ROCKLAND – Every year, a tractor-trailer truck, painted with patriotic designs on the cab and a scene of Arlington National Cemetery on the trailer’s sides, visits towns across the country raising awareness – and some donations – about the Wreaths Across America mission to honor and decorate the graves of the nation’s fallen in uniform.
Last year, the truck was visited 28 western states.
On Saturday, Nov. 18, it rolled into Rockland to take part in an annual Veterans’ Symposium at 110 Fitness, 200B Weymouth St. location The following day, the team was scheduled for a town near Portland, Maine at a Walmart distribution center, followed by stops in a couple other Maine communities before the other team took the driver’s seat after Thanksgiving.
Every year, on the third Saturday in December – this year on Dec. 16 – it makes its way, as part of a convoy, to Arlington to decorate military graves there. But that isn’t the only mission of the program.
It’s the most frequently asked question by people visiting the truck.
“Every grave that a veteran is laid to rest around the world [is decorated through the program],” Wreaths Ambassador Robert Z. Easley, who is the son and grandson of veterans, said. “We make, we produce and provide the wreaths with the sponsorships that come attached to those and we send them out on the convoy to coordinators and sponsor groups. That way they and their volunteers can take them out to the graves that they’re managing.”
The wreaths are made in Columbia Falls. Maine.
Easily stressed these are not Christmas wreaths and are not purchased – they are sponsored.
“That’s always key,” Easley said. “We are a 501 (c)3 organization and have to be very careful with verbiage.”
“This is the coolest thing,” said one woman touring the trailer’s displays before a group of Hanson Scouts listened to a video presentation on the program and a special “Welcome Home” ceremony for a Vietnam veteran who attends the Rock Steady Boxing program at 110 Fitness.
“Oh, no. What did I do wrong?” Chip Maury said on being summoned to the small stage build on one side of the trailer’s interior.
“Nothing yet,” quipped Wreaths Driver/Ambassador Richard Schneider, who is a Navy veteran. “This gentleman here is a Vietnam veteran. … When they came home, they didn’t get welcomed home, so we’re going to welcome him home.”
A government program provides a proclamation letter signed with the name of one of the presidents of a veterans’ preference between the last three, thanking them for their service and welcoming them home, a pin from the Department of Defense and a challenge coin from Wreaths.
“That’s really something, isn’t it? Signed by my favorite president,” Maury said, pointing to the signature of Barak Obama on his welcome home letter after the ceremony. “This is impressive. I had no idea he was going to [do this].”
“We always stress we are non-political, we’re non-denominational,” Easley said after the brief ceremony. “That’s what they fought for, that’s what’s important.”
The truck is invited by coordinators or sponsor groups to help coordinators generate interest in sponsoring more wreaths for their cemeteries they help manage and maintain as well as drawing more interest in getting more coordinators.
“I want to be very hesitant when I quote a number like this, but we’re looking at more than 20 million vets like this laid to rest around the world and the mission is to get a wreath placed on every veteran’s grave around the world,” Easley said. “We do wreaths [for those buried at sea] that are made just a little bit differently – instead of the metal ring that holds the bouquets in place, it is a biodegradable ring.”
Right now, the truck is the only one the organization has, staffed with two crews of two that switch out every two to three weeks.
“We’ve been on a waiting list for two years and were finally able to secure it for the week after Veterans Day, which is awesome,” 110 Fitness owner and Rock Steady Boxing instructor Brett Miller said of the Wreaths Across America team’s visit to his annual Veteran’s Outreach event. “This is all about awareness for them – how the Wreaths Across America movement happened.”
Wreaths’ Easley confirmed that the waiting list is two years “and waiting.”
“This is the only truck we have,” he said. “It’s two teams, but we cycle out every two to three weeks.”
The veterans’ event, originally slated to be held in Weymouth and was to also include a parachute team, but rainy weather forced the change in location and program.
“We’re making do with what we have, we’re an adaptive group and that’s what we do,” Miller said of the 110 Boxing gym’s programs, which also include the use of yoga, strength training and other fitness methods to help Parkinson’s patients improve their quality of life. He also organizes other awareness and outreach programs on the disease and is an ambassador for both the Michael J. Fox and Davis Phinney foundations.
“We have all kinds of folks representing veterans’ groups as well as organizations for people with Parkinson’s – the Michael J. Fox Foundation and the Boston VA,” Miller said.
The gym has been in operation in Rockland for seven years, and Miller has been training and treating people with Parkinson’s as a physical therapist for more than 15 years. Veterans’ programs are conducted every week at the facility as the Boston VA holds weekly boxing classes, with one or two big events held every year, of which the Nov. 18 symposium was one.
Some of those representatives were personally familiar with Parkinson’s, as well.
“My brother in-law has Parkinson’s and works out at this gym,” VA Outreach Coordinator for the Cape and Islands Outreach Specialist Adam Doerfler said about attending the event at Rockland’s 110 Fitness. “I went to the [annual fundraising] gala that they had and Brett mentioned it … and I said, ‘I work at the VA, do you mind if we come to provide some veterans’ outreach?’”
Doerfler attended the event to fill veterans in on a federal PTSD readjustment mental health clinic, which includes services for combat veterans, active duty soldiers, victims of military sexual assault, individual and couples counseling.
“I help victims sort of connect the dots on VA services and benefits,” he said. He was joined at the event by colleagues from the Boston and Brockton VA offices.
Plymouth County Suicide Prevention also staffed a booth at the symposium, as it’s estimated that an average of 22 veterans are lost to suicide every day.
“It’s a very important cause to me,” said Jenny Babcock. “I’m a loss survivor – I lost someone to suicide. I want to be out there helping people.”
Her organization also teaches suicide prevention classes at Hanson’s Calvary Baptist Church. Among the informational brochures and giveaways Babcock had on hand were gun locks as well as information on the national suicide prevention 988 number.
“We have a lot of stuff that we put out, but I kind of tweak it to what the event is,” she said. Babcock and her booth partner on Nov. 18 are both trainers for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention as well, which falls under the Mass. Department of Public Health, which allows them to go out to communities to conduct free trainings.
A family’s Thanksgiving to remember
By Linda Ibbitson Hurd
Special to the Express
My paternal grandparents Edrice (pronounced Eedriss) and Cyril, better known as “Spud,” mainly because he was a potato grower, lived in a big blue house across an expansive dirt driveway that was next door to us with my Grampa’s garage in between our two houses. Behind all this was a virtual haven of pastures, a brook and the woods beyond that was our playground growing up.
Gram and Grampa raised eight children, my dad being the oldest, in this big old house of many rooms. The attic being my favorite where I spent many hours going on adventures in the many books that were there.
