On Sunday, May 4 at 9 am, Whitman Democrats will convene at Whitman’s Town Hall to elect 7 delegates and 4 alternates to represent Whitman at the 2025 State Democratic Convention. The doors will be open at 8:30 am.
Registered and pre-registered Democrats in Whitman 16 years old by Saturday, March 29 may vote and be elected as delegates or alternates during the caucus. Youth (age 16 to 35), people with disabilities, people of color, veterans, members of the LGBTQ+ community not elected as delegates or alternates are encouraged to apply to be add-on delegates at the caucus or by visiting massdems.org/massdems-convention. The 2025 Convention will be in person at the MassMutual Center in Springfield, MA on September 13th.
Those interested in more information can email the committee at [email protected].
Whitman gains $65K cybersecurity grant
Whitman will receive a $65,842 for a cybersecurity infrastructure initiative, one of 72 Massachusetts municipalities receiving part of the $4.95 million I grants the Healey-Driscoll administration is awarding over $4.95 million in grants for information and technology projects, including 13 first-time recipients, through the Community Compact program. By investing in technology, these grants will drive innovation, support efficiency of local operations, save taxpayer money, and make it easier for residents to interact with their local government.
Among the initiatives funded through this year’s grants are implementation of new budgeting software and e-permitting systems, website enhancements to improve accessibility, and support for records management system upgrades.
“Our administration is committed to partnering with municipal leaders to ensure that Massachusetts cities and towns have the innovative technology they need to serve their communities,” said Governor Maura Healey. “These grants enable our municipalities to be more cybersecure and safe, efficient, and responsive to residents’ needs.”
The Community Compact IT grant program supports the implementation of projects by funding capital needs such as technology infrastructure or software. Eligible costs include incidental or one-time expenses related to capital planning, design, installation, implementation, and initial training. Since Fiscal Year 2016 (FY16), the program has provided 549 grants, supporting over 300 municipalities/school districts projects and totaling $34.1 million.
driving innovation
“The initiatives that won funding through our IT grant program this cycle will drive innovation and enable critical security improvements in communities from Cape Cod to the Berkshires,” said Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll. “Congratulations to the recipients and I look forward to seeing these important projects come to fruition.”
“Massachusetts’s financial health depends on our municipalities being equipped with the tools they need to operate safely and efficiently in the modern era,” said Administration and Finance Secretary Matthew J. Gorzkowicz. “Our FY25 IT awards close funding gaps for key technology initiatives that will make our cities and towns more productive and prepared for the future.”
“The Community Compact IT Grant Program has significantly improved our communities by advancing state and local IT goals across Massachusetts,” said Technology Services and Security Secretary Jason Snyder. “Over the past year, I have seen firsthand how these grants enhance municipal government functions, security, and service delivery. Our strong state-municipal partnership continues to deliver value for municipal governments throughout Massachusetts.”
Hanson plans alternate TM site
HANSON – Town officials want to take Town Meeting back to school – the regional high school, that is.
The Select Board discussed the possible need to switch the location of the annual and special Town Meetings to Whitman-Hanson Regional High School during its Tuesday, April 8 meeting.
“[Town Administrator Lisa] Green contacted me last week to ask, ‘Do you think we’d need, out of an abundance of caution, to have the annual and special Town Meetings at the high school,’ rather than planning overflow and all the other stuff that we deal with, which doesn’t tend to go super-well or super-smooth?” Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said in bringing up the topic.
Board member Ed Heal asked if the School District was open to it.
“I have spoken with the high school, yes,” Green said. She said the auditorium is an 845 individual capacity, the gymnasium is larger. Both are available that night and the high school has penciled us in.”
Green said they just have to fill in a form to relocate the meeting to the high school, and which area we’d like.
Board member Joe Weeks asked if the call for changing locations wasn’t a decision the town moderator has to file a motion with the courts to make the change in location, because the high school is listed as partially located in Whitman.
She said the paperwork is really a measure to protect the town.
“You don’t want the entire Town Meeting to be invalidated,” said Town Counsel Kate Feodoroff. “It’s just a smart move to do, and that’s what we’ve done in the past.”
