve got my support” Mitchell joked.

Valachovic said she did hope some town officials or prominent citizens would sign up to support and participate in the project.

“Are you telling me right now you’re going to get me to go in, or would you rather do it in private, Mr. Chairman?” Hickey asked.

“We’ll do it in private,” Mitchell said.

Valachovic said Jan. 27 was picked because it was NFL Pro Bowl day “which nobody watches anyway,” but cautioned a weather delay would mean rescheduling it to Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 3.

“But it’s in the morning, so you can [do the] jump, get warm and then be ready to enjoy the game,” she said.

If the pond is frozen over, she has already lined up the Fire and Highway departments to cut through the ice along the beach area.

HANSON — Selectmen will be meeting with a representative of Columbia Gas at the 7 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 16 meeting of the Board of Selectmen.

A hearing with the owners of the JJ’s Pub property is also being scheduled, to force them to clear away debris from the July 5 fire that destroyed the vacant building.

Selectmen had Building Inspector Bob Curran write letters demanding the property be cleared, with the last one — authorized on Sept. 18 — carrying a two-week deadline for a reply.

“We’re going to move forward as soon as possible,” Town Administrator Michael McCue said Tuesday, Sept. 25. That hearing will likely be Oct. 16. “We’ll line it up for that date and if something breaks in the meantime, we’ll have it lined up just in case.”

McCue reached out to Columbia Gas on Sept. 25 to arrange that meeting with the board and asked them to provide a representative to address any concerns about natural gas line and service safety Selectmen may have and to update them on the facility they are building in town.

“They’ve been very cooperative,” McCue said. “I continue to receive questions and concerns about the facility and the gas lines in general and [in] the town of Hanson.”

He said he expects that work on the new facility, still in the construction phase and referred to as a regulator station, at Whitman and East Washington streets is being done properly, but aims to have the public “hopefully glean a sense of security” that they are.

The existing underground regulator station is still in service and will remain in service until next summer  according to a company official.

Selectman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett had reached out to McCue on the issue as a result of multiple residents calls to her.

“Yes, Columbia Gas is an issue,” she said. “But now they’re finding that there were insufficient gas inspectors at the state level and they are questioning that. I also had somebody point out that it’s likely the same contractor that is being used here that was used in Lawrence, so we’ve got that additional concern.”

McCue said they became aware that the same contractor was involved after the Sept. 18 Selectmen’s meeting.

“I think it warrants somebody coming in and answering questions that the board may have,” he said.

FitzGerald-Kemmett said the main question would be how the company is going to negate any risks and make sure there is not a repeat of the Lawrence incident in Hanson.

“I don’t want somebody coming in and placating us and giving the song-and-dance or whatever,” she said. “I really would like to know what are they doing to vet contractors. … I’d rather that they mothball the project for awhile if they don’t have the right resources to do it properly.”

McCue noted it is a legitimate concern as the company, for appropriate reasons, is now focusing all its resources on the Merrimack Valley.

In other business, McCue said the town’s proposed Tax Incentive Financing (TIF) program article on the special Town Meeting warrant was being passed over Monday, Oct. 1 because the TIF Committee reached a consensus that more time is needed to prepare the proposal, which should be ready for the May Town Meeting.

The decision followed meetings last month with the state officials and TIF proponents.

“The TIF only takes effect in the coming fiscal year,” McCue said. “Since we had the extra time and we really weren’t going to put the proponent in an awkward situation, we made the decision, jointly, to go a bit slower.”

McCue and FitzGerald-Kemmett both stressed the postponement does not mean officials are not “extremely bullish” on pursuing the program, but the infrastructure is not yet in place and there is other information the town needs.

“We want to get the first one right,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “If this proves to be as beneficial as we think it will be, in improving Main Street, we’re hoping this will bee the first of several TIFs that we might entertain to get that area cleaned up.”

HANSON — Voters at special Town Meeting Monday, Oct. 1 narrowly approved an article amending the General Bylaws in order to prohibit the retail sale of recreational cannabis products, but failed to achieve the two-thirds majority required by a second article to amend the town’s Zoning Bylaws.

Both will also appear on a Nov. 6 town ballot, but the zoning question is effectively moot — leaving the town to depend on a bylaw approved in May restricting retail marijuana businesses to an overlay district with frontage on Route 27/ Main Street and Franklin Street.

“The reason why we have two separate bylaws on this Town Meeting warrant is because there is some question as to whether or not a General Bylaw will serve to prohibit,” said Town Counsel Katherine Feodoroff. “It’s potentially challengeable.”

