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Region mourns a gifted broadcaster

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Whitman-Hanson Cable Access Executive Director Stephen Roy is being remembered as a gifted musician, talented broadcast executive and good friend.

His loss leaves a “significant void,” in the words of WHCA Cable Access Coordinator Kevin Tocci. Roy, 65, died unexpectedly Sunday, May 15.

“He was a great boss,” Tocci said. “I was fortunate to know the guy for about 15 years and learn a lot from him.”

Roy had a vision, not only about everyday life, but about the cable access organization and how it served its communities.

“The whole region is going to miss him,” said former Whitman School Committee member Mike Kryzanek, who recalled working with Roy on a cable access program titled “Issues & Opinions.”

“He was always quite helpful, always willing to go the extra mile, a wonderful technician, but also a wonderful human being,” Kryzanek said.

Co-workers at WHCA echoed those sentiments.

“I’ve found myself lately just thinking, ‘I’ve got to ask Steve this,’ and then I realize I can’t,” said Producer Carol Brewster. “He was always the go-to guy.”

Brewster said Roy was a patient, calming influence when things go wrong.

“It is a rare commodity,” she said. “He was technically inclined and yet seemed to be able to manage people fairly well. Usually you don’t get those combinations together.”

Brewster came to cable access in 1985 after taking a course at Bridgewater State and wanted to learn more about television production.

“I think he was a very good teacher,” she said.

Roy also met his wife Michele while working at the Brockton studio where she volunteered. She said her late husband was a Kennedy Assassination buff mentioned in 13 different books and working on one of his own, as well as a musician. He was also a devoted dad of two daughters, Simone and Evette.

“It’s hard for them, but we’re going to get through it with the help of all these wonderful people,” Michele said.

For many of those people the wonder was Steve Roy.

‘Make it happen’

Tocci said Roy was all about helping residents of Whitman and Hanson put their own vision on the air.

“He had a saying, ‘Let’s make it happen,” Tocci said. “We have a mission. The mission is to provide local programming and also show people how to create their own magic.”

Whitman Selectman Dan Salvucci agreed Roy will be a hard act to follow.

“I’ve known Steve Roy probably from the time he started in Whitman at our cable studio,” said Salvucci who, as selectmen chairman at the time, was involved in contracting Whitman-Hanson Cable Access. “He did a fantastic job. … He not only knew about what went on behind the camera, he knew how to fix a camera. He was just amazing.”

Even those new to local public service, knew Steve Roy.

“I’ve known him for years,” said first-term School Committee member Alexandra Taylor of Whitman.

State Rep. Geoff Diehl, R-Whitman, who used to work in television in Los Angeles, said Roy was an advocate of getting people to do their own cable access shows.

“He ran it efficiently with a great staff,” Diehl said. “The guy really understood that content from the people in town was what would make people watch that station.”

He recalled how Whitman-Hanson Cable Access was “must-see TV’ sometimes. Diehl’s wife KathyJo Boss had been on WHCA performing with her dancing school as a kid and that viewers felt a connection with such programs as they watched the children in the community grow up.

“The good news is that he was in a vocation that he loved,” Diehl said.

There are many people in Whitman and Hanson, in all walks of life, who have worked with Roy on local programming.

“I worked with Steve Roy for over 30 years,” said Hanson resident Mark Vess. “He was an incredibly talented man. His musical abilities, his electronics abilities and his personality were exceptional.”

Wings Over Hanson

Vess, in fact, reminisced with Roy during a Hanson Selectmen’s meeting on April 19 about their production of a program titled “Wings Over Hanson,” which Roy said was one of the most popular programs he ever worked on and had one a local cable award.

“You were in the plane and you were hanging out of the plane taking the camera work, right?” Hanson Selectmen Chairman Bruce Young said to Vess during that meeting.

“That is correct,” Vess replied. “It couldn’t be done today, I don’t think.”

“Can you guess how many people were watching at home, hoping you would fall out of the plane?” Young said.