FitzGerald-Kemmett said that, ultimately be the moderator’s decision, but she made a motion that the board support the move and that Green work with the town moderator and Feodoroff work together to make it happen, which the board supported.
Library committee
The Hanson Public Library has been given the green light to add an article to the May 5 Town Meeting warrant to appoint a standing Building Committee to pursue that goal.
The Select Board had opened the Town Meeting warrant to address the issue, during the April 8 meeting. They also voted to add a bill for $1,250 received that day pertaining to the last fiscal year. The bill had been erroneously sent to the School District, where it “languished” around the district’s offices for about a year before being redirected to Hanson’s Highway Department, where it belonged, Green said
FitzGerald-Kemmett said she had spoken with Library Trustees Teresa Santalucia and Corinne Cafardo and Library Director Karen Stolfer regarding the “proposed, potential library project,” they are advocating.
Part of that effort needs to adress some “late-breaking moving parts that need to be addressed sooner rather than later,” FitzGerald-Kemmett informed the board, one of which is the creation of a short-term design and planning committee.
That short-term committee is aimed at assisting the library through the request for quotes (RFQ) process and down-selecting the people who will be working with them to develop plans for a site.
A standing committee would also be created via the Town Meeting warrant.
The Select Board is also being asked to support allocating some land for the purpose of enabling the future library project.
“Not all of [that] needs to be in the warrant, but the Library Building Committee does,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “The warrant is open for the purposes of voting that, and then I will close the warrant.
“Although we’ve added the standing committee to the upcoming Town Meeting warrant, they need a short-term committee to be created by us, and it will be the Library Design and Planning Committee,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. She noted that, at a recent Select Board meeting, it was discussed that a number of people were interested in serving on such a committee, and were appointeed.
Select Board member David George, who was named to the Building and Design Committee, asked if three acres of land adjacent to the building was going to the library.
“It’s not going to the library,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said, She said the intent was to be able to demonstrate to an architect that the Select Board was OK with the land being considered as they work on their design.
“We won’t know [if it will be needed),” she said. “If it gets to the point where they really do need [any of] the three acres, then that will go to Town Meeting and it will be on the Town Meeting warrant, and everybody will vote on whether they want to give that land to the library. This is just a vote of support.”
Spring sports schedule off to soggy start
The rain is here and it did delay some athletic action at Whitman-Hanson Regional High.
Here are the results from what was played in Week 2:
Girls’ lacrosse defeated Patriot League opponent, North Quincy, 17-11 on Thursday, April 3. The Panthers got out to an early lead 5-3 at the end of the first quarter and extended that lead to 13-4 at half. It was 15-6 at the end of the third and the final was 17-11.
The defensive unit, anchored by Andrea Mulligan, who had multiple takeaways and also scored 1G in transition was stout. Camryn MacCallum, Madison Corrado, Kaori Peterson, Calleigh Mahoney and Maren Bowman all contributed. Lily Roback had eight saves in goal. On the offensive end, Leah Cranshaw led the team in goals with five and Eva Nunes had another solid day with three goals and three assists. Other scorers were Lily O’Donnell (three goals), Lillie MacKinnon (two goals, two assists), Aoife Flynn (two goals), Maeve Gavin (goal) and Abby Nash (two assists).
Boys’ lacrosse fell to Quincy/North Quincy, 14-9, on Wednesday, April 2. Jackson Alexander, Quinn Frazier, Finn Olszewski and Dominic Visocchi all had two goals in the loss.
Baseball defeated Bridgewater-Raynham, 5-2, on Tuesday, April 1, to open the season. Tommy Crowley got the win going 6.0 innings giving up just two runs while striking out eight. The offense was lead by two hits from sophomore Caine Allen, who had a key two-out RBI double in the sixth inning to seal the victory for the Panthers.
Whitman-Hanson Varsity Softball fell 10-5 to Duxbury on Monday, April 7 at Duxbury High School. Duxbury took the lead in the second with a sacrifice fly, and Whitman-Hanson briefly led 3-2 after a third-inning error and Hagerty’s single.
