WHITMAN — Voters at Monday’s annual Town Meeting supported Fire Chief Timothy Grenno’s Article 23 proposal to raise and appropriate $310,000 outside the levy limit to fund the salary cost of hiring three new firefighter/paramedics for Whitman Fire-Rescue.

The article, on which the Finance Committee was divided, also transferred $20,000 from the reserve from appropriation ambulance account to equip the new personnel. Voters at the May 20 annual Town Election will have the final say. Two years ago, Grenno had asked for eight additional firefighters, but the department did not receive the grant funding sought to pay a portion of that effort.

While Grenno expressed optimism on the chances it would pass, he said he is prepared to work hard to convince voters of the need.

“The Town Meeting voters have always supported the public safety departments in Whitman, hands-down,” Grenno said after the meeting adjourned. “The ballot box is a different question. It’s a tough budget time, on family budgets as well. … But I’m going to get out there and educate the people.”

He plans on using every communication avenue open to him, from social media and cable access TV to meetings with different groups in town to “get the facts out there.”

“I think, when I present the facts and show the taxpayers what goes on within the four walls of Whitman Fire-Rescue, and how it’s almost impossible to cover the emergency call volume that we have, I think that they’ll be sympathetic to us and understand that this is a real need and that we’re not crying wolf.”

Police Chief Scott Benton pledged to add his support.

“From a public safety standpoint I obviously support it,” Benton said. “I thought he did a great job. It was a great presentation — he definitely made his case.”

Benton added he not only respects Grenno as a fire chief, and considers him a friend, he said Grenno does an outstanding job in advocating for his men and the people of Whitman.

“I absolutely support what he is doing,” Benton said. “I hope the townspeople will fund it.”

Grenno provided the same PowerPoint presentation to Town Meeting voters that he gave before the Board of Selectmen a few weeks ago. The Whitman Fire Department became a full-time service in 1965 with five members per shift. In 1973, with an ambulance service added to the department, staffing levels remained at five per shift, where they remain today. The goal is to add one firefighter per shift, Grenno said.

“We need six people per shift,” he said.

In 1965 call volume for both fire and medical emergencies was 496 runs during the year. Last year, call volume was up to 2,664 runs. Medical emergencies make up 64 percent of all responses.

When calls come in, priority EMS calls — chest pain, shortness of breath, seizures and overdoses, for example — all five firefighters on a shift respond. For non-priority first calls — such as orthopedic cases — three firefighters respond, leaving two and possibly a shift commander to respond to subsequent calls, Grenno explained.

Based on a one-room fire, a three-person engine response has a 38-percent effectiveness rating. That increases to 65 percent for a four-person company and 100 percent for five responding firefighters or more.

Last year, the fire station was empty 18 percent of the time due to call volume, with subsequent calls dependent on mutual aid, which helps but takes from 20 minutes to an hour to get to a call.

Grenno received backing at Town Meeting from Finance Committee Vice Chairman Randy LaMattina, residents Tom Evans, Richard MacKinnon and Neil Gorman as well as state Rep. Geoff Diehl, R-Whitman, spoke in favor of the article. Finance Committee Chairman Michael Minchello, meanwhile, said he was not against the need for more staffing, but sought an alternative view on how to tighten the budget, arguing the presentation does not reduce overtime costs.

“You can arrive at a fire scene in the newest fire truck, the shiniest fire truck, but it’s when you get off  … the manpower at that scene is what matters,” said LaMattina.

“Every citizen is going to benefit by this,” Evans said. “It’s a matter of life and death.”

MacKinnon, president of the Professional Firefighters of Massachusetts, also endorsed the override.

“We’re grossly understaffed in Whitman,” the Washington Street resident and Whitman firefighter said. “I urge the town members here to at least put it to an override.”

Court Street resident Gorman, told of a brother in “a different town” who died from smoke inhalation in a four-alarm fire a year ago.

“This is people’s lives,” he said, noting that he later discovered that an engine could not respond to the fire at his brother’s house because of staffing issues in that town’s fire department.

“I agree this needs to go to the town for a vote,” Diehl said, noting federal and state changes to the amount of revenue an ambulance department can generate as well as how certain medical cases are transported.

