DIY Programs at the Mattapoisett Library

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Learn new skills at two fun DIY programs at the Mattapoisett Library this month. First, on Saturday, February 18 at 10:30 am, crafting enthusiasts can learn the art of finger knitting with a tutorial using our database Creativebug. No prior knitting experience is necessary to join. One skein of yarn is all that is needed, and that will be provided to each person who registers. Register online at mattapoisettlibrary.org as space will be limited. This event is recommended for older teens and adults.

            The Mattapoisett Sustainability Partnership will host a workshop on Saturday, February 25 from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm to demonstrate how to grow sprouts at home and have samples of sprout varieties to taste test. Sprouts are an easy crop to grow with little effort needed. Registration is not necessary; drop by to make a sprout jar at any time during the two-hour span.

            Have questions? Email the library at mfpl@sailsinc.org or visit mattapoisettlibrary.org to see all of the library’s upcoming events.

Black Artists We Should Know

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            There could not have been a better way to celebrate Black History Month than when Jill Sanford, art history expert and lecturer, gave her presentation titled, “African American Artists We Should Know” on February 1 at the Mattapoisett Council on Aging.

            Sanford’s art history presentations are so thoroughly researched and so tenderly shared one feels as if you’ve spent some time visiting with the artists themselves. While elaborating on artistic styles and forms, biographies of the artists are verbally painted by Sanford.

            Thus, on this day, the audience strolled back in time through Sanford, joining seven black artists whose talents were oftentimes overshadowed by racism and discrimination but ultimately were hailed as extraordinary, even visionary artists.

            Scipio Moorhead artistic contributions come down to a singular engraving created in the 1700s. Everything else he may have produced is dust in the winds of time. It is an engraving of a black woman, Phyliss Wheatley, a poet who wrote about Moorhead upon seeing his works; it demonstrates that this artist was a master. And but for that meeting between two black artists, the history of black artistic accomplishment would be poorer still. Moorhead lived in Boston.

            Edward Mitchell Bannister (1828-1901) was an orphan who lived between Boston and Providence. He was primarily self-taught. His style tended towards traditional realistic depictions of woodlands, fields and expansive vistas, but he would also give his hand to softer, more impressionistic renderings.

            Bannister submitted his painting The Oaks to a contest in London and won a bronze medal. However, when the judges learned the artist was not white, the award was withdrawn. Other artists in the running were so incensed by this injustice, they banded together and withdrew their paintings from the contest. Bannister’s medal was returned. Bannister would go on to earn artistic recognition, would also teach painting and supported early civil rights activities with his wife.

            Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937) was the son of a minister and a mother who had escaped slavery through the Underground Railroad. From a young age, he wanted to pursue the arts and was accepted in 1870 to the Philadelphia Academy where he was the only black student. His paintings were said to be infused with light, radiant light, many on religious themes. Through the efforts of Joseph Hartzell, a white patron, an exhibit of Tanner’s paintings was held in Cincinnati. It failed to excite the public. Hartzell was so sure of Tanner’s artistic capabilities that he purchased all the paintings. This generous act financed Tanner’s studies in Paris.

            Sanford reflected that while Tanner was very patriotic. “He found that doing ordinary things in France felt comfortable.” Tanner’s paintings of people of color in everyday domestic settings was a first. People of color were rarely, if ever, the subject of artistic themes. One of the most famous of these is the Banjo Lesson. Tanner would soar to higher acclaim in the 1870s with his painting The Resurrection of Lazarus, which would receive an award at the Grand Salon, establishing him as an artist. And he would break social barriers, marrying Swedish-American opera singer Jessie Macauley. They remained in France.

            Horace Pippin (1888-1946) was a self-taught, wounded World War I veteran. He lost the use of his right arm during combat. To try and regain some use of his arm, he created collage-like paintings. His most productive years through the 1930s found him working in a folk-art style that was enjoying a renaissance. His was a linear style with a powerful sense of design and expressive use of color.

            Pippin’s work would be noticed by N.C. Wyeth, who along with Christian Brinton would arrange a solo exhibit at the West Chester Community Center in 1937, launching Pippin into national attention. Sanford said, “He brought a slice of black life into the white community.” And he did use his art to make declarative statements about discrimination in the country. His painting of the hanging of John Brown is one such example, along with another titled, Lincoln the Liberator.