Duxbury exploded for six runs in the fourth, including a three-run home run by Grimaldi, to take an 8-3 lead. Duxbury held on for the win. Elizabeth McNaught took the loss for Whitman-Hanson. Hagerty went 3-for-4 and drove in one run, while Duxbury’s Grimaldi led with four RBIs and three hits.
Property article scratched from warrant
HANSON – The Select Board, on Tuesday, March 25 conducted a brief review the annual Town Meeting warrant, with more detailed run-through to come in April.
“Warrant is always a work in progress,” said Town Administrator Lisa Green.
Article 38, stricken by a vote of the board, was an example or that, she explained. The article would have permitted a resident who owns number of parcels of property on Pine Street to purchase another parcel from the town.
Green had consulted Town Counsel regarding a small parcel, identified as Parcel A66, that he would like to purchase from the town.
“According to the assessor, the parcel is valued at $4,500, she said. “It’s a very small piece of property.”
Green consulted town counsel, who indicated “all that is needed is for Town Meeting approval to allow the board to sell that piece of property to the gentleman, who already owns pretty much all the parcels that surround that property,” Green said.
Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said she wanted to be clear on what Green was saying.
“If I want to offer to buy some random parcel of land from the town, I can just make an offer to the town and, if we put it on the Town Meeting warrant, you will let me buy that piece of property?” she asked.
Green said the property’s value needs to be assessed first. Property valued at $35,000 or more must go through a bidding process. Property valued at less than $35,000 can be placed on a Town Meeting warrant to allow the Select Board to sell it, and could negotiate with a potential buyer.
“Because of the location of this parcel of land – because it’s located within the parcels that the gentleman already owns – and the value is very low … it just makes sense to put it in the Town Meeting warrant to allow the Select Board to enter into a sale of the property with that gentleman,” Green said.
FitzGerald-Kemmett also asked Green whether she had checked with the town planner about whether such a sale “would allow this person to do something with that property that they’re not allowed to do now?”
Green said if he does plan to to anything with the property, he would still have to follow zoning regulations.
“So, how do we know it would be worth only $4,500?” FitzGerald-Kemmett asked. “If it makes his other pieces of property more valuable, then why would we settle at $4,500? … Our job is to do what’s in the best interests of our town of Hanson – not this gentleman on Pine Street, so I want to make sure that we’re doing that.”
Board member Joe Weeks asked how the value of the land is determined.
Green said town counsel advised that the value of a property is determined by the town’s assessor.
“But we know that the assessor valuation is always lower than what it actually brings at the market,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “I have to be honest with you, my spider senses are tingling. I don’t even know who this is, I don’t know where the property is, I have no sense whatsoever of any of this. Why are we choosing to sell it?”
Basically, he had been at the assessor’s office to determine the parcel’s value, according to Green, and stopped in at the Select Board’s office to inquire about buying it.
FitzGerald-Kemmett advocated holding off until the matter could be investigated further.
Board memer Ed Heal agreed.
“I don’t think this is something that I think needs to be added to the Town Meeting warrant, and I don’t think we need to be deciding this in May,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “I would like a lot more conversation about this.”
She said if the town sells the property, it should be done the way they’ve done every other poperty sale – at auction.
Weeks argued that such a break with past practice would end up circumventing an entire established processs.
“It’s not the dollars, it’s procedure,” he said.
Positive ‘principals’ in children’s books
HANSON – Like everything else today, if one seeks to develop a personal values system one can “Google it.” You can even short-cut it, by taking Google’s AI Overview’s step-by-step approach, which “involves self-reflection to identify core principles, prioritizing them, and aligning actions with those values, ultimately guiding decision-making and shaping your life’s direction.”
They have links.
And it sounds like a lot of work, as everything we should have learned in kindergarten does, when you grow up before realizing something may be missing in your world view. Children’s books on the other hand, have a way of teaching these difficult life lessons easily.
Educators have long known this, and – whether a lack of time because of everything else they have to do in a typical work day, from lesson plans and offering extra help, to behavior correction and correcting papers – one wonders why more of them don’t write children’s books.
One local educator, WHRHS Principal Dr. Christopher Jones has written a children’s book, titled, “Isabella and the Storm,” along with his wife Mary Aiello-Jones, who is a seventh-grade English teacher. Lush, full-page illustrations are by Megan Stratton.
