There will be a Community Blood Drive sponsored by the Bay Club of Mattapoisett on Thursday, September 10 from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm at the Bay Club Training Room located at 63 County Road in Mattapoisett. Bay Club employees and members can schedule an appointment to donate at the Members Service Desk inside the activities building. For an appointment to donate, please call 1-800-REDCROSS (733-2767) or visit redcrossblood.org.
To the Editor:
The Elizabeth Taber Library wrapped up this summer’s program for children, “Book an Adventure,” with an End-of-the-Summer-Program Ice Cream Sundae Social.
Over the course of six weeks, many children ages 2 to 12 enjoyed story times, reading games, a bubble show, as well as crafts such as: bicycle decorating for the 4th of July parade, fairy house building, tie-dying T-shirts with sharpies, building gnome catapults, constructing mini-robot bugs and faux lava lamps along with various drop-in activities. Attendance for the summer programs totaled 3005. It was especially exciting to “Read for a Good Cause.” Each hour participants spent reading raised $1 to support the work of Heifer International. Our readers were able to purchase a goat and a heifer for families living in third world countries with the help of donations from Eastern Bank and the Sippican Woman’s Club.
I would like to thank all of the participants (and parents, grandparents, baby-sitters, and nannies!) involved in our program, along with our junior volunteers: Taylor Read, Nellie Zygiel, Makayla Randall, Colin Carroll, Nicholas Gouveia, Maeve Egger, Hannah Borges, Grace Russell, Alyssa Foraro, Alexa McLeod, Mackenzie Luong, Katelyn Luong, Alexander Nauyen, Kathleen Dunn, Grace Ward, May Caron, Zachary Pateakos and Emma Welter.
Special thanks go to Dot Brown for her expert assistance with the science activities and with the Fairy Houses.
Many thanks go to Jessica Barrett, the Sippican School’s Media Specialist. Jess and I worked together to create the school’s summer reading lists. Sippican Elementary School students visited our library in June to learn about the public library’s resources, the summer program and the books on the summer reading list.
Thanks go to everyone on the staff: Nicole Davignon, Rachel Breen, Anthea Andrade, Melanie Terrill and Kylie Hayden as they cheerfully helped out with the large groups of children and a seemingly endless flow of books.
Many thanks go to our enthusiastic Library Director, Libby O’Neill, who gave the program unfailing support and encouragement.
Several agencies and businesses in town lent their kind support to the library’s summer reading program, thank you.
Working with the children and their families in the community, as well as my colleagues here at the library, was a powerful reminder of the joy and excitement of sharing the love of reading. I hope everyone enjoyed the library’s summer program and the delights of summer reading as much as I did!
Rosemary Grey, Children’s Librarian
Elizabeth Taber Library
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.
Since last year, the Marion Conservation Commission has been granting proposed CVS developers’ representatives one continuation after another for the project’s Request for Determination of Applicability public hearing. The last time the ConCom met with LEC Environmental Consultants, reps for developer Mark Investment, was back in October 2014. Since then, the commission has continued the hearing at the applicant’s request for about 10 months – but not anymore.
Before the summer, Conservation Commission Chairman Norman Hills suggested the commission deny any further requests for continuation after the August meeting. And with the unanimous support of the other commission members, they sent LEC Environmental Consultants a letter advising them that if they did not appear before the commission at the next continued public hearing, the hearing would be closed and a positive determination rendered. A positive determination simply means that the project would alter or affect surrounding wetlands, so a Notice of Intent would be required, followed by ConCom approval.
“We have not heard anything from them in respect to continuing any further,” said Hills on August 26. “I recommend we close the hearing and proceed based on that information.”
The commission voted in favor of the positive determination and stated that the wetlands boundary lines were not certified or confirmed by the Conservation Commission.
“So if this project is still alive, they would have to come back to us,” said Hills.
Mark Investment developer Dean Holt did not respond to a request for comment before press time.
Also during the meeting, the commission pondered the identity of a plant species growing on the property of Robert Kaplan at 42 West Avenue. Kaplan filed for a RDA to remove an invasive species from the 100-foot buffer zone to the wetlands, but after a site visit, commission members were scratching their heads over the 2-foot by 2-foot area of a plant that was not a phragmite or any other invasive species they could recognize. Thus began the mystery of the non-phragmite.
Commission members passed around the iPhone of commission member Jeffrey Doubrava, and each took turns staring at the photo Doubrava snapped while at the site visit. No one could tell what the plant was, but the 4-square feet of it did not appear as though it were a concern of the ConCom.
