Contested Select Board and School Committee races in both Whitman and Hanson will be highlighted on Town Election ballots in both communities, as Whitman voters will also be asked to weigh in on a proposed debt exclusion question for a $17.8 million DPW building and whether the town’s treasurer-collector should become an appointed position.
Since a new DPW building plan was rejected by the voters in 2013, the Department of Public Works has been working on plans for a new building that are pared down but meet current needs as well as considering the future.
“What we’re trying to build is a new facility that just has basic needs – that our crews need, that our mechanics need, that our staff needs,” Kevin Cleary, chairman of the DPW Commission, to residents attending an informational meeting on Wednesday, April 26.
The feasibility process for the new building was started in 2008, Cleary noted. The approximately $1 million approved at Town Meeting last year paid for an owner’s project manager (OPM), as required by state law, and an architect.
Beyond flaking paint, the video showed crumbing of the front operations (or green) building’s crumbling cinder block façade. Constructed before the sinking of the Titanic, the garage building is more than 110 years old and houses not only garage and maintenance space as well as storage and breakroom space for employees. It also holds the one working – if not exactly sanitary – bathroom for DPW crews.1960s fire.
The building also lacks proper heat and ventilation and is not compliant with OSHA regulations. Crews have to work in these conditions for two or three shifts straight during snowstorms.
“It doesn’t have any proper facilities,” Cleary said. “It’s well-passed its life span.”
The metal-framed back building, constructed in the 1970s, is used as “cold storage” for equipment that, at best keeps the items sheltered from weather and provides space for two mechanics to work. While the bays do have heat, there is no ventilation, meaning the doors have to be left open while they are working in all weather – including winter.
On a median home valued at $402,000, the 20-year debt exclusion would mean $285 on tax bills for the first year, down to $163 in the final year – or an average of $224 per year.
The Treasurer/Collector question will appear on the May 20, 2023 Town election ballot to be ratified, after last winter’s special Town Meeting approved it.
Interim Town Administrator Frank Lynam argued in his report, initially placed on the warrant as Article 12 from the board, that both moves were in recognition of recent changes that mean people serving in those positions these days require more advanced certifications. The report was taken out of order and made the first item of business for the evening.
“As an elected position, the sole requirement for the [Treasurer/Collector] role is to receive more than one more of 50 percent of the votes,” Lynam said. “There is no requirement that the candidate have any experience in managing and handling cash or in collecting municipal bills.”
He and former Treasurer/Collector Mary Beth Carter listed some of he requirements of the job today, as the financial market is more sophisticates and a town’s financial security leans mainly on the person in that post.
“If the position is not changed to an appointed position, the town runs the risk of possibly having a person who is unqualified or is inexperienced as a treasurer/collector,” she said. “This position is too important to … have a person who may be popular, however is not qualified for this job.”
In response to a question about who is responsible for paying for the educational credentials needed, Lynam said the town has always encouraged employees to further their education, but the initiative to learn the job requirements rests solely with the individual. But an elected officer cannot be directed or managed by anyone other than a town election, he said.
“It is very much in the town’s interest to thoroughly scrutinize the qualifications and skills of someone who will have access to and authority to invest, at various times, up to $45 million of taxpayer and ratepayer money on behalf of the town,” Lynam said.
Hanson voters, meanwhile will see a three-way race for two seats on the Select Board in a relatively quiet election season.
Early voting hours in Hanson will be conducted at Hanson Town Hall, 532 Liberty St., from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday, May 15; from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Tuesday, May 16 and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Wednesday, May 17.
The Election Day voting will be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Hanson Middle School. Saturday, May 20.
Whitman Races
Whitman is offering absentee/Early voting ballots for the May 20 annual Town Election are now available in the Town Clerk’s office. Voters that want to vote by absentee/early ballot for this Election are asked to fill out an application as soon as possible. Anyone voting by absentee/early ballot by mail must fill out an application or send a letter to the Town Clerk with their signature by Monday May 15, 2023.
Absentee voting may be done in person at the Town Clerk’s office. Early voting must be done by mail. Voters may vote absentee only if you are absent from the town during the hours the polls are open; physical disability; or religious belief.  
Polls on election day, Saturday, May 20, in Whitman are open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Appearing on Whitman’s ballot are:
Town Moderator Michael Seele, of 253 School St., running unopposed for re-election for a three-year term.
