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(978) 297-0050 • www.winchendoncourier.com Newsstand: 75 cents Friday, January 8, 2016
6 56525 10431 2
LOCALSanta and
Class of 2028
PAGE 3
SPORTSYear in Review
PAGE 8
WEEKLY QUOTE“There are some things
you learn best in calm, and some in storm.”
Willa Cather
It’s always good when a new local business opens and now there is, in fact, a new small business in town. So say hello to ‘Myranda Mae’s Photography Services’, launched recently by Myranda Bishop, who has parlayed a lifelong passion into a budding entrepreneurial opportu-nity.
The Franklin Pierce University freshman, who graduated from Murdock last spring after participating in seeming-ly every possible activity the school had to offer, including taking pictures for the yearbook for sev-eral years, began the business a couple months ago when a co-worker at Great Wolf Lodge men-tioned they wanted a
family photo shoot.“I was looking for a way
to make some money to help pay for school, and I’d been thinking about doing this for a while, and then my friend was looking for someone to do those family pictures and that got it started. I said to her, ‘I’m pretty good at taking pictures’ and we did it and they came out pretty nice,” recalled Bishop.
“This was a pipe dream at first, but you’ve got to go for your dreams,” she laughed.
“Our photos came back to us in such a timely manner and they came out so great, and she was great with the kids, too,” posted Steph Lewis on the business Facebook page.
Bishop pointed out she took some 300 pictures for her co-worker and edited the portfolio down to about 100 shots.
“It’s really time-con-suming to do that. I can spend a whole Saturday just going through pic-tures, my bedroom is covered with pictures from the floor to the ceil-ing and I love doing it. I love capturing the emo-tion of a moment,” she enthused.
Bishop said she prefers outdoor pictures. “It’s a more natural setting. The outdoor lighting — I like that better,” she said, echoing a refrain offered by many professionals.
When she created that Facebook page shortly
Entrepreneur sees new career through a lens
Criminal justice student interns in Winchendon
Courtesy photo
Mount Wachusett Community College student Kaitlin Johnson, pictured with Winchendon Police Lt. Kevin Wolski, recently completed an internship at the Winchendon Police Department.
GARDNER — Police and crimi-nal justice officials throughout the region recently provided internship opportu-nities for a number of Mount Wachusett Community College students majoring in criminal justice.
Student interns
completed a mini-mum of 120 hours over a 15-week semes-ter at different sites throughout the region including the Gardner, Clinton, Shirley and Winchendon police departments and the North Central Correctional Institution in Gardner.
“The internships are a great way for students to gain expe-rience while making connections that can lead to jobs,” said department chair Reed Hillman, former commander of the Massachusetts State Police.
BOS approves gift of landBY GREG VINE
COURIER CORRESPONDENT
WINCHENDON — At their last meeting of 2015, selectmen approved the execution of a quitclaim deed that gives the town a parcel of land on Shady Glen Terrace. Voters at November’s special town meeting gave selectmen permission to acquire Lot 21 from C. Robert and Cynthia Valeri, of Marblehead in exchange for the payment of $1 from the town.
The lot, which covers just over a third of an acre will, under condi-tions of the deed, remain “under the care, custody, management and con-trol of the Winchendon C o n s e r v a t i o n Commission for conser-
vation purposes under the provisions of” state law. The deed also gives the town “access to and use of Lake Monomonac” from a parcel of land at the intersection of Lakeview and Beachview drives, at what is known as the “Big Dam,” and from a second parcel a short distance north of the dam on Lakeview Drive.
Discussing the parcel on Shady Glen Terrace, Town Manager Keith Hickey told the board that “because of its loca-tion and its ability to be preserved and utilized for passive recreation, it made sense to have the conservation commis-sion accept it on behalf of the town.”
“Do you have a lot of property in town – the ConCom?” asked board member Audrey LaBrie.
