Whitman hopefuls meet the press

WHITMAN — Candidates for seats on the Board of Selectmen and W-H School Committee [see related story, page 8] fielded questions Thursday, May 4 — and some in uncontested races made brief presentations — during a forum co-sponsored by the Whitman Democratic and Republican town committees.

Incumbent Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski and challengers Laura Howe, Finance Committee member Randy LaMattina and Nita Sault fielded questions ranging from the town’s financial future to the ongoing opioid crisis and town building needs, among others. Each gave a brief opening statement before the questions began.

All except Sault said they would consider supporting an operational override to fund the municipal budget.

The session, held in the Selectmen’s meeting room of Whitman Town Hall, was broadcast live and will be rebroadcast on WHCA-TV Channel 9 over the next two weeks. This writer, and WHCA-TV Access Operations Coordinator Kevin Tocci presented questions. Republican Committee Chairman Brian Bezanson and Democratic Chairman Larry Roache moderated. WHCA-TV Executive Director Eric Dresser served as timekeeper.

“It is strictly a nonpartisan event,” Roache stressed. “We’re here as citizens of Whitman, and hopefully we’ll get a better understanding at the conclusion of tonight’s forum where we’ll be going forward.”

Whitman ties

All four selectmen candidates stressed their ties to Whitman: born in town, Howe described herself as “the only Whitmanite” in the race; Sault was raised in town until her family moved to California and began the process of moving back about five years ago; LaMattina was also raised in town and Kowalski and his wife moved to town in 1972.

“We have lost our voice in this town,” Howe said of her campaign based on accountability, transparency and approachability. “We did not lose it yesterday, we did not lose it last year, we may not have even lost it 20 years ago.”

Kowalski agreed that being a Whitmanite is important, but said he has learned to love the town and wants to continue working see it improve. He said he wants to continue working to support the town he has grown to love.

Kowalski, seeking re-election, said, “if anything is going to hurt Whitman, it would be division.” “I don’t think it’s a Whitman problem,” he said. “It’s a statewide problem, it’s a national problem, it’s a global problem.” He lauded Howe’s impulse to bring people together.

LaMattina said he and his wife were dedicated to living in Whitman when they married and the former firefighter stressed he wants to put to work what he has learned on the Finance Committee and “move those ideas up to the Board of Selectmen.” His candidacy is motivated by the “vanilla reason” — care about the quality of life for all town residents.

“You can only do so much work on a recommending board” such as the Finance Committee and that he wants to explore ideas for the town on a policy-setting board. Howe, meanwhile, wants to be a voice of the people and is also running because the town is being lost to division.

Sault, meanwhile, noted she has become active in town activities since returning as a “full-time” resident last year. She said she does not believe it is necessary to continue discussing divisions because she does not believe the problems are insurmountable.

“I want to get on the board so I can help going forward,” she said, noting the other candidates also have a lot to offer. “What’s happened in the past … can only serve as a lesson.”

In view of the upcoming June 12 joint budget meeting between town and school representatives regarding the fiscal 2019 budget, candidates agreed a Proposition 2 ½ override may be necessary, while stressing that a lot of work lies ahead. Howe has proposed the possibility of giving tax breaks to seniors or exempt them from a Prop 2 ½ override as a way to pass an override.

“We have to stop this pitting people against people,” Howe said, denying she is anti-school. “It is not the elderly’s desire to see children fail, it is not young people’s desire to see elderly go without ambulance service. We are a community.”

Kowalski said if an override is a way to get the school district out of the bottom 10 in per-pupil spending “I think we need to take it seriously.”

A former longtime member of the School Committee, Kowalski said he has never felt that the elderly have been dissatisfied with the school, but the education budget has reached the point where it needs more funding.

Sault said Prop 2 ½ has not kept up with needs over many years, comparing it to the Prop 13 measure in California, where she lived for a time that inspired 2 ½.

“Everything seemed great at first,” she said. “Everyone got tax benefits. Then suddenly there was no money, or less money, for the schools, fire, infrastructure.” That led to school bonds, which became a fixture of “every single election.”

LaMattina, meanwhile said Prop 2 ½ is an “excellent firewall between municipal spending and the taxpayer” as well as an extra layer of protection for those on fixed incomes. “I do not know if it will be possible next year to fund the schools without an override, though,” he said about his experience on the Finance Committee.

Opioid addiction, the candidates agreed, is one of the biggest problems facing the community and nation today.

Kowalski, whose wife is the director of the Highpoint Treatment Center in Brockton, is also a member of the grant-funded Whitman-Hanson WILL program.

“We live the opioid crisis all the time,” he said. “It’s not a problem that’s going to be solved overnight at all.” He outlined how the towns’ police and fire departments and schools have been supportive of the effort, adding that parents and friends of addicts must become more involved in combating the problem.

LaMattina said programs require start-up funding through grants or town funding.

“You see how this affects people,” the former firefighter said. “It’s not going away.”

Howe, who worked in high-risk child-care for eight years, said opioid addiction is only one social problem impacting such children.

“The number one solution is building strong families,” she said. “You do not build strong families tearing apart people on social media … by finding issue with each other — commonality and finding ways to work together.”

Sault said people need to realize that relapse is a big part of recovery from any addiction.

Debt structure

The candidates said they were interested in an exploration of whether the balance of police station debt — financed within the levy limit — should be shifted to an override. LaMattina said he has raised the issue with the Finance Committee and Sault said she would want to make sure that move would free up funds for schools and. They agreed the need for a new DPW building and that increasing the tax base will take creative approaches.

“We’re not a town that’s easy to expand,” Kowalski said.

“We have to look into ways of spending money to make money,” Sault said, suggesting solar or geothermal power for town buildings.

LaMattina said the town has already explored solar opportunities, but said new ideas must be explored while reviewing spending in a town with little room for growth.

“We do not have a spending problem in this town,” he cautioned, however. “We have a revenue problem.”

Howe said tighter budgeting is a place to start, noting she had to face such a situation at a time when she was homeless.

