By Stephanie Spyropoulos
Express staff

HANSON — He has been a presence in the hallways and in the lives of nearly every student in the Whitman-Hanson school for the last 18 years as Hanson Police and School Resource Officer Rick Nawazelski has implemented the DARE program in Hanson schools.

He feels he has given hundreds of students the opportunity to have a person in their lives they know they can trust and talk to.

Success stories of students, who have gone on to teach and help others in their community, are only a few of the triumphs being in the school system has afforded him, Nawazelski said. Often, a student will have spoken to him about deciding not to attend a party or hearing that story in DARE camp that allowed them to trust their gut about a situation, these have brought so many affirmations to his career, he recalled.

“Officer Rick,” as his students and colleagues fondly know him, is a true Hansonite, born and raised here as well as raising his own two children here.

Nawazelski started out as a dispatcher in 1984 and went on to become a part-time officer after attending the police academy. He became full time shortly thereafter completing his 30 years in Hanson. He took over the DARE program in 1997, which he said proudly kept him as an officer instead of looking towards gaining rank in his career.

“I had to stay an officer to remain in DARE. That is what I loved,” he said.

The DARE program will continue in Hanson as Nawazelski passes the torch to fellow officer William Frazier of Hanson. Officer Frazier is currently in training to become the full-time DARE Officer and ended the school year becoming acquainted with students as the new resource officer. Officer Kevin Harrington, as a full-time DARE and resource officer, serves Whitman schools.

Nawazelski encompassed patience and wisdom, which he uses to be a positive influence to educate the youth of tomorrow, and he believes in second chances.

Seeing his work as a DARE officer come full circle is what has kept him grounded, committed and pulled him through some of the more difficult portions of his career.

 “I was a hockey coach for a long time and I kept that as a positive, which always helped if I had a hard shift the night before… it helped me keep from being tainted in the bad I saw. It let me see and find the good in people,” he said.

Nawazelski admits the highs and lows of a career in law enforcement can do a toll on someone’s mind.  His haunting memories are those of two suicides he responded to. Car accidents and injuries to people have been the hardest calls he admits for him to respond.

“There was a suicide where a man intended to kill his family and then himself but because they were late and he was extremely depressed,” Nawazelski said. “He killed himself. The family came home and found him. This was found out after the investigation… it was 18 years ago and it still comes to mind. It has stayed with me.”

In those days the department didn’t have the counseling and support programs available today.

Still, Nawazelski would encourage anyone who asks him about pursuing a career in law enforcement to find an internship, learn about the career, and find what fits such as forensics there are many different parts of working within the police services not just as an officer. He is a first-generation officer in his family. Both of his children have careers in law enforcement his son is a guard at the Plymouth County Corrections facility and his daughter is a state corrections officer.

Nawazelski lauded Hanson Chief Michael Miksch who has been a strong supporter of DARE.

“We are lucky to have a chief who is committed to DARE and resource officers in the school.  I believe it makes a difference, “said Nawazelski.

Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz has sponsored DARE camp as a week of summer fun for 970 campers over the last 20 years. Before him, the late William O’Malley and Michael Sullivan also supported and helped fund the DARE camp — a time of bonding for local officers and kids on the South Shore through fun and education, themed days, special guest performers, a visit from the state police helicopter, a day of water fun, lunches, snacks and team bonding are all part of the nonstop week. Nawazelski has hosted the camp 14 out of 15 years at WHRHS and the middle school. Several other towns in Plymouth County hosted and from 2005-2008 Duxbury co-hosted when camp ran for two weeks.

Planning camp is a yearlong labor of love and begins almost as soon as the camp ends each year. Securing donations when times are tough has been a struggle but with local businesses offering discounts, and sponsorship of lunch, snacks, drinks, and activities there are many behind-the-scene hands to pull the camp together in success.

Cruisin’s New England Magazine, a strong local supporter of DARE education, honored Nawazelski as DARE Officer of the year in 2007.  He also received numerous citations for his career from Plymouth County organizations at the last DARE graduation he oversaw for the school year 2014. He said the emotional impact of guest speaker Amanda Earner’s life after her brother Greg died of a tragic overdose is something all in attendance won’t soon forget. He admitted that he, too, had tears following her emotional speech at DARE graduation. In all his years as an officer he has seen a lot happen but he has never allowed his heart to harden.

On the last day of school, he received messages of thanks from dozens of students, piles of handmade cards and countless teary goodbyes.

As he gets ready to retire in late August he is looking forward to the next chapter in life spending time and vacations with his wife of over 40 years — they hope to go on a cruise. He is looking forward to his daughter’s upcoming nuptials and spending time with his grandchildren.

