Julianne Nolte of Mattapoisett was named to the Dean’s List at Lehigh University in the fall 2017 semester. Dean’s List status is awarded to students who earned a scholastic average of 3.6 or better while carrying at least 12 hours of regularly graded courses.
The Rochester Council on Aging announces the following upcoming meetings:
Bonjour. Conversational French I & II will meet on Friday, January 12 from 9:30 – 11:30 am.
On Wednesday, January 17, there will be a FRIENDS Meeting at 10:00 am and free blood pressure clinic at 10:30 am.
It was described as a skull-crushing storm by the national press, with an arctic blast so fierce that the ‘bomb cyclone’ was dubbed a ‘bombgenesis’ by meteorologists, and spread across social media like an atomic blitz.
On Thursday, January 4, the eastern coastline of Massachusetts and Cape Cod became Ground Zero with snow, flooding, and driving winds. However, Tri-Town was relatively spared most of the fallout, experiencing some rain, heavy wet snow, and winds knocking down arced, snow-caked power lines followed by a flash freeze.
Blizzard warnings went out Wednesday, and schools announced their closures before bedtime Wednesday night. Snow totals for our region were somewhat inflated compared to what actually fell – throughout this part of Plymouth County ranging from 5.8 inches in Rochester to over 6 inches in Acushnet and up to 13 in Middleboro.
The closest documented wind gusts Thursday were in Fairhaven at 46 miles per hour, not quite the blizzard strength winds that were forecasted, but power outages were almost immediate.
Marion opened up its emergency shelter at Sippican School as a warming center around 3:00 pm on Thursday, as 20 percent of Marion residences experienced power loss. It was then shut down two hours later at 5:00 pm when power was restored to the majority of Marion residences.
The storm was raging in the area just after noontime on Thursday, as power outages began to pop up as trees downed power lines. Eversource quickly dispatched its workers and restored power to most customers in Rochester and Marion.
“It was probably the best response we’ve seen in a while from Eversource,” said Rochester Police Chief Paul Magee.
But by 4:30 pm, Mattapoisett still saw over 1,800 customers without power, about 41 percent of Eversource customers.
There was one major accident on Interstate 195 West late morning on Thursday, with a vehicle striking a tree and three injured people taken to the hospital. Another Interstate 195 accident in the afternoon was minor.
Chief Magee said accidents were at a minimum during the storm, with only one vehicle reported to have slid off Walnut Plain Road.
“Traffic and accidents were pretty much off the table,” said Magee. “Most calls were just mainly trees and wires down.”
Magee credited the low number of accidents during the storm to schools, municipal offices, and businesses closing for the day, keeping people off the roads.
But then came the frigid cold temperatures that quickly soared down upon the heavy, wet snow that caked the roads, making some secondary roads nearly impassable.
Most accidents, said Magee, have occurred since the storm ended and road conditions deteriorated further after the sudden drop in air temperature, totaling eight between the end of the storm and Monday.
“That’s obviously high,” Magee said. “People are traveling too fast for the existing road conditions.” Not that they are speeding, he said, but that some roads were still in poor condition, coated with a thick layer of ice.
“There’s nothing [the Highway Department] could do about it. They’ve done everything they can, putting down sand and salt,” said Magee.
Along the Tri-Town coast, sub-zero night temperatures and below-freezing day temps finally solidified an already steadily chilling Buzzards Bay until it finally climbed above the freezing point on Monday, beginning the thaw that should stretch into next week, with warmer temperatures in the 50s predicted for the weekend along with some rain.
As of Thursday, January 11, there are exactly 67 days until spring.
By Jean Perry
Well, the results are in and I may now count myself firmly planted in the baby-boomer population whose aging joints are calling it quits and demanding attention – as in medical intervention.
Why I never expected to suffer in this way speaks more to my abject fear of all things medical rather than to my ignorance of the impact of aging. I am a very bad patient.
