Hanson Select Board Votes to File MBTA Action Plan, Protecting $300,000 in Grants

HANSON -- February 11, 2025, Hanson Select Board votes 4-1 to file an MBTA Communities action plan, preserving more than $300,000 in state grants. The board moved hours before a February 13 deadline, with Town Administrator Lisa Green citing a $237,000 brownfields cleanup grant for the contaminated Light Control property and a $70,000 industrial park planning grant as at stake if the town missed interim compliance. Fire Chief Robert O'Brien separately presented a case for a $344,000 Proposition 2 1/2 override to staff a fifth firefighter-paramedic on every shift, noting the department faced simultaneous calls 46 percent of the time in 2024 across 2,157 total responses and has not increased shift staffing since 2002. O'Brien estimated the cost at roughly $82 per household per year, with approximately 25 percent recoverable through additional ambulance billing. The board also swore in three new police officers and promoted Brian Shaughnessy to sergeant, while Highway Director Richard Jasmine won approval to enter a state-funded MassDOT program converting the County Road and West Washington Street intersection to a four-way stop at no engineering cost to the town.