BOOK TALK: Hanson Selectman Wes Blauss discusses his new book ‘Murder at Town Meeting.’  (Photo by Tracy Seelye)

HANSON — The residents of almost every small town, no doubt, are convinced they have the most quirky people on the planet living within their borders — which, perhaps, explains why “The Andy Griffith Show,” was one of the more popular TV shows of the 1960s, or “Newhart” in the 1980s.

This writer can vouch for that.

In my hometown of Northfield, Conn., (a village part of the larger town of Litchfield, really), our nursery school/piano teacher Eleanor Grant would hop on her bicycle for the mile or so to our house each spring to spend the day with my grandmother mapping out Miss Grant’s annual car trip to her dentist in Willimantic.

I doubt the route changed much from year-to-year.

Legend has it my grandmother once tossed a folding chair at the head of a friend during an argument at a Grange meeting.

Our local nature expert Jesse Morse, who lived (*gasp* unmarried) in a cluttered house with a lady named Grace Wheeler, enjoyed carving baskets from cherry pits for necklaces, among his other artsy-crafty hobbies.

Similar characters people Hanson Selectman Wes Blauss’ new novel, “Murder at Town Meeting.”

“We were just creating stereotypes of what people think happens in small New England towns,” he said during a talk Thursday, April 4 at a meeting of the Hanson Historical Society, of which he is a member. “Who are the characters who show up?”

A Hanson native who taught at Hanson Middle School before his retirement, Blauss’ characters live in fictional South Quagmire (just north of East Quagmire) in the novelization of his popular — and thrice staged — eponymous play with characters one might be convinced they recognize.

“There’s not a person in here who’s really identifiable, especially not anymore,” he said. “We won’t go near anybody who really exists. The fire chief will be an arsonist, we’ll have a fire station burn down — don’t think Burrage. We’ll have an abandoned library burn down — don’t think Thomas Hall — so we were not trying to get ourselves into any kind of trouble.”

His book will be available April 30 via Amazon or the Barnes & Noble websites.

“Since this is the Historical Society, I felt that this should not be a reading so much as what’s the story behind this book,” Blauss said.

“Murder at Town Meeting,” is being published by Riverhaven Books of Whitman.

The idea for the play, first staged in 1989, stemmed from the popularity at the time or murder-mystery dinner theater. James Bond creator Ian Fleming, also took an approach to writing that Blauss emulates: “Everything I write is based on precedent.”

One of the audience members on this night was Laura Donovan, was part of Blauss’ drama group in 1989 leading him to reminisce about her performance as a town Treasurer that was a bit too close to the mark.

“The night of dress rehearsal, Laura showed up with no fanfare … but she had taken her pantyhose and stuffed them with cotton batting,” he said recalling a heavyset past Town Hall official the audience immediately recognized. “A whole bunch of people in the audience gasped. … This [woman the character was based on] did have a habit of telling you that you were stupid.”

Most of the Town Hall staff of the time showed up for the performance.

“It became a contest in the course of the night … everybody who worked for Town Hall immediately decided they saw themselves in the play,” he said. While that was not necessarily the case, Blauss maintains, some actual incidents are included. The book includes a fictionalized table-flipping incident and private plane excursions in search of illegal piggeries.

“No one cared at all who killed anyone,” he laughed. “They were not the slightest bit interested in the mystery.”

A fellow teacher from Hingham who saw the play was equally convinced of the characters’ familiarity.

“When it was over, she simply said, ‘Oh my gosh, I know every one of those people. They are all in Hingham,’” he recalled.

He spoke of town meetings of the 1970s — the story is set in the Bicentennial year 1976 — being three-day ordeals, rather than the one-night sessions they have become.

The story has also been brought up-to-date in a more serious vein.

Blauss brings into the book a glimpse of the racial attitudes of the community in the 1970s that is timely for today’s racial issues nationally.