I should be glad there is the possibility of a slightly intrusive tweaking of a ball joint followed by a few weeks of physical therapy relieving me of the constant pain I now experience from the hip bone connected to the thigh bone. But I am not.
I cling foolishly to a fantasy where I wake up and it will have been a bad dream. But nope, this is for real.
I already know I will hate it if and when one of my gal pals says something like, “Time to pull up your big girl panties…” Where the heck did that phrase come from?! My panties may be bigger than they once were, but not that big!
All those decades I spent walking my legs off in order to stay physically fit and keep the DNA that would toss pounds onto my frame if I even looked at a slice of pizza were also slowly, with glacial exactitude, wearing out cartilage. Add to that some rotten trick of biology that makes bones clog up like an artery. I’ve been handed a one-two punch.
The royal we – as in me, myself, and I – are not happy.
This phase of life, at least for me, could easily be referred to as the gloaming. Not sun-drenched salad days or sun-setting golden years – something in-between, like another uncomfortable latency phase, only with gray hair.
Here’s where I have to remind myself to count blessings and reflect on how very lucky I am. Having perspective is mature, and I can pull that on more easily than big panties.
By the time my parents reached my age, their joints were seizing up. Dad should have had a knee replacement but that miracle of modern medicine wasn’t yet available to the average mere mortal, and besides, I doubt very much if Dad would have willingly gone under the knife. I get my anti-medical intervention gene from him by the way. He, in stereotypical guy fashion, simply avoided doctors.
Ma had her share of aches and pains and began her nose-diving career around the age of 70. She hurt a knee that never quite felt right again, and then both ankles disjointed and required surgery. She broke her collarbone in a fall, and at least once smashed her face. Although she moaned a great deal when she was still able to stand and pivot, she bore it all with amazing grace. She was brave.
As I lay in the MRI tube of doom tamping down my claustrophobia, I channeled my parents. I thought about Ma and her ability to face really scary stuff with the attitude, “…It can’t be helped.” Her ability to resign herself to whatever was happening served her well in the last decade of her life. That’s not to say she wasn’t really pissed off, because that would be a bit too much rewriting of history. She was the enraged hornet until acceptance rode in on its white charger.
Dad’s modus operandi was like the movie Finding Nemo where the character Dory sings, “…Just keep swimming…” He plowed ahead regardless of physical or mental limitations, including moving heavy appliances and TVs well into his early 80s. His “got to earn a living” streak simply wouldn’t allow him to put the brakes on and accept that his body’s tank was nearing empty. His knees fused together in painful bone-on-bone fashion, but he still put his own pants on every morning.
They were the poster images for a picture whose caption could easily read “TOUGH OLD BIRDS.”
I am made of weaker stuff. I didn’t suffer through the Depression-era or WWII. I was given food and shelter aplenty. If I didn’t want to eat the crust on store-bought bread, Ma would cut it off and eat it. If I was sick, I stayed home in a cozy room on the sofa being attended to by the family doctor and a mother hell-bent on returning me to health. Dad fetched the bowls of ice cream as Ma mopped my feverish brow. Spoiled and privileged in the 1950s bountiful fashion was I.
Now I find the memory of their fortitude comforting. If they could endure all that came their way, so can I. I’m working hard on being able to resign myself to whatever fate is planning, after all “… it can’t be helped.” I’ll be repeating the mantra “Feet, don’t fail me now…” I think Ma and Dad would appreciate that sentiment.
This Mattapoisett Life
By Marilou Newell
Robert M. Xifaras of Mattapoisett died in an automobile accident on Friday, January 5, 2018. He was born and raised in New Bedford and lived and worked there for most of his life, moving to Mattapoisett two years ago.
Bobby, as he was affectionately called, was a graduate of the class of New Bedford High School, Class of 1980, the University of Rhode Island and Suffolk Law School. He was a practicing criminal defense trial attorney in New Bedford, MA for close to three decades. He passionately defended his clients with a special advocacy that was uniquely “X”. To know Bobby was to love him. He truly embodied love, he was a “brother” to all and a friend to anyone and everyone in need. His beautiful smile, special swagger, kindness and level of caring, especially for those who needed it most, are unequalled and he will be missed by a great many people.
