Mattapoisett Recreation Basketball

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Sign up today for Tri-Town Basketball for boys and girls in grades 3-6. MATTREC and Marion are combining again for a Tri-Town league for girls in grades 3-6, boys in grades 3 and 4, and boys in grades 5 and 6. Placement nights will be held November 6th, 7th, and 8th. Games begin in December with Playoffs in March. All players will be put on a team and receive a team jersey. Cost is $95.

2nd grade co-ed basketball is on Thursday evenings starting in January. Each session includes a practice and game with 5:30 pm or 6:30 pm game times. All players will be put on a team and receive a team jersey. Cost is $55.

K-1 co-ed basketball afternoon and evening sessions: this is a fun introductory clinic designed to expose players to the game of basketball. An afternoon session will be offered on Thursdays starting in January from 3:00 pm – 3:45 pm at Center School. Evening session is on Wednesdays from 5:00 pm – 5:45pm. Cost is $55.

Register online at www.mattrec.net Please email us with any questions at mattrec@mattapoisett.net or call 508-758-4548.

Ralph R. Silva, Jr.

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Ralph R. Silva, Jr., Esq., 92, of Mattapoisett died October 27, 2018 at Sippican Health Care Center after a brief illness.

Born and raised in New Bedford, son of the late Ralph R. Silva and Elizabeth Higgins, he lived in Mattapoisett most of his life.

Atty. Silva was employed by Massachusetts Public Defenders Committee for over 20 years until his retirement.

He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II.

Survivors include his 2 sons, Jonathan Silva of Marion and Christopher Silva of Martha’s Vineyard; a daughter, Wendy Leclair of Marion; a brother, Dexter Silva of Hopkinton, MA; 2 granddaughters, Jacqueline Leclair and Nicole DiLima; and a great-grandson, Harrison.

Visiting hours will be held on Tuesday, October 30th from 6-8:30 PM in the Saunders-Dwyer Mattapoisett Home for Funerals, 50 County Rd., Route 6, Mattapoisett. In lieu of flowers, remembrances may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association, 309 Waverly Oaks Rd, Suite 304 Waltham, MA 02452. For directions and guestbook, please visit www.saundersdwyer.com.

Sippican School Adopts School Improvement Plan

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The Marion School Committee is the latest to approve its district’s school’s two-year school improvement plan following a multi-district Strategic Plan implemented to address the areas: 21stCentury learning, global citizenship, and social-emotional learning.

On October 17, Sippican School Principal Lyn Rivet introduced the school’s plan that echoes the other goals and focus areas included in the other districts’ plans, a deliberate move to bring all schools K-12 into alignment as elementary students advance into the regional schools.

Rivet said year one for 21stCentury learning will start with getting the message out to teachers, “What is 21stCentury learning?” said Rivet.

Next year, Rivet said, “The goal will be for that to be part of our goals; however, we have overachievers in our building who are already doing that.”

Like other schools’ plans, there is a focus of the “four Cs”: creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication, with teachers engaging in discussion on the four Cs as part of a professional development piece during staff meetings. Next year, the school will implement strategies on how to further student progress in each of the four areas.

Technology is another vital part of the goal, but as Rivet explained, “We’ve hit a bit of a snag in getting our technology integrationist.”

Rivet said the last person offered the position “respectfully declined.” “We’re still working on it.”

In the meantime, other teachers have stepped up to assess how the school can “infuse technology into the coursework,” as Rivet put it, and then implement measures the second year.

For the global citizenship goal, teachers will begin by taking inventory of all technology and applications pertaining to this area before deciding which actions to take in year two, including a civics literacy and citizenship focus “… and continue to broaden the scope for both teachers and students,” said Rivet.

Social-emotional learning begins with anti-defamation training for all teachers and staff, and the development of an action plan to move forward the following year with sensitivity training for staff.

“We want to ensure the implementation of responsive classroom [in] grades K through 6,” Rivet continued, with training already underway and an eventual 100 percent training of all staff the second year.

Behavior management is also slated for focus with the school exploring evidence-based discipline practices with the assistance of the schools BCBA and school psychologist.

The following year, Rivet said a review of the code of conduct in the student handbook would lead to alignment with the other Tri-Town schools.

Rivet also wants to explore other ways the school can encourage family engagement outside its ANCHOR program and incorporate new actions the second year of the plan.

Safety and security is also part of this area of the plan, and the school will continue to meet with police and fire to talk about ways to enhance security and what steps to take in year two of the plan and update and implement best practices.