Kenneth Lytle, 137 Warren Ave., (vote for one) is running unopposed for treasurer-collector.
Select Board (vote for two) Incumbents Dr. Carl Kowalski, 45 Simmons Ave., and Randy LaMattina, 6 River Birch Circle, are seeking re-election, challenged by Rosemary Connolly, 407 Franklin St., and Laura Howe, 185 School St. Connolly is currently a member of the Finance Committee and Howe is animal control officer right now.
Seeking re-election to the School Committee for three-year terms Steve Bois, 37 Beal Ave., and David Forth Jr., 123 Pleasant St., are being challenged by Kaitlin Barton, of 7 Marble St. #214E and Kevin P. Mayer, 804 Washington St., #2.
John J. Noksa, 84 Country Way, is running unopposed for re-election as an assessor (vote for one) for a three-year term.
Running for re-election to the two seats up for election on the Department of Public Works Commissioners for a three-year term.
Running for two three-year posts on the Public Library Trustees, are incumbent Patricia J. Eunice, 347 Commercial St., and challenger Sylvia D.S. Bubbins, 16 English Place.
Thomas J. Evans, 68 Temple St., is running unopposed for a three-year term on the Board of Health.
Hanson races
Town Moderator Sean Kealy, 121 Holmes St., running unopposed for re-election for a three-year term.
Select Board (vote for two) Incumbent Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett, 83 Bay State Circle, is seeking re-election. Also vying for the two seats up for voting are Thomas E. Chambers, 282 King St., and David George, 564 State St. Incumbent James Hickey decided not to seek re-election.
Seeking re-election to the School Committee for three-year term, is Hillary M. Kniffen, 453 Gorwin Drive. Stephen M. Cloutman, 229 Cross St., is running for the two years remaining on former School Committee Chair Christopher Howard’s term. Howard decided earlier this spring to step down after Town Meeting.
There is no declared candidate for the open three-year term on the Board of Assessors.
Health Board member Kevin R. Perkins, 493 Spring St., is running un-opposed for re-election to a three-year term.
Kevin E. Keane, 653 Indian Head St., is running unopposed for a tree-year term on the Hanson Housing Authority.
Running for re-election to two three-year seats on the Public Library trustees are John F. Papp, 521 Spring St., and Teresa M. Santalucia, 617 West Washington St.
Michael J. Chernicki, 680 Liberty St., is running unopposed for re-election to the Board of Water Commissioners.
— Tracy F. Seelye

Dollars for Scholars announces their eighth annual “Bowling for Dollars for Scholars” will be held from noon to 5 p.m., Saturday, April 29, and Sunday, April 30 at the Hanson Bowladrome (adjacent to the Hanson AA) at 171 Reed Street in Hanson.
For every string bowled during the event a donation will be made to benefit Whitman & Hanson Dollars for Scholars. The cost to bowl will be $10 per string with no charge for shoe rental. Door prizes and complementary food will be available throughout the two-day event.
All funds raised during the event will benefit the Class of 2023 in the form of scholarships. For more information, please contact Mike Ganshirt at 781-252-9683 or visit WhitmanAndHanson.DollarsforScholars.org.

In honor of beloved former Library Director Nancy Cappellini, the Hanson Public Library will host its fifth Annual Nancy Cappellini Family Fun Day on Friday, April 21.
Starting at 10 a.m., enjoy light refreshments, face painting, a springtime growing craft, and more. If you’d like try the springtime growing craft, please bring a clean, plastic ice coffee cup with a lid to serve as your mini greenhouse! At noon, join Craig Harris and Drum Away the Blues. Enjoy a family-focused event and drum away any stress, find emotional balance, and discover the joys of making music. Drum Away the Blues is sponsored by State Aid to Public Libraries.
Please reserve your spot for the Drum Away the Blues program. All other activities will be first come first serve. Registration will be open for Hanson residents only from March 27-April 16, then registration will be open to all April 17-21.
Please visit the library’s website, hansonlibrary.org, to sign up and learn more about the fifth Annual Nancy Cappellini Family Fun Day and all of our other upcoming programs. If you have any questions, please contact us by email at [email protected] or by phone at 781-293-2151.

HANSON – The Select Board focused on how to use one-time funds in the effort to close the town’s budget deficit as members reviewed Town Meeting warrants at its Tuesday, April 4 meeting.