“Education has to start at an early age and reading’s really important,” Jones said before a Saturday morning storytime at Hanson Public Library on March 22. “We want them to read early and be surrounded by books early, with stories about character and different lessons in life that we try to teach afterward, but sometimes we start a little too late or it’s more difficult when it’s late.”
“Isabella and the Storm.” is a story about embracing change and the unexpected bonds that guide us through life’s struggles. As the first book of the Coastal Chronicles series, it shows how, like the ocean after a storm, new treasures and friendships can wash ashore, bringing comfort and a renewed sense of belonging, strength, and hope.
Isabella sells seashells by the seashore and goes through the titular storm, worried that she’ll lose her seashell treasures. But amid her loneliness, she encounters a new friend, Jerimiah, who was training to be a knight, but felt out of place. Working together they saved Isabella’s shells and found joy in it – and in helping others and discovering a friendship blooming – and a sense of belonging and purpose.
“It’s really about difficulties we run across and that, oftentimes we uncover even better things,” Jones said.
Weaving this kind of tale comes naturally to Jones.
“It’s kind of tied to the genesis of the book and why the book came about anyway,” he said. “Before we were married, when we were dating, I used to just kind of rattle off some bedtime stories to [Mary] about a seashell girl who collected seashells.”
“Isabella and the Storm” was a Christmas gift to Mary.
“We’re almost done with book two, and that one’s all about gratitude,” Mary said. “And that means an attitude of gratitude, to carry throughout our lives.”
She said that fitting a life lesson in a book without losing the entertainment value can be tricky.
“This one is all about friendship and not being alone and the next one is about an attitude of gratitude,” she said. “It’s half educating, half entertainment.”
It being a craft and story hour, Mary had the children attending decorate craft-store “seashells.” While the day’s unusually bright weather may have worked against audience size, the children who came, enjoyed the story – and stayed for the craft.
“They can get as creative as they want to – I don’t care. They can make lady bugs or sharks – whatever works for them,” Mary said. “I love the [Duxbury] beach and when we were little, we always used to draw pictures.”
Fish and rainbows were the popular designs. With one cow.
Creativity is a life lesson, too.
The book is available on Amazon [Isabella and the Storm (Coastal Chronicles): Jones, Dr. Christopher S, Aiello-Jones, Mrs. Mary B: 9798897057931: Amazon.com: Books] Paperback $12.95/ Kindle $9.99.
A novel approach to diplomatic career
HANSON – Author visits to the Hanson Public Library at 9 a.m. on a Saturday are unusual, to say the least.
As a regular morning Saturday Stories group sang “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” and “The Wheels on the Bus,” in the Children’s Room on the other side of the wall, Duxbury teen Julianna Lee was reading a poignant passage from her debut novella, “we never slept after that,” about survival among political and religious violence and upheaval.
If the time and atmosphere were different, so is the author.
The early hour was because Lee, a senior at Duxbury High School, had to travel to New Haven, Conn., in the afternoon for a scholarship reception where she’ll be studying international politics and Albanian at Yale University in the fall.
More than a dozen Hanson residents listened to her speak about how she came to write her self-published book, answer questions and read selected passages before offering to sign purchased copies of the book. The audience included friends and neighbors of Lee’s grandparents, who reside at Stonebridge Commons in Hanson.
They all learned that the fractured history of post-WWII Albania and war-torn Kosovo of the 1990s have some resonance for America, and so many other areas of the world in 2025.
Lee’s book, liker her, was born in Massachusetts – part of an Albanian-American community and church. In a history class interview project in 2022, her sophomore year, she got to know the real-life stories that serve as the nucleus of her novel of two young men fleeing their homes to find new lives in America.
Dimitri is a Muslim Albanian raised in what became the Serian-controlled territory of Kosovo during the ethnic cleansing as the former Yugoslavia was shattered. Gjon is a Chrisian Albanian living under the repressive government had betrayed had the people’s hopes that communism would bring the freedom for which they long hoped.
“The narrative history is the most important thing in this book,” she said in her talk. “Just being able to recognize, even though they’re such different people in different stories in different time periods, and religions, that what they’ve gone through is surprisingly very similar.”
