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The buzz about sand wasps

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HANSON — Call it, perhaps, Operation Sand Wasps 2.0 — the sand wasps are back at Cranberry Cove, but this year, the vibe is live and let live.

Camp Kiwanee Administrative Assistant Dori Jameson said at a Monday, July 18 Recreation Commission meeting that, while the wasps are there and are “ugly looking, they’re scary looking,” they were not seemingly attracted by people’s food and seemed “pretty tame.”

“They’re looking for bugs,” she said. “They’re looking for other insects. Nobody got stung, nobody was freaking out. I just wish there was some sort of organic solution that we could use to move them along.”

She said digging up the beach would be an end game, but asked if bringing in an insect expert would be advisable. An infestation of the wasps forced the closure of the beach in 2021.

“We’d done it last year and it didn’t work,”  Chair Frank Milisi said of the organic pesticide that was tried. “The problem is you can’t go down there with Off! … They said the best deterrent is tarps. I don’t agree with that, but we can’t spray anything down there because of Conservation would need to be involved.”

Milisi said if the wasps are not bothering people, “it is kind of what it is.”

He said the Board of Health could shut the beach down if they wanted to, but he would not pursue that, especially in view of the heat wave that sizzled the state last week.

“It’s ‘Swim at your own risk,’ people know that,” Milisi said.

Recreation Commission also continued its work on reconsidering fees for events and facilities at Camp Kiwanee.

Rates and fees

Jameson said the question of weekly camping rates had just come up this month. Two different parties camping in the north end of the campground both raised the question of weekly rates.

“Right now it’s a daily rate,” Jameson said. “It’s $60 a night for a cabin and $30 a night for a tent site.”

She suggested a weekly rate that trims $5 a night off tent sites and $10 off cabins. Milisi said he had no problem with that rate.

“Weekly rates are pretty much standard, and it’s usually about that [price point],” he said.

Vice Chair Melissa Scartissi suggested rounding the usual $420 rate for seven days to $400 for cabins and reducing tent sites from $210 to $200 on a weekly rate. That was the weekly rate approved.

The Recreation Commission also pared back its meeting schedule to once per month, instead of two and setting the time at 6 p.m.

“If we do need to meet [more often], we can just meet,” Milisi said.

Event fees were discussed as a way of covering caretaker fees, with re-elected Milisi using the example of a $50 fee per event charged to the theater group Drama Kids. Things like bar service should remain on an 80-20 contract, as they are because they operate on a cash-based system.

“I’m just floating around ideas about that,” he said. “But for things like Drama Kids, we don’t have an idea of how many kids are coming. I really want to get out of the practice of going into people’s finances when we don’t need to. I would prefer for it to be a fee-based use.”

With more input from actual vendors, he said the commission could discuss what works for a group such as Drama Kids vs. a paint night or other such events. Vendors will be invited to the August meeting to voice their opinions with an eye toward a decision in October.

Scartissi noted that, where Drama Kids is concerned, since they use the lodge every week, the commission should be covering caretaker costs.

“The issue has been, for the past year or two, we haven’t because of COVID [and] our operational expenses, like to turn the heat on was a real issue,” she said. “Now we’re in a little better place with the increased rates and all that kind of stuff.”

A position remains open on the Recreation Commission, and residents are urged to apply.

At a previous meeting on Monday, June 27, the commission discussed complaints about a “rambunctious group of teen-agers … causing all kinds of mayhem and chaos” at Cranberry Cove.

“I don’t know what we would do to remediate that,” Milisi said. “Obviously, we don’t have people down there to check every day.”

But he said he would like to have an on-staff caretaker who could go to the beach and check out the situation at the beach.

The teens had broken some electrical equipment and were throwing rocks in the water while younger children were swimming during the incident. The teens’ parents had picked them up that night, Milisi said.

If they keep causing problems, Milisi said he might have to look into trespassing charges. 

“That’s such a ridiculous thing to do to a bunch of middle schoolers who just want to come down here and have a good time,” he said.

He stressed that the problems that have taken place have not hindered people from attending the facility.

Regarding a complaint against a caretaker, Milisi emphasized that the Commission does not get involved in personnel issues – that is primarily the jurisdiction of the town administrator and Select Board.

In other business on June 27, Hanson Public Library’s Lizzie Borden event was approved for Oct. 20 at Needles Lodge, Camp Kiwanee.

Massasoit’s All-American catcher

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BROCKTON — First year student-athlete Bryce Evans racked up some more hardware following the conclusion of the 2022 Massasoit baseball season, earning NJCAA All-American Third Team honors recently announced by the national office. 

