HANSON — Selectmen on Tuesday, Aug. 18, closed the warrant for the Monday, Oct. 5 special Town Meeting, placing and recommending 26 articles while placing holds on three others and removing one, which called for $1.5 million in raising or borrowing to demolish the Plymouth County Hospital.

“One of the most important things for anything to do with town meeting is where’s the funding going to come from,” said interim Town Administrator Richard LaCamera. He and Executive Assistant Meredith Marini had worked during the day on Aug. 18 to outline the funding source for each article for the board’s review.

“We’re fortunate that we received FEMA reimbursement from the [January] storm of $135,500, which means the tax levy now becomes available because we had to use the tax levy in order to offset the cost of those storms,” LaCamera said. “The Assessors notified us today that the new growth is $118,000 more than was used at [annual] Town Meeting.”

He explained that means there is $303,000 available through raise and appropriate that will not have to come from free cash, which has not yet been certified, to fund some articles.

LaCamera said, however, that the town should have about $200,000 available in free cash for the October Town Meeting. Another $302,441 is slated to come from raise and appropriate with the remainder of expenditures to come from other sources such as the Water Department.

Regarding financial issues surrounding the PCH demolition, LaCamera said demolition bonds must be paid in five years, not the 20 years Selectman Don Howard had argued might be possible to clear the site for possible development. Razing and renovation, by contrast, could be bonded over 15 years.

“We need to focus on the highway building first, and then focus on Plymouth County Hospital,” Selectman Kenny Mitchell said in advocating removal of the article. “We can’t take on two big projects all at once.”

He noted there are too many proposals on the table now. Selectman Bill Scott agreed, also arguing the town should more aggressively market PCH to potential developers.

Selectmen Chairman Bruce Young suggested the town might help fund demolition of the PCH building by auctioning off other tax title properties.

Selectmen voted 4-0-1 to remove the article and revisit it for the May Town Meeting to further research the financial issues and reword the article, with Howard not voting.

Among the articles placed on the warrant and recommended by selectmen were: $12,100 for Hanson’s 41.7-percent share in reimbursing the school district for a new water heater at WHRHS; $79,841 to reimburse the school district for repairs not covered by insurance in repairing damage cause by a clogged waste pipe at Hanson Middle School in the spring; and a by-law restricting service of selectmen.

Among the holds placed, for Town Meeting voters to decide, was an article to spend $10,000 for a study of Wampatuck Pond; investigating Main Street water flow and utilities for the food pantry.

The Hanson Food Pantry is seeking $10,000, but the article is for $25,000 due to a shortfall in the utility line item stemming from other town issues from lighting retrofitting. While the board supports leaving the issue to voters at Town Meeting, Scott expressed concern that the town might be setting a precedent for other nonprofit requests in the future.

Howard, who said Wampatuck’s water quality has improved a bit over the years, and Mitchell questioned the pond study article. Mitchell argued grant funds should be sought.

Selectman James McGahan argued that the DEP does not require specific action resulting from a study, so it would be something worth doing on such a heavily used pond.

“If you’re going to test one, you should test them all,” Howard said. He suggested a hold to further investigate a letter from state Rep. Josh Cutler, D-Duxbury, which notified the town of state grants for pond testing.

In other business, the board voted 5-0 to appoint Hanson resident Roberta Bartholdson as assistant director of elder affairs, a 19-hour per week position. Former Town Administrator Ron San Angelo made the recommendation after a group of five candidates — from a field of 23 applicants — were interviewed by San Angelo, Director of Elder Affairs Mary Collins and Marini.

“They were all great applicants. Any one of them could have done the job, but [Bartholdson] seemed like a perfect fit,” Marini said.

“I know her — a very good selection,” said Young.

“Her resume is quite impressive,” agreed McGahan.

Collins said Bartholdson would have to give a two-week notice at current employer, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care where she has worked as an executive assistant for 25 years, before she could start.

Selectmen also accepted the donation of a new shed, valued at $2,500, to the Senior Center from a couple who volunteer at the center.

The meeting was broadcast over Whitman-Hanson Community Access television.

HANSON — In a famous early television sketch, an overseer pauses while thrashing Roman galley slaves toiling at the oars, to ask them, “Is everybody happy?”

