HANSON – The Select Board on Tuesday, Feb. 11 voted 3-1, with Ed Heal against, to sign an MBTA Communities Action Plan as requested by the state, rather than as a signal of approval.
The Board voted to support the action plan, to bring Hanson into interim compliance with the MBTA law through July.
“Please don’t rely on the Planning Board, the Zoning Board or the Select Board only to fight this fight,” said Planning Board Chair Joe Campbell. “Your voice matters when you contact your legislator.”
Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett noted the General Court is taking public comment.
“They absolutely have to be vocal because our representatives have 10 people behind them, it means nothing,” Campbell said. “When they’ve got 5,000 people behind them, it means a lot.”
Town Planner Anthony DeFrias reminded the board where the legislation sits now.
“As a result of the [Supreme Judicial] Court actions, what’s happening now is that there are emergency guidelines in effect for 90 days,” he said. “Non-compliant towns are required to file an action plan by Feb. 13 to be in interim compliance, with a deadline of July 14 to be in full compliance.”
He met with the Select Board two weeks ago when Board members indicated they were feeling that would be the action they would accept, but no formal vote was taken, according to FitzGerald-Kemmett.
“That is not putting that on the Town Meeting warrant, that’s a separate discussion,” she reminded the board.
Since that meeting, state Rep. Ken Sweezey, R-Pembroke, has been able to connect with state officials on the two grants that had been pulled back from Hanson because it was not in compliance – one for $237,000 to clean up the Lite Control property and the other, for $70,000 was for a study of a property in the industrial park sought by the Economic Development Committee to determine the best use for it.
Because of a brownfields grant the town had been able to determine that there is contamination in one section of the land once owned by Lite Control.
“So, we’ve got answers, that’s great,” said FitzGerald-Kemmett. “The downside of that is we’ve got answers. … Now that we know there’s contamination, we have to take action.”
She said the town couldn’t hide from that responsibility because they own the property now. There’s no turning to Lite Control [or the parent company] for assistance. The $237,000 grant DeFrias sought was based on the estimate for the cleanup.
“Because we’re in this limbo-land between now and July, we would be considered as having interim compliance if we file an action plan,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. That in turn could grease the wheels of returning the grants.
DeFrias said he has filled out the online form, but a letter from the Board is also required stating that is their full intention for the town administrator to take necessary action to bring zoning into compliance with all requirements of MGL Ch. 40A, Sec. 3A and 1760CMR 72 to a vote of the municipality’s legislative body in the timeframe required by the action plan, and to submit a district compliance application to EOHLC (Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities) no later than July 14.
“I don’t want us to lose the money,” DeFrias said, noting a concern he has. “We’ve had some developments through the Planning Board,” which had met on Monday, Feb. 10 and he had asked them if they were interested in recommending the zoning amendment, the MBTA zoning and the overlay district.
“The Planning Board made no motion, so they will not be bringing that proposal before the Select Board,” he said. “There are multiple entities that can propose a zoning bylaw, the Planning Board being one of them. The Select Board, the Zoning Board, 10 citizens, because there would be May Town Meeting, and the Regional Planning Agency.”
It would still have to go back to the Planning Board for a public hearing, because that is part of the process, according to DeFrias.
“My concern, and this came to me this afternoon, is if we’re putting forward this statement, and we’re getting money, I don’t want us to get afoul of the law,” he said. “I’m wondering if we shouldn’t ask the question of town counsel – if we put this in, and we’re not going to comply – are we, in essence, defrauding the state?”
FitzGerald-Kemmett said the Board hadn’t discussed it.
Select Board Vice Chair Ann Rein said she spoke with someone over the weekend, whose question was how far apart are officials on the issue, if the Board was to do its own zoning decisions.
“How far apart would we be from the MBTA desires?” Rein said the person asked.
“I know this is killing you,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
“I don’t want to comply with the MBTA,” Rein said.
Rein and FitzGerald-Kemmett were trying to get at whether the town would be considered in compliance if town officials came up with its own overlay district allowing multi-family housing where we were encouraging local development.
“Where WE say where the district is going to be,” Rein said.
FitzGerald-Kemmett suggested putting MBTA aside and thinking about what the town wants vs what they are being required to do.
“I think that’s an interesting concept.” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
“I don’t like any of it, but what are you going to do?” Rein replied. “Whether we like it or not, things are going to develop. I just do not want anybody from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts telling us what t do.”
Planning Board Chair Joe Campbell said Hanson’s Town Planner constantly thinks of the betterment of the town solely, and DeFrias has done a wonderful job creating multiple projects, things that the town could have.
“The difference here is, halfway through his tenure, the state came in and said, ‘But we also want you to do this, not only to our town, but every town that’s affected by MBTA,’” Campbell said. “We had plenty of asks on the Planning Board side because we know the difficulties of where Our MBTA is.”
Campbell said every alternative concept they presented Hanson’s adjusted plans they were rejected.
“That’s not their interest,” he said. “They’re trying to solve a problem, I assume is to do with rideability and costs for the MBTA and they’re using this as a way to do that.”
He also stressed that the headache resulting from the plan was also dealt with by the Baker administration, which is a major waste of time for town officials.
Town Administrator Lisa Green said she would be happy to ask about what the town is being told to do, and if there is any leeway, based on Campell’s explanation.
Board member Joe Weeks said the first hurdle is determining the will of the board, in light of the fact that they have no idea what a future board is going to say.
“This has nothing to do with strategy, it’s literally what we have in front of us right now,” Weeks said.
Transitions
Town Clerk Elizabeth Sloan met with the Select Board to solidify her exit strategy as she retires at the end of her term following the May Town Election. Sloan has served as Town Clerk for 15 years and had been an assistant Town Clerk for eight years before that.
“I am retiring,” she said. “I am not pulling papers to run for my position, so whoever’s coming in is going to be brand spanking new.”
Mass. General Law outlines that the new town clerk will not start work for seven days following election, so Sloan will not be working after May 17, but she left it up to the Select Board, if they wanted her to stay on to smooth the transition. If they do, it will require a reserve funds transfer or place an article before the special Town Meeting.
