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The draft policy, which passed its first reading on Wednesday night, was fast-tracked by the Policy Subcommittee to curb what members characterized as an over-reliance on virtual instruction to mask schedule deficiencies. Policy Subcommittee Chair Stephanie Blackman revealed that 44 students had been placed directly into Edgenuity virtual classes simply because Whitman-Hanson High School lacked physical elective classroom space.

The systemic tracking sparked concern among board members and parents alike after it was revealed that neither the affected students nor their families were consulted prior to the automated placements. Committee member Warren MacCallum noted that his own child had been placed into an online class without his knowledge, describing it as a poor fit that became the student’s “largest struggle” of the school year.

Under the proposed rules, virtual learning will be heavily restricted, requiring explicit parental authorization, documented student buy-in, and independent readiness assessments before enrollment. The policy asserts a foundational district commitment that the best education happens in person with qualified professional educators. Exceptions will remain intact for specialized coursework not offered locally—such as Mandarin Chinese—or for circumstances like credit recovery and medical home tutoring.

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The decision to bypass commercial recruiting firms came after Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter presented quotes from Community Paradigm and Bridgewater State University, both coming in at $15,000. Board members expressed concern that an outside firm would inadvertently slow down the transition period.

The board voted to establish an internal search committee consisting of Select Board Chair Justin Evans, Select Board member Christina Gorman, outgoing Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter, and Health Agent Dan Kelly. While reviewing the job description, board member Dawn Byers advocated for strengthening the minimum qualifications, leading to the inclusion of requirements for strong analytical, organizational, communication, and leadership skills. The board settled on a recruitment salary range of $167,000 to $177,000.

“I think we should only go, the top should be at what we have budgeted right now. You know, I think it would be good just to get a pool so we can kind of see what we’re attracting.” — Shawn Kain

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Interim School Business Manager Matt Wells presented the bids for the $6 million Revenue Anticipation Note, which was opened on Monday, June 1, 2026. The short-term borrowing acts as a critical 60-day bridge for the district. “We are receiving money to help us close the gap mainly in July of the next fiscal year,” Wells explained. “We are not going to have the funds to operate in July... so we have a $6 million RAN revenue anticipation note to bridge that gap between operations and funding.”

“We are not going to have the funds to operate in July... we have a $6 million RAN revenue anticipation note to bridge that gap between operations and funding.” [44:28] — Matt Wells, School Business Manager

The district received two competitive bids from Jefferies LLC and Oppenheimer & Co., with Jefferies securing the contract as the lowest bidder. While the initial coupon rate was set at 6.05%, Jefferies provided a bond premium of $16,800. Wells explained that this premium effectively functioned as a “rate buy-down,” dropping the district’s actual net interest cost rate to 4.312069%. The total interest and borrowing cost to the district will be $43,066.50. The funds are scheduled to hit the district’s accounts on June 15, 2026, and must be paid back in full by August 13, 2026.

Committee member Stephanie Blackman questioned why the administration shifted to a 60-day note after previously discussing a 90-day timeline. Wells noted that after consultations with bond counsel, the 60-day note was chosen because it was more cost-effective for the district. He assured the committee that state Chapter 70 education aid—which arrives at the end of July—and quarterly town assessments from Whitman and Hanson hitting on August 1 will easily cover the repayment.

In a secondary financial measure, the committee unanimously authorized Interim Superintendent Dr. John Marcus to utilize an unexpected $258,675 in late-stage FY26 Chapter 70 state funding. Wells noted that when building the initial budget, the district must anchor its figures to the Governor’s preliminary January budget blueprint. When the final legislative numbers yielded an additional quarter-million dollars, it required formal committee approval to be deployed to balance and close out the current fiscal year’s books. Line-item transfer tracking will be brought back to the committee in September.

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Mary Waldron, Executive Director of the Old Colony Planning Council (OCPC), presented the final draft of the downtown revitalization study. The document represents the culmination of a multi-year project initiated by a 2022 state economic development bond bill earmark secured by Senator Michael Brady and Representative Alyson Sullivan-Almeida. OCPC representatives noted that Whitman sits in a unique geographic “hot spot,” contradicting historical narratives that the town is isolated from major regional transit corridors.

