Thoughts on the Arts

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To the Editor:

No doubt you’ve heard this before. New Bedford is a hotbed of the arts. Not long ago, the Massachusetts Cultural Council declared the city the “most creative community” in the state. Previously, The Atlantic Monthly magazine named New Bedford the “Most Artistic City in America.”

It abounds with a plethora of artists, galleries, the UMass Dartmouth Fine Arts Department, film makers, numerous theater and performing arts groups, a fine symphony orchestra, cultural collaboratives, and museums.

One might think an affluent community in close proximity to such a beacon of the arts might reflect an appreciation for the potential the arts offer to the education of their children and to the prestige of the community in general. Alas, in our special community to the east, not so much.

Each year when budget season rolls around, the arts are invariably perceived to be expendable. Whether it be a town organization or the school department, the arts are always the first to be threatened with a trip to the chopping block.

The Old Rochester Regional School Committee’s Budget Sub-committee is recommending a 4.7 percent increase over the current budget which to their credit includes, along with other upgrades and services, making a part-time art teacher full-time. However, the district has been informed by the towns’ leaders to expect significantly less. The result … wait for it … would be to drop one high school art teacher back to part time and to cut the junior high’s music teacher, resulting in the elimination of the school’s band and music program.

It is ironic that just as the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) announced in February that the arts are “integral to what determines a successful school in the Commonwealth” and that “access and participation in arts education be included in Massachusetts Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) as a strategy to broaden the curriculum for every Massachusetts child,” Old Rochester succumbs to using cuts in the arts as a threat.

Adding insult to injury, the School Committee has been told that the Old Rochester Community Television (ORCTV), whose studios are housed at the high school, will no longer fund the district’s schools’ video programs which it has done for a number of years resulting in … wait for it again … the likely disappearance of all video classes at the high school and programs at the elementary schools. Considering that the video production classes are the only ones that encompass all learning disciplines including art, music, reading, writing and performing not to mention technology as well as learning styles which include visual, aural, linguistic and kinetic, this would be a significant loss.

Whether these important curricula will be lost remains to be seen. Their demise would be another blow to the arts, the overall curriculum and the district standing academically. Having served on a school committee and on numerous statewide arts advocacy boards, I understand that this is the first skirmish in a long budgetary battle which will result in some sort of compromise. Nevertheless, this mindset that the first to go are the arts must change if the community expects to maintain a viable educational program in our schools.

With current regime in Washington threatening to cut the National Endowment for the Arts, those who count the arts as expendable will be emboldened. The struggle to support creativity in schools and communities will go on. It is up to the education leadership and the fiscal decision makers to recognize that the arts in schools must have consistent funding and status along with the other core subjects of Science, Technology, English, and Math.

The arts may be losing support in Washington, but here in Massachusetts it is finding it at the highest levels. The tri-town communities would do well to learn, as their counterparts across the State and nearby have, that a commitment to achieve the goal of returning the arts to their rightful place in the community and “integral to what determines a successful school in our children’s education” is the right thing to do. But, you’ve heard all this before.

Dick Morgado, Mattapoisett

 

The views expressed in the “Letters to the Editor” column are not necessarily those of The Wanderer, its staff, or advertisers. The Wanderer will gladly accept any and all correspondence relating to timely and pertinent issues in the great 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 Wanderer reserves the right to edit, condense and otherwise alter submissions for purposes of clarity and/or spacing considerations. The Wanderer may choose to not run letters that thank businesses, and The Wanderer has the right to edit letters to omit business names. The Wanderer also reserves the right to deny publication of any submitted correspondence.

ZBA Unsure of Proceeding with Conversion Request

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Town counsel for the Marion Zoning Board of Appeals on March 9 was unable to give sound legal advice on how to handle an applicant’s request to deny the special permit request to convert to a two-family, with a subsequent request to approve a kitchen to be built in an addition built to be inhabited by the owners’ adult children. The hearing was continued so that attorney Barbara Carboni could look further into the matter.

Engineer David Davignon represented the owners, listed only as 418 Point Road Trust. Davignon said the building commissioner issued a building permit for an addition to the main house, but constructing a kitchen was prohibited because an addition that contains “a place to sleep,” a bathroom, living space, and a kitchen is considered an apartment and not able to be permitted without ZBA approval.