“Of course, it’s up to you how long you want the transition to be,” Sloan said. “Do you just want me to stay another week, would you like me to stay a little longer? It’s up to you.”
FitzGerald-Kemmett favored a specific article in the special Town Meeting warrant for the sake of transparency.
“Since we’ve got the luxury of being able to do that, because it’s just prior to the transition, and as far as I’m concerned, I’d like to build in [a transition period] – if we get somebody right off the street, which is likely, because it has to be a resident of Hanson, and as far as I know, we haven’t got a million Beth Sloans running around,” she said, asking
Sloan for her estimation of a helpful transition period. Sloan said she favored an intensive week of training and then as much of a phase-out period as the Select Board recommends. Three days a week, a number of hours a day or whatever they think would work.
“I just want to have a retirement date, so I can say I am not longer an employee of the Town of Hanson as of this date,” Sloan said.
Green said she spoke with Town Accountant Eric Kinsherf and he said, because the town already has the money is already approved in the reserve fund, that is probably a better way to go.
“We just have to work with our Town Clerk, Ms. Sloan, and then we can put in for the line-item transfer through the Finance Committee,” Green said. The town could then seek reimbursement for the amount transferred at Town Meeting.
“Of course, we want to keep you forever, but we know people have lives and we must move on, but we thank you sincerely for everything that you’ve done,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “You’ve been incredibly supportive and helpful.” She warned Sloan, however, that she would not be able to escape a more formal thank you, despite the “shooting from the hip thank you” the Select Board members offered Tuesday.
Hanson groups co-host business summit
HANSON – When the going gets tough, Americans have long found success in joining forces to meet the challenge.
Unions have provided that for laborers of nearly every stripe, chambers of commerce have represented the interests of the business communities at large and even the National Grange, and its local granges, was founded in the 1860s to provide a cultural outlet and work to improve quality of life in rural America, as well as helping farmers in some areas pool their finances to cooperatively purchase needed equipment.
Hanson businesses, may be able to benefit from that outlook, if not the same kind of practices, when they come together from 5:30 to 8 p.m., on Thursday, Feb. 27, for the inaugural Hanson Business Summit.
It’s certainly the intent.
“We’re trying to connect businesses with the resources they need, but may not know how to get in touch with,” said Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett, who chairs the Economic Development Committee and the Hanson Business Network and is chair of the Hanson Select Board, noting that, among groups attending for that purpose is Granite State Development and representatives from local and state government.
Government personnel will be able to answer questions about permitting and other regulatory requirements.
Ernie Foster, of Webster Printing, will be the keynote speaker addressing the session on, “Why he loves Hanson to do business in, why he’s stayed in Hanson and why he’s grown his business in Hanson,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “We’re going to have people that are [human resources] experts coming to talk to us, we’re going to have someone who’s a social media expert come and tell us how to use social media effectively – it’s going to be a mix of all kinds of resources for people.”
The Economic Development Committee is hosting the event and has been reaching out to the Hanson Business Network to encourage business owners and leaders to attend through emails to contact, mailed flyers, newspaper ads – and FitzGerald-Kemmett said the hope is that the town’s business community RSVPs, so they have an accurate headcount on how many people to set up for, as refreshments will also be provided.
“I think it just came about naturally,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said about the genesis of the event. “The Economic Development Committee was talking about what we could do to support businesses and, at the same time, I’m part of the Hanson Business Network and we were talking about how we could do that, and I don’t really know who came up with the idea for this summit, but I liked the idea of some kind of networking event.”
Once the idea was on the table, regardless of its pedigree, the members of both groups soon got down to discussing what they’d like it to look like. The program on which they settled was a short program of speakers followed by break-out sessions.
“It’s our first one, so I’m really hoping that we get people to attend,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “It’s tricky, though, when people are self-employed, getting anyone to do something after-hours [is difficult].”
Whitman plans a 150th birthday
WHITMAN – The answer to the question above is — you throw an awesome party.
By the time Whitman’s bicentennial year rolls around on March 4 2075, Richard Rosen will have left the town a successful blueprint for a proper celebration of community.
Rosen, who has chaired the committees that planned 20 years of WinterFests, two years of New Years Eve Cookie Drops and the town’s 125th anniversary (a quasquicentennial), has once again answered the call to be Whitman’s community party planner.
“It’s going to be a wonderful experience for the town of Whitman for a couple of months,” Rosen says.
As Whitman 150 Committee Chair, Rosen updated the Select Board, Tuesday, Feb. 4 on plans and preparations for the town’s sesquicentennial (150-year) celebration this spring.
A central part of the events is the burial of a time capsule to be reopened in 50 years. The capsule buried on the Town Hall front lawn during 125th anniversary celebrations in 2000, is scheduled to be reopened in 2075.
That capsule, according to the Whitman Times at the time, contains police and fire badges, town reports, newspapers. They are seeking similar items, “fairly small in size to include in the new time capsule.
Rosen’s attention to detail has included asking the two men who supervised lowering of the last time capsule into the ground – former Fire Chief Timothy Grenno and past WinterFest Committee member Thomas Burnett – to do the honors again.
“I want the same two guys to lower the capsule 25 years later,” Rosen said this week.
That new time capsule, will be buried in a another area of Town Hall property on April 27.
“We did that 25 years ago, and I know where that capsule, so we’re going to bury this on the other side of the lawn,” he said.
NorthEaston Savings bank, a huge sponsor of the program – as they were 25 years ago – is paying for the time capsule itself and will serve as the drop-off point for anyone who wants to drop off something to be included in the time capsule, Rosen said, noting the bank’s Bedford and Auburn streets branch will be the location to bring in donations too be included.
“What we’re asking for is stuff to be included in the time capsule, really no bigger than a box of shoes or a Teddy bear,” Rosen said.
Rosen began his Feb. 4 presentation by thanking the Select Board for giving him and the committee the opportunity to plan the celebration, as well as the police and fire departments and the Department of Public Works “not for what they’ve done for us yet, but for what they will do in the future.”