“It’s very comprehensive: it’s a lot of work,” said School Committee Chairman Christine Marcolini. “It’s a good plan for the next two years.”

The next meeting of the Marion School Committee is scheduled for November 28 at 6:30 pm at Sippican School.

Marion School Committee

By Jean Perry

Hearing, Seeing, and Feeling the Artistic Theme

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Poets and painters, poets and photographers, poets and moviemakers – poets and all manners of visual arts – were paired, studied, and understood more fully when Dr. Josephine Yu gave an insightful and inspiring presentation titled “Sister Acts: A Discussion of Poetry and Paintings” on October 19 at the Mattapoisett Public Library.

Yu, a professor at Keiser University in Fort Lauderdale, earned her BA and MFA at Georgia State University before moving to Florida to pursue her PhD at Florida State University. Her awards span such notable achievements as 2016 winner of the Judge’s Prize Elixir Press Poetry Award, 2008 Best New Poets Award, 2013 Ploughshares Emerging Writer Contest, and three times nominated for a Pushcart Prize, to name a few.

Yu’s style of public speaking and subject matter is a mixture of warmth, humor, empathy, anger, forgiveness, and nearly all other varieties of human emotion coupled with a deep appreciation and understanding of art in general.

Picking both well-known works of art as well as other artistic forms such as photography and film, Yu asked the audience to go deeper into the visual works through the words of poets.

She carried the participants down the road where cognition and emotion cross paths, thus generating a fuller sense of being present with the artists.

For the 16thCentury painting “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Yu examined the poem “Muséedes Beaux Arts” by W. H. Auden. She directed the attention of the attendees to how small and insignificant Icarus appeared in the lower right corner of the canvas, a mere antidote to the larger theme of “life goes on.” Auden wrote of the much larger farmer in the center of the frame, “but for him it was not an important failure.” The mistakes of youth and ambition pale against a larger canvass of decades of living where success and failure are inevitable.

Yu also focused on abstract art in the form of Michael Goldberg’s “Sardines” against the poem of Frank O’Hara, “Why I am Not a Painter.”

“This is a story of the process,” said Yu, for both painting and writing, and how one can influence the other, while maintaining creative independence, and also how “art may look spontaneous,” but is really carefully crafted.

Later in her presentation, she discussed Poet Laureate Natasha Tretheway’s book Bellocq’s Ophelia, reading three separate pieces that explored race, power, a woman’s role in society, strength, and fragility.

The presentation was a tour de force in bringing visual arts and poetic passages into a deeper context and the extent to which humans attempt to express themselves –to reach out and touch one another.

On Saturday, October 20, Yu read her own works from her book Prayer Book of the Anxious, published by Elixir Press.

The voice of the writer is never more expressive and vulnerable then when reading his or her own words, and that sensitivity and courage was on full display.

Yu’s writing brings the reader into the fullness of human experience from the profound to the sublime and everything in between. In her poem Ocean, it begins with an October coastline; as a first-time visitor to Mattapoisett, Yu thought this selected piece apropos. Her voice seemed to rise and descend on ocean currents, “I experiment with the lives I invent…maybe hiding myself.”

In other works, her Catholic upbringing and her mother’s devout faith were given a presence as Yu referenced saints and their religious attributes to drive home emotions of anger, loss, and forgiveness.

“I’m interested in how we use stories to heal us through myth and fable,” Yu said.

Yu is a very generous writer, introducing selections from other writers she thought the audience might enjoy, including one from Marion poet Elizabeth Farrell.

Yu said in closing, “There is no greater wish I could have than to have my book be appreciated.”

Copies of Yu’s latest book are available at the Mattapoisett Public Library and for sale online on book buying websites.

By Marilou Newell

Membership

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Dear Editor,

The word “membership” has become a conundrum for me over the past few years even though the definition of membership is pretty straightforward. Most of us experience membership from a pretty young age. How many of us were in a cub scout or brownie troop? We learned early on to accept and expect when we become a member of a club, group, or organization that there will be responsibilities connected with that privilege. We are aware of those things in advance and we either accept those commitments or we don’t join. Membership dues, fees, or investments are often part of those responsibilities.

Most of us pay for memberships to multiple organizations, and we stretch to afford it because of the benefit we get in return. Additionally, we know we will lose the membership if we don’t. It’s pretty simple. There is one organization however that, for reasons I don’t understand, membership responsibility has somehow shifted in people’s minds and become a choice. They think of themselves as members: they are on the books as members: they expect to use and enjoy the services of the organization, but they no longer feel obligated to pay for that privilege. I am referring to churches.