“You’re in a great spot, you have a lot of great momentum, your demographics look great... project management is so critical. You can take these actions that are in this plan, divvy them up, put them in a spreadsheet, assign them to people, assign dates—you could make a lot of things happen here.” — Paul DiGiuseppe, OCPC Comprehensive Planning Director [47:48]

The study scrutinized a 108-acre commercial target area encompassing several downtown parcels. Key data trends from the report show a notable downtown population surge alongside a shift in demographics. The fastest-growing groups are young professionals seeking transit-linked housing options near the commuter rail station, which sits less than a mile from the core business district. Additionally, the town has experienced a diversification trend, with the white share of the population shifting from 94% to 86% alongside growth in Black, Asian, and multi-racial populations.

The OCPC outlined specific recommendations to mobilize these trends into economic stability:

• Infrastructure Priorities: Advancing the Route 27/South Avenue corridor improvement projects, currently slated for the regional Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) for 2030.

• Regulatory Updates: Conducting a comprehensive zoning overhaul to build out the 40R Smart Growth Overlay district, reinforcing a vibrant mixed-use core.

• Commercial Activations: Forging a formal downtown business association or a self-assessed Business Improvement District (BID) to allow property owners to pool resources for maintenance and beautification.

• Targeted Redevelopment: Focusing planning resources directly on underutilized focal sites, such as the vacant Regal Shoe facility and the former Park Avenue school building.

Select Board members praised the plan’s depth but emphasized the need to preserve Whitman’s character while expanding the commercial tax base to absorb escalating healthcare and operational costs. Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter added that the town applied for a comprehensive Master Plan update grant in May, which represents the first structural master planning effort since 2004.

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The May 20 meeting began as the committee’s annual reorganization session following recent town elections, with the re-election of several members and the selection of Ryan Tressel as Committee Chair and TJ Roffey as Vice-Chair. However, the routine nature of the administrative restructuring quickly dissolved during a sobering year-to-date budget update presented by Interim Business Manager Matt Wells.

Wells informed the committee that while the general fund currently reflects an influx of $1.4 million in revenue, it is entirely offset by an immediate $1.9 million expenditure. The sharp financial spike represents the close-out interest payment for the Whitman Middle School bond, which totaled $1,230,000. Stripping away the bond transaction, the district is actively projecting a $528,000 overspend for the end of the current fiscal year. Wells attributed the deficit to insufficient structural encumbrances across major operational accounts. Out-of-district specialized student transportation, unexpected McKinney-Vento homeless transportation mandates, under-encumbered electricity and gas utility lines, and higher-than-expected unemployment claims all drove the structural deficit. While district leaders anticipate recovering roughly $200,000 from cleared purchase orders and higher regional transportation reimbursements to mitigate the gap, the underlying structural instability has created a critical cash deficit.

“We didn't get here because the towns put pressure on us to overspend circuit breaker. We overspent circuit breaker... Over the last few years we have overspent circuit breaker and other things to get us to the place where we... [were] minus $565,000 in circuit breaker. Sure, there's a part of it that the towns were not funding us properly... but there's also a big part of, unfortunately, not doing what needed to be done and getting us to a not-a-great place.” [01:03:52] — Dr. John Marcus, Interim Superintendent

The structural deficit has left the district completely “cash poor” heading into the transition to the next fiscal year. Wells explained that the district faces a massive funding mismatch every July. While full-year union payrolls cost approximately $600,000 per cycle—amounting to $1.2 million in July alone—the district must also cover multi-million dollar statutory payments to the Plymouth County retirement system, health insurance premiums, and ongoing utility obligations. Conversely, the district receives zero revenue in July; state aid assessments do not arrive until the final day of July, and town assessments from Whitman and Hanson are not paid until August 1st.

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The Select Board opened its meeting by welcoming newly elected members Dawn Byers and Christine Gorman to the bench. Following the departure of members Laura Howe and Carl Kowalski—the latter capping off over 30 years of volunteer service to Whitman—the board underwent a swift structural reorganization. By a 3-2 vote, Justin Evans was appointed Chair, while Dan Salvucci was unanimously voted Vice-Chair and Shawn Kain was selected as Clerk.

The focus quickly shifted to looming financial hurdles during the Town Administrator’s report. Mary Beth Carter revealed that the South Shore Vo-Tech building debt exclusion ballot question failed by a narrow margin of 93 votes during the annual town election, drawing only an 11% voter turnout. While the failure does not impact the immediate fiscal year 2027 cycle, Carter explicitly warned that an estimated $1,093,000 debt payment is due in fiscal year 2028. If a future special election is not called to approve a debt exclusion outside the Proposition 2½ levy, the town will be forced to absorb this million-dollar sum directly out of its general operating funds.