She fictionalized the work because most of the people she had interviewed for her class project had wanted to remain anonymous, for obvious reasons. Her use of parallel story lines, she said, is a more powerful way to see that they share more in common that even they might think.
The book, however, was a personal journey that stemmed from the AP World History interview project, and credited her teacher, Jesse Dennis, with running a classroom focused on discussion and conversation that sparked ideas and curiosity in her mind to do outside research.
Her additional research took her back to the days of Ottoman Empire Albania, and understanding how one empire can overtake another country and what it looks like for people to have to convert to a different religion, as they struggle to understand where do their existing beliefs fit into a new reality.
“Who are you when you’re controlled by a different government that doesn’t represent your people? These questions made me think not just of my family, but of the entire Albanian population, as much as governments around the world,” she said. “It’s definitely very specific to the Balkan area, just because there are so many smaller nations and different religious groups –you’ll find a Muslim nation next to a Christian nation – and because the history of that area is so disputed, there’s great disagreement over who owns the land and has claim over it. It’s something that’s exasperated the Balkans, but is something that’s common across the world, as well.”
To find her interview subjects, she started local and expanded on an interest her family had kindled..
“I think, overall it was the not knowing and uncertainty of my own family history, as well as this history that has such rich stories and ideas … and needs more recognition that it has a story applicable to governments around the world,” she said.
Family, parishioners at the Albanian Eastern Orthodox Church she visited in Boston, taking a trip to Albania to hear more recent accounts as well as the stories of people who have passed provided a wealth of information.
Among the most powerful stories Lee had heard was from a Muslim Kosovar who works at an optometry shop where she has her glasses tightened.
“I had originally set out to interview an X-amount of Christian Albanians and the same amount of Muslim Albanians and have it spread out over a time period,” she said. “But, when I interviewed this man – I’ll keep his name anonymous – I think that it would be almost too many stories to interview a bunch more because he was sharing other people’s stories, as well.”
He had been forced to leave his home when the Serbs invaded Kosovo, he had to flee and ended up in a refugee camp in northern Macedonia, among others, before he was finally able to relocate to the United States. His story of his escape on the day Serbians came to his village, and separated the men from the women and girls before beating them provided the title for the book.
Some wrapped up in these conflicts are faced as Dimitri must, with the decision of whether to flee and leave other family members behind. That family connection, as well as personal safety and agency all enter into a person’s decision to flee and seek refuge in another country, she said.
Available through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, she found that process allowed a quick turnaround for her book to get published, but a career in writing is not definite at this point, she said.
“I always wanted to be [a writer] when I was younger, but I think, now, I’m so interested in the idea of international politics and relations, I think maybe going that route, and using writing as a way to support that,” she said. “In the foreign services, you are writing a lot and that’s a major part of your job. … I think that’s what I want to do.”
Lee said she wants to improve her command of the Albanian language – something offered at some New England universities – with Harvard and Yale offering budding Albanian programs. Yale, where Lee will be studying also offers a major in Slavic, Baltic and Albanian languages. At Harvard, it is part of the languages curriculum.
She is also keeping a sober eye on the effects of current politics on the place she hopes to work one day – the United States Department of State.
“It’s important to maintain civil relationships with other countries and to have good diplomatic relationships with these other states,” she said. “I am concerned with the future of the State Department, but hopeful that future politicians and generations that will be running the State Department in the future, will recognize the need to support the State Department and diplomacy abroad.”
That said, she noted that – as with the military — chain of command is important.
One member of the audience lauded Lee’s work as not many of the world’s genocides are known about.
“Being able to allow complex histories and contrasting viewpoints as a way of bring communities together and spark conversations to uplift society, rather than be the driving force for division, is something that we all need to take away in our country and other countries everywhere,” Lee said. “Political polarization is something that people talk about a lot, but just the idea of allowing differences to start conversations that bring people together instead of dividing them is something that I really wanted to get across in the book.”
Just because it’s history, she said, doesn’t mean it’s in the past.
Three fires in three days
WHITMAN — The Whitman Fire Department saved three residences from more extensive damage during a busy week of calls last week, with Fire Chief Timothy Clancy crediting fast response times and quick action at the scene with preventing a total loss to home and property owners.
