This past year was a memorable one for the Tri-Town region, as individuals and as a community in general. As we look back at the past 12 months that collectively make up the year 2014, some events that occurred float immediately to the surface, such as the ones that hit us on the emotional level, while a few of the other important stories that we at The Wanderer reported to our readers required a little more thought to dig up from our collective memory.
There was, of course, one story of significance that immediately came to mind, and that was the disappearance and passing of 21-year old Dana Dourdeville.
Word spread the night of December 31 – New Year’s Eve 2013 – that a young man went missing off the coast of Fairhaven while duck hunting with his kayak. It was not until the morning of January 1 the news broke that it was Old Rochester Regional High School graduate and Marion resident Dana Dourdeville, and from that morning until January 12 when his body was recovered off the coast of East Falmouth, all of Tri-Town held its collective breath and hoped for a miracle.
No one could forget the tireless efforts of a community brought together by tragedy during the ongoing search for Dourdeville during those first bitter cold days of 2014. ORR Sports Director Bill Tilden organized the community in its relentless search for Dourdeville, while neighboring towns united in the endeavor.
It was difficult news to receive and to report, and a tragic start to the New Year for a family and for a community. A year has now passed since this loss, and the recollection of those 12 days remains fresh in our memories.
Right around that time, Tri-Town was shaken up in a different sort of way, with the first of two significant rumblings early in the year. On the morning of January 9, at about 10:52 am, reports of a loud explosion and subsequent shaking started pouring into our office and Facebook page – and we all felt it, whether or not we realized that it was indeed an earthquake.
Do you remember where you were and what you were doing when the earth started moving during those few fleeting seconds? Residents from Marion to Dartmouth experienced the earthquake that scored a 1.3 to 2.3 on the Richter scale; the epicenter was located about ten miles northwest of New Bedford, as reported by the Western Observatory.
What about on the evening of February 11 when again the earth grumbled at 5:45 pm to the degree of a 2.4 magnitude quake? The Marion Police Department received several calls about an explosion in the vicinity of Marion, and the epicenter was just south of New Bedford.
Some Christian members of the community made some noise of their own after the Joint School Committees on March 27 voted in favor of eliminating Good Friday from the list of days off, making it a full day of school in an attempt to reduce the number of interrupted weeks of learning throughout the year.
Backlash was swift, with a petition launched by Rochester resident Margaret McGee demanding the committee rescind its vote, or else prepare to see a significant amount of students and teachers taking the day off in 2015 anyway.
A former School Committee member from Marion, Joe Napoli, claimed that when he was on the committee back in the 1980s the district eliminated Good Friday from the days off list and it was a disaster, saying the community was “up in arms” over the move.
The Joint School Committees met again in June, and the vote was upheld to nix Good Friday as a day off, although there was some more debate, more involvement from members of the community, and roughly 700 signatures on McGee’s petition at that point.
Opinions differed, with some residents calling the move “an attack on religion,” while some School Committee members defended the district’s secular decision to make the religious day a regular school day. Other School Committee members simply did not appreciate making the decision without first gathering input from the community in order to avoid excessive absences by staff and students from school on Good Friday 2015.
There were motions to rescind the vote, but in the end it never left the ground and did not lead to a re-vote on the matter.
Around that same time, ORR administrators were being called out by Tri-Town selectmen and members of the three finance committees when a rumor started circulating that an ORR school bank account was cyber-hacked in 2011 and $600,000 stolen from the district.
Mattapoisett Selectman Paul Sylvia was the first to bring up the topic, asking Town Administrator Michael Gagne to either confirm or dispel the rumor of the alleged $600,000 theft, which was immediately addressed by ORR Superintendent of Schools Doug White.
White acknowledged that three years prior, a cyber-hacking resulted in a loss of $134,000 from one of the accounts – not $600,000 as was first alleged – and the FBI and Attorney General’s Office were both called to investigate. White told selectmen during an April 10 joint meeting of the Tri-Town Boards of Selectmen that all but $34,000 of the money was recovered.
Selectmen from all three towns vocally expressed resentment that they were never informed of the theft and that the school district did not disclose the matter when it happened.
Rochester Selectman Richard Nunes accused White and the school administration and committees of being secretive, which former Joint School Committee Co-Chairman Dr. Peter Bangs denied.
“There was no attempt to hide anything,” said Bangs to selectmen during a somewhat contentious meeting.
Selectmen and town administrators alike asked the School Committee to investigate whether the remaining money could be recovered. White later reported that it could not.
There were other stories in the three communities that caused a stir in 2014. In Mattapoisett, the suspension of the Fire Lieutenant Patrick Saltmarsh for the alleged theft of $1,435.76 from the Firefighter’s Association, and the six subsequent charges of larceny against him, led to a lengthy paid leave for Saltmarsh and his eventual resignation after the charges were dropped.
Saltmarsh’s attorney Philip Beauregard maintained that Saltmarsh was innocent and was being falsely accused, stating during a phone interview that Fire Chief Andrew Murray “obviously felt threatened” by Saltmarsh’s qualifications and achievements, and that Murray “misled” investigators of the suspicious transactions while Saltmarsh was treasurer of the Firefighter’s Association.
Mattapoisett Police Chief Mary Lyons asserted on one occasion, “We wouldn’t have pursued charges if we didn’t feel that he was guilty.”
Finally, on July 23, while charges were dropped against him, Saltmarsh resigned after almost seven months of paid administrative leave and was ordered to repay the money in question.
Also making an impact on 2014, Rochester experienced a transition year after the retirement on July 1 of former Town Administrator Richard LaCamera and the hiring of the Town’s new TA, Michael McCue.
The Rochester Crossroads project off Cranberry Highway also made headlines several times as it moved forward in its development.
Marion was buzzing this year about Sprague’s Cove, and of course, the latest showdown with developers at Mark Investments, who want to build a CVS on the corner of Route 6 and Front Street, will surely see us through 2015, and possibly into 2016.
And I wonder if Facebook user Lynne Ames ever found the owner of that gold wedding ring she supposedly found on the beach in Mattapoisett back in April (probably not). Perhaps we will never know.
As we leave behind 2014 and look toward 2015, The Wanderer wishes all our readers a very Happy New Year! Keep reading The Wanderer in 2015 – you might be in it.
By Jean Perry
