Groundhog Day at Mid-Winter 2021

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            We always welcome the arrival of mid-winter along the Southcoast of Buzzards Bay as a seasonal sense of satisfaction that the bleak shoreline outside our picture window is now six weeks behind us.

            On Groundhog Day, the sun rose a few minutes before 7:00 am and set at 5:00 pm for nine hours of daylight that will become 12 hours at the vernal equinox when the hours of light and shadow are the same all over the world.

            The annual ceremony of observance in this country is 130 years old since 1887 in the western agricultural custom of the Pennsylvania Dutch farmers that superseded a religious holiday of Candlemas when candles were lighted for a parade for recognition of the celestial station on earth for mid-winter. The groundhog replaced the badger as the original hibernating prophet in seeing or not seeing its shadow to predict the arrival of spring.

            My illustration is a drawing of a groundhog that came to be known as the celebrated Punxsutawney Phil on the shoulders of a member of the Grundsow Lodge with a top hat to formalize the traditional ritual.

            This moment in time broadcast widely on mass media features Phil being awakened from deep winter sleep and looking annoyed at his handler, who wears gloves to avoid being bitten. If Phil sees his shadow, it is a bad omen for a long winter, which to most people might seem to be the opposite of what might be the more logical deduction.

            However, this atmospheric phenomenon of a seasonal weather prediction that originated in early German history spread all over the world, including France, Russia, and England. The date itself is a cross-quarter day that falls between solstices and equinoxes of the four seasons. Another one is the literary mid-summer night dream of Shakespearian drama.

            The very ordinary farm rodent, also commonly called a woodchuck, plays a perfect role as a seasonal sentinel standing early and late in the day, casting his shadow during daylight hours. When the sun goes down, he retreats to the subterranean chambers of his den to slumber in a twilight zone of a light meter in his head that measures his activities around the clock.

            And on this celestial station in the heavens down on Earth, it is ceremoniously elevated to play a human-like, anthropomorphic prophet to benefit mankind with a weather predication based upon its own shadow. For the readers of this article, I may have illustrated a classic example of modern-day environmental awareness for your entertainment.

By George B. Emmons

The Art of Helen Hiller Hills

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The Winter Exhibit at the Sippican Historical Society opens February 4. This exhibit highlights Helen Hiller Hills’s work in a variety of media including oils, pen and ink, and pastels. We look forward to welcoming you to the SHS at 141 Front Street, Marion. The Winter Museum Hours are Thursdays 11:00 am – 1:00 pm, and Saturdays 10:00 am – 1:00 pm.

Reading Star wins Bruins’ Signed Jersey

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Finn Poulos is one of a select group of young people to receive Boston Bruins prizes for their outstanding participation in Mattapoisett Free Public Library’s summer reading program.

            Chris Matos, head of the Children’s Department, was excited for the prize winner. “We had an unusual summer last year with our program being just kits for the children to pick up, so it was great to have a special incentive for everyone to get excited about,” Matos said.

            Finn Poulos couldn’t be happier. He said he’s going home to hang it on his wall.

            The Boston Bruins first teamed up with the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners and the Massachusetts Library System in 2009. The organizations work with libraries across the Commonwealth to make reading a part of summer fun for all ages. Tuukka Rask, Zdeno Chara, Brad Marchand and other Bruins players helped libraries develop Favorite Books of the Boston Bruins (available on mass.gov/libraries), a recommended a reading list that includes librarians’ picks for the best hockey books.

            “The kids really enjoy picking up a book and seeing that it was recommended by one of the Bruins players. It inspires them to want to read it themselves,” said Matos.

            “Summer reading is fun, but it’s also an important part of students’ academic success because it helps them avoid the summer slide,” said James Lonergan, MBLC director. Kids who read just four books over the summer do better on reading comprehension tests in the fall than their peers who read one or no books over the summer.

            On average, more than 400,000 people participate in statewide summer reading programs in libraries across the Commonwealth. Massachusetts has offered statewide online summer reading programs since 2007. To learn more about the benefits of summer reading, please visit www.mass.gov/libraries. The statewide Summer Library Program is made possible through federal funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

MRC: Town Closing Gap on Magic Number

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            The January 25 meeting of the Marion Energy Management Committee came with some encouraging news where it concerns the town’s progress in energy savings.

            MRC member Bill Saltonstall submitted Marion’s Annual Report to Green Communities two months ago on time and heard back. The town thus far has achieved 16.5 percent of the targeted 20 percent reduction in energy consumption. Chair Christian Ingerslev will leave the item on the agenda for the next MRC meeting.