He spent several years in the X-Tones, a local band that featured original songs, many penned by Bobby. He was a talented song writer and musician and those years were some of his fondest. He was also a certified diver and after many years away from the sport was able, recently, to dive in the beautiful blue waters of Mexico, which brought him great joy. When he wasn’t working, or playing his guitar, he was reading and often could be found with his dog-eared copy of Walden and Other Writings by Henry David Thoreau, a huge influence in his life. He was also deeply proud of his Greek heritage and embraced the beauty of the culture and was looking forward to visiting Athens and Rhodes in May.
His children were the light of his life and he was incredibly proud of their many accomplishments. He imparted beauty, music, poetry, kindness, education and a sense of social justice in all of them. They are the embodiment of all that was good in his life; his special light will shine through his daughters forever.
He was the son of the Beatrice (Keshian) Xifaras of New Bedford and the late Michael Xifaras. He is survived by his brothers, William Xifaras and his wife Christine (Foster), his Godson Michael and niece Angela of Acushnet, George Xifaras and Rae Martin of Burlingame, CA and his sister Carol Soenksen of New Bedford. He also leaves four beautiful daughters, Jolie Marie of New York, New York, Alexandra Beatrice of Boston and Athena Elysee and Electra Ann Xifaras of Fairhaven. In addition, he leaves behind the love of his life, Kelly Walsh who is heartbroken at his death. Bobby also had a special place in his heart for his “5th daughter”, Callista “Callie O’Malley” Remillard. He also leaves behind many close cousins and countless friends that he touched.
His Funeral Service will be held at St. George Greek Orthodox Church, 186 Cross Rd., Dartmouth on Friday, January 12th at 10 AM. Burial will follow in Pine Grove Cemetery. Visiting hours will be Thursday from 4-8 PM at the Saunders-Dwyer Home for Funerals, 495 Park St., New Bedford. For directions and guestbook, visit www.saundersdwyer.com.
The Mattapoisett Lions Club, a member of Lions International, the world’s largest service club organization consisting of 45,000 clubs and more than 1.3 million members worldwide, is pleased to announce the availability of two (2) $2,500 scholarships to be awarded this year to a graduating high school or homeschooled student residing in Mattapoisett, Marion or Rochester.
The funds for the Peter Hodges Memorial Scholarship are raised through fundraisers held by the Mattapoisett Lions Club throughout the year, including Harbor Days, an annual Arts and Craft Festival held in Shipyard Park, Mattapoisett every third weekend of July.
The Lions Club motto is “We Serve,” as some of the largest charitable causes of Lions International include raising funds for Ever Research in an effort to end preventable blindness throughout the world, eradicating measles world wide in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and here at home providing services for those in need in our communities.
To qualify, a graduating student or homeschooled student shall be enrolled in their first year of a recognized school of higher education, must be a resident of the Tri-Town area, and have demonstrated service to the community.
To obtain an application, learn more about this Award, or to learn how to become a member of the Lions Club, visit our website www.mattapoisettlionsclub.org Award applications are also available through the guidance department at your high school.
Applications must be received by March 24, 2018.
Come celebrate the new year at Open Table. You’re invited for supper on Friday, January 12 at the Mattapoisett Congregational Church. The menu is usually a surprise, but it’s bound to be something delicious. There is no charge, although donations are gratefully accepted. At Open Table, it’s all about the food, fun and fellowship. Doors open at 4:30 pm and the meal will be served at 5:00 pm. This is a community event and everyone is welcome.
The Mattapoisett Board of Selectmen on January 9 set the Special Town Meeting for February 12 at 6:30 pm in the Old Rochester Regional High School auditorium, seeking voters’ support for a moratorium on recreational marijuana sales in Mattapoisett.