She said her firm would do their best to protect the town if a challenge is received.

The 50-45 vote in support of the General Bylaw included those who out-and-out support the financial benefit such businesses represent for the town — such as all five Finance Committee members and three selectmen — and those who waned to give more voters the chance to vote on the issue. The Zoning Bylaw article’s 49-43 vote supporting it failed the two-thirds margin required by zoning articles — amid confusion over the difference between the two.

A question arose centering on the vote total on the General Bylaw as to whether a quorum still existed, but a handful of people, including Moderator Sean Kealy, said they had not voted.

Yes votes were in support of the prohibitions, no votes were in favor of allowing retail cannabis sales in town.

“We look at everything from a fiduciary standpoint,” said Finance Committee member Kevin Sullivan in explaining his board’s position. “It’s not our job to interpret whether or not the citizenry should take another vote. We looked at this as any other business coming into town, it’s a valid stream of revenue that comes to the town — quite frankly, we’re in desperate need of revenue.”

Town officials, however, declined to estimate how much tax revenue such businesses might generate, while others spoke of financial boosts already realized by towns of comparative size in Colorado, California and Washington.

“We feel that it would be irresponsible for us to try and estimate that,” said Selectman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett. “It’s a new business. … Anyone trying to do a business plan would be very hard-pressed to figure that out.”

“Like any other business, we wouldn’t measure validity of it based on revenue,” Sullivan said.

“The main reason that I’m voting yes on this article … is that I certainly want, for the very first time Hanson is going to be possibly authorizing sale of recreational marijuana,” resident Bruce Young of Indian Head Street said of the General Bylaw question. “I certainly want to maximize the democratic process.”

He argued that the town’s 7,600 voters should decide the issue, not a quorum of 108 people at a town meeting.

Resident Annette Benenato of Brookside Drive, meanwhile, expressed concern over the type of products sold by such businesses, including edible products such as gummie candies, lollipops, sodas and baked treats containing THC, the psycho-active compound in cannabis.

“These marijuana products are appealing to our youth and there is growing scientific literature that shows adolescents and young adults who are regular marijuana users are at increased risk for addiction and mental health disorders,” she said. Benenato also argued that youth use rates are highest where cannabis is legal, that sales tax revenue will not present a tax windfall and the town has a right to opt out of retail sales.

Patrick Powers of Holmes Street reported that health department reports in Colorado and Washington both found that marijuana use actually decreased among youth in grades six through 12 after legalization as well as a 6.5 decrease in opioid overdose deaths. He also said children are not allowed in cannabis shops where customers must show ID to enter and wait in a waiting room before they are assisted by a certified employee who has passed background checks. No products are on display in the shops.

“We as a town of 7,000-plus voters have had a chance three times — this is our fourth, November will be the fifth — to come and voice their opinions,” Powers said. “So to say that our town hasn’t had a chance to come and vote on this issue, either on a state ballot or at a town meeting … is a complete falsehood.”

Joseph Campbell of Woodbine Avenue argued that Hanson would benefit from tax revenue on both the local and state level, noting that similar towns out west have benefits for land-locked towns with slowing growth.

“We have an opportunity knocking at our door,” Campbell said, noting individual moral decisions must take place in the home. “If you have a liquor store at the end of your street, is that going to make you an alcoholic? Probably not.”

He stressed that the Board of Selectmen will retain the right to grant or rescind licenses as well as bestowing the financial “gifts” of taxes from the businesses to public safety and school needs.

Thomas Pellerin of Waltham Street, who moved to Hanson from Lynn 21 years ago, said he has seen what drugs can do to a community from living in Lynn.

“Hanson has been a nice community and I think this would change that community,” he said. “Do we really want this for our town?”

Planning Board member Joseph Gamache asked Police Chief Michael Miksch to weigh in on the issue.

Miksch, who does not live in town, quipped that he really didn’t want to comment.

“I’ve been asked to speak about this a number of times,” he said. “This isn’t what Mike Miksch wants. But it doesn’t matter what I want. Whatever laws you pass, that’s what we enforce.”

He said he didn’t want to get into the financial question, but said a friend who serves as a major in the Colorado State Police has reported that accidents and impaired driving citations have increased. There is no scientific way to test for drug impairment.

“There’s always ripple effects to everything,” he said.

HANSON — Voters were reminded during the Tuesday, Sept. 25 Board of Selectmen’s meeting, that it will take a “yes” vote on a Nov. 6 local ballot question to prevent retail marijuana sales in town.

There will also be two ballots, requiring separate check-ins, as local questions must be on a different ballot than the one for the state’s midterm election.