The Hull native became the first Massasoit baseball student-athlete to earn NJCAA All-American accolades since pitch Jake Stearns was selected back in 2016. He also becomes just the 31st Massasoit baseball student-athlete to earn the accolade in program history. 

For the season, Evans, a catcher, also earned NJCAA Region 21 First Team honors. 

In his first year with the Warriors, Evans hit an impressive .463, ranking 11th nationally in batting average and posted percentage of .511 on-base and .752 slugging, also among the NJCAA national leaders.  

In conference play, Evans was even better, posting an eye popping .641 batting average, .681 on-base percentage and 1.231 slugging percentage for the year. He led Massasoit in hits (56), runs (38), doubles (15), homers (4), extra-base hits (23), batting average, on-base percentage and slugging for the season. 

Hanson reviews town-owned property

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HANSON — Town Planner Tony DeFrias has completed a comprehensive inventory of town-owned property with an eye toward the potential for revenue development by the town.

“Historically, as a board — at least since Mr. [Jim] Hickey and I have been on — we’ve been pretty good about getting properties that were perhaps taken for back taxes, back onto the rolls … and get them sold,” said Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett.

But, she added the town’s Economic Development Committee “really wanted to look at [whether there are] other properties that the town owns that we could leverage” back into private hands as a way to attract businesses to town. DeFrias then took on the task of reviewing the status of town-owned properties to start that process.

There are 72 properties owned or controlled by the town — 17 have public buildings or public spaces and 55 town-owned — he reported to the board on Tuesday, July 19.

“This is perfect,” Select Board member Ed Heal said after DeFrias’ presentation. “Even this is a lot of work.”

“Now that we have this information do we want to do anything with this?” Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett agreed, noting more conversation is needed.

DeFrias recommended the board study the report and plan a future discussion on which properties may be sold and which should be passed along to Conservation or the Water Department.

Disposition of town property falls under MGL Ch. 3OB §16, he said, noting that Article 35 of the 1965 Hanson Town Meeting requires consultation with the Conservation Commission prior to disposition of land as a means of preserving waste land for conservation.

From 1994-2020, 36 of those properties were taken for taxes, with the total amount of taxes owed being $620,814.52 as of Jan. 12, 2021. One of the properties also carries a septic loan.

The properties come under three categories: 12 come under Conservation land, eight are recommended to be considered Water Department Credit land and 11 are buildable or potentially buildable land. Those remaining have specific uses such as drainage or easement, according to DeFrias.

Buildable properties would require further investigation to determine their true potential.

One such 3.30-acres parcel is at 212 Industrial Blvd., another is the 3.34 acres of property at 533 Main St., where the former L.Z. Thomas School Housing Authority apartments are located in a Residence A Zone. Yet another 1.21 acres is the property which includes the Historical Society building is now located at 565 Main St.

“There’s a potential here to create additional housing, and affordable housing for the town,” he said. It’s also part of a larger site because of nearby parcels also on the list.

FitzGerald-Kemmett said the Economic Development Commission has been exploring the possibilities the area near the Bonney House as part of an historical “village,” but she agrees with DeFrias, who said it could also remain where it is. A lot of the plans depend on completed renovations at the Bonney House

“This is one of 100 steps,” DeFrias said. “We’re looking at alternatives.”

The 212 Industrial Blvd., property is at the industrial park within the commercial-industrial zone as well as the marijuana overlay district and falls within a Zone 2 Wellhead Protection District.

“This is a potential vacant piece of land that’s owned by the town that could be sold off for a business or an industrial building,” he said. Board of Health, Conservation Commission and, probably, ZBA approval for site plan would be required before development.

A 1.19 acre parcel at 0 Main St., has potential for several possible uses, including a possible second fire station if that were needed, DeFrias said.. At 0 West Washington St, a larger parcel of 7.17 acres nextdoor to the Water Department building is also in a commercial-industrial zone. But the fact that it is traversed by a 70- foot water main easement in a Zone 2 Water Protection District, means it may be better-suited to a business park with the proper engineering.

“If we’re looking for business and trying to increase our business, there isn’t a lot of room in Hanson,” he said, noting that the properties would all have to be further investigated. “There’s potential there.”

DeFrias also discussed some smaller parcels during his PowerPoint presentation, including two residential property sites at 69 Wood St., and 62 Ocean Ave.

“The board needs to go through the list and decide what we need to do with it,” DeFias said.