Exchange program forges cultural connections

By Dave Palana
Express Contributor

WHITMAN — Donna Gardner of Whitman has been hosting exchange students long enough to know the Wrentham Outlets are a must-stop destination for Massachusetts visitors. She’s also been hosting long enough to get a pleasant surprise on her recent trip to the shopping Mecca.

Gardner, and her Whitman host families, took the five Italian homestay students staying in town this summer to Wrentham last Thursday only to run into an old friend all grown up.

“I said ‘I know this walk, it can only be this person,’” Gardner said. “It was my first exchange student and his wife, who he met at Whitman-Hanson. Now they live in Belgium.”

Gardner is the Bay State’s administration for Cultural Homestay International, a volunteer organization that matches students hoping to spend time abroad with local families willing to provide room and board. Whitman-Hanson has been a gracious host for exchange students for years, but when five students from Italy decided to take in New England for three weeks on their summer vacation, Whitman families were more than happy to oblige.

“We wanted to learn English better and know another culture — their habits and what [Americans] usually do,” said Chiara Cassiano, a high school student from Milan. “And to leave your life and try something new.”

Cassiano, Giulia Fontana and Marco Tardivo all came to Whitman from Milan, though they did not know each other before the plane ride over. Giorgio Meloro and Riccardo Fomina both hail from Manza, near Milan, knew each other previously and decided to take the trip together.

The group took in Provincetown and Plymouth in addition to Wrentham, but the trip to Boston was the highlight for most.

“It is very different from Italian cities,” Meloro said.

Tardivo, Meloro and Fomina also saw a stock car race in Seekonk while Cassiano ventured to Pittsburg with her host family and Fontana took in a New England tradition — the whale watch.

“It was amazing,” she said. “There were, like, 15 whales all around the ship.”

Tardivo got a sampling of American soccer with a trip to Gillette Stadium to take in a New England Revolution game ­, which didn’t quite have the same atmosphere as watching AC Milan in his eyes.

“It is different,” he said jokingly. “In Italy, it is better.”

Tardivo was the first student taken in by the Winnett family. Michelle Winnett said the positive experiences her children had meeting the Cultural Homestay students during their time at Whitman-Hanson motivated her to volunteer a bed in her house and added the experience was so positive that she will now be hosting a Swiss boy for the school year.

 “It’s been great,” Winnett said. “We enjoyed being able to show [Marco] the things that were around here, and he’s been just a wonderful guest.”

“Most people think the reward is just for the student, but that’s not true,” Gardner added, “the families have such an amazing time with the kids… I think because we’re volunteers I think there is a lot more love and effort put into the kids. The kids are not a paycheck.”

The five students headed home Sunday after cooking a goodbye meal from their families and taking one last trip to the Cape. Cassiano is hoping to return for the school year, and hoping to stay with the same family, while the others all said they either hope to return for a visit or return the favor by showing their host families a slice of Italy.

“I wish I could come back,” Fontana said. “I had such a great time.”

If Cassiano returns, she will join students from Australia, Brazil and Slovakia at Whitman-Hanson in addition to the Winnett’s Swiss guest.
“Whitman-Hanson is wonderful with taking students,” Gardner said. “Families host over and over and over because it’s an amazing experience.”

Whitman review of tobacco regs continues

By Tracy F. Seelye, Express editor
editor@whitmanhansonexpress.com

WHITMAN — For communities grappling with revisions to tobacco control regulations, questions over how pharmacies will be affected remain a concern.

Whitman’s Board of Health finds issue with the point and will ask Cheryl Sbarra, senior staff attorney for the Mass. Association of Health Boards to attend a meeting — either Aug. 19 or Sept. 2 — to help clear up those questions.  Sbarra is also the MAHB’s director of tobacco prevention and cessation and the chronic disease prevention programs.

“Everybody is on the bandwagon here, I think,” said Chairman Eric Joubert, RN. “We’re looking to regulate nicotine in all its forms. … I think everybody is concerned as to what each town’s going to do.”

He said the major concern of the Whitman Board as recently  as May was the definition of “health care institution” in which the sale of tobacco products would be banned. They also want to know if  pharmacy sales of smoking-cessation products —that incorporate a nicotine delivery system to help wean smokers of the habit — are also prohibited.

“Nicotine delivery products are included in the sales ban, which means you can’t go to a drugstore and get the patch to quit smoking, which is crazy,” Joubert said. “The big concern is legitimate nicotine replacement — not the e-cigarettes.”

