Come join the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2425 on Sunday, August 11, 1:30 pm, for our annual summer clam bake, right in the pit, old-style, at the Marion VFW Pavilion on Route 6. Plenty of parking. Donation accepted/asked of $30, or what you can. For tickets, contact Brad Arruda at 774-454-7005 or Rodney Hunt at 508-287-2357. Get out of your chair and enjoy life: You are welcome – come and join us!
The Old Rochester Pop Warner Football Tiny Mite Program is accepting registrations for all 5-, 6- and 7-year-olds in Mattapoisett, Marion, Rochester, Wareham and other towns that do not run their own Tiny Mite program. Practices start August 1; financial aid is available; for more information, visit www.oryf.com or call 508-863-0518.
Rodney Hunt likes to stay busy. For the past 10 years, Hunt has organized and been Master of Ceremonies for the Marion Memorial Day Parade and the July 4th Parade. Because of his “behind the scenes” work on behalf of the town of Marion, Rodney Hunt has been chosen to receive a Wanderer Keel Award for 2013.
This year’s July 4th Parade had more than 100 entries participating. Hunt, along with fellow members of the Benjamin D. Cushing VFW Post 2425 and the Ladies Auxiliary, helped organize the event and made it look easy.
“When you have the kind of help I have, it all works,” Hunt said. “I enjoy the parade planning. People are happy at the parade and really enjoy all the music, floats, clowns, antique tractors, horses and antique autos. It’s a happy time for everyone, and that makes all the work worthwhile.
“Demi Barros organized the parade for many years, and I took over around 10 years ago,” Hunt continued. Barros and Hunt are members of the Benjamin D. Cushing Post 2425 Veterans of Foreign Wars in Marion.
“My father in law, Antoine Monterio, asked me to join the VFW back in 1992,” Hunt said, “and that started the ball rolling.”
With 33 years of military service, Hunt retired in 2007 after serving three years of active duty in the United States Army, with two years in Vietnam in 1967 and 1968. After returning home, Hunt was in the Army Reserve for four years and then spent 26 years with the Massachusetts National Guard.
Hunt was born in Cambridge and is one of seven children. His mother is Wampanoag, and his father was African-American. He is also the father of seven children, six of them local and one in Texas.
“We go to the Pow Wow in Mashpee and the Cape Verde Festival. My mother is 94 years old and is the oldest Wampanoag Indian in the tribe. Her father was the Chief of the tribe,” Hunt explained. Hunt’s mother lives at home in Wareham, and he and his sister tend to her shopping and laundry and visit her regularly.
Hunt retired after 32 years from the New Bedford Employment Office.
“I did it all: job training, writing resumes, interview coaching, matching people and their skills with jobs … helping people,” he said. “I’m lucky in that I had a career that produced results in placing people in jobs they needed. I like to help people.”
This past April, Hunt celebrated 40 years of opening the New Bedford YMCA at 5:30 am, a part-time job he enjoys. “I open it up each day and also help with security,” Hunt said. In his spare time, he likes to spend time with his grandchildren and family.
Marion citizens attend and enjoy the two major parades held each year, and now they know the driving force behind them. Thank you, Rodney Hunt.
By Joan Hartnett-Barry
Old Rochester Regional School District Superintendent Doug White announced this week that Derek Medeiros will succeed Moira Rodgers as Principal at Rochester Memorial School.
Rodgers resigned short of one year on the job.
Medeiros offered his own resignation from the ORR School Committee soon after his election in order to apply for the RMS principal position. Prior to his work in the Tri-Town, Medeiros served as principal at Ellen R. Hathaway Elementary School in New Bedford.
“There’s a commitment to excellence at Rochester Memorial that I really look forward to being a part of,” Medeiros said. “As a resident of Rochester, my children will eventually attend RMS. This was something I really wanted. It was an opportunity that I could not pass up, and I took a chance resigning from the School Committee to pursue it.”
White praised Medeiros’s achievements in the classroom and out, calling him a “consensus builder” and noting his work as a hockey coach.
“He has strong communication skills and uses data to monitor student learning and teacher effectiveness,” White said in a statement. “In addition, he has a strong administrative background in curriculum, budget, facilities management, professional development, staff observation and evaluation techniques.”
Medeiros said he’s eager for his tenure to start on July 22.
“I’ve always enjoyed the interaction with students and among teachers,” Medeiros said. “My goals are all about collaboration, school leadership and accountability. In today’s educational world, we really need to sit down together and talk about what’s working and what’s not. In the past, schools have looked for outside help a lot of the time from consultants, but often the answers are right in your own building.”
