After 18 years of public service, School Committee Chairman Bob Hayes is sitting this one out.

Hayes opted against taking out nomination papers for the May 15 Annual Town Election in Hanson. Michelle Bourgelas and Daniel Strautman, meanwhile are running for seats on the School Committee representing Hanson.

Whitman, too, is seeing competition for School Committee seats on May 15 as incumbent Vice Chairman Christopher Scriven and member Fred Small will appear on the ballot with William Haran of 61 Meadow Lane and Heather Clough of 154 Beulah St.

For Hayes, it’s simply time to do something else.

“Eighteen years is a long time and it’s time for me to move on,” Hayes said Tuesday, adding he has no plans at the current time to stay involved in town politics. “I’m not ruling out anything in the future, but currently, no. … I have no regrets and I encourage people to volunteer for elective offices.”

He added that he appreciated the support he has received from Hanson voters over the years, and wishes the school district great things in the future.

“I’ve just been there a long, long time,” he said. “Am I going to miss it? Probably.”

There is also competition for Selectmen seats as Hanson Selectman Matt Dyer will appear on the ballot along with Joseph Weeks and Whitman Selectman Vice Chairman Daniel Salvucci will face off against Finance Committee member Rosemary Connolly.

Whitman voters are also being asked to select two Library Trustees from three candidates: Katherine Getchell, incumbent Michael Ganshirt and Wendy Cope. Two candidates are vying for a seat on the Whitman Housing Authority for a five-year term: Theresa Lynskey and Kimberly Blanchard-Bobulis.

Ballot lineups are as follows:

Hanson

• Selectman:  Joseph Weeks and Matthew Dyer

• Assessor:  Kathleen Keefe

• Library Trustee:  Linda Wall and Corinne Cafardo

•Board of Health:  Arlene Dias

• Constable:  Steven Lyons

• Water Commissioner:  Denis O’Connell and William Garvey

• WHRSD:  Michelle Bourgelas and Daniel Strautman

• Housing Authority:  Daniel Pardo

• Planning Board: Joseph Campbell

Whitman

• Selectman: Daniel Salvucci and Rosemary Connolly

• Assessor: Heidi Hosmer

• Library Trustee (one year): Margaret McEwan

• Library Trustee (five years): Katherine Getchell, Michael Ganshirt, Wendy Cope

• Board of Health (three years): Danielle Clancy

• Board of Health (one year): Brandon Griffin

• WHRSD: William Haran, Fred Small, Christopher Scriven, Heather Cope

• Housing Authority: Theresa Lynskey; Kimerly Blanchard-Bobulis

• Town Clerk: Dawn Varley

• Planning Board (five years): Elaine Bergeron, Brandon Griffin, Wayne Andrews

• Department of Public Works Commissioner (three years): No candidates

HANSON — Town Meeting may be asked to vote on a zoning bylaw amendment to the current cannabis bylaw to permit two different delivery options for customers outside of town. A two-third vote would be required at Town Meeting, with no ballot question needed.

The move could double the revenue the town is already going to see from the community impact agreement with manufacturing business Impressed LLC.

The Board of Selectmen voted 4-1, with Selectman Jim Hickey dissenting, on Tuesday, March 16, to approve referring the matter to the Planning Board for a hearing to determine whether they could come up with a zoning bylaw amendment for the Town Meeting.

Town Counsel Kate Feodoroff briefed Selectmen about a proposal to permit retain cannabis delivery to residents outside Hanson.

“Delivery has two components,” she said. “There are two separate licensures, now, from the [Cannabis Control Commission] CCC — one is called the Courier License and one is called the Delivery Operator License,” Feodoroff said. “The difference between those is very significant.”

She stressed the service is different than a marijuana retailer as defined in the regulations, because it is not a storefront business. A facility will be required for the delivery operator service, however, because drivers will have to wear body cameras and be tracked by GPS, among other security measures that will have to be monitored, as well as storing it in the facility at times.

Delivery Operator licenses are going to be rolling out soon from the CCC as they begin to accept applications at the beginning of April, according to Feodoroff.

