Primary Election Results

on

Here’s how the TriTown voted in the March 6, 2012 Presidential Primary Election

Candidate Marion Mattapoisett Rochester
Democratic Ballot
Barack Obama  150  143  68
Blank  2  13  2
Republican Ballot
Ron Paul  58  50  56
Mitt Romney  389  436  344
Rick Perry  1  2  1
Rick Santorum  68  75  84
Jon Huntsman  2  4  6
Michele Bachmann 3  2  0
Newt Gingrich 30  47  40
Blank  0  33  1
Green-Rainbow Ballot
Kent Mesplay  0  0  0
Jill Stein  0  1  0
Harley Mikkelson  0  0  0
Blank  0  0  0
Statistics
Total Voters  710  820  662
Turnout Percentage  19.2%  17.9%  16.6%

 

Rochester Memorial Wins Recycling Award

on

Students, teachers and staff at the Rochester Memorial Elementary School ranked seventh in the state in the Recycle Bowl, a national contest organized by Keep American Beautiful, Inc., which encourages citizens and especially schools, to recycle.

This was the first year for the contest. Boston came in eigth, after Rochester Elementary.  Nationwide, over 1,200 schools, representing 500,000 students entered the contest.

“We collected over 520 pounds of paper, 413 pounds of cardboard and 57 pounds of glass and plastic in only one month,” said Tom Kinsky, a science teacher who was instrumental in getting everyone on board to enter the contest.

“The whole school participates and almost every class and office has a recycle bin, but only the fifth graders wheel the collection cart around and collect the materials,” said Kinsky. “There are also bins in the hallway. The fifth grade classes each have a section of the school assigned to them as their area of responsibility.”

Although the school has been recycling for eight years, this was the first time they kept track of how much was actually being collected. A nurse’s scale was used to weigh each batch of material and the numbers were recorded. A large bag of plastic and metal cans was weighed and used as an average and multiplied by the actual number of bags used.

The contest required the schools to track weight information, by material category and provide the number of teachers, staff and students to calculate a per person ratio to what was recycled. The school has 552 students and 87 teachers and staff, resulting in over two pounds per person, per month being recycled.

“The children take the task seriously and know who is doing what and when…they know that too much goes into the landfill and they feel that they are helping the cause,” said Diane Lagasse, Principal’s Secretay.

According to Kinsky, with approximately ten months in the school year, Rochester Elementary will have recycled over 10,000 pounds of material per year.

“That’s five tons,” said Liam Lynch, who helps in the collection process.

Acceptable items from the cafeteria include steel food cans, No. 1 through No. 7 plastic bottles, glass bottles and jars and aluminum beverage containers. All acceptable paper products include cereal boxes, cardboard, hard and softbound books, magazines, newspapers, office paper and phone books.

“I like pushing the cart…we collect the full bin, leave an empty one and bring the full ones to the recycle area where we recycle it,” said Tyler Kulak, a fifth grader.

“This can all be used again and made into somthing else, and it saves trees,” said Abigal Bergenheim.

Brian Ouellette, Maintenance Supervisor at the school, is very involved in the recycling effort.

“Brian saw that we needed another cart, in addition to the two we had and he welded one together for us,” said Kinsky.

Mr. Ouellette also made a large wood bin for the number of cardboard boxes that need to be flattened and stacked neatly in the recycle area.

“It’s definitely a joint effort on everyone’s part,” Kinsky said.

When asked if the school will enter again next year, Kinsky enthusiastically said they would.

By Joan Hartnett-Barry

House Approved Again… 17 Years Later

on

The Mattapoisett Planning Board met on Monday, March 5 at the Town Hall, but the evening’s agenda was light.

Frank Linhares, Sr. and engineer Alan Ewing spoke with the board regarding plans to build a house on a lot near Granada Court. Linhares had applied to build the home back in 1995 and received approval by the Planning Board at that time, but a structure was never erected.

The Board reviewed his application paperwork from 17 years ago and reaffirmed the previous Planning Board’s decision to allow Linhares to build a house on the land.