We went to my grandparents for Thanksgiving off and on through the years and the year I was seventeen was a special one as all my aunts, uncles and cousins were able to come that year. The big round table in the dining room brought me back to the Knights of the Round Table stories. I loved the table because when we sat down, we could all see each other.
Wonderful aromas filled the house as we all helped carry things to the table. My Uncle John was carving the turkey while my dad was slicing the ham. Finally, we were all seated, grace was said, and the meal began. Somehow the conversation got around to the first time my father brought my mother home to meet his family before they were married. All of us grandchildren became curious, as this brought grins and laughter to the table.
Both mom and dad had been in the service during WWII, she in the Waves as a long-distance telephone operator, he in the Seabees. They met in California while horseback riding. Dad reports that a good-looking brunette on horseback rode past him and he knew she was the one for him. Mom says she fell right away for a good-looking blonde man who rode up beside her. They kept in touch even after mom was discharged and went home to Burlington, Vt. In 1945, the first Thanksgiving that dad was out of the Service, he invited mom to Thanksgiving dinner to meet his family.
Mom was both excited and nervous as she was introduced to dad’s parents, his younger brothers and sisters and my great grandmother who was senile and in a wheelchair. Dad and some of his siblings gave mom a tour of the yard while Gram and the older kids helped get dinner on the table. Mom, being an animal lover was taken with the cows, pigs, hens, Harry the big gray workhorse, the barn cats and the dog.
When they all sat down for dinner, Grampa pushed his mother’s wheelchair to the table. A plate was ready which was given to her, and she seemed quite content. As the family talked and enjoyed each other, great grandma went unnoticed as she began to point to a bowl in the middle of the table. Again, she pointed but no one seemed to be paying any attention. When she stood up heads began to turn but before anyone could do anything she reached across the table for the potatoes, her false teeth fell in the gravy bowl, she reached in the bowl, plucked them out, put them back in her mouth, grabbed the potatoes and sat down. After an astonished moment gales of laughter rang out around the table.
My grandfather told my father that if my mother didn’t bolt after that she was a keeper and he better marry her fast!
They were married the following July in the Hanson Baptist Church.
Eagle Scout project gives back to vets
HANSON – When Scout Jack Rasa sets a goal, he meets it.
He began in Scouting at age 6, becoming a Boy Scout at age 10 in Lakeville, where his family then lived, and had the goal of being an Eagle Scout in mind from the start.
He’s attended two Scouting High Adventures on his own, joining with a Lynnfield Troop to achieve one – a trek in Maine that included 50 miles of hiking and canoeing, as well as climbing Mt. Katahdin. The other attending the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico and he is on a waiting list for Sea Base in Florida next April.
“You’re on a ship for week,” he said. The ship is equipped with a lab and will be studying the coral reefs. While there is no merit badge linked to High Adventures, they’ve lived up to their name for a youth who has looked forward to a career as an environmental police officer since he was a kid.
Attaining the rank of Eagle Scout, however, is a whole other level of challenge.
There are 14 merit badges that are required – as well as a minimum of seven others, totaling 21 – for a Scout to obtain before 18, in addition to an Eagle project, to attain that rank. Jack has 60 merit badges. There are many levels of leadership roles and other requirements (camping nights, knife handling, fire safety, etc…to achieve during one’s Boy Scout years, too. Only .04 percent of Scouts achieve the rank.
Jack has also attended 16 different summer camps, averaging three per summer from Maine to New Hampshire, Connecticut, Vermont and Rhode Island as well as New Mexico.
The Troop 38 Hanover Scout has been something of a merit badge machine in his 11 years of Scouting, which made it difficult at times to find a troop that didn’t view him as “too active.”
“He’s done a tremendous amount of activities thanks to the opportunities Scouting and assertive leaders have offered him,” said his mom, Pam Rasa.
“Jack has done so many things,” she said. “I think he earned every single belt loop that they had in Cub Scouts. [His Scoutmaster] said, ‘He’s earned everything, he just has to get his project done.’”
He’s fundraised by emptying bottle, can and two-litre plastics bins at the Hanover transfer station. He organized fellow Scouts to sort and bag them then place the bottles and cans in a canister which is taken to the redemption center directly from the Hanover transfer station.
Jack is equally driven in his education and career goals, planning to enter the Coast Guard after graduating from Bristol County Agricultural High School in Dighton and then to pursue a career in environmental policing.
Among the things that made Bristol Aggie a good fit was that Mass. Environmental Police work with the Natural Resource Management major to protect endangered turtles in Massachusetts and use the school as a go-to for confiscated reptiles.
Jack also hopes to attend Mass. Maritime Academy to major in environmental management.
“The environmental police have programs with both schools,” he said. “I’ve been wanting to do environmental policing since I was 7.” As a kid, he enjoyed watching the reality show, “Northwoods Law.”
Service has also been important in his life. It was, in fact, his brother’s service in the Army, including a deployment to Afghanistan, that inspired his Eagle project – doing some maintenance at the Hanson American Legion Post on Richardson Road not far from where his family lives. Craig Sutherland, his brother, had served in the Army National guard for six years including his deployment.
“Because of my brother, I think that I want to do the military so that I can also serve my country, and show respect for him,” he said. “I hope to do aviation in the Coast Guard and probably work with helicopters.
Work underway
He’s already replaced a section of stockade fence, and plans to have the flagpole repainted – with the help of the Hanson Fire Department – clearing around a back fence, replacing a ramp to a storage shed and having the gutters cleaned.
In fact, he had spoken to a gutter company and asked him to do the work at the Legion, as Eagle Scout candidates are not expected to do the actual labor themselves, but to supervise the work of others – in other words, exhibiting leadership.
As it happened Legion Junior Vice David George, who also serves on the Hanson Select Board, had a gutter service coming that afternoon, Pam Rasa said.
“[George] said he could have credit for that because it’s something we needed to get done,” she said.
“He can do just about whatever he wants, but I don’t think it’s a good idea for anyone to be on a ladder or on the roof, as that is a huge liability,” George said. “Jack will be receiving credit for all projects.”
That could include the roof itself.
Aaron Blinn, a veteran and owner of Frontline Fence, on Charles Street in Hanson and “made this happen for Jack,” Pam said, suppling the materials and put the fence in at no cost. The gutter guy did it for free, as will George with his brand-new sign.
They are looking for a local mason, who is also a veteran, to help point the firepit at the post, too.
Jack has his best friend, Caleb Clemens, and his truck coming to help move the debris out back, and the Troop will put in a day’s work to complete the rest, probably the Friday or Saturday after Thanksgiving, weather permitting.
The sign replacement on Jack’s list for repainting and replacing the decals, which are worn, yellowed and peeling, was another task George, who owns a sign company was going to do, so he said the Scout could help him put it in and receive credit.