“I also want to thank the town clerk [Dawn Varley],” he said. “She is also going to be of help in the future – she just doesn’t know it yet, and I want to thank her in advance.”
The Committee has been meeting for several months, and has also been meeting with the Historical Commission, according to Rosen.
“A lot of towns – and I think I’ve said this before when I do celebrations – do one or two events, and it’s all historical,” he said. “We decided that, what we want to do [was] the same thing we did 25 years ago – have a lot of events and make them fun.”
Rosen said his committee is working on the fun part, and the historical society is doing the historical part.
“It’s working our extremely well right now,” he said. “But there’s things to announce that we haven’t in the past.”
Among those departures from tradition are an April 5 dinner at the Spellman Center of Holy Ghost Church, to which he would like to sell a few hundred tickets, which are on sale now. Rosen pointed to the Spellman Center as an historic touchstone of the Whitman community.
Tickets are $50 each and are available at the Spellman Center, online or contact Rosen at his office at Rosen Realty 89 Temple St. Select Board member Shawn Kain asked if a link could be added to the town website, Whitman-ma.gov. Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter said it hadn’t been done yet, but it could be added.
Rosen joked that he is technologically challenged.
“I’m still trying to figure out a fax machine,” Rosen said.
“Me, too, that’s why I asked how to get the tickets,” chair Dr. Carl Kowalski said with a laugh.
On Whitman Day, June 14, a concert from 6:30 to 9 p.m., will be followed by fireworks will be held at Memorial Field
School children will also be involved in the events, Rosen said.
Younger children will be drawing something that makes Whitman a great place to live, while older students will be writing an essay of the same topic.
“We’ve reached out to the schools,” he added. “That’s going to be done in the classroom,” he said, noting that teachers will assist in the process of picking the winners. “There’s going to be winners in each class, from kindergarten to grade wight. Those will be put into the time capsule, and the winners from each grade will receive a bank book with $50 in it from Northeastern Savings Bank”
Rosen said in an aside, “They don’t give out savings bonds anymore.”
The children will also be asked to be in the parade.
“We are looking for anybody that wants to be in the parade, with the exception of political stuff, because we don’t want political stuff, although we will have a lot of politicians, I’m sure in the parade,” Rosen said. What the organizers are looking for are floats, Scout troops, bands, vintage cars and other groups usually seen in a parade.
Merchandise will be available to help fund the events, @whitman150years on Instagram, or via email at [email protected].
A new friend and a mystery
By Linda Ibbitson-Hurd
Special to the Express
[When last we met up with Linda and ner new friend, Linda, they were exploring her friend’s family barn, much to the grandfather’s objection.]
“You both come down here – slowly!,” my friend Linda’s Grampa Joe shouted to us.
“Okay Gramp!” Linda shouted down.
He was waiting for us at he closet door. He didn’t raise his voice but was very stern when he looked at us, saying, “This won’t happen again and we’ll never speak of it, agreed?”
In unison, we said yes. He looked weary as he said goodnight and that he’d see us in the morning.
The next morning when we came downstairs for breakfast, Linda’s parents and sisters were up and Grampa Joe had just finished eating. He smiled when he saw us and said, “Sometimes all a body needs is a little sleep.”
When he got up to leave he gave us each a nod on the way out. Everything was back to normal.
When summer came that year we explored the woods near Linda’s house looking for an Indian burial ground that our sixth-grade history teacher told us was supposed to be in that area.
One hot, humid day we were walking across the driveway and as we passed by the corner of the barn, I noticed rocks that looked like they had been part of a building. Linda said when the house and barn were built there had been a carriage house there.
I noticed a door that was slightly ajar and pointed it out.
“Oh my gosh, the tunnel!” she said. “I forgot all about the tunnel. Follow me.”
When she opened the door I realized it was the cellar underneath the barn.
“This is usually locked,” she said, “No one is supposed to be in here, it’s dad and Gramp’s workshop.”
When we went in, there were stationary drill presses, lathes and saws. We walked past them until we came to a dark opening. It was a tunnel.
We rushed to the house to look for a flashlight, to no avail, grabbed a book of matches, ran back to the tunnel and started walking.
The dirt floor was solid and we were surprised there was no trash or clutter other than an occasional stick, some paper, a few mouse remains and no graffiti.
We were determined to find the end to see where it came out. There were places we felt fear, even danger. We had no doubt this had been a tunnel to hide and help keep slaves and possibly others, safe. It got darker in the tunnel and we both lit matches. They went out. We lit two more. They went out again. We realized we were were running out of oxygen. We turned around and headed back, dying of thirst.
We knew we were getting closer to the entrance of the tunnel when it became easier to breathe.
We heard someone yelling.
“I can see them, they’re okay!” Linda’s sister Joan helped us the rest of the way out. We could see that Linda’s mother was quite shaken as she gave us water, telling us to take small sips.
“I was just about to call the Fire Department when Joan saw you, do you realize you could have died in there?,” she said. “I’ve been a nurse for a long time, I’ve seen it happen; let’s get you both into the house where it’s cool.”
We sat around the dining room table. Linda’s mother was still upset as she looked at us.
“What do you have to say for yourselves?” Linda and I looked at one another, I could see her thinking: “We’re really sorry, we didn’t know we could die in there,” but I’m glad we did this, we could feel a little bit what it felt like for those people and I’m proud of our house and the owner during the Civil War who helped people.”
Even though we were aware of the Civil War and slaves, we thought the tunnel was to help hide them until the War ended and then they’d be taken to a place where it was safe for them to live. It was soon after this that we learned about the Underground Railroad and the tunnel’s true purpose.
[Editor’s note: We apologize for the agonizing cliff-hanger last week when we neglected to indicate it ws the first of two parts, and we hope this week’s installment made the anticipation worthwhile.]
School audit leaves some questions
WHITMAN – A report from the audit firm The Abrahams Group out of Framingham, hired to review the books at the Whitman-Hanson Regional School District seemed to leave some questions unanswered as consultant David King presented its findings to the Select Board on Tuesday, Feb. 4.
