The ORRHS Class of 1973 will be celebrating our 45th year reunion on Saturday, October 6at the Century House in Acushnet. For more information contact: Karen Andrews Santos at kjsantos73@yahoo.com
Assessors Adopt CORI Check Policy
Recently elected Assessor TJ Walker has made good on his campaign promise to require background checks on any data collectors who visit Marion residents’ homes on behalf of the Board of Assessors during three-year revaluations of property values.
On June 27, the Marion Board of Assessors invited Police Chief John Garcia to its meeting to discuss mandatory CORI (name-based court arraignment records check), SORI (sex offender registry information), and criminal background checks for so-called “data collectors”, whether they come into your house, or visit your property just to review the exterior.
“The thought was, if we as a board felt that it was important, anybody who was doing business visiting townspeople’s homes would go through a CORI or a background check,” said Walker.
Garcia pointed to the Town’s bylaw pertaining to solicitors that requires the personal information of door-to-door vendors be submitted to the police, vetted for felony charges, and be licensed at the local level for their activities. But, according to Garcia, this bylaw doesn’t cover this scenario because the ones assessing the properties aren’t quite solicitors.
“They’re not soliciting,” Garcia said. “Certainly, if they’re representing the Town – if they’re going into the homes, we should at least know what their background check is … just so that we know who’s going out … and avoid potential problems.”
According to Assessor Linda Dessert, Vision Government Solutions, the company the board uses for property appraisal, does not send its own employees into residents’ homes, rather it subcontracts the work.
“And they do have a background check with Vision,” said Dessert. “Each person they hire by Vision fills out a background check at that time.”
Garcia told the assessors, “If they’re providing a statement guaranteeing that each of the people has gone through a background check, you can accept that,” said Garcia.
If that is not enough, though, Garcia continued, the board could ask the town administrator to run a check. “I don’t think it would be unreasonable to request a list … and a simple background check,” said Garcia. “You’re still sending people around the various neighborhoods and they get to see things – who’s home, who’s not, who’s leaving their garage open.”
Garcia said the subcontracted consultants would submit their information and the town administrator would only need about five minutes to fill out the forms. Results would return within 24 hours.
“This is a policy just moving forward,” said Walker. “It’s not a judgment on anybody.”
Walker received a question from a concerned resident during the May 3 Candidate’s Night about the safety of residents allowing strangers into their homes, asking whether the Town performs background checks on anyone asked to represent the Town in that capacity. Walker said he would look into it if elected.
Marion Board of Assessors
By Jean Perry
It’s Almost Time For The Fair
Save the date of Saturday, July 28for The First Congregational Church of Marion Annual Super Duper Summer Fair. This is the fair everyone looks forward to each year! It happens from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm in the street and on the church grounds at 28 Main Street, Marion, MA. The Harpoon Harmonizers kick off the fair at 10:00 am, then entertain as they stroll through the fairgrounds.
Donations are still being sought for tables at the Fair: Silent Auction (antiques, furniture, art, gift certificates for goods and services, special household items); Nautical and Sporting Goods (kayaks, canoes, dinghies, usable sports equipment, bikes, golf clubs, tools and garden equipment); Plants (small perennials, annuals in full bloom, vegetables). If you are downsizing, cleaning out, or have a green thumb, please call Judith Coykendall at 508-972-2430.
The fair has something for everyone. Find furniture, paintings, gift certificates, and other treasures at the Silent Auction table. Bring the children for games, crafts, dunk tank, putting green, penny candy, and much more. Treat yourself to yummy home baked goods, candy, and freshly picked local blueberries.
Flea Market items abound at the huge White Elephant area. Perk up your garden with new plants, and your home with handmade crafts. Find some great buys on nautical and sports equipment, then fill your bag with books for the beach. The Sidewalk Grill features hot dogs, hamburgers, and corn on the cob.
