HANSON — Selectmen on Tuesday, Oct. 27, voted once again to adopt a uniform residential/commercial-industrial tax rate for fiscal 2021 during the annual tax classification public hearing. Assessor Lee Gamache said her board had recommended such a move again this year.

“We have so little commercial property, that we don’t want to put the extra burden on them,” she said, noting property values continue to rise. “Everything is certified by the Department of Revenue.”

Gamache said residential property values increased by 4 percent for the average single family home, while condominiums were up about 4.3 percent and commercial-industrial properties were up about 3.2 percent.

The annual tax on an average one-family home — valued at $368,000 — would be $5,556.80 at a rate of $15.10 per $1,000 in valuation. The annual tax on the average commercial property — valued at $513,000 — would be $7,746.30 at the same rate.

Selectmen also voted, as they do every year, against invoke residential tax exemptions, usually used by communities with high numbers of residential rental properties.

The board also voted against small commercial exemptions, which are not guaranteed to go to small businesses, but rather go to the property owner. Home businesses do not qualify for the exemption. Assessors recommended against each of the exemptions.

Gamache also reported that the excess levy capacity for fiscal 2021 was at $88,310.60.

Town Accountant Todd Hassett provided his quarterly update to the board for the first quarter of the fiscal year.

“We have had some pretty strong permit activity this year with the Building Department, so that may be a nice sign for not only permit revenue going forward, but also new growth, new tax revenues a year or so out from now,” he said. Car sales indicators, expected in February, will provide a better picture of fiscal 2022.

The Recreation Enterprise fund, meanwhile, where several programs had to be deferred or canceled at Camp Kiwanee and some reimbursements made or income pushed off to a future date due to the pandemic, estimated revenues have been reduced from $219,000 to $142,000 this year.

“This is probably the area of most concern from a financial standpoint,” Hassett said.

HANOVER — South Shore Tech Superintendent-Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey told his School Committee on Wednesday, Oct. 21 that, despite the challenges posed by COVID-19 safety guidelines, having students in their school community really matters.

There have been some positive tests among the school population, but Hickey said he is pleased with parent cooperation. They are letting the school know if their children are showing symptoms after possibly contracting COVID outside of school.

Like W-H Superintendent Jeffrey Szymaniak, Hickey said he is looking for more guidance from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) on how any decisions on possible future lockdowns might be handled.

“We all know about the COVID map that gets published, usually Wednesday nights or overnight into Thursday, and we know about the red, yellow and green coding of towns,” he said. “Last week, a lot of towns in the Route 3 corridor moved to red.”

He said the state wants schools to think in terms of three-week trends.

“There is no immediate trigger such as, if red, something — like close or go all remote,” Hickey said. “We need to look at the data for at least two more Wednesdays and see what those numbers look like.”

The state would then provide guidance on what might have triggered a red designation within a community.

Senior horticulture student Faith Ryan of Scituate was introduced as the student council representative and also gave an idea of how COVID is affecting the school.

“I think you’re going to hear a different kind of report tonight from her,” Principal Mark Aubrey said. “I think she’s going to speak honestly to you folks about what she’s exploring and what the kids are feeling with the hybrid model.”

Her report was a frank look at the challenges vocational education faces in an online setting.

“I feel like a lot of kids are struggling, because it’s hard to learn online for a lot of kids here,” Ryan said. “As you know, this is a vocational school. Most of us are hands-on learners.”

She said she has spoken to several seniors who are struggling with their grades as a result of not having the access to extra help they would receive at the school.

“It’s preventing a lot of kids from going out on co-op because they’re not getting the proper grades they need because they’re not getting the help they need,” Ryan said. She is not currently on a cooperative education assignment.

Most of the hands-on shops such as HVAC and carpentry are in school all five days each week, but shops such as graphics and allied health are only in the school two days.

“We are educating students on how they get their extra help,” Aubrey said. Teachers are available before and after school, but he said it has to be scheduled, a process that is being worked out.

Clubs and activities are also meeting online, as are regional SkillsUSA competitions.

WHITMAN — Selectmen on Tuesday, Oct. 20 approved a Dollars For Scholars request to hold a new kind of holiday fundraiser — Decorate For Dollars — a holiday tree-lighting in Whitman Park.

“We’re trying to make something exciting for the town to look forward to,” said DFS volunteer Michelle LaMattina. “Nice, a little bit competitive, but also socially distanced. … We’re looking for it to be a nice event to brighten everybody’s holidays a little.”

The hope is that the project can be continued year-to-year.

LaMattina has already presented her idea to Bruce Martin of the DPW, who supports it, she said. No details on participation have been released to the public, yet until DFS receives the permission and support of town officials.

