Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak told the School Committee that, during the government shutdown, affected parents with school-aged kids could be assured the district will do what it can to help.

“Please contact your principal,” Szymaniak said. “Our principals have been reaching out, seeing what we can do, but [families] might go unnoticed. Not everyone knows what mom and dad does for a living, but we are looking to make sure that if anybody is on furlough because of the shutdown, we’ll take care of the kids in the school.”

Szymaniak said that could mean efforts such as finding $10 to ensure a student can take part in a book fair.

“Those are the incidentals that, I’m afraid … they could miss out on because of the shutdown,” he said.

He said the shutdown has not yet affected services offered by the schools, but there has been concern noted in the national media over when the shutdown could start impacting school lunch programs.

Contracts extended

The School Committee voted to extend contracts with S.J. Services for custodial work and the First Student bus contract after Business Services Director Christine Suckow, at the committee’s direction, sought reconsideration of price increases.

Both said no and the contracted hikes of 3.5-percent increases for fiscal 2020 and 2.5 percent for fiscal 2021. For S.J. Services it is 3 percent in 2020 and 2 percent in 2021.

Both contracts go out to bid again in two years.

food pantry donations

National Honor Society adviser Ellen Galambos and NHS President Katelyn Molito presented checks totaling $5,000 divided between the Whitman and Hanson food pantries raised at the annual Miles for Meals 5K last fall.

“Volunteers like Mrs. Galambos and the National Honor Society have been helping us for quite a few years now,” Bruce Perry of the Whitman Food Pantry said. “They do a tremendous job, they do 99.9 percent of the work. … They’re just phenomenal kids and we just can’t say enough about what they do for the food pantry and for the community as well.”

“You can be so proud of the kids in the school system, because we’ve had so many kids come through and help us rake and pack and unpack and collect donations — and raise funds through their fundraisers,” said Christine Cameron of the Hanson Food Pantry. “You can be real proud of these kids, they are part of our future.”

HANSON — As a snow squall moved in ahead of a winter cold front Thursday, Jan. 10, a strange-looking tracked vehicle passed back and forth in the marshland of Smitty’s Bog.

The last time the vehicle had been seen working in the conservation area off Route 58, the town’s Conservation office received about a dozen calls from curious residents.

What on earth was going on here?

“What we’re doing is taking this area which was obviously all about cranberry cultivation and we’re restoring, as much as possible, to wetlands and their natural ecological function,” said Conservation Commission Chairman Phil Clemons. He described the process of removing invasive phragmities from the bog — the work being done by the vehicle owned by Solitude Lake Management of Virginia with offices in Shrewsbury, Mass.

The casual onlooker might not know the name phragmities, but would recognize the towering reeds with the fluffy plumes.

“This is part of the wetlands restoration management plan that the Conservation Commission, the town of Hanson and the Natural Resource Conservation Service have been working on,” Clemons explained as tall, dried phragmities fell before the “MarshMaster’s” cutting blade. “We’ve been spending seven years preparing a plan and now we’re finally starting to do it.”

The machine is used for mowing marsh areas because its extremely wide track spreads the machine’s weight over a wide area to avoid harming underground roots. It is less likely to get bogged-down in a bog, as well.

“It’s environmentally sound,” Clemons said of the vehicle. “It’s a good thing, even though it looks terrible and we want people to know that.”

An EPA-approved herbicide was sprayed on at least three acres of  phragmities-choked areas by Solitude Lake Management in September and, on the plant tops after the fluffy seedheads died back for the winter, the company was cutting down the plants. In the next growing season it will be much easier to find and treat what remains of the plants, Clemons said.

“Mowing [alone] wouldn’t do a thing,” he said. “It would probably just encourage it. There’s multiple steps over multiple years.”

The phragmities, a common reed, is an invasive species from other continents.

“We never used to have it around here until a few decades ago,” Clemons said. “When I was growing up there was none of this in Hanson. It comes in and takes over a wetland and wipes out all the other native plants.”

Cattails, lilypads and other native plants have all paid the price of the phragmities’ success in the region, according to Clemons. It also has few animals feeding off it. The plant’s “impenetrable mass” chokes shallow water bogs and natural marshes, with negative effects to stream flow and native wildlife.

“Nothing eats it,” Clemons said, noting phragmities is one of 100 plant varieties that are now illegal to sell in Massachusetts. “It is a wolf in environmental sheeps’ clothing. It’s an environmental disaster, is what it is.”