            Female sculptor Augusta Savage (1892-1962) knew cruel times at the hands of her father as a child. She desired artistic expression so much so that she used the red clay of her Florida home to create small animals and other figures. But her father was having none of that. “He nearly beat the art out of me,” she is quoted as saying. Yet she persisted.

            Savage left home as a 15-year-old wife and soon thereafter, a mother. Savage went to school where she was encouraged by the principal to continue sculpting, later teaching and winning a local contest. Good fortune would come her way when she received a scholarship to Coopers Union. However, the all-white school did not accept her entry graciously. Still she persisted, eventually heading to France to study at the Fontainebleau. While there, she would meet E.B. Dubois, who commissioned her to do a bust of his head. Over time, she would return to the U.S. where she set up shop in Harlem at the height of its renaissance, teaching other black artists and earning broad respect for her artistic achievement.

            Savage’s works were never cast in bronze, a very costly process. Instead, it was plaster that she painted to resemble metal that would be her medium. Thus, when she was commissioned to create an entranceway statue to the Negro American Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair in 1939, it was done in plaster. Nothing remains today of the more than 10-foot-high sculpture titled Lift Every Voice and Sing, except for the small replicas sold in the shops at the fair. Photographs of the statue reveal it was a grand representation of the repressed African American’s ability to remain strong by holding each other up and having faith that a better day was coming.

            Aaron Douglas (1899-1979) was inspired by his parents to pursue the arts. When he read that blacks were incapable of creating art, he was infuriated. Douglas would go on to become a prominent artist-illustrator during the Harlem Renaissance and was dubbed the “Father of African-American art.” His images are of the jazz age and the people who populated Harlem at that time.

            Douglas’ stepping stones to success include earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in fine art from the University of Nebraska in 1922. He would teach art at Lincoln High School in Kansas City, Missouri. Douglas’ painting style was modern cubism with an international, avant-garde approach. Figures were two-dimensional but full of movement. Abstractions were used to enhance the emotional narrative of his paintings. His painting of Harriet Tubman bringing people out of slavery through the Underground Railroad is a prime example of the artistic heights Douglas achieved.

            And last but by no means least, Sanford gave us Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000), who became a prominent artist and student of Augusta Savage. He received a commission to paint 10 panels depicting the great migration of black people from the south – he would end up painting 60.

            The Smithsonian website states of Lawrence’s art, “… a social realist … (painted) the African American experience in several series devoted to Toussaint L’Overture, Frederick Douglas, Harriet Tubman, life in Harlem and the civil rights movement of the 1960s.” His crowning achievement could be the creation of the 60-panel series on the great black migration from the south in 1941 when he was just 20 years old. In 2017, they were valued at $6,000,000.

            The panels show us masses of people on the move carrying all their possessions, carrying their babies, carrying their own, tired, travel-weary souls towards the promise of work, food, shelter and freedom. There are the troubling scenes depicting crowds on railroad platforms, crowded trains, tenant farmers receiving harsh treatment and lynching. Yet, in spite of the threats, the loaded trains kept coming.

            Lawrence’s style has been called expressive cubism, chunky, puzzled together blocks of color creating images of lives lived during great transitional, social timeframes in a country still grappling with its history of oppression and eternal human quest for inclusion laced with hope.

            Sanford encouraged her audience to research these artists and other black artists whose talent is a gift to the world at large.

Mattapoisett Council on Aging – Art for Your Mind

By Marilou Newell

Winter Work Won’t Disturb Turtles

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The Rochester Conservation Commission began its February 7 meeting by approving a Standard Order of Conditions for the plan at 119 Dexter Lane to thin out the undergrowth and overgrowth in the non-wetlands area of the parcel.

Conservation Agent Merilee Kelly reported to the board that Natural Heritage has asked property owner Jon Roth to get the work done during the winter to avoid disturbing turtle habitat there.

Roth said some clearing has already been done, and he wants the Conservation Commission’s endorsement to complete the work by March 31 because of Natural Heritage’s order. Commission Chairman Christopher Gerrior said a Standard Order of Conditions will work for this project, and the board unanimously approved a motion to grant it.

