WHITMAN — The Board of Selectmen voted on Tuesday, Jan. 28 to approve electioneering guidelines recommended by Secretary of the Commonwealth Bill Galvin during a recent election worker training session. The guidelines are based on ones recently approved by West Bridgewater.

Since the town is participating in early voting for the March 3 Super Tuesday Primary, Town Clerk Dawn Varley, asked for the guidelines to be considered. Early voting for the Super Tuesday primary is from Feb. 23 to 28 during hours when the Town Clerk’s office is open — 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday; and from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

In November, early voting will take place over 11 days during hours the Clerk’s office is open.

Absentee ballots are available now — they differ in that one must provide a signed affidavit that they are ill, absent from town or has a religious conflict with Election Day, while no excuse is required to participate in early voting.

“Voters who early vote should have the same courtesy that the voters do on a regular [election] day,” she said. “It would only be just to make sure people aren’t harassing them as they come in to early vote. It’s basically what is already in place for Election Day.”

Police details would not be necessary outside to enforce the no-electioneering buffer 150-feet from the polling place, Varley said.

“Just to be clear, people are aware that, on election day, they don’t approach people within the perimeter of the Town Hall,” said Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski. “We just observe those lines every day, now, during the early voting.”

She said Galvin’s office related incidents in other states where people wore pins of past candidates not on the ballot, which are permitted, but some included badges for people who were on the ballot.

“Election workers had to go through and say, ‘Take that one off, take that one off, it’s crazy,” Varley said.

Another example the municipal clerks were told about was of a woman wearing a campaign shirt, who was asked politely to go to the ladies’ room and reverse it. Instead she took it off in a public area and voted wearing only her bra.

“People are out there and they’re challenging the clerks,” she said. “They’re trying to see what they [can get away with]. I just want to protect my poll workers and my election workers and the voters.”

HANSON —  It’s too early for any move to appoint a committee to consider either de-regionalization of the schools in any manner or a Proposition 2 ½ override, but the Board of Selectmen opened the door to both possibilities at its Tuesday, Jan. 28 meeting.

“I put those on the agenda because I’ve been getting some feedback and I thought it was important to be responsive and to talk about it as a committee,” said Selectmen Chairman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked about the viability of de-regionalizing.”

She said that regardless what form of de-regionalizing Hanson might look into — from a K-8 system to a complete K-12 break away — it would not immediately solve the town’s fiscal or contractual problems this year.

“In addition, I ultimately don’t think that de-regionalization is going to be proven to be in the best interests of the town, given the buy-out costs and the fact that you’d have to set up a separate administration and overhead costs,” she said.

People are asking her about it, however.

School Committee Chairman Bob Hayes is having the district’s Business Manager John Tuffy look into the costs involved in such a move and Town Administrator John Stanbrook and Town Accountant Todd Hassett would also review the figures.

“I think, in light of the fact that we haven’t gotten those numbers yet, it would be a little bit premature to form a committee,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said, suggesting that even discussing the formation of any de-regionalization committee be put off until March. “We also don’t know the budget numbers, so I don’t want to put the cart before the horse.”

Selectmen Kenny Mitchell said he felt it was “definitely premature” to form a de-regionalization committee, an opinion with which the other members of the board agreed.

“I’m still hopeful that this is going to work out,” Mitchell said. “I’m hopeful that Whitman is going to want to sit down and come to the table.”

Selectmen also indicated that an override committee was also premature.

“I’d like to see [school budget] numbers before we decide,” said Selectman Jim Hickey.

She reviewed the genesis of the regional agreement entered into in 1993, which spelled out a per-pupil methodology for apportioning the school assessment.

“This methodology has been used without fail every year since then,” she read from a statement, noting that changed in August when Hanson was told there might be another method “the statutory method, which uses a ‘wealth-based formula’ and takes into consideration the average household income and home value for determining the minimum contribution each town makes to the regional school district.”

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) has determined the statutory method should have been taken into consideration every year since 2012 and that the School Committee should have been voting each year on the budget as well as the assessment method.

FitzGerald-Kemmett said Whitman has decided its residents have been paying more than they were required as a result of the statutory method not being used and have “drawn a line in the sand” and support only the statutory method.

“While I believe that the decent and ethical thing to do would have been to enter into good-faith negotiations with Hanson on a revised regional agreement, and work on a phased-in approach, those options are presently not on the table,” she said. “This is for this year. I’m not saying this is never going to happen.”