Select Boards in both towns requested the “agreed upon procedures report” on the school district. There seemed to be challenges involved from the start.
“We originally planned to do a brand-new data reporting system that the state was piloting, [but] they never piloted it until after we were done, so we used the old-fashioned methods,” King said.
He presented a series of comparison charts to rank Whitman-Hanson among four other regional districts in the area.
“We’ve been looking at these numbers for a while, and it’s nice to share them and to have conversations about them, but, honestly, I was hoping that the audit would dig in deeper and provide some analysis as to why,” Board member Shawn Kain said. “There’s some obvious questions about transportation or about some of the operational practices, and you can see where they rank among the other towns, [but] without an understanding as to why, it just feels lacking to me.”
Kain noted that, on the hard copies provided to the board, The Abrhams Group had written: “We are not engaged to, and will not perform an examination, the objective of which would be to express an opinion.”
“But, I think, in many ways, what we need is an opinion,” he said. “We need people to share opinions almost as a consultant would.”
Kain said an example would be, if a district got high marks, a list of practices they are engaged in to obtain that result, are the kind of opinions that can help the district become more efficient.
King said that was why The Abrahams Group included that statement in the introduction.
“We weren’t hired to do an analysis,” he said. “Transportation [for example] would be an entirely different study.”
The Abrams Group has done audits for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and school districts throughout Massachusetts and across the country on services; school-based performance and operations management; regionalization rules and budgeting and accounting for 29 years, according to the firm website [theabrahamsgroup.com].
“We started off with four school districts that had been suggested for comparison – Bridgewater-Raynham, Dudley-Charlton, Freetown-Lakeville and Hamden-Wilbraham,” King said. “In working with the [W-H] school district early on, they suggested we also add Dennis-Yarmouth, Dighton-Rehoboth and Dover-Sherborn.”
As the firm began reviewing data from those districts, however, the audit firm decided that Dennis-Yarmouth and Dover-Sherborn were not comparable to the other four districts, but Dighton-Rehoboth was, so it was added into the study, according to King.
“We’re going to look at a bunch of statistics,” he said in opening his PowerPoint presentation. “We’re going to go through them quickly because there’s a lot of them.”
Looking at enrollments, Bridgewater-Raynham is the biggest of the districts studied at 5,392 students, with W-H coming in second with 3,403 and and Dighton-Rehoboth is the smallest at 2,569 students.
W-H was second-highest in the number of economically disadvantage students, at 30 percent of all students in the district, to Dudley-Charlton’s 34 percent. The state average is 42 percent of any given student population, King reported.
“All of the districts [reviewed] are below that,” King said of the state average. All of the studied districts are in single-digits regarding the percentage of English Language Learners with W-H in second place at 2 percent, behind both Bridgewater-Raynham and Dudley-Charlton at 3 percent each. The state average is 13 percent.
Select Board member Justin Evans asked what year the ELL data was from.
“I know it has been a rapidly increasing population at W-H,” he said. King said student data was from 2023 and the financial data was from 2022.
W-H’s per-pupil assessment is second from the bottom in the group studied – it’s $34,340,078 operating assessment in 2022 at $9,859 per pupil. Capital assessments that didn’t apply to per-pupil costs were filtered out, King said.
W-H falls in the middle of the study group at $16,339 per pupil. Data was from state financial reports filed by the districts.
Per-pupil costs for administration and instructional leaders put W-H in the middle of the study group at $1,227. All were between $1,041 (Dudley-Charlton) and $1,447 (Freetown-Lakeville). W-H is second from the top in per-pupil costs for teachers at $6,625, with Dighton-Rehoboth in the top spot at 46,828.
“For other teaching expenses, W-H is at the bottom,” King said noting the category covers primarily teacher aides and paraprofessionals. In Technology spending, W-H’s per-pupil costs are back near the middle of the pack at $375, with Dighton-Rehoboth at $444 and Dudley-Charlton at $265.
W-H was in last place in regard to per-pupil expenditures for food services with $365, with Dudley-Charlton at the top with $575.
“This is point where per-pupil costs don’t mean a lot because of recent [state policy] with school lunches where al the lunches are free,” King said. “I wouldn’t rely too much on this figure, but it’s one of the things we looked at.”
In Trasportation, W-H is at the bottom, as well, spending $895 per pupil, with Freetown-Lakeville at the top with a $1,213 expenditure.
“These are all regional school districts who get regional aid,” he said. “Usually, every district has a different story about how they provide transportation and what their issues are.”
Evans asked if the transportation data represented the total transportation expenditure, or what the towns contribute to it. King said the data reflected the total expenditure.
“It’s nice to see where we rank, but, are there systems and practices in place that allow one town to be more efficient than others?,” Kain asked. “That would be helpful information for us as we’re thinking about [budgeting practices]. That’s some of the things I’d like to see surfaced out of an audit.”
To simply see where W-H ranks without an analysis moved Kain to say, “I don’t know what we can do with that information. I’m not saying that’s on you. It may be the way we put together the audit.”
W-H falls in the middle of the pack where operations and maintenance expenses re ranked, and is “back near the top” in per-pupil expenditures for benedits.
“A little bit of analysis – the two most expensive categories, when you break it down, is teachers and benefits,” King said. “To me, that’s where you want to spend your money – on benefits in order to get employees – and the same on teacher salaries.”
Evans noted that the teacher salaries and benefits was simply and averaging of “just total teachers’ salaries by the number of teachers.
“This doesn’t necessarily dig into whether we just have older teachers, so they’re at higher [salary] steps,” he asked.
“If you’re going to do an analysis of teacher salaries, you’d look at ages of teachers, number of years of experience,” King said. “You’d also look at benefits.”
“For us as well,” Kain said. “We’ve ben through a number of difficult budgets, having [fewer] younger teachers does kind of skew that number up.”
“I think we see that later in the report.” King said.