As an added treat, Penny Pinchers Exchange, the church’s volunteer consignment and thrift shop at 39 Main Street, will be open from 10 am – 2 pm during the Fair. Stop in to find some amazing bargains. Then head for lunch at the air-conditioned Chapel Café in the same building. Savor the famous Lobster Rolls and sandwiches while listening to musicians Truman Terrell and Bob Sanderson accompany vocalist Michelle Richardson. Come one, come all!
John R. Pandolfi Scholarship
The Tri-County Music Association wishes to congratulate the 2018 recipients of the John R. Pandolfi Scholarship. Since 1962, the Tri-County Music Association has been working hard to bring quality music to the community and to assist local youth in achieving dreams of doing the same. Proceeds from ticket sales and generous donations are distributed annually to a competitive selection of young people whose talent and ambition serves as an inspiration for the Tri-County Symphonic Band. We encourage you to follow us on Facebook and visit us at www.tricountysymphonicband.org to find our concert schedule, make a donation to our scholarship fund, and find our scholarship and summer study grant applications.
Each year $12,000 is distributed among students. College students receive scholarships worth $1,000 – $2,500. For high school students, summer study grants are awarded to assist with the cost of excellent music camps and lessons, such as Tanglewood Institute, Berklee College of Music, the New England Conservatory, and many more.
This year we congratulate college students Angela Reed of Fall River (Rhode Island College), Maxxon Wolski of Mattapoisett (Berklee College of Music), Carla Rivera of New Bedford (Westfield State University), Kelley Osterberg of Hingham (Northwestern University), and Elijah Wilson of Dartmouth (UMass Amherst). We also congratulate our outstanding high school students who received summer study grants: Kelley Osterberg (Tanglewood), Emma Gabriel of Mattapoisett (Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music), Shannon Dennehy of Taunton (South Shore Conservatory), and Mia Quinlan of Marion (flute lessons at University of Rhode Island).
Without the attendance and donations of a large group of supporters, none of these scholarships or grants could exist. More information about the Tri-County Music Association is available online at http://www.tricountysymphonicband.org.
Growing, and Growing Up Barbie
I heard about it before I even saw it, but when I finally did see it, what I thought was: “Now that is weird.” And when I say weird, I say it with ardent affection.
Behind the cast iron gate at 16 North Street in Mattapoisett, surrounded by ivy and vinca and tangled vines of invasive inspiration, is our very own local, little, plastic world of Barbie.
It’s where a hundred Barbies stay smiling, rain or shine, oblivious to the imminent threat of the creatures that surround them, ever ready to take a bite out those dainty little doll arms, poised for attack in suspended animation.
It’s where hygiene-conscious dinosaurs still roam, and where Ken, Ken, a dozen other Kens, and another dozen male action figures are banished to the gazebo while the Barbies enjoy an unabashed wild and unrestrained hedonistic existence all of their own.
It’s a scene that straddles a thin boundary between the reflective and the reactive; equanimity and madness; nostalgia and ‘dystalgia’.
It’s also pretty much exactly what the floor of my girlhood bedroom would look on any given day between age 6-13 when it was Barbie meets He-Man. Jane Austen meets Franz Kafka.
Teresa Dall might not have been a ‘Barbie girl’ when she was young, but I sure was. Yet I couldn’t say that it was the conventional Barbie childhood one would automatically think off, what with the cookie cutter body standard, gender role assignment allusions, and, perhaps, the white supremacy undertones of Barbie’s seemingly imposed standard of beauty.
To much of the world, Barbie set the standard for impossible beauty. For this once young person, Barbie was a tool to explore the puzzling nature of the aspects and perplexities of adulthood.
And my Barbies weren’t perfect at all. They had haircuts that resulted from the life situations I explored through them. Buzz cuts from brain tumor therapy. Short haircuts stemming from drought-induced water shortages that made hair care impossible for the survival-minded woman. Permanent marker bruises and black eyes from when a drunk Ken beat up an insubordinate Barbie. As imperfect as Dall’s Barbies with the splashes of post-rain mud on their faces and disheveled hair, but still smiling as if all were perfect, despite reality.