“We hold several parcels,” said commis-sion Chairman Garrett Davieau. “I think with this particular parcel we would be interested in some sort of way for the public to utilize the water that’s there, be it for some type of kayak launch – as has been done in a couple of other areas – or something similar. I think that would be a very decent use for the property. We would defi-nitely be interested in taking care of it.”
Selectman Austin Cyganiewicz asked, “Right now, do you have
2016: one heck of a yearCOMPILED BY GREG VINE
AND JERRY CARTONCOURIER CORRESPONDENTS
Whoever says small town politics is bor-ing has – quite obvi-ously – never been to Winchendon. In 2015, voters of the Toy Town illustrated quite vividly that politics in a small town can be anything but boring.
The two big politi-cal stories of 2015 were inextricably linked. Without the controver-sy over the renewal of Town Manager James Kreidler’s contract in October 2014, there very likely would have been no campaign to recall two members of the Board of Selectmen. The recall, of course, was married to an effort to defeat two other board members who were up for re-election – or would have been had both not decided against seeking another term.
Add to that the fact that C. Jackson “Jack” Blair resigned his seat on the board in October 2014, after being ousted as chairman, and the stage was set for an entirely new Board of Selectmen taking office the day after the May 5 town elections.
The four selectmen who were on the board prior to May 5 were known to be, or at least appeared to be, support-ers of Kreidler, whose tenure as town manager had grown increasingly controversial during his 15 years in office. Often the controversy was deserved and sometimes self-inflicted; often con-troversies germinated
from conspiracy theories based more on personali-ty conflicts than on hard facts. But anyone who’s been involved in politics for even a short time – be it local or national – knows this is the nature of the beast.
It ain’t always fair and it’s almost never pretty.
The controversy came to a head after selectmen gave Kreidler a three-year contract extension in October 2014 in the wake of Kreidler’s disclo-sure that the town was running a $3.6 million deficit, news which came as a shock to selectmen and residents alike. At a special town meeting the following month, vot-ers urged selectmen to reverse course and ter-minate the town manag-er’s contract. When the board refused, an organi-zation calling itself Stand Up for Toy Town (SUTT) began an effort recall Fedor Berndt and Beth Hunt, two selectmen who had originally indicat-ed they might oppose a contract extension for Kreidler.
As SUTT cleared the hurdles required to move ahead with the recall effort, selectmen Keith Barrows and Bob O’Keefe opted not to seek re-election, preferring to avoid what many predict-ed could be a nasty cam-paign. The candidates running under SUTT’s banner vowed to remove Kreidler from the town manager’s office.
As it appeared increas-ingly likely SUTT’s efforts would be success-ful, Kreidler announced
his intention to resign about a month before the May 5 elections. At a special town meeting held on April 6, voters approved an agreement that allowed Kreidler to leave office on or before May 1. He was also given a $300,000 severance package.
Kreidler declared that he was not leaving because he had done any-thing wrong (the state Dept. of Revenue said repeatedly the town’s deficit was not the town manager’s fault) but because he could no longer abide the “inces-sant attacks” which had “reached through and past me and into my home to impact my fam-ily.”
A month later, SUTT candidates Barbara Anderson, Mike Barbaro, Austin Cyganiewicz and Amy Salter were elected to the Board of Selectmen. Audrey LaBrie, who was not a member of the insurgen-cy, was also elected to a seat on the board.
Acting quickly, the new board established a search committee to find an interim town manag-er. By a vote of 3-2, the committee recommend-ed the hiring of former Lowell City Manager Bernie Lynch. On June 1, in a unanimous vote, selectmen endorsed the selection of Lynch, who agreed to a three-month contract with a town option for a three-month extension.
As it turned out, Lynch ended up serving
Mat Plamondon photo
Representative of a most delightful holiday season, this soloist was part of the choral concert at Murdock High School before the Christmas break. More photos will be featured in the next issue of the Courier.
HAVE YOURSELF...