“I can’t wait to see what the park looks like with a lot of decorated trees on it,” Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski said, noting Whitman has not had that kind of spirit in the town for a while since WinterFest was discontinued.

“Every year we raise a lot of money for the seniors in Whitman and Hanson through fundraising and door-to-door,” LaMattina said. “Obviously, this year it’s going to be very tough to fundraise because of COVID, so we’ve been trying to come up with some new ideas.”

LaMattina said COVID restrictions have meant it will be a tough year to raise funds for scholarships as many fundraiser events had to be cancelled.

Decorate For Dollars will allow individuals, families, neighborhoods, clubs, organizations or companies to sponsor a tree for $100. DFS will provide the trees and lights, setting them up right after Thanksgiving. Sign-up times will be allotted to tree sponsors to come and decorate the tree to their liking, LaMattina said.

To make it interesting, DFS will be making the display competitive, with the committee voting on which trees display the best holiday spirit. The winners will be able to award a scholarship in their name to a graduating senior at the May awards night ceremonies.

DFS would limit decorating crews to four people within each group, which will be timed, required to wear masks and observe social distancing guidelines.

Over the first two weekends in December, from 5 to 8 p.m., Friday to Sunday, the trees will be illuminated for the public to view.

“Whether you want to drive around, if you want to get out of your car — but we will have DFS volunteers making sure there aren’t groups of people congregating,” she said.

HANSON – In a special Town Meeting lasting less than 14 minutes, Hanson voters approved a short warrant of 16 articles, all without discussion.

The session was held Saturday, Oct. 3 in the WHRHS gym, at desks already set up for socially distanced school lunches. The reduced quorum of 50 people were required to wear masks and asked to fill out contract tracing forms, including information as to which row and seat they sat in so the Town Clerk’s office would have information “if something undesireable happens,” according to Town Moderator Sean Kealy.

After being joined by two children in leading the Pledge of Allegiance, Kealy honored town officials lost since the July annual Town Meeting — Les Wyman, election official Debbie Clemons and transfer station employee Keith Fontaine.

Article 1, to transfer $294 from free cash and $464.59 from recreation enterprise fund retained earnings to pay seven unpaid bills from prior fiscal years, was approved. A 9/10 vote margin was required.

Article 2, to raise and appropriate $111,100 from taxation to supplement the six appropriations in the warrant (previously voted in Article 6 of the July annual Town Meeting), was approved.

Article 3, to transfer $532,50 from free cash and $61,000 from ambulance receipts reserved appropriations to pay for nine items listed in the warrant, was approved.

Article 4, to transfer $2,335 from free cash and $84,378 from Article 11 of the May 2019 annual Town Meeting to pay for WHRHS capital projects, was approved.

Article 5, to appropriate $30,410 from the Community Preservation Committee’s fund balance reserve for open space to pay for the local share of a state matching trails grant, was approved.

Article 6, to transfer $14,000 from free cash to fund an operational and comparative audit of the Whitman-Hanson Regional School District, was approved.

Article 7, to transfer $30,000 form overlay surplus, access allowance for abatements and exemptions, to pay for fiscal 2022 recertification year adjustment and the commercial, industrial personal property cyclical recertification of the town’s real estate and personal property values as required by state law; was approved.

Article 8, to transfer $35,000 from free cash to pay for the engineering costs of a park to be located at the former Plymouth County Hospital site, was approved.

Article 9, to transfer $20,000 from free cash to pay for stump grinding and removal and related improvements at Camp Kiwanee, was approved.

Article 10, to transfer $7,500 from free cash to pay for repairs to the parking lot at 225 High St., was approved.

Article 11, to transfer $55,000 from free cash to pay for five new compactors at the transfer station, was approved.

Article 12, to transfer $10,000 from free cash to replenish the Conservation Fund for Open Space Management and related conservation purposes, was approved.

Article 13, to raise and appropriate $25,000 from taxation to be added to the towns other post-employment benefits trust fund, was approved.

Article 14, to transfer $55,000 from free cash to be added to the town stabilization fund, was approved.

Article 15, to transfer $25,000 from free cash to be added to the regional schools capital stabilization fund, was approved.

Article 16, to make the office of tree warden an appointed position under the authority of the Board of Selectmen, was approved.

HANSON — The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday, Sept. 22 continued a hearing with Impressed LLC to 6 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 13 for its request for a special permit under the Zoning Bylaw for a marijuana cultivation, product manufacturing and site improvements at 15 Commercial Way.

A public hearing on the matter was held — socially distanced — at the Hanson Middle School auditorium.