Removing the phragmities will permit the return of native plants that want to come back and insects, fish, amphibian and bird species that use that wide diversity of plants can also return.

“They will get much more benefit from that diverse mix of vegetation instead of a solid wall of junk.” Clemons said.

Common in alkaline habitats, phragmities also tolerate  brakish water and is associated with larger methane emissions and greater carbon dioxide uptake than native New England salt marsh vegetation that occurs at higher marsh elevations, according to plant researchers in a 2015 environmental report. Both the state and federal governments have policies that seek to control the spread of phragmities wherever possible.

“The only thing is, it’s difficult to control and this will be a multi-year task,” Clemons said.

Federal funds are paying for the project.

“At the moment, we’re working and the contractors are working, I’m sure they will catch up with us,” he said of the potential financial impact of the federal government shutdown.

BROCKTON – Daniel Nash, 33, of Whitman, who was found guilty of raping a woman at a Jan. 25, 2014 house party, was sentenced to serve five to seven years in state prison on Thursday, Dec. 13 in Brockton Superior Court, announced Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz Thursday.

Nash was found guilty of two counts of rape, one count of indecent assault and battery on a person over 14 and one count of photographing an unsuspecting person in the nude.

Judge Robert Gordon presided over the five-day jury trial ending in a guilty verdict Dec. 3 and sentenced Nash Thursday. Nash asked for a two-year custodial sentence through his Brockton-based attorney Joseph Krowski, Jr., while Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Sprague asked for eight to 12 years in custody.

Gordon sentenced Nash to serve five to seven years in state prison at MCI-Cedar Junction (a maximum-security prison in Walpole), to be followed by two and one half years in the house of correction, suspended for two years. After that, Nash will be on probation for three years under the conditions that he stays away from, and not have contact with, the victim; that he wears a GPS monitoring bracelet; that he registers with the state Sex Offender Registry Board and that he undergoes sex offender treatment.

A representative for the district attorney’s office stated that the commonwealth was satisfied with the sentence.

Nash, a former State Street Bank account manager, held a birthday party at his Whitman home in 2014. The victim, his then-fiancée’s sister, arrived at the party and stayed overnight. The following morning, the victim woke up and called Whitman Police to report that she had been sexually assaulted by a person at the party, believed to be Nash, and the victim also believed there was a video of the incident, according to the release and court records.

Whitman Police investigated and interviewed Nash, who eventually admitted to the assault. Nash consented to a search of his cellphone by Whitman Police where a video of the incident, which he had attempted to delete, was located, court records also state.

The ADA, Sprague, first read the victim’s impact statement into the record, saying to the judge that the victim was too emotional to address the court even though she was present.

The victim asked, several times, for the maximum sentence, “not a slap on the wrist,” through the ADA.

Sprague herself asked for a sentence greater than those suggested by the Superior Court sentencing guidelines, noting several aggravating factors in the crime, including that the defendant was especially vulnerable because she was intoxicated at the party.

“The defendant did not express remorse for his actions … He, in fact, tried to blame the event on the victim’s flirtatious behavior with him earlier in the evening and his own intoxication, which was greatly exaggerated. The defendant then denied these allegations to the victim’s family, causing a termination/alienation of the family relationships and bonds the victim had with her mother, stepfather, and sister,” stated Sprague in a sentencing memorandum.

The defense relied heavily on Nash’s lack of a criminal record in arguing for a lenient, but custodial, two-year sentence. His attorney, Krowski, noted that he had never been in a fist fight, never had a detention in school and didn’t even have a speeding ticket. He said the incident was “an aberration in Mr. Nash’s otherwise impeccable record.”

“One moment in time … cannot define a man,” he stated in a sentencing memorandum.

He also argued that Nash was engaged to the victim’s sister at the time of the crime, and they got married despite the pending charges. The victim’s parents also attended the trial in support of Nash, he said.

“They recognize that the crimes were truly an aberration, completely inconsistent with his character as a caring husband and loving son-in-law,” he stated in his sentencing memorandum.

He also said that about 50 letters had been written in support of Nash.

The arguments did not particularly persuade the judge, who in a somewhat rare move, according to court personnel, handed down a written, six-page sentencing ruling which he read to the court, after deliberating for about 15 minutes following the victim impact statement and hearing from the two opposing parties.