“It is unreasonable to assume that a debt payment for a large building project can be absorbed within the town’s operating budget and paid for with general funds inside the levy... Whitman can be anything you want us to be, but there’s always a cost with it.” [53:06] — Mary Beth Carter, Town Administrator

Carter emphasized that such an absorption would trigger severe, adverse impacts across the town’s primary operational infrastructure, explicitly citing the Whitman-Hanson Regional School District assessment, alongside the operating budgets for the Fire, Police, and Public Works departments. To mitigate this, board members debated the logistical feasibility of scheduling a swift single-question special election ballot over the coming months to address the funding mechanism before the fiscal year 2028 budget planning cycle hardens.

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Turnout for the 2026 Annual Town Election was sparse but highly decisive, with only 1,347 of the town’s 12,238 registered voters casting ballots, representing an 11% turnout rate. Unofficial results were announced by Town Clerk Dawn Varley at 5:08 p.m., shortly after the polls closed.

The most critical outcomes of the night centered around the two major fiscal ballot questions. Question 1 asked residents to approve a debt exclusion to cover Whitman’s share of the new South Shore Vocational Technical High School building project. While the regional school infrastructure expansion had already seen authorization across all nine member towns at their respective town meetings, Whitman voters flatly blocked the local funding mechanism, with 618 voting “YES” and 711 voting “NO”. Without a dedicated debt exclusion, Whitman’s proportional capital obligation must now be absorbed within the town’s existing legal tax limits.

Voters delivered an even more definitive rejection to Question 2, a proposed Proposition 2 1/2 operational override designed to permanently boost municipal revenues to resolve ongoing structural deficits. The override failed by a wide margin, drawing just 425 “YES” votes against 899 “NO” votes. It had already failed at Town Meeting.

In the high-stakes race for two three-year terms on the Select Board, residents opted for a clear change in leadership. Former School Committee member Dawn Byers topped the ticket with 888 votes, followed closely by newcomer Christina Menten-Gorman at 712 votes. Incumbent Select Board member Laura Howe finished third with 574 votes, falling short of securing a second term. The election transitions town leadership as well following the retirement of long-time Select Board Chair Carl Kowalski, who chose not to run again.

In other municipal races, stability returned to the regional school infrastructure. For the open seats on the Whitman-Hanson Regional School Committee, Christopher Marks secured 910 votes and Steven D. Bois earned 888 votes to win the two three-year terms.

Incumbent Michael Seele safely won another term as Town Moderator with 995 votes, while Debra ÓBroin captured the Town Treasurer/Collector position with 1,021 votes. Brittany Cavallo won the Assessor’s seat with 994 votes. In the Department of Public Works Commissioners race, former Water Superintendent Dennis Smith (955 votes) and Incumbent Kenneth Lailer (909 votes) won the two open slots, while Patricia Eunice (982 votes) and Sylvia Bubbins (941 votes) secured terms as Public Library Trustees. Theresa Lynskey won a five-year term on the Whitman Housing Authority with 980 votes. For the Planning Board, Heidi Hosmer (937 votes) and Jeffrey Sargis (918 votes) locked down terms. Pulling double duty for the town, Town Clerk Dawn Varley picked up 948 votes to easily secure a three-year seat on the Board of Health.

Official Minutes & Data

Key Ballot Votes & Outcomes

• Question 1 (SS Votech Building Debt Exclusion): Failed — 618 YES / 711 NO / 18 Blanks

• Question 2 (Proposition 2 1/2 Operational Override): Failed — 425 YES / 899 NO / 23 Blanks

• Select Board Race (Top Two Elected): Dawn Marie Byers (888 votes), Christina M. Gorman (712 votes), Laura L. Howe (574 votes)

• Whitman-Hanson Regional School Committee (Top Two Elected): Christopher Michael Marks (910 votes), Steven D. Bois (888 votes)

• Department of Public Works Commissioner (Top Two Elected): Dennis F. Smith (955 votes), Kenneth J. Lailer (909 votes)

• Public Library Trustee (Top Two Elected): Patricia J. Eunice (982 votes), Sylvia S. Bubbins (941 votes)

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Inclusive Excellence: Hanson Middle School Unified Sports

The meeting began with a presentation from Hanson Middle School students and staff regarding the new Unified Sports Program.