Town Counsel Kate Fedeoroff said the permit process is not the typical purview of Selectmen except for the context of marijuana, what the business will look like and the effect it might have on the town.

A peer review of engineering specs, hired by the town but paid for by the applicant, has also been done on the technical aspects of plans presented by Impressed LLC’s engineer and reviewed at the hearing.

Licensed civil engineer Kevin Solli spoke on behalf of the plan his firm has drawn up for his company Solli Engineering, joined by Casey Burch. Jeff Silcox of Hallam-ICS represented one of the town-hired peer review firms.

Dan Denisi spoke about the site plan and Dennis Colwell talked about technical elements for the building.

“I just wanted to make sure you guys were responsive to these findings,” Selectman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “The big thing we kept hearing come up was the odor. … We just need some assurances in the mechanical review [that] you guys are going to address.”

Silcox said applicable codes were looked at first at state and local regulations, the international mechanical code and any specific town bylaws that apply.

For odor control, differential pressure control, air purification units using ultraviolet light and ozone, and carbon-filtering or exhaust make up a three-tier system.

Impressed LLC’s Ralph Greenburg said a detailed maintenance plan will be drawn up for upkeep of those processes.

FitzGerald-Kemmett also asked about concerns expressed about groundwater contamination, but Silcox said his firm was not charged with that issue. A second firm, not present at the meeting, was charged with that.

“Security will always be in place,” said Colwell, noting that a generator will provide backup power in the event of outages. He also said other security precautions are being used to safeguard deliveries and wastewater.

The site takes up about 1.79 acres in the town’s commercial-industrial zoning district. An extension to the rear of the building purchased by the company will replace the current loading dock with an extension of the building and traffic access to the property will be reduced by changing the current 90-foot curb cut to about 50 feet. New paving will be done at both the front and rear to satisfy parking requirements for the facility.

The existing septic system, originally designed to accommodate a school, will be retained.

Colwell said vertical farming units would be used inside the building for cultivation. The head house and supporting services will be located in the existing building with security provisions. Manufacturing will include trim, extraction, drying and packaging.

“Generally speaking, the flow and the pattern, everything is kind of occurring within the building, so you really don’t see much going on outside,” Colwell said.

Since there is no retail space, parking will be provided only for people going there to work. Some light demolition of the building and small plumbing changes were all that was necessary to make accommodation for the manufacturing aspect of the business, according to Colwell. The building itself and roof must also be updated to meet building code.

In other business, Selectmen voted to execute a union contract with the firefighters’ union and voted on whether to make recommendations to special Town Meeting warrant articles.

HANOVER — The silver lining of communications has brightened the dark cloud of dealing with the coronavirus as a new school year begins at South Shore Tech, officials say.

Superintendent Dr. Thomas J. Hickey and his administrators provided a report on the district’s first “regular, not-so-regular” first day of school during the Wednesday, Sept. 16 meeting of the region’s School Committee.

“We were always great at communicating with our parents and families, but we have really raised that over this time,” Principal Mark Aubrey said. “We have the Cadillac version of hybrid learning right now.”

Parents are communicated with regularly via Zoom meeting and school administration, teaching, transportation, paraprofessional, custodial staff have worked all summer to ensure the successful start to the school year, Aubrey said.

School Committee Chairman Robert Heywood of Hanover spoke of a note he received from the parents of an incoming freshman.

“[They] are blown away by the openness — the information highway you have developed — they said it took 90 percent of the anxiety away from sending their child to a new school,” Heywood said.

Whitman committee member Dan Salvucci said he knows a 2003 SST alum whose son now attends the school.

“He is really impressed” with the communication with parents, Salvucci said.

Students had a full in-building orientation day and another day of remote instruction beginning Monday, Sept. 14 for two grades each day. The hybrid model began Wednesday.

There were seven days of staff training, including all new COVID protocols and procedures as well as an opportunity for staff to work on the development of digital content.

“We’re no longer in that emergency scramble situation that everybody in the  country was, at least in the Northeast was [in March],” Hickey said. “In a 10-day period, most of our students are in the building seven days out of 10, most students go to shop every day and all students come to school two days out of five for their academic week.”

The model permits officials to maximize use of the school building, with bus drivers able to follow a staggered schedule with upperclassmen coming into school on shop weeks from 7:40 a.m. to 1 p.m. Everyone else attends class from 9:05 a.m. to 2:25 p.m. Buses are cleaned between runs.

Students eat lunch at their desks, which are spaced six-feet apart. All students may have free lunch and breakfast, with three menu options available for each meal, through the end of the year, if they want it, as well.