Grants aid police mental health  efforts

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HANSON — The Hanson Police Department will soon be obtaining a new “officer” – a golden retriever comfort dog, to be used primarily in the schools.

Chief Michael Miksch said he expects the dog to make frequent visits to the Senior Center, where School Resource Officer Derek Harrington is also a liaison officer.

During his regular report to the Select Board, Miksch briefed members about the comfort dog program, a mental health clinician he is pursuing to share with three other area departments and an accreditation process, the department is now undergoing, and that he expects certification to be completed within a year and full accreditation “before I go.”

The Select Board unanimously approved the comfort dog program and related memorandum of understanding concerning the animal.

The department has been awarded a $5,000 grant from DA Timothy Cruz’s office for a comfort dog, which the schools had asked for, but, while the dog will be largely used by the School District, the grant is designed for police departments.

Miksch admitted he was skeptical at first, but has since seen the value of the dogs.

“If you asked me a couple of years ago, I would have been like, ‘There’s no way I’m buying a pet for the cops,’” he said. “Having a little bit more of an open mind and actually researched it a little bit more, these things are unbelievable.”

It can’t be called a therapy dog because the department can’t provide a service, but it can be used as a comfort animal.

“The way part of this started was the schools had mentioned they would really like one for the guidance office, but I told them, ‘I’m not ready to do that,’” he said. He looked into grants, which were for law enforcement. Cruz’s grant – funded through drug seizure money – will pay for the dog itself, even while it will spend most of its time in the schools. 

A memorandum of understanding was negotiated with the union, where the main concerns were, how the dog would be used, who would care for it, and who would be responsible for any financial issues. They took no additional salary for it.

“My goal is for a $0 program for the taxpayers,” Miksch said, noting the training program receives a lot of public donations and officers are interested in doing side fundraisers. There will, however be liability and health insurance – perhaps about $2,000 a year – needed for the dog, but that can be covered through the regular police budget.

The department is working with Golden Opportunities for Independence (GOFI)  which trains therapy and service dogs as well as comfort dogs.

Seven police K-9 comfort dogs –mainly from Norfolk County – are already in the program, working with schools.

For any remaining costs, Miksch said a couple people have already offered to make donations directly to GOFI, a 501 (c) 3 organization.

Select Board member Joe Weeks, who has worked with Children and Family Services said it will be a great morale booster for the town.

 “There’s really no downside to what you’re doing,” he said.

Miksch said it would also be an asset for the senior center, where some people have expressed enthusiasm because, while they love dogs, they are unable to have a large dog anymore and would welcome a visit.

“I told officer Harrington he’s going to be the second-most popular person in town – after the dog,” Miksch said.

“Town Hall employees do need a little visit occasionally,” Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett. “When she’s ready, we’d love to have a little visit.”

Miksch said the dog could stop by as early as next week.

After the dog’s service, it may remain with officer’s family unless there are training lapses or other problems.

The dog, a 5-month-old female is already showing a talent for tracking and can be used for soft track searches for missing autistic or elderly persons.

“We’re not sending Cujo out there with a muzzle on to find them and scare them,” Miksch said. “Foofy dog’s going to sit down next to them and lick them and they’ll be happy and everything will be wonderful.”

Miksch said he is also working with the towns of Carver, Plympton and Halifax to get a grant through Children and Family Services in New Bedford and Plymouth for crisis intervention that would fund a clinician at one of the three area stations to reduce the need to transport people to the hospital on psychiatric calls and for follow up when there is a need for mental health services.

“We’re cops,” he said “We know [when someone’s] not right or we know [they’’re] OK, and sometimes there’s a really big gray area,” he said. “This is going to help a lot.”

Accreditation process involves a review of 179 standards that have to be met by the department.

“The good news is, we do those things either in practice or in writing,” Miksch said. “But it’s time to put it all together in writing.”

There has also been changes in police officer training standards as part of the state’s police reform law, mandating certain changes, which Hanson is also following.

He said department regulations are also being updated, which hadn’t been updated since he was hired in 2013.

New search for clues in Murray case

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The family of a Hanson woman, missing since 2004, asked people in Whitman and Hanson to light a candle for her Friday night, July 15.

Police personnel in two New Hampshire towns again searched areas of Landaff and Easton, N.H., for missing Hanson woman Maura Murray on Wednesday, July 13.

The ground search encompassed an area off Route 112 and “is not the result of new information in the case,” New Hampshire Attorney General John. M. Formella stated in a press release about the search. “It is part of an ongoing investigative process and will consist of a more extensive search of surrounding areas previously searched in a more limited fashion.”