But first, the issue will crop up again on the Monday, Oct. 1 special Town Meeting warrant, in two articles — Article 21, which amends the town’s general Bylaws and requires a simple majority vote, and Article 22, which amends the zoning Bylaws and requires a two-thirds vote — aimed at prohibiting retail sales in town.

Town Counsel Katherine Feodoroff, of Mead, Talerman & Costa LLC, attended the meeting to review the meaning of the articles and ballot questions during a half-hour forum on the issue.

“The board wanted to have a question-and-answer session prior to Town Meeting, in case anybody had any questions on this,” said Selectmen Chairman Kenny Mitchell.

Feodoroff said both a zoning Bylaw and general Bylaw were passed at the last Town Meeting to regulate marijuana establishments.

“But there was a feeling that, perhaps, the town wanted to consider prohibiting marijuana retailers,” she said. “As a consequence, we put together an amendment to the Bylaw that was recently passed to prohibit marijuana retailers in the town.”

A complicating issue is that, when the town voted on the state ballot question regarding the legalization of recreational marijuana, the town’s voters came down on the side favoring the question, so this issue must also go on a ballot as well as before Town Meeting.

“To prohibit marijuana in the town of Hanson, you have to vote yes on the legislation,” Feodoroff said. “It’s a little bit counter-intuitive, but you are voting yes on the Bylaw, which serves as a prohibition.”

She assured residents that questions have been clearly written — at the urging of Selectman Jim Hickey — so voters will better understand what their vote will do.

Police Chief Michael Miksch and Fire Chief Jerome Thompson were asked what special training their departments would need to address the use of recreational marijuana.

Thompson said, while inspection requirements may be different, he does not anticipate much change in how patient care is delivered.

“It’s going to depend on what happens around us,” Miksch said. “One way or another I have to start training people on a thing called ARRIVE (Advanced Roadside Interdiction training), to cut down people driving impaired.”

The state just began rolling out training information, but he estimates it could cost about $8,000 to train his officers, and it may have to be done numerous times.

Host community portions of the wholesale/testing facilities regulations would provide a 3 percent levy on their sales to fund police security and training relating to the business.

“I don’t know the cost until I see the situation.” He said, noting that he does not need to place a detail officer at a package store. But, should retail marijuana be allowed in town, there are now only one or two banks in the state willing to work with the businesses.

“That’s a very big concern for host communities, as far as security goes, because basically you’ve got to make sure these places have more security than a bank — because they are a bank,” Miksch said.

“It’s a heavy cash business,” Feodoroff said. The marijuana retailers are not now able to obtain merchant accounts at most banks.

Town Administrator Michael McCue said he anticipates that a pending contract for a cell phone tower at Hanson Middle School property, if approved by Town Meeting, could bring in as much as $50,000 in the first year alone — mitigating the effect of any marijuana tax money lost if the town votes to prohibit retail sales.

Resident Bruce Young asked if a Town Meeting vote on the zoning Bylaw fails to meet the two-thirds requirement, wouldn’t render a ballot question pointless.

“I’m assuming that, unless the Town Meeting votes for both of those articles, it makes the election article vote absolutely moot,” he said.

Feodoroff replied that it is not a yes or no question. State legislation governs what towns can and cannot do, distinguishing zoning Bylaws but not general Bylaw functions. She said the town counsel firm believes a general Bylaw can serve to prohibit any form of marijuana if a town wished to prohibit it.

“We wanted to be very cautious and put in the zoning Bylaw measure because there’s a long list of cases that stand for the proposition that, if it looks like a zoning bylaw but only went through the process of a general bylaw Bylaw passage … [the state] struck those Bylaws down because they looked like zoning bylaws,” she said.

While zoning Bylaws can guarantee prohibition, if it fails, the issue still goes to the election ballot and if both pass, the town can vote on a zoning bylaw again at another special Town Meeting, or the town can rely on the amended general Bylaw. The latter option does carry the risk of litigation.

“None of the Bylaws have been challenged yet,” Feodoroff said. “We’re not in a position to know whether or not the court is going to demand that it be a zoning vs. a general bylaw.”

New resident Wayne Peterson asked, since the town passed the issue on the state ballot, how the prohibition effort is not just an attempt to push an unpopular opinion through with a smaller voter turnout. He noted that, while a midterm election would attract more voters than a local election, it would not be as great a turnout as a presidential election year like 2016.

Feodoroff said the legislation permits it since towns may have voted for recreational marijuana as a general issue, the “I don’t want it in my backyard” mindset led many communities to change their minds.