“He was just really accommodating,” Pam Rasa said. “He said, ‘Anything else you think of, and I so appreciate you being here and doing this.’”
Help from friends
Pam said George’s David’s ownership of a sign business made an unexpected gift fall into their laps and Jack had filed the paperwork listing the gutters and sign before David stepped forward gifting him with the gutter cleaning and sign replacement. While the medallions are not on Jack’s list, but he is working to get them done, also.
She also knows a roofer who can help with the Legion’s need for maintenance work the organization estimates would cost them about $10,000 for the materials they need. The Legion has all the volunteer labor they need for that project.
“That’s not on Jack’s list either, but I’m going to make a call and see if we can get a really killer deal on materials,” she said. “This is just a great project and its giving back to Hanson where we live.”
The work needs to be done by the end of the year, because Scoutmaster Gary Martin has moved Jack’s Eagle Court of Honor up to Jan. 6, 2024.
“I’m thinking of just scheduling a couple of dates to just get stuff done, because no matter who comes, I’ll be there and I can start some work,” Jack said.
One more thing on the holiday list of a can-do Scout.
Hanson seeks equal seat at cleanup table
HANSON – Sometimes when you want a seat at the table, you have to set the table yourself.
The Select Board had made their expectation and demand – during a September meeting with the state DEP and the EPA – for a seat at the decision-making table regarding the cleanup at the former National Fireworks factory site, were left wanting when the next joint informational meeting was scheduled in Hanover, at that town’s insistence.
“Hanover is still pinpointed to have the forum, but I also asked the question if they could have a second forum, possibly in Hanson, for people who could not make the first one,” said Town Administrator Lisa Green told the board on Tuesday, Nov. 7.
While Hanson officials will be attending a January 2024 session in Hanover – and encourage residents to attend – Hanson officials will also be insisting on a separate meeting in Hanson, which the other communities are also invited to attend.
They are also putting it in writing, to the DEP and Gov. Maura Healey.
The DEP and EPA had discussed having a community forum involving the towns of Hanson, Hanover and Pembroke to provide an update on the site cleanup for residents.
“In working with Hanover to try to get this scheduled, we were narrowing in on a date in December to have the forum in Hanover, unfortunately, we just got an email from the EPA that due to some timing issues and conflicts, they have to move the community meeting to January,” Green said.
“Ms. Green told me it was going to be in Hanover, and I said, ‘And here we go again,” said Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett. “Were we not clear with the folks who were here before that we want to have a seat at the table. That Hanson needs to be taken seriously, that Hanover’s been driving the bus the whole time?”
Green reached out to Hanover, finding that town’s manager to be “let’s say, reluctant – non-cooperative, maybe” to have the forum in Hanson FitzGerald-Kemmett said. She asked Green to bring the matter to the board in case it was just her that felt this way.
She was not alone.
“I’m right there with you,” said Select Board member Ann Rein.
“Can we take the reins and just say we’ll schedule a time [and have a forum]?” Select Board member Ed Heal asked.
There have been separate public meetings before.
“But I really thought it would be nice to show a partnership and collaboration,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “Cleary, that was a bit overly optimistic on my part.”
Green said that the one night that works for the EPA and DEP may not work for town officials and residents, so it is hoped that having a second session in Hanson might fill the need for all towns.
“You’re being extremely diplomatic,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
“We were all on the same page, trying to not only be as collaborative and inclusive as possible with those two particular towns, but with other towns that also might not have been considered that also wanted to have a voice,” Vice Chair Joe Weeks said, asking if Hanson should communicate their request in writing for a more prominent seat.
“Different people learn in different ways,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “Perhaps [one] is not an auditory learner, so we’ll put it in writing to you.”
Heal argued the need to “really push the governor at the same time as the DEP.”
While Green said collaboration was important, she agree with FitzGerald-Kemmett that such overtures to Hanover had been rebuffed in the past and that town seemed to be digging in its heels on the point now. While she would be glad to reach out to the chair of Hanover’s board, Hanson wants to have more equal role as the cleanup gets closer to its backyard.
“Hanover can only take the lead if the DEP lets them,” she said.
“We’re at the table, but it’s not in equal seats,” Weeks agreed. Hanson should start leading and inviting other towns to come to them.
While Conservation Agent Frank Schellenger and Health Agent Gil Amado also agreed with taking a stronger stance, but argued it was very important not to exclude themselves from the Hanover meeting.
The Select Board members also plan on going to the Hanover meeting.
“That town has been more invested on a regular basis,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “I think they probably have more citizens that have been following this more closely than we probably have. … We’re a little late to the game.”
About a bear
In other business, the Select Board moved to clarify the Police Department’s options regarding the black bear roaming around town, having already munched on livestock as well as bee hives and birdfeeders.
“First and foremost, I want to say that we have first responders, who are experts,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said, noting it has been a subject of heated debate on Facebook. “They are professionals in the job they do, and the Police Department is one of those groups. We hire them for their expertise and we hire them to do a job – and at some point, we have to defer to those experts.”
Police Chief Michael Miksch has been consulting with Mass. Fisheries and Wildlife officials about options regarding the bear, she noted.
“You’re not going to find anyone who loves Burrage [conservation management area], wildlife, anything more than I do,” she said. But Miksch and Mass. Wildlife have identified one particular bear that has, on a number of occasions, killed livestock and demonstrated little fear of humans.
“That increases the level of concern,” she said.
Options available
FitzGerald-Kemmett quoted Mass. Wildlife as saying its “staff are coordinating with local police and environmental police to monitor this situation. While the bear has attacked livestock, it has not exhibited behavior that poses a direct threat to human safety. Mass. Wildlife is not attempting to euthanize the bear, however lethal removal by law enforcement may be required if they determine there is a threat to public safety.”
Mass. Wildlife has said that relocation is not an option for bears causing property damage as it would “transfer this problem behavior to another community. Bears that have learned to raid chicken coops or kill livestock will not stop that behavior if they are moved elsewhere.”
The only situations in which bears are removed to another location are to remove an immediate public safety threat in urban areas – not caused by the animal’s behavior but by their proximity to people and could cause a vehicle collision.
“It is possible that the bear will move out of the area on its own,” she quoted Mass. Wildlife as saying. But they spend more time in residential areas looking for birdfeeders, trash, unprotected backyard chickens, goats and outdoor pets.
Mass. Wildlife officials have already spoken to property owners who have experienced bear-related damage, offering tips on removing food services and protecting livestock.
“What they’re saying is, if you truly love these bears then don’t make them feel welcome in your back yard,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. That includes holiday pumpkins, which it has been photographed doing.