“That’s when you really figure out your budget,” she said. “No one here seems to know what a real tight budget is, because I did not see it on Town Hall floor [at Town Meeting].”

She said there is also a need for more community-based programs, such as farmer’s markets and outreach programs, to support residents in need.

Kowalski summed up the town’s most pressing problems as support for the schools as well as the opioid crisis, but added there are creative ways to look at problems.

“When you have a failure, wipe it off your face as fast as you can,” he said. “Put it behind you, start working on making things better. When you succeed, wear that. … There are a lot of things in this town we do well — wear it.”

Sault said she does not view Whitman as a Dickensian village with dark problems, either.

“There are issues, and they have happened over a long period of time — sidewalks, streets,” Sault said. “ I think those need to be worked on. Infrastructure. Schools. I don’t think they are unresolveable.”

LaMattina said while the town has financial challenges, he does not feel they are insurmountable either, but said the opioid crisis is far more serious because it affects kids.

All four candidates supported new DPW building, with Sault suggesting that alternative energy such as solar power panels could help finance it while LaMattina, Howe and Kowalski favor a debt exclusion for funding, but Kowalski also said he found merit in alternative energy savings. They also agreed on the need to maintain a single tax rate for residents and businesses to attract and keep new business in town.

None see the need for prior municipal experience before running for office.

“These people have obviously made a case that they care about Whitman,” Roache said. “They want to see Whitman continue to improve.”

Bezanson expressed pride in the forum, as well.

“No matter what happens on [May] 20, Whitman’s got a bright future with these kinds of candidates running for these positions,” he said. “Whether you win or you lose, you’re making Whitman a better place.”

Selectmen candidates meet in Hanson forum

HANSON — Economic concerns, town government practices and the future of th town highway barn and Plymouth County Hospital sites as well as Camp Kiwanee were discussed by the four candidates running for two seats on the Hanson Board of Selectmen Sunday, May 7.

Incumbent Selectman Bill Scott, Community Preservation Committee Chairman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett, former Recreation Commission Chairman Jim Hickey and former Selectman Jim Egan met in a candidate’s forum co-sponsored by the town’s Democratic and Republican town Committees. The quartet fielded questions from the audience for more than an hour.

One-to-three minute opening and closing remarks were included in the program, moderated by Bob Hayes and broadcast over Whitman-Hanson Community Access TV. Members of the audience were asked to pose questions that all four could answer.

“It’s great that we have four candidates for two seats — there’s been years when there’s been one candidate for one seat or no one wants to run,” Hayes said.

A financial services professional for 30 years and Hanson resident for 20, FitzGerald-Kemmett said she is running because “it’s time to recognize that the same old-same old isn’t going to work anymore,” and pointed to her experience with community programs as qualities that will help her work toward finding common ground. She is a board member of the Hanson Food Pantry, a co-founder of the Hanson Business Network and has been president of the Panther Education Trust.

“We really need people that are going to be on the Board of Selectmen who can work with everybody in the town, who are going to listen to what the voters want and are going to check their egos at the door and be here for the right reason — to be a public servant,” she said.

Hickey said he is running to foster Hanson’s strength — it’s small-town sense of community. He has been a youth softball coach and Camp Kiwanee volunteer.

“There’s a danger in being an elected official,” Hickey said. “The danger is one of attitude sitting on this side of the table — ‘I know what’s best for the town.’ … I will be your best and most attentive listener.”

Egan, who served on the Board of Selectmen for nine years before being unseated in a recall three years ago, is a retired English teacher at Silver Lake Regional School District, where he also served as a union negotiator and on several curriculum and other educational development committees. He has lived in Hanson since 1973.

“I am familiar with working together as a team to get things done,” he said, stressing the town must make maintenance of town-owned properties and funding requirements for future budget needs are key. “I do not have an agenda. I offer only experience and a hard-working ethic to get problems solved.”

A lifelong Hanson resident and a retired police chief, Scott said he is seeking re-election because, while the board members should agree on goals, some disagreement is healthy.

“I vote my conscience and I vote what I think is best for the townspeople,” he said. His police career spanned departments in Hanson, Hanover and Halifax and he is now a cranberry grower.

Highway building

Candidates were asked about the difference in a $1.5 million vote to build a new highway barn at the LiteControl property, which is now quoted at $4.5 million including cleanup at the current highway barn site.

Scott said the buildings left behind when LiteControl relocated were offered to the town, which was the reason the Highway Building Committee was founded once Town Meeting accepted the gift. The parent company spent $4 to $5 million on cleanup at that site, he said.

“We are moving forward, and the environmental concerns are all being addressed by DEP, Army Corps of Engineers — it’s not just a he said-she said type of thing,” Scott said. “Cleanup up at the old facility, we’re told by the engineers they can clean that facility and cap it, and it will be safe for young people, but all sorts of studies will be done to assure that that is a safe site.”

Egan said the appropriate research has not yet been done at the old site to determine what needs to be done to make it useable for any other purpose and noted the price tag has gone up “significantly” since the Town Meeting vote on accepting the land. Hickey said the site cleanup could easily increase to $6 million, and without an engineering study the financial risk is too great for the town to bear. FitzGerald-Kemmett also expressed concern about the higher price tag and the need for transparency, but that the issue is ultimately up to the voters.

Town contracts

Selectmen Bruce Young asked about how a $1 million indemnification clause in former Town Administrator Ron San Angelo’s contract could have been allowed and prevented in the future.

“Thanks for that question,” Hickey said sarcastically, as the query was aimed at Egan, who had served on the board that hired San Angelo. Hickey said he would not let that happen in a contract.

FitzGerald-Kemmett, who negotiates contracts in her professional life, suggested a “punch list” of provisions that must be either included or barred from contracts. “We’re in this role to protect the town,” she said.

Scott said he would defer to town by-laws as indemnification is common to municipal contracts, but said it appeared that the contract in question “far extended that.”

Egan said the board at the time sought town counsel input on the contract, which counsel approved.

“It was on his recommendation that we signed that contract,” Egan said.

Business
development

The candidates were also asked about attracting and retaining businesses to support the tax base.