Because the investigation is ongoing, Formella and State Police Col. Nathan Noyes said no more information would be released at this time and asked the public to respect the privacy of residents in the area and to stay off private property.

“My family is aware of the search efforts and are working closely with law enforcement at this time,” said Julie Murray, Maura’s sister. “We ask the public not to interfere with the investigation. We will share information as appropriate. We are encouraged by the active efforts to find Maura and remain hopeful for a resolution.”

Anyone with information about Maura Murray’s disappearance is asked to call the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit at 603-223-3648 or email Coldcaseunit@dos.nh.gov. More information about Maura and ongoing efforts to find her and bring her home may be found at mauramurraymissing.org.

The FBI created a Violent Criminal Apprehension Profile in Maura Murray’s case in January 2022, which her sister has said in published reports is a way for multiple agencies and different jurisdictions to share information. Bone fragments had been found at the base of Loon Mountain in September 2021, but were not connected to Murray. The fragments may even date as far back as the 18th Century, officials announced at the time. 

The bone fragments were found in “existing soil,” according to New Hampshire State Police sand were not moved there with radio carbon dating placed a 95-percent certainty that the bones are from a person dead from sometime between 1774 and 1942.

Authorities had previously dug in the basement of a home along Route 112 in April 2019 – with the present owner’s permission – after ground-penetrating radar used by a private investigator indicated the ground under the basement had been disturbed, but no credible evidence was recovered.

Murray, a Umass, Amherst student at the time, went missing on Feb. 9, 2004 after her car crashed on Route 112 in Haverhill, N.H. The 21-year-old student – who was a graduate of Whitman-Hanson Regional High School and had attended West Point for a time – has not been seen since.

Route 112 leads into a section of White Mountain National Forest.

Her family has not given up hope that an answer to the mystery surrounding her disappearance will be found.

Police had received two calls from residents  around 7:30 p.m., in the area of the crash reporting a car off the road, a local bus driver later told investigators that he saw a woman standing next to the black Saturn. He told police, according to a report on Boston Channel 10 news, that he asked the woman if she wanted him to call police, but said she told him she had already called police and AAA. 

When police arrived, according to reports, the car was locked and facing the opposite direction from where she was driving.

He called police anyway.

One resident told WMUR since the incident, that no tracks were seen going into the woods in the area, suggesting she had stayed on the road before she disappeared. Some believe “someone locally grabbed her who knows the area,” as Maura’s father Fred put it, and would know how to get around without being seen.

Other residents have told reporters they doubt it was a local person that may have been involved.

Murray, described as 5-foot 7-inches tall, weighing about 120 pounds at the time of her disappearance. She has brown hair and blue eyes and was last seen wearing a dark jacket and jeans. Her case status is that of a missing person, whose disappearance is considered suspicious.

She was a nursing student at Umass at the time of her disappearance, and had  damaged her car (estimated at about $8,000) in a collision with a guardrail.

The day before she left the Umass campus, she sent an email to instructors the there was a death in her family and that she had to be away. Her computer showed a search for directions in Burlington, Vermont and she made a call to Stowe, Vermont, but no reservations were made.

Launched on Maura Murray’s 38th birthday, the website offers the public never before seen photos of Maura, a repository of news reports dating back to 2004, and an opportunity for people interested in the case to get to know Maura up close and personal.

Another feature is a blog post that is regularly updated, as a way for the family to put out information to keep the community informed. A contact tab will allow site visitors to communicate with the family, as well as a contact tab that provides email updates on important case developments when and if they come out.

A tip area provides a place for people to provide new information.

988 is the new national suicide prevention line

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HANSON — Police Chief Michael Miksch and the Hanson Police Department remind residents that the new National Suicide Prevention Lifeline number, 988, which took effect on Saturday, July 16.

The 988 dialing code will become the new national number routing callers to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline across the U.S. on July 16. The new phone line will be accessible 24/7/365 by call or text.

The number was designated by Congress in 2020. Similar to calling 911 for emergency response, the three-digit number is easy to remember for individuals experiencing suicidal thoughts or struggling with emotional distress, or for those worried about a friend or loved one.

As of July 16, when individuals call or text 988 they will be connected with trained counselors from the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline network. Counselors will listen, understand how the caller’s problems are affecting them, provide support and connect them to resources if necessary. The Lifeline can also be reached through online chat suicidepreventionlifeline.org/chat.

Language translation services are also available to all callers, including the Spanish Language Line, which can be accessed by pressing 2 after dialing.