“If you want to react to that and try to capture some of that market, now’s the time to do it,” she said. The option would avoid the prospect of a lot of brick-and-mortar retail traffic at the Impressed LLC site, because much of the business would be done online with professional delivery companies delivering the product.

The financial benefit to the town would be “much more significant” than for the manufacturing business alone.

Couriers are services that pick up marijuana orders from retailers for delivery to consumers at their house — providing only the transportation. Delivery operators can pick up marijuana from any cannabis establishment – cultivators, manufacturers and retailers — in any form, and can re-label the product as their own.

“They buy the marijuana, make it their own product, and deliver it and sell it to the consumer,” she explained. “If you were to allow it in Hanson, you would get both local retail sales tax — 3 percent — and in addition to the 3 percent the town will see from community impact fee payments. The courier is less of a significant business.”

School Committee

Noting that Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak and “a good portion of the School Committee” was attending the virtual Board of Selectmen’s meeting over GoToMeeting, Selectmen Chairman Kenny Mitchell welcomed them to provide an overview of the budget process.

Szymaniak noted that the committee would be voting to certify a budget for fiscal 2022 at the next evening’s meeting.

“I’m looking for an increase of $2,252,341 — or a 4 percent increase — in the school budget,” Szymaniak said. “That’s what I call a Level Service-plus Budget.”

Level services are augmented by returning a science teacher that was cut in 2018-19 and focusing on intervention from learning regression during COVID, three more special education programs and more funds for Chromebooks and technological support for the devices, which have been leaned on heavily during COVID.

South Shore Tech Superintendent-Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey also met with Selectmen to review a debt authorization article going before Town Meeting as well as the school’s fiscal 2022 budget, which is up by 1.89 percent, with Hanson’s share of $1,228,077 is going up $92,657 or by 8.167 percent. There are four more students attending the school this year, in addition to cost increases.

COVID relief ESSER II grant funding will allow towns to offset some of the minimum local contributions, and could reduce Hanson’s cost by about $24,000.

Memorial Day

Selectmen also voted to designate Hanson as a Purple Heart Community at the urging of Veterans’ Agent Timothy White, and heard his recommendation for another low-key Memorial Day observance this year due to the continued concern over COVID-19.

White said he has been working with the Halifax VFW commander to learn more about the Purple Heart Community designation.

Rockland, where White also serves as Veterans’ Agent is also a Purple Heart Community, recognizing Aug. 7 — the date in 1782 when the decoration was established as the nation’s first honor for soldiers by George Washington — as Purple Heart Day.

A draft proclamation would be signed off on by Selectmen and forwarded to the Military Order of the Purple Heart, which would then present the town with an official proclamation.

Selectman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett thanked White for his work and said the designation was “absolutely the right thing to do.”

White said he generally starts planning Memorial Day at least two months in advance.

“Last year was very difficult and this year is going to match last year in that difficult nature,” he said. “I’m not sure what the governor’s restrictions will be as we move forward … there’s information about variants and there’s still a lot of concern.”

Hanover has also announced they will not have a parade this year. Like Hanson did in 2020, Hanover will only conduct a simple ceremony for broadcast on Memorial Day.

Rockland’s Veterans’ Ally Council has also indicated that town will not have a parade, either.

“I was going to proceed with it in mind that, most likely, there’s not going to be a parade,” he said.

Mitchell said he would go along with whatever White decided.

“Whatever you think, and whatever you need from this board to support you, on anything you decide for Memorial Day is fine with me,” Mitchell said.

“You obviously don’t want to put a vulnerable population of veterans in harm’s way by trying to celebrate them,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said, noting last year’s ceremony was “quite lovely.”

WHITMAN — The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday, March 9  were briefed on an $18.9 million capital article — of which, Whitman’s share would be 24.75 percent — being presented to the eight member towns of the South Shore Tech school district this spring.

W-H Superintendent Jeffrey Szymaniak plans to attend the Selectmen’s next meeting to discuss that school district’s budget.

Town Administrator Lincoln Heieneman is planning to have the annul Town Meeting on Saturday, May 3, possibly either outside at Memorial Field or at the high school, but also reported that Town Hall custodian Todd Decouto has volunteered to figure out, with six feet of social distancing, how many people could be accommodated inside Town Hall.

