WHITMAN — How to make use of the former Police Station at the rear of Town Hall has been an open question for some time. During the Tuesday, Oct. 25 Select Board Meeting, Whitman Historical Commission member Marie Lailer made the organization’s pitch to use at least part of the facility, among possible locations for a Whitman Museum.

“We have a lot of town support for this,” she said. “The pieces of history that have found their way into our office, the DPW office, the Fire Station, the Police Station, just to mention a few, deserve a place to be preserved and protected.”

Concerns discussed involved the presence of asbestos, load-bearing walls, the need for secure storage areas for current town documents and ADA-compliant access to the site.

Lailer cited a Select Board discussion in January 2022, during which the commission asked the board to commit to moving the commission’s office and establishing a museum at the former station.

“The space is ideal, given it’s location in a current town building with handicapped access, but much work would need to be done before a move of our valuable historical collection could be completed,” she said. “All of this will take funding to make the interior suitable for this type of endeavor.”

South Shore Tech has already offered it’s assistance, but Lailer added, it would take great commitment of both time and money to make the proposal a reality.

The Commission is “at the gateway — for the first time — to request funding through the town’s newly approved participation in the Community Preservation Act and have applied to the CPC for additional funding “above the 10 percent automatically provided through the program to historical ventures,” according to Lailer. All donated historical documents, maps and memorabilia will be displayed in a way that residents can access for information and “enjoy the detailed history that is currently crammed into our office.”

In order to request the CPC funds, a sign-off is needed from the Select Board. That also involves allocating a space for the museum.

“We have talked to many residents regarding our hope, and feel this location is perfect for many reasons,” Lailer said, mentioning parking and accessibility at a town building with historic importance — and a part of it that has sat, empty, for many years.

“I would love other suggestions, but where are they?” she said.

That long-vacant status may continue for a while.

“We have discovered some challenges down there,” Select Board Chair Randy LaMattina said. “Such as asbestos, that needs to be removed. We also have some disability compliance issues that would have to be rectified because of the stone steps up and the steps down … from room to room.”

“It’s not a level facility,” interim Town Administrator Frank Lynam said. He also expressed concern about building security since the lower-level emergency exit goes out that way and, he said, the cells should be considered as vault areas.

Lailer said the cells were not included in the space the commission is considering, and agreed that a walk-through with Lynam might help the board envision the proposal better.

“I thought that would be a perfect place, too, until I started walking through it again,” Vice Chair Dan Salvucci said. “But that was way back when. … now we have more things to look into.”

Accessibility codes now take into consideration the width of doors and the height of steps. He also said the asbestos removal would have to be completed before SST students would be allowed to do any work there.

Salvucci also expressed concern over the fact that all the walls in the police station area are load-bearing, which could effect the cost of any renovation work.

Lailer suggested that the museum could work with existing walls, each room could be dedicated to a different aspect of town life and services.

Select Board member Justin Evans noted that the Historical Commission had been asked to return estimated costs for renovating and retrofitting the building to the board. He also said the board needed to hear recommendations as to what to do with unneeded existing equipment, “odds and ends the town is using and where the funding would come from.

Lailer said the commission is only interested in using the old police station, and stated that CPA money can be held in saving for a future project. She also asked for former Building Inspector Bob Curran to provide a walk-through to discuss cost factors during which he pointed out electrical work and other things that needed to be done.

She said the recent building inspector informed them that a walk-through wasn’t in his job description.

“I don’t know where to go from there,” Lailer said.

Evans said a $90,000 request for state funds through state Rep. Allyson Sullivan did not make the cut in budget discussions. Lailer said she is looking for additional grants.

Lynam also suggested the possible use of the former Park Avenue School and has consulted town counsel opinion.

“The process of taking over that particular property requires us filing a complaint in Superior Court, getting the attorney general to join us in setting aside a restriction that should never have been in the deed,” he said. Several ideas have been considered for its use in the past, but the deed specified the land be used for “school purposes” only.