• Program Growth: Started this winter with a historic Unified basketball team that held scrimmages at pep rallies and high school halftimes.

• New Horizons: The school has expanded into Unified Cornhole, with a tournament scheduled for May 21st in West Bridgewater.

• Impact: Students described the program as a way to break down barriers through “playing together, friendship, and understanding”.

The Athletics “Crisis”: 30 Years of Fundraising

Athletic Director Bob Rodgers delivered a stark report on the state of the district’s 27 sports programs.

• Funding Gaps: Following a $250,000 budget cut, the department is attempting to run all sports on a $100,000 annual budget, which Rodgers called “not sustainable”.

• Equipment & Uniforms: Rodgers revealed that the school district has not purchased a single athletic uniform in nearly 30 years; all gear is paid for through student fundraising.

• Participation Trends: Student-athlete numbers have dipped to 503 this year, down from 531 two years ago. High user fees ($375 for the first sport) are cited as a significant barrier for families.

• Privatization Concerns: Committee member Rosemary Hill expressed alarm that sports have essentially been “privatized,” placing an undue tax on parents.

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The 2026 Whitman Annual Town Meeting opened with a somber list of deceased town employees and a celebration of long-serving officials, but the atmosphere quickly shifted to the “financial black hole” described by Finance Committee Vice Chair Kathleen Ottina [00:48:38].

The central conflict of the night revolved around Article 2, Line 21: the assessment for non-mandated school busing. The Finance Committee and Select Board had initially recommended a $0 appropriation for this line, arguing that Whitman was paying more than its fair share of transportation costs under the regional agreement with Hanson. FinCom members suggested that by voting it down, the School Committee should be forced to absorb the cost into their operating budget or renegotiate with Hanson [48:37].

However, Whitman-Hanson Regional School Committee Chair Ryan Tressel and Interim Superintendent Dr. John Marcus warned that a $0 vote was a “dangerous game of chicken” [01:36:23]. Tressel noted that Hanson had already passed its budget, and any change now would require Hanson to reopen its town meeting—a move they were unlikely to make. Dr. Marcus warned that if the school budget failed, he would have no choice but to begin laying off an additional 30 to 40 staff members as early as the following morning [01:09:25].

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The meeting opened with a public comment from resident Dawn Byers, who urged the committee to look beyond a simple one-time paving deal with a solar developer seeking access through district land [00:57]. Byers suggested the district leverage its access to negotiate a long-term revenue-sharing agreement or a STEM partnership for students. “This could be a philosophy... a partnership within the community and long-term revenue sharing,” Byers said, suggesting any annual revenue could be funneled directly into robotics or science programs [04:20].

“If this is in fact something that is going to be discussed... what is exactly being built? It sounds appealing on the surface, but I ask you to pause and ask questions... it’s not a small favor of the district giving this solar company access; it’s called leverage.” [01:38] — Dawn Byers, Resident

This set the stage for the night’s main event: the fate of the Fiscal Year 2027 capital request for parking lot paving. Interim Superintendent Dr. John Marcus recommended passing over the article for both the upcoming Whitman and Hanson town meetings [16:01]. Marcus cited a “mismatch” in timing between the two towns—noting that Hanson had not placed the item on its spring warrant—and the potential for the solar company to eventually foot the bill for at least a portion of the work [34:02].

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The focus of Thursday’s meeting was the public interviews and final selection of a new Assistant Town Administrator (ATA). The position is critical to Whitman’s operations, as the town lacks dedicated directors for HR, finance, or planning, meaning these responsibilities flow directly through the Select Board and the Town Administrator’s office [48:50].

The board interviewed three finalists: Sabrina Chilcott, an experienced municipal official from Pembroke; Matthew Dyer, a regional planner and former selectman in neighboring Hanson; and Daniel Kelly, Whitman’s current Health Agent.

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The meeting opened on a somber yet celebratory note, as the board recognized the immense public service legacy of Chairman Dr. Carl Kowalski [09:34]. Kowalski’s tenure in Whitman public service began on the Whitman School Committee in 1984 and transitioned to the Whitman-Hanson School Committee following regionalization. He has served continuously on the Select Board since his election in 2002. State Representative Alyson Sullivan-Almeida (delivered by Katherine Mullen), State Senator Michael Brady, and Congressman Stephen Lynch (delivered by resident Richard Rosen) were among those who provided citations, marking his 40-year career of “unwavering devotion” and “fierce advocacy” for the town [10:53, 12:52].