Is it possible that some might have been?

Can mass murderers claim to have been happy in their lives? Does anybody really know what happiness is — and can we be mistaken in our assumptions?

Hanson residents and philosophy professors Jennifer Wilson Mulnix (UMass, Dartmouth) and her husband M.J. Mulnix (Salem State University) examine the issue in their new book, “Happy Lives, Good Lives,” [Broadview Press, June 2015, 300 pages trade paperback, $24.57] through the examination of seemingly disparate examples such as mass killer Ted Bundy, physicist Stephen Hawking, Hugh Hefner, the Dalai Lama and fictional Truman Burbank from the 1998 film “The Truman Show.”

They hope readers glean a broader understanding of what happiness is and things they could do to now to make themselves happier as well as understanding the value we place on happiness.

“Where do we place happiness in our lives?” M.J. said.

Both are originally from the Midwest.

A professor specializing on the mind and what we know, Jennifer graduated from the University of Nebraska, Omaha and earned her master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Iowa. She became interested in philosophy as a high school student because she found it was challenging.

Teaching courses focused on value theory and morality, Michael, who goes by M.J., is a native of Denver, Colorado, and a graduate of Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa. He, too, went on to the University of Iowa where he earned his master’s and Ph.D. He came to study philosophy almost by accident, taking his first class in the subject as a college sophomore and finding his interest had been piqued.

“It turns out that getting a philosophy degree pays pretty well,” he said. Tied with math, by mid-career, philosophy majors are among the highest earners, they noted, because of the critical-thinking skills instilled by the subject and ability to work independently.

Their careers brought them to Massachusetts and, ultimately, to Hanson.

“I’m down in Dartmouth and [he’s] up in Salem,” Jennifer said by way of explanation of how they came to move to Hanson almost eight years ago.

“We kind of like the feel of the town,” M.J. added.

The couple intends to provide copies of “Happy Lives, Good Lives” to the Hanson Public Library. They hope to do author talks at some area libraries, as well.

“This isn’t the area I studied when I was in grad school,” Jennifer said. “I focused my research initially on theories of the mind and knowledge, then as I started teaching I wanted to focus more on the practical elements of philosophy like … how we live a meaningful or valuable life.”

That led to her study of happiness.

“I felt my students could benefit from it and there wasn’t a lot out there on it,” she said. Much of the writing on happiness came under the self-help genre and she wanted to focus on its meaning.

“We both decided, especially for people who might not have much access to philosophy — or much introduction to it — this is a way to show what philosophy is about,” M.J. added. “What it means to have happiness in your life, what’s under your control and what isn’t.”

“All of us want to be happy, but many of us haven’t thought about what that means,” Jennifer said.

The book, designed for a broad audience — not just for college philosophy students — aims to bring the reader to a greater understanding of what they think happiness is and common causes and strategies for achieving a happier life.

“The Truman Show” — which has also been studied for themes such as Christianity, media ethics, existentialism and psychology — features a character adopted by a media corporation for the purpose of raising him, without his knowledge, as a reality TV character.

“One of our brainstorms for the book was to start each chapter with an interesting case study of someone who brought up questions about happiness,” M.J. said.

“What we found is, when you start thinking about happiness, you have these questions,” Jennifer said. “Do you have to be moral to be happy? Does your life actually have to be going the way you think it’s going to be happy? Do you have to have a reflective set of goals? Each case pushes those questions.”

Those who feel Truman was happy in his artificial life may be happy themselves, despite a life that’s not going the way they think it is ,because they view happiness as purely an internal state of mind, they write.

Bundy raises the question of whether one must be moral to be happy.

“Some people think happiness has to be the same for everyone, and that’s one of the questions we raise in the book,” she said. “Is happiness different for different people or do we all have to follow the same path?”

They also explore the more commonly conflicted thoughts surrounding childbirth or the coping with other physical pain such as Hawking’s ALS.

“Is it possible that someone could say that, while giving birth, it is the most painful but also the happiest moment in her life,” M.J. said. “If you make sense of that, maybe happiness isn’t — as the hedonists would say — just about experiencing pleasure and not experiencing pain.”