“A shovel will remove it right now,” said Hills. “It’s a weed as far as I can tell.”
The commission continued the public hearing for Clean Energy Collective for the solar farm on Tucker Lane, and for Shea Doonan to establish an aquaculture project off Ram Island.
The next meeting of the Marion Conservation Commission is scheduled for September 9 at 7:00 pm at the Marion Town House.
By Jean Perry
The Mattapoisett Conservation Commission on August 24 once again met with Brandon Faneuf of Ecosystem Solutions regarding encroachment issues at properties located on Seabreeze Lane. On this evening, he was specifically representing John and Cheryl Anzaldi, 3 Seabreeze Lane, in their request for an amended order of conditions.
Anzaldi also requested permission to remove invasive species from the no-touch zone of the wetlands that has been encroaching an area that had been turned into a groomed lawn space with plantings, and he requested the installation of a post and rail fence to denote the re-established jurisdictional wetlands.
Robin Lepore, 6 Seabreeze Lane, was also present to remind the commission that there remains an unresolved issue regarding an easement through 4 Seabreeze and a small corner of 3 Seabreeze – an easement that seems no longer available to the residents of the development.
On this matter, Chairman Bob Rogers said the commission was awaiting a ruling from town counsel on how to proceed, and that he and Conservation Agent Liz Leidhold would have a conference call with town counsel the following Monday.
Regarding the Anzaldis request for an amended order of conditions, the commissioners requested that Faneuf return with a new plan of record noting such items as the placement of a fence and signage marking the re-established no touch zone, the request for invasive species eradication into perpetuity, and a request for a permit extension. The hearing was continued until September 14.
Also on the agenda was the commissioners’ finalization of an order of special conditions for the private pier scheduled for construction at 112 Aucoot Road. Included in the conditions were the use of “green-heart” pilings or a commission-approved alternative and construction synching to ensure limited disruption to the environment both on land and by water. This project has now passed through local wetlands regulations and can move forward with state level licensing and any other licensing requirements.
Mark Sweeney, 29 Beach Road, received an order of conditions for his request to have a concrete pad poured under the existing residence situated on pilings. A negative three vote was cast.
The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Conservation Commission is scheduled for September 14 at 6:30 pm in the Mattapoisett Town Hall conference room.
By Marilou Newell
When the school day ends, children need opportunities to learn and engage in meaningful activities. Their success out of school can have a positive effect on their success in school. Unfortunately, one in four U.S. children is left unsupervised after 3:00 pm, according to Afterschool Alliance, a nonprofit public awareness advocacy organization. To help youth reach their full potential, YMCA Southcoast is offering afterschool programming that supports social-emotional, cognitive and physical development.
The Y’s afterschool program offers activities in a caring and safe environment where all youth can achieve, feel like they belong, and build friendships. Youth in Y afterschool programs demonstrate improvement in the skills needed for successful living and in academic proficiency. As a leading nonprofit committed to youth development and a pioneer in afterschool programs, the Y believes in supporting the holistic processes that all youth experience – from birth to career – to support success in school and life.
“When the final school bell rings, continued learning opportunities can have a positive influence on how well youth perform in school,” said Kathleen Treglia, Executive Director of Education for YMCA Southcoast. “Afterschool programs also fill gaps in schools and communities where some recreational opportunities like art, music and physical activity offerings are limited.”
Studies show participation in afterschool programs helps boost school attendance and academic performance and reduces gaps in academic achievement among children from disadvantaged households.
YMCA Southcoast afterschool programs offer homework help, a healthy snack, a balanced educational curriculum and an opportunity for recreational activities in the Y pool, gym, sports fields and climbing walls. The YMCA is adopting a set of Healthy Eating and Physical Activity standards in our afterschool programs that will build a healthier future for our nation’s children by providing healthy environments rich in opportunities for healthy eating and physical activity.
The YMCA hosts eight licensed before and after school programs in the following Southcoast communities: Fall River, Dartmouth, New Bedford, Acushnet, Mattapoisett, Marion, Rochester, and Wareham.
Financial assistance is available to those in need, to ensure every child has the opportunity to learn and grow at the Y. For more information about a program in your community, visit our website at ymcasouthcoast.org or call 508-996-9622 ext. 118.