Acting Chairman Dan Salvucci returned the gavel to Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski to start the meeting. Kowalski had taken a leave from the post due to health concerns.

Salvucci returned to his role as vice chairman.

“Dan, I want to thank you a lot for taking care of me for that time when I felt like I couldn’t fulfill all the duties of chair because of  COVID and it’s relationship to my health,” Kowalski said.

“Well, welcome back,” Salvucci said.

A full slate of articles is expected to be voted on later this month.

“We’ve been talking for several years about the need to maintain the building that we have, and I know that starts with the support of our eight communities through the annual budgeting process,” said SST Superintendent-Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey and along with District Treasurer James Coughlin, who presented an overview of the debt authorization article sought at Town Meeting.

Coughlin said Hickey has applied for grants whenever they become available, bringing the district more than $3 million in vocational equipment over the past half-dozen years.

“We’ve got to continue to listen to our communities and see what the state of the union is, in terms of the local economy,” Hickey said. “If we’re not going to get a budget passed going into fiscal ’28, despite our great idea of having a five-year phase and because of an economic issue, we have to be mindful of that.”

Enrollment from Whitman is unchanged at SST from fiscal 2021, Hickey noted, and the budget presented this year has no debt in it.

“Nothing that I speak about tonight has any impact on the fiscal ’22 budget,” he said. “We’re looking at an assessment increase of about 1.7 percent — or a little over $27,000.”

Of that assessment of $1.65 million, $221,550 is set aside for capital projects, with some ESSER II [COVID relief grant] money available for some of that, according to Hickey. He said he thinks some of the assessment increase could be absorbed by ESSER II funds.

“We’ve been a very patient and annual applicant to the Mass. School Building Authority since 2015, telling a story about an aging building — a well-maintained, aging building — and the need for more space,” Hickey said.

The SST School Committee, meanwhile will delay a vote on the article until late March or early April, because their vote would “start the 60-day clock ticking” to take into consideration Scituate’s April Town Meeting through to early May when most district towns hold their meetings.

South Shore is awaiting to hear word, following the MSBA’s April board meeting about whether they would be invited to participate this go-round. In the meantime, he said, there are capital projects the district cannot justify or afford to bring to member towns in one budget cycle.

A window project of about $700,000 for fiscal 2022 is expected to be the last big capital project that could be absorbed within one annual budget cycle, according to Hickey.

Borrowing for bigger projects would be phased in over a six-year period using a combination of interest-only bond anticipation notes and bonding.

Recent capital requests have been largely about infrastructure, and while this proposal won’t be entirely that way, Hickey foresees that a good portion of future capital lines will be transferred over to debt service under this proposal.

“We have the responsibility of bringing a single number that includes capital and operating expenses [to town meetings],” Hickey said of the plan, which stemmed from a master facilities plan created by an engineering plan.

There will also be annual capital costs for materials supporting the vocational programs at the school.

“Unlike debt, capital is a rolling three-year average, so that 24.75 percent could certainly change,” Hickey said.

“I think Tom has presented a budget that is outstanding as far as a capital budget,” Salvucci said. “We’re looking at an entire building that is almost 60 years old, and now we’re looking to do the part that was built in 1992 that’s going on 30 years.”

Salvucci said the district may have maintained the buildings too well, as MSBA’s criteria is concerned.

Selectman Randy LaMattina asked about the scope of the SST application to MSBA.

“The scope of what has been submitted to MSBA is broader than what you’re seeing here,” Hickey said, noting expansion for future enrollment increases will be focused in trades with the strongest industry and student demand.

“Money’s going to be tight for sure, and to have such a good plan in place, the Whitman citizens are going to have their ability to make judgments based on this presentation,” Selectman Brian Bezanson said.

COVID update

Whitman has improved to the yellow, rather than the red zone for rate of positive cases, according to Heieneman.

The town has received some doses, with 21 people vaccinated at their homes who are elderly and/or homebound, and another 81 were vaccinated during a clinic at the K of C.

The town is also working with the Housing Authority to obtain vaccinations for elderly residents.

HANSON — When Massachusetts entered COVID lockdown last March, a great many people could not wait until barber shops and hair salons reopened to regain control of their messy mops.