“Literally dozens,” Vess rerplied with a laugh.

Vess said Saturday that he valued the opportunity to know and work with Roy.

“I am extremely saddened at his passing, and I think there’s going to be a giant hole in cable TV communications as well as his personality,” Vess said. “He’s going to leave a big pair of shoes to fill over there and he’s very much missed already.”

Producer Paul Watson is another WHCA colleague who has known Roy “for about 30 years,” a phrase one hears a lot from those who knew and worked with him.

“I’m one of the late-comers to that one,” Watson said. “Steve was one of those guys I went to when I got stymied by something because I knew he’d have a solution.”

He also remembers Roy as “just a nice guy to talk to.”

“His sense of humor was very dry, very wry and at times, extremely outrageous,” Watson said.

Lost friend

Young, who had also worked with Roy since the days when Continental Cablevision was the contracted service also expressed sorrow over the loss of a man he counted as a friend.

“Steve Roy’s passing leaves a tremendous void in cable access in Hanson,” Young said. “He was the rock that really held it together for all these years and the man was a true believer.”

Young also noted Roy’s skill in passing on his knowledge of television production to those wishing to learn it.

“I have no idea how the process works, but those are going to be hard shoes to fill,” he said.  “You would be hard-pressed to find anyone as skilled and as dedicated as Steve was.”

McCue takes helm

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HANSON — Town Administrator Michael McCue was sworn into office during the Tuesday, May 17 Board of Selectmen’s meeting, but he’s already been working to acquaint himself with the town’s government since his May 9 start date.

Selectmen also voted to grant the final go-ahead to Friday’s Bluegrass on the Bog Festival, now that the insurance certificate, signed agreement, arrangement for police detail officers and sufficient portable toilets have been made.

The festival producers have met with the Board of Health regarding sanitation facilities and the selectmen’s approval is contingent on confirmation that there will be enough toilet facilities made available.

After the McCue’s oath of office was administered by Town Clerk Elizabeth Sloan — and a recess for a brief welcoming reception — he reported to the board on his first week on the job.

“I would like to extend my thanks to staff and the several citizens that have come by to wish me well and greet me,” McCue said. “I really look forward to meeting with all of them.”

He has already met with the police and fire chiefs as well as the highway surveyor as part of an effort to meet with all town department heads to discuss where each department has been, where they would like it to go, and to build relationships with staff.

McCue also plans to review all policies and procedures in town, “to see what needs to be revved up and what may need to be added.”

“Kind of oddly, I actually like doing that,” he said.

He credited Executive Assistant Meredith Marini with overseeing the installation of Wifi in the building as part of the project to supply selectmen with tablet computers to help reduce paperwork. The devices will be delivered soon and selectmen will be set up with e-mail addresses.

McCue also attended the May 2 Town Meeting and noted that a Town Moderator-appointed committee is investigating electronic voting devices for future sessions.

“If introduced properly it makes an awful lot of sense,” he said.

The town of Avon, where McCue has also served as a town administrator, already uses the devices successfully. He offered his services to help facilitate the move if the town opts to use them.

“I’m sure all of us would like to wish Mike well, and he’s assured me he is here for the duration, and he’d like to retire in the town of Hanson,” Selectmen Chairman Bruce Young said.

“That is true — years from now,” McCue replied.

Young also noted McCue’s interest in working with selectmen to establish yearly goals and indicated that would be discussed at the next meeting.

McCue’s parents are Hanson residents, and his mother Constance, sister Katie, uncle Jim and aunt Pat attended the ceremony and reception.

In other business, School Committee Chairman Bob Hayes announced that Gale Engineering had come in with a proposal cost of $9,750 for the engineering study on the Maquan School roof repair project.

“We tried to speed up the process, because roofs the size of Maquan need to be done when the students are not in school, it makes for a better job with much [fewer] problems,” Hayes said.

Funding for the project was approved at the May 2 Town Meeting.