FitzGerald-Kemmett, a small business owner, pointed to her work with the Hanson Business network, but added Main Street is the “elephant in the room.” She also advocated a Community Development Committee to help write grants to help with the issue. Hickey agreed Main Street is a problem, but pointed to Hanson’s access limitations compared to Whitman’s access to Route 18 as well as Hanson’s need for a business strategy.

Egan noted that the Main Street property in question is privately owned and limited by its proximity to wetlands. He said the town could — and should — work to streamline the permitting process for all individuals. Scott agreed that the private property in question presents an issue and that the town has a history of not being business-friendly. He also supported the town’s tradition of a single tax rate.

Town priorities

Egan said the town still has to resolve its student location plans, as in closing the Maquan School; work would still need to be done to prepare Indian Head and Whitman Middle schools for additional children.

FitzGerald-Kemmett also pointed to Maquan, as well as to the persistent budget gap with the schools, noting the need to “have conversations early” and to be in tune with one another to be more efficient as a school district and town.

Scott said the schools were an area on which all four could find agreement — at least as an area of concern.

“The funding aspects that come up every year are unsustainable,” he said. “We cannot continue to reach to the taxpayers to fund this.” He also said the failed new school project three years ago created a lack of trust among Hanson residents, which he volunteered to help bridge.

Hickey said education has to be the most important issue.

The candidates pledged to work to move the town past recent divisions.

Passive recreation proposals were preferred as future Plymouth County Hospital site uses by Egan, but Hickey and Scott said some development should be considered and the public should have input, Hickey said. Scott said the DEP has previously ruled a septic system is not viable due to the nature of the soil, but added that the hospital had operated with a sewage treatment plant, and suggested that might be an option. FitzGerald-Kemmett said she would like to see the PCH committee’s recommendations placed before voters, but wants to see some form of park and doubts much development is possible there. She suggested, however, that a solar farm might be possible.

At Camp Kiwanee, the candidates envision a range of uses. FitzGerald-Kemmett suggested four to five communitywide events could be held there, Scott said the new recreation director should be able to help with that. Egan, meanwhile, said a performance pavilion at the PCH site could be run in conjunction with Kiwanee.

“That might be a way to make Camp Kiwanee a little bit more accessible to the types of events most townspeople seem to be interested in,” Egan said.

Hickey said his involvement at Kiwanee was the first town activities he became involved in 20 years ago.

Scott and Egan, who also has served on the Board of Selectmen, said they are aware and committed to devoting the hours needed to do the job. FitzGerald-Kemmett said she is aware of the time commitment required, has considered it at length, and is fully prepared to do what is needed to get the job done.

“Whatever it takes,” said Hickey, who said his commitment to the job would follow that for his family and job.

HANSON — Serenaded by a 1933 recording of Joyce Kilmer’s 1913 poem “Trees” — set to Oscar Rasbach’s music and sung by Donald Novis — Hanson officials, senior center and library staff as well as  members of Green Hanson shoveled soil at the base of a Kousa dogwood tree planted at the Senior Center on Friday, April 28.

The planting celebrated Arbor Day and was the final step the town needed to take to be declared a “Tree City, USA.” The original Florida dogwood, planted some 25 years ago by nursery owner Les Wyman had succumbed to damage or blight a few years ago. The more hardy Japanese dogwood, with white-to-pink blossoms, was donated to the town by National Grid through Community Relations spokesman Joe Cardle and Arborist Luke Fiske, according to Town Administrator Michael McCue who has orchestrated the town’s quest to be named a Tree City, by the national Arbor Day Association.

A certain amount in annual municipal budgets, a yearly ceremony and bylaws governing care of trees in town are required for the designation. McCue said he plans to keep up with the tradition.

Wyman was introduced by Senior Center Director Mary Collins, who had asked him about what he knew about the old tree.

“He quietly listened to my whole story and the gave me that little twinkle in his eye and said, ‘I should know the type of tree it is, because I’m the one that planted it,’” Collins said.

He recalled promising that the original tree would last forever.

“Hopefully this tree will outlast all of us, because it should,” he said of the new tree, and pledged to water the tree if he finds it dry during the first year, when it requires a bucket of water once a week to establish itself and thrive.

“Plant trees,” he said. “It’s a great hobby and it’s something to enjoy for many, many years.”

The Hanson Highway Department cleared out the old stump and planted the new tree, reserving some soil for the ceremony.

“Welcome to the first of what I hope is many, many Arbor Day celebrations here in the town of Hanson,” McCue said as birds sang on a warm day from other trees. Behind him were Selectmen Chairman James McGahan, Selectmen Bruce Young and Bill Scott and state Rep. Josh Cutler, D-Duxbury — who had also attended events at senior centers in Duxbury and Pembroke throughout the day.

Cutler quoted an Asian proverb, “The best day to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The next best day is today,” as he spoke briefly. “As we stand here in front of the senior center/library, an inter-generational home, it’s a very appropriate place and setting to have this tree that will provide shade for our future generations,” he added.

Cutler also presented a state flag that had been flown at the State House to commemorate the day.

Scott presented a proclamation from the Board of Selectmen, which noted Arbor Day’s beginnings in 1872 by the Nebraska Board of Agriculture.

“Trees can help prevent erosion of our precious topsoil by wind and water, cut heating and cooling costs, moderate the temperature, clean the air, produce life-giving oxygen and provide habitat for wildlife,” Scott read. “Trees in our town increase property values, enhance the economic vitality of the business areas and beautify our community.”

The proclamation urges residents to work toward protecting trees and woodlands and to plant trees to “gladden the heart, and promote the wellbeing of future generations.”

The Toll House cookie is now the subject of a children’s book currently in preorder status and due for publication in June.

“We’re getting excited because [publication] is getting close,” Whitman native and author Kathy Teahan said Monday. “It’s just such a huge part of the history of Whitman and Ruth Wakefield is such an amazing woman for fulfilling her dreams.”