Next, builder Ryan Correia was granted certificates of compliance for two projects. At 1008 Walnut Plain Road, a single-family home has been reconstructed on an existing foundation, and an existing, failed septic system has been decommissioned. At 114 Mendell Road, a single-family home has been constructed, along with associated road grading within 100 feet of a bordering vegetated wetland.

At the Walnut Plain Road site, Kelly said she spotted a big puddle in the center driveway. Correia said the site’s septic system is not located there but in the side yard. Gerrior said he has not seen the original Order of Conditions but was comfortable enough to entertain a motion for approval of the certificates.

The commission then approved a Certificate of Compliance for 113 Hartley Road and its construction of a road and associated grading within 100 feet of a buffer zone. It is the site of the Gilmore Cranberry Company.

Next, a proposal to upgrade an existing pump house within the 100-foot wetland setback at 90 Stevens Road received a Negative Determination of Applicability, meaning the commission has decided the plan will not impact wetlands. Dan Flores of SFC Engineering explained the plan is to demolish the pump house that is below ground and replace it with a 10-foot-tall, “garden shed” above-ground pump house on the same foundation.

Gerrior asked the board to decide whether it should grant the project a Positive Determination, meaning the panel will have to follow the construction process, or the Negative Determination that judges there would be no wetlands effects. Board members unanimously agreed to the Negative vote.

The next topic was whether the commission should advise the Select Board to purchase 115.12 acres of land off High Street that is being taken out of Chapter 61A agricultural protection. The board agreed not to recommend the acquisition because 10,000 square feet of the parcel will soon be leased as the site of a wireless telecommunications tower.

The commission ended its meeting with a message. Board member William Clapp noted he has seen a lot of roadside trash in Rochester, and he was recently told by the Women’s Club that its annual Earth Day trash pick-up day attracts no more than 40 volunteers each year. “And that is not enough manpower for the job,” Clapp said. “I want to see more participation. Create incentives for participation.”

Gerrior said more people should come out. He told The Wanderer that the commission will now start that crusade of urging more volunteers to join the cleanup next time.

The next meeting of the Rochester Conservation Commission will be held on Tuesday, February 21, at 7:00 pm in the Old Colony Regional Vocational-Technical High School Library.

Rochester Conservation Commission

By Michael J. DeCicco

Mattapoisett Annual Town Election Information

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Nomination papers are available for Mattapoisett’s Annual Town Election, which will be held on Tuesday, May 16. The offices that are up this year include Town Clerk, Select Board, Assessor, Mattapoisett School Committee, Old Rochester Regional School Committee, Moderator, Board of Water/Sewer Commissioners, Library Trustees, Board of Health, Community Preservation Committee, Planning Board and Housing Authority. Those considering a run for office have until March 24 to obtain nomination papers. Please check the town website or call the Town Clerk’s Office at 508-758-4100 X 2 for any questions regarding the upcoming election.

Cutler to Band-Aid ZBA

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            The Town of Rochester has a temporary solution to its lack of an administrative assistant for the Zoning Board of Appeals. He’s veteran Zoning Board member Richard Cutler, whom the Select Board approved hiring as a temporary employee during Monday night’s Select Board meeting.

            Without the help of former Patrice Braz, who resigned from the Building Department on December 19, 2022, members of the Zoning panel have been scrambling to complete the heavy paperwork load that board business requires.

            The Select Board agreed to sign Cutler to a contract that fills the role for the next two months at a maximum of two days per week. Town Administrator Glenn Cannon said this will be a good temporary solution while the town screens candidates for the permanent position. The problem, he said, is that there is no private-sector equivalent to the job of Zoning Board clerical assistant. Anyone taking on the job will not have encountered this particular type of work before, he said. That is why Cutler’s experience makes him a perfect fit for the job.

            The Select Board also found a replacement for outgoing Town Counsel Blair Bailey, who this week is retiring from the job after over 20 years serving Rochester. The board signed the contract that will make Mead, Talerman and Costa, LLC, a law firm with offices in Millis, Newburyport and New Bedford, the town’s new legal counsel effective Tuesday, February 7.

            Before the approval vote, Bailey emphasized his confidence that this firm was the right choice for Rochester.

            “I didn’t think twice about having them come to this town. This firm will give the town what it needs,” he said.

            The February 6 Select Board meeting started with the town’s acquisition of the 65.26-acre Mahoney property for conservation purposes.