As the Gale proposal had just been received Tuesday afternoon, Hayes said he would make the letter from the firm available to Selectmen ahead of a May 24 meeting to vote on it. The School Committee meets next .

An RFP will be issued based on the engineering study with the aim of having the work done over the summer before school resumes in September.

“We were [the Indian Head & Maquan Priority Repair Committee] concerned that we’d run out of time and not be able to get this done, and we’re still in a time constraint a little bit,” Hayes said. “By moving this RFP forward … it allows us to take, maybe, a month off of the time schedule.”

Contractors base their bids on information in the request for proposals, or RFPs.

“That’s good news,” Selectman James McGahan said of the engineering estimate.

The board also approved the promotion of Officer Peter Calegero to sergeant to fill one of seven vacancies created by retirements and other departures.

“There’s a lot of experience leaving the force,” Chief Michael Miksch said. Right now, there are two or three shifts a week working with no sergeant on duty.

Calegero who is the next high-scoring officer on the sergeant’s exam list, has shown willingness to help new officers and has served as a school resource officer. He holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from UMass.

Selectmen also voted to offer conditional employment — pending completion of a medical exam, a background check, a psychological exam and final appointment — to Brent Peterson and Christopher Dominguez. Since Dominguez has recently moved back from Florida where he has been a full-time deputy officer with the Hillsboro County Sheriff’s Department, his hiring is also contingent on acceptance of his Florida certification as a police officer by the Mass. Police Training Committee.

Peterson is currently serving on the Plympton Police Department and has been an officer for three years and worked for four years on the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Department. He has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Western New England College. Dominguez  holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Endicott College and now works for the Norfolk County Corrections Department.

Grants prep new work force

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HANOVER — Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito and state Secretary of Education James Peyser toured electrical and machine engineering shops at South Shore Vo-Tech Thursday, May 12 to get a first-hand look at how state vocational grants are being used.

The school was one of 35 districts to receive a combined $9.2 million in Mass. Skills Capital Grants in February. SSVT received $231,419 of the grant money.

Polito and Peyser chatted with students working on final projects in an engineering class, as well as those at work on precision manufacturing machines and 3-D printers.

Alex McPherson of Hanson, for example, was working to create injection molds for the electronics department designed by the drafting shop. Dylan Key, also of Hanson, explained 3-D printing in the electrical engineering shop.

“It prints in polymer, so you can print in multiple types of materials,” Key said, passing around examples. “This shows how precise that can be.”

Polito and Peyser were impressed with what they saw.

“For an employer that has machines like this in their industry, having people with the skills he just described is very valuable,” Polito said after McPherson’s demonstration.

“There are employers that are working directly with the school and the students through co-ops and through shared work spaces — and making sure they have jobs available to these students when they graduate,” she said after the tour. “This is truly a workforce development intiative. It’s something that’s working.”

Joined by several state representatives from SSVT’s eight sending towns — including state Rep. Josh Cutler, D-Duxbury, whose district includes Hanson — as well as municipal officials, Polito and Peyser were guided by SSVT officials.

“I was very impressed with the level of skill and the equipment that they used, and how many high-performance tasks they can do with them,” said Whitman Town Administrator Frank Lynam. “It’s really an impressive place.”

Officials had the chance to speak with students in the three shops before taking part in a round table discussion in the school’s Brass Lantern Restaurant.

“They know that we’ve been the recipient of several competitive grants for engineering and manufacturing programs,” said Superintendent-Director Dr. Thomas Hickey about the visit Polito and Peyser requested. “The purpose of today’s visit is to give them a chance to see where engineering and manufacturing are thriving in the school.”

The programs toured have benefited from both state grants as well as Mass. Life Sciences grants.

“There’s no replacement for seeing first-hand how the kids are using the equipment to advance their skills,” Polito said, noting the grants also help students seeking to advance to college engineering programs.