They are also in talks to invite John Campbell to bring his extensive historical museum to the facility in the future. If he does make that decision, the commission would like to name the facility in his honor — the John Campbell Historical Museum — in recognition of the collection he displays in the former Regal Shoe Building on South Avenue.

WHITMAN – The lack of qualified candidates within a reasonable geographic area has motivated town officials to seek a higher salary ceiling when the special Town Meeting convenes next month.

The Select Board voted at its Tuesday, Oct. 25 meeting to add an article setting the salary range for the post to $160,000 on the Monday, Nov. 14 special Town Meeting warrant. Select Board member Shawn Kain abstained.

“What we’re doing is setting a ceiling,” Chair Randy LaMattina said. “We’re not actually negotiating or actually setting a salary … but I’ve yet to see someone come in and think they’re just qualified for the base level. But hearing that we’re not pulling candidates is kind of disheartening because it is something we have to move on.” 

Interim Town Administrator Frank Lynam said he has issued a draft of the special Town Meeting warrant, with the current articles under consideration, but said he wanted to place an article about the administrator’s salary.

“There is an article that addresses shortfalls in budgets for fiscal year 2023,” he said, but earlier that day the Town Administrator Search Committee met and found responses led them to the conclusion that the salary now being offered is hampering its work.

“If we’re going to attract a qualified administrator, we’re going to have to consider increasing the amount of money that we have budgeted,” Lynam reported.

The town is currently quoting a salary of “$150,000 and change.” The search committee is recommending that the Select Board consider increasing the salary ceiling figure to $160,000. That would require an additional $10,000 transfer at the Nov. 14 Town Meeting. 

“I don’t make this recommendation lightly,” he said. “It’s certainly a far cry from what we’ve seen in the past, but the reality is the market has gone crazy.”

There have been a “huge number” of retirements and people who have left public administration and Whitman is struggling to attract qualified candidates, in part because the town is competing with communities willing to pay more.

“It is what it is,” Vice Chair Dan Salvucci said.

“The special Town Meeting is the appropriate time to ask for more money for this position,” agreed  Select Board member Justin Evans. “I think the timing is right, it is what it is.”

Kain said he had definite reservations about it.

“I feel like it’s not an easy recommendation to seek,” he said, noting he respects the search committee’s recommendation. “We have to think carefully about this, because for obvious reasons, we’re going to see multiple effects throughout the budget.”

He said, while hiring the right person for that role, he felt he would like more time to process it.

“We can increase it to a higher level,” Salvucci said. “We can bargain, but at least the money is there in case any person we decide to go with chooses to go the full $160,000.”

LaMattina asked how many applicants the committee has seen.

The town received 14 applications.

“We very easily went through and disqualified nine of them today,” Lynam said. “It was a clear decision that there was no merit to considering those persons to recommend for the position due to lack of experience, ability, education – you name it.

“It’s been disappointing,” he continued. “And it isn’t for lack of reaching out.”

Lynam said that, in addition to advertising in municipal management publications, he has personally reached out to both Bridgewater State and Suffolk University alumni associations because they are turning out the most people with MPA degrees right now. But only one applicant has resulted so far.

Search Committee member John Galvin said the flexibility in negotiations that Salvucci mentioned was one reason for seeking the increase. Parting a bit from Lynam, he said there are really only two applicants so far that are worth considering.

“There are a couple from Arizona and Kansas and it’s like, ‘really?’” Galvin said. Although, while not comparable posititons, the school district recently hired someone from Alabama as its new facilities director.

They also did research into what town administrators are getting paid and the average is around $200,000.

Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak also met with the board briefly to discuss how the School Committee will be conducting joint budget meetings with the towns.

Such a joint meeting was held last year, at which time the select boards said they wanted to get more information and have more dialog prior to the budget season, Szymaniak said.

He has already presented his budget roll-out plan for fiscal 2024 to the School Committee.