Rein objected to the tone of Mass. Wildlife’s statement toward property owners.
“Yes, the bears are here, but they just got here,” she said. “Expecting everyone to be prepared for something that they weren’t expecting and castigating them because they’re complaining because their animals are getting killed is so wrong, I can’t even.”
They did their due diligence for the predators they know are here, Rein said.
“I’ve got bees,” she said. “I got a visit from the bear, but it ended well.” Her chickens are protected, and her bees will be.
“Nothing could have predicted this,” Rein added. “That this one bear is that bold.” By taking care to protect their property and livestock, they are protecting the bear, she said.
SST project moving ahead
HANOVER – A joint meeting of the South Shore Tech School Committee and School Building Committee on Wednesday, Oct. 25 voted 7-0, with one member absent, on the procedure for bringing a school renovation or expansion project to the voters in its eight member towns.
They also voted to authorize the building project team to submit the preliminary design program (PDP) draft to the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) including the educational plan.
The Building Committee meets again on Thursday, Nov. 2 and the SST School Committee meets next on Wednesday, Nov. 15. A community meeting in Whitman is scheduled for 7 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 14 in Whitman Town Hall. Similar meetings are scheduled for Nov. 9 in Marshfield and Dec. 5 in Rockland.
All those attending the Zoom session have a vested interest in knowing how the district would ask their communities to weigh in on an eventual school project, according to Superintendent-Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey, in introducing bond counsel Rick Manley from the firm Lockelord.
“Rick has been a huge help to us over the years – including all the years when we were hoping we’d get in [to the MBSA project pipeline] and a lot of ‘what ifs,’” Hickey said. The School Committee has the power to determine how the district will ask its voters for their approval or disapproval of a project.
“It is on our agenda tonight for you to take action,” he said, noting it requires a two-thirds of all committee members voting to pass.
Assuming regional school debt can be done in two different ways, Manley said.
“It sounds as though, at this preliminary [point] you’d like to consider going to the towns in a district-wide election to seek approval,” he said. A majority of voters – 51 percent – casting affirmative votes during that election, regardless as to town, would pass the measure by voting un favor.
The district could also opt for a town-by-town election process.
“When you know what the total amount’s going to be, that you’ve gotten approval from MSBA, you then vote to approve the debt, subject to an election happening, on town meeting warrants,” based on the committee’s vote, Manley said.
Not only question, but the polling hours – no longer than eight hours on an election day for each town – should be the in all eight towns. The district is not required to go before town meetings to appropriate the money.
Whitman representative Dan Salvucci asked if ballot questions would include what each town’s share of the project cost would be.
He noted that both Whitman and Abington have projects going at the present time, which could affect the response from those two towns, he said.
“If we decide to put on the cost for each town – Whitman is 24 percent, a quarter of the bill – and we’ve got a DPW project that’s going on right now, so I don’t know how the residents of Whitman are going to feel about that,” Salvucci said. “Because we need the school.”
Manley said it is possible to do that, and has been done by a couple other district, but indicated the best information that could be offered is the approximate share of the principal of the borrowing.
“This ballot question is not asking a town how they’re going to pay for it,” Hickey said. “Some communities would handle that separately.”
Manley agreed that there is no legal authority for a district to put a debt exclusion question on its ballot. Select Boards must do that.
Communities must also come to agreement on the number of polling places being operated for the vote.
“We try very hard as we advise on one of these to kind of bring everybody along to a consensus to that,” he said. Because turnout is lower for this kind of election, Manley’s firm has advised all communities they work with, including cities like Chelsea and Revere to have just one polling place open.
Voters would also be limited to voting on the day of the election or through the absentee voting process.
“We’ve been advised at the Secretary of State’s office that early voting is not permitted for one of these elections,” Maley said. “The reason for that, I believe, is because the activity of early voting can be opted in or not.”
That would create problems for the requirement of uniformity in access to the voting process.
Hickey said the special election on the school would be in January 2025 – after the 2024 general election.
“There’s enough time to orient everyone, to bring our town clerks together,” he said. “They’re the experts at how to do this. Let’s work with them to develop a mechanism with doing nothing last-minute.”
The educational plan amended during the meeting is part of the preliminary design program (PDP) summary.
“This is a significant next step in our process,” Hickey said.
Jen Carlson from project management firm Left Field reviewed building options and comparative cost analyses.
Carl Franchesci of architectural firm DRA, said the four components of the PDP are the educational program for a range of student populations between the current 645 and the maximum 975 which the MSBA would consider; an existing conditions assessment; site development requirements and preliminary options.
More than half the current building space is insufficient and/or fails to meet today’s standards for the current enrollment. Site development requirements are also addressed in the PDP.
Of the four options facing the district at the start of the process – base repair, renovation, addition/renovation and new construction – base repair and renovation have been ruled out.
The addition/renovation and new construction options could add from 188,000 square feet to 278,000 square feet to the building in one of five design choices, for a total of 25 options. The options also include choices of the site layout with the building and athletic fields in differing locations.
“For any of these enrollments that are being considered, greater than what you have today, it’s highly likely … we’re going to need a wastewater treatment plant,” Franchesci said.
Preliminary cost estimates – for comparative purposes only – at this stage, which are based on square-footage alone,
The numbers provide an indication of what options could be close in price or preferable to another, but are not actual construction cost numbers.
“It might influence us to make some decisions, but it’s not the headline that we’ve got the answer on how much it’s going to cost,” Hickey said.
“We’ve tried to account for where the costs in each option will be so we can compare apples to apples,” Carlson said.
She indicated the MSBA was planning to increase the cost per square foot on Oct. 26, which they did.
Very preliminary figures – for comparison purposes only – for all complete project costs in all design options for a new building range from $293,737,225 for a 645-student building to $329,912,113 for a building that can accommodate 750 students. Total construction costs are estimated at $234,989.780 to $263,929,690 for a new building.
Salvucci noted that portable classrooms for an addition/renovation option are projected at $11 million all by themselves.
“It’s kind of like a waste of money to go renovation rather than new,” he said.
“That’s the trend we’re seeing right now across all of our projects, that an add/reno is either becoming more expensive or as expensive as new construction,” Carlson said.
Salvucci said the committee has to decide how many students they think will be enrolled in the school by the time it is built as well as in the future, especially as more towns have expressed interest in becoming member communities.
“That becomes the sweet spot question of how much access can we afford to give a very popular form of education in our region,” Hickey said.
SST enrollment is now at 671, according to Hickey, but the MSBA required the district to consider what a building at that enrollment would cost.