“There are thousands of young people who are on waiting lists to get into programs like this one,” Peyser agreed. “By investing in the equipment that is necessary to run these programs, we’re not only improving the quality of the programs themselves, bringing them into line with current industry standards, but we’re also increasingly providing access to more and more students.”

After the tour, Polito noted that she and Gov. Charlie Baker have placed a high value on vocational education, terming it a “real gem” within the K-12 public school system. Business leaders also stress to them the importance of trained employees, she said.

“We have a skills gap here in Massachusetts and in order to close that skills gap we need to ramp up the vo-tech experience for more kids,” Polito said. “One of the ways we’re doing that is through the vo-tech equipment grants.”

Hickey has said SSVT’s grant is being used to purchase Cyber Security training equipment for computer information technology, a new surface grinder for precision machine technology and much more.

An Economic Development Bill also aims to provide $75 million more toward equipment purchases by the state’s vocational schools, according to Polito. Hickey, meanwhile, is also hoping the state’s commitment extends to building funds as another way to bring in the students on the waiting lists Peyser mention.

“[The tour] also gives me the opportunity to dialog on what some of the needs are for vocational education at  South Shore,” Hickey said, gesturing toward 15-year-old modular classrooms visible through the window of the school library. “I’m thrilled that the Baker administration is going to support vocational tools in the area of equipment, but the time will come where we’re going to need support for building and infrastructure.”

The original portion of the SSVT building was constructed in 1962.

When Maura went missing

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In 2011, an out-of-work journalist named  James Renner began searching for Maura Murray.

While he didn’t find her, he has drawn his own conclusions about her disappearance and, in the process of writing a book, he has found himself while getting “lost” in the case.

The book, “True Crime Addict: How I Lost Myself in the Mysterious Disappearance of Maura Murray,” [Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press, 280 pages, $25.99 hardcover] goes on sale Tuesday, May 24.

“It’s been a long time coming, for sure,” Renner said last week. “I hope the book eventually brings some sort of closure to Maura’s case. At the very least, I think it will advance the story and bring up some new clues and information.”

The same week Facebook was launched in 2004, Murray disappeared. Renner has termed the case one of the first unsolved mysteries of the social media age.  In fact, he leaned heavily on a small army of Internet sleuths — which he dubbed My Baker Street Irregulars, after the poor street kids who fed information to Sherlock Holmes. Renner’s Irregulars lived online, reading blogs, surfing sites and even trolling him. They helped pose questions, interpret information and notice overlooked clues.

The trolls also second-guessed him, sniped at his plans to write a book and, in one case, cyber-stalked him. Maura’s father Fred did not cooperate with Renner on the book.

At the time Murray vanished on Feb. 9, 2004, Renner was a reporter for alternative weeklies in northeastern Ohio. By 2009, the fallout from his coverage of an Ohio state senator at the center of a sex scandal had cost him his job and he was looking for a new story.

True crime seemed a natural draw for him.

At age 11 he had fallen in love with the photo of missing Amy Mihaljevic. The obsession led him to his career as an investigative journalist and a struggle with PTSD. By 2011, Renner told his counselor he was ready to delve into another mystery.

The new mystery he was ready for was Maura Murray. While conducting his investigation, there were mysteries in his own life to confront: the truth about his grandfather, the violent tendencies his son was beginning to display and Renner’s own impulses.

Chapters in “True Crime Addict” jump between Murray and Renner’s own demons — “Being a true crime addict is not a good thing and  I learned this the hard way,” as he says.Renner spoke about the book with the Express by phone from his Cleveland home on Friday, May 13.

Q: Why the Maura Murray case?

A: “I was looking around for a big case, something national. I was a reporter in Cleveland for about seven or eight years and I had written about some famous cases from the northeast Ohio region. I looked around for a while — I’m always drawn to the cases that are difficult, if not impossible, to solve. What I find interesting is that it’s actually kind of a double mystery. Number one, what happened to Maura, but number two is, what was she doing in the White Mountains to begin with? I think if you can find the answer to one of those questions, you’ll get very close to the solution to the other question. I think I have an answer as to what was she doing in the White Mountains. I believe she was running away, I believe she was looking to start a new life and to put the people that treated her wrongly in her rear-view and not look back.