The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Planning Board will be on March 19, 2012 at 7:00 pm at the Town Hall.

By Eric Tripoli

ORR Hosts Film Festival

on

The red carpet was rolled out again at Old Rochester Regional High School on Friday, March 2, for the school’s Ninth Annual Winter Blues Film Festival. Sponsored by the AFS club, the festival started promptly at 6:00 pm and concluded shortly before 9:00 pm. The proceeds from the ticket sales went to the club’s fundraising initiatives.

Attendees viewed nearly two hours of student-generated videos before watching the award ceremony. The audience was able to vote for its favorite video by cheering and clapping in order to distinguish the winner of this year’s Audience Choice Award.

The turnout for the event was on the light side for this year’s festival. This was unfortunately due to a miscommunication about the event’s starting time. However, the audience was large enough to vote for a number of different videos as its favorite.

Awards were presented to the best video in each of the categories. This year, categories were: Entertainment Short, Entertainment Long, Trailer, Music Video, Public Service Announcement and Special Effects.  The Winter Blues Film Festival was grateful to its panel of esteemed judges, who were Randy Allain, Colin Everett, Kate Ribeiro, Judy Johnson and Paul Sardinha. They had the difficult task of presenting only six awards, with 34 videos to consider.

Hamlet in Five Minutes, an A.P. English 12 assignment created by Julia Dugan, David Friedman, Cayla Johnston, and Nick Nadeau, took the award for Entertainment Short. The video condensed Shakespeare’s drama into five minutes of pure comedy complete with gender swapping, updated language, a polar plunge and hilarious outtakes.

The winner for the Entertainment Long category was Taxi Driver, a film conceived and directed by Tim Gonsalves, who has participated in the festival in the past. Previously, he won awards in the Trailer, Commercial, Documentary categories. His winning video this year told the story of a Tri-Town taxi driver and his many attempts to find customers (and friends) in a small area.

The recipient of the award for the Music Video category was Mr. Sandman, directed by Sam Resendes. Resendes used the technique of stop-motion to film his music video, and it clearly was a hit with the audience as his music video also took the Audience Choice Award.

There were seven public service announcements submitted in this year’s competition. The PSA’s were the works of students taking the school’s Television Production elective, and they covered a wide variety of topics including: texting and driving, hurricane preparedness, hazing, concussions, and depression.

Bulldog Help, directed by Gonsalves, took the award for the Public Service Announcement category. His PSA was a spoof of the ASPCA commercials, as it encouraged Tri-Town community members to come to aid of the high school’s dilapidated wooden mascot standing guard at the building’s main entrance.

The Orb, directed by Kyle Costa, took the award in the Trailer category. The trailer was a prologue to his longer film, which will be available on YouTube in either March or early April. Costa is currently a student at the junior high school and will be attending Old Rochester Regional next year.

Finally, the award for Special Effects went to Alex Sousa with his video Claymation. Sousa entered a large number of special effects videos into the competition, amazing the audience with his range of talents. Sousa used claymation, stop-motion, green screen and regular animation in his eight entries.

Another important school event this past week was the National Honor Society Induction Ceremony on Thursday, March 1. The Old Rochester Regional NHS Chapter was proud to induct 47 new members; 44 juniors and three seniors.  The Wanderer would like to congratulate: Scotlyn Adler, Joshua Bardwell, Matthew Beatty, Noah Beaulieu, Meagan Bell, Adam Bliss, Erika Boulay, Grady Branagan, Jessica Correia, Adam Costa, Edward Costa, Katelyn Cummings, Drew Cunningham, Douglas Gifford, Isabelle Gillis, Timothy Gonsalves, Morgan Hawes, Abigail Hiller, Jessie Hodges, Nicholas Johnson, Rebecca Johnson, Katelyn Kiernan, Zachary Mathews, Luke Mattar, Benjamin Mattson, Callum McLaughlin, Alexander Milde, Frederic Murolo, Kristin Nascimento, Cameron O’Connor, Abigail Offringa, Nicholas Pacheco, Marisa Paknis, Marisa Parker, Madelyn Pellegrino, Chandra Perez-Gill, Jacob Rioux, Abby Robinson, Alexandra Saccone, Kathryn Sebastiao, Alyssa Seifert, Quinn Stoeckle, Hannah Walsh, Janice Weldon, Lauren White, and Katherine Wilbur. Induction into the National Honor Society isn’t a single achievement; it is the culmination of many. All of this year’s inductees are recognized for their hard work.