By Shawn Badgley
The Mattapoisett Free Public Library presented a unique opportunity to catch four popular authors at the height of their powers before last Thursday’s Teen Dance.
Scott Blagden (Dear Life, You Suck), Kimberly Marcus (Exposed), Joe Lawlor (bully.com), and Rebecca Maizel (Infinite Days) write for a 12- to 18-year-old audience and tackle subjects that tend to appeal to that age group.
Blagden’s novel – recently nominated for the Young Adult Library Services Association Best Fiction Award – features a Holden Caulfield-esque protagonist, and the Wareham resident said he enjoys running his workshops for young people through the Mattapoisett Library.
“I did write when I was a teen, but I gave it up, and I didn’t pick it back up until my 40s,” Blagden said. “I regret that, so talking to these kids about writing is something I’m passionate about.”
On Thursday night, Blagden could be seen mentoring fan and aspiring novelist Jacqueline Leduc, a 14-year-old Acushnet resident.
Marcus, who lives in Dartmouth, said she is drawn to both “silly rhyming books for children and angsty, edgy teen novels.” Exposed fits the latter description, but Marcus has published both.
Lawlor’s novel centers on cyber-bullying. The advertiser-turned-teacher-turned-author said he has seen bullying up close, and said that today’s brand is different from the more obvious bullying of the past.
“These days, it’s different. You don’t always know who the bully is. I wanted it to be topical, but I didn’t want to make it too heavy,” said Lawlor of his mystery. “When you have a school full of suspects, it’s a really nice way to begin a story.”
Maizel, meanwhile, said that there is a “stigma about supernatural fantasy, like, ‘Oh, another vampire book,’ but I think the idea of emergence and finding your identity really resonates with teenagers.” Infinite Days is the first book in Maizel’s Vampire Queen series, and the second, Stolen Nights, is also out now.
By Shawn Badgley
The Rochester Planning Board dispatched what little business it had on its agenda on Tuesday in short order.
After signing off on minutes from their July 9 meeting, members voted to approve payment of three invoices from Field Engineering totaling $4,292.50: $3,187.50 from the Connet Woods escrow account; $230 from the Little Quittacas Solar Project escrow account; and $875 from the Shawmut Associates escrow account.
In addition, Chairman Arnold Johnson alerted members to a meeting scheduled for 10:00 am on July 30 at the Rochester Police Station that will discuss a potential compressed natural gas refueling station on SEMASS property. Johnson also informed the Planning Board that an informal presentation on the project would take place at its next meeting, scheduled for August 3.
By Shawn Badgley
Francis Xavier Cabral, 64, of Rochester died unexpectedly Friday July 19, 2013 surrounded by his family.
He was the husband of the late Bertha D. (Vasquez) Cabral and the son of the late Theodore and Louise Cabral, of Rochester, MA. He moved to Trinidad, Colorado to attend college. There, he met and married his wife and started his family. He lived in the Denver metro area for many years before he returned to Rochester in 1993 and has lived there since.
Francis was a star track athlete and football player and was recently inducted into the Old Rochester Regional Hall of Fame where he set a record for rushing yards. Francis was also named police officer of the year in Northglenn, Colorado in 1976 during the time he served on the police force. Francis was an avid fisherman, golfer and loved to travel.
He is survived by his daughter, Heather of Washington, DC, his love and life partner Lorna Ibbitson of Mashpee, his Godmother, Anna Cabral Spencer, his brothers, Theodore, of Virginia, Rudolph, of Mattapan, Paul of Wareham, Robert of Wareham, Richard of Rochester, Edward of California, his sisters Christina of Onset, Yvonne Alexander of Florida and preceded by his brother Charlie and several nieces, nephews and cousins. Francis was also an active member of Community Baptist Church in Marion.
His funeral will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, July 25, 2013 at the Community Baptist Church, 441 Front St, Marion. His burial will be private.
Visiting hours are from 6 to 9 p.m. on Wednesday at the Chapman, Cole & Gleason Funeral Home, 2599 Cranberry Hwy, Wareham.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in his honor to Department of Veteran Affairs: Veteran Services, New Bedford Vet Center – 73 Huttleston Ave, Fairhaven, MA 02719.
The Conservation Commission took action and pondered more action at Monday’s meeting.