Board Administrative Assistant Elaine White noted the panel has been advised that consultation with clients concerning over-the-counter remedies such as smoking cessation materials is a key component to the training of pharmacists.

“Pharmacists play a key role in smoking cessation because [customers] don’t have to go to the doctor’s — they can discuss it with a pharmacist,” Williams said the board has been advised previously. “You really only want to visit this once.”

Board member Barbara White and her colleagues agreed, and she stressed the importance of inviting Sbarra to help clarify the issue.

“It was March when she came here and they’ve done so much more since then,” White said.

While the board was most concerned with the smoking-cessation materials, they also worry about the attraction flavored e-cigarette juices have for underage youths.

“It’s just that all these new things coming out look so good to the young people,” said board member Diane MacNeil, RN.

“It’s important that all of the surrounding towns are on the same page so people aren’t hopping from town to town,” said White.

In other business, the board expressed concern about the number of dogs planned to be cared for at a proposed dog day care at 51 Bedford St., and will meet with the applicants. Key questions the board has regarding the proposal to handle from 15 to 20 dogs in a 22-by-24-foot holding room and fenced-in yard center on adequate space and waste disposal.

Representatives of Dunkin’ Donuts will, at an Aug. 5 meeting outline via conference call, a pilot program proposed for Whitman stores in which food waste is converted to gray water for disposal in the municipal wastewater system. DPW representatives will be invited to the meeting.

Starting in October, food waste will be banned from the state’s solid waste stream.

By Tracy F. Seelye,
Express editor

editor@whitmanhansonexpress.com WHITMAN — The Bostonian Shoe Lofts have done for commercial properties in town what Whitman Park has done for recreational space — earning a place on the National Register of Historic Places. The former factory building was designated an historic site under the Commonwealth Shoe Company name on May 13, it was announced earlier this month. Now the owners just have to find a place for the plaque.

“It’s been a long, involved process but they got through it all,” said June O’Leary of the Whitman Historical Commission. “I think it’s marvelous that someone like Fred and his company can come in and look at a building like that and see how it can be bought back.” “It was a good part of my life,” said Fred Kiley, now retired from The Heritage Companies, which purchased the building in 2009. “I wish I could find another Whitman job today, I’d go right back to Whitman. … It was a helluva lot of fun doing it.”

He said the width of the east building was the perfect size for conversion of the upper floors to roomy apartments on both sides along a center corridor. The west building required a corridor along the window line with one row of apartments per floor. “It was love at first sight,” he said of his decision to buy it. The goal from Day One in the Bostonian renovation project was earning a place on the National Register, according to Fred Kiley’s son Michael, who now runs the business. “It was all well worth it,” Michael Kiley said. “It’s well received. The occupancy’s been fantastic.”

The National Register is the nation’s official listing of significant historic resources. In Massachusetts, there are more than 70,000 properties listed in the National Register. The Massachusetts Historical Commission has been administering the National Register of Historic Places program in Massachusetts since 1966. Secretary of State William Galvin serves as chairman of the 17-member Commission, which meets regularly and considers historic resources eligible for the National Register four times a year. “The Massachusetts Historical Commission is dedicated to preserving the Commonwealth’s rich historic, architectural, archaeological, and cultural resources,” Galvin said in his announcement of the national nomination. “Inclusion of the Commonwealth Shoe Company in the National Register helps to preserve an excellent group of late 19th and early 20th-century industrial buildings with strong ties to Whitman’s shoemaking heritage.”

Mill rehabs once word came down that the final meeting on approval was scheduled, the Kiley family of Quincy — owners of The Heritage Companies of real estate and investment firm who bought the former Commonwealth Shoe Company building on Marble Street in 2001, knew approval was imminent. The firm has also renovated the Star Mill Lofts in Middleboro and the Granite Lofts in Quincy among its other projects. “It was a fast turn around,” said Barbara Kiley, sister of founder Fred Kiley and project manager on the Bostonian Lofts project. “We’re very proud and very happy about how it turned out. It’s a tribute to Fred’s foresight.” The phases of the application process followed along with progress on the Bostonian’s renovation, governing details of the work such as how windows can be replicated and use of original bricks. “There are a lot of different specifications that you have to adhere to,” Barbara Kiley said.

The Commonwealth Shoe Company is a large, brick and wood-frame mill complex associated with much of Whitman’s long tradition in the shoemaking industry. The complex increased by increments, starting with the original part of Building 1, which was constructed circa 1864 by an earlier shoe company and became the nucleus of Commonwealth Shoe’s property. Founded in 1884, the Commonwealth Shoe Company’s success was largely based on its popular “Bostonian” shoe, which became nationally renowned as a high-quality dress shoe for men and is still manufactured today by another company. The Bostonian name was bought after the former site, where Regal Marketplace is now located, burned down.