By Anne Smith

Sports Shorts

on

•Old Rochester Boys and Girls Track – At the track All State Meet, it was certainly a great day for Ally Saccone. Saccone placed 4th in the Hurdles with a time of 8:21, and she also set the time as the ninth fastest female hurdler in history for Massachusetts High School sports.        Saccone also placed fifth in the hurdles at the New England Regional Meet with a time of 8:44, landing her a spot in the Nationals meet next weekend in New York.

In the 4×200 meter, Saccone, Paige Santos, Morgan DaSilva and Hannah Walsh placed fifth and set a new school record with a time of 1:47.31.

Mike Wyman also had a good day, placing thirteenth (after being seeded twenty third) in the 1000 meter race. He set a new school record with a time of 2:34.43.

            •Old Rochester Boys Basketball – The ORR boys unfortunately concluded their season with a 63-60 loss to DR in the first round of the MIAA Div 3 South Sectional Tournament thins week. The boys played a good game, however, with top scorers including Max Risch with 20 points and Matt Teefy and Brendan Parker each with 10. The Bulldogs finished their season with their record standing at 14-7.

            •Old Rochester Hockey – The ORR boys were successful in their game against the Middleboro Sachems, shutting them out 5-0. Alex Silva netted a hat trick with three goals, and Cam Severino contributed the other two. Goalie Tim Kelleher was solid in the net for ORR making 17 saves.

In their recent game against Ashland, the Bulldogs drew a 3-3 tie. Max Sherman, Jeremy Lawton, and Nick Goerges all scored for ORR, and Tim Kelleher made 22 saves in the net.  ORR’s record now stands at 12-3-6 overall and 9-1 in the SCC.

By India Krawczyk

Mattapoisett Free Public Library

on

• Community Cafe – Your library is a comfortable community center. Thanks to the Friends, you can drop by and enjoy a cup of coffee or tea for a small donation. Visit the reading room to relax and converse with friends. What a great way to spend a winter afternoon!

• Family Storytime – Families with children of all ages are welcome to enjoy some favorite stories together. If you have a favorite story, please bring it to share in this casual and fun storytime. Family Storytime is held on the first Saturday of each month, from 10:30 to 11:00 am. No registration required.

• Cookbooks For Sale – The Friends’ new community cookbook is available for sale at the library. It includes delicious recipes submitted by local chefs and cookbook authors as well as members of the Friends and library patrons. These will make great gifts while also supporting the work of the Friends. The books are $10 each.

• Technology Workshops – Confused about whether to buy a Nook or a Kindle? Wondering what all the hype about e-readers means to you? Do you have an iPad and want to learn how to download books from the library? Join the library staff at one of our informal technology workshops and get your questions answered. E-readers will be available to try and staff will show you how to download books and audiobooks. Workshops will be held every Tuesday at 6:30 pm and on Thursdays at 3:00 pm through the months of December and January. For an individual appointment with technology questions please call Liz Sherry at 508-758-4171 or email her at esherry@sailsinc.org.

• Canned Goods for the Food Pantry – The library is accepting nonperishables to help stock local food pantries. Feel free to bring you items to the library throughout the year. Also welcome are hats and gloves and new socks to be distributed to area shelters. Many thanks in advance for your thoughtfulness.

•Used Book Sale — The Friends of the Mattapoisett Library will be holding a Used Book and Bake Sale on Saturday March 10, from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm. Hundreds of new titles will be available for both adults and children. Donations are welcome any day the library is open.

•Jr. Friends Can and Bottle Redemption — Bring your redeemable cans and bottles to the library on Saturday March 10, from 9:00 to 10:00 am to support the work of the Jr. Friends.