Okay. True confessions here, I am the Senior Warden at a local church, so I admit I think about this stuff more than most folks, but that doesn’t negate the truth of my observation. Most churches have a large percentage of families on the church roster who do not support the church with an annual pledge, but they expect to reap the benefit of church services when they need the church in emergencies, or for baptisms, confirmations, weddings, and funerals. In their minds, they consider themselves church members, but they treat the church like a Cumberland Farms store. When they need something, they go and get it and walk out. In other words, they only pay fees or honorariums for church services used at the time and do not make an annual pledge. Let’s look at this another way. Golf clubs require annual dues and they charge green fees to members whenever they play the course. What is the difference in a church? Churches, like golf clubs, have salaries to pay, heat and air conditioning bills, building and property maintenance, worship and programs costs. Churches use pledges to pay those expenses just as clubs use membership fees. So why do folks see it differently?

Perhaps the word “pledge” is where the breakdown begins. To officially be registered as a member of a church, one must make an annual pledge; but the beauty of pledging is that there is no set amount required. A member can make an annual pledge $10 a year or $25,000. It’s up to the individual or family to decide what the right amount should be. In other words, it’s affordable for everyone. So why do so many bypass this obligation altogether? Is it because they don’t go to church regularly and therefore feel they are exempt? Maybe people think if they pledge, they are obligated to attend church regularly and be active in the church. Of course, this is the church’s hope, but it is not a requirement any more than having to play a certain amount of golf as a golf club member. Your participation is up to you. What a pledge ensures is that the church is there for you when you need it and you’ve earned to right to walk in for any reason at any time.

May I suggest that if there is a local church that you see as your “go to” place for whatever services you might need now or anticipate going forward, you should make an annual pledge. Take a leap of faith, become a church member, and let God do the rest. The benefits are immeasurable.

Respectfully submitted,

Mallory Waterman

Senior Warden, St. Gabriel’s Church, Marion

The views expressed in the “Letters to the Editor” column are not necessarily those of The Wanderer, its staff or advertisers. The Wandererwill 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 Wandererreserves the right to edit, condense and otherwise alter submissions for purposes of clarity and/or spacing considerations. The Wanderermay choose to not run letters that thank businesses, and The Wandererhas the right to edit letters to omit business names. The Wandereralso reserves the right to deny publication of any submitted correspondence.

Marion Halloween Parade

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The volunteer witches of the Marion Art Center have been brewing up plans for the annual Halloween Parade around the town on Wednesday, October 31. Costumed characters of all ages are invited to join in for this fun family event. Participants should meet at the Marion Music Hall (corner of Front and Cottage Streets) at 4:00 pm. Under the direction of Hannah Moore, the Sippican Elementary School drummers will lead the parade of witches and princesses, goblins and ghouls, wild animals, and spooky spirits. The parade route will head south on Front Street, up Main Street, north onto Spring Street and back down Cottage to the Music Hall. Once back at the Music Hall, the good, kind witches of the Marion Art Center will hand out surprise goody bags. Come one, come all.

Rochester Council on Aging

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For the complete newsletter, please visit us at 67 Dexter Lane, Rochester, MA to pick up a newsletter or visit us on our website: rochestermaseniorcenter.com/ to download the newsletter onto your computer.

Also don’t forget to follow us on our Facebook page for weekly updates: www.facebook.com/rochestercoa/.

There are a lot of upcoming trips in November. So please give us a call or come here in person to sign up in advance. A $5.00 donation is asked to ensure your spot on the van.

Saturday, November 3, there is a day trip to Boston Christmas Festival. 350 exhibitors, farmer’s marketplace, gingerbread house displays, etc. The bus will leave the senior center at 8:00 am and will return around 5:30 pm. Lunch will be at the fair. Cost is $12 with 15 people or cost is $15.76.

Friday, November 9, there is a shopping day trip to the Cape Cod Mall, Hyannis, and Christmas Tree Shop. Lunch will be nearby or at the mall. The bus will leave the senior center at 8:30 am and will return around 5:00 pm.

This week’s Friday movie (November 2) is “A Happening of Monumental Proportions”. It is a 2018 Rated R, comedy starring Bradley Whitford & Jennifer Garner. So please come by the Senior Center at 1:30 pm to enjoy the movie.