On the heels of two public discussions on the topic of how the town should proceed, given the fast approaching launch date of March 1 for the legal sale of recreational marijuana throughout the state, the selectmen concurred that there was no time to lose.
During public discussion on the topic, it was clear that voters wished to pursue a temporary moratorium to give the Planning Board time to draft new zoning bylaws that would allow some local controls to be put in place.
Town Administrator Michael Gagne read from a letter received from Planning Board Chairman Tom Tucker that read in part:
“The purpose of the moratoria are to provide the Town time to study the legal, planning and public safety issues related to these uses. The Town needs to determine how to regulate these uses and to consider if there should be an outright or partial ban.”
The Planning Board asked the selectmen to consider two warrant articles.
The first article would ask voters to pass a temporary moratorium on the use of land or structures for recreational marijuana establishments and related uses involving recreational marijuana.
The second article spoke to the use and dispensing of medical marijuana.
The draft article proposes a moratorium that covers the use of land or structures for medical marijuana treatment centers, including cultivating, processing, selling, administration, and printed materials regarding medical marijuana use.
Selectman Tyler Macallister said, “The issue of ‘medical’ wasn’t touched in either of the public meetings we had.” He expressed reservations about including medical use language in the warrant, wondering aloud “Is it the right thing to do?”
Macallister then said, “It’s managed differently. You need a prescription. There are people who legitimately use it.” He said a moratorium was the right way to go with recreational use and believed that by including ‘medical’ use, voters may be confused.
Gagne said he would ask the Planning Board for clarification on that article, and said that Planning Board Administrator Mary Crain had been working closely with Attorney Katherine Laughman of KP Law, the town’s legal team in writing the articles.
The selectmen were unanimous in their support of a special town meeting.
In other matters, the selectmen held a hearing with Taylor Cultured Seafood, Inc., owners of a 100-acre aquaculture site located between Brandt Island and West Island in Fairhaven, regarding license noncompliance matters.
Present to respond to the issues raised was Zach Sun, a civil engineer and family member of owner Jian Sun, and Tobey Cook, who said he was the farm manager.
Gagne read from a list of concerns that the town considered as being noncompliant with the license. Those issues were: 1) failure to mark boundaries of licensed area and equipment; 2) failure to maintain a daily presence between May 15 and October 15; 3) abandonment of the licensed area with failure to remove equipment resulting in navigational hazards; 4) area that had been used was significantly different than the area denoted in the license; 5) lack of shellfish activity constituted a lack of use; and 6) unauthorized change in species to be farmed.
Sun and Cook concurred that all the stated noncompliance issues were, in fact, true. Cook said, “It’s all true. The former owner left the company in May 2016. We did remove and clean the area, but we don’t have experience with scallops.”
Scallops were the permitted species, but now the company wished to switch to oysters.
Macallister said, “So what I hear is the site has gone untouched except for equipment removal. I hear it’s been abandoned.”
Chairman Paul Silva said, “I’m really disappointed the owners didn’t come.”
Selectman Jordan Collyer asked, “Do you really need one hundred acres?” He noted that a much smaller area would produce many thousands of oysters. He said he would be in favor of allowing two smaller parcels once the owners addressed issues, but if they came back for 100 acres he would veto that request.
Silva agreed.
Silva also instructed the representatives to return with a business plan and state and/or federally issued permits, along with the owner.
The hearing was continued until March 13.
The selectmen also met with restaurateurs Nabih, Nouhad, and Gary Moujdbber, owners of the Lebanese Kitchen, to discuss why they had failed to open as planned nearly two years ago.
The partners had received alcohol, entertainment, and common victualler licenses and were to have opened in the spring of 2016. Now they came forward to explain.
The numerous issues had set them back, not only in terms of an opening date, but also in terms of expenses.
“Everything is three times more than expected,” he said.
Moujdbber said the majority of structural and interior repairs and renovations have been completed, but that they are still months away from being able to open the doors. He gave the selectmen a May 2018 date.