“Our crews responded and acted fast to bring these fires under control,” Clancy said in a statement about the fires on Wednesday, March 5. “Damage at all three scenes was minimal for structure fires, but could have been far worse.”
No injuries were sustained at any of the fires, and no residents were displaced as a result of the incidents.
“The biggest thing was we were fortunate that we had staffing at headquarters that were able to respond, and he ability to have members available to respond to the calls immediately,” Clancy said. “I’m just fortunate [that], I don’t believe any of the ambulances were out, so to have the full complement of staff here to respond definitely made for a positive outcome.”
The trio of calls began with a deck fire at a house on 651 Plymouth St., on Sunday March 2 as fire crews responded to late afternoon fire at 5:58 p.m.
Whitman Car 3, Engine 243, Ladder 246 and Car 240 arrived to find a two-story, wood-framed single-family residence threatened by a small fire at the rear of the home that had extended to the home’s rear deck after briefly leaving a fire pit unattended, according to Clancy.
The homeowners told firefighters that they had a small fire in their backyard fire pit, about five feet from the deck, the chief states. The residents briefly left the fire unattended and returned to find the deck and several lawn chairs burning.
The residents immediately called 911 at 5:54 p.m. and attempted to extinguish the fire with a garden hose and small fire extinguisher, but were unsuccessful. The home’s five occupants and three small dogs evacuated the residence by the time firefighters arrived on the scene. They reported no injuries
Engine 243 quickly extinguished the fire. Ladder 246 crews entered the residence and found no evidence of smoke or fire extension into the house. Plymouth County Sheriff’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) responded to the scene to photograph the damage.
Fire crews extensively wet down and overhauled the fire damage.
Damage to the exterior of the home was estimated around $30,000. The home’s interior was not damaged, and the occupants were not displaced by the fire.
All Whitman Fire Department units cleared the scene by 6:37 p.m.
“We’re going to do another fire safety posting,” Clancy said. “All three of them were accidental. All three caused minor to moderate damage – one was mostly smoke, the other two involved fire.”
He said residents need to be more careful in the way in which they dispose of smoking materials and to remember to be vigilant when they have any outside burning going on.
“Follow the rules,” he said. “Have a hose in place. Do not leave a fire unattended and pay attention to the weather.”
Clancy said that, when the department approves burning permits, they do so at 10 a.m., the morning a burn is requested.
“People should be cognizant that weather conditions could change throughout the day.
Oven fire
The next day, Monday, March 3, Whitman Fire Department received a 911 call for a reported oven fire in a unit at 629 Washington St. at 7:09 p.m.
Car 3, Engines 242 and 243 arrived on the scene by 7:14 p.m. From outside of the four-story, lightweight wood-constructed residential unit over a commercial building, no alarms were sounding, and no flames or smoke were showing.
Firefighters manually activated the alarm to help evacuate the building. They went door-to-door to ensure all occupants were out of the building.
Firefighters entered the unit and found moderate smoke and the remnants of a small fire inside the apartment’s oven. The resident told firefighters that he was pre-heating the oven and did not realize there was a plastic pan inside.
After the oven started to smoke, the resident shut it off, called 911 and evacuated the apartment with his wife and cat.
Firefighters removed the melted plastic pan and ventilated the building’s adjacent hallways. The building was checked for carbon monoxide but cleared. Adjacent cabinets and walls were inspected, but no indication of heat was found.
Car 2 and Engine 241 arrived on the scene to assist. All units cleared the scene by 7:47 p.m.
The fire department reminds residents to check smoke and carbon monoxide batteries at the change over to Daylight Savings Time to ensure all alarms are in good working order.
Porch fire
An early afternoon fire requiring mutal aid from five nearby towns at 821 Washington St., resulted in an estimated $15,000 worth of damages on Tuesday, March 4. The 1:45 p.m., fire was apparently caused by the improper disposal of smoking materials.
The Holbrook Regional Emergency Communications Center received a 911 call from the occupant reporting that the front porch was on fire. Whitman Fire Department’s Car 1, Car 2, Car 3, Engine 243, Engine 242, and Abington Tower 1 responded to the initial alarm.