The Rochester Firemen’s Assoc., in conjunction with the Rochester Council on Aging, will host the annual Thanksgiving Dinner for Rochester Seniors only, on Friday, November 16, at 12:00 noon. You must come in to get your ticket and sign up, as there are only 100 tickets available. The full meal is prepared and served by the culinary arts students from Old Colony Vocational. If you have a ticket and find you can’t attend, please return the ticket so someone else can enjoy the event. Call for a ride. Thanks.

Rochester Veterans Brunch Saturday, November 10from 9:30 am – 12:00 pm – A complimentary catered brunch will be offered to Rochester veterans & their spouses, as well as a speaker & patriotic entertainment at the Senior Center. Invitations have been mailed to all Rochester veterans of all ages. If you are a veteran and didn’t get an invite, please let us know as you are not on our list and need to be. RSVP please. 508-763-8723

Dental Clinic Monday, November 19 – Call Holly Petruzzo, visiting dental hygienist, directly at 774-766-7238, to schedule your appt. This reasonable, mobile dental program is available at senior centers. Transportation is available. Call us.

Another Solar Developer Presents Proposal

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The next open field in Rochester slated for a solar farm is at 0 Old Middleboro Road, and developer Solar MA Project Management, LLC approached the Rochester Planning Board on October 23 to informally discuss the plan.

Pedro Rodriguez, project manager for Seaboard Solar, and Austin Turner, engineer for Bohler Engineering, have been working on a plan for a solar array field at the 140-acre parcel for over a year now, and sought further feedback on the latest plan before the forthcoming application.

Turner said he attended a technical meeting with Town Planner Steve Starrett and a small committee consisting of an engineer and board members last month, and the plan he discussed Tuesday night was an evolved plan based on feedback the committee generated. Turner has also been working closely with Conservation Agent Laurell Farinon on behalf of the Conservation Commission to delineate the wetlands line and establishing the required buffers so the array layout could be proposed.

Turner referred to an ancient way at the site and how he plans to reroute the road at one point around the perimeter of the arrays to maintain access to Old Middleboro Road from Walnut Plain Road.

The layout and arrangement of the arrays presented that night “has science behind it,” said Turner, after working with the Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program and its feedback. The arrays will occupy 25-30 acres of the available 140, and, based on Natural Heritage’s input, the arrays were shifted to accommodate a proposed conservation restriction or land donation to the Town of Rochester.

Turner and Rodriguez thought they had a good, conforming configuration worked out until Planning Board Chairman Arnie Johnson asked about the setbacks from the arrays to the property lines and abutting roadways. Turner said the arrays would be 40 feet from the property line, but, as Johnson promptly pointed out, the solar bylaw amended by Town Meeting in May made the setback 100 feet

“And you need to be 300 feet off Old Middleboro Road, so I think that’s gonna change the layout a little bit,” said Johnson.

The plan that night had the arrays at 100 feet from the road. The access road in the plan was also too narrow at 12 feet, with the new solar bylaw requiring a minimum of 16 feet. Furthermore, Johnson said, according to town counsel, the ancient way cannot be rerouted unless the solar developer’s counsel can show proof that there is no deeded access to the ancient way.

Rodriguez explained that his understanding was that all that was needed was maintaining an access way from Walnut Plain Road to Old Middleboro Road.

“You better have your attorney call ours because we can’t take that plan as it is, based on our opinion,” said Johnson. And with the panels currently placed on two separate lots, an Approval Not Required application would be needed.

As for Natural Heritage, Johnson, said, “We don’t do anything until Natural Heritage rules.”

“We actually have all that together already,” Rodriguez replied.

Still, they might need an amended plan based on the setbacks, said Johnson.

Planning Board member Chris Silveira wondered, if the ancient way was used as frontage for a house constructed nearby, then don’t the panels have to be 300 feet from that public access way?

According to Rodriguez, his attorney said the way was not a public road and not a private road, either, but simply “an ancient way and easement.”

“I think your attorney’s going to have to submit some narrative on that for our counsel to review that,” said Johnson. “I would suggest, before you submit a filing, we’re going to have to have this ancient way thing resolved because it would radically change the layout.”

Starrett pointed out, “You guys have 140 acres. … You have a lot of flexibility.”

However, Turner said, Natural Heritage has specific areas it wants to preserve.

“That 140 acres becomes very small very, very quick,” Turner said.

Rodriguez asked for a printed copy of the bylaw, since it had not yet been physically presented to him.

This would be the first solar project to come before the board since the bylaw was amended in May.

“There may be others,” said Johnson. “There are a few others out there floating around.”

The project may come before the board another time before a formal application submission is made.