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The meeting opened with a somber tone as the committee held moments of silence for Elaine Newcomb, a paraprofessional at Duval, and John Noone, a former Whitman School Committee member and Whitman Finance Committee member. However, the atmosphere quickly shifted to the pressing financial realities of the FY27 budget.

Whitman Select Board member Shawn Kain addressed the committee during public comment, emphasizing the town’s goal to avoid a tax override. Kain noted that Whitman had “bumped up” the budget for the school assessment to the number certified by the School Committee, 4.85%, while cutting $500,000 from other town departments to share the burden. He specifically mentioned “non-mandated busing” as a critical area for potential cost savings, calling transportation a “hot button issue” for the town’s financial leadership. [06:42]

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The path to the $500,000 figure was anything but linear. During a marathon joint session with the Finance Committee on Tuesday night, Town Administrator Mary Beth Carter presented what she termed a “creative approach” to fiscal year 2027. The objective was clear: keep the Whitman Public Library open without a dedicated override, a response to public comment at a Finance Committee meeting and a weekend deluge of over 50 emails from residents pleading for the facility’s survival.

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The meeting opened with a poignant moment of silence for Darian Hall, a member of the class of 2019 who passed away earlier this month. [00:31] The somber tone quickly transitioned into a celebration of the arts as students from the Music Honor Society took center stage to mark “Music in Our Schools Month.” [03:02]

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Robert Emmet Hayes, a fourth-generation Whitman resident who would go on to become a Selectman and State Representative, grew up in that house with ten other family members sharing a single bathroom. Like many properties in Whitman, the Hayes family’s backyard was a perpetual sinkhole. Whitman was cursed with a naturally high groundwater table and poor soils, making traditional on-site septic systems highly prone to failure.

For nearly two centuries, the town relied on these localized disposal systems, a model that became increasingly unsustainable as Whitman evolved into a dense manufacturing center, particularly for the shoe industry. Raw sewage and industrial waste inevitably leached into the aquifers and the Shumatuscacant River, creating a severe environmental and public health hazard.

This is the story of how a small Massachusetts town tackled an impossible geographic hurdle, fought off the federal government, made a massive infrastructure gamble in the 1980s, and recently confronted the catastrophic consequences of that system’s aging backbone.

Editors note: South Shore News is going paid in April, subscribe now to make sure you don’t miss a story. Reach out for group or organizational pricing.

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The Federal Catalyst and the Brockton Connection

The political momentum for a town-wide sewer system didn’t happen in a vacuum. It was forced by the passage of the federal Clean Water Act of 1972, which stripped municipalities of their discretion regarding wastewater treatment and mandated stringent new standards. For a small town like Whitman, building a standalone treatment plant was completely beyond its borrowing capacity.

The town was desperate. Early attempts to build a system stalled when Whitman couldn’t secure federal approval for regional partnerships with neighboring towns like East Bridgewater and Abington. The delays became so severe that the federal government actually sued Whitman for failing to follow through on its septic plans.

Hayes, then a young Selectman, traveled to federal court to testify on the town’s behalf. “Look, we’re happy to do it if you would allow us to do it, but we can’t do it unless you approve it,” he argued, successfully getting the case dismissed.

Salvation came from next door. The neighboring City of Brockton had just received a massive $55 million grant to construct an advanced tertiary treatment plant. Leveraging his political influence, Hayes helped negotiate a landmark 1983 Inter-Municipal Agreement (IMA) with Brockton, securing 1 million gallons of daily capacity for Whitman. Whitman would essentially become a “wholesale” customer of Brockton’s treatment services, bypassing the need to ever build or permit its own plant.

The 1984 Mega-Project

What makes Whitman’s sewer story unique is the sheer audacity of its construction phase. Unlike most Massachusetts towns that suffered through decades of politically fraught, neighborhood-by-neighborhood sewer expansion battles, Whitman built its system as a single, large-scale project.

Designed by Camp Dresser & McKee Inc., the massive undertaking was executed under three simultaneous contracts in 1984. Contract No. 1 established the system’s heartbeat: the Auburn Street Pump Station and the South Avenue Pump Station. Contracts No. 2 and No. 3 tackled the most difficult engineering feat: laying three miles (approximately 16,000 linear feet) of 20-inch, cement-lined ductile iron force main to connect Whitman to Brockton.