“The state has already spoken, the voters have already spoken, and passed it overwhelmingly,” he said of the town. “Now you’re going to an election with much smaller turnout to get the reaction that you want.”

School Committee Chairman Bob Hayes, attending the meeting for the Town Meeting preview, compared the ballot initiative to towns in the state that opted to remain dry when the prohibition of alcohol was repealed or zoning bylaws governing adult entertainment businesses.

Personal consumption of marijuana remains permitted by state law. The use of marijuana while driving is still illegal, as is any form of impaired driving.

WHITMAN — When Buds & Blossoms, 531 Washington St., closes its doors for the last time this month, owner Jackie Ferguson says she’ll miss the customers who she has come to know as friends — but it’s time to move on.

“I would like to say thank you to all who supported my flower shop and to all who just came in to visit and to say, ‘Hi,’” she read from a hand-written statement she wrote up to express her gratitude to her loyal customers. “You will be missed, but it’s time to hang up my apron and put my flower scissors away.”

It is time to move on to a retirement filled with family, cooking, hobbies — and flowers. Ferguson will miss working closely with her daughter, Dartha Flaherty, however, with whom she said she had a great working relationship as well as a close mother-daughter bond.

“I’ll still be just around the corner — not going far and I hope to see all of [my friends] in town,” she said, noting she also plans to work around the house and in her garden or getting together with friends. “I don’t know if I’ll have much free time.”

People have come in to ask what she might do with spare time, to which she replies, “I just might enjoy spare time.”

Her plan has been to close the business by Sept. 30, but at the rate she has been selling off, or giving away inventory, that date could be moved up.

“As soon as I put the free sign up, they came,” she laughed. “The girls over there [at the nail shop across the street] came in in droves, which is good. I sold what I could sell and what was left, I just want it to be gone.”

As Ferguson rearranged the remaining vases, she was giving away during the final days of her going-out-of-business sale on Friday, Sept. 14, she took a break to look back on her 24 years at the shop, her career in horticulture and her plans for an active retirement.

She intends to stay home and “putter around my house … cook for my family, have the kids over for dinner.”

As a young woman growing up in Saco, Maine, Ferguson got her start in the business by helping her father plant geraniums in the cemetery boxes that were a large part of his greenhouse business as well as in his garden, as he specialized more in planting than cut flowers. Her garden at home supplied quite a few of the flowers she used when she opened her own shop.

Ferguson’s children all enjoy gardening as well, and all have “lovely gardens” she says.

“I think it’s kind of in our DNA,” she said. While she is fond of sunflowers and carnations, Ferguson said she really does not have a preferred bloom. “I like them all, really.”

Prior to opening Buds & Blossoms, she worked for a flower shop in Abington for 10 years before her husband John suggested she open her own shop.

“We did it together,” she said. “I ran the flower shop and he was still working [as a brick salesman] at the time … but he was very supportive and we had a lot of fun.”

As a florist she says she enjoyed all phases of the business, from weddings and funerals to birthdays and “just because” arrangements. She also enjoyed teaching occasional flower arranging classes at Whitman Public Library.

“I just enjoyed being here,” Ferguson said. “I enjoyed doing crafts before I opened the shop and I just enjoy creating.”

She loves people and didn’t mind if customers came in just to chat rather than to buy.

Ferguson said she had planned to retire next year, but decided the fall was a better time — and she wasn’t looking forward to working around another winter.

They are a family on a mission.

For the past year and a half, Whitman native Mark Chauppetta’s Wheelchair Strong Foundation has spearheaded fundraising efforts in support of Duchenne muscular dystrophy research donations to third-party 501(c) 3 organizations such as the Kingston- based Jett Foundation. Wheelchair Strong has raised more than $30,000 in the last two years for the Jett Foundation, which also raises money for Duchenne research, and a series of 10 grants of $1,000 to families with children with various disabling diseases.

Funds are also used for advocacy.

The three-part goal of the foundation is to raise awareness for Duchenne, help all children that have diseases and to keep his twin sons Troy and Andrew Chauppetta, 23, who suffer from Duchenne, active, participating in life and proving what people in wheelchairs can achieve.

“Wheelchair Strong Foundation wouldn’t be in existence if I didn’t have those two boys … mainly because they are very bright, and they are computer savvy and graduated from [Southeastern Regional] trade school,” he said Friday. “They have degrees in design, visual communications and they know how to write code.”

Troy and Andrew built and manage the foundation’s website wheelchairstrong.com as well as their dad’s private investigations site. They also design graphics for the Wheelchair Strong logo and marketing materials for foundation events, which they also work — selling products from their own business twinteeshirts.com.

