The Mattapoisett Congregational Church will begin summer worship with a time change to 9 am beginning June 26. There are events planned for the summer to include Blessing of the Animals in July and the annual yard sale in September so be sure to check our website at mattapoisettcongregationalchurch.org often for more details. All are welcome and we hope to see you this summer.
The Sippican Lands Trust will host its 2022 Annual Meeting using a hybrid format with an in-person gathering at Sippican Lands Trust’s White Eagle Cranberry Bog and online via Zoom starting at 5:30 pm on Wednesday, June 22.
Sippican Lands Trust’s Annual Meeting this year will feature a presentation titled “Walking for Health” with Dr. Michael Rocha, a cardiologist at Hawthorn Medical Associates in Dartmouth. Dr. Rocha earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth and his medical degree from University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester. Dr. Rocha serves as Director of Heart Failure Services at St. Luke’s Hospital and Director of Echocardiography Laboratory at Hawthorn Medical. He has an interest in preventive cardiology and is the director or the New Bedford Wellness Initiative. The New Bedford Wellness Initiative was formed to raise health awareness and encourage physical activity.
A brief business meeting will be conducted prior to the talk along with a short presentation of the accomplishments and highlights of the 2021 year and a vote to approve new board members to the Sippican Lands Trust Board of Directors. More information about the Sippican Lands Trust (SLT) and its mission can be found at www.sippicanlandstrust.org.
Members and friends of the SLT interested in attending this year’s Annual Meeting in person or via Zoom must register for the meeting at sippicanlandstrust.org. An email will be sent to you with information about how to sign in for this year’s Annual Meeting on Zoom and/or directions on how to get to the White Eagle Cranberry Bog. For more information, contact Sippican Lands Trust at 508-748-3080 or info@sippicanlandstrust.org.
The Marion Energy Management Committee has made no secret of its desire to see the town’s two major construction projects, the new Marine Center at Island Wharf and the new Department of Public Works operations center at Benson Brook, go green, as in net-zero energy.
Monday’s public meeting was only the latest platform for this discussion, and the EMC is trying hard to get its message heard, not only in terms of environmental concerns related to climate change and what it sees as an enormous opportunity to be a grassroots-level leader in a trend away from fossil fuels, but also in terms of economics.
EMC Chairman Christian Ingerslev told the committee on Monday that Town Administrator Jay McGrail is aware of the committee’s belief that net-zero energy will save more in lifetime costs than it will cost the town in up-front expense.
“It’s a question of which one of these wins,” said Ingerslev.
EMC member Bill Saltonstall was impressed with mini-split heat pumps used in Plymouth’s recent construction project and noted its attractive architectural design, but Saltonstall said the concern now is a lack of power. “We really don’t have enough of our own electric power for our municipal facilities in Marion. I’m still interested in putting some solar somewhere,” he said.
Saltonstall said that the heat pump yet to be installed at the Community Center has been held back by a delay on the delivery of equipment but that Facilities Manager Shaun Cormier thinks it can be installed by the end of the summer. Saltonstall also reported Cormier’s suggestion that a heat pump replace the oil-fired boiler at Fire Station No. 2 on Point Road. But, as Saltonstall reported, that station does not have a source of electrical power.
Saltonstall is trying to identify new projects that would qualify for Green Communties grant funding.
Being a new construction, the Marine Center is not eligible, but the piecemeal work on the Town House, including a budgeted $250,000 for heat pumps for the entire building is drawing his attention. Saltonstall said the quote came in at twice the amount that was budgeted.
Given the Town House’s heat emanates from a gas-fired boiler, Saltonstall suggested the EMC go back to Energysource to do the study. He has also identified the new energy-efficient transformers at Sippican School as another project warranting evaluation for Green Communities eligibility.
“We don’t have a definite answer as to how the town can provide additional solar power or additional electric power use,” said Saltonstall, reporting that McGrail indicated that the town has new legal people working on that issue.
The EMC’s long-standing effort to bring a solar array to the Benson Brook landfill is running up against escalating costs. The committee is waiting on final numbers before deciding on whether to go ahead. Ingerslev said that if lease payment drops, the project may not be worthwhile.
According to committee member Alanna Nelson, Eversource says it will cost $750,000 to bring the project onto the grid. Who bears the cost can be negotiated, but negotiations are a double-edged sword because, the more the developer has to pay, the less it will have remaining to pay a lease to the town.
