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 – 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.”

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.

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.

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. ​

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,