In other matters, Johnson made it clear to REpurpose Properties, Inc. representatives that he opposed the latest proposed solution to resolve an ongoing drainage-related property dispute, and called for a joint meeting with the Conservation Commission.

The age-restricted housing development plan proposed for 565 Rounseville Road has been held up by a dispute over an unresolved conservation order of conditions pertaining to the Plumb Corner Mall lot owned by Sophia Giannaros Daras, owner of Plumb Corner Mall.

Johnson vehemently opposed a plan to rectify the problem with an above ground open basin as opposed to an underground system, and disapproved of moving an existing playground in order to sort out that lingering issue.

“I don’t support the idea of … open drainage,” said Johnson. “You need to find another way. … [And] I don’t support moving the playground. I haven’t: I won’t; there’s no need to move that playground. … There’s plenty of property.”

Johnson continued, “If this is the best you’ve got, then I’m out, and Gary [Florindo] doesn’t support the idea of an open basin either, but he’s not here and he asked me to express that.”

Johnson preferred to put the basin underground, and use the existing wetlands for the overflow, which is exactly what the Conservation Commission did not approve.

“My clients want to get [this property sale] done so badly they’ve already signed the settlement agreement even though it’s only in draft form,” said seller Gibbs Bray’s attorney, Peter Paul.

Developer Mike LaCava just wanted to know, “Where do we go form here? What do we do? What do you want us to do so we can just do it?” He said the Conservation Commission has told him numerous times they wouldn’t approve the wetlands overflow option. “We’re kind of going in circles here,” he said.

“At some point, common sense has got to go into this,” said Johnson. After all, for 30 years the flow into the wetlands has gone untreated. Furthermore, Johnson asked, “What happens when you turn the water off, aren’t you changing the ecosystem that you’re trying to protect?”

After further discussion, the board decided to work with the developer on the subdivision plan the best it could in the meantime, and meet with the Conservation Commission to discuss the matter.

The next meeting of the Rochester Planning Board is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, November 7, at 7:00 pm. The board hopes to have its meeting coincide with the Conservation Commission’s scheduled for that evening. The location of the meeting will be determined at a later date.

Rochester Planning Board

By Jean Perry

Tri-County Symphonic Band

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The Tri-County Symphonic Band, under the direction of Philip Sanborn, will begin its 57th season with a program entitled “How Suite It Is” on Sunday, October 28at 3:00 pm in the Fireman Performing Arts Center at Hoyt Hall on the campus of Tabor Academy, 235 Front Street, Marion, Massachusetts. Trumpet virtuoso Joseph Foley will be the soloist in a program that is a collection of multi-movement suites for symphonic band.

Tickets for the concert are $15 for adults, $5 for students with children 12 and under admitted for free. Tickets can be purchased at the Symphony Music Shop in Dartmouth and the Marion General Store in Marion. The can also be purchased online at www.brownpapertickets.com. Any remaining tickets will be sold at the door. For more information, visit: tricountysymphonicband.org/.

Tabor to Break Ground on New Dormitory

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At their fall meeting on October 13, Tabor Academy’s Board of Trustees voted unanimously to forge ahead on the construction of Cornelia Hall, a new dormitory set to break ground by the end of the month.

With the planning and permitting process completed last spring with the Town of Marion’s Planning Board, Cornelia Hall came off the drawing boards and into reality when the trustees voted to commence construction in hopes of having the building envelope closed up before winter. The new facility forwards Tabor’s goals of providing excellent educational and residential life facilities throughout campus.

Cornelia Hall, to be located along Spring Street adjacent to Matsumura House, constructed in 2015, will improve the residential experience of students and generate efficiencies across campus.

Rather than build a copy of Matsumura House, the school charged Will Saltonstall ’82, principal of Saltonstall Architects, to seek insights from a faculty committee and the inhabitants of Matsumura House to improve on his popular original design. “We designed the new dorm along similar lines, but with slightly narrower hallways and a more defined common area based on the feedback from students and faculty. The two-story entry, large windows, hanging hallway, and bright accent colors mirror the open feeling of Matsumura House, features everyone has enjoyed. Quiet study nooks and a café area, popular features among students, will also be included in Cornelia Hall,” reported Saltonstall.

“The new dormitory marks some excellent momentum in our efforts to improve residential facilities at Tabor,” said Dean of Students, Tim Cleary. “Cornelia Hall provides yet another modern residential facility with generous common areas where students can interact with faculty and friends in a learning living community.”

All in all, Cornelia Hall provides Tabor with many options for improving housing for faculty and students across campus now and into the future.