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Courtesy photo
Dick Demers, Monty Tech masonry teacher, and his seniors are building a mausoleum in Lunenburg’s North Cemetery. Students work-ing on the project are, from left: Loryn Killay of Royalston, Joshua Gamache of Orange, Troy Leslie of Phillipston, Sara Pacheco of Barre, Nathan Kush of Sterling, Alex Giuffrida of Ashburnham and Joel Sepulveda of Westminster.
FITCHBURG — Students and teachers in Monty Tech’s masonry program are back in Lunenburg this school year, working on another municipal project. Along with their instructor, Dick Demers, juniors and seniors are building a mausoleum in the North Cemetery.
Work on the block and brick structure, measuring 18 feet by 18 feet and 10 feet high, is expected to take three months. House carpentry students will build the roof on the structure when the masonry work is done.
“Although we have done a lot of work for the Lunenburg school system, and we expect to do more, this is the first proj-ect we’ve done at the cemetery,” said Demers.
The project has educational value for the students on many levels, he added, particularly because working with block and brick is currently prevalent in the masonry trade.
“It’s what is being done in real life, and this a great expe-rience for our students,” he added. “It’s always great when we can help out in the communities while at the same time enhance our students’ skills and work experience.”
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Winchendon for the entire six months.Once Lynch was selected, a new com-
mittee was impaneled to search for per-manent replacement for Kreidler.
More than three dozen people applied for the position, several from out of state, including one from California and another from Louisiana. After extensive interviews, the committee winnowed the field down to three final-ists, eventually deciding to recommend Salem, NH, town manager to the Board of Selectmen. In early November, selectmen voted – again unanimously – to follow the committee’s lead.
There were also changes in leader-ship at the town’s school department, police department, and public works department.
In May 2014, it was announced that Winchendon school Superintendent Salah Khelfaoui was one of the three finalists for the job of superintendent for the Mascanomet Regional School District, serving the towns of Boxford, Middleboro, and Topsfield. That job, however, went another candidate.
Less than a year later, in March 2015, it was reported that Khelfaoui was among the finalists for the superin-tendent’s job in Keene, NH. Again, the position went to someone else.
The third time proved the charm for Khelfaoui when, just two months later, he was tapped to head up the school department in the city of Lowell.
Khelfaoui was replaced in the super-intendent’s office by Steven Haddad, who had been serving as administrator for the Murdock Academy for success. Haddad was first named interim super-intendent in June, then offered the job on a permanent basis in December.
At the police department, David Walsh was named chief upon the departure of Scott Livingston, while Al Gallant was tapped to lead the public works department after John Deline left to take a position in Fitchburg.
After Walsh was formally hired as the new police chief, he promised to be very visible in the community.
“I’ll be wherever anyone wants to talk. We’re emphasizing community engagement and that will include meet-ings with small groups in places like Ipswich and Hyde Park where we can
talk to seniors about crime prevention”Walsh plans to send an officer candi-
date to the police academy this winter and is hoping to send another next summer.
“We’re down a couple positions and it’s important to fill them,” he said. The town has over 100 road miles through it’s roughly 44 square miles.
The Winchendon police department’s first-ever canine, naturally named Clyde, was introduced to the media in October. Clyde, who is partnered with K-9 officer Jim Wironen, is nearing completion of training classes and is expected to be on patrol shortly.
“The K-9 unit will provide a much needed resource not only for Winchendon but also the surrounding community,” said Walsh, adding Clyde will be a significant asset in situations including searching for missing per-sons and suspects, clearing buildings, assisting other officers and locating narcotics. While the WPD has creat-ed a GoFundMe to raise money for Clyde, the original funding came in the form of a $25,000 grant from the Stanton Foundation, $7,500 of which was earmarked for Clyde. The remain-der, spread over a three year period, covers the training and costs associated with the police force having a dog.
And Winchendon police cruisers are now equipped with Naloxone, the med-ication which can reverse an overdose from heroin or other opioids. The town joined other communities during an epidemic of heroin overdose, largely because the drug, whose use cuts across socio-economic lines, is cheap and easy to find.