“We are going to hold you to it,” Silva stated. He said Christine Richards, an administrative assistant in the Selectmen’s Office, would make bi-weekly site visits and report directly to the selectmen on Moujdbber’s progress.
Collyer added, “If you need anything from any town hall department, we’ll help you.”
Silva also thanked the Moujdbbers for donations to the annual holiday party held at Shipyard Park.
Before wrapping up the meeting, Gagne reported that a series of neighborhood meetings would be taking place beginning Thursday, January 11, at 6:30 pm in Center School and for the next four subsequent Thursdays to continue discussion on village street improvements. He urged residents to attend the meetings so that all voices could be heard on the future of the neighborhood.
Gagne also applauded the highway, police, and fire departments for their good work during the recent snow event.
The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Board of Selectmen is scheduled for January 23 at 6:30 pm in the town hall conference room.
Mattapoisett Board of Selectmen
By Marilou Newell
Is it Boom or Bust on our Coral Reefs? Climate Change, Disease and Recovery is the topic of the Buttonwood Park Zoo’s January Wildlife Education Series. The lecture will take place on Thursday, January 11 beginning at 6:00 pm. Is it Boom or Bust on our Coral Reefs? Climate Change, Disease and Recovery features Dr. John Crosby of Tabor Academy’s Marine Science Department.
Coral reefs are one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems on earth, and Elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata) has been the dominant reef-building hard coral species throughout the Caribbean for over 10,000 years. But since the mid-70s, there has been an 80 – 98% mortality of Elkhorn throughout the Caribbean and the Florida Keys. Dr. Crosby will discuss how scientists are working to understand the nature of the disease that has decimated Acropora coral species in this hemisphere these past forty years. Research is helping to uncover the range and distribution of factors that cause disease, as well as the conditions that are required for recovery. Crosby will discuss recent efforts being made to farm corals and “outcrop” them into affected areas, thereby restoring populations that might otherwise never recover.
John Crosby is a science teacher at Tabor Academy in Marion. He is also the Principle Investigator of a collaborative research effort with the National Park Service and the U.S. Geological Survey designed to study the decline and recovery of Acropora coral species on the reefs surrounding the island of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Crosby earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Maine. He went on to become a Principle Research Scientist at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. There he participated in physician-scientist training programs and directed research in hematological oncology. He’s been engaging Tabor students and faculty in reef research in the Virgin Islands for the last 15 years. Crosby lives with his family in Marion, MA and enjoys diving, four-wheeling, wood-turning and paying two college tuitions.
Tickets are $8 for Members, $10 for Non-Members, and $5 for Students. They are available at www.bpzoo.org.
The Wildlife Education Series, in its second season, offers dynamic talks on all things wild. This year’s line-up includes discussions on a wide range of topics from coral reefs in crisis, to why conservation matters, animal migration patterns and more.
Debra Ewing of Jenney Street, on behalf of residents at The Cove who have been overseeing the turtle habitat protection project on Town-owned land, came before the Marion Conservation Commission on December 27 to address a violation of mowing beyond the boundaries allowed in the Order of Conditions.
The matter was continued from December 13 so the commission could get some answers before turning its attention to The Cove’s request for an extension of its permit to maintain the landscaping of the turtle nesting habitat restoration project near Hammetts Cove off Jenney Lane.
The problem was that mowing had been performed that far exceeded the boundaries set by the commission back in 2015. Before issuing a three-year extension, which the commission still held off on for now, the commission members needed some information, particularly about the benefits of mowing the coastal property when it came to not just the diamondback terrapins, but also the eastern box turtles.
First, Ewing said the work that was done by the new landscaping company the residents hired was completely contrary to the instructions she gave them. She said she gave explicit directions to the landscaper, but the worker who did the actual work while Ewing was not at home ignored the posted boundaries.
“They were way out to the water and I told them immediately to stop, but I was not aware that it was going to be happening that day,” said Ewing. “It was not supposed to happen.”