“We’ve got to start planning for the power we’re going to need for the heat pumps,” said Saltonstall, who said he still does not understand why the town cannot proceed with solar under a lease agreement. He pointed to towns on Cape Cod constructing solar canopies atop parking lots and active cranberry bogs.
Ingerslev said that McGrail thinks the EMC should plan on carports and solar panels at the police station on Route 6, the lingering question being how to fund it. Nelson said the parking lot at the station is not large enough for a lease agreement.
The EMC also discussed Marion’s Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan status, noting the need for signage. Marum said that people evacuating need to have a destination, “a secure, unobstructed route” without culverts that would wash away. She suggested that the committee seek assistance from the Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District (SRPEDD.)
Ingerslev told the committee that the Select Board will not make Jennifer Francis a full voting member until it will leave the EMC with an odd number of members.
Ingerslev told the EMC that he resent a letter to the Select Board on June 8 regarding the committee’s interests in redefining its scope and name. Now that Toby Burr has replaced John Waterman on the Select Board, the EMC is eager to readdress ongoing matters of concern. Francis recommended using a meeting with the Select Board to address many concerns including the use of fossil fuels to heat the new Marine Center and new DPW.
Marum was disappointed that not one committee member was appointed to the newly formed committee watching over the construction of the new DPW.
“When I look at those that have been appointed, I don’t think there is anyone who is going to be an advocate for clean energy,” said Marum, who applied for a seat on that committee.
Ingerslev said that 19 people applied to fill four open spaces and that McGrail asked him to address the committee. “We will get representation that way,” he said. “They did not want anybody from the EMC on there.”
Ingerslev also noted that Chris Collings’ interest in joining the EMC will not come to fruition after he was told that his existing committee involvements are enough.
The next meeting of the Marion Energy Management Committee is scheduled for Monday, July 25, at 5:00 pm.
Marion Energy Management Committee
By Mick Colageo
On June 11, the Mattapoisett Museum hosted a presentation by two of the Fairhaven Village Militia, who gave youngsters a peek at the lives of children during the colonial era, starting with the clothing.
Lori Richards portrayed a middle-class homemaker, while Skip Faulkner represented her male counterpart. Richards began by describing the clothing from those earliest days.
Homespun threads of wool and cotton from carded fibers was the first process used to create threads. Once drawn through the carding combs, the threads were twisted and spun on a spinning wheel to create long seamless strands. These would later be turned into lengths of cloth using a loom. The homespun cloths were used to make clothing for the family members and were worn with care to ensure, as best as possible, that they could not become stained or ruined.
Richards said that it was not uncommon for women to wear as many as 10 skirts during the cold seasons but no less than three or four during the warmer months. When asked if she felt uncomfortable or hot in her replica garments, she said no, explaining that the natural fabrics used allow the body to sweat and breath, unlike the synthetic materials used today. Faulkner added that aprons were used by both men and women to help in keeping clothing clean. “These weren’t laundered but were aired out from time to time,” he said.
Richards told the youth-filled audience that long before children of this era wore everyday clothing like their parents, they wore long dresses. “From infants to children around (age) five or six wore long, white dresses to show they were very young, not ready yet to have chores. Boys and girls wore the same type of gowns and had long hair.”
Faulkner described a man’s clothing as comprising long stockings, pantaloons that stopped at the knees, linen shirts, a waistcoat, leather shoes with detached buckles and a hat. Like women of the era, a man always wore a hat outside the home and took good care of it. Hats provided protection from the sun and the rain, he said. Hats were often decorated with an emblem noting an affiliation with a group or a political group. Richards said that women always kept their heads covered, sometimes with a cloth cap and a bonnet on top.
Clothing had to last, the presenters emphasized, because cloth was difficult to produce in quantities sufficient to clothe an entire family. “It took about 9 yards to make a full set of clothes,” Faulkner explained. “Hence the phrase ‘the whole 9 yards’ came into being.”
Bathing habits were briefly addressed, as Richards said that full-body bathing was not the trend during this era but that people did keep themselves clean through spot washing. Dental hygiene, however, suffered.
Richards said that charcoal might be rubbed on the teeth as grit to clean the tooth surfaces, but that brushes were yet to be invented. “By the time people were 40 to 45, they had lost most of their teeth,” he said.
Girls, after the stage of wearing long infant gowns, wore clothing that resembled adults’ outfits. They were also conscripted to do woman’s work in the kitchen, or caring for younger siblings, or sewing, or all of these tasks, chores and more. Dishes, pots and pans were crafted from metal, wood or sometimes pottery. Forks had two or three tines only. Washing up after meals fell to the young girls.