Located on the west side of Marble Street and constructed mainly between 1864 and 1923, Building 1 [west] features two elegant stair towers – one in the Chateau style, and the other in the Colonial Revival style. Both towers are prominent features of the Whitman landscape. Building 2 [east] is a more typical example of a Victorian-era, wood-frame shoe factory. “There’s two things these [balloon-construction] buildings could do very well, they could tip over or they could burn,” Fred Kiley said of the original structure which required stabilizing during renovation. Local support The Kileys lauded the work of the Planning Board, Building Inspector Robert Curran and Whitman Fire chiefs Timothy Travers and Timothy Grenno, who were involved in the renovation planning and work, for their contributions to the project.

The shoe company had made substantial additions to the buildings in 1891, 1893, 1919, and 1923. Boston-based architect J. Williams Beal designed the 1891 and 1893 additions, and most likely designed the 1919 addition as well. The successor firm, J. Williams Beal Sons, designed the 1923 addition. Also included within the complex is the former First Unitarian Church (1888), which was absorbed by Commonwealth Shoe in 1968 when the church closed. The fourth building on the property, a pool house constructed in 2011, does not contribute to the property’s significance due to its age. The town of Whitman took it over in 1981 for $1, and 19 years later, John Campbell of Harding Print & Digital Copy Center, who is also a local historian, bought it from the town for $1 per square-foot.

“What happened was the downsizing of the shoe industry,” Campbell said. “In the ’50s there was 600 people working in this factory. In the ’60s, the factory itself stopped manufacturing and they used it as a warehouse.” When Fred Kiley made an offer, it didn’t take long for Campbell to decide he should sell. “Fred had the knowledge of what to do with that building — and the pocketbook — which I didn’t have,” Campbell said. “I learned so much had so much fun … because I’d follow him around and he’d take a corner that was completely a mess that nobody would even touch it and he did it.”

The Commonwealth Shoe Company had remained under the ownership of founding president Charles H. Jones’s family until 1959, when the family transferred ownership and operation to the company’s management and certain employees. A substantial 2011 rehabilitation of the complex, which utilized state and federal historic preservation tax credits, created 127 residential apartments and 15 commercial/retail spaces at the property.

By Tracy F. Seelye, Express editor
editor@whitmanhansonexpress.com

HANSON — The Board of Health and Selectmen differed in separate meetings Tuesday night on whether to return a state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) grant which helps fund the town’s new pay-as-you-throw program.

The health board voted 2-1 against a motion by member Richard Edgehille to return the $18,000 — partly because doing so would block the board from applying for any DEP grants for three years. The same motion made at a July 3 meeting failed to obtain a second and was not voted.

Selectmen, however, voted 3-2 later on Tuesday, July 22 to return the money — an action, which superscedes the Board of Health vote [See story].

The key issue for opponents of the grant lie in accompanying language that requires private trash haulers to bundle rates for curbside trash and recycling pickup even for customers who plan to recycle at the transfer station.

“It’s got noting to do with pay-as-you-throw or $2 a bag …we’re going to be doing that,” Edgehille said. “It’s that people who have been trash haulers for 15 years are being penalized now for $12-$13 extra and they already pay taxes.”

Health Board Chairman Gil Amado and member Terence McSweeney both stressed that the DEP regulation is already in place as part of the new waste ban policies, which prohibit the inclusion of a long list of recyclable materials from the solid waste stream. The ban covers about 40 percent of what is now thrown away. Hanson recycles at a rate of about 9 to 19 percent of its waste stream, which limited the life of the landfill.

“Historically, Hanson residents have not recycled at a rate we need to by law,” McSweeney said. “A secondary concern of mine is not only losing the grant we received, but being ineligible to apply for subsequent grants for three years.”

One of those subsequent grants could have meant $200,000 to the town. Since 1993, Hanson has received more than $40,000 in DEP grants.

“Trash haulers already know they’re supposed to comply with this,” Amado said. “If you’re a hauler, and you’ve educated yourself about your business, you’ll understand what you have to do.”

Even after a rescinding of the grant, the regulation will have to be enforced, according to Amado.

Edgehille said he was putting forth the motion to rescind the grant because he expected the Board of Selectmen to do so before reading a letter to the Board of Health he wrote on the matter into the record.

“We were given no paperwork regarding this regulation,” Edgehille said of the bundling rule. “We were told the regulation was required to be voted.”

The regulation requires private trash haulers to charge an extra $13 for the bundled service.