“In arriving at its sentencing decision, the Court has placed greatest emphasis upon the truly egregious nature of the offenses themselves,” Gordon stated, describing in detail the crimes Nash committed, and that “[a] more appalling mistreatment of a member of one’s own soon-to-be family is difficult to conceive…”

The judge noted that “[a]s for the victim’s character, the Court finds that the evidence at trial intensifies rather than mitigates its judgement of the Defendant in this case … this woman was especially vulnerable to Mr. Nash’s brand of predation. Far from lessening the blameworthiness of his actions, these facts mark the Defendant as a bullying exploiter of the powerless, convinced that a victim in a distressed condition was somehow not entitled to even the most basic protections of the law.”

Following that, he added, “It is, perhaps, true that no person should ever be judged to harshly for their single worst moment in life, and I am reminded of this trope as the Court contemplates a proper sentence for Mr. Nash. That said, there are boundaries of human decency which, once crossed, require due reckoning in a society that strives for justice. This is, sadly, such a case.”

Finally, he noted that the law authorized him to sentence Nash to up to 20 years’ imprisonment on each offense of rape, but that the sentence was in line with the Superior Court sentencing guidelines for someone with no criminal record.

WAREHAM — Matthew Will, 37, of Halifax, owner of Five Star Discount Roofing, was in Wareham District Court Friday, Dec. 7, facing six larceny-related charges stemming from two Middleborough Police Department complaints alleging he took deposits by check for roofing and household contract work from six residents of the Oak Point 55-plus community in Middleborough, cashed the checks but did not start or complete the work as promised.

Will faces similar charges in Plymouth District Court, stemming from Kingston and Hanson allegations.

These charges are in addition to a long list of others, including a separate case also stemming from alleged crimes at the Oak Point community, in which Will is facing 15 counts of larceny over $250 by false pretense. A pre-trial conference was conducted on that case after the arraignments on the latest charges.

Judge Douglas J. Darnbrough presided over the proceedings, to which Will had been summonsed. His Plymouth-based attorney, Jack Atwood, pled not guilty on his behalf. At one point, Will attempted to address the judge, but Atwood stopped him from speaking, bellowing “Be quiet!”

Police and court reports paint a picture of a once reputable roofer unable or unwilling to keep up with the amount of work he had committed to, and the Middleborough Building Inspector, Robert Whalen, alerting police to complaints about Will while continuing to issue building permits despite warnings from Oak Point residents.

Whalen, in a phone interview Dec. 10, stated that disputes between contractors and homeowners are outside of his jurisdiction, but that in an effort to protect the community, he contacted Detective Simonne Ryder, of the Middleborough Police, regarding Will when Whalen had received about ten complaints.

As of press time, Will is facing a total of one count of larceny over $1,200 by false pretense, two counts of larceny over $1,200, 19 counts of larceny over $250 by false pretense, one count of larceny under $250 by false pretense and one count of forgery of a document.

There are 23 area households in three communities claiming they have been victimized to date, who have lost a combined $153,197.34 in monies given for work not done, with individual losses ranging from $695 to $15,569. Most of these victims are over age 55, and many are quite elderly, according to police reports. The alleged victim who lost the most money is 78 years old.

Grievances against Will date back to at least 2017, according to public records. But by late May, 2018, enough residents from Oak Point had lodged complaints to catch the attention of the building inspector, Whalen, at which time authorities noticed Will’s insurance and building licenses had expired, according to police reports.

The detective opened a weeks-long investigation into Will on May 22, but police took no action on the inquiry until early August, by which time the number of alleged victims had grown and multiple police departments were investigating Will.

The report also stated that the building inspector was dealing with the issue, personally inspecting jobs and warning residents not to give 100 percent deposits as some residents had been doing.

Some residents were attempting to sue Will in small claims court for their losses, while the investigation was in-process.

The building department was giving Will five licenses at a time because he said that he had 30 open jobs in Oak Point, records say. The report states that he was only able to complete a handful of those jobs over the course of a few weeks and had effectively disappeared by Aug. 1, 2018.

Between June 21, and the day before Ryder’s first complaint was written on Aug. 2, there is no record of any follow-up by the detective on the matter in court files. The alleged victim in Kingston hired Will on July 15, and the alleged victim in Hanson hired him on July 31.

Whalen said that he reported Will to the Southeastern Massachusetts Building Association, which should have notified other local building inspectors about Will, according to Whalen.

He will next be in Plymouth District Court on Wednesday, Dec. 21, at 9 a.m. for two pre-trial hearings. The three Wareham District Court cases have been continued to March 4, 2019, at 9 a.m. as well for pre-trial hearings.

Will cannot be reached by phone or email and the investigation in Middleborough is ongoing, police said.