He also noted that W-H spends less on administration and leaders than all but two districts, spend more per-pupil on teachers than all but one districts and spend less, per-pupil than all districts,
The district also spends more than is required by their net school spending requirement by 15 percent. The state average is 29 percent, King said.
On Chapter 70, aid went up by $261,516 in 2022 as did the required net spending and the district’s required contributions went up, “but you were over the requirement anyways,” King said. “So, it didn’t affect you, but the district did get $261,000 more.”
The district was also asked to provide budget items funded by one-time sources – transitioning from a paid full-day kindergarten to a free all-day K in 2023, taking $476,627 from the revolving fund; ESSER funds were used to add positions – five teachers and 11 paraprofessionals.
“When the ESSER funds were expended, they went into the budget as additional staff funded by the budget,” King said.
In ESSER 1, was not spent on salaries, but “pretty much on expenses,” King said, adding that the district did not provide details on what the expenses were. ESSER II went mostly to salaries, a contribution to the Mass Teachers’ Retirement System that went along with those new teachers and more expenses and ESSER III again paid for teachers and paraprofessionals, stipends for attending grant-funded workshops, MTRS and other expenses.
“This is where they added the five teachers and 11 paraprofessionals,” King said.
A detailed appendix to the report, which King said was not conducive for use in a PowerPoint presentation, but he said, “it details five years of revenues and expenditures showing an excess and deficiency use over the five years,” King said. “We looked at those numbers. We didn’t see anything abnormal in them.”
The firm was also asked to look at Capital articles.
“The two parties need to get together and reconcile it, so the two reconciliations agree,” he said.
Sweezey eying MBTA Act controls
HANSON – The Supreme Judicial Court may have ruled that the MBTA Communities Act is legal, if flawed, towns like Hanson are turning to their legislators for help in addressing those flaws.
Still, Town Counsel Elizabeth Lydon cautioned that, because the SJC’s ruling was that the statute is legal, “likey that any regulations that come out of the statute – as long as they fall within the parameters of the statute – will be deemed legal as well.”
State Rep. Ken Sweezey, R-Pembroke, also provided the Select Board with an update on the new legislative session so far, during the Tuesday, Jan. 28 meeting.
“I know the biggest interest right now is the MBTA [Communities Act], so I wanted to make sure that we spent the bulk of the time on that,” Sweezey said.
“… and Chapter 70 money,” said Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett.
While he said there “seems to be some appetite for amending the [Chapter 70] formula in general,” but he had not heard anything additional about efforts to influence Chapter 70 by MBTA Communities compliance.
Sweezey said that anyone who has attended Town Meeting, or paid attention to what is going on, is familiar with the MBTA Communities project.
“Hanson, as of Dec. 31 was not compliant,” he said, adding, “I’m sure you are also aware of the court case that was going on against Milton, which kind of put is in a different position.”
The Supreme Judicial Court, on Jan. 8, ruled that, while the state Attorney General’s office has the power to enforce MBTA Communities and can bring claims for objective relief, the existing regulations can’t be because the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (EOHLC) made mistakes in the way they issued them.
The state had requested to have someone appointed to write a zoning bylaw for non-compliant towns, which Lydon said would be a worst-case scenario, or to have the building inspector issue building permits for any multi-family building project within a half-mile of the MBTA station.
“That would take the ability of the town to control where the housing should be and what that zoning should look like, and leave it up to a third party who doesn’t have familiarity with the town itself,” Lydon said. “So, that would be the worst-case scenario, if the town doesn’t comply and then it does go to court and the court weighs in favor of the attorney general’s office –as they have already indicated that they would likely do. It’s just a matter of what that injunctive relief would look like and what they could enforce.”
For that reason, Lydon urged Hanson officials to file an action plan.
The Court primarily said it is likely that the statute would ultimately be ruled legal.
The SJC ruling requires the Healey Administration “should promulgate new regulations” as emergency placeholders with a comment period of from midnight Jan. 31, to 11:59 p.m. Feb. 21.
“If you really want to effectuate a change, then you need to participate in the public comment period, so the state is hearing from people, depth and breadth of the concerns that people have got,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
“We really want to get high participation in the comment period,” Sweezey agreed. “It should be hundreds, if not thousands of people, I suspect, across the state.”
He noted, however, that the first deadline is before the comment period ends, suggesting, he said, how much weight might be given to the comment period.
“I strongly still urge [that] a show of force during the comment period would be … a productive exercise,” he said.
FitzGerald-Kemmett sought to feel out the board’s attitude about sending a letter about their concerns during the comment period.
Sweezey, who represents five towns – four of which previously rejected MBTA Communities – to do the same. Pembroke, one of the first towns in the state to vote on it, opted to comply with MBTA Communities.
“I think that’s a good idea,” he said, adding that MBTA Communities bills are the “hallmark” of the legislation he has introduced:
- HD1420 seeks to exempt communities with no direct access to rail, bus or subway stations – or ferry terminals – from compliance wih MBTA Communities [such as Marshfield and Duxbury];
- HD1419 seeks to prohibit the state from using grant claw backs, unless explicitly stated in the statute, as a way to force towns to comply; and
- HD1421 seeks to repeal the MBTA Communities Act of Mass General Laws (Sec. 3A of MGL Ch 40A).
“Really, all of the deadlines are quite arbitrary,” he said. “Every two years they do look at the rules package … for how they’re going to deal with them. I’ve been told that they’re looking at changing a few things to make it more transparent, so some of that stuff may be changing” from its current regulations to new ones, in addition to emergency place-holder regulations with a comment period from midnight Jan. 31 to Feb. 25.
Every community is now back into interim compliance with a new action plan from each town due by Feb. 13.
“An action plan is just a piece of paper we’re signing saying we’ll look at creating a zone,” Sweezey said.
The board will be discussing that at its Tuesday Feb 11 meeting.
Sworn in on Jan. 1, Sweezey, as a freshman representative, had a deadline of Jan. 16 to file his 26 pieces of legislation for the year, among 6,800 bills filed by the legislature’s 200 members. There were 23 bills filed by 11 lawmakers in both parties pertaining to MBTA zoning alone, according to Sweezey, who said the act has “taken on life of its own.”