Based on the true story of how Wakefield created the now-famous cookie at the Toll House Restaurant, “The Cookie Loved ’Round the World” relates “how … a cookie took hold of the people of Whitman, the state of Massachusetts, and the rest of the country,” according to the presale page of East Bridgewater-based SDP Publishing Solutions (sdppublishingsolutions.com/bookstore).

A portion of the sales will be donated to groups dedicated to fighting world hunger, but Teahan has not yet decided which ones.

“We are blessed to have so much food, for the most part, in this country, but there are still a lot of people struggling both here and all over the world,” she said, adding her book touches on the issue in places. “I’m hoping to educate kids and have some of the money from the profits go toward helping that issue.”

Teahan said she wrote the book to inspire young people to follow their dreams.

“The story about Ruth Wakefield and her cookie expresses how hard work and perseverance can make good things happen,” she said.

Teahan said the way the cookie, included in packages from home to overseas troops during WW II, was inspiring in the way it became an international hit.

A retired teacher and state legislator, Teahan worked as a salad girl at the Toll House Restaurant after the Wakefields sold the restaurant — one of her summer jobs to pay for college. Two of her aunts had also worked there and Teahan uses one of them as the book’s narrator.

She has always been interested in writing, having her eighth-grade classes write picture books for third-graders during her teaching days at the Gordon Mitchell Middle School in East Bridgewater. Teahan also taught English at Whitman-Hanson Regional High School.

Teahan began work on the book by “jotting down things that I knew” and doing online research. John Campbell and the Whitman Historical Society and former Toll House waitresses were also key resources.

Drawing conclusions

The book is illustrated by former Express graphic designer Larisa Hart of Duxbury. It is Hart’s first outing as a book illustrator but says it won’t be her last.

Brimming with ideas for her own book eventually, Hart says she’d take on more projects like this one “in a heartbeat” and related how the opportunity came about.

“Kathy came into the office one day,” Hart recalled. “I’m not sure how she met [Express Newspapers owner-publisher] Deb [Anderson], but she knew Deb and she was saying she needed an illustrator for the book.”

The plan was that Teahan’s son, Bob, would illustrate. When his work schedule interfered, she needed a new illustrator and mentioned it to Anderson while the two were discussing plans for their 50th high school reunion. Teahan and Anderson graduated W-H together in 1965.

“I mentioned that my son wasn’t going to finish the illustrating process because he didn’t have time,” Tehan said.

Anderson knew that Hart was also an artist and suggested her to Teahan, a suggestion Hart says changed her life. After Hart sent some samples of her work to be reviewed by Teahan and the book editor, she started a new artistic adventure in which she had to translate the story to full-color drawings.

“I really loved her work,” Teahan said of sample sketches Hart provided for her to review. “She’s such a good person and her pictures are wonderful.”

Hart said the author and editors provided direction, which she let “steep” to help her  figure out how to incorporate the directives into a picture.

“Each illustration goes through almost seven phases starting from a thumbnail sketch and different sketches to line art and to colored art,” she said of the 16 illustrations she did. “It was pretty intensive.”

While illustrating the book, she was also starting a very technically exacting new job.

“It was a lot of work, but it was well worth it,” Hart said. “I got better and was more confident as I went along on each of the pictures, so it’s been amazing.”

It has also translated into a new skill for its illustrator.

The Wacom tablet on which she is working, allows Hart to paint in images with a pressure-sensitive stylus for a watercolor effect.

“I’m able to make a realistic-looking watercolor painting using layers and layers of color in the illustration,” she said. “I’ve [also] worked with editors before, but not as critiquing my art — they’re lovely to work with and Kathy has been so gracious, so supportive.”

Teahan is self-publishing through SDP Publishing Solutions because she had doubts about the potential popularity of the book, but added the initial feedback she’s been getting is encouraging.

“I feel like it was meant to be,” Teahan said. “Our history for such a long time didn’t include the women who made such a huge impact and did so many outstanding things.”

Teahan, who now lives in Harwichport, is also planning a memoir of her term as a state legislator and other children’s books as future projects.

HANSON — “It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents …” is the famously bad opening phrase of English novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s 1830 melodrama “Paul Clifford.”

The evening of Thursday, April 6 was just that, however  — and the perfect setting for a tale of a true-life 1874 triple murder in Halifax, and the Hanson man hanged for that crime.

Retired Boston Police Chief of Detectives John F. Gallagher spoke to members and guests of the Hanson Historical Society on his new book, “A Monument to Her Grief: the Sturtevant Murders of Halifax, Massachusetts.”  A smoky fire from the historic Schoolhouse No. 4 woodstove and a heavy thunderstorm punctuated Gallagher’s tale of the deaths of brothers Thomas and Simeon Sturtevant and their unmarried cousin and housekeeper Mary Buckley on Feb. 15, 1874.

“This is a perfect night to talk about murder, there’s lightning, it’s gray and gloomy, said Gallagher, who served the Boston Police Department for 30 years.

“It was an interesting career. I loved it — [but] I don’t miss it,” he said.

A Hanover resident, he began researching murders or suspected murders in the area as a retirement project, which eventually led him to the conclusion that there were books to be written on the subject. His first two books were: “Murder on Broadway: A History of Homicide in Hanover” and “Arsenic in Assinippi: The Trial of Jennie May Eaton for the Murder of her Husband Rear Adm. Joseph Eaton.”

Gallagher has also done some post-9/11 security consulting and private investigative work and genealogy since retiring.

“I love local history,” he said, noting a picture in the Arcadia local history book series on Hanover with the notation “three Irishmen shot here by Seth Perry in 1845” captured his interest and launched his writing career.

“All of this [writing] work is so interesting to me because it’s like detective work,” he said. “You have to uncover all the facts, and I do my very best to make sure that I have a very true, factual story.”

He lists his source material at the end of each book.

Besides Internet research, Gallagher used newspapers, libraries, historical societies, genealogy, and original investigative materials for which the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Department granted him access. His research also included the police investigative skills and court processes of the 1870s.

“They opened up all their old records,” he said of the Sheriff’s Dept. “They actually had the booking sheets of [William] Sturtevant when he was arrested.”