She also pointed to the balance of membership on the School Committee favoring Whitman based on student population, and the committee’s 6-4 vote in November — along community lines — favoring the statutory assessment method.

Town Counselor Kate Feodoroff has reminded Hanson Selectmen that the School Committee must have a seven-vote majority to pass a budget.

FitzGerald-Kemmett said there are a few options open to Hanson: negotiating a change to the current regional agreement; formation of a de-regionalization committee; or forming an override committee to acknowledge that ‘most likely this year, we may have to have an override.”

Another option is to obtain legal counsel for a second opinion or litigation.

Interim Town Administrator Meredith Marini, FitzGerald-Kemmett and Selectman Matt Dyer have been meeting with Whitman Town Administrator Frank Lynam and Selectmen Randy LaMattina and Justin Evans in an effort to find a path forward.

“We’ve decided that the only way to determine what is equitable is to get a breakdown of the cost to educate the children in each town,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “We simply do not have the facts.”

She stressed that the audit is not an attempt by the towns to cast doubt on the confidence level in the school district.

“We’ve got a fiduciary responsibility and we cannot make decisions without being armed with the facts,” she said.

The board also discussed the status of that operational and forensic school audit.

Stanbrook said he has been working with Lynam to set up the audit and reviewing the cost of, and qualifications they are seeking in, an auditor.

The WHRSD fiscal 2021 budget release will take place at the School Committee’s Wednesday, Feb. 5 meeting. Selectmen are posting the meeting as a public session of the board “in case we all show up and decide to deliberate the heck out of things,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.

That budget could determine the need for an override committee, she said.

HANSON — Representatives of town and regional departments have begun work to identify potential emergency situations triggered by climate change as part of an effort to obtain action grant funding to address some of the deficiencies.

Laurie Muncie of the Old Colony Planning Council joined her successor as Hanson Town Planner Deborah Pettey to conduct the meeting for the officials to lay the groundwork for a day-long Municipal Vulnerability Priorities (MVP) workshop at Camp Kiwanee from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Friday, Feb. 7. Friday, Feb. 28 will be the rain date.

Pettey, who said she welcomed participants to attend even if they could not devote an entire day to it, stressed their input is important as she is not a Hanson native and does not know the entire history of the town.

“I need this information to make the best report and the best plan that we can for the town,” she said.

The Thursday, Jan. 9 planning session also discussed their top four environmental concerns for Hanson.

The session ranked their four major climate concerns ahead of the February workshop: wind, flooding, drought and, potentially, extreme temperatures.

“Flooding should be on the list,” said Conservation Commission chairman Phil Clemons. “I don’t know that it’s ahead of wind, though.”

He noted the impact of wind bring trees down on power lines as a frequent concern.

“It just seems kind of artificial to force ourselves to think of things separately,” Clemons said.

“Wind and trees … are a higher concern than even rain,” Muncie agreed.

While a concern, flooding is mainly responsible for road washouts and is not as big an issue as it would be in coastal communities, Clemons said.

Drought is another contributor to downed trees that cause damage, Pettey said.

Muncie noted that the lack of a generator at the Hanson Senior Center is an important concern during power outages, and is at the top of her list of grant priorities. Capacity of generators for long-term use must also be considered, officials said.

“A long-term power outage is a real burden for a lot of demographics,” Pettey said. “Whether you’re elderly or whether you’re handicapped or whether you have small children, a long-term power outage is going to cause quite an impact.”

Communications during a power outage was also discussed.

“Have you driven through Hanson center with your cell phone?” asked WHRSD Facilities Director Ernest Sandland.

“That’s a normal day,” Muncie said.

Sandland noted that the new cell tower planned for a portion of the Middle School property is aimed at helping the situation. Pettey said the ZBA approved the plan Tuesday, Jan. 7.

She was asked if emergency services communications would be included on the tower and indicated that was her understanding, but that she was uncertain. A representative of the Hanson Fire Department said the present cell tower “carries everything along with the sheriff” department radio communications and present no problems.

MARLBOROUGH  – All the rods, reels, accessories, clothing and gadgets that make fly-fishing the sport it is will be on display for the first time in 2020 at the annual Marlborough Fly Fishing Show, Jan. 17-19 in the Royal Plaza Trade Center.

The exhibition facility, 181 Boston Post Road West, will play host to the annual three-day weekend bouillabaisse of all-things-fly-fishing – for beginner to seasoned veteran – with seminars, casting demonstrations, fly-tying, destination films, Fly Fishing Film Festival and the newest tackle and clothing in a sold-out exhibition hall. There are about a dozen film, video and live presentations per hour.

