HANSON – The Select Board, on Tuesday, June 25, discussed next steps in the wake of the previous week’s Town Meeting vote to accept budget cuts to fund the WHRHS operating assessment.
Among the suggestions was Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett’s proposal to approach School Committee Chair Beth Stafford to meet with Hanson’s representatives on the committee to discuss the competing town and school needs. The board also suggested it might be time to take another look at K-8 de-regionalization.
In the meantime, Town Administrator Lisa Green said she was beginning to meet with Town Hall union representatives and briefed the board on them during executive session.
“Conversations need to happen with the departments that are impacted, as far as hours,” she said. With a new assessor coming on board [see related story, this page], that conversation was scheduled for June 26.
After those meetings take place, proposals will go before the union and then come back to the board.
“We’re still taking these small steps, coordinating everyone to meet,” she said, with the aim of having things wrapped up by July 1 or shortly after.
Board member Joe Weeks said he appreciated the selfless efforts of residents who tried to suggest funding options from Town Meeting floor as a way to try to save jobs, but noted the work the Select Board has done over the past two years to add hours and positions to better serve the town.
“It’s recognized, for the most part universally, that those hours and jobs were needed,” he said. “Now we find ourselves in a position where we’re taking two steps back.”
Just as hard as it’s been to recruit people, Weeks said burnout and being stretched too thin causes retention problems and suggested more ideas for funding options should be brought forth and discussed now.
“We made a decision to cut staff based on [the School District] budget, which is not written in stone yet,” member Ed Heal said, noting that more state funding will be headed for the district. “What does that do to the jobs we just cut?”
FitzGerald-Kemmett said there is no do-over for the town.
Additional state funds for busing reimbursement and per-pupil costs will kept by the district and will not come back to the town.
“People need to know who they are voting for,” member David George said of School Committee members who are or have family members who work in education. FitzGerald-Kemmett said she wanted more clarity over administrative costs at the schools and senior administrative contracts and said she would like to get some Freedom of Information Act requests into the district to ask about those contracts and any re-negotiations.
“I don’t want to micro-manage the School Committee,” she said. “But what I do want to know is what is it that they’re looking at vs what we’re looking at and how is the conclusion that us cutting our staff is appropriate in light of what I believe are extraordinary increases as we have been led to believe.”
“We need a good School Committee,” George said.
Weeks, who wants to have a meeting with the entire School Committee, said he can’t understand why the board can’t have a meeting with even Hanson members. FitzGerald-Kemmett said that is something they can do.
“We need to,” he said. “We need to find a way to support them in giving the entirety of the townspeople their voice.”
Otherwise the responsibility for an override, budget management and job cuts would be shouldered by the Select Board alone, he said.
“I’m OK with taking the heat, but only when it’s appropriate,” Weeks said. “For whatever reason, we’re kind of falling on the sword in a way that I don’t fully understand why we’re not pushing this harder.”
FitzGerald-Kemmett then asked Green to reach out to Stafford or inquire if the board should reach out to Hanson’s four School Committee members directly, to discuss their concerns.
“I don’t know if we can effectuate any change in the way that people are voting or the way they’re thinking about it, but I certainly like to educate people about what the downstream effect is if they continue down the road that has been [followed],” she said.
Weeks expressed frustration over that disconnect between conversations with school officials during the year and the resulting budgets.
“The disconnect is, they are not here at the [Select Board’s] meetings,” said Vice Chair Ann Rein. “We have a couple of people that frequently come to our meetings and they know what’s going on – they’re hearing what we hear. Everybody isn’t, and then they make decisions on what I consider to be faulty or inadequate information
She pointed to Facebook posts in which irate residents express the opinion that the Select Board should be “reining in that School Department.”
“They don’t get it,” she said. “We do not control the school board.”
FitzGerald-Kemmett asked rhetorically if anyone thought that town jobs would be cut if the Select Board had control over the school district.
She also brought up the need to revisit the de-regionalization study and consider at least kindergarten through grade eight de-regionalization.
“I’m not talking about extremists talking about this,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “I’m just talking about ‘average Joe’s,’ the average person, saying ‘this is befuddling, I feel like the town of Hanson has no control over the fiscal spend through the schools.’”
She said that, in a sense, they are right other than who the town elects to the School Committee.
“I think we have to talk about all of it, because one of the things that stood out was just the act of the five of us voted to kick the assessment back, but the townspeople overwhelmingly voted to approve the assessment, and it makes it look like somehow we were against the schools,” Weeks said. “We all have our individual reasons for why we voted to kick it back … we were trying to strategize every which way, to do what we could to get the spending under control and to have some understanding of what the future might look like. Now, we’re playing catch-up and trying to work on Plan B.”