Town Administrator Lisa Green said she and her staff have spent many hours between meetings updating the draft warrants for the annual and special Town Meetings on which the board had voted to place or place and recommend articles at its March 28 meeting.
For example, several capital articles pertaining to the schools were combined into a single Article 7 with line items – including a pair of line items, for an elevator repair and a septic system repair at Hanson Middle School, which were not placed on the October special Town Meeting warrant.
Green said she was uncertain why the omission took place, when the October session did take up an emergency request from the school district for door security after they fell victim to a cyber attack over the summer
“It could have been that these were determined not to be an emergency to fall under the October special Town Meeting, and now they are coming before the May annual Town Meeting as reimbursements,” she said.
The other requests under Article 7 are one-time purchases such as technology requests, for which free cash or American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) funds could be used, Green said.
Vice Chair Joe Weeks asked how much money in ARPA funds the town has to spend on one-time expenditures.
“I think it would important for us to put out there in Town Meeting,” he said. “It’s an important revenue question to ask. … We have to start talking about next year’s budget, like now.”
Knowing how much the town has available in ARPA funds at the start and end of Town Meeting business will be important in illustrating how much money it takes to fund the town with money that officials will never have available again, Weeks argued.
Green said Hanson has $1,191,040 in ARPA funds available through Plymouth County as well as two disbursements totalling $1,294,000 through the Treasury.
“We have not touched this money,” she said except for $100,000 from ARPA for a fire station feasibility study; $85,000 for a generator for the Library/Senior Center and $200,000 for the HVAC system expended at the October special Town Meeting. However, Plymouth County had rejected both the generator and HVAC system uses because the HVAC funds must first be spent and then reimbursed by the county. The generator does not fit the accepted use parameters for COVID-related costs.
“We can certainly use the treasury money that we have in the bank, because that can be used for any general government services,” she said. “But, as of right now, we haven’t done the projects and spent any of the money.”
Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett noted the town has to “jump through major hoops” to access the ARPA funds administered by Plymouth County.
“We need to get strategic about how we’re going to spend it because we have to spend it by 2026,” she said.
Board member Ed Heal said he would like a table projected on a screen at Town Meeting showing how much was available in the funds and how much has so far been allocated “so they can actually see that their votes do something.”
Both he and FitzGerald-Kemmett had doubts about how to do that, but agreed another forum such as a Select Board meeting, or a handout at Town Meeting might be better forums in which to present that information.
The special Town Meeting articles were then approved for placement on the warrant.
In the annual warrant, the board discussed whether a $25,000 request by the Thomas Mill Committeee to replace the wheel and rebuild the stand at the historic mill. When the wheel had been removed for work, it was discovered that the stand’s wood was rotting, Green said.
FitzGerald-Kemmett asked the board for feedback, but suggested that $25,000, “when we’re in a fiscal situation … where timing is everything.”
“In my gut, I feel like this needs to be deferred to, potentially, October Town Meeting,” she said. “We are the ones who have to decide whether this is the best use of town money.”
Board member Jim Hickey said as a one-time situation, it could qualify for ARPA funding.
“This is a perfect example of one of those projects that you need to look into it before you [proceed],” he said. “But, if we don’t do it now, next May, or even October, it could be $30,000.”
“It is a community landmark,” Board member Ann Rein agreed. “It’s something that people like and I think that’s a good use for one-time money.”
Green expressed doubt that ARPA funds, which support general government services, could be properly used for the Mill wheel project.
Weeks said he is looking at finances for the year – and probably next year as well – with the point in mind that the town still does not know if the school assessment increase will come in at 3.75 percent with a $600,000 deficit or “if we’re going to be stuck paying more than that.”
“I come from the place of, under normal circumstances, my motion would normally be … to place and defer to Town Meeting,” Weeks said. “We still don’t know the dollar amount for the school. … We have to be super conservative right now.”
He said he loves the people overseeing the project and thinks they are doing a great job and should place their request before the board, but he is concerned that one-time funds may be needed to fund the town for now.
Rein suggested that a fundraising effort, such as Crowdfunding might be an alternative.
FitzGerald-Kemmett suggested reaching out to the state representatives to seek an earmark for the “very modest amount” for the iconic town landmark.
Hickey said it was the board’s duty to place the article, whether or not they voted to recommend it. The board voted to place the article to defer the issue to Town Meeting.
The board conducted a brief hearing with National Grid on utility pole locations near 201 Franklin St.