“The cool thing about the Wheelchair Strong Foundation is everything we do is entertainment- based,” Chauppetta said. “Everything we do is fun.

… I think laughter and fun and involvement have been the best medicine that Troy and Andrew could have ever had. I think it’s what’s kept them healthy and smiling and laughing and the karma has been amazing for them.”

A big part of that focus on fun has been its annual comedy fundraiser.

Comedy show

The third annual comedy night benefit for the Wheelchair Strong Foundation — Komedy for a Kause 3 — will take the stage Saturday, Oct. 6 at Plymouth Memorial Hall, 83 Court St, Plymouth. A VIP reception with appearances by Boston sports teams legends, will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m., with doors opening to the public at 7 p.m.

Headlining this year is “Police Academy” movie actor Michael Winslow, the “Man of 10,000 Sound Effects.” Also appearing will be Brockton standup comedian Dan Miller, Boston comic Dave Russo, Jerry Thornton of Barstool Sports and newcomer Harrison Stebbins, with Easy 99.1’s Tom Stewart hosting the program.

Chauppetta said The Hollywood Reporter recently ran a story announcing a new “Police Academy” movie is in the works, to feature Winslow and Steve Guttenberg as academy instructors this time out.

Tickets are now on sale at wheelchairstrong.com.

TV puppeteer Paul Fusco, the voice of cat-eating alien “ALF” has recorded a promotional spot for the show, which can be viewed on the wheelchairstrong.com site.

“My youngest, Max, who is 12 is a huge fan of ALFs,” Chauppetta said, so as a private investigator, he decided to find the actor who voiced the Alien Life Form. “I hunted down Paul Fusco, who is the creator and the voice of ALF.”

He found Fusco’s people and was able to get him a message, and agreed to do the 30-second public service announcement, with a picture of ALF seen wearing a Wheelchair Strong T-shirt from Troy and Andrew Chauppetta’s business site twinteeshirts.com.

“It’s been a great success,” Chaupetta has said of the Komedy for a Kause shows. “What I like to do every year is bring in a celebrity from the past. I’m a product of the ’80s, my wife says I’m stuck in the ’80s, I get great joy out of connecting with people, like ALF, from the ’80s.”

Chauppetta also recently sent a Wheelchair Strong Tshirt to iconic ’80s villain in shows and the move “Vision Quest,” Frank Jasper, who has also helped the foundation raise funds. “Sopranos” heavy Steve Schirripa has also been a long-time supporter of the foundation.

“It’s good exposure for us and they like helping out, Chauppetta said. “Anyone who’s seen Troy and Andrew’s story, how could they say no? They’re these motivated boys that believe in ability and not disability.”

Better perspective

The twins drive a van operated with hand-controls that look like something out of a video game, own a business and live life to the fullest, their proud dad points out.

“Probably more so than ambulatory people, because I think they have a better perspective on life because of their disease,” he said. “Their time is limited — they’re 23 years old, they’re defying the odds. They weren’t even supposed to live this long and they are extremely high-functioning, they’re extremely happy, they’re never not smiling.”

Chauppetta said they do have tough moments behind closed doors, but that the family deals with those moments as a family. “They just bring strength to everyone in our life,” he said, noting he always comes back to Whitman as a 1987 graduate of WHRHS and volunteer with the W-H wrestling team and his youngest son attends Hanson Middle School.

“I’m still active in the community here,” he said. A successful pig roast held in July at the Whitman VFW offered an opportunity for advocacy and to outline the foundation’s purpose for the public.

Chaupetta is also working to complete a feature-length documentary titled “A Father’s Fight,” slated for a local premier in January, on his journey as a father struggling to raise handicapped children.

A trailer can be viewed at wheelchairstrong.com for the film that also features Chauppetta and his sons Troy and Andrew, comic Lenny Clarke, Patrick Renna from the move “The Sandlot” and the Netflix series “Glow,” UFC fighter Joe Lauzon and a lot of family and friends. The film follows Chauppetta who, as a 50-year-old dad, trains while struggling with the decision whether he should get back in the UFC ring to raise money for his kids’ illness.

HANSON — Selectmen voted to close and sign the warrant for the Monday, Oct. 1 special Town Meeting, which will include three new articles — two dealing with potential future uses of the Maquan School building.

A half-dozen other agenda items were tabled due to the illness of Town Administrator Michael McCue, including those involving votes on adoption of an Economic Opportunity Area designation for Main Street, a contract with an auctioneer for tax title properties, possible appointment of an IT director, an intermunicipal agreement with East Bridgewater and a committee appointment policy. The items will be added to the Tuesday, Sept. 18 agenda.