Master plan
The board also heard a presentation on the town’s Master Plan by the senior Comprehensive Planner Rhiannon Dugan of the Old Colony Planning Council, the regional planning agency serving Hanson.
“It’s an intense document, but hopefully everybody will have an opportunity to read it, and I would really like to use it as a reference document for our future strategic planning sessions because I think this has got a lot of good info for us,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
“The Master Plan is designed to be a comprehensive plan that encompasses all other government plans that the town has put forward and is a guide for creating any bylaws or zoning changes in the future,” Dugan said. “It is also a recap of historical change in town and future projections in terms of population, land conservation, businesses … the Master Plan covers housing, economic development, land use, open space and recreation, and natural and cultural recreation resources as well as public services and facilities and public transportation.”
Hanson’s Master Plan will also include a chapter on sustainability and resiliency for the town to meet its commitment for hazard mitigation and municipal vulnerabilities. The plan will serve as a guide not only for the Select Board, but the Planning Board, Conservation Commission and all other land use boards for at least the next 10 years.
The plan includes a list of goals and actions for the town to strive for, based on community input. It also includes a community profile.
Dugan said the process included a community survey, which brought in 267 responses with each chapter of the written plan containing a preface covering relevant responses.
Three public meetings have been held, one hosted by the Planning Board and the other two held at Camp Kiwanee and the Hanson Public Library.
Information can be found on the project’s website, which has been active throughout the process, according to Dugan.
“It was one of the most-visited web pages for the CPC last quarter,” she said. “There will be digital access to the plan in PDF form there.”
It will also be posted on the town website.
Hanson was lauded for its “excellent job in having permanently conserved land” and a lot of goals work with other up-to-date plans such as the housing production plan and the creation of affordable housing and a diverse housing stock for young families and seniors in need of affordable housing in Hanson. They also spoke of the High Street Park draft plan and hopes to seek funding for it going forward.
“Funding remains elusive, particularly in light of our MBTA vote,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
In other business, Health Board Chair Arlene Dias updated the board on the process and cost involved for residents to obtain new stickers for the Transfer Station.
The stickers are available online or in the office beginning July 1, she said, for an extra $3 fee online ($68) or at the office for $65.
Residents may get one sticker per vehicle, which are valid for one year with a maximum of three, and vehicle registration is required for either method of purchase.
Dias said the town tries to keep the price low, but the hauling fees keep increasing.
“We’re always trying to keep up with the costs,” Dias said.
“You are always struggling with costs,” FitzGerald-Kemmett agreed. “I think the plan is to incrementally increase it.”
Dias confirmed that the pricing change to meet costs is a three-year program.

WHITMAN – As the town approaches its 150th birthday celebration in 2025, the Historical Commission is using a budget of in $40,000 in grant funds to survey historic properties not currently researched to protect the properties and document their roles in Whitman’s history.
“With the results, we will submit the properties to the Mass. Historical Commission for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places,” the Whitman Historical Commission’s new chair Mary Joyce told the Select Board at its Tuesday, June 18 meeting.
The funds come from a $20,000 grant from the Mass. Historical Commission, paired with a $20,000 grant from the Community Preservation Act.
Molly Schnabel, who has been chair of the Historical Commission before informing its members at a June 4 special meeting that she is stepping down for personal reasons, spoke to the Select Board about a grant pending from Community Preservation Committee and the Mass. Historic Commission.
“That involved time constraints,” she said, having suggested reorganization and then present its decision to the Select Board. “It was unanimously voted that Joyce become the chair and that Sean Simmons’ request to be a full member be granted, since he [has been] active as an associate member for several years.”
Schnabel had also requested to move to an associate membership, where she could serve as an archivist.
“All three suggestions were unanimously approved by a quorum of six,” she said. “It has been an honor to serve as chair of the commission and I feel strongly that [Joyce and Simmons] will provide important skills to the WHC and the town of Whitman.”
Referring to the survey’s time constraints, Schnabel said the grant will continue the work of surveying Whitman’s historic sites and Joyce would provide a copy of the project deadlines to the Select Board to obtain their necessary backing to bring in the grant. The board was also provided with information, as Schnabel said the work would be helpful to people who own the survey sites.
“We [also] hope to provide information on restoration grants and visual history of the town,” she said.
According to Joyce, the grant aims to assess and document a number of sites in town – how many depends on the budget – for historical resources not previously surveyed, but that could be considered endangered.
“We will provide the Town Meeting, an article in the 2024 warrant, that will provide the town of Whitman with a demolition delay bylaw; we will establish community resources for the school system an interested public on these resources; we will provide plaques to indicate the history of Whitman and we will present the inventory as part of the 150th anniversary of the town of Whitman,” Joyce said.