His book also includes crime scene photographs.

Nearly everyone in the room was familiar — and fascinated — by the story of the Sturtevant murders. At a Halifax book-signing when the new book was published, 15 descendants of the Sturtevant family attended.

The crime

William Sturtevant, a reform school inmate as a youth and Navy deserter during the Civil War, was married with one child and another on the way at the time of his crime. The family lived at 0 High St., Hanson.

“I was trying to find out who lived at 0 High St. tonight and invite them,” said Historical Society Co-president John Norton, but that information was not available in the town Street List.

At about 7:30 p.m., on the cold Sunday night of Feb. 15, 1874, William walked four and a half miles from his home via Elm Street, through a wooded path to the rear of his grand uncles’ home in Halifax. Along the way, he had removed a loose wooden stake from a hay cart.

“People, in those days, used to walk everywhere,” Gallagher said. “He used to walk to work in South Abington and that’s a four-mile walk.”

The job at a shoe factory was not enough to pay William Sturtevant’s debts and he knew his well-off grand uncles did not trust banks and kept a lot of money in their Halifax house. Newspaper accounts at the time indicated there was friction between William Sturtevant and the uncles, but it is thought that William had sought to borrow money from the old men and was turned down.

Gallagher believes William Sturtevant knew his relatives went to a barn every day at 9 p.m. to feed the cows and he encountered his uncle Thomas, who was on his way to do that — William hit him over the back of the head with the wooden stake. Simeon, who was in bed as he is thought to have had an illness similar to Alzheimer’s, was hit eight or nine times with the club.

“As soon as I saw that, I said this is not a crime about robbery, there’s more to this than meets the eye,” Gallagher said.

William Sturtevant then rifled through a nearby sitting room and stole some money, including uncirculated Civil War scrip from 1863. Mary was killed on his way out of the house.

The house, built in 1715, still stands and has been restored by a Bridgewater State University art professor and his wife, who welcomed Gallagher into their home to look around.

William Sturtevant spent some of that 1863 scrip at a store near his home in Hanson and he had dropped some along the path in the woods, Gallagher said, noting the circumstantial evidence was strong enough for a conviction.

“It’s dark history, but it’s history nonetheless, and I think it shapes our communities,” Gallagher said.  “The more we know about our community and where we came from, I think, the better it is.”

“If your nephew asks you for money, let him have it,” one woman quipped.

The uncles, buried in Thompson Cemetery, Halifax lie beneath headstones reading “Murdered” with their killer buried in an unmarked plot next to them after his execution, to which tickets had to be issued due to the demand to witness the event.

“Now that I’ve told you the whole story, you don’t have to buy the book,” Gallagher joked. He signed books for those who purchased copies.

Whitman native and Marine Corps 1st Lt. Daniel J. Rogers, now serving a deployment in Okinawa, Japan since Feb. 12, gave a brief interview to the Whitman-Hanson Express Friday, March 24 on his experiences in the Corps through the offices of Defense Media Activity (DMA).

A Department of Defense agency, DMA is a direct line of communication for news and information to U.S. forces deployed worldwide, on land, sea and air. It presents news, information and entertainment through media outlets, including radio, TV, Internet, print media and emerging media technologies. DMA broadcasts radio and television to forces in 177 countries and 279 Navy ships at sea with Department-specific news and information programming.

Lt. Rogers spoke via telephone-Skype connection arranged by the DMA at 8 p.m. Okinawa time (7 a.m. locally) after a long day of work.

He is a 2010 graduate of WHRHS and went on to study Finance at Norwich University in Vermont. His two brothers — Mark, a 2013 W-H grad, and Luke, a 2016 graduate — are also serving in the Marine Corps, as did Lt. Rogers’ father and “a few uncles and cousins” have also served their country as Marines.

“I guess it does kind of seem like a trend at this point,” he said.

Q: How long have you been in the Corps?

A: “I have been in for almost three years, now.”

Q: Why did you decide to join?

A: “Growing up, I would see a lot of pictures of my family members that were in the Marine Corps before me, and I always knew it was something that I wanted to do for a multitude of different reasons. When I became closer to graduating high school, I was looking into my options there and my parents encouraged me to apply for an NROTC scholarship to be an officer.

“I applied for an NROTC scholarship and got it, so I went to school for four years and I commissioned as a second lieutenant in May of 2014. … I went to [Officer Candidate School] the summer between my junior and senior year [at Norwich].”

Q: How does your finance major enter into the MOS (military occupational specialty) in which you now work?

A: “It definitely doesn’t directly relate — I’m an infantry officer [platoon leader] right now, but believe it or not there are times when I do use some of the things that I learned at Norwich.”

Q: How so?

A: “Being a platoon commander, you’re definitely in charge, or responsible I should say, for all aspects of your Marines’ lives — whether it be training them to be ready for combat or making sure that they’re set to make responsible decisions in their personal lives. Those are all things I have to worry about, so when the time does come, and it is time for us to do our job, they are ready — full mind, body, training — ready to go. Finance doesn’t really sound like it relates, but being able to talk to my Marines about things like where they stand financially, how they’re doing and some good decisions that they could be making.

“Like anything, if you’re having problems back home, it will affect you at work, so that’s one more thing I can help them with so we can all be ready.”

Q: What are some of the current projects you can speak to?

A: “We’re forward deployed here. Big-picture, it’s to maintain security across the Pacific. We’re a force in readiness out here in case some type of conflict or crisis does arise. We’re also strengthening our relationship with our allies out here, training with them and enhancing our capabilities to work together.

Q: What is Okinawa like and have you had much interaction with its people?

A: “It’s a beautiful island, the beaches are unbelievable when we do get to go. It’s a very small island — it’s only 60-something miles long and 17 miles at its widest point. So the dominating things are the Marine and Air Force bases here.

“It does have a very rich culture, an offshoot of Japanese culture, so there’s a lot to explore if you have the time to do so. Right now, we’re working six days a week, but on the seventh we do get the opportunity to go out in town and kind of explore and have some time to try the local food, meet the local people and see the sights.”

