Dollars for Scholars is kicking off the holiday season with the third annual “Decorate for Scholars” in the historic Whitman Park Dec. 9 to 11. 

Residents, businesses and community organizations can sponsor a tree for $100 and decorate the tree in a creative and festive manner. The tree sponsors will receive a five-to-six-foot tree, lights, a stand, and a sponsorship sign. There are a limited number of trees available. If interested, please contact Michelle LaMattina at mlamattina1974@gmail.com or 781-589-3151.

Additionally, there will be a vendor fair indoors at Town Hall and outdoors in the Park from 2 to 8 p.m.Saturday, Dec. 10. Please contact Dollars for Scholars if you are a craft vendor and interested in participating. Food trucks, performers and event sponsors are also needed. For more info, please contact Michelle at mlamattina1974@gmail.com or 781-589-3151.

Dollars for Scholars is an all-volunteer nonprofit which raises and awards scholarships to graduating high school seniors from Whitman and Hanson.  

WHITMAN — Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak and Principal Dr. Joel Jocelyn report that a school within the district was evacuated today after smoke was found in the school library.

At 12:06 p.m., students and staff at the Indian Head Elementary School in Hanson saw smoke in the school library accompanied by an odor in the hallway. The school was evacuated immediately and Hanson Police and Fire were notified.

After their initial investigation, Hanson Fire deemed the school gymnasium safe, and students were moved into the gymnasium while the situation was investigated further. The school also remained in constant contact with Whitman-Hanson central administration during the entire incident.

Hanson Fire has determined that the smoke and odor stemmed from a piece of rubber from a motor in one of the school’s boilers, which had pushed light smoke through the library and a residual odor into the hallway. The fire department ventilated the entire building to eliminate the residual odor, and also checked all classrooms, bathrooms, the cafeteria and gymnasium to confirm the environment was safe for students to return.

Principal Jocelyn and Hanson Fire Chief Jerome Thompson addressed all students as they gathered in the gymnasium and explained the situation. Lunch and recess proceeded, and school was dismissed at the regularly-scheduled time.

“There is nothing more important than the health and safety of our students, and we are extremely grateful for the support and guidance we received today from the Hanson Fire and Police Departments,” Principal Jocelyn said. “We are happy to report that all students are safe and we were able to conclude the day as usual.”

WHITMAN — The Select Board on Tuesday, Sept. 27 voted to call for a special Town Meeting at some time in November, and discussed the salary issues that could affect hiring of a new Town Administrator.

“We have appointed, effective Oct. 1, our town accountant to the position of acting treasurer/collector,” interim Town Administrator Frank Lynam said. “In order to make a permanent appointment, we would need to change the status of the position from that of elected to that of appointed.”

He recommended a special Town Meeting be scheduled for Monday, Nov. 14, which, he said, seems to be the most popular choice for a meeting night to address that and “other financial issues that may need to be addressed.”

The meeting is not officially scheduled until Select Board members sign a warrant.

Lynam said there are also a “number of budgets” that need to be adjusted, which would more appropriately be addressed in a special Town Meeting than to wait until May.

 “It takes off some of the concern departments may have about possibly running out of money before that event occurs,” he said, noting he expects the session to be minimal in scope.

The new quorum requirements approved at last year’s annual Town Meeting calls for only 100 registered voters, rather than the 150 that used to be needed to convene a special Town Meeting.

If the question is held off for the May Town Meeting, the board will effectively have already placed a question on the ballot before the Town Meeting has voted to take that action.

Thirty-five days are required to vote on a ballot issue before it head to the ballot, and there is only two weeks separating Town Meeting and Town Election.

“I think it’s cleaner,” Lynam said. “It’s not essential, but it’s a good idea, in my mind.”

Select Board member Shawn Kain expressed a concern about scheduling a Town Meeting unnecessarily, saying that while he does have concern about the budget, he also feels confident about the work town officials are doing.

“Once we update the public I think those kinds of budgetary concerns will be alleviated,” he said, noting that he had no objection to holding a special Town Meeting if the board agreed it was necessary.

Lynam informed the board that Plymouth County, which oversees COVID funds, issued the town a final disposition declining Whitman the use of $160,000 some three weeks ago.

“That doesn’t mean we’re out of money,” he said. “It means we have to go to the ARPA fund to seek funding for those.”

He added that he did challenge some of the decisions and last week the town received a check for $42,559. That leaves $120,000 that must be appealed through ARPA.

In other business, Lynam updated the board on the work of the Town Administrator search committee, which met for the first time as a committee the week before.

He said an important observation had been made by one member that Whitman will be conducting its search with a combined budget for the position of $150,000 — more than $140,000 plus vacation buy-back time that was included in the actual budget.

“I am waiting for survey results, but I believe $150,000 is an absolute minimum that would enable us to recruit for this position,” he said. “I know that sounds crazy, given what the numbers were over the years, but town managers and administrators are now being hired and several towns broke the $200,000 mark this year, and they’re not heavily experienced people.”

Lynam sought permission to prepare an ad and advertise [a salary of up to ] $150,000, but cautioned the board the salary might have to be revisited.

“It’s going to be difficult to fill the position,” he said.

The board approved the ad for a salary ranging to about $150, depending on experience.

Lynam also addressed a communication gap with some granted use of the Town Hall.

A battle of the bands, for which use of the Town Hall Auditorim was sought by the Cultural Council, approved by the board, and the hall had been set up for it — only to find out via Facebook that the event had been canceled.

“I think it bodes well for us to ask for more communication when people request use of the Town Hall, because it involves other people and other efforts,” he said.

WHITMAN — Past experiences with storms during the annual DFS Decorating for Scholars event at Whitman Park have led organizers to ask the Select Board to approve a change this year.