WHITMAN — Faced with notification that the Mass. Interlocal Insurance Association (MIAA) is no longer interested in insuring unoccupied buildings — and a tight budget scenario for the next two years — Selectmen voted Tuesday, April 25 to “roll the dice” against authorizing a private insurance policy on the vacant Park Avenue School.

Such a policy could cost between $14,000 and $16,000 per year that is not in the budget, according to Town Administrator Frank Lynam.

The brick, wood-frame school building is vacant and boarded up on a parcel of land deeded to a trust to the town by the Clark family in 1947 “for school purposes only.”

“The difficulty for us is those last four words, said Lynam, who plans to petition the Attorney General’s office for permission to change the use of the building. He said the town’s argument would be that no one could have foreseen that the town would someday no longer need the school when the property was placed in trust to the town. The school was built in 1951.

“We would not be insured for replacement value in any event,” Lynam said. “The only insurance we would have, as we sit today, is coverage for maintenance if there was minor damage to the frame or removal if it was damaged to the point where it had to be torn down.”

Razing the building would cost between $100,000 and $150,000 he estimated, but Lynam stressed nothing could be done until the town receives a release from the Attorney General’s office. A sticking point in past plans to seek such a ruling had been hampered in the past by a transfer of a small portion of the property, to square off a neighboring property line in 1977, that could be considered a violation of the trust, Lynam said. Town Meeting had approved that transfer.

“I’m at a point where this building is simply an albatross to us right now,” he said. “We’re not spending money to maintain it, but I’m concerned about having a vacant building sitting there year after year.”

Lynam noted that, should funds be available, there are municipal needs that could be met by renovating the building, but that nothing can be done until the Attorney General’s office determines whether the town is bound by the trust. If it is, he will seek a court order to return the gift to the Clark family’s heirs. Renovation could cost the town $4 to $5 million.

“We are moving forward,” Lynam said.

Selectman Brian Bezanson agreed with Lynam’s recommendation against seeking private insurance.

“I would suggest, in light of our budgetary concerns, that maybe we should just roll the dice for the time being and hope we can push the Attorney General’s office,” he said.

Selectmen Vice Chairman Dan Salvucci, running the meeting in the absence of Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski, said it made little sense to insure the building without complete control of ownership.

“Something happens to the building, we’re on the hook to put a big fence around it until we can appropriate the money to clean it up,” Selectman Scott Lambiase agreed, noting that a private insurance policy would only provide general liability protection.

Lynam said the decision not to insure could also spur quick resolution on the building’s future.

In other business, Selectmen voted to approve the application of RPM Motorsports LLC under the ownership of Richard P. McCabe, for a Class II Auto Dealer’s License at 40R Warren Ave.

General Manager Paul Kearns explained the business, which restores high-end cars such as Corvettes for sales by appointment only. The cars would be stored indoors and only six would be on site at any one time, Kearns said.

Selectmen also approved the application of Keith A. Gutierrez DBA Ace Transporter, which had been delayed when Lynam’s office had difficulty reaching him by mail at his 146 South Ave. #19 address. Gutierrez said he had inquired with the Post Office less than a week ago about the whereabouts of a certified letter sent in March and returned to Town Hall on Monday, April 24.

“They said they had nothing for me there,” Gutierrez said. “I suppose whoever I spoke with didn’t know it got sent back already. I was waiting for some notification in the mail.” He did receive a more recent letter.

He receives customer calls on his cell phone, and a few via Google, Yelp or Facebook for his one-vehicle business.

There will be no Proposition 2½ override sought to fund the school budget this year, but town and school officials alike warn that voters will likely face one next May for the fiscal 2019 budget.

In fact, a committee will begin the work of making that case during a Monday, June 12 meeting.

School Committee members unanimously voted on Wednesday, April 12 for the 8.5-percent assessment increase both towns indicated can be funded for fiscal 2018 to provide level services to school children.