“I drew a group [in the play] that was totally white-bread,” he said, as opposed to his days at WHRHS when there were more Cape Verdeans living in Hanson in the 1950s and ’60s. “When I was writing the book I felt it needed another depth to it. When I grew up, Hanson was really diverse.”

Research on Cape Verde residents of Hanson at the time, revealed a rainbow of racial designations, often for the same person, on birth, marriage and death certificates.

Town Clerk Elizabeth Sloan edited the book and helped with research, along with Blauss’ childhood friend and Health Board Chairman Arlene Dias.

“There were people who were born black, when they married [they were recorded as] white,” he said. “There were people who, with the exact same parents, he was black, but six years later she was born white.”

They found one Cape Verdean friend was recorded as being white, another black and — strangely — another had “Portuguese” listed under the race heading.

“I never, ever heard the N-word uttered in Hanson,” he said, but students didn’t cross the color line when dating, either. “That was Hanson in the ’60s.”

Years later, Blauss’s great-aunt Ruth mentioned to him in a discussion of town and family history that the Ku Klux Klan once held meetings in the town’s Grange Hall during its national resurgence in the 1920s. The audience gasped at that revelation. He could find no records to verify the Grange Hall meetings.

“When I was writing ‘Murder at Town Meeting’ I felt I really wanted that race component in it, because I think it would be unfair to deal with the ’70s without doing so,” he said. “I think this race component is as big a part of our history as anything else.”

BLESS THIS HOUSE: Brian Austin, left, of the New England Carpenters Training Council presented veteran Paul Skarinka with a framed photo of a message from an apprentice inscribed on a partition stud blessing the family’s new home as his wife Jennifer looks on. (Photo by Tracy Seelye)

HANSON — Paul and Jennifer Skarinka received the keys to their new home on Tuesday, April 2. The occasion, exciting for any young couple, was different than for most — it is a mortgage-free, injury-specific house built through Jared Allen’s Homes for Wounded Warriors for a veteran injured in action.

“It’s beautiful,” Jennifer Skarinka said. “It’s a dream home.”

“Wow,” Paul, a Plympton Fire Department firefighter-paramedic, said after his family, including children Lilliana and Noah, toured the house. “The carpenters, the Foundation, everyone did an incredible job and it was well worth the wait. It’s truly incredible.”

It was delayed a few months due to record-low temperatures, record flooding, microbursts that knocked out power for nine days, three nor’easters, delays caused by a moratorium following the Merrimack Valley natural gas explosions — and vandalism — but the Hanson community joined builders, trade union representatives and Allen to welcome Skarinka, 39, and his family to his new home.

Skarinka, an Army veteran who lost a leg and sustained severe injuries to his left arm when his unit came under attack on a mission in Sadr City, Iraq in September 2004, said he and his family are thankful for their new home and the help of Hanson police and fire departments after the project was vandalized over the winter.

“I’m just excited,” he said. “I was nervous about moving in — it looks so nice. We’re really going to enjoy this and take a minute to kind of sit back and relax, take it one day at a time and soak it all in.”

Jennifer Skarinka said the house means her husband will be able to find comfort at the end of his working day.

“There’s no more stairs,” she said. “Taking care of other people is strenuous on his body and he gets tired [by the end of his day]. Unfortunately, in the house we were at before, he couldn’t use his wheelchair. …Now he can wheel around without having to worry about bumping into things or getting stuck. It makes me happy that he can live a somewhat normal life.”

Allen, a five-time NFL Pro Bowler, said his foundation is a way to give back to those who defend our country.

“Someone told me a long time ago, you don’t have to have a uniform on to serve your country,” Allen said. “I feel like I’ve been blessed in my life with family and work and all that. I’ve gotten a lot from this country — the ability to be free and play football and live out my dreams — so I think it’s the least we can do to show our gratitude and pay our debts forward.”

Veterans go through an application process and other veterans’ organizations “lead the way” to his program, Allen said. Skarinka also had the good fortune to be a friend of Alex Karalexis, a 1992 W-H graduate and Hanson native, who is executive director of Jared Allen’s Homes for Wounded Warriors. Veterans have  say in where they want their homes to be located and work with architects and designers in creating their homes.