Military service members, veterans and their families may reach the Veterans Crisis Line by pressing 1 after dialing 9-8-8, as well as by chatting online at veteranscrisisline.net or texting 838255.

LGBTQ youth may also use the Trevor Lifeline by calling 1-866-488-7386 or texting 678-678 to access information and support for LGBTQ youth.

The current Lifeline hotline number, 1-800-273-8255, will remain in service even after the launch of 988. Dialing either number will route callers to the same services, no matter which number they use.

According to the Lifeline, suicide is the second-leading cause of death among young people, and, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, was the tenth-leading cause of death in the nation. The Lifeline has received over 20 million calls from people in distress looking for support from its inception in 2005 to 2020. The Hanson Police Department encourages anyone who may be struggling or knows someone who is struggling to call the Lifeline for help and to get the necessary resources.

Whitman provides aid at 4-alarm Hingham fire

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HINGHAM — Whitman Fire Department was among 12 regional departments providing assistance from firefighters, chiefs and station coverage as they aided the Hingham Fire Department in battling a four-alarm fire at a large house Monday afternoon. The blaze had spread to at least four other homes in the area.

No injuries were reported in the fire that is under investigation by the Hingham Fire and Police departments and the State Police Fire & Explosion Investigation unit assigned to the State Fire Marshal’s office.

While the 6,000-square-foot house was a total loss and other homes sustained damage. Three people were inside 4 Mann St. when the initial fire started and all got out safely. 

The family will also be displaced. Several homes in the area were evacuated as a precaution due the fire embers spreading to nearby houses.

At approximately 12:50 p.m., Hingham Fire responded to 4 Mann St. after receiving multiple calls about a home being on fire.

While responding to the scene, firefighters could see large amounts of smoke above the house and struck a second alarm. 

Upon arrival, the house was fully involved and a third alarm was immediately called for. At 1:30 p.m., Chief Murphy struck a fourth alarm as the fire continued to spread.

Area residents were asked water down mulch beds on their properties.

Three people were inside 4 Mann St. when the initial fire started and all got out safely. The family will also be displaced. 

Several homes in the area were evacuated as a precaution due the fire embers spreading to nearby houses.

About 120 firefighters from nine of the communities, Hull, Cohasset, Norwell, Scituate, Rockland, Weymouth, Quincy, Braintree and Hanover Fire departments responded to the scene and the Whitman and Brockton Fire departments sent chiefs to provide assistance and Abington Fire Department provided station coverage for Hingham.

The Hingham Police Department controlled access to the site and aided in evacuating neighbors from the affected area.

National Grid and Hingham Municipal Lighting Plant were working to restore gas and electricity to the neighborhood after it had been shut off by the utility companies.

— Tracy F. Seelye

Soldiers’ stories of crisis

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By Tracy F. Seelye, Express editor
editor@whitmanhansonexpress.com

WHITMAN – The wounds of war can go beyond the ones that bleed, to the invisible pain of moral and psychological scars.

“It’s a paradox that I want to acknowledge – the veterans’ paradox,” author Michael J. Robillard says. “As a veteran, how can one voice an opinion on the military and its policies without falling victim to the binary, of sounding either like a pacifistic victim or a war-hawk shill?”

He said the first risks sounding like a broken victim or a person condemning one’s own country, military or comrades in arms, or risking conflating patriotism with enthusiastic, uncritical endorsement of all things military and all things war.

American Legion Post 22 on June 29 hosted a book discussion with Robillard, who wrote a book titled “Outsourcing Duty: The Moral Exploitation of the American Soldier,” with Bradley J. Strawser. [Oxford University Press, hardcover 240 pages, $35 — available on Amazon.com]

“This book is an attempt to walk a tightrope,” Robillard said of the widening civilian/military divide. “If this town were to deploy in WWI, the entire town would have [gone] together and come back and spent the entirety of our lives sorting through what it was that we just did.” 

By WWII, families like the Sullivans, who lost all five sons, who had insisted on serving on the same ship, when that ship was sunk in action, led to a policy of separating family members or residents of the same town in service. By Vietnam, differing operation tempos affected how troops were deployed. 

The all-volunteer force since Vietnam takes the entirety of war fighting and decision-making “and drastically pushes it behind a social veil, where 1 percent or 2 percent of the population are doing the war fighting.”

Matthew Quimby of the Post’s Sons of the American Legion group introduced Robillard, reading from one of the book’s back cover blurbs.