In dollars, the assessment would be $1,107,435 for Whitman and $479,670 in Hanson — including the shift in student population. The committee had voted an 11.5-percent assessment increase last month.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Ruth Gilbert-Whitner said the district was able to put forth a level-service budget with an 8.5-percent increase  only after some cost cutting including:

• Spreading payments for McGraw-Hill curriculum materials over two years to save $100,000 this year;

• Waiving the July 1 advisory date for teachers wishing to take early retirement this year — with retirements so far saving about $200,000;

• Moving some costs to revolving funds, including athletic coaches’ salaries for a $30,000 savings;

• Elimination of the position of assistant superintendent for teaching and learning and one teaching position, which was due to declining enrollment; and

• The likelihood of an increase in regional transportation reimbursement from the state. The independent food services department was also asked to contribute a greater amount toward its energy use in providing school meals.

Full-day kindergarten, estimated to cost about $400,000 was never included in the fiscal 2018 level-service budget. The appointment April 12 of Kyle Riley to replace departing Special Education Administrator Dr. John Quealy also has no effect on the budget.

“As superintendent, I’m very concerned about the success of an override, particularly after the fairly resounding defeat last year,” Gilbert-Whitner said. “We were able to make some reductions that would not require losing staff down to a 9-percent [assessment] increase. It would be a minimal loss of positions at 8.5 percent.”

The overall budget is up by about 4 percent due mainly to additional funds voted at the end of the last school year to address class size as well as library staff at the elementary and middle schools and increased insurance costs.

Whitman Town Administrator Frank Lynam said the problem for his town came down to simple math, beginning with last year’s levy limit of  $23,125,376 plus 2 ½ percent ($578134) and $275,000 in new growth and personal property taxes. This year, $853,134 was added to available cash. The town began the budget process with $1.3 million in capital articles, many of which were requested by the schools. The requests by WHRSD this year increased by $1,441,007.

Lynam said the Finance Committee voted April 11 an assessment increase that brought Whitman’s share of the school budget to $12,064,000 — an 8.5-percent increase.

“We have virtually eliminated the capital articles from within the town because the money just isn’t there,” Lynam said, noting there are significant equipment needs such as a 19-year-old DPW truck and an unreliable sidewalk plow. “When I say to you we are at our limit — we are. We’re not only at it, we’re beyond it.”

Whitman voters are also being asked to support an override to fund three additional firefighters.

“We would have to do a heck of a lot of education and information” to make an override for the schools successful next year, Lynam said.

Lynam had asked the Whitman Board of Selectmen to meet at 10 a.m., Friday, April 14 in case an override vote was necessary to avoid the need to call for a June special election for a school override in Whitman. That meeting was cancelled after the School Committee voted to back an 8.5-percent assessment increase.

An override this year would, “waste a shot at presenting an override that is comprehensive,” Lynam said.

“I want to put together a comprehensive analysis that says ‘here’s why we need it, here’s how we’ll do it and here’s what it’s going to take,’” he said.

Hanson Selectmen Chairman James McGahan agreed there is a need to “let people know what is at stake here.”

“If we pass the budget we’re asking you to pass today, we’ll squeak through this year,” Lynam said. “Next year, if we don’t do something to increase our revenue, we many not even be in a position to offer a level-funded budget. Our growth is not going to change much.”

Whitman School Committee member Robert Trotta said he has heard that call before, but little had come of it in the past. Lynam agreed that has happened, but said the situation has now reached critical mass. Hanson School Committee member Robert O’Brien agreed, but said Lynam’s suggestion of a committee of school, town officials, finance committee members and selectmen makes sense.

“We had a lot of [state] help from 1992 to around 2007,” he said. “Now it’s reality — it’s not going up anymore.”

He said his seven grandchildren mean he has a vested interest in seeing to it that their generation have the educational opportunities other children have had.

Hanson Finance Committee Chairman Michael Dugan said information on the budget situation’s impact of graduation rates would help make the argument that more funds were needed. But school officials said that information may not be known for years.

“The problem is the wheels of the bus are falling off,” said School Committee member Fred Small. “They’re falling off for the kids that are in third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade — you’re not going to see the impact on graduation rates [until] six, seven, eight years from now.”

He said the schools don’t need what has been asked for — they need much more to do the job properly.

“We’re talking about replacing textbooks that have countries in them that don’t exist any more, that have planets in them that aren’t planets anymore,” Small said. “Basics. That’s what we’re talking about with this budget.”

Gilbert-Whitner said the district has depended on grants that are in danger of elimination under the Trump administration.