“The private hauler customer already pays tax dollars to [support] the transfer station,” he said. “We shouldn’t have to pay this extra amount. We should be able to take their recyclables at the transfer station. This is nothing more than paying double … it isn’t anything that affects the health and safety of our town.”

A Hanson waste hauler in attendance said he understands the enforcement of waste ban regulations, but is concerned with the need to report customer information, which is also required.

“You’ve got to find some common ground here,” he said.

He also asked if the grant regulations could be adjusted to permit one free bag per household each week without losing the funding, but McSweeney replied that would not be possible because the cost of disposing of recyclable materials is also at issue.

In other business, the Board of Health decided to leave the length of the contract governing the town’s membership in the South Shore Recycling Cooperative (SSRC) to Town Meeting after Chairman Claire Galkowski said a one-year renewal was not permitted, according to the SSRC counsel.

“Our municipal agreement has to be identical for every member town,” she said of the SSRC board’s recent decision on the issue.

Kingston’s town counsel has also opined that the contracts can be renewed without going to town meeting, but Hanson officials want to review that opinion.

“I don’t think there’s a debate as to whether or not we want to continue our relationship,” McSweeney said. “I think the question was did it have to be a five-year commitment or was there some mechanism to allow us to sign for a shorter term.”

Hanson has been a member of the SSRC for 10 of the organization’s 16 years. The contract lapsed last year without anyone noticing and Hanson has continued membership on a waiver meaning the current decision to renew would be for four years.

By Mike Melanson
Express Correspondent

HANSON — Selectmen on Tuesday, July 22 deemed an unfinished house at 62 Ocean Ave. an attractive nuisance and ordered it to be demolished by Nov. 1.

In other action Tuesday, the board also voted to withdraw from a state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) grant process to implement a pay-as-you-throw trash and recycling program in Hanson.

Selectmen voted 5-0 to find that the house at 62 Ocean Ave. is not safe, nor secure, and to order it demolished.

Property owner Dean Anderson could comply with the order or appeal it in court.

Building Commissioner Robert Curran produced a file folder for 62 Ocean Ave. that was a foot thick.

Curran said he has spent hundreds of hours in court on the case seeking to enforce permit injunctions, and the town has prevailed in court.

Anderson has been put in jail for noncompliance, been found in contempt of court a number of times, and has ignored court orders to not occupy the building, not store stuff there, not operate an automobile repair business there, and not store unregistered motor vehicles there, Curran said.

“Yet the property continues to be a hazard,” he said. “It’s essentially a three-and-a-half story bonfire.”

Curran said the building is open, despite a court order that it be secured.

He said the building permit for it has been revoked and is expired.

There has never been a occupancy permit, and the building is not in a business zone, he said.

Anderson also has a retaining wall that is seven feet into the roadway, which could hinder fire and rescue vehicles responding to an emergency. A fire at 62 Ocean Ave. could spread to other properties, Curran said.

Curran said he started the enforcement process more than four years ago, and there was even a jury trial.

“The owner is doing whatever he pleases with this property,” he said. “It definitely poses a threat to other properties.”

Curran recommended that the building be taken down.

Fire Lt. Gary Smith said anyone entering the building can be injured and firefighters responding to a fire there would be placed at risk.

“To our knowledge, this building does not have any drywall installed, essentially making the building an unprotected lumber yard,” Smith said. “The building has no power, but the owner has used an electrical extension cord that has been run across the street to another house for power or, it has been reported, that a generator has been used for power.”

Anderson said the hearing Tuesday was not fair.

“There isn’t much I can say right now because all of this information I’m getting right now,” he said.

Anderson asked who gave the building commissioner, police, fire or other town employees permission to enter his property.

“No one has the right to enter my property,” he said.

Selectman Bruce Young said the evidence is overwhelming and the case has gone on for too long.

“A man’s home is his castle,” Young said. “My heart goes out to you, but it’s time to move on. It’s time for everyone to move on.”

Selectman William Scott said Hanson officials tried to work with Anderson, but got little or no cooperation.

“It’s a shame that it got to that point. Maybe we could’ve headed it off. It’s too late now,” Scott said.

Selectman Chairman David Soper said it was Anderson’s inability to cooperate with the town and tendency to see things his own way despite the evidence that has resulted in a need to order the building demolished.

“You leave this board no choice,” Soper said.

Pay-as-you-throw

Selectmen voted, 3-2, to withdraw from the state DEP grant process for pay-as-you-throw.

Scott, Young and Selectman James McGahan voted to withdraw from the grant; Soper and Selectman Donald Howard voted against the measure.