Project deadlines are outlined by the state and the Mass. Historical Commission.
“We need support from the town’s senior management team to meet our milestones,” Joyce said of the need for a town single audit, a point person for other items and questions that the Historical Commission has and to ask if the Select Board wanted progress reports on the grant and how often the board wanted to hear updates as well as a point person to sign off on their work.
“When we’re successful with this grant, there’s opportunities to bring in more dollars to Whitman with other grant proposals from [the state] so we can make sure we are documenting all of Whitman’s history,” she said.
Assistance from the town’s IT resources was also requested to ensure the commission had the resources to print, copy and distribute materials to meet their deadlines.
Select Board member Laura Howe thanked the Historical Commission for the presentation.
“I was unaware of any of this,” she said. “This is very informative.”
Select Board Chair Dr. Carl Kowalski said the board had been unaware the presentation was planned, as it was not on the agenda.
“The issue is, what went out to the public wasn’t aware that we were going to have this discussion,” he said after a few questions he allowed led to more details that he felt the public should hear.
The discussion is being continued to the Select Board’s July 23 meeting, as well as Simmon’s official appointment as a full member of the Historical Commission.
Schnabel said there were two items on the project timeline that are due on July 1 that start the funding rolling.
Kowlski asked what was needed from the Select Board at the June 18 meeting.
Joyce said the single audit, IT support and appointment of a point person from the Select Board.
Assistant Town Administrator Kathleen Keefe was named as point person, and she indicated she would check with the IT department about the project.
Howe also asked how many unknown historic sites were in Whitman.
“We have a pretty extensive book of all the old homes, and some of them aren’t even there any more, that’s why I ask,” she said.
Schnable said about 170 such homes have been documented and about 140 have been targeted for the current project.
“We’re already into writing the scope of work with the Mass. Historical Commission,” she said. “We have 95 on the target now and we have to do approximately 50 more.”
Since houses are not entered, the commission does not require a homeowner’s permission to do the survey.
“What benefit of the town comes of it?” Howe asked, assuring the commissioners her questions were not intended as criticism.
“The homeowner can benefit because they can get grants as they are updating their homes,” Joyce said, adding that the survey also adds to knowledge about the history of the town.
Howe also asked what limitations the survey work might impose on a homeowner seeking to renovate a property.
“None,” Schnabel said. “You have some towns that have serious restrictions that [require] going to Town Meeting – Lexington, Concord, Hingham – but once you have these surveyed, then you are eligible for restoration grants.”
One such restoration Schnabel said she would like to see is the silo at Hornstra Farm, which is on the National Trust and is also eligible for such a grant.
“Putting them on these surveys makes them eligible,” she said of the program started in 1981. “It’s a federal survey.”

HANSON – After a lengthy discussion with town finance officials and two members of the School Committee, the Select Board on Tuesday, June 11, approved cuts to the budget [See list, page 15], including reductions in hours to several town employees, which will go before voters at next week’s special Town Meeting.
Town Meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m., on Monday, June 17 in the Hanson Middle School auditorium, with accommodations for an overflow crowd, if needed.
The warrant will present two articles to voters. Article 1 is the May 6 vote including the 5-percent increase in the school district operating assessment. Article 2, should Town Meeting decide they want to fund the school district at a higher level, makes the cuts recommended by the Finance Committee.
“If you want to keep the budget the way that it is, the motion is going to be to accept the reduced budget for W-H Regional Schools,” Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “If you don’t want to stay the course and you want to make cuts, then you vote no [on Article 1] and vote yes to Article 2.”
Town Counsel has worked with the Select Board on the wording of the articles, but FitzGerald-Kemmett agreed it is a difficult concept.
“It is confusing, I wanted to do it as multiple articles,” FitzGerald-Kemmett. “But we were told, no, we shouldn’t do that, so we’re taking the advice of counsel.”
Moderator Sean Kealy will work with Town Counsel on an explanation that will make the meaning of the votes clear to voters, but it boils down to: “Instead of coming [to Town Meeting] thinking, what am I voting against, you’re coming to ask, which of these options am I coming to vote for?” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “You vote yes to vote no.”
FitzGerald-Kemmett described the cuts as proposed by the Select Board/FinCom.
“We don’t have any discrepancies,” she said before the vote.
The reductions will be shown as Option 2 in the warrant.
Finance Committee Chair Kevin Sullivan listed the cuts he and Town Accountant Eric Kinsherf outlined, and the Select Board approved them by a 4-0 vote. Member Joe Weeks was absent from the meeting.
