Tuesday, June 24, 2014

ESSEX HAPPENINGS JULY 2014

I am pleased to continue to offer information on the activities and events of the valuable Essex Heritage organization and the work that they do for the region.

Essex National Heritage Area Activities

Event Calendar
July 7, 2014 to July 11, 2014 • North Andover Historical Society, 153 Academy Road, North Andover, MA -This summer, send your children on an historic journey!

August 2, 2014 • Salem Maritime National Historic Site, 193 Derby Street, Salem, MA
Celebrate Four Centuries of Salem's Maritime Heritage!

August 4, 2014 to August 8, 2014 • Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site, 244 Central Street, Saugus, MA.  Space is now full for summer 2014. Park for Every Classroom is a FREE professional development program for K-12 educators of all disciplines.

August 4, 2014 to August 8, 2014 • North Andover Historical Society, 153 Academy Road, North Andover, MA. This July and August the North Andover Historical Society will once again present its legendary summer day camp -- Adventures in Time. A summer enrichment program for boys and girls, ages 7-13 (suggested).

August 9, 2014 • Appleton Farms, The Trustees of the Reservations, 219 County Road, Ipswich, MA. With a state-of-the-art digital camera in hand, capture Appleton Farms, considered to be the oldest continuously operating farm in the United States. 

August 20, 2014 • The House of the Seven Gables, United States, 115 Derby Street, Salem, MA. Enjoy a night of history as author Matthew Thomas takes us back to colonial days in New England when locals defended their land.

Essex Heritage News

New Essex Heritage Commissioners Elected
At the Annual Spring Meeting of the Essex National Heritage Commission on April 30, eleven community representatives were elected to serve on the Commission, each for a three year term.  These regional leaders serve as “the eyes and ears” of their communities, organizations or businesses and act a sounding board to test and create new initiatives at Essex Heritage.

The Essex National Heritage Commission is supported by a volunteer 150-member Board of Commissioners.  Commissioners live and/or work within the boundaries of Essex County, and they represent the communities, businesses, organizations, educational institutions, and resources of the region. “Commissioners are ambassadors and advocates for this region,” said CEO Annie C. Harris, “Essex Heritage is pleased to welcome the slate of 11 new Commissioners, and we’re grateful for their volunteer support and leadership in promoting regional cooperation among the Area’s resources and organizations.”
The following individuals were elected to serve as Commissioners:
        George Carey, Founder and Owner of FINZ Seafood & Grill, Salem
        Ann Marie Casey, Executive Director of the North of Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau, Salisbury
        Susan Gould Coviello, Executive Director at North Shore Health Project, Gloucester
        Thomas Dexter, Financial Advisor at Wells Fargo Advisors, Beverly
        Laura Dow, Owner and Manager at the Vista Motel, Gloucester
        Angela Ippolito, Chair of the Swampscott Planning Board, Swampscott
        Thomas MacDonald, Director of Sales at the Hawthorne Hotel, Salem
        Posie Mansfield, Administrator of COP Amputee Association, Wenham
        Dr. Paul J. Maurer, Senior Vice President of External Relations at Gordon College, Wenham
        Kevin Rourke, Senior Vice President and Team Leader of Corporate Banking at Salem Five, Salem
        Pamela Yameen, Family Business, Butcher Boy Markets, North Andover

Happy Holidays - Memorial Day, Anniversary of D Day and Independence Day
We certainly hope that during the last couple of weeks that you were able to enjoy three patriotic holidays and used the time to remember the numerous members of the military services who have given their lives to support the freedoms we enjoy.  These are three very special days - Memorial Day, the 70th Anniversary of the Invasion of Fortress Europe, and the date we celebrates the Independence we chose from England in 1776.