McGahan said a grant requirement that private trash haulers offer bundled rates for curbside pickup for trash and recyclables, even for customers who wish to dispose of recyclables at the transfer station, is not fair to the haulers or residents.

The Board of Health enacted the policy as part of the grant application, and the motion approved by selectmen Tuesday stated a recommendation that the health board rescind it.

“What bothers me is it didn’t come before the people to vote on as an option,” McGahan said. “What choice do we have? We have no choice.”

Town Administrator Ronald San Angelo said that recycling has doubled with pay-as-you-throw, from one container to two, and the amount of trash has decreased, from one container a day to one or two containers a week, at the transfer station.

“In its first month, we’ve seen great progress,” San Angelo said.

Of the $18,000 state grant, the town has spent almost $7,000 to paint lines and place signs at the transfer station and to mail information to residents, said Town Accountant Kimberly Brown.

The liability will now be treated as an unpaid bill because Hanson will no longer be reimbursed for implementation costs by the state, and will need to go before Special Town Meeting in October for funding, Brown said.

Whitman chiefs warn of staffing level, building safety issues

By Dave Palana
Express Contributor

WHITMAN — Fire chief Tim Grenno told Selectmen his department is facing a staffing crisis, and Police Chief Scott Benton addressed concerns about the safety of the police station following a second lightning strike, as both chiefs presented their first monthly reports on their departments to Selectmen Tuesday, July 22.

Grenno was unable to attend the meeting, but said in a prepared report that staffing will be his top priority in the coming budget year. He said his department has responded to 12,018 calls in 2014 and that the station can be empty two to three times in a day due to all staff responding to emergencies.

“The string we have been walking on finally broke,” Grenno said in his report, which was read by Lt. Al Cunningham. “We are constantly finding ourselves behind the ball and trying to play catch-up.”

In his report, Benton told Selectmen that the police station was recently stuck by lightning for the second time in two years, which has him concerned for the safety of his officers.

Benton said the recent strike damaged equipment and led to concerns about whether the building has been properly grounded.

“Now the issue is the safety of the people in the building,” Benton said.

Town Administrator Frank Lynam said the town has been in “constant contact” with the station’s architect over the issues. While Lynam said there has been lightning attention arresters placed on the antennae at the station, it is not clear where the lightning is striking.

“There isn’t necessarily any evidence on the tower,” Lynam said. “It’s not clear the lighting has hit the tower or the building.”

Lynam also said the damage seems to affect the dispatch area, which is the most “electronically intense” area of the station apart from the server room. He said the copper pipes in the radio room are up to code, but not the size and depth specified in the original plans for the station.

“I tend to blame the contractor that did the electrical work,” he said.

Lynam added that the damage is covered by insurance, but that this will be the second claim of more that $100,000 at the new station.

 

Local boat builder launches into new waters

By Tracy F. Seelye, Express editor
editor@whitmanhansonexpress.com

HANSON — Call it a yacht project with a “Twist” that piqued his interest.

For Halifax resident Bob Fuller, a three-year project to convert a 45-foot commercial lobsterboat into a European “lobsteryacht” not only inspired the craft’s new name — Twist, for the twist of fate that brought the vessel a new life — it brought with it a trip to Genoa, Italy last week to help launch the restored craft from Corsica, a French island off the Italian coast.

“It’s the middle of our summer and I’d like to stay here and enjoy our summer with my family — but we’re going for four days and it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” he said.

Fuller and a diesel mechanic went to calibrate the boat’s computer-powered engines.

“It was actually a rebuilt of a 40-year-old boat from Rhode Island,” he said. “It was a working lobsterboat until three years ago.”

The former owner, Donald Wilcox, and his family had fished for about as long as they had the boat, formerly named the “Hazel W. III,” had been in the business.

“It was hard for them to sell their dad’s boat, but after 40 years, the two brothers who were still fishing it were getting older and didn’t have the time to properly keep up with the maintenance,” he said. Permit regulation changes also prompted the Wilcox family to sell.

Now the Twist is owned and registered in Baselia, Switzerland, by Swiss physician, Dr. Eric Megevand, to sail back and forth from Italy to Croatia where his wife’s family has a vacation home.

“We kept the hull,” Fuller said of the wooden lobsterboat. “Beyond that, everything else is new.”

The craft was gutted and fit with accommodations to sleep six people, modern electronics and a new engine and galley as well as a 40-gallon water desalination unit to provide drinking water on board.

Next week starts a new project as Fuller works to do the custom teak work on a fiberglass-hulled sailboat. But it’s all hunky dory for this third-generation master craftsman specializing in boat restoration, yacht-quality joinerwork and custom shipswheels.