The route was treacherous. The pipe traversed Auburn Street, plunged into cross-country easements, crossed streams and wetlands, and pushed through both a junkyard and a capped landfill before terminating at Southfield Drive in Brockton.

Financially, the timing was perfect. The EPA’s Construction Grants Program was at the height of its generosity. Between federal and state matching funds, Whitman secured up to 90 percent coverage for the main parts of the project, saving the town an enormous amount of money. The remaining local share was funded by an enterprise fund and betterments assessed to the properties benefiting from the new lines. Local leaders strategically engineered the plans to ensure the entire town would eventually be promised sewer access to secure voter approval.

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The Ticking Time Bomb in the Soil

For three decades, the system hummed along, efficiently transporting an average of 800,000 gallons of wastewater a day. But buried deep beneath the earth, a silent threat was eating away at Whitman’s lifeline.

On September 13, 2016, the town faced its worst infrastructure nightmare: the 20-inch force main suffered a catastrophic blowout near Alger Street in Brockton. Because there was no backup pipe, the town had to scramble. Emergency crews set up temporary pumps at the Auburn Street station, filling 9,000-gallon tanker trucks and driving them continuously to the Brockton plant just to keep toilets flushing across town.

A year later, on October 4, 2017, it happened again in the exact same vicinity.

Whitman hired Environmental Partners Group to find out why the pipe was failing. Engineers dispatched a drilling rig to take 80 soil samples along the three-mile route. The results were shocking. While they initially suspected internal rot from hydrogen sulfide sewer gas, ultrasonic testing proved the inside of the pipe was fine. The real culprit was external. The ductile iron pipe had been laid in highly acidic soils and was being actively destroyed by escaping landfill leachate and aggressive moisture from the outside in.

The $10 Million Fix

In 2019, Environmental Partners delivered a sobering verdict: the entire 16,000-foot pipeline needed to be replaced.

Replacing three miles of large-diameter pipe is a monumental financial burden for a town of 15,000 residents. The project became the single largest item in the town’s Capital Improvement Plan, with costs ballooning from an initial $6 million estimate to a $12 million borrowing authorization.

To pay for it without crushing taxpayers, town officials utilized a layered funding strategy. They secured a loan from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF). In a twist of historical poetry, the CWSRF program—which provides low-interest infrastructure loans—was actually created in 1989 by the “Hayes Bill,” authored by none other than Whitman’s Robert Emmet Hayes after his election to the State House.

They also deployed $2.2 million in federal pandemic recovery (ARPA) funds earmarked by Plymouth County, an additional $1.8 million in CWSRF loan forgiveness also funded by ARPA, and implemented a $1.50 rate increase per billing period for sewer users.

In March 2022, contractor C. Naughton Corp. mobilized to replace the vulnerable ductile iron with modern, corrosion-resistant High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) and PVC pipe. The project plan required extensive logistical maneuvering, including a highly complex directional drill beneath Beaver Brook. The town also employed an “open once” philosophy, efficiently replacing aging water mains along Auburn Street while the road was already torn up for the sewer work.

Thanks to a paving grant and careful management, the massive force main replacement came in under budget at approximately $10.7 million, freeing up leftover funds to support a new DPW building.

Between the CWSRF loan around 2%, some lucky breaks in construction bidding and costs, and over $4 million in loan forgiveness and ARPA project this critical infrastructure replacement was completed at minimal cost to ratepayers. By the summer of 2024, the town was wrapping up compliance for the completed project.

A Legacy Underground

Today, Whitman’s wastewater flows uninterrupted once again. The town continues to modernize, upgrading pump stations with variable-frequency drives, installing hydrogen sulfide control systems, and digitizing its archaic index-card tracking system.

Infrastructure is easy to ignore until it breaks. But the story of how Whitman got its sewer—and how it mobilized to save it forty years later—is a testament to civic foresight. From a young selectman testifying in federal court to cure the town’s sinkhole backyards, to modern administrators patching together multi-million dollar grants to replace a decaying pipeline, Whitman’s history proves that the most important investments a community makes are often the ones you can’t see.

Sources include: WHCA interviews, UMass Boston, the Whitman-Hanson Express, the Town of Whitman, some actual human reporting, and AI Deep research tools.

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