Allen said the vandalism was horrible, setting the project back weeks and costing money.

“We haven’t had that issue before,” he said. “But I think the way the community reacted …”

“This has been a very special project and the community has been behind us from start to finish with all the hiccups that we had in between,” Karalexis said. “The high school football team raised money, local businesses raised money, had signs at the doors and things of that nature.”

Organizers thanked the Hanson Police for their work in apprehending the vandals.

The Skarinkas had originally planned on moving in for Thanksgiving or Christmas before the vandalism to windows in the home.

“All that did was galvanize the resolve of everybody who took part in this projects,” Karalexis said of the vandalism and natural disasters that delayed the move-in day. “It really made me proud to be part of this community.”

“This was a wonderful event this morning,” said state Rep. Josh Cutler, D-Duxbury, whose district includes Hanson. “It’s an amazing show of community for Hanson, but also the broader community, Homes for Wounded Warriors — all the folks who played a role in building this home. As other speakers have said, they built a home, but they also built a community here, that’s what’s most wonderful about this.”

Other Hanson officials present included Veterans Agent Timothy White, Town Administrator Michael McCue, Police Lt. Mike Casey, Fire Chief Jerome Thompson Jr., Deputy Fire Chief Robert O’Brien Jr., Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak and Assistant Superintended George Ferro. Several officials from the Plympton Fire Department also attended, wearing their dress uniforms. Several representatives of building trades organizations also attended.

“It’s a great feeling to be able to help out a deserving veteran in the community,” said Harry Brett, of Hanson, business manager of the Plumber’s Union.

“It’s just an honor to be involved in something as meaningful as what this wounded warriors project is all about,” John Murphy, of Braintree, with the United Brotherhood of Carpenters. It marked the first Jared Allen Foundation project undertaken in New England.

Brian Austin of New England Carpenters Training Council presented a framed photo of an inscription left by a second-year apprentice on an interior partition stud: “June 7 2018 — To our Warrior and his clan, Thank you for all you have done for our nation. It has been an honor to build this fortress for you all and may many great memories be made in this home. One nation under God.”

The inscription was discovered as repairs were being made two weeks after the windows had been vandalized.

“Minor road bump,” New England Carpenters Training Council representative Paul Gangemi, said of the vandalism to windows in the house. “The important ones they missed. It didn’t stop [us], we kept moving forward.”

The house featured five-foot-wide corridors and five-foot turnaround space almost everywhere inside. Gangemi said his organization had about three dozen volunteers from the council worked on the project.

“All the trades did a good job,” he said. “The painters were all apprentices — you go through that house, it looks like a professional painter’s job.”

Dr. Melinda Tarsi (Courtesy WHCA9TV)

WHITMAN — Residents support their town services, but are reluctant to look toward an operational override, preferring a targeted approach to support specific departments or projects.

Bridgewater State University Political Science Professor Dr. Melinda Tarsi presented the results of the survey to a small gathering in the Town Hall Auditorium Wednesday, March 20.

“Several months ago, we met in this room to talk about doing a community survey,” said Town Administrator Frank Lynam, noting that Tarsi has offered her services as well as the university’s for the project.

Tarsi thanked those who showed up on a “pretty nice spring evening to look at survey results” and thanked those in town’s participation, questions and overall interest in the project.

“I think we saw from the level of interest … from the community and the kinds of questions they were asking [indicated they wanted to] make sure everything was done correctly and making sure we got their survey, to me and my students indicates how much people care about the community,” she said.

The bimodal survey — conducted both on paper and online — was done between November and the beginning of February. The university, which provided all paper, postage and other costs through the university, sent a single copy of a paper survey to each household, with a QR code that could access additional copies online. Additional paper copies were also provided on request.

Despite the short response window and the size of the response sample — 1,062 of which 640 were online and 422 on paper — Tarsi said it still gave adequate information for discussion about priorities and budget issues.