Will McArthur of Cohasset had other plans for his longer locks.

He grew his hair long during the shutdown of Hanson’s Modern Barber Shop, according to employee Joan O’Brien.

“He then decided to see how long he could grow it,” she said.  “During this time he decided it would be a great idea to raffle off his haircut and donate the money to the Hanson Food Pantry. He was able to raise $850 for them.”

He returned to the shop last week to get a stylish cut to top off the effort.

— By Tracy F. Seelye

HANOVER — The South Shore Tech School Committee set assessments for member communities during it’s Thursday, Feb. 18 meeting.

Superintendent-Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey has met with finance committees in Hanson and Rockland in recent weeks, and Selectmen and the Advisory Committee in Scituate and Abington’s Finance Committee this week.

The fiscal 2022 budget of $14.6 million is being assessed to the towns as follows: Abington, $1,280,575; Cohasset,  $126,594; Hanover, $882,861; Hanson, $1,228,077; Norwell, $420,095; Rockland $1,824,264; Scituate, $574,126 and Whitman, $1,651,348. Total assessments make up $7,987,941 of the budget.

“Borrowing too much money too quickly is not something that is going to work in an annual budget,” said Hickey. “On the other hand, not taking on any debt will really restrict our schools’ ability to modernize.”

MSBA will also be asked for more funding. No action regarding borrowing would take place until fiscal 2023. Hickey plans a video presentation for posting on the district website on the issue.

“This allows us to go to our towns once for what we think are our priority items at this time, and then be able to plan accordingly,” Hickey said. No vote has been taken yet, because once a vote occurs, it starts a 60-day clock ticking as it is required to go before town meetings, which are strung between early April and late May. An official vote is not anticipated until late March.

Hickey also reported the district is coming closer to a debt authorization approval at the School Committee level. The amount is expected to be $18,960,537 – with almost $990,000 in electrical labor stripped out as work that SST students and instructors could undertake over a period of years to basically redo a lot of the wiring in the 1962 portion of the building, Hickey said.

“We have been in the process of negotiating with our sending communities and the feedback has been constructive, it has been clarifying what we are trying to do,” Hickey said, “We arrived at this number by looking at the projects that our engineering firms helped us develop and prioritize as part of the 2018 facilities master plan.”

Projects accomplished since 2018 have been removed and costs for remaining projects have been calculated with a 4-percent inflation factor going forward to fiscal 2023.

“In talking to our town administrator, he’s been saying that we take care of our schools too well and that’s been hurting us with MSBA,” said Whitman School Committee member Dan Salvucci. “If we saw an issue — which we don’t do — and let it go, they’ll approve [us], but that’s not the type of district we are.”

“One thing we can’t stop is age,” Hickey said.

HANSON — Location, location, location — it’s the phrase one often hears as the key consideration in real estate purchases. Residents of Spring Street in Hanson argue that location is the main problem with a 40-unit 40B housing development proposed by developer William Cushing, who is also chairman of the Zoning Board of Appeals.

Lawn signs protesting that Spring Street is “Not the right spot!” for a 40B development point to water and traffic concerns, among others, rather than the nature of a 40B development as reasons for the opposition. Residents have almost uniformly placed the signs along the roadway citing the busy street and its close proximity to the capped landfill as key concerns.

Another group of residents, however, calling themselves the Spring Association, however, points to Hanson’s “dire need” for affordable housing in expressing their support for the project.

“I certainly was not prepared for the public outcry,” Selectman Wes Blauss said at the Tuesday, Feb. 2 Selectmen’s meeting, noting he is unaware of the history of the proposal. “That surprised me. … I’m not against the concept, but I’m not really sure if Spring Street is the best place for all these units.”

Selectman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said Monday, Feb. 7, that residents’ concerns have not fallen on deaf ears.

“We have absolutely heard the concerns that have been expressed by all the abutters, neighbors and others, and we take those concerns extremely seriously,” she said. “We will do whatever we’re able to do — within the law — to make sure that, if that project moves forward, it moves forward in a way that is complimentary to that neighborhood, does not infringe upon abutters’ rights, and is consistent with the regulations. That’s really all we can do.”