            In order to achieve the 3.5 percent that would get Marion to the magic 20 and unlock the theoretical key to new qualifications for grant funding, the MRC needs to be creative. Saltonstall said he would like to see the effects of a hybrid police cruiser. Town Planner Gil Hilario said he would reach out to Chief of Police Richard Nighelli the next day (January 26).

            “I hope they will find it efficient and invest in it,” said Saltonstall, musing at the potential of one car replaced per year. “If they do that, it’s going to help us a lot.”

            Member Jennifer Francis suggested the hybrid cruiser’s inclusion in a July 4 parade. “If COVID lets us have it,” quipped Saltonstall.

            Ingerslev asked, “Are we going to be expected to reach another 20 percent after this first 20 percent?” Saltonstall said it is his understanding that the 20-percent reduction is a one-time threshold.

            The committee turned toward the wastewater treatment plant. “I don’t know if it’s feasible; it might be,” said Hilario.

            Francis said, “I think we should consider leap-frogging gas and going to electric,” citing that gas is still a fossil fuel. “I think that maybe we should be the spearhead…. Let’s talk about electric.”

            Member Eileen Marum agreed. “All the talk is about net-zero buildings and net-zero stretch codes. I’d be really happy if Tabor Academy would do their new Campus Center as a net-zero building because the students are our future.”

            As initially presented to the Planning Board, that is not the case; but the MRC plans to make it known it wants the new Department of Public Works facility to be a net-zero building.

            Saltonstall said there is some interest from the Board of Selectmen and the Harbormaster’s team in considering a scheme to save existing toilets and showers at present grade and not necessarily reconstruct them 14 feet above sea level as presented in the new Harbormaster facility at the Special Town Meeting. “I think they’re working on another scheme, and they have the concern of the people of such a large building on that location,” said Saltonstall.

            Marion has made progress in spending its Green Communities grant funds but discussed what happens when a project is getting hung up by elements out of the town’s control.

            The new windows for the Taber Library will not be delivered until late February or early March. They are guaranteed to fit, so the company told the town it wants to measure a second time. The MRC needs to decide whether to push off the grant.

            “Green Communities said this happens every year,” said Hilario. “Towns cancel projects every year. That’s why they have two [bidding seasons].  They’re encouraging us to finish the project. That’s really the only remaining project left. It’s really a supply issue…. They’re really cautious, and they really want to make sure the windows fit.”

            Marion is canceling its main water weatherization project for this year. The contractor discovered that the attic needs a $12,000 reinforcement that has not been budgeted. Hilario said that Green Communities wants Marion to reapply.

            Francis thanked Hilario and Saltonstall for following up and being so diligent with the projects. “It’s going to save the town a lot of money,” she said.

            Hilario said that the wastewater treatment plant is “going to be a massive project.” Marion, he estimates, would not be ready in the spring to apply for a Green Communities grant, so the town will target the fall in order to prepare a better project application.

            A discussion on heat recovery ventilation systems to produce fresh air in town buildings concluded that, while likely for aged structures such as the Town House and Taber Library, the systems will probably not be eligible for Green Communities grant funding.

            Citing a 30-year payback to establish Green Communities grant eligibility, Hilario said he would follow up to see if the installation will qualify under the CARES Act for COVID-related reimbursement funding.

            Saltonstall gave a Benson Brooks Landfill solar array report and said that, while the study is projected to finish by the end of the first quarter of 2021 and construction is expected to start in the third quarter of the year, “We still don’t know if we have a grid connection at a palatable cost.” Once Eversource gives a cost for the connection, the town can then determine its affordability.

            Saltonstall discussed an emerging alternative to net-metering called Alternative On-Bill Credit (AOBC) that would allow Marion and other towns to go right over the 100 percent solar energy production. He said the program is approved by Eversource and by the state. It is hoped that Liz Argo of CVEC will attend the next MRC meeting and explain in detail how Marion can access greater benefit than is available via traditional net-metering.

            Marion’s net-metering contract with Future Generation Wind caps the town’s financial benefit, whereas AOBC does not.

            “I feel like [net-metering is] limiting us as well from solar projects,” said Hilario, who asked if Marion can rework the legal agreement for solar projects. “If we can make it happen through this [AOBC], it would open things up.”

            The committee approved an appearance by Argo. “She’s very enthusiastic about it,” said Saltonstall, who will report back to the MRC. “If we know and understand this AOBC program and approve of it, we can apply it to a number of projects around town.”