Q: It seems certain that people will read it expecting some kind of break in the case. What do you want readers to get out of it?

A: “I think there are quite a few new pieces of information in the book and new clues. I think the takeaway here is that Maura, like everyone else, was very complicated. She had her secrets, she had her skeletons and the question is whether or not those contributed to what happened. I think for sure they did. There were some things that hadn’t been reported — the fact that when she disappeared, she was in trouble for credit card fraud and identity theft.”

Q: What were your reasons for being so frank about your own family’s past?

A: “I wanted to explore why I was so fascinated with these true crime cases and what led me into that career as a true crime writer. That made me take a good, hard look at my own life and, of course, looking at it objectively now, I can see that the story about my grandfather and who he was — what he did and how I learned about all that when I was 11 years old — certainly had an impact. All these bad guys that I’ve been chasing after since I was 11, they’re my grandfather. I could never go after him, so I looked elsewhere. As I was uncovering Maura and her personal demons I thought it was only fair to share mine as well.”

Q: How do you think Maura’s case has been handled?

A: I think the police did their due diligence. When they found her car up there, it certainly looked like a DUI. The car had run into a snow bank, there was wine spilled on the inside … they see that kind of thing all the time, so I think they treated it correctly at the time. Now, a day later when the owner hadn’t come to collect the car and they start to put together that it was Maura who was driving, then it becomes a missing persons case. The [N.H.] State Police were actually in the air with helicopters. … The family’s always been critical of them, but I think they did all right.”

Q: How do you assess your methodology? Would you have approached it differently if you had it to do again?

A: “Looking back I think it happened organically, the way it was supposed to. These pieces are always different. The family could have been more helpful. Fred was the first person I contacted indirectly and he made it clear through family members that he did not want a book written about this case, so that was always a difficulty. But over the course of a few years I did manage to speak with every member of the Murray family except for Fred.”

Q: You describe this as the first major missing person case of the social media age — has social media really been any help or does it do more to hinder cold cases like this?

A: “It’s certainly a double-edged sword. Social media is more helpful to these cold cases than anything, the fact that you can reach practically every person on the planet. You can get the information out to anybody and they can, in turn, find you. It’s a wonderful tool for journalism. With that also comes the anonymity of the Internet and that allows these dangerous people to mask themselves and threaten you from afar. It’s the worst of the worst and the best of the best.”

Q: How can social media be better used in crime investigation?

A: “I think police should be using social media. In fact over the last year or two, the U.S. Marshals have reached out to me and asked me to help them with getting some of the cold cases they’ve worked on out into social media through Reddit and Twitter, online message boards and things like that. So I know bigger agencies are really paying attention to it and trying to use it as a tool for investigation, too. It’s remarkable what’s possible with it.”

Q: Your title: “True Crime Addict” — does it still apply? Toward the end of the book it seemed you might be turning away from all that.

A: This is the last big crime story I’ll work on, at least for the foreseeable future until my kids are grown up. It does take you to a dark place and what I’ve discovered through the course of this book is the fact that I was addicted to true crime, not just true crime, but “addict” extends to my own life, the fact that I learned through the course of this that I was an alcoholic, I was addicted to prescription medication. These true crime stories are and addiction, just like anything else. Once you realize that it’s unhealthy, then you need to start taking action and get it out of your life.”

Q: What’s next for you?

A: “I’m concentrating on novels and screenplays. I’m adapting my first novel (“The Man From Primrose Lane”) into a television series right now. It’s a murder mystery about an out-of-work reporter who tries to solve an old cold case — write what you know.”