Q: Other places you’ve been able to experience?

A: “This past spring we were in BALTOPS, which stands for Baltic Operations, and we did something similar to this where we went out and trained with a lot of our partner nations in Sweden, Finland and Poland. We also got to get off the ship and explore in Estonia, the Netherlands, Norway and Iceland. I got to see a lot of countries and meet a lot of people that I never would have been able to experience outside of the Marine Corps.”

Q: Are you planning on making military service your career?

A: “It’s too early to tell right now, but I’m definitely enjoying it now.”

Q: Any advice to youth considering military service?

A: “I definitely encourage it and would tell them to keep working hard where they’re at and, once they do make a decision to do whatever they do, give it everything they have. Go in with an open mind and soak in everything that you can, learn as much as you can and do the best that you can.”

Q: Any foreign language you’d recommend studying?

A: “Now that I’ve been through seven countries in Europe and we’re going to be passing around Southeast Asia, too, it seems almost any language will be able to help you out. You never know where you’re going to go. The Marine Corps is ready to go anywhere in the world at a moment’s notice, so any language or experience you can bring to the table, there will definitely be a time and place where we could use it.”

Q: What do you miss most about Whitman?

A: “It’s actually in Hanson — I’d have to say Damien’s pizza on Route 58. You’ve got to love the local watering hole. I still argue  with people that that’s the best pizza in the world, right there.”

Q: How can people best support deployed troops? Care packages you’d like to receive?

A: “Everyone likes different things. I guess it kind of depends on what that person misses from home. We have a lot of access to any resources we might need, so for those who get homesick, if their families send them small momentos … You’ve got to keep them grounded to back home, but also keep their head focused over here, as well.”

The School Committee voted unanimously on Wednesday, March 15 to certify a $48.9 million budget for fiscal 2018. The budget is 4 percent higher than fiscal 2017, and assessments for the towns have been certified at a 11.5 percent increase.

It started out with a $2.8 million gap before the insurance increases, which would have brought the gap to $2.9 million.

The School Committee had closed the budget gap to $1.9 million on Feb. 15, with a vote to transfer $750,000 from its excess and deficiency account. A decision to share utilities costs with the self-funded Food Services Department outside the operating budget also brought in $50,000 and interest-bearing accounts also yielded $13,000 before the insurance rate hike voted by the Mayflower Municipal Health Group steering committee on March 7 added just over $245,000 to the deficit, according to District Business Services Director Christine Suckow.

The gap now stands at $2.1 million with increases largely in contractual obligations, state retirement assessments, insurance rates, transportation costs and other contracts.

The  reduction of state per-pupil reimbursement to $20 in the governor’s budget also cut $135,000, according to School Committee Chairman Bob Hayes.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Ruth Gilbert-Whitner said the level-service budget also includes the elimination of the position of Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning.

Whitman Finance Committee Chairman Michael Minchello said at that meeting that it appeared any assessment increase over 4 percent would be tight. Hanson has said they can support a 6.5-percent increase.

“Right now, I don’t know where that would come from,” he said.

“Respectfully, then, get creative,” said School Committee member Alexandra Taylor of Whitman. “We need it. This is not, we would like it. … This is just for level-service.”

She argued that, “For years, every other department in town has been getting funded for what they need” while the school district has not.

Whitman Town Administrator Frank Lynam, meanwhile, addressed Taylor’s comments as well as the “elephant in the room.”

According to Lynam, Whitman has only added one half-time employee in 10 years. Also, unlike the school department, towns can’t increase revenue by assessing someone else. Town revenue comes only from taxes and fees or state funding.

“The biggest single problem the towns are facing right now is the school budget is not sustainable,” Lynam said. “When you’re talking about a 4-percent increase in your budget, it’s all coming from the towns.”

He said the increase being requested would mean eliminating departments — including some library and senior services — if it were taken out of town budgets, and drastically cutting police and fire budgets. Lynam said he is not certain what number Whitman can support toward the schools, but that the town will do whatever it can.

“I think it’s time that people consider very seriously what kind of community they want to be, and how much they’re willing to support that,” he said. “The support is only going to come from the community.”

A handful of parents read from prepared statements in support of the budget and urged residents to join their Whitman-Hanson Supporters of Schools Facebook page and to follow through by voting for school funding.

“At seventh from the bottom of over 320 school districts in the state, this administration can’t do any more to make up for the fact that we simply do not spend enough locally on our schools,” said Hanson resident Lisa Ryan of Birchbark Drive.

“I want to be taxed, I want to help the town … not just the schools, but the whole community,” said a Whitman resident who moved to town for the quality schools.

“Up until last year … I believed all children in the same school received the same education,” said Dawn Byers of Russell Road in Whitman, whose daughter is one of only 30 percent of Whitman Middle School to qualify for Spanish class because budget constraints limit enrollment to those with high enough grades and test scores. “This year, 287 seventh- and eight-grade students at Whitman Middle School do not have the same foreign language opportunity that my daughter has. … This is a clear example of the consequences of low funding.”

A level-service budget will not chage that, said Byers, who said all middle school students should have the opportunity to study a foreign language.

“We own this,” she said. “Collectively as a community, taxpayers bear the responsibility for not adequately funding our  schools with local tax dollars.”

School Committee member Dan Cullity also noted the state expects the two towns to make more progress toward meeting the target share of budget contributions over the minimum they now fund.

In other business, a quartet of second-grade students from Marie Sheehan’s class at Duval Elementary School in Whitman joined Sheehan and Science Curriculum Coordinator Mark Stephansky to outline what they are learning in the Know Atom science curriculum and how $45,000 for consumable classroom materials included in the operating budget are used. Know Atom, with curriculum and professional development start-up costs funded by grants of more than $300,000 from the Gelfand Foundation was started at the second-grade level in district schools. It now extends through grade five.

“This year we’ve tried to bring our students to the School Committee so that you can have a first-hand look at what our students do,” Gilbert-Whitner said in introducing the presentation. “As we make decisions about our schools, it’s always important that we remain student-centered.”