“It’s been a very busy, but productive 28 days,” he said. “This is a two-year term and all of us, in the House and Senate, have to get all of our bills filed for [that] two-year term in the first two weeks after they’re sworn into office.”
“That is a mystifying deadline and would seem to not be very logical that you would expect, especially new legislators to do that,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said “Any thought to filing a bill to changing all that?”
Sweezey said he was open to filing any bill that the Select Board deems fit to improve the process.
“It puts new members at a very serious disadvantage,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “Essentially, you’’ve got to be doing the job before you’re doing the job.”
Gov. Maura Healey filed her fiscal 2026 budget on Jan. 22. The House will debate and pass the budget by the end of April and the Senate will follow suit by the end of May.
A new friend and a mystery
By Linda Ibbitson Hurd
Special to the Express
HANSON — When I was 8 years old, a new family moved to Hanson – a house at the very end of Elm Street, where it turns onto Hudson street. They were from Hingham and moved into a big two-story post and beam Colonial that had, at one time, been owned by a doctor.
I boarded the school bus one morning and noticed a new girl sitting with two of my friends. They were smiling at me when I sat in the seat behind them and I wondered why, when one of them turned to me, pointing to the new girl, and said, “Linda, meet Linda.”
I realized then why they were grinning. Linda and I exchanged grins and hellos. As time went on, we got to know each other and became not only fast friends but life-long ones.
Linda was the youngest of six. Two sisters still lived at home, the other two and her brother were married with families. Her mother, Minnie, was a registered nurse. Her father was Lou Brouillard, one of the first professional fighters to win both the welterweight and middleweight world titles and was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
A lot of the local boys tried to date or make friends with the sisters so they could meet their father. I felt honored to meet him myself; he was a quiet, modest man with a good sense of humor.
The first time I was invited to Linda’s, I was impressed.
The circular driveway went from the red brick walk that led to the front door, to a two-story barn on the far right with a field beyond. There was a kennel for boarding dogs between the house and the barn with a gate that led to the backyard. Their dogs of choice were golden retrievers; I met and loved their’s right away, her name was Molly.
When Linda and her sister Judy had friends over for the first time, they held an initiation. They brought me upstairs, blindfolded me and directed me to crawl around in what felt like storage space in the eaves. I was told to keep moving and to not touch the blindfold. Suddenly I felt fur underneath me. I kept going until I felt what I thought was a head and I screamed and ripped off the blind fold.
I was on a big black bear rug and beside it was a white one, also with a head. We were laughing as I looked around at a very nice room with knotty pine walls and a long-cushioned window seat.
Before I left that first day, I met Linda’s grandfather, Joe. He was her mother’s dad and they were from England. He had a workshop on the top floor of the barn where he made beautiful things out of wrought iron. He had also helped her father in his boxing career. I remember him as a good-natured man who almost always had a smile on his face and in his eyes.
During the next few years Linda and I had many good times.
One winter during February vacation, we had gone ice skating. Joe met us as we came in the back door to hang up our coats and skates, telling us he had hotdogs, beans and cocoa warming in the Dutch oven in the living room fireplace and a fire going so we could warm ourselves. He sat in his chair entertaining us with stories about growing up in England while we sat on a warm braided rug on the floor beside him. Eventually he fell asleep. Linda’s parents weren’t home and neither were her sisters.
She looked at me and gestured for me to follow her.
She led me into one of the front rooms that was a spare bedroom and quietly shut the door. She asked me if I remembered asking her what a post and beam house was and that one day she’d show me. I nodded yes. She opened the closet door, reached for the four-foot ladder inside, climbed up and pushed a board at the top of the closet away. I realized I was looking up at the inner structure of the house.
“Be quieter than quiet”, she whispered, as up she went and I followed.
I found it hard to keep quiet as we climbed. I likened it to a huge jungle gym with it’s vertical timbers and horizontal hand hewn beams. Linda was on one side of the structure, I on the other as we kept climbing and exploring, until we heard a voice. “You both come down here, slowly!”
“Okay Gramp!” Linda shouted down.
He was waiting for us at the closet door. He didn’t raise his voice but was very stern when he looked at us, saying, “This won’t happen again and we’ll never speak of it, agreed?”In unison, we said yes. We did the climb one more time when no one else was there.
Fashion renewed in Whitman
WHITMAN – If fashion is cyclical – and why else would someone have once said, “Everything old is new again?” – then a good place to catch it as it goes by again would be 560 Washington St. in Whitman.
Business partners Gina Palaza and one of her four her daughters, Isabella Palaza, 20, have opened Pretty Baby consignment shop at the address next door to Restoration Coffee – in the space which once housed the Fashion Fun Pop boutique.
“My daughter and I kind of came up with the idea of opening a consignment shop – we weren’t even quite ready yet, but this space became available,” Palaza said as she opened the shop for the day on Sunday, Feb. 2. “We saw the ‘For Rent’ sign go up in the window, came and looked at it, and we just had to jump on it. It’s such a great space.”
Gina said they named Pretty Baby partly after Lana Del Rey’s lyrics, but also because it captures the timeless, feminine feel of the store.
“It’s a name that reflects our love for vintage fashion and the special bond between me and my four daughters,” she said.
Another saying has it that in choosing real estate, there are three things to consider – “Location, location, location.” And this space, which the women have named “Pretty Baby,” is a great location.
“We’re located next door to the coffee shop, the two new restaurants that just opened, so we just thought it was a really good opportunity, and the space is beautiful,” she said.
All they needed to do was to put their own stamp on it. “Opening a store this time of year – right after Christmas – it’s a little risky, but I know in time, with a little nicer weather and more foot traffic, I think we’ll do well,” Palaza said.
The white walls have been painted a rich red, and handmade accessories here and there for sale to spice up a real find and put one’s own accent on an outfit are complemented on the walls with artwork from local creators and also some other gift items.