Boys were expected to follow their male leads into the farm fields, out on the fishing boats or into merchant trades.
Faulkner said that men between the ages of 16 and 60 who were not paid soldiers had to belong to local militia units and to participate in weekly drills. Teenagers were considered adults, it was noted.
Children were primarily home-schooled or went to church schools to learn basic reading, writing and computation skills, Richards said. She said that children were taught reading, using a New England Primer first printed in 1790s for the colonies.
Neither boys nor girls had much in the way of leisure time with the possible exception of after church on Sundays and even then, play most likely had to have a religious theme. Fishing on Sundays was permitted, Faulkner said, because although it could be considered a recreational activity, it also provided food if the angler was successful.
The children in attendance were given the opportunity to try games played by earlier colonial children or try on period articles of clothing. One game the kids found interesting was the Jacob’s Ladder. The toy gives the illusion of wooden blocks sliding from one to another and is named after the biblical reference in Genesis of the stairway to heaven.
As the presentation drew to a close, the children were fascinated by the early toy replicas and used them with the same joyful abandon their early counterparts enjoyed in spite of having cell phones in their back pockets.
To learn about upcoming events at the Mattapoisett Museum, visit mattapoisettmuseum.org.
Mattapoisett Museum
By Marilou Newell
On June 9, the Mattapoisett Finance Committee met with Town Administrator Mike Lorenco to transfer funds, an annual process of balancing accounts just ahead of closing the books on FY22 and to receive updates on various grant-funded projects.
The committee voted unanimously to transfer $136,000 from the Reserve Fund to the following accounts to balance several departmental budgets.
Receiving $30,000 was the fuel account to cover escalating costs, which Lorenco said were “100 percent” more than originally anticipated. Accrued liability associated with employees departing municipal employment received $50,000 to cover unused sick and vacation days. Staff salaries in the Building Department required and received $5,000 to cover overages, and $7,500 was needed to cover additional engineering costs associated with Old Slough Road and the Police Department parking lot.
Lastly, $3,500 was transferred to cover heating costs for keeping the public bathrooms open year-round at the harbormaster’s office and for municipal grounds and building needs.
In a sidebar, Lorenco commented that at the present time there are 17 open jobs with the Town of Mattapoisett that he is seeking to fill. The positions range from the Police Department, Town Hall Accounting Department, Library and Highway Department. Employee openings are posted at Mattapoisett.net, he said.
Lorenco touched on the recently awarded fiber grant that will allow the town to establish better communications between various town departments. The town will need to pony up $8,108 for its share. He noted that the new optic fiber installation will not connect the schools, but added that a federal grant will be sought for that portion of the overall plan. Lorenco added that due to material delays, the anticipated interconnect start date will be sometime in March 2024. The committee voted to transfer the matching grant money.
Lorenco said the town has the potential for being $800,000 under budget when all data is tallied and that as much as $1,000,000 will be available in free cash once the FY22 books are closed. He said that another sum of approximately $1,800,000 is anticipated from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and that the Select Board has not made any decisions on how those monies should be used. He pointed out the ARPA funds were to be used primarily for infrastructural projects such as the replacement of the sewer line over the Eel Pond breach.
The Mattapoisett Finance Committee will now suspend meetings until late August or early September pending a possible Fall Town Meeting in November.
Mattapoisett Finance Committee
By Marilou Newell
To the Editor,
It is the people and small businesses in town that make Mattapoisett special. We have all noticed changes resulting from the ongoing pandemic. The town is slowly returning to “normal” in that we are seeing events such as “Harbor Days,” the Mattapoisett Road Race, the boat race down the river for Memorial Day, etc. These events return thanks to the citizens who appreciate the events and their effect on the community.
Unfortunately, another result of the pandemic is the struggle we are seeing with inflation creating soaring fuel and food prices. Small businesses all took large losses in having to shut down or scale back because of this and now trying to remain viable and profitable, all with these costs and difficulties with staffing shortages. Recently we learned that such places closing. I was happy to see the “slip” back signaling summer’s arrival and the Inn reopening, even with the outside tables attempting to recoup any losses incurred. I have great respect for local opinions about the appearances of places like the Inn, Turk’s and Tastebuds having adapted their seating capacities. They look different. Who do we blame for such changes? Well, no one is at fault, change happens, some appreciate it, some don’t.