Needless to say, I had a lot of Barbies and a lot of questions about life.
And Barbie helped resolve some of those at a young age. And when you look at Dall’s “Barbie Garden,” it’s an existential free-for-all where two generations now have been touched by the debatable determinism displayed in Dall’s garden where Barbie rules, despite her imminent demise as dinosaur jaws stay still, about to clamp down on her head.
Dall, a retired English teacher at Old Rochester Regional High School, said she was inspired to plant her Barbie garden about 20 years ago while in Provincetown with her husband Mark. They saw an interesting display of Barbies and dolls at a guest house they passed and Dall thought it was “well-done”, “edgy”, and interesting. “And it fascinated us,” she said.
“We thought it was so clever,” Dall said. And when they started their own display in 1998, people who knew them encouraged them with gifts of Barbies, Barbie clothes, and accessories, some of which are still on display today.
“And then it just started to grow – like a garden,” said Dall.
Dall loves how neighborhood kids will stop by – some every day or so – to peer through the gate with their eye-level attention to detail that taller, more distracted adults tend to lack. And, the young girls moved by the monument of muñecas, (that’s Spanish for dolls), started giving their Barbies to Dall to ‘plant’ in her Barbie garden for all to enjoy.
Dall said, after the garden’s appearance on the TV show Chronicle, people from farther away started pilgriming to her place – from Denmark, California, and even just a few days ago, Alaska.
For me, the most endearing quality of Dall’s garden is the slightly unnerving nuance penetrating the soil, so to speak, of the garden, of which Dall described in no uncertain terms.
“They’re completely oblivious,” said Dall. “They don’t know what’s happening to them.”
Dinosaurs are about to bite them; snakes are about to squeeze the life out of them … King Kong has one of them in his grasp and just might be about to pulverize her – yet, Barbie smiles as if it’s all okay, saying nothing, doing nothing. Just smiling in a zenful way that, as long as I’ve been consciously aware and witnessed, only Dall’s Barbies do.
“They just keep waving and smiling,” said Dall.
And the Barbies in Dall’s garden, they don’t like the Kens, Dall said. Another “theme”, as she put it, that reoccurs every summer.
The Kens are banished to the gazebo in the back, cooking and congregating with the shirtless wrestling action figures, trying not to appear overtly homoerotic as they stand there, a crew that appears to be enjoying themselves while perhaps wishing they could be riding that dinosaur themselves or sitting next to Marge Simpson driving that convertible beneath the “flying Barbie” that Dall said is up there every year.
It’s a garden full of whimsy and terror at every turn, which isn’t that far from average existence, really. What’s more whimsical yet terrifying than a Tyrannosaurus Rex with a brush in his mouth unable to brush the hair he hasn’t got on his head with his un-reaching arms?
“It’s just a fun thing to do,” said Dall. And it doesn’t matter that it takes her three days to set up the garden. The divinity lies in the detail Dall takes in the placement of her dolls, the accessories they possess. That’s where the love is most evident.
“I couldn’t imagine not doing it. It’s a part of the neighborhood,” said Dall as she adjusts the Barbie that sits holding her own head on the end of her arm.
“That’s headless Barbie,” says Dall. “She has her purse and that’s all that matters.”
Indeed.
If you haven’t had the surreal experience of visiting Dall’s Barbie garden in Mattapoisett, don’t wait too much longer. In trying times like these, Dall’s garden offers us a harvest of playful produce and that elusive opportunity to be a voyeur of the chaos instead of immersed in it. A plasticatastophe to smile through.
This Imperfect Life
By Jean Perry
Board Talks Tough About Subdivision
Ken Motta of Field Engineering read through his report on Phase 1 of the Brandt Point Village subdivision, a project that has been fraught with ownership changes and broken promises almost since it was first permitted years ago, on July 2 before the Mattapoisett Planning Board.