“‘Outsourcing Duty’ is the first serious and detailed analysis of the ways in which societies and governments expose their soldiers to moral as well as physical risk,” he read during the event broadcast by Whitman-Hanson Community Access TV. “Soldiers are compelled to fight in wars about which they are given a little information. They must take responsibility for the life-and-death decisions that involve a great risk of wrongdoing.”

Robillard spoke of a military ethics conference he attended in Spain in March 2018 where he spoke to a fellow West Point graduate, Maj. Ian Fishback [a year ahead of Robillard] and veteran of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, was one of three 82nd Airborne soldiers who had written in 2005 to the late U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., about abuses of prisoners’ rights he had witnessed at a forward base in Fallujah, Iraq that “had gone unnoticed.” He chronicled in that letter what he saw as a military culture that was permissive toward the abuse of prisoners.

The friend had served three more tours after transferring to Special Forces before returning to West Point to become a philosophy professor, before working on his PhD at the University of Michigan.

Tragically, Fishback died at age 42 in an adult foster care facility. According to a New York Times report of his death, his family said his career “begun to unravel as a result of neurological damage or post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

The last time Robillard had spoken to his friend was in a Veterans Day phone call a week before Fishack’s death.

“Ian was a scholar,” Robillard said. “He was a warrior. He was an examplar of what it meant to be an American citizen, and our country gravely failed him. … Ian’s situation is not unique at all – not for him, not for my generation, not for … the last set of wars that America’s been fighting.”

Woburn native Staff Sgt. Keith Callahan was buried in 2007 after he was killed in Iraq. Robillard called him “the best platoon sergeant I ever had,” when as a new second lieutenant, the author found himself in his first command posting from 2003-04. Callahan was killed in action on a later deployment.

Robillard also spoke of Abington’s Marine Sgt. Daniel Vasselian, killed in Afghanistan in 2013; Whitman native Maj. Michael Donohue of the 82nd Airborne, who was killed in action in Afghanistan a year later; and  Sgt. Jared Monti, also of  the 82nd Airborne, who hailed from Abington, killed in 2006 in Afhanistan.

“Anyone know his story?” Robillard asked about Monti. “Medal of Honor. I would be very surprised if many people in this area are even aware of it. It was news to me.”

He said he listed the local fallen as a “brief snapshot of the side effects of our nation’s ongoing wars, at least for the last 20 years.”

It is not just a Massachusetts issue, he said, but a national one that spans the country and expands generationally.

Of the 1 percent that was doing any fighting in U.S. wars, much of that was assigned to Special Forces units, according to Robillard. Considerations about warfare, including ethics, was being pushed off to the tip of that spear.

“The civil/military divide I’ve just described is still widening,” he said. “This isn’t a static thing.”

The three side effects the authors see are: unchecked military adventures, or the “forever wars;” a basic breakdown in the shared notion of citizenship; and the moral exploitation of soldiers.

The book largely focuses on the latter, exploring the relationship of exploitee vulnerability and exploiter benefit, according to Robillard and Strawser.

“This is an incomplete account of how persons or groups can be exploited,” Robillard said. “Persons can also be exploited, unfairly or excessively, by being made to shoulder excessive amounts of moral responsibility. We think that is what’s going on, at least, in part, with America’s relationship to its soldiers and to its veterans – at least during the last 20 years and the War on Terror.”

PTSD, moral injury and the growing problem of suicides among the veterans community is tracking something within the moral space that illustrates the problem.

The book also traces the demographics of vulnerability within the military – socio-economic background, geography, age, race gender and recruitment means and methods. Society, on the other hand, benefits from minimal disruption and physical risk to a tremendous institutional immunity to moral injury and dilemmas.

They also offer three possible prescriptions for the problem: recruitment reform and compensation; going back to some kind of ‘skin in the game argument,’ perhaps like the pre-Vietnam citizen soldier model of some type of draft so communities see actual tangible evidence of a war; or a national service model. Some of the soluions examined in the book range from removing profit margin for war, giving youth more likely to go to war a voice in whether or not there should be one and limitation of military forces to home defense purposes. 

“It doesn’t have to be national military service – fighting fires out in Wyoming or building roads or doing something — but at least gives some damn sense that we’re shared citizens that are doing our part to collectively share in our war-fighting decision making, and we’re shouldering the responsibility equitably,” Robillard said.

Robillard said he is “most sympathetic” to the prescription of requiring more skin in the game.