“In my opinion, if you were to put a feeling behind some of these enrollment numbers, I would say the 645 [option] makes things worse,” he said. “Whatever I’m saying is going to have to be attached to a price tag, and ultimately, we’ve got to find something affordable, but if we can limit the question to ‘Can we service kids with these numbers? The 645 is less capacity than what we have now … 750 students would be kind of like our current situation plus Marshfield.”
At 805, the school would begin to solve its waiting list issues, but that is not the MSBA’s concern in approving a building. Hickey said the question of enrollment permitted by the design phase will continue at the Nov. 2 meeting.
“They want to make sure that the spaces in the building match up to the ed[ucational] plan,” Carlson said. “That’ll also help you to make decisions.”
Hanson revisits strategic planning
HANSON – Town officials tackled questions of better communication and efficient use of town properties as the Select Board hosted another strategies planning session on Tuesday, Oct. 17 at Camp Kiwanee’s Needles Lodge.
Following brief updated from Town Administrator Lisa Green, IT Director Steve Moberg, Town Accountant Eric Kinsherf, and Planner Anthony DeFrias, the officials from town departments toward solving problems in the session that lasted about an hour.
The focus of their work was in the areas of interdepartmental and intra-departmental communication; communication with the community; and maintenance and optimization of assets such as town buildings.
“How do we make money out of the buildings that we’ve got and the assets that we have?” Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “We need to take care of things, but how do we get the money out of them as well?”
Green said IT director Moberg, who was unable to attend, has worked on a new web platform for the town, which has a site map and Moberg is beginning to reach out to departments and committees to determine if links need updating with information such as committee membership.
Kinsherf provided a post-town meeting financial snapshot of town finances, including the $1.4 million, $1.4 million in stabilization, another “couple of thousand” in school stabilization for projects, $145,000 in Camp Kiwanee retained earnings and $772,000 in the ambulance fund.
“I think we’re in pretty solid shape,” he said, but still expects to see a $1.3 million shortfall when the budget process for fiscal 2025 begins. “[But], the more eyes and ears on the budget, the better. I actually like that.”
DeFrias reported that the town has received grants for pedestrian improvements near the MBTA station on Main Street and another toward the town’s master plan for which the Old Colony Planning Council had met with the Planning Committee to develop a steering committee by next June.
Green said grant funding is also pending for a new heating pumps at Town Hall and two hybrid police cruisers. Another grant is funding the capital improvement plan.
“We’re making strides in terms of getting information out there,” Green said.
Facilitator Ann Donner, instead of having officials break out into groups they were already involved in, asked the meeting as a whole to “look at particular challenges or issues … and to think outside the box,” encouraging officials to be involved in areas they may not have been involved with before.
“It’s that outside thinking that really helps advance our work in these areas,” she said, breaking the meeting into three groups to examine problem areas and come up with specific actions to help arrive at an answer or solution.
Following the 30-minute break-out sessions, the groups reported on their discussions to the meeting as a whole.
DeFrias, speaking on communication with the community pointed to social media as a major tool the town might use with links placed on the town website. Tying the town’s newsletter to the website and submitting information to the Express and cable access channel were discussed. The newspaper and cable access information could also be linked to social media in an effort to get more exposure to the public, he said.
Outreach to schools and the use of an information kiosk at Town Hall were also options.
“Obviously, as we all know, the town as well as the country and the state, are aging, and how do we get other people involved?” he said, describing the need for reaching out to the schools. “You need to get younger citizens involved. … At some point, they’re going to become voters and Hanson, like many towns, has one of the last forms of democratic government – it’s people that vote.”
Fire Chief Robert O’Brien Jr., reported on the discussion about internal communications. He said an ad hoc group between the fire and building departments, the Board of Health and the town administrator, has been meeting weekly for the past couple of months.
“It’s been very well-received within our departments and … we’ve been able to fix a bunch of things before they become issues,” he said. A monthly meeting between all town departments to increase the number of people involved and able to have input and the resources that can be put to work.
“It doesn’t have to be just department heads,” he said. “We’ve already got a meeting for that.”
Frank Milisi reported on the discussion about optimizing the use of town properties, beginning with making an inventory of town assets and the condition of them.
“We have to ask ourselves three questions: Is it serving a public purpose? What are the maintenance costs? And, if we’re not using it, is there an opportunity to rent, lease or sell?” he said.
“It’s a matter of prioritization,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “We’ve got a lot of good feedback, and hopefully you guys have felt like, even just from the first meeting to now, some of the ideas that have come up, you have moved on them. Lisa has moved on them, the board has moved on them, you guys have moved on them – there’s discernable progress.”
Changes ahead in ed policy?
It’s that time of year, again when the Mass. Association of School Committees (MASC) seeks support of resolutions regarding educational issues at its annual conference.
As there are often some controversial topics on that list, this year is no different, as the W-H School Committee voted on Wednesday, Oct. 11 to support higher fines for passing school buses and changes to the MCAS test, while expressing concern about a requirement for a diversity coordinator and rejecting a safe gun storage education plan as outside a school committee’s responsibility.
The recommendation calling on the General Court to enact legislation to give cities and towns the ability to install digital detection monitoring systems on school buses in the interest of pursuing fines against drivers who pass stopped school buses as well as legislation raising those fines.
The fines are intended to be a “significant schedule of fines” as a penalty for the violations either witnessed by a police officer or recorded by a digital video monitor. The equipment would be a district expense.
Right now, the fine is $200.
“Is there a way the [expected] $41.8 million in tickets could be sent back to us?” Member Glen DiGravio asked. “That would be fantastic. It would pay for itself.”
Member Fred Small said the legislature was speaking about that possibility.
“If this came through in legislation, I’m sure there would be grant funding for safety and security from the governor’s office so that all buses would have that,” Szymaniak said.
The MASC has also recommend all districts appoint a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) coordinator to work toward anti-racism is only putting a title to a person, Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak said. The MASC is recommending that all districts adopt the position at its annual conference this month.
“We have that person in place,” he said. “If it has to be a certain, specific title, that makes me a little anxious.”
They hired Director of Equity and MTSS Nicole Semas-Schneeweis
School Committee on Wednesday, Oct. 11, but Szymaniak expressed concern that, he would have to rename the position and take away other responsibilities.
Committee member David Forth, who will represent the W-H School Committee at the MASC asked for guidance as to what questions he should ask.
“You can get up and speak and tell why we voted that way or what our question is,” Chair Beth Stafford said.
DiGravio asked if the resolution would make the position mandatory for school districts that don’t already have it and if there are districts that don’t have such a position now.
“These are just recommendations,” Stafford said.
Stafford asked the committee for meeting norms they wished to suggest for discussion and possible adoption. They will be revisited at the next meeting, when a full committee could attend. Member Steve Bois was absent from the meeting.
