ORR Trio Gets College Boost

on

            The Marion Scholarship and Education Committee will need another meeting to kick off its campaign for the 2023-24 academic year after discussions addressing fundraising ideas and rubrics changes were put on hold during a brief, June 28 Zoom meeting.

            According to Chairperson Sandy Smith, the three recipients of the committee’s scholarship award are 2023 Old Rochester Regional High School graduates Sarah Wyman, Kira Sarkarati and Paige Fuller.

            “We received applications from an amazing group of students, and it was not an easy decision,” said Smith. “We hope to raise more money this year so we can assist more students in the future.”

            It is through the generosity of Marion residents that the town’s Scholarship and Education Committee can offer scholarships to Marion high school students, according to the committee’s website.

            Rules state that applicants must be residents of Marion, must be graduating seniors and planning to attend post-secondary school in the fall. The number of scholarships and their amount depends on donations and fundraising so the fund will vary from year to year.

            Applications are obtained through local high school college counseling offices and at the Marion Town House with a March deadline to be returned.

            The next meeting of the Marion Scholarship and Education Committee was not scheduled upon adjournment.

Marion Scholarship Committee

By Mick Colageo

From the Files of the Rochester Historical Society

on

After finding the picture shown here at the museum, I asked last winter if anyone knew anything about the steamship, Assawompsett. I soon received replies from several people (thank you) and am finally getting around to sharing.

            The Assawompsett was actually a side-wheeler steamer and while it did ply Rochester waters, its story is one that finds its home in Middleborough. In the late 1800’s, the water in the ponds that line Rte.105 was much higher. Lakeville (aptly named) was a summer resort destination and a side wheeler, Pioneer, made trips down the Nemasket River from the Riverside Wharf on Water St. through the narrows south to Long Point to Pocksha Pond and the waters off North Ave. and Neck Rd. in Rochester.

            In 1882, the larger Assawompsett replaced the Pioneer. The new ship was 60 ft. long and had a hinged smokestack, which could be lowered to go under low bridges. It was said to be able to hold 100 passengers.

            The side wheeler excursions took passengers to the popular spots: Stony Point, known now as Nelson’s Grove, Sear’s Grove and Lake View. Trips were scheduled to coincide with the Old Colony Railroad’s train schedule.

            As the 19th century was drawing to a close, the town of Taunton was authorized by the state to use the lake as a water supply and built a gatehouse across the mouth of the Nemasket River. This allowed them to raise and lower water levels, but it also, blocked access to the lakes. It also served to lower the water level of the river and put an end to the side-wheeler cruises.

            The Assawompsett suffered a sad fate. It was pulled up on the shore near the East Grove Street Bridge and abandoned. Perhaps in protest, the Assawompsett broke loose, floated to the bridge and managed to wedge itself against the side and blocked the entire river.

            This was its last hurrah. It was dislodged and towed upstream to a cove across from the pumping station. It was partially dismantled with the engine removed and used to haul ice to area icehouses and the smokestack was left in a field to succumb to rust. It was further cannibalized with its iron parts taken and sold for scrap. Some residents remember seeing the keel buried in the mud of the river and the vessel’s ribs sticking up near the pumping station.

By Connie Eshbach

Major Collectable Paper Sale

on

Paper collectibles, from world postage stamps, postcards and ephemera to historic photos, will be featured in a benefit sale July 15 in Mattapoisett. Sale to be held from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm at the Mattapoisett Friends Meeting Hall, 103 Marion Road, Route 6. The sale will include items from the collections of the late Priscilla Hathaway and her husband Brad.

            All proceeds will help fund the Priscilla Hathaway memorial art scholarship managed by the Mattapoisett Land Trust.

            The non-stamp material is heavy in southeastern Massachusetts items. For example, there are Rochester real photo postcards, nearly 100-year-old photos taken at the Hollywoods shore and an 1864 deed from Seth Cowin to Lenart Hall Jr. abutting Caleb Dexter property in the Pine Island section of Mattapoisett.