Selectmen voted to authorize Town Administrator John Stanbrook to draft a letter to the Mass. Housing Finance Authority to outline the flaws seen in the project proposal, which Town Counsel Jay Talerman said is not out of the ordinary for such projects. Stanbrook’s letter, based on an outline he read during the meeting, was sent on Thursday, Feb. 4 describing the project and raising concerns about housing diversity; its proximity to Commuter Rail and impact on traffic; walkability and open space; proximity to a capped landfill and the former munitions area; water, septic and public safety issues; wetland and environmental impacts and compliance with town bylaws and payment of all owed fees and taxes.

“A lot of these things are going to be checked off during that [ZBA] phase,” Cushing told Selectmen Feb. 2. “Every unit is going to be consistently spread out and not close to the landfill.”

He also said he has water access through Glenwood Place and is planning to pay to get it to the site.

“It’s not a complete plan, but I would call it a really good concept,” Cushing said. “At this time, to talk about storm water and other issues, is preliminary.”

Many of the issues citied in Stanbrook’s letter were raised by Spring Street residents opposed to the development.

Residents Chad Tobias and Chris Costello walked the back yard of abutter Jane Downie’s 500 Spring St. backyard with this reporter on Saturday, Feb. 6 to discuss the issue. Downie did not join the meeting out of concern for COVID precautions.

“This is not a feasible location for that type of development,” Costello said. He and Tobias said they wanted to see the impact of two other 40B developments in the works at Phillips Street and Liberty Street impact the town before others are approved.

The capped landfill overlooks her backyard.

Like residents, FitzGerald-Kemmett said no one on the Board of Selectmen is against affordable housing.

“I think people need to understand the difference between affordable housing and low-income,” she said. “I’m not saying we’re against low-income, either, but there’s a huge difference.”

Residents are more concerned with how the 40-unit plan suddenly came before the Board of Selectmen after it had been approved for eight units with no 40B component.

“When this project first came up in 2017, neighbors had concerns, Tobias said. “This was all trees before. Now, you can see the landfill — you couldn’t before.”

He also said the Factory Pond supersite cleanup effort is also nearby, making groundwater pollution a concern, but high water table and runoff from the landfill, where fill has raised the landscape by about five feet is a bigger concern for many neighbors, according to Tobias and Costello.

Anyone in the neighborhood with a basement knows the problem.

“My pump may run two months straight,” Tobias said. “If I turn it off, I get water buildup in my basement. …When he was going to do this development in 2017, that was one of our concerns.”

“Water seepage into our basement isn’t as bad, but our neighbor are pumping 24/7,” Costello said. “Their pump is going nonstop.”

Tobias said he had to buy a second pump to keep up with wetter times.

He said Downie has had to replace doors and other parts of her home because a drainage culvert directs water onto her property.

Reached by phone on Monday, Downie said, aside from flooding in her backyard, two of her doors had been damaged when fill was being dumped on the site to raise the ground level.

“Every time they dropped truckloads of dirt, they dumped it, and my house shook,” she said. Six months ago she had to have her doors realigned and pipes below her mobile home had been shaken out of place and she has to have more work done to repair that problem.

The project initially called for 20-house development, but has since doubled to 40 houses, 10 set aside as affordable units under the state’s 40B provision. In 2017, it had first been reduced to 12 houses and then eight on the 12-acre parcel, for which it was approved.

Tobias said his house sits on three-quarters of an acre, which limits him to a two- to three-bedroom house under the town’s septic regulations.

“How does the math for 40 houses on 12 acres for septic systems add up?” he said.

Traffic congestion is also a concern, especially at the Spring Street/Route 50 intersection. The impact of additional students in Hanson schools is another concern the neighbors have, Tobias said.

“We’re not against 40B,” he said. “I’m concerned about the groundwater.” Most of the Spring Street residents are on Rockland’s municipal water for that reason — something that has been denied to the development.

“They told him they would feed one house,” Tobias said, noting that the development does not have the required 20-foot easement on Glennwood Place.

Water demand was also a concern.