The review of MCAS results is also up for a change as the MCAS seeks a more consensus-building wider approach to an evaluation system with “meaningful input from legitimate stakeholders,” investigating the extent of bias in the testing and seeking an immediate moratorium on the MCAS test while an alternative method is developed.
Stafford reminded the School Committee that the MTA is sponsoring a petition to put the issue on a ballot.
“The devil we know is better than the devil we don’t know,” said committee member Hillary Kniffen, who teaches sophomore English. “It’s not going away, they’re talking about replacing it with something else. … I worry about this.”
MTA is working to remove the MCAS a graduation requirement.
DiGravio asked for clarification about what the resolution means by “high-stakes” and “bias.” The stakes are that students must pass it to graduate.
Bias, on the other hand, pertains to cultural bias in the wording of questions, especially for students who come from another country, and problematic accommodations for students with learning differences.
“It is a flawed test, to say the least,” Kniffen said.
“I have always been against it being a graduation requirement because I have a grandson who has Down Syndrome,” Stafford said. “He’ll never be able to pass that and not being able to do a portfolio [demonstrating his learning progress], why can’t he get a diploma?”
She said he would receive a certificate of attendance instead.
“Not good enough,” DiGravio said.
Both Kniffen and Stafford said they have never taught to the test.
Another bias is that students attending private schools do not have to take the MCAS to graduate.
Szymaniak said research has never support the efficacy of high-stakes tests. The committee endorsed the three resolutions and voted on several others.
Vice Chair Chris Scriven said the committee members should “all remember that they’re one of 10. We best serve our committee and our constituents when we act as a committee,” he said.
Member David Forth said communication and collaboration are important. Members do not always see things eye-to-eye, but the two approaches have helped reach an understanding of each other that benefits teamwork.
Member Hillary Kniffen said that once action has been taken on a vote, members should support the official position of the School Committee. It is a norm she has found in researching several other such outlines of norms across the state.
“The time to discuss our viewpoints [on a specific issue] … to have those conversations with people in the community and send emails, is prior to when that public hearing and vote is going to be taking place, not after,” she said.
Stafford said she wants to see the committee come to meetings with an open mind, members should think before they speak, treat one another as professionals and have a suggestion for every complaint.
Public Comment, again focused on the proposed Whitman Middle School project with Finance Committee member Rosemary Connolly spoke about an agenda item dealing with public presentations, noting there are locations available for them at libraries, the WHCA public access channel.
“I want the public to understand that school committees have very complex jobs,” she said. “School committee budgets are separate from municipal budgets – not just regionals, but also in regular towns and cities – because they have to adhere to strict laws and procedures.”
She also said school committees have to meet student achievement and reasonable cost goals to present to their towns.
“That’s a big ball to carry in a [relatively] short meeting,” she said, and they are provided with a lot of vetted information from sources including the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. “To have a public entity come in and introduce something, could end up being political theater and it could be an abuse of the public trust that we swear to uphold.”
Connolly explained that Whitman’s Finance Committee and Select Board have each run into such situations unintentionally after allowing the public to come in to make presentations.
The Finance Committee had identified a weakness in busing and brought it to the schools about January 2022. Two citizens then came forward with a solution, presented as fact in a public meeting of both boards she said. The public thought the information was true, but Connolly said it was determined to be fraud in a meeting with DESE.
The problem identified by the Finance Committee still has not been solved, but “all of this theater had the public believing that it had been fixed,” and has caused political mistrust. Connolly said the people who put the “solution” forward have been looked on as experts and she fears the “face would be given” to the problem again.
Select Board member Justin Evans of Candlewick Lane, spoke to the decision the committee faces in the decision to borrow for the Whitman Middle School project: level debt vs. level principal.
“The way the town has always borrowed for projects has been by level principal, that way you take a premium the first year and the payments decline each year after that,” he said, noting there are other projects on the horizon. “That lets the town build other capital projects in over the 30 years it’s taking that debt out.”
Select Board member Shawn Kain of Forest Street spoke again about the public comment period.
“I don’t know why this is such an important issue to me,” he said, noting that he has been reflecting on why that is, but the closest thing he said he could come up with is that members of the public could come to a meeting and share. “I believe it’s very important that people can actively participate in that process,” he said of the way people used to be permitted to also speak during debate of issues before votes are taken.
Fireworks cleanup report
HANSON – Representatives from the federal EPA and Mass. Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) met with the Select Board and other Hanson officials on Tuesday, Sept. 26 to discuss the newest phase of the site cleanup at the National Fireworks location in Hanover, that includes Factory Pond which borders an area of Hanson.
“As we all know, the Fireworks site has been a topic of discussion in the town of Hanson for many years,” Town Administrator Lisa Green said. “Just recently the cleanup … has entered into a significant new territory, which has brought to our attention the need to pay attention to this cleanup.”
Funds for the cleanup, which have been in trust through the Mass. Contingency Plan, are drying up and “it’s been discovered over time that more funding is required to continue cleanup of the site,” Green said.
The EPA and DEP officials were in Hanson to talk about the site and possible further action, condition of the site will be once the trust money does run out until additional funding is obtained.
“I also want to recognize that, certainly this is not the first time we’ve paid attention to this, because I want to be sure we give credit to our Conservation Commission, to our health agent and I know you’ve been on calls and we’ve had outside counsel we’ve hired,” Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “So, there’s been a lot of labor behind the scenes. … There hasn’t been a decision that we’ve been asked to make until now.”
Mandy Liao of the EPA made a presentation updating the board on the cleanup [the full hearing can be viewed on the WHCA-TV YouTube channel]. Diane Baxter and Cathy Kiley of the DEP Bureau of Waste Site Cleanup also attended the meeting. Kiley has worked on the Fireworks site cleanup for several years, and noted they have held monthly meetings which Hanson has been involved in on the progress of the site cleanup.
“First of thing I want to say is there has been no contaminants from the site found in public water supply, or in private wells near the site,” Baxter said.
Representatives of the EPA Remediation Branch and Community Involvement Office and Town Counsel for the project, Michael Campanelli attended either in-person or remotely.
DEP reviewed the site history, funding, risks and completed and ongoing work at the site while the EPA representatives discussed the Superfund and National Priorities List (NPL) process as well as outreach and community engagement. EPA/DEP and town meetings with towns began in June 2023 in Pembroke and Hanover and with Hanson in July. A joint meeting with all three towns took place July 17 followed by hybrid meetings such as the Sept. 26 session with the Select Board.
“MassDEP and the towns have been working toward the same goal for many years – and that’s to get the site cleaned up,” Baxter noted, reminding attendees that the former National Fireworks site contains mercury, lead, organic solvents and propellants and explosives used in the manufacture of munitions for the government and commercial pyrotechnics between 1907 and 1970.
