HANSON — Voters at Town Meeting on May 4 should increase the Board of Health from three to five members, according to selectmen. They should also vote to discontinue use of Common Core state standards and PARCC testing in the Whitman-Hanson school district.

However, Town Meeting should reject an article to remove Hanson’s elementary and middle schools from the Whitman-Hanson regional school district, a measure that would force Whitman to do the same with that town’s elementary and middle schools.

The Board of Selectmen unanimously made the recommendations on a slate of Town Meeting warrant articles during their meeting on Tuesday, April 14.

The proposal to increase the health board’s elected membership from three to five members is a citizens petition article filed by Helen Vess and 23 other Hanson residents.

The measure would “create more transparency and help foster public trust in the department due to questionable actions of past and present three-member boards,” according to the warrant article.

Selectmen Chairman Bruce Young said the Board of Selectmen was a three-member board from 1820 to 1982, when Town Meeting approved a similar citizen petition article to increase the board’s membership, for the same reasons as the Board of Health article in the May 2015 warrant.

Young said he was elected to the first five-member board of selectmen in 1983.

Selectman Donald Howard said he served on the three-member Board of Health in the 1960s and 1970s and board members got along well, and that a visiting nurse was on the board.

Board of Health member Richard Edgehille said he has served on the health board for nine years and if the board’s membership is expanded to five members, the town would see a couple of nurses, and perhaps a doctor, come forward to serve and a more professional board.

“It’s a good move,” he said. “Very positive action.”

Michael McLeod of Hanson and 24 other residents filed a citizen’s petition article, a non-binding referendum, to discontinue use of the Common Core state standards and PARCC testing and return to using the pre-2009 state education standards and MCAS testing.

The former standards and testing “made Massachusetts’ education number one in the nation and competitive with the top ranking countries in international standardized tests,” according to the warrant article.

Selectmen voted 5-0 to recommend increasing the Board of Health’s membership and to discontinue use of Common Core and PARCC.

However, the board voted 5-0 not to recommend a citizen petition article filed by Jeffrey McNeil and 17 other Hanson residents to remove the town’s elementary and middle schools from the Whitman-Hanson regional school district.

Selectman James McGahan said people are frustrated with the condition of the schools and the article can open up a discussion.

However, McGahan said the measure, if it passes, would open a can of worms.

Hanson would lose state education aid, and the town would need to form a new school committee and hire a superintendent for the town’s schools, he said.

Selectman William Scott said the article puts the cart before the horse and the town should form a committee to study the feasibility and cost of the measure.

“If the article should pass, we’d be between a rock and a hard place,” he said.

Young said the article is legal.

However, if it passes at Hanson Town Meeting, it would force Whitman’s elementary and middle schools out of the Whitman-Hanson regional school district, as Whitman could not be in a regional district of one town, he said.

Whitman would also face increased costs and need to form a school committee and hire a superintendent for that town’s elementary and middle schools, Young said.

“If this passes in Hanson, we’d also be sealing the deal in Whitman,” he said.

Selectmen also voted 5-0 to recommend that Town Meeting appropriate $10,000 to fund a study of Wampatuck Pond to evaluate contaminants and clean up recommendations.

Selectman Kenny Mitchell said he is all for protecting the water, but asked what would happen if the study comes back and says it would cost millions of dollars to fix it.

Mitchell said the measure is good as long as the town has the option and is not forced to do anything.

Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett of Hanson said she is a huge pond lover and applauds the article, but selectmen should be careful to make a balanced presentation of the article at Town Meeting and that voters know the ramifications of it.

An engineer cannot make Hanson to do anything as a result of a study, but once the town has information about contaminants and cleanup, there could be a class action lawsuit from citizens, FitzGerald-Kemmett said.

“Once Pandora’s box is opened and Pandora escapes, we may not be able to get her back in there,” she said.

McGahan said like mold in the schools, the town cannot turn its head the other way when it comes to the condition of Wampatuck Pond.

“I would rather know than not know,” he said.

Selectmen also voted 5-0 to recommend that voters approve a $22,376,854 budget proposed by Town Administrator Ron San Angelo for fiscal 2016, which starts July 1.

The plan would increase spending by 3.2-percent or $694,861.

“Its a balanced budget. It meets the needs of residents,” he said.

HANOVER — The Sixth annual Credit for Life Fair, a highly interactive seminar that helps students learn the basics of personal finance, was held for seniors at South Shore Vo-Tech on Tuesday, April 7.

The event, sponsored by area businesses including major sponsor Rockland Trust, was attended by 133 students, according to school spokesman John Creed. Nearly two dozen local food and event sponsors and volunteers also worked with students at 14 booths.