What the owners did was begin construction of the addition according to the building permit conditions and connected the structure to the main house via a covered breezeway. Davignon now requested, for lack of a better solution to get the space needed to house the owners’ grown daughters when they visit, that the board deny the original special permit application in order to now allow the kitchen for the in-law type space.

“The site is being built; it is not the intention of the applicant to rent the addition, and the sole purpose of the addition is for overflow space for family,” Davignon said, offering up signed affidavits from the owners for assurance.

For a conversion to a two-family, an accessory apartment must be no more that 1,200 square feet and located within the principal structure or in an existing accessory structure, such as a garage. The new construction is 2,400 square feet and is a new structure; thus, under the town bylaw, it is not allowed for a conversion.

“We’re here for a kitchen to be placed in that proposed dwelling,” said Davignon. “We didn’t want to classify it as a two-family … but it was the only mechanism to get it on the docket.”

ZBA Chairman Marc Leblanc turned to Building Commissioner Scott Shippey and asked, “The second kitchen is only allowable if deemed an auxiliary unit?”

Shippey said the new addition could be used as a separate dwelling because it is separated by a breezeway. It has two points of egress, a place to cook, a bathroom, and at least one bedroom. “So it could be considered a two-family,” said Shippey. “However, there are a lot of houses that have two kitchens in it but don’t have other points,” he added, such as two entrances.

“But if it acts like a duck, then it’s a duck?” Leblanc said.

Carboni said she needed to give some more thought before issuing any advice on how the board should proceed on this unique situation, calling it a conundrum.

“Ideally, I would have some time to look at the issue so that I could advise the board if there are alternatives, if there is some sort of relief that can be granted,” said Carboni. “I wouldn’t want to do it on the fly.”

There was talk about future sale of the property and how a new owner might interpret the property as a two-family residence, although permits for two-family residences are not transferrable.

Attorney for the property owner, Gregory Aceto, said he is aware of the controversy two-family conversions create in Marion, but asked the board to please find something in the bylaw that would allow the kitchen in the addition, emphasizing the use of affidavits to ensure the space would never be rented out.

“If you spy anything in the bylaw, a legal argument about relief…” said Aceto, “because we can’t find anything that fits this conundrum that we have. I’m not sure I really have a legal argument to demand the kitchen.”

The board expressed a desire to cooperate with the property owners in some way, but Shippey cautioned the board, and the petitioners, that if the board denies the special permit as requested and was unable to subsequently approve the kitchen, then the applicant would be barred from applying for a special permit for two years.

“I just don’t want to offer an opinion that’s not well-grounded at this point,” Carboni said.

The hearing was continued until March 23 at 7:45 pm.

Also continued, at the applicant’s request and to the chagrin of a number of abutters and residents wishing to voice their opposition to the project, was the public hearing for Christian Loranger’s application to build a 12-unit condo at 324 Front Street. That hearing was rescheduled for March 23 at 7:30 pm.

The next meeting of the Marion Zoning Board of Appeals is scheduled for March 23 at 7:30 pm.

By Jean Perry

Old Colony Welcomes World-Famous Autism Expert

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She’s a household name to educators and parents of kids with autism, and a well-known author, professor of animal science at Colorado State University and spokesperson for autism.

Dr. Temple Grandin gave a presentation to a packed gymnasium at Old Colony RVTHS on Saturday, March 11. She’s easy to recognize, standing at the podium in her signature embroidered cowgirl shirt, bolo-style tie, and western belt buckle.

Having autism herself, she knows all about having a “different kind of mind.” Her message that day was a simple one: “The world needs different kinds of minds.”

The problem, says Grandin, is that the unique minds, the visionary minds, the ones “that have a little bit of autism,” which in turn “gives you a little more intelligence,” are down in the basement addicted to video games instead of gaining exposure to other possible interests, trades, and skills for which these minds are particularly gifted.

Grandin said that she herself was a bored student in school for the most part. The teachers she considered good teachers, however, introduced her to all types of hands-on learning – the kind of learning that is being cut from schools more often in America – including music and art, words which elicited supportive applause from the audience.