By Brooke Loring
WHRHS Student Intern

HANSON — On Sunday, Jan. 27, the Hanson PTO hopes members of the community will be “taking the plunge” at Cranberry Cove, within Camp Kiwanee, to raise funds for the students of Indian Head School. Funds will specifically go towards technology needs, enrichment activities, a sound system for school-wide assemblies to strengthen a positive school culture and community, as well as other requests from teachers and staff.

In the event of inclement weather, the event will be held Sunday, Feb. 3. The plunge takes place at 10 a.m.

Melissa Valachovic, a member of the Hanson PTO, coordinated the event in hopes of encouraging members of the community to participate.

“We are fortunate enough to have Cranberry Cove here in town and I thought that using that site for a Polar Plunge would be a unique opportunity for an event, and it might be something others in the community would be interested in doing as well, especially right here in town”, Valachovic said about the chosen location of the event.

Hanson’s new Recreation Director, Josh Wolfe was all for Valachovic’s idea and immediately met with the Fire Department, Highway Department, and Police Department, who were also glad to support such an event, he said. The Fire Department will also be present to break the ice and in preparation of the event. This first-time event, will be a perfect addition to help bring necessary support to Indian Head, as well as bring the community together in a unique and fun experience. Many members of the community have already registered to jump in, including Chairman of the Whitman-Hanson School Committee Bob Hayes, Indian Head Assistant Principal Jennifer Costa, Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak, as well as the entire Hanson Board of Selectmen.

“The hope is to create an event that brings people from all walks of life, here in town, to support our youngest citizens and it seems to be doing that so far; so essentially bringing our community together,” Valachovic stated.

Each participant is asked to raise a minimum of $35 through donations on their behalf. Each jumper, upon registration, will be set up with a personal fundraising website. All participants must be 18 years of age or older, and will be asked to sign a liability waiver before the Plunge. Those registering before Dec. 10 receive a complimentary towel.

To register visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cranberry-cove-polar-plunge-2019-tickets-51407709844?aff=ebdssbdestsearch.

By Brooke Loring
WHRHS Student Intern

Last Tuesday, Whitman-Hanson Regional High School held its annual pep rally, in anticipation of the Panthers’ Thanksgiving Day game against the Abington Green Wave.

Planned by sports captains and Whitman-Hanson Athletic director Bob Rogers, students and faculty gathered in the gym for a day centered around school spirit. This year, seniors Samantha Smith and Quinn Sweeney hosted the day’s events, which included a dance off, musical chairs, and a battle of rock-paper-scissors. There were also performances by Whitman-Hanson’s cheerleading team (who recently won the State Championship), the majorettes and band, as well as the Pop Rock Ensemble. Celtics tickets were also raffled off, being won by Rosie Brazie and Zach Garnic. Students also had the ability to “pie” their teacher in the “Pie-in-the-Face” contest. Unfortunately, chemistry teacher and freshmen football coach, John Rozen, was met with a pie, not once but two times … for the second year in a row.

Rally is also a school event loved by students because, while they show off their school pride, it also gives them the ability to show off their class pride, too. Freshmen and sophomores dress in white, while juniors sport red and, seniors, black. The classes try to prove who has the most Panther Pride by being the loudest and most whimsical at the rally. Students also enjoy participating in an event that is “student led,” according to senior Ashley O’Brien. Student athletes and their accomplishments are also honorably mentioned

Following the indoor events of Rally, is the annual powderpuff game, where senior and junior girls, coached by JV and Varsity football players, face off in the ultimate battle: flag football. Along with the game, male cheerleaders can be seen on the sidelines pumping up the crowd by attempting a human pyramid or kick line. Entertainment also included the banter of seniors Mike Cook and Bob Dauwer announcing the game, as well as a breathtaking performance of “Sweet Caroline” by Cook. This year, despite the chilly weather and rain, the senior girls took home the victory, with a score of 12-0.

Being a senior at Whitman-Hanson, Rally is one of the events I will miss the most. I’ll miss dressing up, and getting glitter all over the bathroom floor, and the feathers from boas floating in the hallways (Students of WHRHS would like to thank the event staff as well as janitorial services for the clean-up). I’ll remember the excitement of missing class and the anticipation of the Thanksgiving game. I will miss being able to see the rivalry between Whitman-Hanson and Abington. However, I will miss Rally because it brought the school together in an event of indescribable excitement, school spirit, class rivalry — and pie.