The goal was to create a realistic budget reflecting the students’ lifestyles and occupations — while keeping within their means. Booths covered the many necessities of life including major purchases of housing, transportation, to health and nutrition. Luxury items included going to a baseball game, owning a cell phone with a data plan, buying birthday gifts and spending the night out with friends.

Many businesses donated gift certificates, breakfast and  lunch items as well as welcome coffee and pastry to all in attendance.

Many students chose to have roommates to split costs and make the most of housing choices.

The event was informative and engaging to students who were overheard discussing everything from finding less expensive car choices to stating “I need a roommate.”

— Stephanie Spyropoulos

Assessment to towns reduced

The School Committee has taken two more steps toward closing its fiscal year 2016 budget gap.

Members voted 7-2 on Wednesday, April 8 to reduce the assessment increase the towns will be asked to pay from 4.5 to 3 percent, and voted 9-0 to transfer an additional $250,000 from reserves.

Board members Susan McSweeney of Hanson and Robert Trotta of Whitman voted against the assessment reduction. Member Alexandria Taylor was absent.

“Taking one-time money out to fund an operating budget goes against everything that you normally think about, but at the same time if we can have a vision as to how we’re going to correct what the future is … we have a revenue problem,” Small said of the reserves transfer. “[But] I think it would decimate us not to do it.”

Both Small and Trotta advocated a return to long-term planning toward closing the budget gap.

“There needs to be a real dialogue between the towns and the school committee,” Trotta said. “I feel frustrated that we don’t seem to be making any [progress].”

The budget as presented in February was $47,635,211 with a $3,363,618 deficit. Salary adjustments and reductions of $959,382 made last month as well as revenue from school choice brought the deficit down to $2,262,988 and a March 11 transfer of $500,000 from the $1.4 million in reserves — leaving $970,000 in the account —further trimmed the deficit to $1,762,988. With the second transfer, there is now $720,000 in reserves.

With a 4.5-percent increase, $788,173 would have been added to the budget, according to committee Chairman Bob Hayes. At 3 percent, 525,449 would be added to help close the deficit — now at $987,539.

How it would hit

The impact of a 3 percent assessment increase would mean about 20 positions cut, according to Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning Ellen Stockdale. Only six retirements are planned, but Hayes said so many past retirements have gone unfilled, the district can’t assume the six can remain unfilled this time.

“We’re cutting bone onto bone,” he said. The $250,000 transferred from reserves can save four teachers, according to Hayes.

Both Whitman and Hanson officials have indicated 3 percent would be as high as they dare go for the FY 2016 budget.

“We don’t have the money,” said Whitman Town Administrator Frank Lynam, adding that a 4.5-percent increase could lead to either an override situation or “shutting down one of the departments.”

Hanson Selectmen Chairman Bruce Young said Hanson is in a similar situation as the town has spent “a good deal” of the free cash the town had going into its last Town Meeting and going into the May Town Meeting on projects the town has needed to do for some time such as school roof and window lintel repairs. He added that the Finance Committee has already reduced an approved 2.5-percent raise for department heads to 2 percent.

“We’re definitely not in as good a position as we were last year,” Young said. “Our position may not be as dire as [Whitman’s] but we’re just trying to maintain some kind of balance.”

“We have struggled over the past few years to accrue some money in stabilization to protect the town with its bond payments,” Lynam said. Whitman started the year with $1.8 million in capital stablization, but just to make existing debt payments the town will have to withdraw about $300,000 from the account, he cautioned.

“That was not something we anticipated,” he said. “We ended the year in a fairly positive mode and the weather took care of any spirit we had.”

Lynam and Young also indicated “dueling budgets” would have a detrimental effect on voters willingness to pass articles at Town Meetings and at the ballot box to fund technology upgrades the schools need.

“I think we have to show people we can work together,” Lynam said.

Time to talk

Whitman Middle School teacher Beth Stafford said, while she acknowledges departments need to work together, “it always seems to be the school side that gets cut” and the schools have lost 100 positions since 2000.

“No other department even comes close,” she said. “I just feel at this point in time people need to stand up and do what they’re supposed to do and fight for what you need — you’re the School Committee, you represent the children in the two towns.”

She suggested that perhaps it needs to start with conversations between the schools and the community.

“I want to have a dialogue,” Lynam said. “I don’t want it to be now. I don’t want it to be May. I want to get through this budget cycle and I want to have some serious discussions with people on what we can do on a long-term plan.”

In other business, warrant articles for fire alarm panel replacement were withdrawn from both towns’ annual Town Meeting warrants as not necessary at this time. Lynam mentioned that Whitman Fire Chief Timothy Grenno “very emphatically” said he was not requesting the project.

Frequent false alarms are traced to faulty building sensors or the communication system within the panels and do not preset a life safety issue. The articles in fact originated with the district’s technology department as a delayed project and they wanted to see if it could be done this year.

