That Pavilion so visible from Route 6 that sits in front of the Benjamin D. Cushing Community Center is better than it was just a few months ago, having added better furnishings, flowerpots, ceiling fans, electrical outlets and lighting.

            According to Harry Norweb, none of this or anything else going on at the Cushing Community Center would be possible without application of three other C’s: collaboration, cooperation and commitment. At the heart of the facility’s progress is the Cushing Community Center Working Group, which prides itself on being “not better, just faster.”

            The slogan stems from the 2020 dissolution of the Marion Council on Aging’s advisory board.

            The town’s bylaws written in 1970 called for a fairly sizable board for the COA (a nine-person minimum and a five-person advisory board) that functioned as an operating board that made decisions and did the work itself.

            As Norweb explained, once the Town of Marion staffed its COA (Karen Gregory) and began reporting to the town administrator, the COA Board ceased to exist in terms of controlling interest in money or policy. Having seen its role as a consultant diminished, the members started focusing on building issues that would benefit the community.

            “Our focus, seniors, will specifically benefit,” said Norweb.

            As the board officially dissolved, Norweb recalls with a smile, “(Town Administrator) Jay McGrail picked us by the scruff of the neck and said, ‘where do you guys think you are going?’ Because we still needed the work.”

            Thusly, the CCC Working Group was born, and without the red tape of town government has been hard at work more freely operating to better the Community Center. Geoff Gorman is now the town administrator, and Norweb said the Working Group is grateful for the trust he has shown the members.

            “Next to money, volunteers are the most valuable resource you can have,” said Norweb, singing the praises of Merry Conway, the six-year chairperson of the Friends of the Marion COA who will pass the torch to Dianne Cosman and Jorie Borden, the overseer of all things horticultural.

            The little things and the big things, like the hedge growing along Route 6, are the product of volunteerism that is changing the look of the Community Center not only from without but from within.

            That hedge, it is believed, will dampen the sound of traffic to a point that the center can soon be an attractive venue for events like weddings. The center has had baby showers.

            Inside the building there are partitions that separate activity areas, and a wooden floor will soon replace the existing one-third tile and two-thirds carpeted floors.

            “It wasn’t just a privacy issue,” said Norweb, noting that a visiting podiatrist now meets patients behind the closed door of office space.

            A combination of $7,500 funds, some from private donations and grant money and a generous donation from the Friends of Marion Recreation, have brought the Pavilion to its current progress point.

            “It’s also not widely known that you can rent the Pavilion and this building,” said Norweb, who suspects more activity by 2024. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a wedding or two.”

            The new storage facility slab has been laid out back of the center, and there has been some work in the kitchen, just not enough to allow events to cook on site. For now, caterers are required.

            By next year, Norweb forecasts more usage of existing facilities.

            “I’ve not always been a big fan of build it and they will come,” he said, nothing plans to improve signage along Route 6 and the property line.

            He would like to see exercise and play facilities expand beyond the walking path recently installed, a Route 6 crosswalk and – fingers crossed – a future connection to the crosstown bike path.

            Above all, Norweb wants the public to understand one thing perfectly clear.

            “This isn’t the COA, it isn’t the Rec. Department; both of them are resident departments, this is the Community Center,” said Norweb. “Referring it to the COA is a complete misnomer, it would be like referring to the town hall as the building department.”

            As such since donated to the town by the VFW in May 2017 – that’s when Marion voters accepted the donation – a dormant period that lasted several months gave way to initial work by the town’s Department of Public Works to achieve ADA-compliance. In 2019, the Cushing Community Center was born as we know it.

            The center has recently received the donation of a 650-pound stone facade in the name of the late Joe Marini, the Marion-based stone mason whom Norweb said had done much for the town.

            Trees have been donated by the Marion Parks & Tree Committee, and next year the Department of Public Works will be taking over the lawn care at the center.