“This is part of an approach to plan ahead,” Lynam said. “It’s not going to answer all the questions that we need [answered] for this years’ budget, but it gives us an idea of what the community as a whole is looking at.”

Tarsi said it was equally rewarding for her students, many of whom are now interested in obtaining internships in local government.

The full report is available on the town website Whitman-ma.gov.

The most important issues facing the town, according to the survey, were: schools and education — 36 percent; property tax rates — 36 percent; opioid and other substance abuse — 23 percent; business/economic development — 24 percent; roads/transportation and upkeep — 31 percent. There were several other issues drawing lower percentages and some write-in responses that are viewable online.

People were allowed to select more than one issue on the survey.

Where raising revenue is concerned, almost half preferred increases to licenses and fees; 8 percent suggested raising excise taxes; 17 percent would increase property tax rates; and 28 percent had other views.

“Increasing licenses and fees tends to be a more popular option generally, in whatever case we’re talking about, so this follows what we might tend to see in any municipality when they’re being presented with options on how to increase revenues,” Tarsi said of research on the issue.

To control costs; 42 percent said all departments should be asked to cut their budgets by a certain proportion; 15 percent wanted to see town employees’ salaries level with no raises; 14 percent said to reduce Town Hall hours; and 13 percent said reduce town services. Only 1 percent of residents suggested layoffs.

Overrides were defined in the survey and residents were asked if they favored that option. Forty-two percent said they would back an override, but only for a particular reason; 38 percent said no to an override for any reason and close to 20 percent support an operational override for any part of the budget.

“What this indicates for us as survey researchers, is that there is some acceptance of the idea of an override, but, understandably, voters, residents, taxpayers want to know why,” Tarsi said.

Departments preferred to benefit from any override were: schools, police, fire and public works. Veterans services were also quite high.

Of school services, smaller class sizes, instructional materials for teachers and full-day kindergarten were the top priorities. For the DPW, road repair, snow removal and maintaining town buildings were top concerns.

People responding to the survey reported that 72 percent did not attend the 2018 Town Meeting, while 28 percent said they did attend.

Of those respondents, 47 percent owned a home in Whitman; 19 percent have had children in the schools in the past; 11 percent currently have children in the schools; 10 percent volunteer in town; 5 percent are renters; 2 percent own a business in town; another 2 percent works for a Whitman business; and 1 percent works for the town.

The residents responded that 27 percent have lived in Whitman between 31 and 50 years; 21 percent between 11 and 20 years; 15 percent from 21 to 30 years with another 15 percent fewer than five years; 11 percent have lived in Whitman more than 50 years and 10 percent from five to 10 years.

As Selectmen had previously reported about the results most people scored Whitman well on quality of life and as a good place to live and raise a family, but poor as a destination for entertainment.

Residents also indicated they liked the level of town services they receive, but recognize that cuts may have to be made in a budget crisis, according to Tarsi.

HANSON — At a special joint meeting of the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Health Tuesday, March 19, officials decided to move forward with polystyrene and plastic bag ban town meeting warrant articles, but not as originally proposed for the May annual Town Meeting.

The bans are now likely to be on the October special Town Meeting warrant, proposed by the Board of Health, although, “the language will need to be tightened up,” said Board of Health chairman Arlene Dias.

The warrant articles, penned by Town Administrator Michael McCue based on similar bans in other communities in Massachusetts, were written so that there was a Board of Selectmen warrant recommendation and a Board of Health warrant recommendation, he said, which Selectman Matthew Dyer was not aware of until recently.

The two boards clashed on whether or not to pursue polystyrene and plastic bag ban articles in the first place, which board the articles would be recommended from and who would enforce the bans, if approved at town meeting.

Dias said she supported the bans, but added she felt there needed to be more education, and that bans would simply increase paper that needed to be recycled at the transfer station.

“You need to look at what a ban will do,” she said. “I’m not happy with the bylaw. It’s too soon.”

