On August 8, Mattapoisett’s Community Nurse Amanda Stone received the Massachusetts Community Nurse Award of Excellence presented by the Board of Selectmen.

Town Administrator Michael Gagne said that while other cities and towns cut back on public health nursing services as a cost-saving measure, opting instead to use the services of visiting nurses, Mattapoisett had made the investment.

“Mattapoisett’s position was significant,” Gagne said, noting that community nurses provide a level of care and continuity not readily available through other means. “A community nurse can do so much more, providing a regional approach to such issues as drug use, emergency inoculations, and so much more,” he said.

Selectman Jordan Collyer told Stone during the presentation, “This is a great accomplishment … you’ve been a tremendous hire for us.” He shared that the Council on Aging and others in the community “…love having you available to help,” and added, “We’ve made your role bigger, especially in a community with a population averaging over the age of fifty-five.”

Stone responded by thanking the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Health to whom she directly reports. She said, “Any award comes from a team effort. Thank you for the support.”

Stone has been a full-time employee for the town for 12 years.

One outreach program that is near and dear to Stone is Operation Stand Down. She recently announced that for the eleventh year, the Massachusetts Association of Public Health Nurses is sponsoring Operation Stand Down, a one-day event that provides foot care for at-risk and at-home veterans.

“We identified an unmet need,” Stone said, referring to foot care for homeless or otherwise at-risk veterans, and homebound veterans.

“The tent that we set up on the day of the event was named ‘The Spa’ by the vets,” she said with a warm smile.

Operation Stand Down takes place on September 8 at City Hall Plaza in Boston where Stone will be representing the Tri-Town area. Tri-Town residents wishing to assist can drop off clean white socks at the Veterans’ Office in Mattapoisett.

In other business, Gagne said the first village neighborhood engagement meeting recently took place with about 25 residents coming out to discuss the design of streets in the village. He said that on Thursday, August 10, a second meeting focusing on Water Street would take place at 6:30 pm in Center School.

The meetings are being facilitated by VHB, the engineer group hired by the Town to assist in planning the future look of Mattapoisett’s village streets and with final plans for Phase 1B of the bike path. Gagne said the process of engaging the public in discussions would help to formulate plans that will be fully vetted in November.

As for the bike path itself, Gagne said people are really starting to get excited. “This coming spring, the project should be out for bid,” he said.

Gagne said VHB is working on the design of safety features planned for the bike and pedestrian crossings at Mattapoisett Neck and Brandt Island Roads, features that will assist motorists and others when someone is entering the roadway.

On that note, Selectman Tyler Macallister said, “This is a public service announcement,” and then proceeded to share a near-miss incident involving a bicyclist and himself. “The person on the bike, an adult, didn’t stop at the crossing.” He said he was not traveling fast on Mattapoisett Neck Road at the time of the event, but nonetheless it was frightening. “Please be careful!” he told the public.

Gagne said VHB is looking at traffic signaling devices similar to those recently installed on Route 6 and that he would be meeting with abutters to hear and work through any concerns they may have, especially light pollution. He said part of the design would include motion-sensing mechanisms that will alert the bicyclist or pedestrian that they are approaching the crossing.

Gagne said the Town would be holding a Fall Special Town Meeting during November to handle matters related to the bike path. He encouraged voters interested in submitting articles for the warrant to do so soon and offered assistance in preparing any articles citizens wanted to bring forward for town meeting vote.

The selectmen also met with Treasurer Brenda Herbeck and Town Clerk Catherine Heuberger to sign documents for short-term notes and bonds. The retiring bonds earned up to $271,000, and those monies will be used to pay down other debts. The earnings were from bonds that were taken for school and library improvements between 2007 and 2009.

The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Board of Selectmen is scheduled for September 12 at 6:30 pm in the town hall conference room.

Mattapoisett Board of Selectmen

By Marilou Newell

The common loon is one of the oldest living creatures on this planet, with credentials of ancient fossils written on limestone pages of time in Earth’s crust more than a billion years ago.

This iconic spirit of the waters we enjoy today has somehow miraculously eluded extinction both before and after the Mesozoic cataclysms because of land and water amphibian adeptness of survival that is still apparent today with their behavior of clever elusive capacity.

The name ‘loon’ is derived from the Scandinavian “lom,” meaning clumsy or lame, in reference to their limited mobility on land with legs farther back on their body like other vertebrates such as frogs and salamanders, to lead a successful double life as an amphibian.

That is why the loon nests at the water’s edge. Unable to stand, it slides on its belly like aquatic reptiles like the alligator. But then once in or under the water, it is a powerful swimmer, propelled by webbed feet shaped like scuba diver flippers and helped by underwater flapping wings, and is able to dive down to 200 feet where its diaphragm constricts under pressure to minimize oxygen requirement to stay under for almost a full minute. Then, surfacing in an unpredictable direction, it can cruise along in a partially submerged depth with only the eye in the top of the head showing like the periscope of a submarine.

But all too soon, it must migrate to the ocean well before ice forms, from which it cannot take off for flight. That is when we see it here, having turned a salty color to adapt to the habitat.

Fortunately, the loon population has come back to be relatively stable to overcome man-made detrimental conditions such as acid rain, chemicals in the water, nesting disturbances, ingestion of poisonous lead fishing weights, and power boat mortality. Most effective remedial results have been the mission of public awareness, plus subsequent State and Federal regulation initiated by the Loon Preservation Society of Moultonborough, New Hampshire on Lake Winnipesaukee where my wife and I spent last week on our annual vacation.

Upon arrival, during our stay, and for our departure, we like to think the loon’s calling seems to acknowledge and enhance our presence annually for many years. This may be much the same as the aging couple in the movie On Golden Pond on Squam Lake nearby.

Henry David Thoreau described the call of the loon as the most unearthly sound he had ever heard. There are two calls. There is the wail that seems to mourn the passage of time and memories of past summer seasons on the lake. But even more soulful is the shrill warning tremolo yodel that alerts us to the bygone miracle of creation on Lake Winnipesaukee, which in Native American means “smile of the great spirit.”

With all this, my mission of this article and drawing is to share with you this message of the loon as a living barometer of a healthy aquatic environment.

By George B. Emmons