WHITMAN – Police officer Kevin Harrington officially became Sgt. Kevin Harrington, during a promotion ceremony held at the Tuesday, Sept. 26 Select Board meeting, with his mother and his wife pinning on his new badge.
Vice Chair Dan Salvucci presided in the absence of Chair Dr. Carl Kowalski. Member Justin Evans attended virtually.
The board had voted at its previous meeting to approve Harrington’s promotion. He was administered the oath of office by Town Clerk Dawn Varley before his mother Marilyn, who attended with his dad Edward and wife Windy pinned on his sergeant’s badge.
“Oh, can I stab him?” Marilyn Harrington joked.
“Oh, go for it!” Salvucci laughed. “If you stick him, we have the service dog here.”
Harrington is the handler for the department’s therapy dog, Nola.
State Rep. Alyson Sullivan-Almeida, R-Abington, presented him with a citation from the General Court and congratulated him on his “well-deserved” promotion.
“I know the community is going to benefit from you being a sergeant in this community that you love,” she said. “I think your post on Facebook choked me up a little bit – it could be hormones, though.”
Sullivan-Almeida had given birth to her first child recently.
In other public safety business, Fire Chief Timothy Clancy reported to the board about an unsolicited letter received in the mail by the fire department, from Donna Callahan including a gift of $5,000 in the name of her parents, James and Betty Geary, who had been Winter Street residents of Whitman and thanking the department for taking care of her parents in their later years.
“We reached out to her, and you can see the amount of money there, to make sure this is what she was looking for and what she wanted,” Clancy said. “She said she just wanted to help the fire department in any way [she could].”
After discussing it with Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter, he said it was decided that the best use of the funds was to place the money in the gift account.
“We thank her very much for her generous donation,” Clancy said.
Callaghan also gave $30,019.99 in her mother’s name to the Whitman Council on Aging.
“Her mother had actually left that to the COA,” Carter said. “She really enjoyed attending the Council on Aging – playing cards, bingo, taking chair yoga were some of her favorites – and they were just very pleased to see this money go to the Council on Aging.”
“That’s an exceptional amount,” Salvucci said.