Motta read through a list of some 20 incomplete punch-list items, things that were mandated from an August 2017 meeting to be completed by August 2018. He noted issues related to the stormwater drainage system and septic system. Motta also mentioned such items as catch basin cleaning and landscaping.
Village resident Gail Carlson said that she was unaware of any inspection conducted on the septic system, that street markings were not done, and that turtle fences had never been installed.
Planning Board Chairman Tom Tucker’s frustration with developer Armand Cotelleso and lender Marc Marcus of Omega Financial was on full view as he was reminded by board member Janice Robbins that both Phase 1 and 2 were due to be completed by August 1, 2018 per the August 2017 joint agreement.
“No occupancy permits for Phase 2 are to be issued until everything in Phase 1 is complete,” Tucker stated.
On the matter for culvert piping on Phase 2, Tucker said, “The owner’s engineers need to come and explain that.” He said the developers had been invited on numerous occasions to attend meetings when their project was on the agenda but failed to show up, making it difficult to work through ongoing issues at the site.
Now, Tucker said with the August 1 deadline approaching, he was in no mood to “babysit” the developer.
“We can’t baby these people,” he said with obvious disdain.
Turning to Robbins, he asked what steps the board could take if the developer defaulted.
“The lender,” Robins said, “who is also the developer, can remedy or cure problems within 30-days.” Failing that, Robbins said that the board could revoke approval of the subdivision or issue a cease and desist order. She said the board could also elect to demand the $1.5 million surety. “That might get their attention,” she said.
And while Robbins wasn’t pleased with having to go to extreme measures to get the developer to complete the project, Tucker said they had been given more than enough time to comply.
Board member Nathan Ketchell stated, “They have a hard deadline they have to respond to.”
Planning Board Administrative Assistant Mary Crain was asked to follow-up with the Board of Health to ascertain if inspection reports had ever been submitted for the site and to invite Cotelleso and Marcus to the July 16 meeting.
In other business, the board approved the construction of a driveway for a new home located at 116 North Street. They also accepted an Approval Not Required form for property located at 33 and 35 County Road where the Ropewalk business complex is located. The board members also affirmed the release of lots located on Appaloosa Lane. The public hearing for a two-lot subdivision located off Snow Field Road proposed by Dennis Arsenault was continued until July 16.
The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Planning Board is scheduled for July 16 ay 7:00 pm in the town hall conference room.
Mattapoisett Planning Board
By Marilou Newell
Mattapoisett Congregational Church
Dear Editor,
On behalf of the Mattapoisett Congregational Church, I would like to thank the Mattapoisett Land Trust and Mike Huguenin for hosting us on our first “Blessing of the Animals” service June 10th at the Munro Preserve. The day was a bit overcast with a light breeze – making it perfect weather for animals and owners alike. In attendance, were 96 people and 26 animals (25 dogs and one hamster) for the service. It was especially nice to see members of the Mattapoisett community out on their Sunday morning stroll stop and enjoy the service.
Thank you,
Lisa Hill, Mattapoisett Congregational Church
The views expressed in the “Letters to the Editor” column are not necessarily those of The Wanderer, its staff, or advertisers. The Wandererwill gladly accept any and all correspondence relating to timely and pertinent issues in the greater Marion, Mattapoisett, and Rochester area, provided they include the author’s name, address, and phone number for verification. We cannot publish anonymous, unsigned, or unconfirmed submissions. The Wandererreserves the right to edit, condense, and/or otherwise alter submissions for purposes of clarity and/or spacing considerations. The Wanderermay choose to not run letters that thank businesses and The Wandererhas the right to edit letters to omit business names. The Wandereralso reserves the right to deny publication of any submitted correspondence.