Bill Gillespie of National Grid said the utility is looking to place a pole and push-brace to hold the existing pole until it can be removed because of wires. The base of the push-brace should extend about 10 feet from the existing pole.
Hickey said he liked taking care of a problem before it becomes a problem.

WHITMAN – They say opportunity only knocks once.
Whitman resident Coryn MacPherson was a junior at the Savannah College of Art and Design, where she majored in sequential art, answered when the knock of opportunity came to her at the school in 2021.
Within that major, she specialized in comic book and graphic novel art.
“They’re a tough school, but they’re great,” the 2018 graduate of W-H Regional High said of SCAD.
“The school … had an event specifically for people wanting to get into comics,” she said. “They would bring in art directors and editors from those [publishers] and Scholastic was one of them.”
Students had the opportunity to submit their portfolios for the publishing representatives to look at and review. Two months later, she received an email with an offer from the art director.
Graphix, a graphic novel imprint of Scholastic, was looking for illustrators for its Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise, based on a video game.
Was Coryn interested?
It didn’t take her long to say, “Yes.”
Her work is featured in the last story of “Five Nights at Freddy’s: Fazbear Frights Graphic Novel Collection, Vol. 2.” That story is titled “The New Kid.”
A kid is jealous of his best friend’s new friend, makes the new kid disappear, she said of the plot line.
It was the first step on a career path which she wants to see lead to writing and illustrating her own graphic novels. MacPherson had already been working on the script for one of her own.
“It’s a fairy tale,” she said.
In a way, she’s been living one. MacPherson, who graduated magna cum laude from SCAD in June 2022, is also working from a disability, her mother Julie Ryan said.
“She can’t see out of one of her eyes, so the fact that she draws as well is pretty extraordinary,” Ryan said. “And it’s a big deal for somebody still in college to land a job like that.”
And her career is taking off since the book came out recently. MacPherson has already seen more interest in her work through social media such as LinkedIn, but the opportunity was the stuff of movie magic.
“It’s a New York Times best-seller franchise,” her mom Julie said.
Asked for details on the story line, Coryn paused and said with a laugh “It’s … um … animatronics that kill kids. It’s a really popular franchise and they’re currently filming a movie for it down in Louisiana.”
Matthew Lillard, who played “Shaggy” in the “Scooby-Doo” film is in it as well as a former member of the “Scream” cast and Josh Hutchinson from the “Hunger Games” is in it.
While MacPherson is not involved in the film project, her work on the graphic story books is keeping her busy.
She said the 10-year-old franchise is massive, with dozens of books and eight video games based on it, as well as board games, in addition to the movie.
“The books are kind of tie-ins for the games,” MacPherson said. “What’s being adapted [in the film] is the game play, whereas these are little stories that take place I the same world.”
Published for ages 12 and up and released about three weeks ago, the book is now available at area stores like Barnes & Noble, Target and Walmart. The day her book came out, MacPherson said she went to Barnes & Noble and signed nine copies.
“They all sold out in a day,’ she said.
The copies had been identified by the Barnes & Noble staff so potential buyers would know they are a signed copy.
The publisher sent her an email about when the release date was.
“We were there, looking,” Ryan said.
Having just completed her third project for the Scholastic franchise, for whom she is working almost exclusively right now and is already at work on her next project. She said she has also applied for another position in Boston, doing similar work for this year’s Anime Boston convention in April.
“The art, I don’t think anyone is going to see until the actual convention,” she said.
Like a lot of careers today – especially in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, MacPherson can work just about anywhere she can take her tablet, but she added, it’s not really a new development in her field.
“Comics are pretty much always remote, because the artists are all over the world,” she said. “The other two artists on the book I just worked on, live in Argentina.”
MacPherson herself has studied in southern France and was briefly in Osaka, Japan, where a job teaching English didn’t work out. She’s now thinking about trying life in London.
“They’re taking away so much of the arts in school now to see something like this is uplifting for kids that are interested in art,” Julie said. “You wouldn’t have football uniforms if people weren’t around to create them. You wouldn’t have a band if somebody didn’t create the music.”
“Just let kids draw,” she said.
While Julie said Coryn had done an amazing essay during her senior year at W-H on the importance of art in people’s lives, but by that time she had already been accepted at college before her senior year of high school even started.
MacPherson has also had an essay published in one of the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” books on women empowerment while she was in college.
“This is dumb luck,” she insisted.