WATD’s ‘Morning Tour’ closes season in town

MARSHFIELD —  This summer has seen them travel to Hanover, Weymouth and Marshfield, and the WATD (95.9 FM) Morning News hosts Rob Hakala and Lisa Azizian will close out the season’s South Shore Morning Tour from the lawn of Whitman Town Hall on Friday, Aug. 28.

While the Town Hall itself is closed on Fridays, the station will be open to talking with Whitman officials, business owners and notable residents during their on-air time from 6 to 10 a.m.  They’re also going to he handing out free Honey Dew coffee and cinnamon stick pastries as well as offering residents a chance to give a prize wheel a spin for WATD prizes or gift certificates from local businesses. Whitman-Hanson Community Access TV hopes to similcast the show on Channel 12.

“We’re really looking forward to it,” said Azizian shortly after the duo signed off their show for the day on Monday, Aug. 17.

“We didn’t start this until last year,” Hakala said of the tour, similar to the Fox 25 Zip Trips. “It’s a radio version — it’s kind of a fun thing that we do to get out on the road and see people and visit the towns of the South Shore.”

The station covers more than 20 towns in the region.

They limit the Morning Tour to one per month, the last Friday of each month between May and August, because of the work involved in setting up remote broadcasts. On Thursday, Aug.13, Azizian and two engineers met with Town Administrator Frank Lynam to work out the logistics for power and Internet connections for a day when the Town Hall is closed to the public.

“We’ll be set up right there on the lawn,” she said.  “We’ll have a big tent. Rob and I broadcast from under the tent. You get to learn about the town from current events to history.”

“We’re very excited to come in,” Hakala said. “It’s fun to be on the radio and we take pictures for the website, but it’s fun to go out and meet people because we’re [in studio] four hours a day.”

The list of Whitman guests is still being finalized. While Lynam will be on vacation, Azizian and Hakala are hoping to arrange a mike-side visit with Superintendent of Schools Dr. Ruth Gilbert-Whitner on what will be the second day of the 2015-16 school year.

“We’ve been very lucky with our guest line up,” Azizian said. “It’s also a chance for folks to see what we do. We only meet listeners when we’re out on the road, so it’s a wonderful opportunity for us to say hi to people and for them to see what goes into a broadcast.”

That was one of the goals of the Morning Tour.

“It’s really a day for everyone to come out,” Hakala agreed. “We’re going to be out supporting local businesses.”

WHITMAN — Selectmen heard some sobering news from police and fire officials Tuesday, Aug. 18 regarding the town’s — and region’s — efforts to combat increasing numbers of heroin/opioid overdoses.

Selectmen also supported a $24,000 appropriation via a warrant article for the 2016 annual Town Meeting to support the Whitman Food Pantry’s need for a larger space. [See related story, page 9]

“We should be taking care of each other,” said Selectman Brian Bezanson. He and Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski also commended Police Chief Scott Benton for his work “on the front lines” of the overdose problem.

“We have to attack this from all angles,” Bezanson said.

“It’s almost like we’re chasing our tail,” added Selectman Dan Salvucci. “We can’t stop it from coming in and we’re just trying to help people that are caught in this web.”

Benton had reported that overdoses in Whitman since Jan. 1 are up to 39, with seven deaths. Fire Chief Timothy Grenno said his department has responded to 45 overdose calls, with Narcan administered 42 times. He said the different number reflects Whitman Fire’s responses to mutual aid calls from East Bridgewater and Abington as well as Whitman.

Grenno added he had just received a bulletin from the National Hotline out of North Carolina advising heroin is now being laced with clenbuterol, approved only for veterinary use to treat respiratory issues. Narcan does not work on those types of drugs, Grenno reported.

“It’s coming our way,” he said.

Last month there were 17 confirmed cases in North Carolina.

“If it was as easy as driving up to somebody and throwing them in the back of the car and ending this problem, we would do it,” Benton said. “It’s not that easy.”

Both chiefs discussed the four overdoses, including one death, their departments responded to on Sunday, Aug. 9 as a reflection of the problem.

Three involved unconscious juveniles sitting in a single vehicle parked along South Avenue and the other, which resulted in a fatality seven days later in the hospital, was called in two and a half hours later, Benton said.