About YMCA Southcoast: The Y is one of the nation’s leading nonprofits strengthening communities through youth development, healthy living and social responsibility. With five branch sites serving more than 37,000 people, YMCA Southcoast has been working to meet the needs of our community for over 150 years. The Y engages people of all ages – regardless of income or background – to nurture the potential of children and teens, improve the nation’s health and well-being, and provide opportunities to give back and support neighbors. Everyone is welcome at the Y and financial assistance is available. For more information about YMCA Southcoast, visit one of the branches in Dartmouth, Fall River, Mattapoisett, New Bedford, and Wareham or online at ymcasouthcoast.org.
This summer, Tabor Academy collaborated with NOAA’s Tim Anderson in studying ocean currents in our area. Utilizing the SSV Tabor Boy, Tim Anderson oversaw the deployment of two NOAA drifters and a drifter built by Tabor students last fall.
Oceanographic drifters are simple free-floating instruments that transmit their own positions via satellite. The drifters are used to observe ocean circulation patterns and currents. Here on Buzzards Bay, they are performing the valuable task of working to validate ocean current circulation models in our home waters, providing NOAA and Tabor students with useful data.
This collaborative project between Tabor Academy and NOAA/NEFSC began a year ago when Tabor’s Marine Science faculty members Jenny Albright and Kimberly Ulmer met up with Jim Manning at the Woods Hole NOAA office during their summer study research visits. Albright and Ulmer brought back the idea of Tabor students building and deploying oceanographic drifters and then studying and contributing the data.
Tabor’s drifter was designed and constructed by SSV Tabor Boy Captain James Geil’s Theoretical Ship and Boat Design class last fall. From the student designs, a prototype was built and tested, and then implemented during the Tabor Boy new student orientation program this summer starting with voyage one in June. Jim Manning took an interest in the data being collected and suggested to Tabor that they deploy all three drifters to make a comparative study throughout the summer.
Along with Tabor, and the team at NOAA, you can track the progress of the three drifters (updated by satellite every few hours) on the following Google map link http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/drifter/drift_tabor_2015_1.html
Robert A. Smith, 65, of Rochester passed away Saturday, August 29, 2015 at the New Bedford Health Care Center after a brief illness. He was the fiancé of Linda Lapre of Rochester.
Born in Utica, NY, the son of the late Thomas and Vendela (Phillips) Smith, he grew up in Yorkville, NY and had lived in New Bedford.
Bob served in the Army during the Vietnam War and later worked as a CNC Machinist for H.C.C. Aegis. He enjoyed photography and was a member of the Whaling City Camera Club. He also loved music and played the bass guitar and had worked as a videographer and a sound technician.
Private arrangements are by the Fairhaven Funeral Home, 117 Main Street, Fairhaven, www.hathawayfunerals.com.
On August 30, area motorcyclists will gather in a fundraising run to honor the memory of Adam Taylor with the proceeds going toward children and teens in the local area. Taylor was a resident of Acushnet who lost his life in November 2013 after he was involved in a car accident caused by a drunk driver on Route 140 in New Bedford.
Motorcyclists riding to benefit the Adam Taylor Memorial Fund, which sponsors scholarships, student financial aid services, awards, and Toys for Tots for children in the local community, will take to the roads on August 30. Tickets are $20 per person and must be purchased in advance from the Ponderosa Sportsman Club, The Rivers End. Rider check-in is 10:00 am ET; kickstands up at 11:30 am. The start of the run will be at The Ponderosa, 242 Robinson Rd, Acushnet and will conclude at The Madeira Feast Grounds, 50 Madeira Ave, New Bedford. The ride is organized to continue to share the love Adam poured into his family, friends, and community. He was always willing to help anyone, and his friends and family want to continue his tradition of selflessness to others.
All non-riders are invited to meet at the Madeira Feast Grounds at 1:30 pm where there will be food, raffles, a cash bar, and live music. Everyone is invited to come and celebrate the life of a 23-year old man who loved his community before he tragically lost his life.
About the Adam Taylor Memorial Fund: The Adam Taylor Memorial Fund was founded by close family and friends who wanted to keep Adam Taylor’s selfless love alive after his untimely death. Adam lost his life at the age of 23 after a car accident, which involved a drunk driver. The Memorial Fund supports the education of local area youths through scholarships and providing student financial aid services. The Foundation has also supported The Veteran’s Memorial, Lions Club, Veterans Transition Club, Veterans Transition House, The Joe Andruzzi Foundation, The Feast of the Blessed Sacrament and Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School. In keeping with Adam’s love of small children, the Fund also supports Toys for Tots for local children in need.