“Which is a terrible thing to do,” said Grandin, adding that the arts and “building things” are what cultivate the minds of Nobel Prize recipients. “The things that are taken out of school are the things that win Nobel prizes.”

The Asperger’s individuals, the autistics, the nerds – “the quirky people” – says Grandin, are irreplaceable in this world.

Those like Jane Goodall who, with a two-year secondary degree “went through the back door,” and without conventional education became an expert on chimpanzees. Then there’s Thomas Edison, deemed “hyperactive” and “addled,” a high school dropout on the autism spectrum, said Grandin. There is also Stephen Spielberg, who suffered with dyslexia and was rejected from film school – all people with different minds who made a difference by becoming great through unconventional ways around conventional education.

The way to success for these students, said Grandin, is exposure to interests and trades that cannot be replaced by highly specialized artificial intelligence in the future, and getting kids off the video games.

“Let’s get them addicted to things that can get them jobs,” said Grandin. Books, reading, Legos, she said. “Let’s get them beyond Legos. You got to find out what they’re interested in.”

Grandin believes the outcome is horrible for the child who remains in the basement playing video games, when parents and teachers should really be pushing trades such as mechanics and electronics, things that the different mind is equipped to build.

Early exposure to work outside the home is crucial, Grandin emphasized, especially to jobs that can help build a portfolio so the young adult can sell their work instead of relying on job applications and interviews where those with limited social skills might falter.

“The world needs us visual thinkers,” said Grandin. “Many are shunted into special education because they can’t do the tests. A lot of visual thinkers are ending up in the basement.”

And many of these kids are not gaining the basic skills they need, such as shopping, said Grandin. “We need to show them the real world is a lot more interesting than video games.”

“I would’ve been a prime candidate for video games,” said Grandin about how her brain works, but luckily, growing up in the 50s, she was taught manners, life skills, and was given opportunities by dedicated parents and teachers to explore her interests.

Grandin asserted, “They’ve got to learn how to work. That’s one of the biggest things that I’m seeing.”

“The world needs all kinds of minds,” she said, opening herself up to a standing ovation from the crowd.

Old Colony Superintendent-Director Aaron Polansky asked all teachers in the audience to stand, accounting for nearly half of those in attendance.

“It tells a story when you look out into the crowd and you see all the teachers here on behalf of their students,” said Polansky.

Polansky said that it was important to bring Temple Grandin to Old Colony because her message fits in with the philosophy of the school. The school received a grant from the Greater New Bedford Work Investment Board, which helped fund Grandin’s visit.

By Jean Perry

 

John,”jack” Kilgour

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John,”jack” Kilgour 75, of Marion died on St. Patrick’s Day at home. The day was most appropriate since Jack loved taking part in all things Irish, even though years later he learned his heritage was more Scottish and less Irish. He is survived by his wife of 41 years, Maryann, his father John J Kilgour, his loving daughter Holly Rae Nadeau, two sisters, Denise Hubert and Noreen Lusco, two brothers Lawrence Kilgour and Thomas Till, his aunt Marie Molongoski, and 4 grandchildren.

Jack served the New Bedford Public Schools for 41 years, first as a teacher, then vice principal, principal, and finally as Director of Adult Education. He retired in 2000.

He was passionate about cooking and created Italian dishes with tips from friends and by watching cooking shows on TV. He developed a red pasta sauce that could rival anything that Martha Stewart could make.

He loved to golf and was a member of Fall River Country Club and Reservation Golf Club. He was a very competitive player and was proud of his sandtrap skills.

A martini was not a martini unless it was …”A Chopin martini, extra dry, ice cold,shaken, straight up, rocks on the side with 3 blue cheese stuffed olives.”

Jack had a wonderful voice and always had music in his heart. It was not unusual for him to break out in a song to entertain a group. Amazingly, he knew all the words to many old songs.

He loved traveling with his wife especially to Maine and Bermuda.

His family and friends would describe him as a sincere, passionate, man with strong convictions. If you wanted an honest opinion you would ask Jack.

He was deeply loved and will be missed by his siblings. He brought a tremendous amount of joy and laughter into their lives.

In accordance to his wishes, he will be cremated and his ashes will be mixed with his beloved cats , Scotch and Soda , and spread over his favorite places.