Grenno said four firefighters responded, finding two persons in critical condition and the third “probably 15 seconds away from cardiac arrest and dying.”

Narcan was administered nasally to two patients and via an “IO” — a “drill gun” which inserts Narcan directly into femoral bone marrow. One responded with the typical vomiting but the others remained critical as they were transported to the hospital.

Both Benton and Grenno said their personnel have responded to overdoses involving people they know.

“Even though this is your job, it certainly doesn’t mean that this is not an emotional  [situation that] has a personal impact on first-responders,” Benton said, commending the police and fire departments’ professionalism in handling such calls.

“The majority of my guys were born and raised in Whitman and they know all these people,” Grenno said. “This epidemic is having a crushing toll on these guys.”

Grenno lauded the work of Lt. Al Cunningham and Firefighter/Paramedics Joe Kenealy, Matt Bush and Scott Figgins for their professionalism under difficult circumstances.

While the three-overdose call was being worked on Aug. 9, another call was received to which the department was not able to respond right away and a third call — an overdose victim in cardiac arrest — was later received.

“I wish that I had a solution to this,” Benton told Selectmen. “It could have been significantly higher [than seven deaths] if not for the quick response of the police and fire personnel, who administered Narcan and were able to save these people.”

Benton said Narcan is also being made available to athletic trainers at WHRHS in response to the “critical” opioid epidemic throughout the commonwealth.

“People could debate it, but it could be the parent or the aunt or the uncle of one of these student-athletes or students that goes down and you don’t want a bunch of people standing around going, ‘Oh, no!’ You want to have something you can do,” he said.

Whitman Police are members of the Brockton Mayor’s Opioid Overdose Coalition and the Whitman-Hanson Will Coalition on prevention measures, as well as the Whitman East Bridgewater (WEB) Task Force and partnership with the DEA regarding enforcement issues.

“We now seize the cell phones of overdose victims and try to identify who is supplying them with the heroin and go after the dealers,” Benton said, adding the decision was thoroughly discussed with the district attorney’s office. “Worse-case scenario, we give back a phone — maybe we save someone.”

He noted most heroin addicts are also addicted to opioid painkillers and the problem has an effect on other crime statistics.

Dr. Daniel Muse of Brockton Hospital has indicated that the medical profession must do a better job weaning patients from legitimately prescribed opioid pain medications, according to Benton.

As of Aug. 16, the Police Department had received 7,433 calls for service this year — an increase of 1,281 over the same period last year, Benton said.

Year to-date, the Fire-Rescue Department has responded to 1,765 calls — an increase of 147 from last year, Grenno said. Of those, there were 200 occasions when firefighters were responding to simultaneous incidents.

“We can answer the first call, but the second call is where we have to rely on mutual aid and call-back personnel,” he said. “It’s not getting any better.”

Since July 31 the Fire Station has been empty 35 times due to multiple calls. Traffic accidents, cardiac emergencies and psychological calls are most numerous, according to Grenno.

HANSON — What a difference a year makes.

In the 12 months since Hanson has operated it’s transfer station on a “pay-as-you-throw” basis, the town has gone from resistance by some residents to a 64-percent reduction in trash tonnage, according to contract hauler WasteZero and town health officials.

The town has also saved $51,000 in disposal fees, while more than doubling its recycling rate — from 16 to 38 percent — reported Joshua Kolling-Perin, WasteZero’s director of public engagement.

The program, managed by WasteZero as part of the WasteZero Trash Metering service offering, began on July 1, 2014. Municipal solid waste (MSW) decreased from 2,752 tons in fiscal year 2013 (the year before pay-as-you-throw) to 986 tons in FY2014.

Departing Town Administrator Ron San Angelo said Friday, Aug. 7 that he was encouraged, if not surprised, at the development.

“I’m extremely pleased, because the program has done everything we said it was going to do,” San Angelo said. “It dramatically affected people’s habits in how they throw away trash, which is important.”

Health Agent Donna Tranontana credited the commitment of Hanson’s residents.

“The pay-as-you-throw   program could not have been successful without the cooperation and support from the residents of Hanson.” she said.