The store has already had customers bring in items to sell on consignment.
“We’re not too fussy about brands, as long as it’s really good quality, almost-like-new condition, we’ll accept it,” Palaza said. “Right now, we have so much, we’ve stopped taking product, but some people donate and some people consign with us.”
There are some pieces that come in with price tags still on them.
Admit it, we all have some of those in our closets that we either weren’t quite sure of, or we were sure we could wear after we lost a pound or two…
Palaza also worked at Anthropoligie for eight years, so friends and coworkers also consign with her.
“I jus think it’s nice to have the opportunity to purchase higher-quality items,” she said, noting that some jeans on her racks originally sold for $250, now going for 60 percent less. “We try to sell items for 50 percent off, but I also consider where we are and [that] $125 for a pair of used jeans is still high.”
They take that into account, sometimes dropping a price a bit more.
“Everything is negotiable,” Palaza said. “We’ll work with them.”
The store’s inventory is mostly new or more recently owned pieces, but there are some vintage items, and try to keep a size range from XS to XL. The shop also offers styling services.
Hanson FD grant is returned
HANSON – While the town budget is at a $ 2.6 million deficit as the budget season begins, according to Town Accountant Eric Kinsherf, the town did receive some good financial news this week on the grant front.
One of those announcements came after 36 hours of concentrated bipartisan legislative pushback from state Sen. Mike Brady, D-Brockton and state Rep. Ken Sweezey, R-Pembroke, when a $19,000 grant the Hanson Fire Department has been counting on to fund firefighting equipment. was rescinded because Hanson is not MBTA Communities compliant as of Dec. 31.
Another $9,000 grant funding safety programs for children and seniors is still in jeopardy, O’Brien said Wednesday morning.
“A letter that awarded them, a paragraph that should have had a happy tone, had a whole paragraph about the future of additional grant money, and said very explicitly ALL future grant money awards will take compliance into consideration,” Sweezey said.
The grant had been awarded last November.
“Thank you very much for the support,” Fire Chief Robert O’Brien Jr., said, adding that Sweezey had started making phone calls before he could get started working the phones. … It meant a lot to us.”
Fire Chief Robert O’Brien Jr., also addressed the situation, thanking Sweezey and Brady’s legislative aide, and noted that, as well as Hanson officials, they were getting talks or phone calls or texts to the point where they cloud see that the grant would be restored.
“I want to thank you and Sen. Brady for your very timely support on our little ‘fire drill’ last week,” Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett punned during the Tuesday, Jan. 28 meeting. “I called [them] and, after a ‘therapeutic session’ with both of them, in which I expressed my very strong views [they went to work to restore the funding]. That was one of the lowest things I’ve seen in many, many years.”
Within four hours, FitzGerald-Kemmett had received a follow-up call to the effect that the state had “changed their mind.”
“I want to thank you for your ‘right out of the gate’ partnership,” she said as Sweezey attended the Select Board’s meeting to provide a legislative update. “I didn’t expect anything different, having served with you on the Economic Development Committee, but I did want to thank you.”
Sweezey said he’s had a very busy but productive 28 days in office since being sworn in on Jan. 1.
He’s also filed 26 of the 7,000 bills filed by the Jan. 16 legislation filing deadline this year.
Sweezey noted that the Supreme Judicial Court had ruled on Jan 8 that the state’s attorney general can enforce the MBTA Communities law, which they ruled is constitutional, but they did not rule on the law’s guidelines. There are 23 separate bills filed on MBTA zoning by 11 different representatives of both parties.
“I do very much believe this is going to get worse, to be honest with everybody,” Sweezey said.
The following week, the governor’s office and the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities issued emergency regulations with new deadlines. As of now, Sweezey said, every community is back into “interim compliance,” which is why Hanson was awarded the fire safety equipment grant.
On Feb. 13, all towns must file an action plan, whether they plan on being compliant or not. Hanson had done a couple of years ago before the timeline had been changed because of the court challenge, before beginning the process of bringing it back to Town Meeting by July 14.
FitzGerald-Kemmett said the action plan would be further discussed and voted on at the Select Board’s Feb. 11 meeting.
“At that point, if no zone is created, then that town – if they filed an action plan – would then be out of compliance,” Sweezey said.
FitzGerald-Kemmett said Sweezey liked the letter received by Hanson Fire, also came short of saying ‘You won’t get it,” she said. “But you won’t get it.”
She noted that, as the law is structured now, educational grants, first responder grants, could be on the table.
“There’s no guardrails there,” she said.
“The townspeople overwhelmingly, gave us decision,” said Vice Chair Ann Rein. “They don’t want to be in compliance. Starting that process up, makes it look like we are going against the townspeople’s desires, and trying to bring Hanson into compliance. I have to say, I do not want to be compliant.
“I don’t want Hanson to change the way they want it to change, the way they want Hanson to change,” she said.
The Hanson Public Library has also been awarded a sizeable grant – $100,000 to be funded immediately – by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners at it’s January Board meeting.
The MPLCP awards grants in two phases: Planning and Design Phase and Construction Phase. All the projects will move through the planning and design phase at the same time, regardless of status. At the culmination of this phase in late 2025 or early 2026, all projects will undergo an independent review of the MPLCP Level of Design. The immediately funded projects that pass the review will be recommended for a construction phase grant immediately.
SST wins in landslide
Any way you look at it, this was a landslide win, even if South Shore Tech’s Superintendent-Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey, declined use that word at the risk of appearing to be “spiking the football,” but he is grateful to voters and pleased with the result.
“The term has been used and I think it’s around 77 percent overall,” he said of the “L-word,” on Monday, Jan. 27 of a ballot question before voters of SST’s nine member towns on Saturday, Jan. 25 to build a new South Shore Tech High School. “If you drill into the numbers, town-specific, the other big headline is that all nine towns approved it, even though that was not a necessary threshold.”
Turnout was low – in single digits for Whitman and Hanson, but Hickey found many reasons for encouragement.