            Postal history ranges from first day covers of the world to 19th century discontinued post office cancellations. Rare ephemera include items from Fall River and Taunton to the Cape and Islands. Historic photos range from President Reagan with dignitaries to a New Bedford whaling ship.

            A special box featuring stamps for 1-cent each will be available for young and old interested in being introduced to the hobby of stamp collecting.

Mattapoisett Community Tennis Association

on

The Mattapoisett Community Tennis Association, MCTA, which serves the towns of Mattapoisett, Fairhaven, Marion, Rochester, and Wareham is seeking adult men and women as new members to play in their summer tennis drop-in league. We currently have about 20 active participants and about 40 members in total. The drop-in begins at 8 am on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays during the summer at a central location on Route 6. New players should play at a level of 3.5 or higher. We welcome anyone who would both enjoy playing tennis with no promise of playing at Wimbledon and also having a good time with many sociable people as well. For further information, please call Mike at 781-888-1110 or Ellen at 978-844-1117.

Collaborative Aims at Underfunded Services

on

            Emily Field, Mattapoisett’s public health nurse, reported to the Board of Health the status of a plan to regionalize some public health services and associated staff known as the South Coast Public Health Collaborative.

            During the June 28 meeting of the board, Field expressed the need for greater focus on mental-health services and that possibly such services can be coordinated through the collaborative.

            “Public health needs more qualified people,” Field said, explaining that public health is typically an underfunded segment of a local board of health and that through a shared-services plan, those services can be provided.

            Field laid no blame for the deficit in those services at the feet of municipalities; she said that Massachusetts is unique in that there are 350 boards of health. She said that many small towns simply do not or cannot pay for the variety of services that fall under the governance of boards of health, everything from public-health nursing to solid-waste management and everything in between. She sees the collaborative as an opportunity to improve some services through acquisition of shared staffing and other programs.

            There is still work to be done on how towns will be reimbursed, but Field is hopeful business elements of the program can be amicably ironed out and the regional agreement signed by all participating communities. Mattapoisett, once it signs on, will join Freetown, Lakeville, Marion, Rochester and Westport. Westport will be the host town for the program and manage grant distribution.

            In March, The Wanderer reported that the collaborative was rolled out to Marion’s Board of Health. Matt Armando, director of Public Health for the Town of Westport, discussed a Memorandum of Understanding for the establishment and maintenance of the program. Armando told the Marion board that $300,000 in grant funding will be annualized with $45,000 going to the host municipality (Westport) and $255,000 to be distributed to the participating towns based on their needs.

            During the June Mattapoisett board meeting, Field noted the difficulty in finding experienced help for the role of inspector and a shared-services coordinator. Armando stated at the March meeting in Marion that the grant might attract new people to public-health careers, thus training is a necessary component of the collaborative’s work.

            Field again spoke to the urgency for municipal focus on mental-health needs. She said that during and since the pandemic, she is seeing isolation as a factor, that regretfully mental-health needs are underfunded and not adequately addressed.

            The board is working towards signing the MOU by the end of July.

            In other business, the Mattapoisett Board of Health met with Todd Kope of the MassDEP to discuss Maguire and Wastequip compacting equipment. Kope told the board that better signage would help at the town’s Transfer Station, something that Mattapoisett Health Agent Gail Joseph has been working to provide. He highly recommended a compactor for cardboard as a cost-savings tool and the introduction of disposal bags for “a pay as you throw” program for residents. He also suggested a deeper dive into the fee structure of the operation.

            In closing comments, Chairman Carmelo Nicolosi said that the state (EPA) has received significant pushback from cities and towns earmarked by the agency as having nitrogen-sensitive areas. After an aggressive push beginning on Cape Cod, the state has paused for more in-depth analysis before requiring homeowners to upgrade their septic systems to include denitrification technology.