San Angelo said residents, including himself, have become very focused on what can be recycled, and how they can save money on municipal trash bags. He also said people are finding a sense of pride in helping protect the environment through recycling.

“When you pour this big container of recyclables into the bins it makes you feel good about who you are and what you’re doing to contribute,” he said. “I know I feel better about it when I recycle big amounts.”

San Angelo noted the complaints about the program have also reduced as the level of recycling has increased.

“When we first did this program everybody and anybody was complaining about going to it, because it was fear of the unknown,” he said. “We don’t get any complaints anymore.”

In fact, he said, residents have been complementing the program of late. It is not an unfamiliar evolution of attitude among public policy changes.

“One of the biggest obstacles to improving government is the fear of change,” he said. “Political leaders, like boards of selectmen, because people are angry at the beginning have a hard time voting for those changes.”

Hanson adopted its pay-as-you-throw program partly in response to an upcoming dramatic increase in its tipping fee, the cost the town pays to dispose of its garbage. The town had been paying $34.50 per ton, and expected a significant increase when its disposal contract with SEMASS Covanta expired in December 2014. The tipping fee is now $55 per ton.

Under the program, residents use official orange bags stamped with the Hanson seal to dispose of their trash at the town’s transfer station. Being more aware of the cost of their garbage makes residents more likely to recycle and divert other productive materials from the waste stream.

The bags are sold at 13 retail outlets in and around Hanson. They are available in two sizes: 30-gallon ($2 per bag, sold in packages of five) and 15-gallon ($1.25 per bag, sold in packages of eight). Recycling at the transfer station is free.

San Angelo credited the Board of Selectmen that voted for pay-as-you-throw for facing that initial anger.

“They had the guts to make a tough decision,” San Angelo said. “And because they had the guts to make a tough decision on pay-as-you-throw, they created a situation where we saved a dramatic amount of money, improved the environment, we have a much better program than we ever had, an improved facility and we have over $100,000 in the reserve fund.”

Those funds, originating from tipping fee savings rather than bag revenues, should be left in the reserve fund to help finance the DEP-ordered capping of the ash landfill, he argues.

The municipal bag requirement and new stickers prohibited small business and contractors from dumping job site refuse — as well as former residents who were continuing to use the transfer station despite having moved out of town — from continuing those practices at taxpayer expense.

Staff encouraged by community support

WHITMAN — About half the residents in town hold library cards at the Whitman Public Library, and the staff hopes to increase those numbers.

There are 6,855 registered borrowers at the library, Director Andrea Rounds told the Board of Library Trustees on Tuesday, Aug. 11. With 14,696 residents, and an age limit of only 5 years old to get a library card, or about 50 percent saturation, Rounds said the figure is encouraging.

The circulation files are purged every year, she noted, so the numbers reflect active library users. The number does not reflect the number of children under age 5 whose parents use the library to check out children’s books to read aloud, or who bring their children to library events.

“We’re doing great,” she said. “We have lots of people coming into the building. We’re very busy and this shows how busy we are.”

The library’s meeting room facilities were also used 517 times over the past 12 months, according to the report the library submits to the Mass. Board of Library Commissioners to qualify the facility for state aid.

Rounds noted Whitman’s circulation figures remain on par with all other libraries in the Old Colony Library Network. Growth is also continuing in e-Books and use of online materials.

“Circulation figures are slightly down, but that’s good — the economy’s improving and, as everybody knows, when the economy improves we see a little bit of a drop.”

With reductions in school library staffs following budget cuts, the trustees anticipate greater reliance on the public library’s facilities and programs.

One way to increase the number of library card holders will be via a “remote” sign-up drive at a table outside the rear entrance during the Touch-a-Truck program, which wraps up the summer reading program at 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, Aug. 19.

Police Chief Scott Benton has arranged for a “Bearcat” armored SWAT vehicle to be on site for the program, joining Fire Department, DPW and other municipal vehicles for children to explore. The Mix 104.1 ice cream truck will also be on hand.

Holy Ghost Church is donating use of the parish parking lot for the public’s use during the event.

With the conclusion of summer reading, Rounds and her staff are turning their focus to the fall.

“The numbers for the summer blow everything else out of the water,” Rounds said before the trustees meeting as she outlined some of the coming programs and events. “We had 886 participants in programs last month alone.”