Tobias looked up average Hanson water use on Archive Boston’s website — the average Hanson resident uses 50 gallons per day. With eight houses with 3.5 people, would require about 42,000 gallons of water which must go somewhere, and 210,000 gallons for 40 houses per month in addition to existing groundwater.

The residents also point to a conflict of interest. Cushing is chairman of the ZBA, an appointed rather than elected position.

“How can you develop in the same town you are on the board for?” Tobias said.

“A lot of the point of cluster housing is also to be near public transport,” he said. The MBTA station is five miles away. “Even if you are talking about proximity to public transportation, this is not a good location.”

Residents are also advocating “an immediate review of the Zoning Board of Appeals,” of which Cushing is chairman. They see the appointed board as one populated with developers who “all seem to have similar projects in the works that seem to only be benefitting themselves, not the town of Hanson.”

Cushing has not yet responded to a request for further comment.

“All appointed board members are special employees of the town of Hanson (special employees), they are allowed to submit an application in front of their board as long as they don’t participate,” a member of the Spring Association has said, declining to give their name.

HANOVER — South Shore Tech Superintendent-Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey provided a budget update on Wednesday, Jan. 27, in light of the effect of the updated governor’s budget on the district’s fiscal 2022 spending plan.

The overall budget reflected a 1.89-percent increase from the current budget, according to Hickey, who said the governor’s package provides insight on how assessments to member towns will be affected.

The School Committee held its public hearing on the fiscal 2022 budget, with no comments received from the public.

“The ink is not even dry,” Hickey said of the governor’s budget package.

Assessments break down — with the assumption of nearly level-funded Chapter 70 funding, regional transportation and a stabilization transfer for the district’s bus lease as anticipated revenue — as: Abington lower by $3,552 to $1,286,561; Cohasset lower by $17,648 to $127,071; Hanover increased by $158,280 to $886,330; Hanson increased  $98,371 to $1,233,791; Norwell increased $49,569 to $521,660; Rockland increased $125 to $1,833,991; Scituate lower by $14,647 to $576,166 and Whitman increased by $36,855 to $1,660,531.

“Overall, we’re looking for $8,026,101 from our local towns,” Treasurer and Secretary James Coughlin said, explaining that the budget is based on towns’ minimum local contribution as calculated by the state. He explained that town assessments have been going down in previous years because of a large enrollment of non-resident students, while resident town enrollment was lower. Tuition for non-resident students is set by the state.

That trend is reversed this year.

“The towns that are getting the hardest hit, Hanover and Hanson, had the biggest increase in students,” he said.

Hickey said he has reached out to all member communities to set up budget meetings in mid-February or March.

Hickey also sought debt authorization for capital projects to address needs in the facilities master plan that are beyond what students can do, or can be fit into the fiscal 2022 budget, and smaller projects that can be phased into future capital budgets if the district does not receive MSBA funding.

“Window projects, which is the signature capital item in this year’s proposed budget — something that’s in the facilities master plan — we would expect to cover the costs for that as part of a fiscal ’22 expenditure,” he said. “The rationale that we will be bringing to our towns [is] … that we’re now at the point that there are capital projects we simply cannot sustain within the capital budget.”

The window project is $760,000 of an $895,000 capital budget.

“We all feel, on some level, the math just wouldn’t work if all of a sudden we tried to shoehorn in $2 million of capital in one year to do a roof or do something with fire suppression,” Hickey said. Funding for renovation and expansion could also be included in the debt authorization to meet needs for extra space for larger shops, and to do so whether or not the district received MSBA funds. The project list can be reevaluated if state funding is received.

Hickey also said SST is one of 30 schools, of 71 applying for MSBA funding for school building or renovation projects to be selected for review and to supply more information on their proposal.

He cautioned, however, that it does not necessarily signal that the district will receive funding this year.

“They go out of their way to make it clear that, the fact that they would like to talk to us in a little more depth, does not mean that we’re going to be getting a note in a few months saying, ‘You’re invited into the program,’” he said. Hickey had been invited to a meeting because SST had not been invited to provide the information for a few years.

Hickey also said SST’s admissions process is late this year, because area communities’ schools started a little late for eighth-graders considering a vocational education this year. Mid-year report cards, therefore are coming out later.