            Conservation Agent Merilee Kelly explained that a Buzzards Bay Watershed Municipal Program grant totaling $93,100 is allowing the town to purchase its portion of the 241-acre Mahoney property that includes parcels in Acushnet and Mattapoisett and abuts Marion, Fairhaven and Mattapoisett Water Department properties.

            Next, Helen Zincavage of the Southeastern Regional Planning & Economic Development District (SRPEDD) updated the board and residents on the regional, long-range “Assawompset Pond Complex and Nemasket River Watershed Management and Climate Action Plan.” The plan, she said, responds to the devastating floods that hit the area in 2010. A Municipal Vulnerability Program was created to prevent the same disaster from happening again. Rochester went through the MVP grant planning process in 2018-2019 and with Lakeville met to create their own addendum to these priorities.

            Updating the Assawompset Pond Management Plan became this plan’s top priority. A management team and steering committee were created. The conclusion was a list of six floodwater-management priorities ranging from removing the first 500 feet of sediment from the Nemasket River to developing a long-term management plan for the Assawompset Pond Complex.

            Zincavage said the next step is a 12-point action plan to address priority APC project goals, each at a different stage of research and development and in separate phases. She asked how Rochester would like to build into this work.

            Former APC Management Committee member Fred Underhill responded with multiple criticisms. He said no one came to the Town of Rochester for its opinion on the action items that have been developed. He complained that Rochester does not have a vote on APC Management Committee decision, only if the vote “directly affects” the town. Yet the town will be responsible for developing, funding and managing these action items all on its own. Underhill added that New Bedford and Taunton, the two cities in the APC, wield too much power over the smaller member towns, Rochester, Lakeville and Middleborough.

            Another resident asked if the town’s ponds have been tested to see if the nitro pollution the APC plan is worried about comes from the town. Town Planner Nancy Durfee reinforced this point by asserting that the APC analysis does not have enough data from Rochester’s ponds. “Without the data, you can’t really move forward,” Durfee said.

            Zincavage responded that these are plans, not mandates. They are just future, possible strategies. “It does not make the town do anything,” she said.

            The Rochester Select Board’s next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, February 15, at 6:00 pm at the Senior Center, 67 Dexter Lane, for a Community Electric Public Outreach hearing.

Rochester Select Board

By Michael J. DeCicco

Beyond Books – Many Opportunities to Learn & Participate

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The Sippican Woman’s Club will hold its monthly meeting on Friday, February 10 starting at Noon. 

            Our meeting will be held at our clubhouse “Handy’s Tavern”, 152 Front Street, Marion.  Following a lite lunch, we will depart promptly at 1:00 pm via carpool to the Elizabeth Tabor Library on Spring Street for a tour led by Elizabeth Sherry, the Executive Director of the Library.

            Elizabeth Sherry will give an overview of the many learning opportunities available to library patrons via programs, lectures, workshops sponsored by the library as well as noting electronic equipment and available device operating assistance, etc.

            The Sippican Woman’s Club is open to any woman whose interest is in Marion.  Our meetings are normally held on the second Friday of the month September through March followed by an Annual Meeting held on the last Friday in April.

            Unless we hold an off-site meeting, we normally meet at 12:30 pm at our clubhouse “Handy’s Tavern”, 152 Front Street, Marion.

            Please visit our updated website: www.sippicanwomansclub.org

MCC Announces Memorials Scholarships

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Mattapoisett Congregational Church is pleased to once again offer scholarships to students graduating from high school in June who reside in the town of Mattapoisett, Marion or Rochester. Two $2,500 scholarships will be awarded on the basis of scholastic achievement, community service and financial need. Applications and supplementary information are now available at the local public and private schools. The deadline for electronic submission of documents is Friday, March 31.

            Students will be notified of their selection by April 28 via email. Scholarship recipients will be presented in Church on Scholarship Sunday, May 21 during the 10 o’clock service of worship.

            If you are a graduating senior and have any questions about the scholarship application process, you are invited to contact the Mattapoisett Congregational Church office via email at mattcongchurch@gmail.com.

FinCom Gets First Look at Budget

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            The Rochester Finance Committee started its review of the proposed town budget for FY24 Monday and revealed a lot about some of the changes behind the accounting numbers.