            Although homeowners along the south coast are, for now, spared a state mandate requiring a septic upgrade that can cost up to $50,000, Nicolosi reminded listeners that state Title 5 septic regulations still require systems that control nitrogen output, including denitrification systems in watershed areas.

            Nicolosi confirmed that the town is seeking grant funding to launch its own study of local waterways to accurately identify nitrogen sources and levels ahead of any studies the state could implement in the future.

            The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Board of Health is planned for Wednesday, July 26, at 10:00 am.

Mattapoisett Board of Health

By Marilou Newell

Wood Turtle Getting Help

on

            The Wood Turtle is a very low-profile, crawling creature that spends most of its time near the waters of local rivers and streams. It also travels through forests and across grasslands but rarely winds up more than several hundred meters from flowing water. It prefers to use a shallow, sandy bottom to move from one pool to another.

            Many different predators threaten its well-being, including snapping turtles, racoons, otters, foxes, cats, ravens and coyotes, each of which gobbles up a nutritious meal upon capturing a Wood Turtle. As in my illustration, these predators also pose a threat, destroying turtle nests and eating baby turtles, which adds greatly to the endangerment of the entire population.

            The Wood Turtle itself is a totally omnivorous creature, feeding on a range of animals and plant matter, both in water and on land. It is attracted to a wide selection of insects, berries, beetles, Millipedes, slugs, fungi, mosses, grasses, and on occasion, it can be seen stomping the ground with alternating hits from both the left and right feet to cause moles and earthworms to rise to the surface where they become easy prey.

            The Wood Turtle is somehow exposed to many other municipal dangers, such as being run over by speeding cars while crossing a country road or hit by agricultural machinery. They are more often subject to illegal poaching to add a pet turtle to a serpentine collection for a young member of a local country family.

            To combat so many threats, Smithsonian scientists have been closely monitoring their dangerous movements since the year 2016 by attaching tracking devices that weigh less than 0.5 ounces. In the past year, no fewer than 38 turtles have been tracked in this way.

            Wood Turtles have subsequently been petitioned for, including under the Endangered Species Act, to be reviewed by the end of the year to make a final and official determination. So far, the species is listed under the Greatest Conservation Need by the Northeast Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies, Inc., which encompasses 13 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and six Canadian provinces.

            The turtles in these places qualify for help with a head-starting process where they are temporarily removed from the dangerous wild world with all the threats with the hope that their condition improves greatly when they are released.

            The most complete success of head-starting was in the past century when the American Buffalo was virtually brought back from extinction by head-starting it back into the wild.  Let’s hope that the Wood Turtle is not getting near that far gone so that it might not be brought back in the immediate future for us all to recognize a complete recovery.

By George B. Emmons

Music from Land’s End

on

Music from Land’s End Wareham, a group of internationally acclaimed musicians, will present a concert on Saturday, July 29 at 7:30 pm at St. Gabriel’s Church, 124 Front St., Marion.

            The program, “Melodious Noise,” will include baroque and modern pieces by Franz Tunder, Johann Bernhard Bach, Johann Christoph Bach, G.F. Handel, and Sebastian Gottschick. Musicians are Sherezade Panthaki, soprano; Jay Carter, countertenor; Emi Ferguson, flute; Ariadne Daskalakis and Jesse Irons, violins; Sebastian Gottschick, viola; Beiliang Zhu, cello and Arthur Haas, harpsichord.

            Entrance is by donation. For more information, see www.MLEWareham.org.

Mattapoisett Town Band Has New Director

on

Mattapoisett has a new Town Band director, Jayson E. Newell, a music teacher for 17 years. Newell has worked in Wareham, Barnstable and Fall River school districts, has been a member of seven bands and groups performing traditional band pieces as well as with a jazz ensemble.

            Newell said there are 44 Town Band members, including students from the eighth grade to professionals with many years of experience. He said the band also includes many music teachers from those who teach chorus to those who teach bands.