Fly Fishing Show® hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday; 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Saturday; and 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $15 for one day, $25 for two days and $35 for three days. Children under age 5 are free as are Boy and Girl Scouts under age 16 in uniform. Children 6-12 are $5. Active military with an ID are $10. Parking at the Royal Plaza Trade Center is free.

Some $50,000 in Fly Fishing Show door prizes are up for grabs highlighted by an $11,000 value trip to an outer atoll in the Seychelles; an $11,000 trip for two to El Faro Lodge in Cuba; an $8,600 week for two at Blue Horizon Lodge in Belize for bonefish, permit and tarpon; a $6,160 vacation for two at Pesca Maya in Mexico’s Yucatan, a $5,300 Atlantic salmon trip to the Restigouche River Lodge, Canada; a $5,050 trip for two to the Belize River Lodge, Belize; a $4,400 Brazilian Amazon adventure at Vilanova Lodge, and a $3,500 trip to Colombia’s jungle with Ecuador Fly Fishing Tours for peacock bass and payara.

There will be 20 classes with experts. Class registration is $85 except for an 8-hour advanced casting class with Borger and Mac Brown on Jan. 16.  Tuition for the Thurs. class is $625.

Regular classes include those by George Daniel, Sheila Hassan, Jason Randall, Alan Caolo, Joe Cordiero and Gary Borger with subjects ranging from Casts that Catch, Nymph Fishing, Rigging and Leaders for Saltwater Fly Fishing, The Perfect Cast, Beginning Casting, and Practical Nymphing.  

The northeast premiere of the 2020 International Fly Fishing Film Festival is scheduled for Jan. 17 at 6:30 pm. Tickets are $10 in advance or $15 at the door.

Among the Film Festival presentations are:

• “Particles and Droplets,” by Gilbert Rowley, a look at the world from a different perspective with fly fishing the catalyst.   

• “Aurora Fontinalis,” by Intents Media. An adventurous trip after giant brook trout in the far north.    

• “qaluk, by Hooké.” A far northern fly-fishing adventure to Nunavik in search of Arctic Char.

• “The Mend,” by Broc Isabelle. A father-son relationship complicated by career and responsibilities all set to a fly-fishing background.

• “Nine Foot Rod,” by Dana Lattery. Four fly-fishing guides embark on a trip to Oman in search of giant trevally and Indo-Pacific Permit.

Other films include “AK 30,” seeking a 30-inch trout in Alaska’s Naknek River; “The Bull Run,” looking for a bull trout north of the 49th parallel in the Rockies; and “Poetry in Motion,” the story of Maxine McCormack’s journey to become world fly-fishing champion.   

Total film screening time is just under two hours.

In addition to the films, there will be fly fishing product give-aways and other promotions at the event.

Fly casting demonstrations are scheduled by Borger, Brown, Hassan, Caolo, Bob Clouser and Jeff Currier among others. Featured fly tiers include Borger, Caolo, Cordiero, Clouser, Ed Engle, and Tim Flagler.   

Fly Fishers International (FFI) will host a free learning center with casting, fly-tying, knot tying, rigging and choosing a fly.

Among the approximately 75 Adventure and Destination Theater presentations are programs on Labrador’s Monster Brookies, Taimen in Mongolia, Fly Fishing in Iceland, the Kanektok River in Alaska, Fly Fishing Western Maine, Florida Keys Spring Tarpon Fishing, Fly Fishing the Upper Connecticut River, and Alaska’s Bristol Bay.

There are nine hour-long seminars each day with topics including Where Trout Are, Streamer Tactics 2.0, Understanding Trout, The Best Tidal Rivers in the Northeast, Fishing the Film, Clouser’s Top Tips to Catch More Fish, Fly Fishing for Trout in New England Streams, and An Introduction to Trout Spey. Seminar directors include Randall, Daniel, Boyd, Borger, Currier, Clouser, and Engle among others.

The Author’s Booth offers the opportunity to have books inscribed and “talk fly-fishing” with award-winning, best-selling writers.

For class availability and registration or a complete list of door prizes, Destination Theater, Adventure Theater, seminars, fly tiers, and casting demonstrations, visit flyfishingshow.com/marlborough-ma/ or phone (814) 443-3638.