Voting to redouble their efforts on enforcement at Leisure Shores Marina, members crafted language for a letter calling out the business for “unpermitted activities, which are causing pollution.” Those activities include boat-bottom cleaning, paint scraping, and ineffective quality control.
In addition, the Commission agreed to press the DEP on its oversight of a controversial project on Goodspeed Island, where neighbors and others reported numerous environmental violations – confirmed by the Conservation Commission in May.
“We’ve allowed DEP to take the lead,” said Chair Peter Newton while responding to residents’ questions Monday night. “But at some point we might have to take independent action.”
After some discussion and revisiting the issue later in the meeting, members voted to send a formal request to the DEP.
“I don’t think there’s a problem sending them a letter asking them to pick up the pace,” Newton said, “because this is a big issue for us.”
Elsewhere on the agenda, the Commission approved the installation and step tests for wells at the Mattapoisett Water and Sewer Commission Pump Station off of Acushnet Road, but stopped short of giving the go-ahead on a prolonged pump test as part of the Notice of Intent. Drilling on the project will begin in August.
D&B Quality Construction received a Certificate of Compliance at 15 Cedarcrest Ave. after removing a deck, shower, and sauna tubes over protected wetlands on the property. D&B has also replanted blueberry and winterberry in the wetlands.
“I think it’ll grow back fairly quickly, now that it’s exposed,” Conservation Agent Elizabeth Leidhold said.
The Conservation Commission also advised principals from the Mattapoisett Shores Association to apply for a Notice of Intent in their quest to implement a beach nourishment program.
The Commission acknowledged receipt of letters of interest for an open seat and planned to ask the Board of Selectmen for what will likely be an extension from Aug. 13 to Aug. 27 in recommending a candidate.
Finally, Leidhold reminded Mattapoisett residents of the importance of the Open Space Survey available for quick completion at www.mattapoisett.net. The survey offers residents a chance to have a say in the town’s plans.
The next Conservation Commission meeting is scheduled for Aug. 12.
By Shawn Badgley
Rochester Police are investigating the theft of a safe from a home in the 200 block of Cushman Road. Police were called to the scene by the homeowner who discovered the safe missing Thursday evening. Officers at the scene did not find any signs of forced entry to the home.
Rochester Police put out a BOLO about the theft to area police departments and were contacted later that night by Acushnet Police who located the stolen safe in the area of Wing Road.
The safe is being processed for fingerprints by the BCI Unit of the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Department. Rochester Police do have a possible suspect in the theft and the investigation by Officer Shaun Peterson and Sgt. William Chamberlain is ongoing.
Janet Claudette Turcotte, age 64, passed away quietly on Thursday, July 18, 2013 after a long illness. She was born in New Bedford, grew up in Acushnet and lived for a time in Mattapoisett before moving back to New Bedford. She attended St Francis Xavier School in Acushnet and Sacred Heart Academy in Fairhaven. She worked as an assembler and packager at John I. Paulding Company and Aerovox. She also worked as a greeter at Walmart in Fairhaven. She loved the Red Sox, Celtics and classic TV shows and movies from the 50’s and 60’s.
She was the daughter of the late Henry G. Turcotte and Aurore J. Turcotte. Survivors include her brother, Richard Turcotte and his wife Carol of Newport, RI; niece, Laura Guiney and her husband Paul of Norton, MA; nephew, Nathan Turcotte and his wife Karen of North Kingstown, RI; niece, Ellen Turcotte of East Providence, RI; seven grand nieces and nephews, and cousins Daniel Gautreau and Gerard Gaudette of New Bedford.
The family would like to thank the kind people of Preferred Home Services, Ease Care Ambulance Service, Cedars Assisted Living, Eucharistic Ministers from St. Anthony’s Parish, Dialysis Center on Faunce Corner Rd, and her doctors and the staff at Hawthorne Medical and St. Luke’s Hospital for their service, kindness and support that meant so much to Janet as she faced her illness and disabilities.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in Janet’s memory to St. Anthony’s Parish Food Pantry, 1359 Acushnet Ave, New Bedford, MA 02746 or to St. Vincent de Paul Society, St Joseph Conference, 5 Mann Ave, Newport, RI 02840.
Her Funeral Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Friday, July 26, 2013 at 11am at St Anthony of Padua Parish, 1359 Acushnet Ave, New Bedford. Burial to follow in Sacred Heart Cemetery. Visiting Hours will be held Friday; from 9:30am – 10:30am prior to the Mass. Arrangements are in the care of the Rock Funeral Home, 1285 Ashley Blvd, New Bedford.