The votes were 9-0 to remove the article from both warrants.

Free cash leaned on heavily, additional firefighter request tabled

WHITMAN — There is good news — and a sobering forecast for future finances — on the fiscal 2016 budget front.

“We have a balanced budget,” Finance Chairman William Capocci reported to the Board of Selectmen Tuesday, April 14. “This is one of the nicest budgets that I think we’ve produced over the years. … Almost everybody’s going to walk away happy.”

While the budget is balanced, the Finance Committee was able to accomplish that by almost completely depleting free cash and tabling Fire Chief Timothy Grenno’s request for eight additional firefighters for at least a year. Several other warrant articles were also withdrawn.

“Free cash is gone,” Capocci said, as are funds in the motor vehicle fine and ambulance accounts and technology stabilization. More than $281,000 is being taken out of capital stabilization.

“We’re getting through the year and we’re surviving,” Capocci said, asking for selectmen’s support on the budget at Town Meeting, including on the firefighter issue he described as “the killer on the budget” even as he stressed that he has no argument about the need.

“If the eight firemen go through, we’re talking override,” Capocci said. That is a move Grenno said he did not want to force.

Grenno and Town Administrator Frank Lynam had independently reached the same conclusion to table the additional firefighters after a recent numbers-crunching session. There was, however, some friction aired between the chief and Capocci on the issue.

Communication between Grenno and Capocci was the main issue in their disagreement.

“The problem that I have is on Jan. 20 I presented my budget,” Grenno said. “Last Tuesday, Frank and I sat in his office for three hours an crunched the numbers on the eight hires … knowing the financial picture the town was going through … I came to the mutual agreement with Frank that we would table it.”

The next morning at 7:15 a.m., Lynam called him to report he did not have the chance to discuss it with the Finance Committee because it voted a 2.5-percent increase in all the services, Grenno said of his budget’s 4-percent increase.

“There was no discussion with me,” he said. “My concern is [that] discussion of the Fire Department budget is going on without me being present.”

Lynam clarified that the 2.5 percent Grenno mentioned, plus 2 percent was approved by FinCom for a 4.5-percent increase.

“At no point in time in any of our nine meetings that you have requested the minutes for, did we discuss the merits of five firemen,” Capocci said. “This was simply a question of we have $5 to spend and it’s going to cost $6 to hire eight people — and we don’t have that dollar.”

Grenno had ultimately sought Finance Committee minutes through a Freedom of Information request to find out what, if any, discussions on the firefighter issue were conducted in his absence.

“All he’s got to do is call me,” Capocci said of the FOI request emailed to him by Grenno the morning after a late FinCom meeting in which the Fire Department Budget was voted. “To do it this way, I thought, was a little extreme.”

He said no budgets were voted on before March 31.

Chairman Carl Kowalski said his first reaction to Grenno’s proposal for additional firefighters — to deal with increasing call volume and resulting overtime costs — was concern for the school budget.

“It’s sad that the schools are in that shape,” Kowalski said of W-H’s position at 10th from the bottom in per-pupil spending statewide. “But we cannot afford to give them more money.”

Grenno made his points effectively enough to change his mind, Kowalski said. Now, however, he said he finds sense in Capocci’s argument and Grenno’s willingness to table the request.

Getting there

Capocci started his presentation by outlining the town’s ability to weather the recession, without layoffs, since its onset in 2007 before detailing the current state of the town’s finances. He concluded the presentation by cautioning about five major challenges to future town budgets.

The town had been hit with a $2 million cut in revenue between local receipts and state aid to cities and towns on a $20 million budget in 2007, according to Capocci, while services were increased. Fiscal planning in the intervening years permitted infrastructure investment, including the new police station paid for inside the levy limit mainly through free cash.

Cuts made two years ago, however, required by a failed override for the schools had an effect on free cash since as town budgets have increased, due largely to higher fixed costs and a 10-percent cut in trash fees, he said. Another $322,482 transferred from free cash at a special Town Meeting in January – before the weather turned. This year’s snow and ice deficit is $354.832.

“Before we looked at any budgets for this year, we were in the hole $455,000,” Capocci said.  Basic revenue is $812,000 over last year. Initial budget requests came in at $1,325,743 higher than last year.

Capocci also warned of five key concerns looming over future budget years: the eight additional firefighters; minimal free cash; rising energy costs; other post-employment benefits (OPEB), such as retiree health insurance; and Whitman-Hanson Regional  School District, the low per-pupil spending for which he termed “an embarrassment.”

“We are going to reach a solution in the near future,” he said. “So be prepared.”

Preschool Information Night has been rescheduled to 7 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 11 at the Maquan School, 38 School St., Hanson.