            In preparing to take over the duties of band director from James Farmer who retired after 30 years, Newell said it has been difficult to pin down exactly how long Mattapoisett has had a Town Band. He said that the band’s music library gives a clue. Old sheet music published in 1926 by a company that went out of business in 1928 could mean the band has been around in some form since 1927.

            If anyone has information on the band’s history, Newell invites them to contact him through the Facebook page Mattapoisett Town Band. Each week the band will publish upcoming music selections, and if you have a favorite post the title on Facebook and also check the page for weather-related performance cancellations.

Board Quick to Approve Assist

on

            One of the main concerns of the Marion Planning Board has been the town’s increasing senior population and inside of that segment, many who are challenged to economically sustain residency in their hometown.

            So it was without hesitation that the board voted during its public meeting on Monday night at the Police Station to honor Alex Race’s Approval Not Required (ANR) application.

            Race, the 590 Delano Road neighbor of Janice Bassett (618D), proposed a deal in which he would purchase a piece of Bassett’s abutting property in order to give his neighbor a needed financial boost.

            The catch, as he would explain, was that the swap would require Planning Board approval because Bassett’s 2.1-acre lot would be rendered nonconforming (less than 2 acres) as a result. As a solution, Race also included a piece of his own land going back to Bassett in the deal, which was basically a mechanism through which he could provide his neighbor an opportunity to age in place.

            “We sat down and had an agreement because I could see she was struggling,” said Race after the meeting, describing Bassett as a friend.

            During the Open Comment section of the meeting, Planning Board Chairman Tucker Burr told the members that he has been informed by Town Administrator Geoff Gorman that the Codification Committee, which had been functioning as a subcommittee to the Planning Board, should report straight to the Select Board.

            Burr said the Planning Board should have its own subcommittee, the primary focus of which would be on zoning matters. He intends to consult with Building Commissioner Bob Grillo on the matter.

            Select Board member Norm Hills, the chairman of the Codification Committee, retired from the Planning Board in May. Burr suggested anyone interested in serving on the Codification Committee should reach out to the Select Board.

            Burr intends to present “something formal” to establish a subcommittee to the Planning Board when the board next meets on Monday, July 17.

            Citing logistical issues, board member Andrew Daniel considers the rearrangement a red flag, asserting that the Codification Committee had a specific purpose when it was started.

            “It grew into something entirely different … into a regulate-the-hell-out of-the town committee. That’s going to go to the (jurisdiction of the) Select Board, and one of those (members) is on the Codification Committee,” he said. “And we’re going to start a subcommittee that will be designed to do what this one was supposed to do all along?”

            Burr reiterated he has been instructed that the Codification Committee was always meant to be a subcommittee to the Select Board, not the Planning Board.

            Planning Board member Eileen Marum recalled that the Codification Committee was conceived after Hills researched issues pertaining to zoning bylaws and it was decided that the then-town administrator (Paul Dawson) would hire a firm to help the Planning Board go through the town’s bylaws, find conflicts and provide clarification where needed.

            “When we had Planning Board meetings, everyone had an understanding of what the bylaws were. That’s how it originally started,” recalled Marum, noting that Town Clerk Lissa Magauran studied the matter and found that the Codification Committee was part of the Select Board.

            Board member Alanna Nelson sought clarification as to if the Planning Board will hold a series of meetings about zoning changes and the Select Board will be doing the same. Burr was not clear but said that “the committee they’re running, they appoint to the Codification Committee.”

            Also during Community Outreach, Daniel publicly thanked the supporting officers who ensured public safety at the July 1 fireworks show, calling it “phenomenal. … Everyone did an awesome job. … I think it was the smoothest one I’ve ever been to.”

            Member Jon Henry pointed out that two fireworks displays were held simultaneously at Silvershell Beach and at Kittansett Club.