            Saltonstall reported on a phone call with Dick Macomber, who found that mail offers to change energy companies are far less favorable than the energy aggregation program that the town has. Ingerslev noted that offers that come through mailers are only valid for a few months, “And then you don’t know what you’re going to get after that.” Francis noted that the Town of Rochester had joined an electricity aggregation program with Good Energy, LLC.

            Saltonstall suggested the MRC keep a running list of ideas for projects that could seek up to $250,000 in Green Communities grants next year.

            Ideas thrown around began with the library storm windows that have now been pushed into the next round of grant applications, along with Music Hall items including wifi thermostats, the conversion of an old furnace, roof structure work, and insulation. Also discussed were heat exchangers in the Town House, insulation for the Community Center attic, a charging station at the Island Wharf parking lot, and an overhead solar canopy in the Sippican School parking lot.

            The next meeting of the Marion Energy Management Committee is scheduled for February 22.

Marion Energy Management Committee

By Mick Colageo

Mattapoisett Woman’s Club Scholarship

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Mattapoisett Woman’s Club is pleased to offer two $2,000 scholarship awards to Mattapoisett residents who are high school seniors graduating June 2021.

            In addition, there will be a $1,000 scholarship granted to a Mattapoisett resident

who is reentering the academic world after graduation and is in pursuit of a post secondary degree. Please go to the website (listed below) for further information or to obtain the application for this scholarship.

            The Mattapoisett Woman’s Club is a philanthropic organization that plans and executes fundraising events to help generate the revenue for these scholarships and other charitable donations. In offering these scholarships, the club supports educational leadership and helps to support the community that has partnered with the club in its fundraising efforts.

            For high school seniors, the scholarship application will be available in the guidance offices of Old Rochester Regional High School, Bishop Stang High School, Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School, Tabor Academy, Bristol County Agricultural High School, and by emailing info@mattapoisettwomansclub.org for those not attending the above schools.

            The final deadline for returning completed applications is March 31. No one will be considered after this date.

            If you have any further questions, you may contact the Mattapoisett Woman’s Club at P.O. Box 1444, Mattapoisett, MA 02739.

Snowy Owl Migration

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            The sudden appearance of snowy owls along our coastline approximately every four years is called an “irruption” because it is so unpredictable.

            For instance, in the winter of 2013 into 2014, snowy owls arrived in surprising numbers, coming down through parts of southern Canada into the United States, with a few migrating as far south as Florida. They seemed to stop in the Eastern seaboard landscapes with bleak open areas like the arctic tundra they came from.

            During a day’s drive from my seaside home on Little Bay in Fairhaven, I saw them on Crescent Beach, Angelica Point, and West Island for several subsequent years at approximately where they first landed. We also got reports of their having to be removed from municipal airports’ runways to avoid congesting the rotors of jet engines of planes landing and taking off.

            The extent of their geographical invasion was annually tied to cycles of lemmings, their favorite prey. The lemming population was somehow connected to winter weather variations, affecting the reproduction and availability of the actual snowy owl population.

            My illustration is of a snowy owl female, with coloring much darker than the male and larger in size for easy identification. Females at least three years old pair up and mate with a male, and the more lemmings that are available, the more eggs she will lay, as many as 10 in number. Owl-breeding experts will often see up to 30 dead lemmings left near the nest by her mate for her stay, incubating until her eggs hatch out and the young are grown on their own.

            The availability of her diet seems to drive their whole arctic ecosystem. And when a booming population results, the competition for hunting territories pushes owls to move and results in an invasion southward. It would ring up that year for the records of a remarkable example of irruption. When they appear surprisingly, coasting down the sky on silent wings for birdwatchers, it might seem to be an atmospheric phenomenon of the coming of a severe winter, but it’s not ever to become so simple.

            In December of 2013, a man by the name of Norman Smith organized a team of scientists to find out more about the snowy owl’s migration by banding as many as possible with a GPS transmitter around the wings that would not interfere with their flight in any way. This program was called Operation Snowstorm and was coordinated with the usual banding birds to locate their destination when they can be netted for inspection.

            Before releasing the owl, its weight and condition are recorded. Cellular tracking devices tell how high it is flying, the direction it is headed, and how fast it is moving every three days. The data is stored for five years to be reviewed and evaluated.

            The transmitter showed that ‘snowies’ were active at night during the winter so as not to be spotted by prey. It was, therefore, the best time to trap and remove them from airports after dark. So after capture, the owls were found to require relocation farther away.

            The number of GPS locations transmitted is the first step to an awareness of the fundamentals of snowy owl migration for birdwatchers seeking education and understanding of how to avoid misconceptions and how to establish conservation programs like Snowstorm for the future.