Selectmen voted, on McCue’s recommendation, to remove a Highway Department cul-de-sac maintenance article. After the department received quotes for the cost, they determined the project could be funded within the current budget, according to the Selectmen’s Administrative Assistant Meredith Marini.

Replacing the Highway project as Article 10 will be an assessment of the Senior Center, one of the board’s goals recently suggested by Selectman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett.

“This [also] came up in the Maquan Reuse Committee,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “One of the things we’re thinking about is somehow could a portion of Maquan be used for the Senior Center, but of course we don’t want to move forward with that until we have a needs assessment done by the Senior Center and we know what it is they need.”

The article was placed, but no vote has yet been cast on recommending it until a dollar amount is available. Another placement without recommendation pending a dollar amount is one to protect the school building over the winter.

“Mike has now changed the [article seeking funds for] demolition of the Maquan School to securing and winterizing the building and conducting a hazardous [materials] assessment of the school,” Marini said. “We’re not going to do demolition at this time, but we’re going to button it up until some decisions are made regarding the building.”

FitzGerald-Kemmett said the winterizing and assessment article stemmed from a conversation at a recent meeting of the Maquan Reuse Committee based on preliminary work she and McCue have done. Requests for proposals and for possible plans from commercial real estate brokers were not provided and demolition estimates had run between $600,000 and $700,000.

Maquan committee

“None of that sat right with us,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “The more we talked about it, the more we all agreed that, because of where that property is located and the emotional attachment to that school and the property [being] contiguous to the library, senior center and the [Indian Head] school, we really want to maintain control over that property.”

Among the possible uses is keeping the gym/cafeteria area for community use, while razing the rest to use the property for playing fields or accessible playground.

“Fundamentally, it just doesn’t feel right to not try to use some portion of that building,” she said. “Right now the plan is to mothball — winterize — the building so it doesn’t deteriorate.”

FitzGerald-Kemmett noted the town is negotiating with the school district on extending the turnover deadline from Sept. 30 to mid-October.

The senior center assessment could also help in determining how a portion of Maquan could help both the center and library with their space needs.

“I’m really hopeful we’ll have something by spring Town Meeting,” FitzGerald- Kemmett said. “It’s ambitious, but we’re going to try.”

Marini said the estimate for insuring the vacant building was $26,000 and suggested that cost may “put a fire under everybody” to have a recommendation within the year.

“We don’t want it to turn into another High Street situation,” Marini said. McCue has also added an article designating an Economic Opportunity Area as Article 23, which Selectmen voted to place and recommend, after Article 15 — seeking an assessment of the transfer station has also been pulled, this one by the Board of Health, pending an opportunity to meet with Selectmen on the issue.

By Tracy F. Seelye and James Bentley
Express staff

Proclaiming it “our moment” and staking out the theme that U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren “has let us down,” state Rep. Geoffrey Diehl greeted supporters at the Whitman VFW Tuesday night to bask in his Republican primary win.

His margin of victory was 54.8 percent of the vote compared to 27 percent for John Kingston and 18.1 percent for Beth Lindstrom.

“While Warren has spent the last six years building a national political profile for herself, I’ve been fighting for you, and most importantly, listening to you,” Diehl said after greeting supporters with hugs as the song “This is My House,” by Flo Rida.

He is casting Warren as an out-of-touch person using Massachusetts as a stepping-stone while ignoring the benefit of the GOP tax cut, the need for immigration control and support for law enforcement, and failing her constituents on the opioid crisis.

“I will make the fight against opioid addiction a priority,” Diehl said. “We’re losing about 2,000 people to opioid-related overdoses here in Massachusetts each year. What has Senator Warren done about it? Nothing.”

He also took the opportunity to again underscore that the ballot initiative he backed to repeal automatic gas tax hikes a few years ago has saved Massachusetts residents $2 billion.

In Whitman, his hometown, voters gave Diehl 1,361, according to unofficial tallies at the close of polls with Kingston receiving 76 and Lindstrom 65 of the 25.3 percent of 10,684 registered voters casting ballots. In Hanson, with 21 percent of the town’s voters casting ballots, Diehl had 789 votes to 107 for Kingston and 57 for Lindstrom. Meanwhile, the race to fill the state representative seat Diehl is vacating will be an all-Abington contest as former Selectman Alex Bezanson staved off a challenge from Whitman union advocate Kevin Higgins to face Plymouth County DA’s office victim advocate Alyson Sullivan for the Nov. 6 general election.