He also builds dories, both real as with the 19-foot dory he is currently building for a repeat customer who fishes for striped bass, and child-size Plymouth Rock’r rocking cradle boats for kids.

Boats are a family tradition.

“I apprenticed with my father and grandfather in their shop [Industrial Patterns in Halifax],” Fuller said as his yellow Lab Jake poked around the Hanson workshop of South Shore Boatworks for scrap lumber on which to chew. “From the time I was four years old, I would draw out boats on wood and my father or grandfather would cut them out and we’d float them in a pond, or puddles — float them in the bathtub — just playing with boats. That’s really where it started.

From roughed out tub toys he’s worked his way to a respected reputation in boat restoration and renovation circles, the M/V Twist perhaps representing his magnum opus to this point.

“I choose [projects] based on my interest,” Fuller said. “If something seems as though it has some character I’ll take the project, sometimes it’s what the owner envisions and wants me to do.”

All things being equal, however, Fuller gravitates to lobster-style powerboats and small dories. About half the boats on which he works are wood construction.

He had started helping his father on boat project by age 12 and constructed his own first boat — 10-foot skiff — at 15.

“I apprenticed with my family, which worked for me,” he said. “My father had apprenticed in the shipyards of the Panama Canal Zone.”

In fact, his parents met in Panama where both had gone to seek work during the Depression. One of Fuller’s grandfathers ran the foundry in the Panamanian shipyards, while the other ran the apprentice program.

“I was born into this,” he said. “Where else could I have gotten the education that I did?”

His dad still follows the doings in the Panama Canal via webcam.

The family line in the boat-building business will likely end with him, Fuller notes, as his teen-aged daughter prefers working with animals. She is a student at Norfolk Aggie — a point on which he is philosophical. He realizes every generation goes their own way — but he is passing the skill to a new generation, just the same.

Fuller has a single employee, Michael Bryan who went to boat-building school in Eastport, Maine. He had interned with Fuller between years in the two-year program.

“I knew I had this big project that was going to be happening with this big boat [the Twist] and when he graduated he came back down and it’s been three years now working with me,” Fuller said.

The two work together in some weather-controlled conditions.

The uninsulated corrugated metal building at the Northeast Lumber Supply yard is heated in winter by a single diesel-fired heater, but the tradeoff is the benefit of ample space afforded by the building in which they work.

They moved the workshop up from West Wareham last August when that building was sold. His home workshop, where he crafts ships wheels and about five Plymouth Rock’rs a year is equally impressive.

“It’s almost like two separate businesses, yet interwoven,” he said of the wheels. “It’s a specialty and I’m the only one in the country doing it.”

He has taken his wheel projects on the road to craft festivals to demonstrate the art as well, focusing on the finish work as he discusses the skill and answers questions.

Fuller prefers metal hubs on his wheels for stability and works with a Woburn engraver to etch boat names and, in some cases, home ports.

The rings on the wheel are inlaid with holly, ebony and basswood.

“I feel very fortunate in what I do,” he said. “As much work as I do in the marine trades, I get more support out of the Massachusetts  Cultural Council.”

His wheels have been included in a book on Mass. folk artists produced by the Cultural Council.

By Stephanie (Crisp) Diaz
Special to the Express

MIAMI — “Miss Crisp, you gotta listen to this song,” a former student of mine named Dave told me recently. Most songs that my students share with me speak to their experiences in some way, and the opening lyrics of this one grabbed my attention.

“Am I wrong for thinking out the box from where I stay? Am I wrong for saying that I choose another way? I ain’t trying to do what everybody else is doing,” the duo Nico and Vinz croon. Although this wasn’t the typical hip-hop musical recommendation that I receive from my students, I knew immediately why the song had resonated with Dave. As a Teach for America corps member at a Title I high school in Miami, the students I worked with every day faced a constant struggle to, as the song suggests, think beyond the norms of their neighborhoods and aim for a higher education. The song struck a chord with both Dave and I because that push to think differently and work toward college was a constant refrain in our classroom for the two years that I worked with him and his classmates, most of whom would be the first in their families to attend college and some who would be the first to graduate from high school.

Two summers ago, the Express featured a story on my students selling their original poetry books to raise money for a trip to visit colleges in Boston. I dreamed up the trip as a way of exposing my students to both a college experience and the world beyond their city, something to which most of them had very limited exposure. I felt that by giving them the experience of actually living in a dorm, eating in the dining halls, and visiting a city that is simply full of college students, it would become real for them, allowing them to actually see this path as an option for them.