“The way I look at the warrant is this is an opportunity to amend those already voted on the budget,” Kincherf said, referring to the May 6 Town Meeting. “In order for us to fund the $372,141 for the W-H appropriation, the FinCom has recommended $207,194 in budget cuts, the use of an old article for purchase of the Sleeper Property for $126,000 and then the Local Aid, [state] Senate Ways and Means version, showed an extra $38,000 coming to Hanson.”
Those three revenue sources are being used to fund the school operating assessment appropriation as recommended by the Finance Committee.
“Obviously the Select Board can opine and weigh in,” Kinsherf said.
“I’m hoping we can align,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “That’s my ideal scenario, but I don’t know if it will happen.” The Select Board did vote in agreement with the Finance Committee recommendations.
“There seems to be a narrative that this can be done without a tax increase,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “Well, it certainly can, but it can’t be done without cuts.”
“We looked at spreading cuts across all the town departments with the exception of public safety,” Sullivan said.
The town is also looking to Beacon Hill, meanwhile, for an anticipated increase in Local Aid, but that has not yet settled out.
“It was a matter of the House and Senate coordinating and fine tuning, etc,” said FitzGerald-Kemmett. “That was going to be a boon to Hanson, potentially, if those numbers stuck for the increase in the reimbursements for busing and per-pupil of roughly $190,000.”
She said she reached out to School Committee Chair Beth Stafford to see if the budget could be reconsidered in light of that, but she said Stafford felt uncomfortable doing that because the numbers had not been locked down yet.
“[That] is understood, but if they are uncomfortable doing that, why would we be comfortable hedging a bet that we’re going to get that $38,000 [in Local Aid],” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
“The honest answer is we need the money,” Kinsherf said. “The second answer is, I was looking at the history: unrestricted local aid was one number, the House reduces by $38,000 and the Senate increases it by $38,000, so it is a little bit a roll of the dice, but …”
“We were in a meeting today – part of the Association of Town Finance Officers in the state and the lieutenant governor and they seemed to think that was a certainty,” Sullivan said to finish the thought.
In terms of stabilization accounts for both the district and Hanson as well as the town’s free cash outlook, Kinsherf said there is $627,000 in unexpended free cash, but financial officers do not want to touch any of it because the towns fiscal 2025 operating budget used $794,000 in free cash and they have an eye on next year’s budget. While there is $227,000 in the school stabilization fund, but an October 2014, special Town Meeting voted that those funds must be used for capital projects only. The school district is also planning to have capital requests on this October’s special Town Meeting warrant, and using the school stabilization for that would save free cash.
The town also has to prepare for the January vote on the proposed South Shore Tech school project, Sullivan said.
The complete discussion can be viewed on the WHCA-TV YouTube channel and will be rebroadcast on the cable access channel.
“We’re going with the numbers we have here,” Sullivan said of the Finance Committee’s recommendation going into the special Town Meeting. “This is our best and final offer.”
Kealy suggested that someone be prepared to explain at Town Meeting why the town cannot touch free cash.
“At the current pace that were at, we’re looking at an override next year,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “If that override does not pass, this [budget problem] is just going to be a drop in the bucket on the cuts we’ll have to make – we’re going to eviscerate Town Hall … get ready for your worst-case scenario.”
She said she was not threatening.
“It’s just realistic,” she said. “It’s just the way it’s going to be, because we just don’t have that money anywhere else.”
FitzGerald-Kemmett said that was the thinking in both towns as they went with the 5-percent budget increase, with the rest dependent on an override, but Whitman’s Finance Committee then offered a free cash and stabilization proposal on Town Meeting floor.
“That was not what their accountant had suggested, what their Town Administrator had suggested, or what the Select Board had suggested because they’re looking at the same fiscal cliff we’re looking at next year – not the same dollar amount, but essentially the same severity.”
She said the Select Board has a responsibility to everyone in town to be fiscally prudent.
“This has been a very thoughtful analysis, involving weeks of department head, accountant, FinCom and [Town Administrator] Lisa Green’s involvement,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said. “This isn’t willy-nilly.”
School Committee member Hillary Kniffen reminded the Select Board that, should the schools be placed on a 1/12 budget in the event that the budget is not balanced after Town Meeting, the Commissioner of Education can set the budget – and can increase the budget from what the school district is now asking [see related story, page 1].
FitzGerald-Kemmett said the Select Board understands that, and suggested the School Committtee have someone available at Town Meeting to explain it to voters and answer their questions.
“There’s lots of grenades, with lots of pins to be pulled here,” she said. “At the end of the day, it’s up to the voters, but I do think it’s important that, when people make their vote that they understand there may be unintended consequences and what at first blush might look good may not get you what you were ultimately hoping to get with that vote.”