Light smoke was visible from the second-floor porch when fire crews arrived on the scene. Firefighters opened up the porch and found fire in the void spaces between the first and second floors. Deputy Chief Nicholas Grasso identified the blaze as a working fire.
Firefighters used two handlines to knock down the fire, bringing the flames under control within 20 minutes.
Mutual aid fire companies from the towns of Abington, East Bridgewater, Hanson, Rockland, and a Halifax ambulance responded to the scene. A Bridgewater engine covered Whitman Fire headquarters. The Whitman Emergency Management Agency Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) provided rehab services on scene. Whitman Fire was also assisted on scene by the Whitman Police Department, and the Plymouth County Sheriffs Department Bureau of Criminal Investigation Unit.
The cause of the fire was determined to be improper disposal of smoking materials. Damages to the home are estimated at $15,000.
Serving Hanson’s seniors
HANSON – Council on Aging Director Mary Collins updated the Select Board on Tuesday, Feb. 25 by “introducing” them to some elder neighbors facing challenges board members may never had imagined being issues in their little town.
“Quite frankly, it’s good for you to hear once a year, some of the figures from the Senior Center,” she said. But many in the public have attitudes that can hinder the work the centers do, according to Collins, who listed some of the public’s reaction to the phrase “senior center:”
• “You’ll never find me in a senior center;”
• “I’m too young to go to a senior center;”
• “They don’t have anything that interests me.”
But when a crisis happens, regarding their health, their spouse’s health, possibly that of their parents or a friend, they turn to the senior center.
“It could be a change in their financial situation, getting behind in payments, or their refusal to burden their children with such worries,” she said. “Where do they go?”
When home modifications are needed for parents to move in, but adult children can’t afford to make those modifications, where can they turn? Problems in finding affordable housing – possibly from the loss of a spouse leaves a person fearful.
“They have a place to turn,” Collins said.
Senior centers help when physical limitations make preparing healthy meals too difficult, or the mailbox is overflowing with material from different healthcare providers as they turn 65 and it gets confusing. Where do these people turn?
“They turn to the senior center,” she said. “They turn to the Hanson Senior Center. Whether it’s through a call to the Town Hall asking for help; whether it’s directly to us, we seem to foster those kind of calls on almost a daily basis.”
Select Board members expressed their appreciation for the work Collins and her staff provide.
“You know we’re huge fans of the work that you do every day all day,” Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “You’re an amazing person and we’re lucky to have you. What can we do to help you?”
She said that the board does not want to see Collins or her staff get burned out, so, whether she need more part-time people, or whatever else she needed, FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
“If you have the conversation, it might not happen today, but we can try to build it into things and get you that additional support so you can continue to do what you’re doing and you might even be able to do more,” she said.
“Two services that are vastly underfunded [in Hanson] are veterans’ services and the Council on Aging, said Board member Joe Weeks. “That demographic is only rising, and veterans have always been underserviced. If you don’t ask, we can’t help.”
According to figures Collins obtained from the Hanson Town Clerk’s office 4,115 residents are over age 55. If the population is 11,000 that figure represents more than 37 percent of the population. At 10,000 residents it would be 41 percent of the population. Many senior centers want to keep up with the changing interests of people, such as technology and educational programs.
Weeks said Town Meeting is the place where the town decides where its money goes, and if departments don’t know to ask for it there, he doesn’t think it’s possible to get it.
Board member Ed Heal also thanked Collins for her hard work, adding he thinks he’s taken Collins and her department for granted because they are able to do so much.
“I know you need more help, but what you do is unbelievable – way beyond what one person should be doing,” he said.
“That is really difficult to do at the Hanson Senior Center because I have a part-time administrative assistant … a part-time outreach person … I have a van driver and myself,” she said. In 2024, the Hanson Senior Center delivered more than 4,500 meals to people, congregate hot meals were served to more than 1,000 and more than 6,800 people got transportation to the center and/or medical appointments.
Referral paperwork for SNAP and housing assistance paperwork was provided by Collins personally for well over 65 people last year, and the most time-consuming assistance provided by senior center staff and volunteers was for Medicare enrollment was proved to 398 individuals – 170 of them during the annual open enrollment period from mid-October to Dec. 7. That assistance saved those clients more than $91,000.