Students may also take breakfast and lunch home the day before remote learning days, as well.

Flu shots were rolled out for students, as well. Only the name of the insurance is required. No ID numbers or money is required.

All school bathrooms are monitored by QR codes which track when students leave a classroom and enter/and leave lavatories.

Fewer than 25 students in total are on remote learning plans, according to Assistant Principal Sandra Baldner, of which only “a handful” are fully remote — taking even shop instruction at home, taking a regular school day, at home. Students attending class at the school are required to wear a mask at all times, and behavior during remote instruction days is graded.

Whitman will honor the service and sacrifice of Pvt. Robert Lonergan of Whitman at 11 a.m., Saturday, Sept. 12. Lonergan was killed in the Battle of North Africa 77 years ago on May 13, 1943. The Town will unveil a plaque in his memory outside of his former family home at 44 Broad St., in Whitman. Lonergan was the first soldier from Whitman killed in WWII while in the service of the United States Army.

Pvt. Lonergan was 39 years old when he enlisted in the army on July 31, 1942 and he served for nine months prior to his death. He was a member of the 47 Infantry – 9th Division that landed in November of 1942 on the beaches of Safi, Morocco. The Division continued with their successful campaign across North Africa to their final battle at Tunis, Tunisia which drove the German armies from the continent. This campaign represented the first direct engagement between American and German troops in WWII. Pvt. Longergan was killed on the last day of the campaign as a result of a land mine explosion.

Pvt. Lonergan was buried at the North Africa American Cemetery in Tunis Tunisia along with 2840 other Americans killed during the North Africa Campaign. The cemetery also memorializes the names of an additional 3724 members of the service that are listed as Missing in Action.

Pvt. Lonergan was the son of Delia and Patrick Lonergan who immigrated to this country from Ireland. His brothers Edward and Francis also served in the armed services during World War II. At the time of his death Private Lonergan left behind 8 brothers and sisters who are all now deceased.

With football looking at a so-called “sandwich season” in late February, the rest of the W-H athletic season is planned to begin Friday, Sept. 18, Athletic Director Bob Rodgers said in briefing the School Committee, on Wednesday, Aug. 26. Competitive cheerleading has also been rescheduled, according to MIAA safety guidelines.

“We are very fortunate at Whitman-Hanson to be part of the Patriot League,” Rodgers said. “We’re like-minded schools, putting the safety of the kids first, but we also recognize that this is a very stressful time for students.”

He said that, whether a student’s outlets are drama, music, art or athletics, they need “some semblance of normalcy.”

The Patriot League’s athletic directors have been meeting on a nearly weekly basis, creating what they are calling a “Patriot League bubble” — which sees each team play only other schools within their division of the league. Two exceptions will be in girls’ sports, playing a single game vs Notre Dame of Hingham in soccer, volleyball and field hockey because that school does not have enough other opponents. To maintain Title IX balance, the boys’ soccer team will play North Quincy.

Safety measures governing crowd size and the requirement for face masks for players on volleyball and soccer teams, could evolve later on. The end date for spring sports — which starts on April 26 would be July 3.

“If we were to have some outbreak of coronavirus, we would be able to do some really good contact tracing because we will know who we’ve played,” Rodgers said.

He acknowledge that some people are unhappy that there will not be a state tournament in the fall, adding there might be one in the winter or spring if conditions improve.

“This really isn’t about championships,” Rodgers said. “It’s not about banners in the gym. It’s about giving kids participation, allowing them to be a part of something.”

He said the 11-12 game season will be about being able to play their sport, not about winning. When that shortened season is over, teams will play for what is being called the Patriot League Cup with play concluding no later than Nov. 20.

Rodgers estimated that teams would play two games a week with, perhaps more Saturday games in the past because transportation is going to be a “major issue.”

He also indicated that between the budget situation and ongoing cost of PPE and other coronavirus-related expenses, that he would return to the School Committee Sept. 9 to speak in-depth about user fees.

“We don’t pay much for athletics in W-H,” he said. “Our athletics are funded by the fundraising we do, through our user fees and through our gate receipts.”

Well-attended games and the resulting gate receipts pay for — among other things — ice time for boys’ and girls’ hockey, but with crowd limitations due to social distancing regulations, gate receipts will be reduced this year.

While the number of games are reduced, some schools are increasing user fees.

“I’m not going to ask this committee to raise the user fee, but I do want to keep it exactly where it is,” Rodgers said. He does, however, want to adopt a sliding scale refund policy in the event of games or season cancellations.

Coaches have also been offered the opportunity to take a leave of absence without the fear of losing their position if they are concerned about teaching job responsibilities or health issues.