Regional News
Retirement of Danvers Town Manger
At the regularly scheduled Selectman’s meeting of the Danvers Selectmen’s on June 3, 2014, Town Manager Wayne Marquis shocked the numbers of the board and the residents watching on TV with the announcement of his retirement on or about 10/3/2014.  His departure will complete a 35 year term as the Town Manager after an apprentice as the Assistant Town Manager for five years. 
There is very little doubt that under his leadership, he left the Town much better off than he found it four decades ago.   I will not attempt to list the numerous accomplishments that Wayne has presided over during his term.  The town as second to none in the Commonwealth as far as management is concerned. Throughout his long association with the town and despite all of the numerous improvements that have been made, the community has never had to call for a budget override.  All of the projects were completed on time and under budget.  It is clear that the task of finding a replacement for Wayne will be a daunting task.
 It has been a pleasure to know him and to serve under him as a volunteer both with the seniors in Town and as a member of the Finance Committee.  Good luck and pleasant days in the next phase of your life.
Community Preservation Act
Several years ago, The Commonwealth of Massachusetts enacted legislation that allowed communities in the state to adopt a tax connected to real estate taxes on property in the community.  This new tax that was between 1 and 3% could be collected and then allocated to make grants to local organizations that were focusing on the preservation of property with historic overtones, affordable housing and open space acquisition. These funds are enhanced by a similar fund by the State, but the funds are not always available to be used for the stated purposes.   Several communities in this region have adopted the act and in 2014 a number those communities are currently entertaining grant proposals to act towards the approved projects. 
At this point, the Town of Danvers is not a participant and I have long felt that the Town of Danvers should be a participant.  I suspect that adding a new tax is holding back their participation.   That participation would be a boon to a number of potential projects in the town.  I have recently let my thoughts be known in a message to the town but extra efforts on my part to a wider base might be needed to convince the decision makers in that community.
Salem Power Station - Footprint Power Station in Salem to begin its modifications
One day in late May the iconic Power Station on the Salem Harbor shut down to begin its conversion to natural gas. After a 63 year life, the station began a new life on its road to continuing to be provider of energy services to the region. I should note that my association with this site predates the building of the Power Station.  The power plant replaced an excellent baseball park on Fort Avenue, on the way to Salem Willows, where I played baseball as a youth growing up in Salem.
Starting in July, the existing plant and its well known smoke stack towers will be torn down, and one of the best known sites on the coast of the North Shore will be no longer visible from the water.  The plants towers are well known by boaters in this region as they are visible from south of Boston to Gloucester.   The towers will be soon gone, but the life of the Salem Power Station will go on in the future as a benefit to the region.

North Shore Elder Services News
NSES Moving to NEW LOCATION

A letter from their director gives their new address as 300 Rosewood Drive, Suite 200, Danvers, Ma 01923.

Dear Friends,
While June will be a busy month for us, only our address is changing! Our phone numbers and our email addresses will remain the same as will our commitment to our consumers. For information about our move, feel free to leave us a message at 978-624-2298.
As always, we are dedicated to Life Made Easier.

NSES will be offering a concert at the North Shore Music Theatre on 9/13/2014 to benefit the support of the numerous programs offered by NSES to make life easier for seniors on the North Shore of Boston.  For more information on how to purchase tickets for the event SEE BELOW

Irish Tenor Ronan Tynan in Concert
Benefitting North Shore Elder Services
Saturday, September 13, 2014, 7:30 p.m.
North Shore Music Theater
To purchase tickets: www.nsmt.org; 978 232 7000
Right of passage for the elderly
Reprinted From the Pages of the Boston Globe provided by the executive Director of North Shore Elder Services. By Farah Stockman
Boston Globe Staff   May 28, 2014
My 98-year-old great aunt points to the antique clock. “Pat gave me that for my birthday,” she says, referring to her late husband. “It has always kept perfect time.”