“When it comes to her work, shows through it,” Ryan said of her daughter’s self-professed tendency toward introversion.
“I try,” she said.
MacPherson said the franchise has not yet encountered any issues with book-banning efforts around the country.
“But, honestly, with the graphicness of it, I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets affected,” she said. “It is something I worry about a little bit, because they are really graphic stories.”
Whenever she gets a new script the worry returns, she said.
“They are really violent books … but even if the book-banning wasn’t happening, I’d still be a little worried just because of the content in these and how scary they are,” she said.
Taking a point of personal privilege to leave an Easter egg in the book, MacPherson has included her former college roommates and best friends. McKenzie and Eve, as “bit players” on the last page.
“I told them, ‘You guys dealt with me when I was stressed with this, so I’m going to put you in it,” she said. “So, the three of us are on the last page.”

HANSON – The Select Board approved a policy recommendation to add employee accrued time off information to pay stubs.
“We have an opportunity to better keep track of attendance and also to help the employees keep track,” Town Administrator Lisa Green said.
The payroll company can track how much vacation, sick time, floating holidays and personal days on pay stubs.
“As they use time, it will show up on pay stubs,” she said.
Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett asked if the count begins at the start of the fiscal year and who will be inputting that data.
Green said the countdown would begin on the anniversary date of their hiring.
The payroll company would be supplied with contract start date and allotted vacation/personal time information and will calculate it from there.
The town’s assistant treasurer, who puts in payroll data, would be relied on to catch errors, that could give employees too many vacation days, Green said.
“Hopefully, the employee would come forward and say there’s an error,” she said.
Vice Chair Joe Weeks said he would hope there are policies in place that would address such an eventuality.
“I think Mr. Weeks is picking up what I was putting down,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “I think we need to have a very clear policy that states in no event would something that appears on a pay stub supersede what is actually in the contract about what you would otherwise be due.”
Green agreed.
Select Board member Ed Heal asked about the process involved.
“If I take a sick day, how does it get on my pay stub?” he asked.
Green said department heads submit time sheets to accounting and then to the payroll firm, who will key in the data.
She said she has already discussed it with the interim accountant and treasurer about the process, and stressed there is no cost to the town for the change.
In order to give the assistant treasurer the ability to learn the process, departments will be entered on a staggered basis, suggesting the Highway Department and Administrative Professionals union would be the first to be included.
“Then if fire and police want to join in, we would start them afterward because they have a little more of a complex system,” she said.
Weeks said he liked the idea, because tracking days owed information is often tricky.
“To me it’s an easy way of looking at it, trying to plan for the future,” he said. “This makes complete logical sense.”
He did question how the discussion was listed on the agenda as including attendance on the stubs.
“I don’t want to give people the wrong impression that we’re keeping track of when they’re clocking in and clocking out, before we roll this out,” he said. “I think before you roll this out, people need to have the policy in front of them.”
Green stressed the change refers only to accrued time off.
FitzGerald-Kemmett said there needs to be ownership of the policy, advocating that employees be asked to initial it as an indication that they have read it. Town officials overseeing the process should also be required to provide the information to department heads to verify the information entered on the payroll forms.
“If you’re concerned there might be a learning curve to it … a training on the process, would also be a smart way to avoid errors,” Weeks said.

WHITMAN – The Select Board on Tuesday, March 7 approved the revision of a job description and salary range for a new Town Administration, as well of an assistant town administrator.
Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter said the salary range now being offered is $90,000 to $100,000 for the job.
Committee member Justin Evans asked where the job opening would be posted, as it had been posted on the Mass. Municipal Association site as well as some industry organizations in the past, but the town received a “flurry of resumes” when positions were posted on Indeed.
Carter said it would definitely be posted on the MMA site and she could certainly post it on Indeed as well, and in local newspapers.
“It will definitely be put out there on several sites,” she said.
Selectman Dr. Carl Kowalski advised holding off on using Indeed until the board could gauge what interest they see from local newspapers and the MMA.
Fire chief Timothy Clancy, in his regular COVID report, said there had been only 16 positive cases of the virus in town over the previous week, out of 244 tests performed for a 6.5 percent positivity rating.
“Let’s have it be noted that’s a 50-percent decrease from the previous week and we can only hope that this trend will continue as people move back outside as we approach spring,” he said. “Also, the wastewater report has shown a gradual decrease.”