“I’m going to concentrate on being a state representative, that’s all I want to do and I’m not sure any of my (Republican) opponents can say that,” Bezanson told supporters at J.R. Ryan’s Sports Bar in Abington after claiming victory.

“I am the only candidate in this race that is a working-class candidate, the only candidate who’s going to go to Beacon Hill every single day full time to be your state representative. … I’m not going to go to law school, I’m not going to use this as a stepping stone. I’ll be your full-time state representative.”

Bezanson and Higgins each carried their hometowns, with Abington giving Bezanson 939 votes to Higgins’ 369 — and Whitman supporting Higgins with 735 votes to Bezanson’s 408 — before East Bridgewater decided the matter with 340 votes for Bezanson and 214 for Higgins.

“My hometown really showed up for me and I’m really proud,” Higgins said Wednesday morning, vowing to stay involved in politics in the future.

“I was thrilled. Obviously we spend a lot of time on this campaign,” Bezanson said. “It was a tough race, it really was, but I think now’s the time to join forces, unite the party, and take this seat back to a Democrat.”

Democrats are holding a unity breakfast on Sunday, Sept. 7 at the Post 22 American Legion in Whitman hosted by state Sen. Michael Brady, D-Brockton. He said the opioid epidemic, funding for public education and taxation remain issues to watch in the run-up to November.

“Until we have a progressive graduated income tax rate, we’re not going to be able to make the significant investments in our public schools and our public services that we need to,” Higgins said. “The other important piece to that is, if we don’t fix the regressive personal income tax in Massachusetts, then our property taxes are going to continue to rise.”

Defeated Republican Greg Eaton also vowed unity in the effort to keep the seat in his party, as he attended Diehl’s victory party later that evening.

“It was not close,” he said of his own result outside of Whitman. “I am absolutely backing Alyson. She’s a good Republican, she comes from a good family and she stands for what we stand for in this party.”

Sullivan carried all three towns — 742 to 629 for Eaton in his hometown of Whitman, 1,170 to Eaton’s 151 in her hometown of Abington and 528 to 271 for Eaton in East Bridgewater. Bezanson and Higgins had both knocked on a lot of doors in their race.

“I am honored and humbled to have received the trust, confidence and support from so many people in Abington, East Bridgewater and Whitman,” Sullivan stated Wednesday. “Over these next two months, I will build upon that support, as I continue to share my goals of working with others to tackle the opioid crisis, advocating for local aid and reforming our school aid formula, and building the economy, as I seek to be the new voice for the people of Abington, East Bridgewater and Whitman.

“We contacted 1,200 people in the district that either switched to Democrat or registered as Democrat since 2016,” Bezanson said. “That’s a lot of people in this district.”

He touted his experience as the difference.

Higgins agreed he needed a smaller margin in Abington to take the district as East Bridgewater was so close.

“I’m going to concentrate on being a state representative, that’s all I want to do and I’m not sure any of my (Republican) opponents can say that,” he said before the result of the Republican Primary.

Whitman Selectman Brian Bezanson, no relation to Alex Bezanson, said Dr. Scott Lively’s showing in Whitman’s primary voting vs. Gov. Charlie Baker shows the strength of conservatism in the town. Lively garnered 499 votes in Whitman and 347 in Hanson to Baker’s 921 in Whitman and 598 in Hanson.

“Everybody wrote him off to be just a flash in the pan, but he’s had some support, and I think that should send a message to Gov. Baker that there is a conservative wing of the Republican Party and he needs to listen to them,” Brian Bezanson said. In the state representative GOP primary he said both candidates were “decent candidates that could do a good job and I think now the party will unite.”

Both Brian Bezanson and Selectman Randy LaMattina, a Democrat, expressed a degree of surprise at Higgins’ strong showing in Whitman.

WHITMAN — As the town begins work on the fiscal 2020 budget next month, Town Administrator Frank Lynam informed the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday, Aug. 28 that early calculations show a very preliminary structural deficit of $1.9 million.

A budget committee is being formed with the aim of beginning its work in mid-September. Selectmen to serve on the panel will include Scott Lambiase, who is spearheading the project and Brian Bezanson. Finance and School committee representatives will also be named to the committee, which Lambiase said could also include department heads. The Finance Committee met jointly with Selectmen Tuesday before going into its own scheduled meeting.

“I want to put a working group together, as we discussed, with some members of Finance Committee, members of this board and we talked about hopefully including the School Committee, a couple department heads, Frank [Lynam] of course,” Lambiase said. “What we want to come up with, at least in my opinion — in my thoughts — was a sort of a formula that we’ll follow this year and then, hopefully, every year going forward.”

