Whitman Finance Committee hears DPW budget presentations, middle school financing update

WHITMAN -- December 2, 2025, Whitman Finance Committee reviews DPW budgets and hears urgent update on $30 million middle school financing gap. Water and Sewer Superintendent David LeMay told the committee his 17 sewer lift stations are more than 30 years old and failing, with a full replacement estimated at $80 million; he described an incremental repair strategy backed by roughly $5 million in the enterprise fund and a $300,000 asset management grant that will return $150,000 in reimbursement. Committee member Kathleen Ottina reported that because the Whitman-Hanson Regional School District still lacks its fiscal year 2023 audit and cannot obtain a bond rating, Town Accountant Mary Beth Cotta has engaged bond counsel to draft an inter-municipal agreement allowing the town to finance the middle school under its own stronger credit rating, a measure that would require a vote at the January 12 special town meeting before the $30 million borrowing anticipation note held by Oppenheimer comes due in March. Highway and Parks Superintendent Bruce Martin updated the committee on the South Avenue Corridor Improvement TIP project, a roughly $16 million state and federal grant effort with an engineering cost to the town of approximately $1.2 million and a projected 2030 construction start.