Organizer Michelle LaMattina sought permission from the board to use Town Hall Auditorium on Saturday, Dec. 10 for an afternoon vendor affair to coincide with events surrounding the tree lighting ceremony in the evening.

Select Board voted to approve both the event itself and use of the auditorium, with interim Town Administrator Frank Lynam pledging to get back to LaMattina the next day to confirm the facility’s availability.

Food trucks and performers will also be included in the event. LaMattina said any performers with links to WHRHS are especially welcome. A “special guest” is also slated to make an appearance. This year’s dates are Friday through Sunday, Dec. 9 to 11.

“We try to make it bigger every year to try to raise a little bit more money every year,” she said. “It’s just a good thing for the community.”

Last year, more than $10,000 was raised at the event. LaMattina has also spoken with the Boy Scouts, who want to help out a little more this year, as well as a few other groups.

Weather postponed last year’s vendor event on the Saturday of the three-day festival.

“The year before we had issues with the weather, also,” she said. “Obviously, one of these years were going to get hit with a blizzard.”

Feedback to DFS indicated a lot more people wanted to be vendors and participate in the event the Saturday last year’s storm hit, but they didn’t want to be outside in the cold all day.

Use of the auditorium would permit the organization to have some vendors inside and others outside. Student volunteers work the event as part of the volunteer hours requirement for the scholarship program.

There will also be adult volunteers on duty.

LaMattina was also asking that no charge be asked for use of the auditorium because all the money raised goes directly to scholarships.

DFS has held a tree lighting event in the park for the last two years.

“It’s one of our larger fundraisers of the year,” she said. “The only issue we’ve had is last year somebody stole a tree on us, but, other than that, people love it.”

HANSON — Town Administrator Lisa Green is out on a temporary medical leave, elect Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett announced at the board’s Tuesday, Aug. 30 meeting.

The board had met in executive session Monday, Aug. 29 under Mass. General Law provisions regarding the physical condition or competence of an employee.

“Naturally I can’t provide any details [about Green’s health], that would be violating HIPAA, nor do I think people necessarily want to hear the gory details,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “With that said, we’re obviously in a critical time since we are knee-deep for preparations for Town Meeting which is one of the most important days of the year for the town.”

FitzGerald-Kemmett said that, working with town counsel, the board was able to identify a candidate who has acted as an interim for in the past 

The Select Board entered into an agreement with Kevin Donvan to serve as interim town administrator for a period of up to three months at a rate of $75 per hour, which FitzGerald-Kemmett is quite reasonable for the job he is going to be doing and is expected to do He is deeply experienced, having served as tow administrator for other towns and has also served on the Abington select board and “has quite an impressive résumé.” 

Donovan started his role on Wednesday, Aug. 31 and planned a department head meeting for that day.

“With Lisa’s medical situation, the board wanted her to focus on getting well,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “She’s really been trying to be a hero by coming in — and I think she’s ended up causing more problems [for herself] by coming in — so we really said to her, ‘You need to take care of yourself and we want to give you the opportunity to do that.’ But we need to steady the ship and bring somebody in to make sure we’re getting the day-to-day business done.”

Green will be using sick and vacation time while she recovers as preferable to the rules of the Family and Medical Leave Act. Te board will figure out a transitional period back to the office when she is better.

“There might be a time wen she is working remotely part-time and Mr. Donovan is working part-time and then at some point, she’ll come back to the office,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.

Donovan should be a good fit as he helps the board catch up and keep up with work while Green is out, she said.

“We were impressed. He has a great sense of humor, which is going to stand him in good stead. … He knows his priority is to get the Town Meeting warrant done and he knows what he’s coming into and what’s expected of him.”

Selectman Jim Hickey said he agreed that Donovan was very knowledgeable.

“Right now, the most important thing for us is Town Meeting, and he’s been through it many times,” Hickey said.

Donovan will be working with the Hanson Select Board full-time for the first couple of weeks to onboard the new administrative assistant and potentially beyond a couple of weeks, if town business requires it.

“The thought process is he’ll pull back to 20 hours a week and be on-call full-time at no charge to the town unless he physically has to come into the office,” she said.

The Select Board voted on Tuesday, Aug. 30, to appoint Jake Matyi as temporary administrative assistant and intern to the town administrator, and Lynn McDowell as the new executive assistant to the town administrator. Select Board member Anne Rein was away on a long-planned vacation Tuesday.

“We’re hopeful that, between [Donovan] and Jake and Lynn, we’ll get things back on track at the office,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “We can’t wait for you to start,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said of McDowell’s Wednesday, Sept. 7 start date. McDowell attended the Aug. 30 meeting.

Matyi, who was not in attendance at the meeting is a student at Bridgewater State University, who will be stepping in to serve for about five to six weeks to assist in the town administrator’s office.

In other business, the board approved a conditional offer of employment to police officer Michael S. Maliff Jr., to fill a vacancy, which opened when an officer transferred out of the department in June, according Chief Michael Miksch. Maliff must pass the required medical and psychological exams and a background check before officially joining the Hanson Police Department.

“Normally, I get 50-plus résumés and letters, and we got, like, 20,” Miksch said. Of those 20 applicants, about six met the minimum requirements posted, but 10 were interviewed, based on their backgrounds.

“Mike Maliff is the one who came out on top,” he said.

Maliff grew up in Whitman and is a graduate of WHRHS. He is currently an officer on the Oak Bluffs Police Department on Martha’s Vineyard, where he has served since 2013. He is working on his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice.

“One of the things that’s impressive with Michael is he’s part of the drug task force [on the Vineyard], so he’s done some detective work, and he’s also a field training officer,” Miksch said, noting that, ironically, he will have to go through field training with the Hanson department. “He’s fully academy trained, which will save us a lot of money … he looks like he’ll be a very good fit for the department.”