“I’m going to present a tentative budget, without hard numbers  – which I won’t get until February – to the School Committee on Dec. 21,” he said. He said he would like to present either in a joint forum to the committee and both boards, or to each board with its Finance Committee in attendance, during the week of Jan. 9, 2023.

He also plans to meet with Hanson’s Select Board on Tuesday, Nov. 15 to hear what they want to say, and was seeking feedback from Whitman Select Board members this week.

“What I really don’t want to do is six individual meetings,” he said. “I’d like to do it collaboratively.”

The annual public forum focusing on the formal presentation of the school budget will be on Feb.1.

“Then we’ll get into the nitty gritty of questions that people have, but I wanted to give you an overview of what I’m thinking … and I wanted to hear from you what you were thinking and if that works with you in your timeline,” Szymaniak said. 

Kain said he thinks that Szymaniak and the budget subcommittee are doing excellent work, and should continue to help the process.

“I think it’s giving us a baseline of how we move forward,” Szymaniak said.

Salvucci asked whether one presentation to a joint meeting of both select boards and town finance committees would be more productive, and would ensure both towns received the same information in the same way.

“That’s my preference,” Szymaniak said, noting he would try to arrange it during the same week in January as the individual meetings were being considered. “I want feedback.”

Charged up?

In other business, the board also discussed the potential for electric and/or hybrid municipal vehicles after declaring five municipal vehicles – a 2004 Crown Victoria, a 2003 F250 pickup truck, a 2004 F250 utility body, a 2006 F250 pickup truck and a 1999 International 4900 – as surplus.

National Grid is fostering a MassFLEET Advisory Services Program, according to Evans, who has recused himself from being the contact person because funding is coming from National Grid, one of the companies he works to regulate as a state Department of Public Utilities employee.

Evans said Abington Town Manager Scott Lambiase, a former member of the Whitman Select Board, contacted hime about the program, as Abington is considering participation and Lambiase thought it might be a good fit for Whitman, as well.

A third-party company, working with National Grid funding, is offering to do fleet advisory services for public entities such as towns, school districts and community colleges, among others. 

“They will look at our current vehicle list, do an analysis – including our vehicle replacement timeline – of the cost and benefits of switching to battery electric vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and present it back to the town at no cost,” Evans said.

The town’s only financial commitment would be about 10 hours of staff time.

“If I’m reading this correctly, it also addresses infrastructure needs to set up for electric vehicles and further things down the line,” LaMattina said, noting that 2035 is when Massachusetts will be going full EV. “You’re starting to see [the change] – the first electric fire truck just rolled out in California and you are starting to see more and more larger trucks and things go this way.” 

LaMattina said he thinks it sets up the town for issues officials have to begin considering, especially with the new DPW building and a new middle school being planned – what infrastructure will need to be in place when the new policies start coming online.

“It’s definitely something to think about,” he said.

Bus transportation has been an issue since this summer, with school buses now at capacity students, drivers and parents feeling stressed, Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak reported during the Wednesday, Oct. 12 meeting of the School Committee.

Szymaniak announced at the meeting that monitors are being added to the district’s “high-impact” buses. He also said he has already had a couple of people volunteer.

“In COVID times we advertised for monitors [but] got no hits,” he said. “This would really be to oversee and assist the bus drivers in maintaining some control over the buses.”

The aim was to have them on board early this week.

The state requires 75 percent capacity on buses to qualify for regional transportation reimbursement, which further complicates the matter. Not every bus needs to be at 75 percent capacity.

A Hanson mother had given an extensive and detailed report during the public comment period about the emotional toll on her children of noisy, crowded buses that are stressing out drivers as well as students.

“Our buses are at capacity in Whitman and we’re a little lighter in Hanson, due to the fact that you have a wider space [in Hanson],” Szymaniak said, noting that initially meant, since Hanson buses had fewer students on them, Transportation Director Karen Villanueva crunched the numbers and Hanson ended up losing four of its 12 buses, he said.