Proposed FCC rule changes to preempt local government from regulating or imposing fees related to non-cable services provided by cable companies, among other provisions, have raised alarm among both local access providers and town officials.

The changes would allow cable operators to treat funding for cable-related costs as “in-kind” donations, allowing them to deduct an undefined amount from monies that traditionally have gone to community media. This rule change would eliminate a major source of funding from WHCA and could result in community media centers closing their doors in every community across the country.

“I think it’s very short-sighted,” said Whitman Hanson Community Access TV Executive Director Eric Dresser.

“What we do here — and what access centers across the state do — is hyper-local, and it’s essential,” WHCA-TV Access Operations Coordinator  Kevin Tocci says. “It is your source if you want to know what’s going on with local government … we provide video on demand on YouTube.”

Local public, educational and government (PEG) access programming is funded by franchising through the local community’s issuing authority — generally the board of selectmen — with a rate paid to cover the “burden of taking up space on [utility] poles” via the cable portion of the cable company’s income.

Both select boards and town administrators in Whitman and Hanson have filed letters with the FCC against the proposal. Both trade organizations to which WHCA-TV belongs — MassAccess, and the Alliance for Community Media on the federal level — have also filed lengthy comments against the proposal, citing several legal precedents.

The deadline for that filing was midnight, Thursday, Nov. 15. The deadline for reply comments is midnight, Friday, Dec. 14.

Those comments would likely be limited to response to previously filed comments.

“They (the FCC) want to be able to charge back, through municipalities, for what they consider in-kind services,” Dresser said. “You’re allowing them onto your poles and you’re basically having an exchange of fee for that. They’re trying to negotiate that back, saying, ‘We’ve got your channels on our spectrum and if we didn’t have you there, we’d have somebody else there.’”

The concern is that cable access organizations are not sure what the value of channels is going to be assigned, according to Dresser.

“We don’t know what things they want to charge back, we don’t know what things they could charge back,” he said. “That’s the concern.”

“We don’t know how aggressive they are going to be,” Dresser said. “If they’re just looking to stop giving away free cable boxes, well then that’s not a huge deal. But if they’re looking to assign a value to each of these channels, that’s a much bigger deal.”

That raises the specter of threats to replace local access channels with another QVC-type channel.

Small cell wireless is also a concern as phones head to 5G from the current 4G capacity. Instead of out-of-the-way cell towers, 5G will most likely be accommodated on “every third telephone pole down the main thoroughfare.” Dresser said he feels the cable proposal is designed to finance the 5G upgrades, for which the cable companies do not want to pay.

That had been governed by cable contract provisions for stringing cable wires on utility poles, which are now being classified by cable carriers as barriers to service.

Dresser said that, while it may pave the way for advancements to cell phone technology, it overlooks local programming services provided since 1984.

“It think it would be just absolutely outrageous to lose the ability to turn on local cable,” Whitman resident Richard Rosen, who was a Selectman when the town’s cable service was chosen, said on a Nov. 16 installment of Monday Night Talk with Kevin Tocci on WATD. “What you people all do and what local cable does for people is amazing. … To think that it could all go away so easily is just wrong.”

On Monday, Nov. 12, Dresser joined Director of Marketing and Educational Services Carol McGilvary of PACTV and Marshfield Community Television’s Executive Director Jonathan Grabowski on WATD. The three are also MassAccess board members.

Becoming a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit in 2005, WHCA produces coverage of local government as well as local programs created by residents, such as Rosen’s award-winning show “Buzz Around Bees.” It sends its production truck to local sports games.

“We’re in a lot of places and we love the work that we do,” Dresser said during the WATD discussion.

Celebrating 10 years in operation this year, Marshfield Community Television produces 17 local shows as well as an educational program involving 150 students at Marshfield High, according to Grabowski. It provides gavel-to-gavel coverage of eight government bodies.

“It’s going to impact everyone,” Grabowski said of the proposed FCC rule change. “It’s going to significantly reduce funding or it’s going to close down access centers.”

PACTV has served Duxbury, Kingston, Pembroke and Plymouth for 21 years according to McGilvary doing the same kind of government coverage and education and locally-produced programs as Marshfield — as well as annual coverage of the Plymouth Thanksgiving Day parade. PACTV also produces news programs and “Breaking the Cycle,” about the opioid crisis.

While she said there has been a noticeable reduction in cable consumers in favor of “cutting the cable,” there are still large populations of people who still want cable television.

For more information, visit massaccess.org/fcc or whca.tv/fcc.