“A tremendous amount of work has been done over the years to identify areas of soil and sediment contamination as well as surface water and groundwater contamination,” Baxter said. Unexploded ordnance has also been addressed at the site where munitions and explosives have been found in the soil and in Factory Pond.
Risks that have been found for people are from direct contact with contaminated soil and sediment, which are being addressed temporarily by restricting access; from ingestion of contaminants found in fish (for people as well as fish-eating birds and wildlife); and from people accessing the southern portion of the site, including Factory Pond.
Steps toward
Superfund
Between 2017 and August 2023, more than 190,000 munitions (35,510 pounds or 17.75 tons) have been removed from the site, of which 21,080 items (11 percent) contained explosives destroyed on site by Mass. State Police.
Munitions removal is expected to be completed by October 2024.
As a result of a bankruptcy settlement, DEP received about $73.84 million in trust for the cleanup, according to Kiley. There is about $10.31 million left after investigation and response activities, and work that has been authorized, but not yet billed. Predicted costs for completing the required environmental remediation is estimated to be more than $200 million.
“As a result of this, the [DEP] requested EPA involvement to consider an option for cleaning up the site and how we might be able to proceed [through the Superfund NPL process],” Kiley said.
The Superfund allows the EPA to clean up a contaminated site and force responsible parties to either do that work or reimburse the EPA-led cleanup work, according to Laou. The NPL is a list of sites the EPA determines require a more detailed investigation, which can determine whether long-term threats to human health and the environment exist. Only NPL sites are eligible for Superfund resources.
“Right now, we are conducting a site reassessment to review the data that has been collected between 2012 … and now,” Liao said. “We want to determine what data gaps are there and what available reports that DEP produced.”
If EPA pursues an NPL listing, they will conduct an expanded site inspection, develop a Hazard Ranking System (HRS), obtain a letter of concurrence from the governor, which takes about a year, and propose the site to NPL. A 60-day comment period follows that.
FitzGerald-Kemmett asked what happens if a property owner refuses to give permission to access their land for the EPA site assessment.
“We’ll try to work around it, but we have attorneys that will work with the property owners to help them better understand the process and why their cooperation is need for us to help clean up the site,” Liao said, noting their presence was to make sure the town agreed to participate in the process. While letters of endorsement are welcome, they are not required.
Select Board member Ann Rein asked how long it would take to resume the cleanup.
“We would need to first list the site on the NPL list to even get the resources to start cleanup,” Liao said.
“The only reason I’m asking is I’ve been, as a person, following this for many, many years. Decades,” Rein said. “So, to think we’re just now at the point where we’re going to go this route – it should have been done a long time ago. That’s why I’m a little impatient that it’s going to go.”
She added that she has heard the $200 million estimated as necessary for environmental remediation by EPA representatives, was closer to $400 million.
“We knew it was going to be more than $200 million, but we don’t know what the amount is going to be,” Kiley said. “One would think [EPA] was going to do their own investigation, their own character of the full nature of contamination [but] we were making estimations of funds with the limited information we have, knowing that … it’s well beyond what we had in the trust fund.”
FitzGerald-Kemmett asked what specifically was involved under those figures. Kiley said previous figures were in regard to remuneration above Factory Pond Dam as well as removal of unexploded ordnance, but she was uncertain if that referred to if the dams were removed.
Water issues
Rein and FitzGerald-Kemmett said those plans involved damming the Drinkwater River, draining and dredging it to remove contaminated soil.
“We’ve had somebody since come and talk about it to a point past Factory Pond Dam,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
Kiley recalled there was permitting in place to consider different options including how to best address that contamination.
“Going forward, those numbers could very well change in terms of how EPA decision is in terms of how they further refine, get a lot more data,” she said.
FitzGerald-Kemmett also asked, should the area become a Superfund site, what happens if the price tag does go above $200 million?
“I’ll say Hanson has not been treated as a full partner from the beginning in this process and that’s a universally held opinion by the citizens of Hanson,” she said, adding they want some say in the way EPA is addressing the issue in the town for their citizens.
Depending on when they finish the site reassessment to review the data that has been collected between 2012, the timeline for completing the work depends, in part, on how quickly they can get started as a Superfund site, Liao said. Worst-case scenario, that could be “a couple of years.”
While Hanson wants to get on the NPL list for being considered a Superfund, Select Board Vice Chair Joe Weeks asked what happens if another town doesn’t want it on the list?
Baxter said that while letters of support to the governor are not necessary, they are helpful as the DEP works to convince the governor it is the right thing to do.
“One of my worries is that squeakier wheels trying to get it off the list will prevail, and I’m just curious what the process is …so our voice is weighted as much as a larger community might.” Weeks said, seeking assurance that Hanson’s voice will receive as much weight as a larger community.
“It isn’t veto power, per se, from any one town,” Baxter said. “It’s just a matter of whether the governor agrees that it’s the right thing to proceed. We hope to have support with the three communities, obviously.”
“We are too,” Weeks said.
“This site has always had one town that did not want to have anything done about it,” Rein said. “That town is going to have to get over it, because it’s time.”
Liao said that community involvement staff will also determine if more joint meetings with the towns are wanted after they meet with Pembroke this month.
Conservation Agent Phil Clemons stressed the importance of recognizing that the site does not follow political boundaries.
“It is a watershed which is somewhat extensive and really very prominent in terms of its quality and its value to, not just the immediate towns in this region, but to the state and New England – and you can go as far as you like…” he said. “Our part of this region has been under-studied.”
Conservation Commission Chair Frank Schellenger said, while the EPA wanted the meeting, in order to obtain Hanson’s support, it is very important that Hanson residents participate in that. He said more residents should be informed and that there are at least four towns downstream that are potentially impacted by the site and cleanup effort.
“The water and sediment issue has to be addressed,” he said. “The only way to do that is with the EPA and the NPL.”
Fire Chief Robert O’Brien said information about site contaminants has not trickled down to public safety officials unless Health Agent Gil Amado brought it back from his meetings, since he became chief.
FitzGerald-Kemmett asked if the EPA would be willing to hold a public information meeting.
“We’ll get better feedback if we have an educated public and if we give people an opportunity to ger educated, I think we’ll all be the better for that,” she said. Both the EPA and DEP representatives agreed.
Former Select Board member Matt Dyer, who works with the MWRA, said that agency would be meeting the week of Oct. 2 to further discuss the project. FitzGerald-Kemmett asked Green to add a page to the town Facebook page dedicated to the Fireworks site as a way to further inform the public.
Whitman PD salutes new Sgt.
WHITMAN – Police officer Kevin Harrington officially became Sgt. Kevin Harrington, during a promotion ceremony held at the Tuesday, Sept. 26 Select Board meeting, with his mother and his wife pinning on his new badge.