For more information regarding the 2nd Annual Adam Bomb Motorcycle Run, please contact Linda: 508-789-8777 or Kelly: 508-728-4127
Daniel DaRosa, represented by Attorney John Gushue, came before the Mattapoisett Zoning Board of Appeals on August 20 with two appeals – appeals that asked the board to overturn decisions made by Andy Bobola, the building inspector.
The main issue: DaRosa’s application to build a private pier across an easement. Both appeals were combined, as agreed by all parties, due to the similar nature of the appeals, that being Bobola’s interpretations of building codes and zoning bylaws.
“We believe it’s an erroneous application of bylaws for this pier,” Gushue stated, suggesting that Bobola’s interpretation of the town’s zoning bylaws was an attempt to stop DaRosa’s right to build the accessory structure. “This is a violation of their equal protection rights.” Gushue said, from his reading of the bylaws, there was no provision in them that would restrict the issuance of a building permit.
The bone of contention is whether or not a homeowner can build an accessory structure across an easement; in this case, traversing beach property owned by someone else in order to build a private pier to reach the water.
Bobola wrote a letter in May to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection handling DaRosa’s Chapter 91 Waterways license application, in which he explained that the DaRosa property was not waterfront property and, as such, could not build an accessory structure on an easement they had been granted. Gushue called it an “unprecedented denial.”
But Bobola asked the board to imagine if accessory structures were built all over town on easements; consider the negative impacts they would have on the community and residents’ enjoyment of their property.
Regarding Bobola’s further assertion that DaRosa lacked the appropriate setbacks necessary for building an accessory structure on his own property, Gushue said, “He is just searching for some reason to deny the pier.”
Gushue asked the board members to search their consciences, telling them that they had taken an oath to apply rules equally for all residents.
“You took an oath to render a fair and impartial decision,” said Gushue. “Can you look at yourself in the mirror in the morning?” He continued, “There has been much organized opposition, even in Town Hall.” Gushue provided evidence that another pier had been built in the 1990s and had been constructed across an easement; therefore, DaRosa should be allowed to do so as well.
“So, because of the other pier in 1998, we should permit this one?” asked ZBA member Susan Akin. “We are going to go by current zoning, not 1998.” She emphasized that the DaRosa property was landlocked.
Bobola said, for 31 years, he has striven to apply building codes and zoning bylaws with an even hand, and he took umbrage to Gushue’s comments. He then explained his rationale for the letter to the DEP that was written with the guidance of town counsel, and his refusal to issue a building permit.
“I remain open minded,” Bobola said, concluding his comments. But he noted that DaRosa had not provided complete documents as required when requesting a building permit. It was missing a decision from the Conservation Commission.
That remains an open issue in DaRosa’s proceedings. A decision by the DEP regarding an appeal by the Town and the Conservation Commission to the DEP’s superseding orders is still pending. Gushue advised the board that he had received verbal confirmation that the DEP would render a decision in favor of DaRosa’s application.
Several residents came forward to voice their concern with the proposed construction, again, citing various wetlands issues, recreational use of the waterways where the pier is proposed, and the lack of DaRosa’s direct waterfront access.
Bobola told the members of the ZBA that DaRosa should appeal his denial of a building permit to the state building authorities and not the local zoning board.
Akin closed the public comment segment of the hearing and the board debated the merits of DaRosa’s appeals.
In the end, the board agreed with Bobola that DaRosa’s property was landlocked and, therefore, could not receive a permit to build a pier across an easement. They also agreed that they could not hear the appeal regarding the denial of a building permit, since it was beyond their jurisdiction and it needed to be heard by the state board. Both appeals were unanimously denied.
In other business, the Mattapoisett Congregational Church received a Special Permit to divide a parking lot from a residence in order to have the lot legally associated with the church. Also coming before the ZBA was Neil Lefaivre of Empire Construction, representing Shawn Martin, 5 Henshaw Road, with a request for a Special Permit to build an addition to an existing residence. The permit was approved.
The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Zoning Board of Appeals is scheduled for September 17 at 6:00 pm in the Mattapoisett Town Hall conference room, pending applications.