Of course, she can’t see it any more. Her eyesight dimmed years ago. Nor can she hear it, even with her bionic ear. Yet, the clock has stayed put, until now, along with everything else: The doll that won first place at the Topsfield fair, standing at attention under a plastic shroud. The once-white baby shoes, turning gray. The dusty martini glasses, forgotten in a cabinet, inscribed with the initials of a long-dead groom. These are the objects that make up a life; the things which make her home her home. Who will she be once she has left them for a room in an assisted-living facility hundreds of miles away?
It’s a human instinct to hang on to what we have, even after we’re gone. There’s a certain immortality that comes from our possessions living on in libraries or museums or in the homes of our children. These days, people even try to cling to their own dead bodies, and their pets, by freezing them in cryogenic tombs. They must be driven by the same feelings that prompted ancient Egyptian kings to be embalmed and buried with piles of gold.
But for most us, the end of life means surrendering what we own. We spend our youth and middle age acquiring things that define us — houses, clothes, paintings, books — only to give them up, one by one, in old age. When the eyesight goes, so does the car. When the hearing goes, the stereo. When memory goes, and the pot is left burning on the stove, we are forced to give up the kitchen. We cling to our things as long as we can. By the time we relinquish them, so many are out of fashion.
Still, the relinquishing must go on. Being elderly is about taking stock of life, and keeping only what’s absolutely necessary.
“You want to take that clock?” I ask.
She shakes her head. The clock radio with the big red numbers is far more important.
My great aunt — the daughter of Italian immigrants, who worked in a dress factory and married a World War II veteran — never bought herself expensive things. Yet today she frets about what will become of her treasures: her menagerie of porcelain animals, her flock of angels, her Christmas village.
As she grew frail — so frail that too hard a hug might have snapped her like a chicken wing — she sent me home with an old brooch fished out of a jewelry box.
But her apartment is still full of items she couldn’t give away fast enough: a candle her grandmother bought so as not to give birth in the dark, to be mailed to her daughter. A gang of dolls for Melissa, the dear soul who took her out to lunch every Wednesday for the last eight years. A folder with my father’s name on it, full of photographs. My dad’s sister, who spent a week here sorting and clearing, has already collected her inheritance: an impressive stack of Tupperware.
Standing in the clutter of her cast-off possessions, I have a new appreciation for the Viking kings, whose weapons and ships were set ablaze on their funeral pyres, to cement their social standing in Valhalla. It strikes me as odd that, in a culture as materialistic as ours, we go meet our maker empty handed.
It is amazing to discover, in the end, that all that is truly essential fits into a single hot pink suitcase.
I wonder if, deep down inside, my aunt feels liberated by the lightness of so few possessions. “You all set?” Melissa asks, tears in her eyes.
But I recognize that my aunt is mourning the loss of her things as deeply as one mourns a death. The giving up of one’s own house, of one’s own place in the world, is a rite of passage; a ritual with no name that each American family performs its own way. Tomorrow, Melissa will drive her to the airport, where a six-seater plane co-piloted by a grand-nephew will fly her into the clouds, toward an unknown place.
On her last day in the apartment she knows by heart, she nods bravely: “I think I’m ready.”
Farah Stockman can be reached at fstockman@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @fstockman

Community Activities
Summer Dinners return at Appleton Farm in Ipswich

Community Award in Beverly

Ground Broken for Veterans Memorial in Wenham

COPAA Notes
During the last few months, I have been actively involved in a new not for profit organization that focuses on providing networking opportunities, information and support to people that have experienced the loss of a limb.    The organization named COPAA (Cornell Orthopedic Prosthetic Amputee Association) meets monthly in Beverly and is welcoming new members from the North Shore to Lower Merrimack Valley at no charge.   If you or someone you know anyone that has lost a limb, we welcome participation and COPAA welcomes new members that are seeking material that provides data on how life can be more comfortable.  COPAA focuses on possibilities rather than disabilities.  We are in the process of developing a web site that will provide substantial information, but in the short term any questions can be answered by contacting our President “Posie” Mansfield at posie_m@verizon.net.

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