No sooner had I hatched this plan and gotten the school on board, however, than I realized what a huge undertaking it would be to actually finance the experience. As a Whitman-Hanson alum and a former Express intern, reaching out to my hometown paper to get the word out seemed like a great first step, but I wasn’t really sure what to expect. After all, the citizens of Hanson and Whitman had their own schools and students to support; asking for donations to help a school in Miami seemed a lot to ask.

After the article was published, however, I was truly overwhelmed by the response from the community and the way that my former teachers, librarians, neighbors, and friends contacted me to help the cause. Ultimately, community donations helped us meet our goal of raising over $6,000 towards bringing 22 teenagers to stay at the dorms at Boston University for five days last June. In a thank you to our donors, Dave wrote, “Because of you my mind is now officially set on going to college,” while Latosha explained that, “I learned that it was okay to branch out and try new things and new places.” James told me recently that he plans to move to Boston when he finishes school because he fell in love with the city. 

And yet the piece of the experience that almost all of the students said was their favorite part of the trip was the day we spent at my parents’ house in Hanson, meeting friends, family, and community members, including State Rep. Josh Cutler, who later in the week met us again for a tour of the State House. This community played an enormous role in influencing the futures of 22 young men and women, and this past year, another group from our Miami high school made the journey to Boston, extending the opportunity to a new group of students.

On May 30, almost exactly a year after our plane took off, I watched every single student who had accompanied us on the trip cross the stage and receive their diploma. Our group included students who had experienced being homeless, being shot, and facing the criminal justice system, as well as students who were essay contest winners, employees of the month, volunteers, athletic champions, members of National Honor Society, and the valedictorian. Considering all that they had overcome and all that they had accomplished, it was truly incredible for me to realize how many of the people who have been so influential in my success also played a role in helping my “kids” to realize their potential as well.

In September, some will begin their new lives in such big-name colleges as the University of Miami and University of Florida, others will attend smaller schools, and one will join the military. They will major in engineering, child psychology, nursing, physical therapy, marketing, film, and business, among others. They have, in the end, been able to “think outside the box” and avoid its limitations.

Like the graduates of Whitman-Hanson, my students are both nervous and excited for the next steps in their lives. I, too, am incredibly excited to see all that they will do and become, and will continue to be grateful to all of those from Hanson and Whitman who became an additional community ally in our fight for a positive future.

 

By Dave Palana
Express Contributor

Patrons of the Whitman Town Pool will notice some changes when they go to change their clothes courtesy of Eagle Scout candidate Matt O’Brien.

Tuesday night, O’Brien and his helpers put the finishing touches on a much-needed facelift to the pool house in Town Park O’Brien completed for his Eagle Scout project. The scout from Whitman’s Troop 59 power washed and painted the inside and outside of the pool house, added shelves to the locker rooms and helped organize the materials over the past week and a half.

O’Brien said he decided to pursue the project after his mother’s Girl Scout troop wasn’t able fit it in, but was under the gun to complete the project and submit the paperwork before he turned 18 this week while also having to work around the pool’s hours of operation. He and his helpers did the bulk of their work after the pool closed at 7 p.m. during the week but also made an early-morning trip on Saturday to get some work done.

“It was challenging, but I think it was worth it,” O’Brien said. “We didn’t really run into too many roadblocks we got it done faster than I expected.”

The outside of the pool house was speckled with patches of different colored paint to cover up various graffiti, but the bulk of the work O’Brien did was to the interior which Michelle Winnett of the Recreation Commission said had not been repainted in her 15 years with the commission.

“We could scrub all we want, but that battleship gray was just awful,” she said. “He worked really hard and we’re very grateful. It will definitely make the bathhouse cleaner and more cheerful.”

Winnett said the Recreation Commission has long wanted to overhaul the pool house, but had not been able to set aside the funds. So when O’Brien came to them with his Eagle Scout proposal, they were more than willing to accept the help.

“It’s definitely been a wish list item of ours for years, but we just didn’t have the staff or the money,” Winnett said. “It was desperately needed.”

To raise the money for his project, O’Brien collected bottles and cans while also securing crucial donations for home improvement store Lowe’s and paint supplier Valspar. Between the two companies, O’Brien said he received more than $700 in donated paint and supplies.

“Without them we would be in trouble,” he said. “I’m very grateful for everything they did for me.”

With the project completed, O’Brien is now preparing the paperwork the paperwork that goes to the board of the review for his Eagle Scout badge and will await his summons before receiving the rank. Pool users will be able to take advantage of his work for at least another month with the pool set to close the week of Aug. 17