Lynam said Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak has also expressed an interest in that work and that WHRSD Business Director Christine Suckow would also be very involved. Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski also advocated including one or two at-large community members.

Early calculations

Lynam said he has been crunching numbers to get an early picture — “a very, very rough draft” — of what an FY 2020 budget may look like.

“There’s no magic associated with this,” he said explaining that the levy limit is increased by 2 ½ percent and then by new growth taxable this year. “The tax levy that we expect to see for 2020 is $26,514,684.”

Roughly $11 million additional funds are anticipated to come in from “all other sources.”

Under contracts for employees in effect for 2020, a 2 percent increase is factored in. The school budget is estimated to be up 5 percent, or $1.5 million over the previous year, according to Suckow.

“The 5 percent in and of itself is not necessarily a back-breaker until you consider that the $23 million we get from the state for Chapter 70 money, last year increased by $100,000,” Lynam said. “It’s minimal, which means virtually all the increase will be on the burden of the two towns.”

Other educational costs such as South Shore Vocational Technical High School and Norfolk Aggie are also expected to increase for the coming fiscal year, according to Lynam.

“When you factor in the money that we’re looking at for fiscal 2020, we have a structural deficit of $1.9 million,” he said. “That’s based on everything we know right now.”

He argued that the meetings Lambiase has in mind are intended to “look at how we look at the budget,” how it is estimated and if it can be broken down to critical and non-critical components.

Joint session

Lambiase said Tuesday’s joint meeting was meant to determine what each board is looking for and information they are obtaining to avoid duplication of effort.

“How can we work together to do it?” he said.

Finance Committee Chairman Richard Anderson said his board is “definitely encouraged” by the opportunity to meet with the Selectmen and said better communications would be helpful, suggesting that the Selectmen’s liaisons with various town departments could be helpful in that effort.

“We start meeting with department heads and talking about budgets, I think more communication would be better,” Anderson said.

Lambiase agreed and said he encourages participation by all boards concerned with the budget.

“They know their departments,” Selectman Dan Salvucci said, arguing they could help find alternative ways of funding equipment they need. “They know what they can and cannot do.”

Anderson also lauded the Community Assessment as a way “to find out what kind of community we really want to be” as Kowalski has said in the past. Lambiase said that process will be helpful, but that most of the information gleaned from the assessment will be more useful for long-term planning.

Anderson said planning is vital.

“[An] override, if that’s the direction that the town goes, fails at the ballot box, we need to have a backup plan,” he said. “You can’t make it in the short amount of time that we have and that we worked with last year.”

Regional agreement

In other business, Board of Selectmen voted to table a vote on the revised WHRSD Regional Agreement due to a change in Section 9B pertaining to the process by which amendments may be made.

Amendments other than withdrawal from the region must be initiated by a vote of the School Committee through a petition signed by 10 percent of the registered voters.

“The question raised is, if the Board of Selectmen in its role as the executive board of the town had a concern or issue with the agreement … prior to signing this agreement, the board would sign a proposal for an amendment, discuss it with the schools and if the board wishes to move forward, would place it on a Town Meeting warrant,” Lynam said. “Now we need 990 registered voters to sign a petition before we can raise that question.”

Lynam said he has sent word to the School Committee that he understands its wish to maintain its responsibilities and control, but the new language takes away the Board of Selectmen’s authority to act as an executive board for the town on an issue that may involve presenting an amendment.

“The question is whether that’s important enough to hash out,” he said.

Salvucci said, as elected officials, the School Committee has authority over the region.

“Wouldn’t that be in their hands and not ours?” he asked.

“They’re not accountable to us,” Lynam said, noting the region was set up as a separate political subdivision of the state. “The question that rises here, is whether the Board of Selectmen for town of Whitman or the town of Hanson — or any town that’s in the region — should be permitted to present a proposal to amend the agreement?”

Lynam said it only requires 10 citizens to put an article on a Town Meeting warrant and suggested it is an effort to make certain that it takes a super-majority of the towns to make a change in the agreement. Bezanson noted the town doesn’t always see 990 voters turn out for an election.

“That’s been my view all along,” said Selectman Randy LaMattina. “We’ve gone from powers of this board that have worked [and] now, for no apparent reason, giving them away.”

LaMatinna urged the board to make specific recommendations for how the agreement should be changed, but Lambiase had already made the motion to table it and declined to withdraw his motion.

Lynam said he had other concerns with portions of the agreement that were required by statute, but the amendment procedure is not covered by statute.