Mattapoisett Center Class of 1958 Reunion
The Mattapoisett Center School ninth grade class of 1958 is looking for fellow classmates for a 60th year celebration. This celebratory gathering is planned for September 15here in Mattapoisett.
Please contact Carole Sherman Clifford at 774-582-1913 or Moosie999@comcast.net if you know the whereabouts of the following: Robert Bowman, Rachel Davis, David Delano, Paul Dextraze, Wayne Edwards, Barbara Gast, Joyce Harrison, Joan Macedo, Beverly McLane, Edward Moreau, Karen Paulson, Duncan Power, Katherine Price, Joan Sawyer, Alan Silveria, Alicia Sullivan, John Sylvia, and Marie Tyler.
BBC’s Buzzards Bay Swim
Three hundred fifteen swimmers dove into outer New Bedford Harbor early Saturday morning to celebrate clean water in Buzzards Bay during the Buzzards Bay Coalition’s 25th anniversary Buzzards Bay Swim.
As of the start of the event Saturday, swimmers had raised $146,500 to support the nonprofit Coalition’s work to protect clean water, conserve land, and educate youth and adults across the Buzzards Bay region.
“The fight for clean water is a gradual, powerful movement that builds over decades, punctuated by extraordinary opportunities like this one: to swim with over 300 like-minded people who believe in the same cause,” said Coalition President Mark Rasmussen. “This anniversary has given us a chance to celebrate how far Buzzards Bay has come, while recommitting to finishing the job together.”
Calm, clear waters and bright sunshine greeted swimmers as they gathered on the beach next to the former Davy’s Locker restaurant in New Bedford’s South End. The first wave of swimmers started at 7:20 am and by around 9:20 am the final swimmers had covered the 1.2-mile course and arrived at the finish line at Fort Phoenix Beach State Reservation in Fairhaven.
“This swim is a great mix of doing something good with an event with a real community feel,” said Dana Tatlock of Cranston, Rhode Island, who took home a Six Mile Award this year for completing 5 swims. “Looking back at this going on for 25 years, it has me thinking about how individuals doing small things can have a really big impact.”
The Swim drew participants from 160 communities in 17 states, including as far as away as North Carolina, Texas, and California. Swimmers ranged in age from 12 to 78.
Bill Muldoon of Mattapoisett was the top fundraiser this year, raising $4,010. Courtney Rocha of Westport, who was the top fundraiser among first-time swimmers, raised $3,345, while Rebecca Williams of Rochester raised $3,340. In addition to the top individual fundraisers, “The Immigrants” (Harris Nusbaum of Newton, Manuel Garber of Winchester, Elissa Donnard of Worcester, Alper Kucukural of Cambridge, and Alan Derr of Westford) was the top fundraising team with a total of $5,001.
To help inspire swimmers to increase their fundraising this year, eleven-time swimmer Larry Fish of West Falmouth has issued a challenge: if swimmers raise a collective $157,000, the former chair and CEO of Citizens Financial Group will congratulate them by donating another $50,000 from his Fish Family Foundation. Members of the public who wish to support the Swim and meet this fundraising goal can donate through July 31 at www.savebuzzardsbay.org/swim.
“Buzzards Bay is where I have my home. It’s a beautiful and precious place to me, my family, and so many others,” said Fish. “The Coalition is one of those places where you can be confident that your support is going to have a tangible benefit.”
BOS Shares Face Time With Department Heads
On the agenda for the new Board of Selectmen is to stay more informed on what the Town’s departments are working on, and on June 28 it held a casual, round table discussion of sorts with the various department heads to hear what they had to say about current projects, future projects, and any foreseeable capital spending on the horizon.
Most important are the “big projects”, said Board of Selectmen Chairman Norm Hills. Also, the board wants to know what the department heads anticipate for projects coming down the pike – “Any potential problems,” Hills added, “and if you need any help from anybody.” But also, of course, “To share information so we know what’s going on.”