Vice Chair Dan Salvucci presided in the absence of Chair Dr. Carl Kowalski. Member Justin Evans attended virtually.
The board had voted at its previous meeting to approve Harrington’s promotion. He was administered the oath of office by Town Clerk Dawn Varley before his mother Marilyn, who attended with his dad Edward and wife Windy pinned on his sergeant’s badge.
“Oh, can I stab him?” Marilyn Harrington joked.
“Oh, go for it!” Salvucci laughed. “If you stick him, we have the service dog here.”
Harrington is the handler for the department’s therapy dog, Nola.
State Rep. Alyson Sullivan-Almeida, R-Abington, presented him with a citation from the General Court and congratulated him on his “well-deserved” promotion.
“I know the community is going to benefit from you being a sergeant in this community that you love,” she said. “I think your post on Facebook choked me up a little bit – it could be hormones, though.”
Sullivan-Almeida had given birth to her first child recently.
In other public safety business, Fire Chief Timothy Clancy reported to the board about an unsolicited letter received in the mail by the fire department, from Donna Callahan including a gift of $5,000 in the name of her parents, James and Betty Geary, who had been Winter Street residents of Whitman and thanking the department for taking care of her parents in their later years.
“We reached out to her, and you can see the amount of money there, to make sure this is what she was looking for and what she wanted,” Clancy said. “She said she just wanted to help the fire department in any way [she could].”
After discussing it with Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter, he said it was decided that the best use of the funds was to place the money in the gift account.
“We thank her very much for her generous donation,” Clancy said.
Callaghan also gave $30,019.99 in her mother’s name to the Whitman Council on Aging.
“Her mother had actually left that to the COA,” Carter said. “She really enjoyed attending the Council on Aging – playing cards, bingo, taking chair yoga were some of her favorites – and they were just very pleased to see this money go to the Council on Aging.”
“That’s an exceptional amount,” Salvucci said.
Breathing some life back into history
HANSON – Canadian novelist Guy Vanderhaeghe once wrote that “History tells us what people do; historical fiction helps us imagine how they felt.”
Perhaps that best explains not only how the books of Martha Hall Kelly affect her readers, but how she came to write them in the first place.
The author of the New York Times bestselling novel “The Lilac Girls,” about Polish victims of Nazi medical “research” in Ravensbrück concentration camp.
She revisited her World War II setting – and Hanson on Thursday, Sept. 21 to talk about her new novel “The Golden Doves” at Camp Kiwanee’s Needles Lodge.
Introduced by Library Trustee, and Kelly fan, Dianna McDevitt, the author spoke of her first novel “The Lilac Girls,” and how it led to her latest – “The Golden Doves,” which tells the tale of two former Resistance workers who discover that Nazis are being helped to escape Europe after the war through Rome, and with the help of the U.S. government.
“It’s no secret that I love historical fiction, and one of my favorite authors happens to be here tonight,” McDevitt said, “We are so delighted to welcome Martha Hall Kelly again to chat with us Hanson Library patrons about her latest book, ‘The Golden Doves,’ as well as her previous books.”
She hugged Kelly as the audience welcomed her with applause. But Kelly is no stranger to Hanson, besides having visited last year to discuss her books, she spent a good deal of her childhood in Hanson after her family had moved to Mattakeesett Street, in the Bryantville section of town, when she was a very young girl.
“You may have read one of her previous books – I’ve got them all, I’m a fan,” McDevitt said, noting that “The Lilac Girls” has sold two million copies on the New York Times Bestseller list. “That’s truly a feat for a first novel.”
McDevitt said she loved how Kelly’s books not only explore the “untold stories of World War II,” but also have expanded to other periods in history.
“The Lilac Girls’” sister novels “The Lost Roses” set in Imperialist Russia and “The Sunflower Girls,” about Civil War nurses also carried on the floral theme, while the new book covers different themes.
“I have to tell you how wonderful it is to be here, and how emotional,” Kelly said on her homecoming of a sort. “I didn’t think it would be that way.”
She reviewed the process she followed in writing “The Lilac Girls” for new readers of her books.
Following her mother’s death, her husband suggested she visit the Bellamy-Ferriday House & Garden in Bethlehem, Conn., known for its lilac garden, which Kelly had always wanted to visit, as a way to deal with her grief. Kelly’s mother had loved lilacs, and it seemed a natural diversion.
That visit turned out to be the launchpad for her career, inspiring her first book after she spied a photo of “the rabbits,” as the Ravensbrück victims of Nazi medical experiments were known.
The surviving girls, who had been Polish Girl Scouts before the war, were brought to the Bethlehem farm by its owner at the time, New York socialite Caroline Ferriday to help them recover from their ordeal. When Kelly discovered that photo, she had found the inspiration for researching a non-fiction book that later became her first novel.
Fast-forward to a book tour stop in Florida for “The Lilac Girls,” where and she met a Hungarian Jewish woman, who told her about an encounter with the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele at Auschwitz.
“That really changed me,” Kelly said, deciding that after the remaining books she was under contract to write for the “flower” series, would be a book on how the Nazis escaped Europe after the war.
“There were three ways the Nazis escaped,” she discovered from her early research for “The Golden Doves.” They were either released from prison by the U.S. government during the Cold War, the space program’s need for German scientists or a route through Italy and the Vatican.
“I wanted to feature all of that in my book,” she said. Her heroines were “Josie,” a fictionalized version of American WWII spy Virginia Hall, and “Arlette,” a German-French Resistance member who both ended up in Ravensbrück, like “the rabbits.” Her heroines hunt down the Ravensbrück version of Mengele after the war.
To research the book, she took her husband on a post-COVID tour of Italy and the Vatican, tracing the route the Nazis would have taken in their escape from Europe. At one point, they “blended” with a group of German families visiting a secluded cemetery where their wartime Nazi family members were interred along with clergy that aided them to sniff out information.
“If anyone ever says to you, ‘Why don’t you go see that house you always wanted to go see, or that museum, or that whatever,’ go,” Kelly said. “You never know. It might be worth it.”
Audience questions included the order in which she wrote the books, which she said were in “backward chronology” because her husband told her, after “The Lilac Girls,” that she had a moment of leverage to decide how she would write, but she had already done research on “Roses” and “Sunflowers.”
She said that, despite her exhaustive research for her novels, she said it was unlikely.
“You know, once you get used to making stuff up …” she joked. “If I know it’s true, I use that, but I really want to be able to take liberties.”
As for her next book, she said it will be another visit to WWII historical fiction, set on Martha’s Vineyard where GIs were rehearsed the D-Day invasion.
“I just today hit the send button to send it to my editor,” she said.
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