Hanson holds candlelight vigil in memory of student

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Hanson Community members are sponsoring a candlelight vigil in memory of Hanson Middle School eighth-grader Samuel P. Andrews, 14, at 7:30 p.m., Sunday, May 15 at Hanson Town Hall. Sam died unexpectedly Wednesday. The vigil follows scheduled visiting hours at Blanchard Funeral Chapel in Whitman, which will be held from 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday.

Samuel P. Andrews, 14, Hanson Middle School student

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Samuel P. Andrews, 14, of Hanson died on May 11, 2016. He was born March 5, 2002. Sam was the loving son of Philip J. Andrews of Hanson, Melissa M. Andrews and her partner Jared Royse of Chelmsford. He also leaves behind his loving sister Abigail Andrews of Hanson and his younger siblings, Logan Gonyea, Ella and Jay Royse of Chelmsford.

Sammy was an eighth grader at Hanson Middle School.

He was a rambunctious boy that loved riding ATVs, dirt bikes and an occasional lawn mower. He took many family trips to Vermont. Most recently he went on an RV trip across the Southwest states. As most kids his age, he liked playing video games, hanging out with his friends and country music. He was known to have an ungoverned sense of humor. He was happy and proud to be a trusted helper to his grandmother and especially being rewarded with a brownie (without nuts) or a very large bowl of ice cream.

Sammy’s presence brought true joy to everyone who loved him, a sensitive soul who asked for so little but gave so very much.

In addition to his parents and siblings, he leaves by his grandmothers: Phyllis M. Andrews of Hanson, Sandra Andrade of New Bedford and many aunts, uncles and cousins.

Visiting hours will be held from 2 to 6 p.m., on Sunday, May 15 in the Blanchard Funeral Chapel, Plymouth Street (Route 58 at the rotary) Whitman. His funeral service will be held at 11 a.m., Monday, May 16 in the Chapel.  Following the service, Sammy will be laid to rest beside his Grandpa at Fern Hill Cemetery in Hanson.

In lieu of flowers donations may be made in Sam’s honor to Samaritanshope.org.

For online condolences and directions visit blanchardfc.com.

Hanson Youth Cheer registration and tryout

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Hanson Youth Cheer will hold registration and tryout sessions from 5 to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, May 17 and Wednesday, May 18 at Hanson Middle School. Come learn to cheer and dance.

Evaluations will be held as follows on Thursday, May 19: Mites from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.; Pee-Wees from 6:30 to 7 p.m. and Midgets from 7 to 7:45 p.m.

Board approves talks with Verizon

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WHITMAN — Selectmen have authorized Town Administrator Frank Lynam to approach Verizon about negotiating an extension of fiber-optic cable television service to Whitman under a secondary cable license.

If successful it would mean an added option to, not a replacement of, Comcast service in town. The current contract between the town and Comcast expires in 2022.

“We have a license with Comcast,” Lynam said. “Verizon has not indicated any interest in coming to Whitman since we last met about seven years ago.”

That position might be changing.

“They have begun build-outs,” Lynam said of Verizon. “So I would like to approach Verizon, rather than waiting for them to get to us and perhaps offer some inducements to come up with a plan to provide fiber-optic service in Whitman.”

He required the board’s permission to begin that process.

Vice Chairman Dan Salvucci asked if there would be continued financial support for Whitman-Hanson Community Access Television’s studio. Lynam said WHCA is funded by access fees paid by cable customers channeled through Comcast.

“Obviously, if we bring another cable company into Whitman, we would have to provide some accommodation and we would expect them to provide similar services in terms of public access,” he said.

Verizion would eventually have to apply for a license, with Selectman required to hear their application and issue public notice.

In other business, Selectmen Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski reminded Whitman residents of the May 21 annual Town Election and the important override question on the ballot.

“I think we have to think long and hard about spending the money to take care of our schools better than we’re taking care of them now,” Kowalski said. “As I said at the Town Meeting, we’ve done really well in this town getting through an economic downturn. We haven’t let people go, we’ve been able to treat our firemen and our policemen well … I don’t know if we can say the same thing about the schools.”