Dyer has been spearheading the proposed bans. It became clear early on in the meeting which board would recommend the article was a central component of the debate, as was the issue of who would enforce the ban, which was brought up by Selectman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett.

McCue said that most towns instituting such bans do so as through the Board of Health, with the Health Agent as the enforcement officer. Hanson does not have a permanent Health Agent currently. Selectmen briefly entertained the notion of the Building Inspector enforcing the ban on behalf of the Board of Selectmen.

Alternatively, Dyer said, “I’ll enforce [the ban] until I kick the bucket or get elected out of office,” but noted that he will ultimately not be around to be the enforcement officer.

Later, the selectmen reached a consensus among themselves and the Board of Health members and decided that any future polystyrene and bag bans would be recommended at a town meeting as a warrant article by the Board of Health.

Dyer fought for the earlier May ATM, but was not disappointed, he said, to move the proposed warrant article back to October’s STM, as long as the start date for the ban was July 1, 2020.

The Selectmen and Board of Health agreed, and the Board of Health will work with Dyer on the article along with Selectman Wes Blauss.

After the meeting, Dyer said with sincerity that he wasn’t disappointed and, “Look at it this way: we’re moving toward a goal.”

A rainy window reflects a police officer on the job. Mental health clinician ride-alongs on Fridays now provide assistance to officers responding to health-related crises. (Photo by Stephanie Spyropoulos)

WHITMAN — The Whitman Police Department is taking advantage of a local grant, which has afforded several South Shore communities the services of a mental health clinician to ride along with a dispatched officer.

The program was launched in January 2019.

Katrina Lee, jail diversion coordinator for High Point Middleborough outpatient clinic, rides with a Whitman supervising officer on Friday nights, allowing for immediate assistance in cases of domestic violence, substance abuse and other mental health-related crises.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Mental Health funded the mission titled: a Regional Co Response Jail/Arrest Diversion Project (RJDP) with $45,000 in conjunction with High Point contracted services approved in 2018.

Whitman Police Chief Scott Benton said the proactive approach is similar to one departments have implemented in the past years to assist with opioid addiction, treating respective mental illnesses rather than waiting until the problem escalates. He said the shifting mindset is being applied and supported through the new program.

Benton referred to the awareness as a step in the right direction as officers are better equipped with the knowledge of an underlying mental illness.

“It is getting everyone in the room:  police, fire and hospitals to help these people.  If the people get help, then get out of a facility and they don’t have other services it becomes a merry-go round for them,” said Benton.    

There are times when a resident refuses intervention.

“They can decline but Lee can point them in the right direction for services,” said Benton. “We are getting into the game. We are way behind in treating mental health.”

Feedback has been positive from the officers, he said.

“It’s in the delivery,” Benton said. “We want to make sure we are implementing something and give it a chance to succeed. Invariably things come up … we have issues to address – we do it together in partnership. Department heads and supervisors of police and fire met to address concerns at the beginning of the program.

“Paperwork and other expectations needed to be communicated to properly get the program a jump start in the community as with any new program,” he said.

According to the studies and content in the grant request, some common disorders that are seen most frequently when a law enforcement officer is requested are: depression, anxiety, mood disorders; substance abuse is often an underlying issue or compounding component, self-harm and domestic violence.

A statistic used to support the grant request through the National Alliance on Mental Health NAMI”

“In a mental health crisis, people are more likely to encounter police that get medical help. As a result, two million people with mental illness are booked into jail each year,” according to a statistic used to support the grant request through the National Alliance on Mental Health- NAMI.

Lee, as the clinician who is seeing firsthand how the program is evolving has expressed her commitment.

“I am excited to be a part of this program,” said Lee.

She has worked with victims of crime alongside the DA’s Office for the majority of her career. She is able to utilize her knowledge along with her clinical skills responding first hand to help people in the six communities.