By Marilou Newell
The song Summer Wind, made famous by the one and only Frank Sinatra, spoke of a fleeting romance ignited during the summertime, and then lost. There are other summer songs that come wafting in on warm breezes. Songs like Don Henley’s Boys of Summer, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons’ See You In September, the Summer Song by Chad and Jeremy, Sealed With a Kiss sung by Brian Hyland, and, of course, Summer Rain by Johnny Rivers.
How many of us can relate to those free wheeling youthful romances forged in the hot sun while laying on a beach towel next to your heart throb? Yet, somehow, in the back of our minds we knew the heat would peter out by Labor Day. Still, for those blazing moments of fevered passion, we were lost in the thrill – the memory, drifting back into our consciousness on a summer wind.
Oh, I sigh at the memory of my first summer love with the ice cream man. He wasn’t really a man, more an older teenager whose summer job was to drive the ice cream truck along the beach boulevard in Onset.
Tommy was an art student whose well-heeled parents mandated he have a common experience of sorts before sending him off to study art in Venice. I don’t think they planned that I would be part of that common experience for their precious sonny-boy, but in a very innocent chaste manner I was. We never held hands and never kissed. Yet, for me, he was my summer love.
The ice cream truck moved along slowly, as Tommy jingled the bells manually. There was no such thing as canned music back in those days. The ice cream man pulled a cord inside the cab of the truck, jingling the bells while little children trained like Pavlov’s dog came running and screaming “Momma, the ice cream man!” He would stop the truck, pass out ice cream novelties, and then move to the next stop. I met him as I patiently waited at the end of a long line of hollering children and impatient mothers. Our eyes locked briefly but meaningfully, and love at first sight was born.
From the beginning, Tommy spoke to me as if I was important, knowledgeable, and going places when I graduated from high school. He would talk to me about art in between collecting sand-covered coins from little children and red-faced mothers who had just hopped across burning sands and ascended a steep flight of stairs to reach the cool white ice cream truck. On hot, sunny days our conversations didn’t last very long, as lines formed next to his truck while he dispensed chocolate-covered ice cream bars, popsicles, creamsicles, and sundae cups.
How I loved cloudy overcast afternoons when Tommy could transport me to the world of art and culture without interruption because the beach was empty. He would expound in grand eloquence all his hopes for the future while sharing all he knew about art and art history. He’d also share difficulties at home, further endearing him to me.
At each stop on his route, he’d pop out of the truck, lean against it dressed in his sparkling white shirt and pants, and continue to fill my juvenile head with thoughts of Gauguin, Michelangelo, Renoir and Picasso. All I knew about art was what little was imparted to us in art class in junior high school. In Tommy, I found my personal art professor, mentor, and, oh yes, my summer love.
I was also working that summer I met Tommy, but I was self-employed. I was the local babysitter and hairdresser for the street I lived on. I made a pretty good living, netting nearly seventeen dollars a week. I took care of the neighbors’ babies who always seemed to bawl the entire time their mothers were gone. As the local hairdresser, washing and setting neighbor ladies’ hair in rollers and pin curls, I heard all the gossip that was going around. Usually, the theme was which young daughter was up to no good with someone’s bad boy son.
My parents frowned upon having a boyfriend at the age of fifteen, so I didn’t tell them the real reason I headed to the beach every day, regardless of the weather. My mother would have considered me a “fast” girl. My father would simply have said, “It ain’t good.” So I fabricated girlfriends that existed only in my imagination. The fact that I never brought any of these girls home to hang out at my house didn’t seem to faze my parents. My father was too busy earning a living, and my mother was generally distracted with her own personal problems. I, on the other hand, had Tommy.
As summer burned, the days melted away. My secret meetings with Tommy, which I anticipated in a fever and then relived in detail throughout the evening, were coming to an end. Labor Day would be the official end of summer, and Tommy would head off to college. And I – well, I would be left behind with dreams of rich fabrics, ancient architecture, oils and water-colors, statues, and luminescent glazes. I would be left to imagine Tommy walking cobbled Italian streets carrying an easel and canvas while wearing a painter’s smock and a beret.
I don’t recall our last meeting, but I do remember that, for a long time, he faithfully sent long letters postmarked “Italia,” thick with his lush script, mini-drawings, and scrolls decorating the pages. Each letter swept me away – far, far away.
The school year dragged on, and the boys in my classes seemed so raw, so unrefined compared to my Tommy. No one could measure up. But, truth be told, no one was trying.
I was not a popular girl or a happy girl. I was merely waiting for school to end so that my real life could begin somewhere else, warmed by a summer wind.
By Marilou Newell