            Committee Chairman Kris Stoltenberg began the meeting by asking Town Administrator Glenn Cannon for an overview of what to expect for the FY24 budget that will be proposed at the spring Annual Town Meeting. Cannon responded that Rochester overall is in pretty good shape financially without significant changes.

            But as the board reviewed the town’s preliminary budget figures one line item at a time, surprises did arise. Finance Director Suzanne Szyndlar said the Highway Department needs a new full-time mechanic. The Fire Department is looking for a second, full-time firefighter. The Council on Aging wants a full-time custodian and to cut back on its nighttime-services contract.

            For those reasons, the Finance Committee did not vote on the preliminary numbers for these accounts. They focused instead on approving the “fixed costs” accounts.

            Along the way, Szyndlar revealed she will recommend that the new Personnel Board’s proposal to amend the town’s Personnel Bylaw be delayed until the Fall Town Meeting and be shelved from the Annual (spring) Town Meeting.

            Finance Committee member David Arancio said Personnel panel members want FinCom to meet with them over their plan to make paygrade increases across all town jobs more equitable.

            Szyndlar explained the town’s finances are not ready for those kinds of increases at this stage of the fiscal year. At the spring Town Meeting, the town will be able to offer normal “step” increases, she said, but not what a new bylaw would require. That’s why Szyndlar will request the new personnel bylaw plan be tabled in the spring.

            Next, Stoltenberg was surprised to see little money in the account for town counsel, and Cannon announced to him that Blair Bailey has resigned from that position effective February 24.

            “That’s the first I’ve heard this,” Stoltenberg said.

            “We are in negotiations to hire another firm,” Cannon explained.

            Szyndlar also revealed another budget change, yet to be fully calculated. The position of Zoning Board of Appeals administrative assistant is being upgraded from part-time to full-time, and that person will become the responsibility of the town administrator, not the Building Department.

            Arancio, who also serves as ZBA chairman, said this was a good idea because the prior Building Department administrator said most of her work time was spent on ZBA business. The previous holder of that position, Patrice Braz, resigned in December of 2022 to take a job in the private sector.

            In other action, the committee reorganized. Stoltenberg was reaffirmed as chair. Anthony Ruocco became vice chair and Arancio was made secretary.

            The FinCom concluded it could wait a few weeks to reconvene in order to leave time for more budget numbers to come in. Its next meeting is scheduled for Monday, February 27, at 7:00 pm in the Town Hall conference room, 1 Constitution Way.

Rochester Finance Committee

By Michael J. DeCicco

The Friends of Plumb Library

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The Friends of Plumb Library are spreading the love this Valentine’s Day. Win a homemade cheesecake topped with chocolate covered strawberries plus one dozen roses. Tickets are 14 for $10 and are available for purchase from January 23 through February 11. The winning ticket will be drawn on Saturday, February 11 at 2 pm. Prize pick-up is Monday, after 2 pm at the library. All proceeds benefit the Friends of Plumb Library.

Academic Achievements

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College of the Holy Cross congratulates Benjamin Castle of Marion, member of the class of 2024, and Joel Michaud of Mattapoisett, member of the class of 2025, who were named to the Fall 2022 Dean’s List for outstanding academic achievement during the fall semester of the 2022-23 academic year. To qualify, students must pass four or more letter-graded courses with no failing grades during the semester and earn a GPA of 3.5 or higher.

            The following students were named to the Dean’s List for Fall 2022 at Worcester Polytechnic Institute:

            –Emma Carroll of Rochester, Massachusetts, majoring in Environmental Engineering (BS), class of 2025

            –Rachel Foye of Rochester, Massachusetts, majoring in Data Science (BS), class of 2025

            –Alex Sheehan of Marion, Massachusetts, majoring in Data Science Minor Economic Science (BS), class of 2025

            –Paige Sommers of Rochester, Massachusetts, majoring in Biomedical Engineering (BS), class of 2025

            –David Strom of Marion, Massachusetts, majoring in Mechanical Engineering (BS), class of 2026

            Adam Sylvia, a Central College student from Rochester, Class of 2023, has been named to the Dean’s List for the Fall 2022 semester. The honor is awarded to full-time students who achieve a 3.5 GPA or higher on a 4.0 scale while taking 12 or more graded credit hours for the semester.