Schools map out strategic plan work

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By Tracy F. Seelye, Express editor
editor@whitmanhansonexpress.com

Strategic plan working groups will be spending this month examining issues to improve the district, with an eye toward fostering discussions involved in at the Aug. 17 meeting, the W-H Regional School Committee has decided.

The committee, at its Wednesday, July 6, following a pre-meeting executive session to discuss contract negotiation strategies, discussed and selected areas of focus for its strategic plan working groups, which are not designed to be public meetings. 

“With all of these [issues], it’s a conversation,” said Chair Christopher Howard. “We’re doing analysis, we’re sharing ideas.” It doesn’t mean that, come Aug. 17, the committee would have detailed plans ready for a vote. “It’s to understand and to build that long-term plan, with the exception of start times,” he said.

The committee did vote 9-1, with member Fred Small opposed, to establish an advisory committee, including a couple committee members to determine whether school start times will change.

“Among the issues parents have been asking for is a change to school start times, particularly at the high school. That issue, however has been carved out for work by the school district leadership team due to issues such as logistics, financial and potential contract implications will be addressed before suggestions are brought back to the committee.

Four public comment emails had also been received from Shawn Kain, Joshua Gray, Ann Gray and Jennifer Cronin, according to Howard. Kain’s comments were relating to budget process while pulling the five-year plan in and looking for budget efficiencies and and the other three were regarding school start times and post-graduation readiness – preparing students for college and career.

Previously discussed strategic plan topics have been placed in groups — relating to security; student climate, culture and support; robust K-8 related arts; STEM and 21st-century learning; 1-to-1 technology and early childhood education. Committee members prioritized which issues they wanted to work on. The top three categories were robust K-8 related arts, post-graduation readiness and student climate, culture and support as the three main focus topics this year.

Member Dawn Byers suggested start time could be grouped in under student climate and support. She said it was not clear whether the committee is in total agreement as it was on all-day kindergarten, and “was not sure why the committee is not being invited to work along with that.”

Vice Chair Christopher Scriven said it was an example of collaboration toward a more efficient solution, as Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak has indicated he is willing to include committee members in that work.

“We’re not shelving it,” Scriven said. “We’re going to continue to be involved.”

He said he had no problem with administration and some committee members taking the lead on it, making a motion to that effect.

Member David Forth suggested doing the work under the umbrella of an advisory committee, which are not subject to the Open Meeting Law, and could provide the flexibility to bridge the concerns Byers voiced.

 “I was going to take start times on with my leadership team myself,” he said. “Based on public comment, based on what people have been emailing me, based on research that we’ve talked about since 2012, this was going to be one of my goals with my team this summer and putting it forth to the committee … so the committee could focus on a couple other things.”

He said he was willing to take some committee members on board with him for the work, but said some of the areas involved in the student climate and culture group would make the job overwhelming to put forward.

“When Jeff and I spoke, his point was it may be a more effective prioritization, [and] to get this moving quicker, for his team to look at the logistics of what it would take, rather than for us to spend the summer [discussing it].”

Howard said moving the issue forward in that way would make it a higher priority and, while the committee would still begin the working groups in August, but that Szymaniak would add one centering on what implementing new starting times might look like.

“It kind of bumps this one to the top of the line, if we want to go that way,” Howard said.

Szymaniak also said the start time issue has financial and contractual implications, as well as the need to notify parents if there’s a change.

“It’s not something that I can throw out there next February or March [along] with the calendar, saying, ‘Hey, by the way, all the elementaries are going to be going in at 9:30,’ that might not be fair for parents who’ve already established day care,” Szymaniak explained. He said he would rather see a proposal and potential impact bargaining issues with the teachers’ association by December.

Vice Chair Christopher Scriven said he is “very much in support” of working on start times.

“I’m thrilled that you’re going to take that on as one of your iniatives,” he said to Szymaniak. 

“We don’t need a discussion on it,” member Beth Stafford said. “I think we’ve all agreed with it … but what needs to be done is stuff that we can’t do.”

She pointed to busing logistics and budget impacts are more familiar to the district leadership team.

“If that gets things faster, let’s do it that way,” she said. “We have so many other things we can be working on if we know the administrative team is solely working on that one.”

Howard said another consideration was that setting up meetings to work on it would be easier with the leadership team than with the whole committee.

Member Glen DiGrazio asked what start time was actually based on.

“Long story short, in 2012, we cut the budget by about $400,000 and realigned all our start times,” Szymaniak said, noting it cut both bus routes and the number of buses needed to move the high school start time up 35 minutes – from 7:40 to 7:05 a.m.