•Dr. Greg Johnson — On Wednesday, March 14 at 7:00 pm, Dr. Gregory Johnson of Wareham Orthopedics will present a program with photos and artifacts about his volunteer experience in Afghanistan during the years of the Soviet invasion in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Hear how he provided medical care to adults and children who were wounded as a result of bombing and land mines. Hear about the lasting bond he formed with the Afghan people.  Food prepared from Afghani recipes will be available.

•Richard Louv — Mark your calendars for Thursday, March 29 at 7:00 pm, when author and environmentalist Richard Louv will be speaking about The Nature Principle and The New Nature Movement at Tifereth Israel Congregation, adjacent to Buttonwood Park. The program is free to the public and many recreational and environmental organizations will be on hand to provide literature about their activities. Books will be available for purchase and signing.

Sippican Woman’s Club Meeting

on

Are you overwhelmed by computer technology, jargon and numerous options of New Age devices on the market? Gino Fernandes, Jr. will aid us in understanding the computer and simplify selection of the tools/software available to us at the next Sippican Woman’s Club meeting on Friday, March 9 at 12:30 pm. The club’s meeting will be held at Handy’s Tavern, Front Street, Marion. There will be a finger luncheon before the presentation. New members are always welcome. See the Sippican Woman’s Club website www.sippicanwomansclub.org for information.

Friends of Marion Visiting Nurses Scholarship

on

Interested in pursuing a career in Nursing? The Friends of Marion Visiting Nurses is a Marion nonprofit organization that awards annual scholarships to local high school senior who desire to work toward a degree in the field of nursing. Recipients must be residents of Marion, Mattapoisett, or Rochester, and are chosen on the basis of academic ability, community service, and financial need.

The application and its accompanying materials are due by Tuesday, May 1 and the award recipients will be notified shortly thereafter. To receive the Friends of Marion Visiting Nurses Scholarship Application, please email your request to ldo25@hotmail.com and an application will be sent to you.

Junior Sailing Program Open House

on

The Beverly Yacht Club (BYC) today announced it will host a Junior Sailing Program Open House on Sunday, March 18, from 3:00 to 5:00 pm at its clubhouse located at 99 Water Street in Marion. Children ages 5 to 18 (as of December 31, 2011) interested in acquiring a Junior membership and taking sailing lessons at the BYC in 2012 are encouraged to attend with their parents. Reservations are not required.

Junior Committee members as well as other BYC adult and junior members will be on hand to provide information, answer questions, assist with the Junior membership application/registration process, and convey the instructional and racing opportunities offered at the BYC. In addition, members of the Junior Race Teams will showcase actual Optimist and 420 boats to give potential sailors a first-hand look at equipment used in the BYC Junior Program.

“We’re excited to be holding this open house and hope, as a result, that more young children will get involved with sailing,” said George “Twice” Tougas, BYC Jr. Sailing Chairman.  “It’s incredible to see a six year old maneuver his own boat in the harbor for the first time, and it creates a sense of accomplishment and camaraderie. It really helps build self-esteem. There’s nothing like it.”

Additional questions about the event and Junior Sailing can be answered by calling the BYC office at 508-748-0540. Families who are not able to attend the Open House may download information as well as application and registration forms at www.BeverlyYachtClub.org.  Families are encouraged to register by April 16 in order to avoid a late fee.

The Beverly Yacht Club, founded in 1872, is one of the oldest private yacht clubs in the United States. Situated on Sippican Harbor, the club’s purpose is to “promote yachting and good fellowship among its members.”

Rochester Country Fair Raffle Winner

on

Congratulations to Tim Hathaway of Rochester, winner of the Rochester Country Fair’s 2nd Lottery Ticket Raffle Fundraiser! The winning raffle ticket was drawn on March 3 at the Fair’s St. Patrick’s Day Dinner Dance.

Both the Lottery Ticket Raffle and the St. Patrick’s Day Dinner Dance were huge successes and we wish to thank everyone for their support. Special thanks to all the individuals and businesses who generously donated raffle items.