The fall will be starting with a bicycle and pedestrian safety program at 1:30 p.m., Friday, Sept. 4 — the first half-day on the school calendar.

“Selectman Dan Salvucci is a big fan of this,” she told trustees. “He was in here talking to me about how it’s a real problem in the community and how he sees kids at the four-way stop in the center of town and they just dart out into the street.”

Whitman Police DARE and School Resource Officer Kevin Harrington will attend, decked out in his cycling gear, to talk to children about safety and the rules of the road. He will also read a story during the event. No registration is required for the program.

The Police Department will donate a limited number of bike helmets for a giveaway feature and the Old Colony Planning Council is donating a larger amount of reflectors and bike lights and bells.

In other business, the trustees were updated of staffing changes.

Youth Services Librarian Nicole Monk is leaving Whitman  Library to pursue other opportunities. Her last day is Friday, Aug. 21.

The position has been posted with applicant interviews scheduled to begin in September. Meanwhile, a second interview is scheduled for Friday, Aug. 14 with a candidate for the position of assistant director to replace Molly Klenowski who left in July to work in another community.

Michael Robin has been hired to fill a part-time library technician vacancy. Robin, in the process of moving from Connecticut to Walpole, has “quite a few years of working and volunteering in children’s rooms in other libraries and several years of working off-Broadway on the stage,” Rounds said. He will work every Tuesday night and every Saturday during the school year, starting before September.

The library will be closed Sept. 8 to 10 to allow ServePro to work on water damage caused by ice dams last winter and subsequent inspection of that work to see if more needs to be scheduled.

Voters to have say on cost of razing building

HANSON — Voters at the October special Town Meeting will be asked to decide how to fund the abatement and demolition of the old Plymouth County Hospital site, which must be done before the site can be used for other purposes.

“The first thing you have to do is clean up the lot,” said Selectman Don Howard, who made the motion for placement of an article on the Town Meeting warrant.

A placeholder article was approved by a 5-0 vote.

Interim Town Administrator Richard LaCamera will be asked to oversee the engineering estimate and request for proposal and bid process, which would hinge on the outcome of a Town Meeting vote. The article would also require a ballot question.

Selectman Bill Scott raised the issue again at the board’s Tuesday, Aug. 4 meeting after recently discussing potential costs of a PCH demolition with the company hired by Lite Control to raze buildings not being donated to the town at the company’s former Hawks Avenue site.

“They expressed an interest, if we did decide to move forward on a demolition up there,” Scott said. “They would certainly like to bid on it.”

The Costello Company also looks for developers to work on sites following demolition “and work on cleanup and other issues,” Scott said.

Community Preservation Commission Chairman Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett lauded the company’s work at the Lite Control site, but cautioned that if they were used as consultants on a cost estimate they would not be permitted to bid on a demolition contract.

A previous study on the demolition cost at PCH came up with the $1.5 million figure only a few years ago.

“I’m wondering if we might not be able to brush off whoever it was who did that and go back and say, ‘Could you give us a refresh on the estimate that you did?’” she said. “It could be easier for somebody familiar with the property, that’s already done the analysis, to come in.”

Howard has advocated placing the issue on the ballot, proposing that — since the debt on Town Hall renovations is being retired — another 20-year bond could pay to raze the hospital and clean up the site.

“I think it should be voted for by the people,” he said. “I’d just like to see an article put before the Town Meeting to clean up the mess.”

The town owns the PCH property, which has been vacant since 1999.

“Everyone has a bunch of ideas as to what they might like to see at the Plymouth County Hospital, and I think we all agree we’d like to see something done up there,” Scott said. “Seems like every time we bring up the hospital all we get is a history lesson.”

Scott said he was not a fan of investing taxpayer dollars without getting some type of revenue from the site in the future, but admitted he doesn’t have the answer.

“We have a myriad of good ideas,” said Selectmen Chairman Bruce Young. “We just haven’t put those good ideas in the form of either articles or [questions on] the town-wide ballot and let the people pick the direction they would like to go in.”   

Among those ideas are a park or a mixed use of some form of over-55 housing adjacent to a park and even selling lots to a developer for single-family houses.