For Harbormaster Isaac Perry, “Summer is a pretty busy time of the year for us.”
Tabor Academy donated 400,000 2-millimeter oysters, which Perry received the day before, and he anticipates another 350,000 larger ones in a few weeks from settlement money stemming from the 2003 Bouchard oil spill.
Perry oversaw the in-house construction of three 6-foot by 30-foot floats, which cost the Town about as much as it would cost to buy just one prefabricated float, he said.
“And it’s access,” said Perry. “As you know, shoreline access is tough.” He added that there are 180 small boat spots now at the wharf, saying, “That’s huge. There’s not too may places you can see that many boats in one confined area.”
Shawn Cormier, facilities director, said his department is on track for closing fiscal year 2018, with $4,000 to $6,000 remaining to be returned as free cash. He said, in preparation for the summer, new showers were installed at Silvershell Beach, the roof of the Silvershell facility was replaced and other trim work completed, the cupola rebuilt, and the department continues to upgrade Fire Station 1.
“It’s a real big project. I figure a three-year operation. We’ve got about a year-and-a-half left,” said Cormier. He’s also working on the Music Hall. With the new ceiling tiles all done, next up is the stage area in the fall. The library is getting a new roof and some carpeting, and progress is ongoing.
“The only potential problem I see is town hall,” said Cormier. “[We will need to] talk about where we’re headed in that project.”
Over at Recreation, Jody Dickerson said with the beach now open and summer programs starting, the department is in its busiest time of year as well.
His only potential problem, aside from ongoing needs for storage, he said, is the imminent of the minimum wage increase to $15.
“If you want to continue to have the quality employees … we’re going to have to compensate them,” said Dickerson.
Dickerson announced that the playground at Silvershell is now ADA compliant, and the Town, in addition to sharing a new handicap beach wheelchair with Rochester, is looking into a rollup boardwalk to increase handicap access to the beach.
Fire Chief Brian Jackvony said he has a long capital list, but the new ventilation installment project will be covered in part by a federal grant he acquired totaling $85,000. The funds that Town Meeting appropriated can now go to another project, and Jackvony pointed to the need for a new ambulance a couple years from now, and a replacement of Engine 3, which he estimates at $600,000.
For Police Chief John Garcia, life is good … “now that the winter is over.”
Garcia highlighted the new emergency access route he initiated with Sippican School, and described the new relationship officers are building with Sippican School students.
At first, he said, the kids’ faces looked concerned when the officers started spending time at the school. But after weeks of attending recess and having lunch in the cafeteria, Garcia said, “Now the kids are looking at the officers and wondering if they’re going to hand out stickers on that day.
“They’re really enjoying the time that they’re spending there,” Garcia said on behalf of the officers.
Garcia added that he is starting his search for the new administrative assistant that was added to his FY19 budget, and is establishing a senior outreach program at the Council on Aging.
Karen Gregory’s only concern as director of the COA is storage, she told the board.
She said she has to store medical equipment at the Atlantis Driver facility, which makes it inconvenient because the equipment is used so often.
“We’re not as responsive as we could be,” said Gregory.
Karen Kevelson from the Finance Committee said she and the committee want preliminary budgets in as early as the second week of November and warned the departments about imminent cutbacks.
“We spend a lot of money for a small town and every year we say the same thing: We have to curtail spending. And we spend a lot of money, and on things that we need, but there’s gonna be a point when we’re gonna have to cut back on every department,” she said, not knowing if the FY20 budget will be level-service or level-funded.
Marion School Committee Chairman Christine Marcolini said the committee will be watching as the new homes at Sippican Woods are occupied, hoping the district can easily absorb an increase in enrollment.
“We’re optimistic,” Marcolini said, “but historically, when we’ve had a big bump before, we did have to make some changes.”
Hills said there would be future meetings like this one, saying, “Maybe in the future it’ll have a little more structure to it.”
Marion Board of Selectmen
By Jean Perry