Start time changes at the high school have a ripple effect to all the other schools.

Member Hillary Kniffen, who teaches in Pembroke, said making a start time change for that school district was a three-year process making 10-minute changes in each of those years.

“This is not shelving [work on start times], it’s prioritizing,” Scriven said, seeking to clarify the approach. “It’s not kicking the can down the road.”
Looking at the task ahead of the committee, member Fred Small, said that it would require meeting in smaller groups, looking into the individual items on the lists of topics divided between them.

“Unfortunately, in today’s world, some of it’s going to be financial — or what can and can’t we do — logistics … and also, what is the greater good,” he said.

While later start times benefit the four grades at the high school, he said a decision might crop up between that and a more robust related arts program that benefits eight grades.

Discussing information gleaned during July will be discussed toward making those decisions in August.

Forth said he saw valid arguments both for Szymaniak’s proposal and the inclusion of the full committee in the working group process, advocating a vote on that as well as votes for other top priorities in preparation for the Aug. 17 meeting.

Small suggested having committee members involved could potentially bog the process down. Howard said that if committee members want to participate, they would have to agree to Szymaniak’s schedule.

Whitman OKs senior tax work-off policy

By

By Tracy F. Seelye, Express editor
editor@whitmanhansonexpress.com

WHITMAN — The Select Board, on Tuesday, July 12, voted to establish a policy governing seniors participating in the tax work-off program and adhere to town policy on minimum wage.

Town Administrator Lincoln Heineman noted that voters at Town Meeting had approved an article to permit residents age 60 and over to reduce their real estate taxes by allowing a maximum number of hours each year instead of a maximum dollar amount.

“We have not has a policy for the senior tax work-off program in the past, just sort-of some procedures that were laid out by the Council on Aging,” he said. “It seemed like an opportune time to have a policy to bring clarity on a couple things.”

He based the policy on one he wrote for Hanover when he served as Town Manager there. 

Whitman will differ from the town’s current practice in that the board had recently voted that town employees should be paid minimum wage. There is also currently no cap on the number of tax work-off employees, but the proposed policy recognizes there might be with the 125 hours — now at $8 per hour, but possibly more — there might be some increased interest, which might require capping the number of people included in the program.

“Tax work-off employees are employees,” Heineman said. “They’re employees of a different kind. It’s up to the board what the hourly rate would be — it doesn’t have to be minimum wage.”

But his proposal left it to Select Board consideration to possibly have it at minimum wage.

There are currently 32 slots available under program guidelines, all of which have been filled.

“This would make it so there could possibly be a cap of 35,” he said. “If there were more applicants for the program … how would a determination be made about who was in the program and who wasn’t?”

Heineman’s policy proposal would give preference to those already in the program, establishing a first-come-first-served waiting list, provided that those on the waiting list would be well-matched by their skills and background to open positions.

Vice Chair Dan Salvucci asked what a position should pay per hour for a 125-hour post to take $1,500 of their taxes.

Heineman said it would be $12 per hour. The present minimum wage is $14.25 per hour (taking about $1,800 of property taxes) and rising to $15 per hour on Jan. 1. Right now a senior in the program working 100 hours at $8 per hour has $800 taken off their property taxes.

Heineman said the program is not required to meet the minimum wage requirements.

“I don’t think it meets the intent that we set when we set that policy, though,” Chair Randy LaMattina said. “I see tremendous value in this program. It’s helping out seniors in two ways, financially by way of taxes, but most of us have known these people from the time we voted the first time until last election. These are dedicated seniors that also get a lot, personally, out of this program.”

LaMattina said he had no problem going to minimum wage for the program.

The Council on Aging manages staffing through the program.

“I certainly would support it going to minimum wage,” member Shawn Kain said. “I feel like it’s a benefit they should be entitled to, not something [where] they should jump into a lottery and potentially get [sunk].” He advocated removing the cap on the number of participants.

“The question is, how much can the town [afford to] take off its taxes?” Salvucci asked. “Can we lose the revenue and still give services to the town? You’ve got to think on that issue.”

“And are there 100 positions to fill?” member Justin Evans asked.

Heineman said he expects the increase in hourly pay, along with the cap of 35 positions, the policy would take only about another $23,000 out of the overlay account, which funds it. The account typically carries $125,000.

“It would come out of taxes and reduce the excess levy,” he said.

LaMattina said he would like to see, monetarily, what the policy rules would do with the new rate.

“This program has been, I think, relatively stable,” he said. “If interest was out there, or if the need was out there, it can be amended.”