“It is the perfect blend of my experiences. I’m hopeful that my background has proven helpful to the people I‘ve spoken with to date,” Lee said. “I really feel fortunate to be working with these departments because everyone from the chiefs to the officers I work with, are incredibly compassionate and genuinely want to help the members of their communities.”

“As a group we want to see people with mental illnesses referred to appropriate agencies to receive support rather than having them brought through the criminal justice system if that can be avoided,” Lee said. “In cases where it can’t I am able to make referrals to the Mental Health Court, which can better address the mental health needs of the individual.”

The grant guidelines stated that, “The co-response diversion model provides an opportunity to apply immediate, community based clinical services when and where they are needed in partnership with police officers responding to behavioral health calls. A consistent clinical presence in a police station has shown to have an overall beneficial effect on law enforcement personnel’s attitudes towards individuals with behavioral health conditions and on vicarious skill building and knowledge. … The overall goal of our RJDP is to steer people with mental health difficulties away from the criminal justice system and into services that lead to mental health recovery as stated in the grant outline and project approval.”

The approved grant was awarded to Bridgewater Police Chief Christopher Delmonte and includes, East and West Bridgewater — including Bridgewater State University police  —and  Middleboro police.

Firefighter Thomas White’s mother Susan pins on his new badge Tuesday, Feb. 19 after he was sworn in by Town Clerk Elizabeth Sloan. (Photo courtesy Hanson Fire Department)

HANSON  — New firefighter Thomas White was sworn in at the Tuesday, Feb. 19 Board of Selectmen’s meeting.

Before the ceremony, Selectmen Chairman Kenny Mitchell thanked Fire Chief Jerome Thompson Jr., Deputy Chief Rob O’Brien, Lt. Sherry Mullin and the entire fire department and mutual aid responders who battled the house fire at 45 Milford St., Tuesday, Feb. 12.

“I happened to be a couple of streets over when the fire started, and it was just impressive seeing you guys [work],” Mitchell said to applause from the board and audience. “The conditions weren’t favorable — it was the middle of a storm — I know you guys had issues getting water at times, but it was nice seeing the leadership, the professionalism and teamwork. You guys should be proud of yourselves, so thank you very much.”

Thompson also lauded his department for a job well done and added this thanks for the other departments lending mutual aid, especially Hanson’s Highway, Police and Water departments.

“Their assistance that night was invaluable,” Thompson said. “I’ve always said, ever since I got a job in town on the Water Department several years ago, it’s so nice to live and work in a town where the departments get along so well and work together.”

He then talked about his newest firefighter.

White is a lifelong resident of Hanson and 2008 graduate of  WHRHS. He is currently a firefighter in the Army Reserve, serving on active duty several times. He applied to be a call firefighter in June 2015, serving Hanson in that capacity for three years before receiving a conditional offer on employment in January 2018, filling a vacancy created by promotions.

“He had a busy 2018,” Thompson said, noting EMT White had to obtain paramedic training and pass national exams as well as attending the Mass. Fire Academy, graduating in December, and completing his year’s probation last month.

“He’s been a great addition to our department,” Thompson said of White. “Some of the skills he has obtained, and is still obtaining, in the Army help us out greatly and he has just been another great member for our department.”

White’s mother Susan pinned on his badge after Town Clerk Elizabeth Sloan administered his oath of office.

In other business, Selectmen voted to approve a Senior Center consulting proposal.

“The more we can get a vision for each group, the better off we’ll be,” said Selectman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett.

“I keep thinking of what [Selectman] Wes [Blauss] said a couple weeks ago with 40 percent of [Hanson’s] population being over 50, that it seems this is just pulling everything together,” Selectman Jim Hickey said, referring to similar studies already underway for other town departments such as the library.

Hickey also questioned the current process for interviewing Recreation Directors, as the last two hires haven’t worked out.

“What if we changed up so we’re not falling into this trap again?” FitzGerald-Kemmett agreed, asking if the job description has been tightened up or has a better support system been developed. “How do we set this person up for success and make sure, first of all, that we’re picking the absolute right person and that we’re setting them up for success.”