            We still have a lot to learn.

By George B. Emmons

MOSAC Approves Revised Conservation Restriction

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The Marion Open Space Acquisition Commission briefly met on January 25 to approve the revised version of the Conservation Restriction for the Hoff Property.

            At the Board of Selectmen’s January 19 meeting, Selectmen Norm Hills and John Waterman voted to remove a sentence in the document connecting the Conservation Restriction to the denitrification of wastewater coming from the Benson Brook Transfer Station. Board of Selectmen Chairman Randy Parker recused himself from that proceeding, having donated property in connection with adjacent open space acquired that enhances the Hoff Property.

            MOSAC Chairman John Rockwell told the January 25 meeting that the revised version of the Conservation Restriction went back to the state for reapproval, which came back approved. He, along with fellow MOSAC members Amanda Chace and Casey Gunschel, voted to approve the Conservation Restriction as revised.

            The next meeting of the Marion Open Space Acquisition Commission is scheduled for February 4 at 7:00 pm.

Marion Open Space Acquisition Commission

By Mick Colageo

Mattapoisett Library Hosts Julia Kelly

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Julia Kelly, author of “The Last Garden in England,” will talk about her book via Zoom on Wednesday, February 3, at 6:00 pm. International bestselling author Julia Kelly showcased her gift for sharing richly detailed stories and the power of friendships and womanhood in “The Light Over London” and “The Whispers of War.” This January, Kelly returns with a poignant and unforgettable tale of five women living across three different times whose lives are all connected by one very special garden in“The Last Garden in England” (Gallery Books; Hardcover; on-sale January 12, 2021).

            Julia Kelly is the award–winning author of books about ordinary women and their extraordinary stories. In addition to writing, she’s been an Emmy–nominated producer, journalist, marketing professional, and (for one summer) a tea waitress. Julia called Los Angeles, Iowa, and New York City home before settling in London.

            Registration is required for you to receive the Zoom meeting information. Zoom information will be sent the day before the presentation. You can register by sending an email to mfpl@sailsinc.org or by completing the registration form on our online calendar of events. Call the library at 508-758-4171 or email mfpl@sailsinc.org if you have questions. This program is part of the Purrington Lecture Series, a presentation of the Mattapoisett Library Trust, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization dedicated to expanding the role of the library in the community.

Richard L. Bertrand

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Richard L. Bertrand, 71, of Rochester passed away Friday, January 29, 2021 at his home, surrounded by loved ones after a long courageous battle with leukemia. He was the loving husband of Denise C. Bertrand for 49 blessed years.

            Born in New Bedford, the son of Georgette “Gerri” Bertrand and the late Robert H. Bertrand, he grew up in Mattapoisett, and lived in Rochester for most of his life.

            Richard was loved and respected by all who knew him. He was a hard worker, and a family man. Richard preferred the simple life, and just spending time with his wife. He also enjoyed fishing and hunting with his son, visiting his daughter wherever the Army moved her family, and joking with his grandchildren (being a “Pepere”). His hobbies included working in his garden, and puttering around his home and yard.

            Richard was an automotive machinist and the president of Motor Tech, Inc. in New Bedford. However, he was most known for his creative inventions and his ability to fix anything.

            In addition to his wife and mother, he is survived by his daughter, Christine Delvaux (her husband Steven), his son, Richard S. Bertrand (his wife Kelly), his siblings, Jacqueline McCarthy (her husband Michael), Robert Bertrand (his wife Lisa), Jannine Mitchell (her partner Michael Kirkwood), his grandchildren, Ryan Delvaux (his fiancée Casey Solana), Evan Delvaux (his wife Mary), Daniel Bertrand, and Leah Bertrand.

            His visitation will be held on Wednesday, February 3, 2021 from 5-8 pm at the Saunders-Dwyer Mattapoisett Home for Funerals, 50 County Rd., Route 6, Mattapoisett. Due to current gathering restrictions, his Funeral Mass will be private, and by invitation only. For the online condolence book, please visit www.saundersdwyer.com. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to The Dana Farber Cancer Institute, in his memory.

Bonnie R. (Reynolds) DeLuca

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Bonnie R. (Reynolds) DeLuca, 71, of Marion, passed away after a long illness on Wednesday, January 27, 2021. Born in Wareham, raised in Marion, she was the daughter of the late Arthur Reynolds and June (Bumpus) Schroth. Bonnie graduated from ORR High School and was a loan officer for Compass bank for over 30 years. She loved to travel, sailing Buzzards Bay, and spending time with family, especially her beloved grandchildren.

            No services are scheduled.