“It’s so interesting, when you look at each town, there’s a story behind it,” Hickey said. “When I look at Cohassett and Norwell, I see two towns that send very few kids, and I would not have expected that big of a turnout.” Scituate, where the margin of victory for the project was 995, just voted for a new elementary school project.
“And here’s Whitman, [approving] a new middle school and DPW building,” he said. “We’re the third in line and, while the turnout was lower, the fact that it was in the affirmative, that was an extra special feeling, knowing the sacrifice folks are making to support this investment.”
He said the building should meet the needs of vocational education for the next 50 or 60 years; and the district is not going to lose sight of what voters did as SST moves forward with annual budgets and with this project.
“Wherever there are ways that we can curb costs – that also includes continuing to advocate to our legislative delegation that the state could still help by increasing money for equipment grants … adding more reimbursement for vocational schools,” Hickey said. “We can’t let up on the advocacy for making these schools more affordable.”
He also expressed appreciation for the legislative delegation’s bipartisan support for the project. Hickey expressed as much humility and appreciation as he did joy in the results.
“I feel profound gratitude over the support that’s throughout our district,” he said. “It says that people believe in the value of vocational education as a necessary investment for these trade areas… but I am also fully aware that voters despite difficult economic times and despite competing capital demands and looming operational overrides. It means so much to have the support.”
Supporters of the project were out in force online and outside polling places as residents in the SST district’s nine member towns voted. On a day when the temperature never climbed out of the 20s, the sun helped warm up the 150 members of the school’s alumi association, members of the Construction & General Labor Union Local 721 out of Brockton, parents and students, as they fanned out to their sign-holding posts.
“We’re the alumi,” Mark Consiglio of Whitman and Meghan Bickford [using her maiden name so her automotive classmates would recognize her] said in unison, as they held signs in front of the Dunkin Donuts next door to Whitman Town Hall.
“This has been over a year in the making, with meetings and everything,” Bickford said of the organizing the alumni group has done. “We’ve been doing meetings and calls.”
Before they even hit the streets, however, voters had been greeted that morning with a text message reminding them to vote and providing a link to information on the locations of the polling places.
“I was able to go to all of the polling places throughout the day and it was very gratifying that our supporters in our community were willing to stand out in 30-degree weather and just put a personal face on support for the school,” Hickey said.
Turnout, however, especially during the morning was “very, very slow,” according to Town Clerk Dawn Varley. In the end, only 5.8 percent – 1,771 voters of the town’s 11,930 eligible voters cast ballots in Whitman.
“Can I say it one more time? It’s been very slow,” said Assistant Town Clerk Michael Ganshirt.
Hanson Town Clerk Elizabeth Sloan said the turnout is “busier than we thought.”
There were 60 absentee votes cast. Hanson, which gave the building project a winning margin of 471 votes (543 voting yes and 72 voting no), did so with only 7 percent of voters casting ballots.
“More than I thought,” said Assistant Town Clerk Jean Kelly.
Hickey said he did some numbers crunching on his own and, while he doesn’t claim to have the right answer, but based on the town results, going back over four years of local election results, in most of the SST district towns, the turnout numbers probably rivaled the results on ballots where, “the only contested race was cemetery commission” or something.
“If you compare that turnout to a town meeting – even a high-octane town meeting – I think it’s good that this process probably engaged more people, through absentee ballot and same-day voting, as perhaps a town meeting,” he said.
At the entrance to the Maquan School driveway, SST Junior Graphic Arts student, Nathan Osso, said his SkillsUSA program advisor asked students to volunteer as a civics exercise. They also participate in volunteer efforts to bolster community efforts like toy drives and collections for food pantires.
Sign-holders in both towns reported many thumbs-up from motorists and positive comments from passersby.
“We’ve had a lot of people come in today,” Nathan said, explaining how much hope it gave him. “We’ve gotten some thumbs up, whistles, honks.”
“I think it’s going to do good,” said Jane Sayce of Hanson, who was on duty with her sign since 8:45a.m., along with middle her son, Brody. “I think it’s a good turnout.”
Both were dressed for the occasion in SST sweatshirt to spread school pride, especially since Brody and another one of her younger sons plan to attend SST in the future, as their older brother does now.
“We feel positive electronics alum Consiglio, who now works audio/visual in the entertainment industry said. “A lot of the turnout here has been very positive. There’s a couple of towns that are worried about the tax increase, but either way there’s a tax increase. A “yes” vote is for a new school and a “no” vote is for the repairs.”
“It’s evenly divided between all the towns,” said Consiglio.
SST School Committee representative, and Select Board member, Dan Salvucci, though, expressed uncertainty mixed with hope, but he forecast a close race of it in Whitman, Abington and Rockland. All three are at the top of the enrollment figures and stood to have to be contributing more toward a new school.
“I hope it passes,” he said. “I don’t know. I’ve been posting a lot on Facebook. I haven’t said, ‘Please vote for it,’ I don’t tell them what to do.”
Outside and down the street from Whitman Town Hall, the Local 721 Laborers were putting in some volunteer time sign-holding.
“We’re [here] just as a union,” said Mike Pidgeon of Lakeville. “If they go with [the school] that’s more work for us. We get work either way, but we get more work if they go with a new one.”
He also spoke about the importance of vocational education and the trades in the workforce.
“You’ll have more courses available for the kids and you’re getting everything new while you don’t have to live out of trailers,” he said of portable classrooms that were briefly considered for the expanding school enrollment. “In the long run, it’ll save you money.”
Pidgeon attended Southeastern Tech when he was in high school in 1976.
“I went for plumbing and never really got into that, but now I know how to do it. But I’ve been in the trades for over 50 years,” he said, noting that the trades are a work segment that is not vulnerable to being replaced by AI.
“They’re always going to need the trades,” he said. “More people are going to trade schools than colleges. You don’t have a guarantee when you get out.”
“I hope it goes ‘Yes,’” said Jim Rich of Foxboro. “That’s why we’re here, holding signs. Vo-techs work. You go to college and get debt, or go to work and get paid to learn.”
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