            “I can’t say enough good things about the Facilities Department and the DPW. … The DPW to a man have a can-do attitude … they always do it so pleasantly,” said Norweb.

            Bottom line, said Norweb, the CCC is open.

            A person can spontaneously bring lunch over to the Pavilion for some summer shade and use the restroom inside. Families are welcome to come in.

            For those interested in renting out the Pavilion or the building for special events, visit marionma.gov for details.

By Mick Colageo

If you happen to be driving along Route 6 toward Marion just before the crest of the hill at Prospect Road, you might have noticed a small cemetery on your left. That would be the Pine Island Cemetery. If you are riding your bike to Crescent Beach from the village, you’re likely to be on Pine Island Road.

            Since neither is anywhere near an island, you might have wondered where Pine Island is. You would not be alone. Even some old townies have asked that question. Well, there is a Pine Island. It lies between Crescent Beach and Strawberry Point. (Don’t ask … I don’t know if there are strawberries on Strawberry Point.)

            Some say it only shows up at low tide, but a careful perusal of some maps and Google Earth show there is clearly an island just west of Cove Street near, appropriately named, Pine Island Pond.

            Old timers will tell you that many a person has ventured onto the island at low tide and was stranded when the tide came in. Why the road and the cemetery, both a good distance from the illusive island, bear its name is a mystery lost to history. You could try asking Charles H. Adams, the oldest person who was interred in the cemetery on April 3, 1817, but I doubt he’d answer.

            Pine Island is not the only island of mystery within our boundaries. Anybody know where Wolf Island is? Oh sure, you’ve heard of Wolf Island Road north of the village just above Tinkhamtown, but there is no island in the vicinity.

            Folklore suggests that there was an island in a bend in the middle of the Mattapoisett River. They say a family of wolves lived there. Others say an old recluse who camped on the island said there were wolves there to scare people away. Who knows? There is some speculation that Wolf Island is not an island at all but a piece of land between the river and tiny Branch Brook. Isn’t that an island?

            By the way, U.S. Geological Maps indicated there is a Wolf Island Pond in the area just north of the road, but there is no evidence of such. I’m too lazy to investigate but you’re free to do so; just remember that Wolf Island Road is known to be haunted. Check it out at your own risk.

            There are a couple of islands in town that are not haunted. Brandt Island Road leads to an actual island, and there is another in the village we are all familiar with … Barlow Island, by Barlow Beach, adjacent to Barlow Pond.

            What do you say? You’ve never heard of it? Perhaps you know it as Goodspeed Island and the Eel Pond. Yup, the area was once owned by Moses Barlow, an early settler, who I believe currently resides in Barlow Cemetery on Barlow Lane north of Acushnet Road. Old Moses must have been pretty important to have had so many things named after him.

            For a time, Goodspeed Island ceased to be one. The railroad filled in the inlet that connected the harbor to the Eel Pond. When I was a boy, I could walk the beach to Reservation Road without getting my feet wet. When the railroad left, Mother Nature gradually reclaimed access to the Eel Pond, cutting a new, wider channel that has grown to what it is today flowing under the new rail trail.

            Moses Barlow is not the only one whose legacy has been lost to history. Samuel Sturtevant, a noted businessman and a descendant of the Mayflower Sturtevants, was important enough to have a street named after him. Sturtevant Street ran from Barstow Street to North Street. It is now known as the east end of Hammond Street.

            At the 1883 Town Meeting, an article proposed changing the name of Pearl Street because there were no “pearls in the vicinity.” Thomas Nelson stood to suggest that, if that change was to pass, the town should also change the name of Baptist Street because “there were no Baptists left in the area.”

            Maybe they were all buried in the Pine Island Cemetery.

            Editor’s note: Mattapoisett resident Dick Morgado is an artist and retired newspaper columnist whose musings are, after some years, back in The Wanderer under the subtitle “Thoughts on ….” Morgado’s opinions have also appeared for many years in daily newspapers around Boston.

Thoughts on…

By Dick Morgado