Town Administrator Michael McCue said more discussions will be conducted with candidates — particularly the one on which they reach consensus — to give them an idea of where the past shortcomings may have been and where strengths need to be.

“I don’t think we feel there’s a necessity to fill the position just to fill the position,” McCue said.

In the past, only one or two Recreation Committee members spoke to all the candidates before the finalists were brought to the whole board, and that will change this time around, said Selectman Matt Dyer, who is the board liaison to Recreation.

“We need to make a business plan up there,” Dyer added. “I don’t think it needs to be a finalized plan, but I think we really need to define the hierarchy of what Camp Kiwanee is, who’s reporting to who, who’s responsible for what, and I think that is really going to help the next person, as well as making sure the goals are crystal clear, right from the beginning.”

FitzGerald-Kemmett  noted that Selectmen had not put forth a clear expectation, either.

“I think having Matt as a  iaison over there is huge,” Mitchell said.

Alfred Russo, Patricia Harrison and Wayne Cummings, accused of arson, in Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth Friday, Feb. 8.

PLYMOUTH — Patricia Harrison, her boyfriend Wayne Cummings and acquaintance Alfred Russo, all indicted in the alleged July 5, 2018 arson at the former JJ’s pub, 16 Liberty St., Hanson, appeared in Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth on Friday, Feb. 8.

The pile of debris at 16 Liberty St. has drawn the ire of town officials and residents since the fire in July. Hazardous material, specifically asbestos, was found in the burnt remains of the building.

The town brought Harrison to court in December, to at minimum, put up a fence around the site before cleaning it up in the hopes of encouraging her to move along with the cleanup.

But Harrison sold the property, according to records on file with the Registry of Deeds, for $20,000 on Feb. 7.

Hanson Town Administrator Michael McCue said the new owners of the property, Richard and Diane Murphy, also own rental property nearby and are highly motivated to clean up the site.

He said it is now their responsibility to remove the hazardous materials and rubble, and he expects that to be done within two weeks of the time the sale was recorded.

Harrison and Cummings were before the court for a pre-trial hearing. Assistant District Attorney Alexander Zane represented the commonwealth.

Harrison, who had previously privately retained Jack Atwood, a Plymouth-based defense attorney, to represent her, asked the judge for a court-appointed attorney. The probation department determined that she was eligible, and she was assigned Sean O’Brien, a Randolph-based defense attorney.

Cummings will retain his private counsel, as will Russo. All three are being tried together for the alleged arson.

Harrison, Cummings and Russo will next be in Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth on April 4, 2019 for a pretrial conference.

As the two towns approach a difficult budget season, Whitman-Hanson Community Access TV is producing a series of interviews with stakeholders in both communities.

“By The Numbers,” debuts at 6 p.m., Friday, Feb. 1 with Whitman resident and former Finance Committee member Shawn Kain. A regular schedule for the show is still pending.

“This is a new program that will focus on an issue that is actually a major topic of discussion by town officials in both Whitman and in Hanson, homeowners, parents, educators and — yes — even some conversation on social media,” Producer/host Kevin Tocci said to introduce the first show. “What are we talking about? We’re talking about budgets.”

That is planned to encompass school budgets, department and town budgets, right up to the state’s budget.

“There’s no necessary order in which they appear, but each of them have their own importance and are part of the fabric of the communities,” Tocci said in an interview with the Express. “Some of their information, some of their experience is in varied areas.”

Kain, a teacher at Brockton’s addiction recovery high school is also a business owner and has been vocal in advocating a long-range budget plan for Whitman. He says he has no plans to seek a seat on the Board of Selectmen, but stresses that decisions made there affect people and accountability is needed.

“When you’re in the classroom it’s really like the front line of an organization that starts, really at the Board of Selectmen,” he said. “I feel like when there’s a bad budgetary year, programs like mine are marginalized.”