To give the family time to grieve privately, a celebration of his life will be held at a later date.
Special thanks to Community Nurse Home Care of Fairhaven who thoroughly supported and anticipated the family’s every need.

Left Right Center Fundraiser

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The Rochester Women’s Club is pleased to announce the return of our Left Right Center Fundraiser. This is our second year hosting this fun-filled event to support our scholarship fund.

Please come down to The Ponderosa (242 Robinson Road, Acushnet) on Saturday, April 29 at 7:00 pm to join in on the fun. The Women’s Club will provide snacks. Cash bar will be available. Call Dee at 508-763-4748 for more details.

Rochester Town-Wide Cleanup

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The Rochester Women’s Club is again sponsoring a town-wide cleanup to celebrate Earth Day.

Come to the clubhouse at 37 Marion Road in Rochester to pick up trash collection bags and gloves on Saturday, April 22 from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. There will be coffee and donuts on a first come, first served basis.

In conjunction with this event, the Rochester Land Trust will be collecting old electronic items, also at the clubhouse during the same hours.

Among the accepted items will be computers, monitors, appliances and TVs. If it has an engine, motor or can be plugged in, it is electronic trash and can be dropped off. A fee will be charged for certain items.

Call Norene at 508-763-3628 for more details on this collection.

Frustrated? You could be part of the solution.

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To the Editor:

There is a week left for you to seek public office in Marion and do your part to make the town a truly participatory government. Nomination papers are due in the Town Clerk’s office on Monday, March 20. Openings are still available for Selectman, Town Clerk, Marion and ORR School Committees, Assessor, Moderator, Board of Health, Planning Board, Tree Warden, and Open Space Commission.

There are many very critical issues facing Marion including the renovation of the VFW building on Route 6 into a Senior Center, the need for an upgraded Town House, improvement of roads and town buildings, completion of the town’s Master Plan, and expensive upgrades to the town’s water treatment facility to name a few. Informed and interested citizens can play a vital role in shaping the solutions to the challenges that face our town.

The regional chapter of the Massachusetts League of Women Voters will hold its annual Candidates’ Night this spring on May 4 at the Marion Music Hall (7:00pm) so that townspeople may hear presentations from candidates about their views and their plans and become informed voters on Election Day, May 12.

Marion needs your involvement now. Please consider running as a candidate for office, and throughout the weeks ahead, do your best to become an informed voter.

Tri-Town Area League of Women Voters

Jennifer Francis and Tinker Saltonstall (Publicity)

 

The views expressed in the “Letters to the Editor” column are not necessarily those of The Wanderer, its staff, or advertisers. The Wanderer will gladly accept any and all correspondence relating to timely and pertinent issues in the great 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 Wanderer reserves the right to edit, condense and otherwise alter submissions for purposes of clarity and/or spacing considerations. The Wanderer may choose to not run letters that thank businesses, and The Wanderer has the right to edit letters to omit business names. The Wanderer also reserves the right to deny publication of any submitted correspondence.

Master Plan Calls for Open Space Collaboration

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Marion’s Master Plan sub-committee for open space collaboration is closing in on its mission and agenda of activities that founding members hope to accomplish by uniting the nine groups in town that hold and manage open space – even though the only elected committee, the Marion Open Space Acquisition Commission, has not been as enthusiastic about the endeavor as others might be.

This Master Plan sub-subcommittee focusing on open spaces in town is close to submitting its formal request to the Board of Selectmen to approve a new town entity named the Stewards of Community Open Space Collaboration.

The collaboration would be comprised of one representative from the nine separate public and private entities in Marion that hold and manage open space and conservation land in the town.

The initial member organizations would be the Conservation Commission, Marine Resources Commission, Pathways Committee, Planning Board (although the Planning Board does not manage public property, it is tasked with the development of the new Master Plan), Open Space Acquisition Commission, Recreation Department, Tree & Parks Committee, Trustees of Washburn Park, and the Sippican Lands Trust.

Tree & Parks Committee member Margie Baldwin likened the collaboration to the Community Preservation Committee, a mixture of different groups in town.

“We’re not trying to do anybody’s job, but to be a resource for all the different groups to come together … and we have a common interest in the town,” said Baldwin.