We can honor the traditions, the history of our wonderful small town, and the people who live and work here by supporting all our small businesses. Some will thrive, some will fail because they cannot adapt to change, but they ALL need and deserve our support. What makes Mattapoisett “Special”? It is the people who live here and those who visit because it is the beautiful place of rest that the name implies. My respect and appreciation goes out to all those business owners who strive to provide jobs for our citizens and services we enjoy and need despite having to deal with higher costs of living and operating costs. I know that costs have to be passed along to the consumer, and I am willing to support them in their efforts. I hope the rest of us locals do the same and keep Mattapoisett “Special.”
Steve Heath, Marion – I like to think of it as “East Mattapoisett”
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.
The Marion Village 5K is slated to take place at 9 am on Saturday, June 25. Start your summer off by getting into shape with this great local event. Great fun, prizes – cash, merchandise, raffle – and good food. Early bird registration rates through Sunday, June 19. On-line registration is available through RaceWire (RaceWire – Marion Village 5K Road Race). For more information, you may contact race director Chris Adams at 508-241-6182 or cadams@taboracademy.org.
Any local business or individuals that are interested in volunteering and/or donating prizes, please contact the Race Director. This event is a fundraiser for the Marion Recreation Department.
On June 12, the Rochester Historical Society led a tour of the Rochester Cemetery, which I previously mentioned is a private not a municipal burying ground. We realized as we prepared for the tour that we would only be able to cover a portion of the cemetery. While we may well do another tour at a later date, I wanted to mention some of the gravestones that piqued my curiosity.
One of the first things I noticed as I walked the cemetery was the fragility of some of the oldest stones. Because the early markers were often made of stone that was easy to carve (without today’s tools), the stones were easily worn away by time and weather. Gravity and lichens have also affected stones making it hard to identify who is buried there.
Walking and reading various monuments, I’m always stopped by the ones that tell a story. There are many captains and for some it is a military rank while for others, it signals a life on ships, like Capt. Samuel Lombard, who died at sea in 1795 in his 40th year. Their tombstones tell of lives lost by drowning or far from home. John G. Mendell drowned in Manilla in 1871. Samuel Tripp Braley died in 1870 and is buried in Mahe, Seychelles Islands in the Indian Ocean. Charles A. Mendell, a member of the same family died in California in 1855. Another Mendell, William H. who was born in Rochester in 1832, died in London in 1895.
As I make my way through the rows of stones, I am painfully aware of how many wars our country has fought and the high price that so many families have paid. There is Barnabas Clark whose inscription reads simply,” soldier of the Revolution”. Some of these soldiers came home, often with the physical or mental scars of war, while others weren’t so fortunate. Ebenezer Hathaway died in a hospital in Annapolis in 1865.
Many of the messages carved into these old stones make me want to know more of the person’s story. What took Capt. W. Claghorn to North Carolina where he died in Cape Fear in 1798 or Elisha Sherman who died at Washington. North Carolina in 1806. Then there are the ones that are a bit of a puzzle as the family tombstone that begins with Thomas Smith interred in Oak Grove Cemetery in New Bedford.
All these memorials have one thing in common: the wish to keep the memory of a loved one alive, no matter where they died or are buried. That’s true whether it’s an obelisk that lists father, mother and several offspring of a family or a solitary grave such as that of Thomas Arthur Clarke, which reads,” In memory of Thomas Arthur Clarke of Manchester, England 1860-1933.
By Connie Eshbach
The 13,500 acres off Acushnet Road dubbed The Bogs is a Buzzards Bay Coalition property that has become a favorite place to recreate. It has been the BBC’s plan since obtaining the former cranberry bogs to restore some 64 acres to a more natural state and then let Mother Nature take it from there.
On June 13, members of the Mattapoisett Conservation Commission met with BBC’s Restoration Ecologist Sara Quintal and Natural Resource Specialist Adriene Dunk of GZA GeoEnvironmental, Inc., who gave an in-depth, hour-long presentation highlighting the design and water flow planning that will be employed this summer when restoration work begins at The Bogs.
Central to the design are water features that will return naturally, the engineers explained, once the manmade ditches, dikes and flumes are replaced with habitat-friendly islands. Historically, the bogs were watered using regulated water flows from Tubb Mill Brook. The plans presented on Monday illustrated that water reaching the site from Tubb Mill Brook will be absorbed in a naturalized process via recharging into swamps and other woodland features, Quintal and Dunk explained.