The children, giving their first names — Adam, Neve, Gabrielle and Brendan — read their reports as Stephansky held up examples of their classroom projects on habitat as well as flower and owl pellet dissection.

“You’re supporting us — you are voting to support all of the programs that these kids need — we thought you’d like to see it first-hand,” Duval Principal Julie McKillop said.

“This is a student-centered curriculum,” Sheehan said.

“They are learning engineering and science practices which are part of our new standards in Massachusetts and they are loving it along the way,” Stephansky said.

HANSON — Progress reports on building razing and raising projects, were discussed at the Board of Selectmen’s Feb. 28 meeting.

Town Administrator Michael McCue reported that removal of asbestos and other hazardous materials at the former Plymouth County Hospital building is about 80-percent complete, and Selectman Bill Scott reported on progress of the Highway Building Committee.

The PCH building tear-down is expected to take place beginning this Friday, March 10, after the Building Department issues a full demolition permit. Preliminary work was expected to begin March 1.

In the meantime, a surveillance camera has been placed at the site to monitor against further trespassing incidents for safety and liability reasons. McCue, police and demolition contractor have access to the camera feed.

The cameras were bought with funds already approved under the bond issue for the project.

Scott reported that he had received confirmation on the scheduling of cleanup at the Lite Control property ahead of construction of a new highway facility there.

“The only thing they have left to do is the actual planting to recreate some of the conservation area,” he said. “They’ve had to wait to do that for spring.” The work is expected to be done sometime in April.

“That puts off any effort on our part to move forward any potential for an article to fund a highway facility down there, because they cannot turn the property over to us until such time as all of their permits have been honored and followed up,” Scott said.

Scott said the Highway Building Committee was disappointed to see the cost reach the $4.5-million range, but stressed the cost would also include the tear-down and cleanup of the old facility.

The cleanup at the Lite Control property, on the other hand, is complete, but that regulatory agencies such as DEP and the Corps of Engineers must give final approval before the site is turned over to the town.

“Obviously, we will not be able to move forward at this town meeting,” he said.

Selectman Kenny Mitchell, also a member of the Highway Building Committee, said the first price quote received on the project was “a lot more that $4.5 million.”

“It was closer to $7 million,” he said. “We worked hard, and by eliminating things … we got it down.”

Mitchell and Scott said an open house sometime in the spring is being considered to provide residents a chance to see conditions in the current facility. Scott noted that today’s bigger trucks won’t fit inside the current garage, but have to be stored in a repair shop bay.

Facilities for staff use are also less than desirable.

“Go in there — go use the men’s room,” Mitchell said. “You’ll be quite surprised. … I wouldn’t let my dog use the facilities over there.”

Selectman Bruce Young said the current buildings were WW II surplus, transported from Maine at no cost to the town.

Resident Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett asked if the Priority Repair Committee set up for school roof projects in 2014 could be expanded to assess the needs of other town buildings.

“I know why the focus was originally those two schools … but we own a lot of other buildings and, as we have seen, these have tended to go into disrepair and then they cost a lot of money,” she said. “I like the way the Priority Repair Committee is focused on repairs and nothing else.”

Young pointed out that members of the Priority Repair Committee are in the related trades and added that a town facilities manager would be an asset, perhaps as a shared position with another town through an inter-municiple agreement.

Selectmen Chairman James McGahan said FitzGerald-Kemmett raised a good point, recalling that former Town Administrator Ron San Angelo had composed a facilities report recommending a checklist on repair needs. Scott also indicated that former Selectman Jim Egan had recommended a facilities management company or team consult on such projects.

“It never really got any traction, but this feeds into exactly what you’re saying,” Scott said of FitzGerald-Kemmett’s suggestion. “We’ve got to take care of these buildings, otherwise we’ll be  faced with similar situations like we are with our schools.”

Egan said he had advocated was a part-time, town-funded facilities management position to track the maintenance needs of all town buildings to keep ahead of problems.

“It didn’t materialize simply because we didn’t have the money,” he said. “It was discussed at the board level, but we did not present it to Town Meeting, again, because we were in the kind of fiscal straits that were not conducive to expanding our personnel.”

Selectmen also began kicking around the implications of any School Department closing of Maquan School, arguing that in such a case a tear-down or an outright sale of the building might be among the best options for the town, financially.

HANSON — For historian Stephen Puleo, the story format is key in relating the events of our past.

“You try to put sources together to build your narrative,” he said after a Hanson resident remarked his books read like novels. “I take that as a compliment. I think that’s how history should be written and taught. The second part of that word, history, is ‘story.’ It’s people we are writing about, and they have fears and they have families.”

His narrative style — honed in his previous five books on the history of Boston, its Italian community and Great Molasses Flood, the caning of Sen. Charles Sumner on the floor of the U.S. Senate in the lead-up to the Civil War and U.S. Navy heroism during the 1940s Battle of the Atlantic — has lately brought to life the work to safeguard America’s founding documents during World War II.

“I want you to learn history despite yourself, because you’re so engrossed in the story,” he said during Sunday, Feb. 19, talk at Hanson Public Library on that new book, “American Treasures: The Secret Effort to Save the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Gettysburg Address,” [2016, St. Martin’s Press, hardcover, 400 pages, $28.99].

The talk, sponsored by the Hanson Library Foundation, was originally planned for Feb. 12, but had been postponed due to a snowstorm. A question and answer period and book signing followed Puleo’s talk.

“These documents were not a foregone conclusion,” he said of the “American Treasures.” “They were not predestined, they were not preordained. They were hard to come by.”

The American Revolution was only favored outright by a third of colonists, the Constitution was the product of careful negotiation and compromise, and Lincoln almost passed up the invitation to speak at the dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg on Nov. 19, 1863.

“They’re certainly artifacts,” he said. “They’re also symbols, very important symbols. … The lights are low [in the National Archives rotunda today]. The guards are there. You can hear footfalls walking around. Even kids recognize the symbolic shrine of this place.”