He said that when the organization is not in good shape, the lives of everyday teachers, police officers, firefighters and others can feel uncertain about their welfare. He began his involvement by attending Finance Committee meeting to learn the “nuts and bolts” of the process.

Kain suggested that the School Committee’s efforts at securing increased state aid, for example, holds out false hope.

“People have to be told the bitter truth, they should be told that, realistically, we’re not going to get more money from the state,” he said. “If we do, it’s just going to be these small amounts of money, nothing that’s going to create a sustainable budget.”

Tocci asked Kain about transparency and current budgeting practices in Whitman.

Also slated to appear in episodes that have already been recorded are Whitman businessman and former Selectman Richard Rosen, current Whitman Selectman and former Finance Committee member Daniel Salvucci, School Committee Chairman Bob Hayes, a Whitman native who now lives in Hanson and Whitman Selectman Scott Lambiase, who is spearheading the town’s budget timeline planning and works for the town of Duxbury.

“The budget is always the most difficult time of the year,” Hayes said in the episode he recorded with Tocci. “You have two towns and the finances of each town changes with the needs of the town … both towns needed police stations, both towns are at the particular point where they both need highway departments. The budgets are on the backs of the taxpayers, more or less.”

Programs with Hanson officials are also planned, Tocci said, including Town Administrator Michael McCue and a member of the Board of Selectmen. He also plans to sit down with department heads such as police and fire chiefs in upcoming programs.

Rosen, who served as a Selectmen in the 1980s after winning a six-way race for a vacancy on the board, has been out of public office for some time and cautioned that, like most residents his current view of the budget process is from the outside in.

“It wasn’t easy times back in those days, because it was a few years after Proposition 2½, and, frankly I think it was a good thing,” Rosen recalled.

In one year, officials had to cut $1 million from the pre-regionalization school budget. But in 1984, a sewer project debt exclusion was approved. He also outlined how the current library and the senior center were built.

“We had financial issues, but we managed to resolve them back then,” he said, noting he has heard talk of a financial crisis every year at budget season for the past 30 years and that finger-pointing generally ensues.

“Everybody blames [Town Administrator Frank Lynam] for all the problems and it’s not Frank’s fault,” Rosen said. “Frank is the messenger. So it’s the old ‘Don’t shoot the messenger.’ Back in the ’80s with the business manager, it was the same thing.”

The bottom line, Rosen said, is a revenue shortfall. He noted his residential and commercial developments have helped the town but have not been enough to close that gap. Whitman can’t afford to shift the tax burden to commercial properties without endangering small businesses.

The great police and fire departments, schools and library as well as a park that is better than most, bring people to buy homes in town, Rosen said. Attracting business is harder, he noted, because space is harder to find.

Salvucci, who has the perspective of serving on the South Shore Tech zero-based budgeting, had been a financial officer with Star Market before his retirement.

“You start with zero and justify every single dollar,” he said of the SSVT budget system. Flexible building heat systems and use of Scituate’s solar fields for electricity helps control SSVT’s utility costs. “We run South Shore Tech like a business to keep costs down.”

He advocates that Whitman’s departments adopt a zero-based approach and that underfunded and unfunded mandates be addressed.

“The state needs to look at what they’re doing and what they’re asking school departments to do,” Salvucci said about the burden of unfunded mandates.

He echoed Rosen’s comments on the town’s residential/commercial tax rate in view of the town’s revenue needs.

“If we change it, we’re going to lose business,” he said. “They’re going to leave.”

He spoke with Tocci about ideas under consideration for meeting budget needs such as possibly going for a debt exclusion to remove the balance of the Police Station project from within the levy limits and the need for a new DPW building.

“I would vote to put it on a ballot and let the people decide,” he said.

Hayes also spoke about the problems of obtaining a quorum at town meetings and how social media hinders people’s willingness to serve in local government as well as the damage done to the tax base through the competition from online shopping at the cost of local businesses.

Hayes also offers an explanation of how the annual school assessment is calculated, said Tocci, who also wants to schedule state budget officials to appear on the show.