The elaborate engineering plans drafted by GZA revealed the removal of barriers so that fish and other wildlife can move freely and that there will be no change to flood-flow hydrology, eliminating downstream impact. The restoration is planned to enable greater habitat for the Eastern Box Turtles and other wildlife, maximizing natural freshwater wetland structures, restoring the natural hydrology, and encouraging native-plant diversity and trail linkage for enhanced visitor recreational experiences, the team stated.
The presentation also showed the vast number of regulatory agencies that will have oversight of the project along with local permits that Quintal hoped to receive during Monday’s meeting. Those agencies include Massachusetts Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program, Clean Water Act, U.S. Army Corps, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for stormwater pollution control, and MassDEP Waterways Regulation Program.
Brandon Faneuf, Mattapoisett’s consulting environment agent, pointed out the commission’s oversight would be informed by not only conditions they would impose on the project but also the other agencies’ purviews, and that such controls would aid in protecting public and private water supplies, groundwater protection, storm-damage protection, protection of shellfish and fisheries and wildlife-habitat protection.
“You are checking all the boxes,” Faneuf said. Quintal emphasized the point saying, “…our goals are for a self-sustaining site that can do its thing.”
Both Select Board member Jodi Bauer and abutter Bruce Cobb expressed concerns that Tinkham Pond water levels would be impacted. It was explained by both Quintal and Dunk that water flowing into the 64 acres of former cranberry bogs in question were not watered by Tinkham Pond but by Tubb Mill Brook, a deviated stream. Cobb said several times that it was his hope the natural beauty of the pond area would not be harmed by draining into the BBC property. He was assured that Tinkham Pond is not part of the project and would in no way be negatively impacted.
The restoration project application by the BBC was conditioned by a unanimous vote of the commission.
In other business, a Notice of Intent filed by Emmjay Realty Trust, 13 Industrial Drive, for the construction of concrete pad supports, stormwater drainage features and restoration of eroded slopes was conditioned.
Requests for Determination of Applicability receiving negative determinations were granted to: Andrew O’Shaughnessy, 88 Aucoot Road, for the expansion of a patio; Michael Prestileo, 3 Indian Avenue, for the construction of deck and patio as well as outdoor shower and new stoop with steps; William and Debra Poutsiaka, 4 Maple Road, for the construction of raised timber planting boxes and Randolf Alexander, 7 Wolf Island Road, for the renovation of a single-family home and landscape features.
Commission Chairman Michael King asked for an Enforcement Order be sent to the property owners at 16 Harbor Beach Road with the installation of an unpermitted storage tank. An Enforcement Order was also ordered for unpermitted landscaping at property located at the corner of Harbor Beach and Shore roads.
King also asked Faneuf if he was willing to spend two half-days per week in the Conservation office until such time as a replacement can be hired for retiring employee Maryann DeCosta. Faneuf said he would, adding, “Glad to help the town.”
The next meeting of the Mattapoisett Conservation Commission is scheduled for Monday, June 27, at 6:30 pm.
Mattapoisett Conservation Commission
By Marilou Newell
Marion Affordable Housing Trust Chairperson Terri Santos encouraged attending members Nancy McFadden, Tangi Thomas and Minhtram Tran to take a spin on the housing page of Falmouth’s website for some ideas to consider as the Marion committee broke for the summer on Tuesday night.
Santos acknowledged that the cape-side town has “different housing needs” but felt it beneficial to pour over the site, read Falmouth’s mission statement and display in order to perhaps incorporate some aspect into Marion’s website.
The members received the advice favorably and even mused about a visit over the Bourne Bridge to look around the Town of Falmouth.
Marion’s Affordable Housing Trust is very much under construction, having gone through significant changes in its membership and leadership over the past year, and a major portion of the effort has been in establishing a housing production plan.
Santos had hoped that the trust would have received the final report on the plan from the Barrett Planning Group for Housing Community Engagement Services and Community Engagement Services Focus Group in time for Tuesday’s meeting, but the agenda was limited to housecleaning items.
The trust voted to pay a $16,000 bill related to the report, along with $151.47 to the Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District (SRPEDD); Santos said there is still a contract balance for SRPEDD to finish out the plan.
By September, she said, she hopes to have that information and know more about the Lockheed Martin property, which is integral to the long-range development plans in Marion.
Due at its next meeting for reorganization, the Affordable Housing Trust scrapped its July 15 meeting in favor of reconvening on Tuesday, September 13, at 6:00 pm. The meeting will be held in person with a possible hybrid component.
Marion Affordable Housing Trust
By Mick Colageo