Kindergarten Information Night is 6 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 12 at the
Whitman-Hanson Regional High School. This meeting will provide parents with details regarding our full-day and half-day programs and the registration process.  There will be a brief question and answer session following the meeting.

Parents of children that will turn 5 years old by Sept. 1, 2015 should attend.  The meeting will be in the Dr. John F. McEwan Performing Arts Center atWHRHS, 600 Franklin St., Whitman.

Due to the impending winter storm, the Whitman-Hanson Express has moved this week’s print date to Thursday. Conditions permitting, subscriptions should received on Friday, January 29, 2015.

 

Please check the Whitman or Hanson town hall web sites for information about snow removal and other items. If you experience an emergency during the rough weather, please call 911.

 

More information about the storm, including travel bans, can be found on the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency’s web site. The Massachusetts State Police’s web site also has safety tips that you can refer to.

 

 

WHITMAN — Police are investigating the vandalism of more than five dozen gravestones at Colebrook Cemetery. At 11:06 a.m., Sunday, Jan. 4, a citizen reported to the Whitman Police Department that gravestones had been knocked over at the cemetery located at 45 Essex St. A cruiser was dispatched to the
cemetery and the officer who responded requested that the Plymouth County Sheriff’s BCI Unit be called to respond to the scene for photographs of the damaged and knocked over gravestones. There were no fingerprints on the gravestones due to the inclement weather last night.

A total of 67 gravestones were knocked over and damaged. One of the gravestones knocked over was the family gravestone of First Lt. John R. Fox who was with the 366th Infantry regiment’s 598th Field Artillery Battalion during WWII. He was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in 1982 and the Medal of Honor in 1997. Lt. Fox’s grave marker is set flush to the ground and therefore it was not damaged.

This is an ongoing investigation and anyone with information is asked to contact the Whitman Police Department at 781-447-1212.

WHITMAN — Three people face charges after an early-morning house-break on Beulah Street Tuesday.

Police were called at about 2:37 a.m., on Tuesday, Dec. 30, from a resident on Beulah Street reporting hearing a window smash and then, while looking out the window, observed two men putting items into the trunk of a vehicle.

Cruisers arrived in the area and called for mutual aid. Hanson and East Bridgewater police departments responded as well as the Plymouth County Sheriff’s BCI and K-9 Units.

All responding officers working together immediately set up a perimeter and began a search for the suspects. All three suspects were captured and placed under arrest in less than one hour.

The two males allegedly broke into a garage on West Street and then returned to the vehicle being driven by a female suspect to place the stolen items in the back seat and trunk. The female acted as a lookout/getaway driver for the two males, according to police. She had two two-way portable walkie-talkie radios in the front seat by her side.  

The vehicle was recovered and towed to the police station to be inventoried.  Stolen property that was recovered is estimated to be worth in excess of $3,000.

In addition to the recovered property, $4,669 in cash was seized from one of the male suspects identified as Christopher S. Jansky, 38, from Chatham West Drive, Brockton.  Jansky was charged with trespassing, disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace, resisting arrest, conspiracy, breaking and entering a building in the nighttime for a felony, larceny over $250 and three outstanding warrants in Brockton and Quincy District courts.

The other male suspect arrested was identified as Kevin Kailher, 46, from Chatham West Drive, Brockton. Kailher was charged with trespassing, disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace, resisting arrest, conspiracy, breaking and entering a building in the nighttime for a felony, larceny over $250.

The female suspect arrested was identified as Suzanne M. Sommer, 34 years old, from Chatham West Drive, Brockton.  Sommer was charged with conspiracy, breaking and entering a building in the nighttime, larceny over $250, receiving stolen property over $250 and one outstanding warrant in Brockton District Court.

All three suspects were transported to Brockton District Court to be arraigned on the charges.  This is an active investigation and anyone who has any information is asked to contact Detective Mark Poirier at 781-447-9673.

Whitman Police Chief Scott Benton issued an update via Twitter and Facebook Friday morning in regard to the department’s request for help identifying the male subject who entered the Holy Ghost Church and Cardinal Spellman Center on Tuesday evening with a baseball bat.

“The Whitman Police arrested the suspect at approximately 9:45 a.m.,” Benton wrote. “The suspect is identified as Michael P. Thomann, 50 years old, living on Washington Street in Whitman. A news reporter from NECN who was doing a live shot in front of the Holy Ghost Church called our department to say that a man fitting the description just came out of the church. Cruisers responded and were able to intercept the male party while was walking down the sidewalk and placed him under arrest.”

Thomann was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, malicious damage to a motor vehicle and disorderly conduct. He was transported to Brockton District Court where he was to be arraigned on the charges.

“I want to thank the news media as well as all those who shared our post to help us identify the suspect,” Benton said.