HANSON — The Board of Selectmen will be considering a review of the Town Administrator Act to, perhaps, develop a uniform management policy for department administrative assistants in an effort to address concerns over the protocol used, and the proper appointing authority in the recent hiring of, Dori Jameson of Abington as administrative assistant to Recreation Director William Boyle.

Selectmen Chairman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said after asked for an opinion from legal counsel on the issue.

“I followed the process that we’ve used historically for the position,” said interim Town Administrator Meredith Marini about the selection process. “The town administrator works with the chairman and, generally, the department head, but previously we didn’t have a department head for recreation, so we had two members of the Recreation Commission review the applications, decide who they’re going to interview, select the interviewees and conduct the interviews.”

The town administrator then made a recommendation to the Selectmen.

That is the process Marini followed.

The position is one that ultimately reports up through to the town administrator, FitzGerald-Kemmett said, as the Selectmen appoint the Recreation Commission.

FitzGerald-Kemmett said some of the Recreation Commission members, however feel like they were not part of that process to hire someone they will be working with, and asked Marini to address that point as well as the opinion from legal counsel.

Marini said 11 applications were received for the administrative assistant position, which were sent to the Recreation Commission chairman and Boyle for review.

“We used those two people because that was what we used for other positions,” Marini said. The Recreation chairman, Boyle, Marini and Selectmen’s Administrator Greer Getzen each picked five or six people to interview. They interviewed the six people who “made it through the cut.”

“They were all good applicants,” Marini said. “They had varying skill sets for recreation.” Some were more involved in direct programs with residents — such as playing basketball with the kids — one had been an event coordinator for a restaurant and two were administrative people. Marini said the search panel selected the person with the strongest administrative skills.

Marini also said she is familiar with Jameson as someone she could go to with questions about handling administrative issues over the years. Jameson has also been an assistant town administrator/assistant town manager during that time.

Jameson knows how to run an office, open meeting law regulations and is a certified procurement officer. While Marini had been concerned why Jameson would want the recreation job, it turned out Abington had cut her position and asked her about it. While Jameson had answered that she enjoyed not working for a while, she really wants to work and thought the position was right for her.

Marini checked with town counsel to verify that departments under the jurisdiction of the Board of Selectmen, the Town Administrator Act lists Recreation as one they oversee.

But Town Counsel Katherine Feodoroff also suggested the Town Administrator Act be reviewed and perhaps adjusted for a uniform management policy to assure fair and equitable compensation across all departments.

“This comes up frequently enough” for FitzGerald-Kemmett to term it a good idea.

Some Recreation Commission members said they would at least liked to have had a say in narrowing the field of applicants to the final six.                                                                                         

Power failures 

Representatives from National Grid also attended the meeting to address frequent power losses in town.

“I want to make sure that the citizens of Hanson are not losing power at a rate that is just really getting kind of ridiculous,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “It’s a mere inconvenience to some people, but for a lot of people — quite a few people that may depend on oxygen tanks or are in precarious health conditions — it’s more than an inconvenience, its downright dangerous and life-threatening.”

She said she has heard from a couple of elderly people dependent on oxygen tanks, who “live in fear of us losing electricity,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.

National Grid Manager of Community and Customer Relations for the South Shore Joe Cardinale said that, during storm events, he is in charge of community liaisons. During major events a liaison is sent out to every community.

“We look at where the outages are,” Cardinale said of after-storm procedures. “During every storm event, we have tree issues on this feeder [line].”

Once repairs are made, crews have to go up and down the line looking for any additional wires to houses that may be down before utility lines are re-energized, he explained. An expanded tree management program has been instituted to trim and/or remove problem trees.

Trees overhanging power lines are trimmed and an eight-foot right-of-way along power lines takes care of most town trees. All trees to be removed are tagged and homeowners are notified when privately owned trees are involved, and homeowners may decline to permit removal.

The entire circuit for Hanson is involved in the program.

All National Grid employees and contractors carry identification and customers can also call the customer service line or the Hanson tree warden.

Goals,
accomplishments

In other business, the board received a preview of plans for the new Highway Department building and reviewed the boards goals and accomplishments for the year.

“We’ve had quite the year,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “And when we think of some of the bad things that have happened this year, I like to think of some of the good things that have happened.”

Leading the list of accomplishments, FitzGerald-Kemmett said were some key hires: Town Administrator John Stanbrook, who starts Jan. 6, Getzen and new Highway Director Matthew Cahill, who starts Jan. 2 as well as a new recreation director, environmental agent, health agent and conservation administrative assistant.