Nearby Franklin Pierce University in Rindge and Keene became regular stops in the region for presidential candidates as the Feb. 9 primary approached. While former Maryland governor Martin O’ Malley was the only Democrat to visit, a number of Republicans did so. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, former FL Gov. Jeb Bush and Donald Trump all made appearances in the area, Trump doing so multiple times.
Less stressful news included the Old Murdock Senior Center played host to a Health and Wellness Fair which attract-ed more than 30 agencies, all with a common refrain.
“We all want to make a difference,” said Sarah Janhunen, the program developer for North Central Human Services Adult Family Care. Local agen-
cies attending included the CAC, the Winchendon Housing Authority, Clark Memorial YMCA, Broadview Assisted Living and Family Pharmacy.
More than 130 holiday baskets were distributed by the CAC for Thanksgiving and lots were expected to be distributed for Christmas as well. Executive director Colleen Laperriere was concerned, as temperatures began to fall, about the homeless population, pointing out the CAC had a number of teens spend afternoons at its facility last winter.
In late June, Winchendon native Brittany LaPointe joined more than 2,400 other participants braving the ele-ments for an overnight walk in Boston, helping the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Out of the Darkness program raise some $3 mil-lion.
LaPointe had described to the Courier the ongoing recovery from depression which had prompted her to become an activist.
She had the been the proverbial over-achiever - successful in academics and extracurriculars all while fighting a “quiet struggle” for “more than half my life.”
“I wanted to make everyone proud of me. I was one of those people who thought ‘I have to be doing ‘this’ at ‘this’ point in my life.” That intensity took it’s toll and by early 2014, “I’d fallen into a hole. I didn’t want to go on. I was asking myself ‘why am I here anyway?’ I was spiraling. I didn’t have the right diagnosis. Yet I knew I had to be the right kind of role model as a parent, and that’s when I reached out for help,” she said.
“You find out you’re not alone. My parents were a life raft and after I start-ed doing better, I decided I wanted to try and help other people.”
So LaPointe became involved with the AFSP, took part in a mini Out of the Darkness walk in Gardner before the big one in Boston and she plans to walk in New York next summer.
Suicide claims almost 400,000 lives a year in the US - that’s one every 13.5 minutes, and after cancer and heart disease, suicide accounts for “more years of life lost than any other cause of death.”
LaPointe gets it. “I’m telling my story because I want to help end the stigma.”
At the schools, it was the first year of IPad distribution throughout the high
school delivered mixed results. “On the one hand, giving every stu-
dent their own iPad made a difference in the classroom. Teachers learned to incorporate them into lessons, but we were frankly surprised at the extent of the damage,” nearly double what school officials had anticipated. Graduating seniors Dmitri Eddy and Tristan Cutting “were a great help in resolv-ing technical issues,” said Principal Josh Romano. “We called it the ‘Dmitri Trouble Alert’ and I think it helped them to feel important to the program and they were. Finding new seniors to take the project on won’t be easy.”
Romano stressed the trend is headed in the right direction - more graduates attending four-year colleges, Rachel Dickens to Northeastern and Brandon Jinn to Tufts as two examples. “We think that reflects well on Murdock. The argument that some students take the school-choice option and go to another public school because they think they’re getting a better education - that’s not the case. Our courses are becoming more rigorous and we’re pre-paring kids for college a lot better now.”
Principal Len Mackie was happy with the emergence of a separate entity for the middle school. “The kids created their own yearbook - they did their own designs. They’re making a lot of things happen, delivering meals at hol-iday time, raising money for extra cur-ricular activities. 110 of them were in chorus The 8th graders went to Boston.
And above all, “what we want to do in all academic disciplines is teach in a uniform way laying the foundation for high school. I’m happy with our faculty. We have a lot of young teachers who hit the ground running.”