The weekly programs for community connections and entertainment are also very popular. A healthy aging program offered by Old Colony Elder Services on memory boosting last year was very well attended and a new education program offered this beginning in March, will be a six-week program on chronic illness and disease management.
Perhaps most needed was the Modular unit they recently obtained through a $300,000 grant, which permitted the much-needed Leah’s Club supportive day program.
“It was our one and only chance,” Collins said of the grant. “We’re not like the library – we don’t get that funding.”
The grant was designed for elder services organizations that had lost, or were thinking of starting, a supportive day program.
“We had a supportive day program for 27 years when COVID hit,” she said. “As a result of COVID and people having to not work during that period, we lost the program. …[Leah’s Club] is a group which was established to fill an unmet need that the loss of the supportive day program during COVID left in it’s wake.”
Collins and her staff were “very strongly aware” of people in the community with forms of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease whose families and spouses were trying to care for them and keep them safe.
“We started Leah’s Club simply because of this need,” she said, noting that one day supportive day Director Leah Guercio, 96, came to Collins and said they had to fill that void in services. Guercio and her young assistant are paid out of a formula grant.
“We have wonderful volunteers,” she said of Leah’s Club, which meets twice a week from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. “People are engaged, they feel like a human being again and gives their families a little bit of respite that they need.
Henry Monet’s Wednesday Dancing with Henry program is very popular with Leah’s Club and sends them out the door to the old song, “You’re My Best Friend.”
The grant helped address a big challenge in returning Leah’s Club, as well – a lack of space.
“People came out of the woodwork for Leah’s Club,” she said. “People can’t afford assisted living housing.”
Once the modular building was obtained, the senior center asked clients’ families if there was any interest in bringing it back up to five days a week. The answer was a resounding, “Yes,” even if they have to pay for it. That full-time service will return in May.
“It’s an answer for a lot of families,” she said.
Collins thanked public safety partners from the Hanson Fire and Police departments that keep seniors safe and go the extra mile by teaching seniors a CPR class, and the Hanson Food Pantry, which has set up a little free “store” in the center lobby for clients to help stretch their food benefits and may be shy about going to the main food pantry.
She also thanked the Friends of the Hanson Senior Center as well as Hanson Community Christmas for always caring for seniors in the community,
WFD’s Busch graduates firefighter academy
WHITMAN — Chief Timothy Clancy is pleased to share that Whitman Firefighter/EMT Matthew Busch Jr. successfully completed and graduated from the Massachusetts Firefighter Academy (MFA) on Friday, Feb. 14.
Firefighter/EMT Busch was one of 18 graduates from 12 departments in the Career Recruit Firefighter Training Program Class #BW33.
Firefighter/EMT Busch, a Whitman resident, has been with the Whiteman Fire Department since August 2024.
During the 50-day Career Recruit Firefighting Training Program, students received classroom training in all basic firefighter skills, practicing first under non-fire conditions and then during controlled fire conditions. To graduate, students needed to demonstrate proficiency in life safety, search and rescue, ladder operations, water supply, pump operation, and fire attack, ranging from mailbox fires to multi-floor structural fires.
The graduates are now certified to the levels of Firefighter I and II, and Hazardous Materials First Responder Operations, by the Massachusetts Fire Training Council, which is accredited by the National Board on Fire Service Professional Qualifications.
“Matthew has been a great asset to our department, and we want to congratulate him on this outstanding accomplishment,” said Chief Clancy. “I wish him the best of luck in the next phase of his career here in Whitman.”
The other 17 graduates of Class #BW33 represent the fire departments of Barnstable, Dennis, East Bridgewater, Hull, Kingston, Milton, New Bedford, Sandwich, West Bridgewater, Wrentham, and Yarmouth.
“Massachusetts firefighters are on the frontlines protecting their communities every day, and today’s graduates are needed now more than ever,” said State Fire Marshal Jon M. Davine. “The hundreds of hours of foundational training they’ve received will provide them with the physical, mental, and technical skills to perform their jobs effectively and safely.”
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