Whitman’s area is about 5 square miles, while Hanson’s is about 15.6 square miles.

“It seems to be an issue at the elementary level with noise,” Szymaniak said. “I think putting more kids on a bus – and we seat them at capacity, which used to be two in a seat. It’s [now] three in a seat by law, by what we can do.”

Assistant Superintendent George Ferro said the goal is to use existing school district staff as monitors.

“It’s people the students recognize – whether it’s paraprofessionals, people who work in the lunch system, whether it’s a teacher or two – our goal is to encourage our staff and to work with out staff so that they can keep those positive relationships, hopefully, going or establish positive relationships so we can get kids home safe and go from there,” Ferro said.

Szymaniak said the district will continue to look at numbers in an effort to make more adjustments. 

“Hanson has been affected much more greatly than the town of Whitman,” he said. “These were the numbers we had when we presented our budget … and I absolutely will provide information to the finance committees.”

Whitman Finance Committee member Rosemary Connolly had made a specific request for that information during the meeting’s public forum.

“You did say that Hanson is more impacted, but they are both at capacity, so basically Whitman has consistently been impacted and Hanson is just beginning to feel the same impact … I think is a better way to describe it,” Connolly replied. “We probably should have had the fix of somebody on the bus before.”

Szymaniak thanked Connolly and fellow Whitman Finance Committee member Kathleen Ottina for bringing the bus capacity issue to the district’s attention.

School Committee member Dawn Byers said spreadsheet information available last year showed capacity problems.

“There are elementary schools in the district last year and the year before and the year before … with the same complaints – loud buses, bus drivers pulling over,” she said, indicating her children has similar complaints 10 years ago. “It’s consistently been that way for Whitman schools. … Something has to be fixed.”

She said the average ridership for Indian Head Schools 12 buses had been an average of 38 students and she asked about any savings. Conley School, with a similar number of students has eight buses serving the school.

Szymaniak said there was a $55,000 savings overall by moving tiers of bus routes, which is where distance traveled enters the equation.

“If that’s the past, now that we know what we need to do going forward, I’m hopeful that your solution of monitors on the buses will provide kids a safe and comfortable ride,” Committee member Fred Small said, addressing Szymaniak, who said he would like to put monitors on every bus.

“Right now, we’re going to hit the high-impact buses we’re having issues with,” Szymaniak said.

Chair Christopher Howard noted that there appears to be a “host of problems:” size of towns, bus routes were changed, post-pandemic concerns – “a whole bunch of moving parts to this issue.”

“You have to have an opportunity to manage and figure it out, but at the same time, I’m not sure I’m excited or comfortable about waiting until a November meeting to address the issue, ” he said to Szymaniak, asking what he saw as the next step and how he wanted to proceed. “This seems to be an issue that’s been here since the beginning of school.”
Szymaniak said the monitors are a solution he can control. 

“I can’t control the reimbursables, I can’t control the routes right now,” he said.

He said he has heard from elementary-level educators that it’s taking time for children to learn to resocialize following the pandemic and more kids on a bus raises the noise and anxiety level.

Szymaniak said he would need the time until the November meeting to work the problem and Howard encouraged people with questions to email them to the superintendent.

Hanson School Committee member Hillary Kniffen suggested another short-term aid would be to communicate with families how they should be helping adjust their children’s behavior on the bus.

Ferro also gave the annual MCAS report. While scores had been higher pre-pandemic, he said trends are now heading upward again, based on a three-year overview of scores.

“The state has basically said COVID is over,” he said. “They said you now have accountability status once again beginning this year for those schools that will get it. … This is the baseline year.”

There were no exams in 2020 because of COVID and, in the last two years there was a dip in reading scores, but math is already improving. The district is also conducting a curriculum analysis to identify strengths and areas where improvement is needed.

“We are still behind [standards] but we are making gains,” Ferro said.