Kowalski said it is time to think about changing that pattern where the schools are concerned. He and Vice Chairman Dan Salvucci also credited the Finance Committee, led by people like chairman William Capocci, stepping down after 22 years, and Don Hunt, leaving after serving 23 years, as well as Lynam’s efforts in managing the town’s finances. Whitman has the lowest tax rate in the immediate area right now.

“It’s time to do all right by the kids,” Kowalski said. “I was thinking today how important my teachers were … you spend so much time from age 5 or 6 to 17 with a special group of people who could use our support.”

Lynam noted that teachers, such as his daughter in-law, spend hours before and after school hours in unpaid preparation.

“A teacher’s job doesn’t begin when they walk into the school and it doesn’t end when they go home,” he said.

The override, if successful in Whitman, is good until the tax rate is set in the fall, according to Lynam. Should one town pass it and the other reject it, it fails by default unless the other town revotes before that time.

“I think the most confusing situation will be if one town passes and one doesn’t,” he said. “That would be breaking new ground.”

Lynam also expressed appreciation for the work done at Town Meeting, May 2.

“I am extremely thankful that we completed Town Meeting in one night with very little controversy,” Lynam said.

“And keeping democracy safe in Whitman,” Kowalski said.

“So I hear,” Lynam replied.

Memorial Day events outlined

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With Memorial Day just two and a half weeks away, veterans’ organizations are finalizing plans for parades in both towns.

Ahead of the Monday, May 30 observances, Boy and Girl Scout troops will be placing flags on veterans’ graves and Whitman’s Duval School will be holding its annual “We Remember Ceremony” on Friday, May 27. Duval pupils, their families and school staff will gather in the school gym at 9:30 a.m., along with invited town officials, veterans and members of the Duval family, for a program of patriotic music, student poetry and honors for deceased veterans.

On Memorial Day itself, parades and memorial ceremonies for those fallen in service to country are the focus of a morning full of events.

The 149th annual Whitman Memorial Day Parade forms at 8:45 a.m. at the corner of Park Avenue and Court Street. The parade steps off at 9:30 a.m.

Marchers make their way along South Avenue to the Town Hall for ceremonies at the Honor Roll and then up Temple Street to the World War I Memorial Arch and then along a route to Colebrook Cemetery for ceremonies followed by programs at the Whitman Park flag pole, the Civil War Soldiers Monument and at the Veterans Monument for All Wars near the park pond for concluding ceremonies.

In Hanson, units including the WHRHS marching band, veterans’ groups, color guards, civic leaders, antique cars, horse, clowns and youth groups gather at Indian Head School for a ceremony and 10 a.m. parade start.

The parade heads down Liberty Street to the Town Hall green for ceremonies at the Civil War Monument, after which the parade re-forms and proceeds to Fern Hill Cemetery for the main presentation ceremonies and a keynote address. Hanson’s parade and related events conclude at 11 a.m.

Hanson Scouts are scheduled to place flags on veterans’ graves on Tuesday, May 17 at Fern Hill. Should a flag and/or appropriate marker be missed, families of veterans are asked to call the Veterans’ Agent at 781-293-2772 after May 17 so arrangements may be made.

The Hanson Veterans’ Services office reminds families of deceased veterans that they are eligible to receive, at no cost, a printed Presidential Memorial Certificate, a plastic grave marker commemorating the era and conflict in which the veteran served, and either an upright headstone or flat grave marker commemorating the veteran’s service branch, name, rank, birth date and year of death. For more information, contact the Hanson Veterans’ Agent.

A mother’s Day

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A mother swan nests with her cygnets Tuesday, May 3 on Wampatuck Pond near the Hanson Town Hall behind the Jack Conway Real Estate office. There appeared to be four or five babies. The business has been documenting the nesting process on its Facebook page as a community resource, and held a contest to name the parents — Gloria Swanson and Larry Bird were the winning entries.

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