On March 8, members of these groups met to fine-tune the activities that SoCOS is endeavoring to undertake together as an advisory board of sorts, listing them out for the selectmen to consider.

Those activities include, but are not limited to, creating an inventory of public and private Marion open space parcels and easements, documenting the features of the properties, coordinating open space stewardship programs to improve long-term maintenance, and collaborating with other groups working towards acquisitions.

The group will work closely with town departments, boards, and committees to make open space accessible for recreational use, as well as draft a plan to incorporate and implement the proposed activities through surveys, workshops, and other public sessions.

“This is not meant to be a group with executive powers,” said Tinker Saltonstall. “It’s an advisory. It’s getting people to talk a few times a year about how they want to steward their lands.”

Other ideas for the collaboration were to meet monthly as needed, and perhaps implement a “rotating chair” policy where each month the meeting would be chaired by a different one of the nine groups represented.

By Jean Perry

 

A Forecast of Snow Geese

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Snow geese are white-bodied geese with black wing tips and tail feathers barely visible on the ground, but noticeable in flight. Usually they are more often heard before they are seen with a shrill cacophony of honking much higher up and with more rapid wing beats than their Canada cousins.

They do not like to travel without the company of another dozen or so geese and can form flocks of hundreds up to a thousand or more, already sighted in spring migration over Pennsylvania and headed this way north toward their Canada coastal breeding grounds. If lucky enough to watch one of these flights swirl down from the sky, it has been described as like standing in a snow globe as they blanket the ground in the flurry of a sudden blizzard.

Snow geese are closely related to the blue goose species in a morph controlled by a single gene. White starts to become blue in one subsequent generation, as opposed to the seasonal adaptation of camouflaging with rotating weather conditions, creating variables much like the northern partridge-like ptarmigan, the ermine weasel, and arctic fox. Native Americans were more deeply aware of environmental phenomena and read into them spiritual meaning, such as the appearance of one white buffalo once every hundred years or so – not an albino pigment deficiency, but a genetic roll of the dice, and a sacred omen of good fortune for the immediate future from past experience in their history.

How lucky is it for you and I to look skyward when the chilled stillness of the pale blue Buzzards Bay sky of late winter is broken by the shrill clarion of a lofty flock of snow geese, raising our hopes for an early spring, a heavenly orchestration as thrilling as the dramatic Hallelujah chorus of Handel’s immortal Messiah masterpiece. My subsequent message of a forecast for snow geese has a double meaning as a wish with you for an optimistic sun sign just over the horizon.

By George B. Emmons

 

Dennis G. Medeiros

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Dennis G. Medeiros, age 72, of New Bedford, passed away on Monday, March 13, 2017 at the Nemasket Healthcare Center in Middleboro. He was the former husband of Yvette (Bourgeois) Medeiros.

Born in New Bedford, the son of the late Manuel and Dolores (Amaral) Medeiros, he had resided in Rochester for over 30 years before returning to New Bedford.

He was a graduate of New Bedford High School, class of 1962 and Johnson and Wales.

He served in the United States Army as a Sergeant and was stationed in Korea.

Mr. Medeiros had worked as a salesman for RJR Nabisco Brands for 22 years, retiring in 1988. Following retirement, he worked at A&P and Stop & Shop.

Dennis was the Director of Rochester Youth Hockey for 25 years and a member of the New Bedford and Freetown VFW. He was an avid sports fan.

His family includes his children, Tara Medeiros of Rochester, Jason Medeiros and his wife Kimberly of Attleboro and Kami Medeiros of Rochester; a grandson, Wyatt Smith of Rochester; one uncle and several cousins.

His Funeral will be held on Saturday, March 18, 2017 at 8am from the Rock Funeral Home, 1285 Ashley Blvd., New Bedford followed by a Funeral Mass at 9am in St. John Neumann Church, 157 Middleboro Rd., E. Freetown. Burial in North Rochester Cemetery. Visiting hours will be Friday 4-7pm. In lieu of flowers, donations in his memory may be made to the American Diabetes Association, 260 Cochituate Rd. #200, Framingham, MA 01701.

For tributes and online registration: www.rock-funeralhome.com