Ewing said she finds the boundary posts to be obvious, but commission member Shaun Walsh added, “The posts are very obvious, but to the uninitiated it’s not very clear what they’re demarcating, so they look almost a little bit random.”
Walsh later suggested that The Cove residents purchase small circular signs announcing the presence of wetlands and number the posts accordingly with the numbers expressed on the plan and accompanying Order of Conditions.
And in the future, Walsh added, a copy of the Order of Conditions should be physically handed to the landscaper before any future work is completed.
“It’s vitally important that whoever does that activity in the future has a copy of this order,” said Walsh.
As for the eastern box turtles, although they enjoy the mowed areas for passage, the wetter regions closer to the shoreline are not where the box turtle prefers to nest.
“Our question…” Chairman Cynthia Callow asked, “…is the mowing of that area vital to the habitat of the box turtle? Is that a place where they go? Is that a place where they play?
Commission member Jeffrey Doubrava said that he recalled from prior hearings in 2015 that the mowing had something to do with box turtles, and Walsh, who had reviewed meeting minutes, concurred.
The commission determined that Don “Turtle Man” Lewis, the one who spearheaded the project and has since moved to Florida, did state that the mowing would benefit the eastern box turtle in some way. However, Ewing said she was unaware of how the mowing would benefit them.
“That was the only controversial part of the project – the mowing,” Doubrava recalled, saying that Lewis had initially requested a 30,000 square-foot sandy area to be cleared, but the commission only granted a 2,000 square-foot area.
“Mowing was definitely limited,” Callow said. “There was a big discussion about that.”
Landis Major, president of The Cove Homeowner’s Association, said he has seen box turtles in the mowed area. “Not a great number, but I have seen them.”
But they do not nest there, unlike the terrapins, which benefit from the mowing because they need the sandy area to lay their eggs.
Some Cove residents actually question whether expanding the sandy nesting habitat would ensure even more success of the project in the future.
Before the rescue project was established, it was determined that there were roughly 50 diamondback terrapins in Hammetts Cove, almost driven to extinction because none of the hatchlings survived.
Doubrava reminded Ewing that the maintenance permit was good until April 2018. In the meantime, the residents should get confirmation from a biologist that continued mowing is still essential to the project and also find a viable solution for improving the boundary post markers so that future landscapers would not repeat the mistake of over-mowing the area.
“The mowing part,” said Major, “I don’t see as a problem, now that we’ve experienced one disaster that was not our choosing. We can either put out more [small-sized] posts or we could rope it.”
As long as the enhanced markings are consistent with the Order of Conditions, said Walsh.
“Without any kind of information, even a small little circle sign … it’s just a bunch of random posts,” Walsh said.
The residents of The Cove do not need to return before the commission, but they will need to submit the information the commission requested before the permit expires in April.
Also during the meeting, a Request for Certificate of Compliance for Warren and Lee Williamson of 121 Converse Road was issued. The commission reviewed the history of the Order of Conditions and prior Enforcement Order and found no further issues or concerns at the present time.
The Request for Certificate of Compliance for Theresa Fitzpatrick for 14 Doran Way was issued contingent upon (and issued upon) the new property owners furnishing the commission with proof that a permanent split-rail fence or line of boulders has been installed. The house was slated for closing on January 10, and Fitzpatrick claimed she was unaware that a permanent wetlands marker was required.
The public hearing for the Town of Marion’s Notice of Intent for the construction of the County Road water main and meter vault installation to extend a 12-inch water main to provide an emergency water supply to Wareham in case of fire or other emergency (at the expense of the Town of Wareham pending a Town Meeting vote) was continued until January 10 in order to allow for time to properly notify one last abutter who was otherwise unreachable before the hearing.
In other matters, the commission will hold off before issuing a Restoration Completion request for 99 Perry Lane until it can review work completed at the sight in the spring.
The next meeting of the Marion Conservation Commission is January 10 at 7:00 pm at the Marion Town House.
Marion Conservation Commission
By Jean Perry