The acquisition of the Sleeper property abutting Camp Kiwanee, establishment of an economic target area along Main Street and work with a property owner at the former Ocean Spray building regarding his plans to develop a mixed-used property there.

The town is also exploring the reuse of the former Maquan School for affordable senior housing, meeting the required threshold for 40B housing in Hanson.

“We got JJ’s [Pub site] cleaned up, at no additional cost to taxpayers, despite naysayers,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. She also mentioned the plastic grocery bag and polystyrene foam beverage cup and food container ban introduced by Selectmen Matt Dyer and Wes Blauss; regional dispatch services and planning for the town’s 200th anniversary celebration in 2020, among other accomplishments.

“I thoroughly enjoyed working with each and every one of you guys,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said of her fellow selectmen. “We’re very fortunate to be supported by a fabulous staff of people at Town Hall, volunteers on all the committees — we’re lucky. We’ve got a great town and it shows time and time again.”

Selectman Kenny Mitchell went over the Weston & Sampson plans just received that afternoon for the proposed highway barn at the former LiteControl property.

“This is not the final plan, so I don’t really want that out yet,” Mitchell said. The plans provide the scope of the building and parking lot, salt shed that has a non-permeable floor to avoid salt contamination of the wetlands, an low-heat vehicle storage building, fueling station and the main building, which includes a maintenance bays.

W-H principal Dr. Christopher Jones received the go-ahead from School Committee members on Wednesday, Dec. 11 to use a grant from NextGen, a personal finance firm, to fund a financial literacy program of studies with an eye toward including it as a graduation requirement beginning in 2024.

“We thought it would add up, seeing that we ran a pilot this year,” Jones said. “We were already looking to make it a graduation requirement.”

The $10,000 grant would help implement the program, however the Committee’s support in a vote, reflected in a vote recorded in the minutes to require financial literacy as a graduation criteria. No additional personnel is required with the rolling of a computer application course into the financial literacy program. An $11,500 state grant will fund professional development for the program.

“I’m glad to see we’re doing something on this,” said School Committee member Dan Cullity. “I do believe our students do not — over the last four or five years — come out of here knowing how to do anything for life. [They’re] basement dwellers because they don’t know how to get a house.”

He said there is such an emphasis on college, when only a certain amount go to college while the rest “have to get out there and do the blue-collar work.”

School Committee member Alexandra Taylor, who works in a bank, agreed.

“It’s not just younger people,” she added. “It’s adults my age who have no clue how to do any of it.”

Jones said the course goes beyond that, noting how students cover APR, buying a house, credit scores, interest rates and the like. Jones also outlined a policy approach to vaping and its potential for addiction, including consequences, recently classifying  it as a “suspension event.”

“We want to put in an educational component,” Jones said, noting that suspensions alone proved initially successful, but vaping use is on the increase again. A Saturday program is being looked at, including informational videos and reports as well as discussions with counselors, administrators or the school resource officer. Whitman resident Shawn Kain, of the recovery high school in Brockton, reiterated his request that the possibility of a student’s being diagnosed with a substance abuse disorder.

“I think it’s a whole lot more important or serious than we’re discussing,” Kain said. “I think addiction is a disability and I think it should be treated as a disability.”

He has been advocating for its inclusion in the student handbook as a disability just as any emotional disability.

The School Committee also approved Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak’s request to form a Superintendent’s Council of students with the aim of the students to meet three or four times a year with the committee.

Szymaniak proposed leaning on student leaders for membership on the council, but School Committee member Robert O’Brien Jr., said he would prefer hearing from a  cross-section of students.

“I want to hear from others, quite honestly,” O’Brien said. “I don’t always want to hear from the student leaders … I want to hear from all walks of life.”

Pantry donations

In other business, the students of the WHRHS National Honor Society presented checks for $908 each to the Whitman and Hanson food pantries during the meeting.

NHS members raised a total of $1,817 during the annual Miles for Meals 5K fun run and one-mile walk on Sept. 28, according to adviser Kelly Tanis, a language teacher.

Christine Cameron of the Hanson Food Pantry and Bruce Perry of the Whitman Food Pantry attended the meeting to accept the donations from NHS member Chloe Wilson.

“Thank you to both food pantries for all you do for the community,” Wilson said.

“Year in-year out these kids do this — it used to be under the direction of Ms. Galambos, but now Ms. Tanis — and they do a great job,” Perry said. “The students always come through for us and we really appreciate it. I really want to commend them for that.”