“American Treasures’” 2016 publication coincided with the 240th anniversary year of the Declaration of Independence and this year marks the 230th anniversary of the U.S. Constitution, which, as Puleo puts it, is with us every single day.

“When you think about it, the history of these documents is really the history of the United States of America,” he said. “Ours is the first constitutional republic that can trace its founding back to a single document — the Declaration of Independence.”

Puleo’s narrative intertwines the narratives of the largest relocation of historic documents in U.S. history with the origins of the book’s three featured documents.

“To do that right, I needed to go back into time and look at a couple things — one was the creation of these documents and the ideas embodied in them, and two, a couple of the efforts that were made throughout our history to preserve and save these documents,” Puleo said of the reason for safeguarding the documents during WWII.

From December 1941 to about April 1942, federal officials moved 5,000 boxes of precious documents out of Washington, D.C., to secret locations out of concern over possible German bombing or sabotage. The Magna Carta, which had been on display at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York City, was also stored with the three American Treasures at the Fort Knox, Ky., federal gold depository for the duration of the war at the request of the British government.

The remaining works were identified as irreplaceable and essential to American democracy, triaged into six categories, cataloged, packed up and stored at the Virginia Military Institute; the University of Virginia at Charlottesville; Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va., and Dennison University in Granville, Ohio.

“It would be devastating if they were lost,” he said of the founding documents. “We were doing this to preserve our national morale. They started to think about this in the fall of 1940, about a year before Pearl Harbor.”

England had already lost millions of documents to firestorms caused by incendiary bombs dropped by the Germans during the Battle of Britain. German troops also destroyed millions of books and artifacts across Europe.

“We were watching this,” Puleo said.

Germany’s wolf packs of submarines were also patrolling with impunity off the east coast of the United States in the early years of the war.

By 1943, however, things were going well enough to bring the Declaration out of hiding long enough for the dedication of the Jefferson Memorial. But when it was over, back it went.

The current political climate prompted a question after the talk of Puleo’s opinion, as a historian, whether he views the situation with any trepidation regarding the future of the Constitution.

“I’m very much the optimist on this,” he said. “One of the things about studying history is it does give you a little perspective — a way to be at arm’s length sometimes. If you look through American history … it’s often like this and that’s sometimes the way that democracy goes. The things that have held us together, in my view, are those documents. That’s where I take my optimism.”

He said there have been several periods in American history that have been far worse.

A Boston-area resident, Puleo has also been a teacher as well as a newspaper reporter, public speaker and communications professional. He has also taught at Suffolk University. A portion of his book proceeds benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

WHITMAN — It’s a family business where customers have become a part of the family.

Trio Café owners Ilian and Elena Tchourilkov are celebrating their business’10th anniversary year — since opening in November 2006. Many of their customers have ordered Trio catering services for everything from baby showers to funerals, corporate events to staff lunches.

“I know that 10 years is not that long to be in business,” Ilian said. “On the other hand, for one particular family we did a christening for their daughter, graduation parties [from both high school and college] and then we did a baby shower.”

Tears still come to Elena’s eyes as she thinks of customer-friends who have passed away years ago.

Family sticks with you.

“We become attached to them,” she said. “That’s life, it’s part of everything.”

The couple, who also owns a Trio Café in Boston, emigrated from Bulgaria 20 years ago, and moved to Whitman 12 years ago when their daughter was 2 — drawn to the community and schools.

Now she, like a handful of other WHRHS students, works in her parents’ café where the Tchourilkovs employ a staff of six plus some part-time staff. Ilian said the shop’s unusual family-oriented hours have made Trio’s a good place for students to work. Their Boston shop is open from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. and the Whitman shop closes at 4 p.m.

The small business is also a big hit with some very big companies, incluing Google, Microsoft, GoDaddy and Mass. General, as well as local businesses such as Mutual Bank, Tama  Dojo and Bike Barn.

Catering is their main focus right now, and accounts for its interesting customer base.

“For some reason, we have different types of customers,” Ilian said. “Monday through Friday, we have the big corporations, we get the offices and Saturday and Sunday its birthdays, christenings and family parties.”

The two locations work closely together, as do the Tchourilkovs. Ilian is in the Boston store on weekdays, starting as early as 4:30 a.m.

“We could extend hours, but family is family, so you don’t want to overdo it,” he said. “Up until we get 24 hours busy, there is always room to grow. We try to keep it manageable.”

That was part of the reason for a shift of focus to the catering end of things, with only Whitman offering room for a small dine-in area — Boston offers only take-out and catering services.

They also continue to do the baking for tea cart services at a few Boston hotels.

“When we started the main idea was the bakery,” Elena said five years ago. “Then we started serving sandwiches and the menu is now a lot bigger. Slowly we added the catering service.”

The catering menu was increased in 2012 to offer a lot more choices, both in dishes and how — and how big — they could be prepared.

Organization is a vital skill in the business, and there are some plans for changing a few things. Ilian’s Christmas present figures in to that — new top of the line coffee machines and grinders.

“I want to sell Starbucks coffee,” he said, aiming to become a destination for fine coffee. Trio used to sell Lavazza coffees, but the importing system from Italy was cumbersome. If there is a problem for them to overcome, its that the business is growing but the building is not.

The main goal for the future, however, is to keep up the good work with good food — no additives are used.

“We try to be more efficient — to be faster and more accurate,” he said. The pastry shelves were relocated twice before being removed and ice cream is no longer offered.

Unlike  a lot of area eateries, Trio does not go in for constant coupon deals.

“There is no hidden cost,” he said. “We think it’s fair pricing and there’s no reason for games.”

“If people come back, that means we’re doing a good job,” Elena said, adding it is not usual to see catering clients order small portions as new customers, then placing big orders after they’ve tried it.

Community participation is also important, Ilian said.

Trio continues to donate food and/or cater for events such as the Friends of Whitman Park wine tasting, the DFS A Taste of Whitman & Hanson, events for veterans groups, the Knights of Columbus and other events.

“I don’t remember saying no,” he said. “It’s a nice community, it’s a small town.”