            Member William “Dale” Jones reiterated his interest in business cards for the board members. Both Marum and Daniel thought it not necessary, but Jones argued that almost every board has them, estimating he could distribute at least 200 cards. Burr agreed as chairman to price out the cards and go from there.

            Board administrator Terri Santos is working on procuring nameplates for the members at the meeting table.

            Town Planner Doug Guey-Lee, attending the meeting via Zoom, openly welcome board members to reach out to him by phone, email or in person regarding any matter. Daniel said he would like to engage Guey-Lee regarding the plan to replace the bridge over the Weweantic River on Route 6 to Wareham.

            Early in the meeting, the board argued whether meeting minutes should acknowledge the May 15 meeting that was later considered ineffective due to a lack of a quorum (five members were present but some had not yet been sworn in since the May 12 election.) Citing a state “carryover” law, Daniel asserted that Marum’s May 15 participation should count. The board voted to accept the May 15 minutes as amended to correct the ORCTV technician recording the meeting.

            The next meeting of the Marion Planning Board is scheduled for Monday, July 17, at 7:00 pm at the Police Station.

Marion Planning Board

By Mick Colageo

Winter Guests Overstay Welcome

on

            Let me make this perfectly clear, I have nothing against Mickey Mouse.

            Everyone likes Mickey, who has always appeared to be a fine character, even though his boss is cheap and didn’t pay very well. Disney once sent me a bill for 36 cents, saying they had overpaid me for an illustration I created for them! After a year of receiving this bill every month and ignoring it, I finally put 36 pennies in an envelope and mailed them their money. That was the end of my working for the “Happiest Place on Earth.”

            Unfortunately, Mickey’s relatives in our neck of the woods are not as nice as old Mickey. They have cost me a pretty penny recently, and it is not the first time.

            Recently, driving down the highway, I turned my headlights on, as I usually do on a cloudy day, when suddenly my horn started blowing, the windshield washers started spraying, and the wipers began swiping back and forth. What the heck!? I turned the lights off and tried again. Same thing. I’m not one to swear, but a truck driver gave me a thumbs-up as he passed, hearing the nasty words that were spewing out of my mouth because I knew what the problem was. Off to my favorite garage.

            As I suspected, my mechanic said Mickey’s country-mice cousins, who reside in our garage during the winter, had overstayed their welcome and have appeared to have eaten the wiring in my dashboard, causing a short circuit, setting off the blowing, spraying and swiping. It is not the first time Mickey’s cousins have cost me money.

            After recovering my truck from three days in the shop, I have resumed my annual mouse hunt. I have enough mouse traps spread around the garage to trip up a bear, but the little devils just ignore them. I know because we set up a camera and watched them dancing around the traps. I bought one of those electronic thingies that claim to emit a sound that purports to hurt the critters’ ears and chases them away.

            Not!

            I have seen the little buggers gather around the device and enjoy the concert. I even tried a bucket of water with a ramp, hoping they’d take a swim. No luck. I have filled every hole I can find in the garage, but mice can squeeze through an opening the size of a dime.

            I have consulted every article on Google to find a solution. The best experts can suggest is spraying peppermint oil around the garage and the vehicles, which I have been doing religiously for months, purchasing gallons of the brew at great cost. Supposedly, the tiny monsters hate the smell. Apparently not.

            Some say the cause of this problem is that automakers use soy-based wiring in their vehicles. The little rodents apparently feast on soy. Others say this is a myth with which I tend to agree. They also attacked my wife’s new car, eating much of the wiring and all the foam padding under the back seat. That little feast cost my insurance company $2,000 and me another $500 to cover the deductible.

            I have avoided putting poison down because I don’t want to harm the cats and bunnies that visit the yard or to call an expensive exterminator. Maybe old Mickey Mouse, whom I have always spoken well of despite his boss’s stinginess, could encourage his rodent relatives to move to sunny Florida or at least send me 36 cents to begin replenishing my mice-control budget. Eh, probably not.

            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