Finally, after years of dithering, a town meeting approved and a refer-endum ratified the expenditures, the Beals Memorial Library is planning to launch work on a huge project which in time will not only significantly change the look of the building, but will be symbolic of other shifts, according to new director Brian Tata. Slated among the changes is a new side entrance which will put an end to the inabili-ty of disabled visitors to navigate the steep steps on Pleasant Street. An ele-vator will also be installed. In addition, Tata was hoping woodworking students from Monty Tech would be able to build a new circulation desk. “We’re moving into the 21st century,” he said.
REVIEWcontinued from page A1
before Christmas, Bishop was pleased to get nearly 100 likes within just a couple days.
“I’m going to get business cards, but word-of-mouth refer-ences are always better,” she said.
Bishop has some serious equipment with which to work, using a Canon Rebel (“it’s good for sports photography, too,” said the former multi-year soccer captain) and her laptop has editing capability.
“I’m excited about getting more opportunities,” she observed, noting she’s booked her first wedding for next sum-mer and took some Christmas card pictures for friends to give their parents.
“I’ll do pet portfolios too, if anyone wants them,” said Bishop.
While Bishop calls someday working as a photographer for National Geographic “my dream job,” she explained, “this is a way to get experience building my own portfolio. I guess you could call it a side business for now, but I’m serious about it. I’m having a lot of fun and I appreciate people giving me a chance,” she stressed.
And that ‘Myranda Mae’s Photography Services’, Facebook page? It’s filled with pertinent information including her rates and current hours as well as a contact phone number (978) 895-6757.
“Tell people to feel free to check it out and comment,” she reminded.
BISHOPcontinued from page A1
Courtesy photo
SKILLS TEAM HELPS OUT SANTAMembers of Monty Tech’s SkillsUSA Leadership Team had Santa make an early visit to a group of
children from the Cleghorn Neighborhood Center. The team sponsored a holiday party, held recently in the school’s Mountain Room Restaurant. About 25 children, ages 4 to 13, were guests at the event that featured crafts, a sing-a-long, ice cream sundaes and pizza donated by Espressos in Fitchburg. Santa took time out from his busy schedule to visit the children and pose for pictures. Monty Tech students, staff and faculty sponsored a child and each recipient received a bag filled with a jacket, gloves, hat, scarf, book and toy. Due to the generosity of the Monty Tech community, more than $300 was also donated to the center.
Monty Tech masonry students building mausoleum
CLASS OF 2028Just before Christmas Supt. Steve
Haddad, with BOS member Austin Cyganiewicz and School Committee member Janet Corbosiero all joined Santa to present the present kinder-garten classes at Memorial School a very defining gift: t-shirts with the year Class of 2028 emblazoned on them. This will be the year these little scholars will graduate, and the hope is it will be from beloved Murdock High School.
HOPE PROGRAMHouse of Peace & Education, HOPE
for Women program is accepting appli-cations for the upcoming Computer and Job Readiness classes starting Monday Feb. 8. For more information, Please contact Allyson Chalapatas at (978) 632-0400 ext 5 or email her at [email protected].
MWCC PROGRAMSMount Wachusett Community
College has been selected to join the Association of American Colleges and Universities and The Democracy Commitment in “Citizenship Under Siege,” a national program of pub-lic forums being sponsored this spring through a $200,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The AAC&U and The Democracy Commitment, in partnership with seven community colleges in the coun-
try, will facilitate a tapestry of pub-lic dialogues exploring who counts as citizens and who has been accorded full rights to democracy’s promises. These forums will be grounded in the nation’s history and explore creative ways to use the power of the human-ities to bridge differences and build strong communities.
MWCC’s program, titled Citizenship Under Siege: Degrees of Citizenship, will take place throughout the spring semester in collaboration with local nonprofit organizations, police depart-ments and elected officials.
Political scientist Robert D. Putnam, author of 14 books including the best-selling “Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis” and “Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community,” will be among the fea-tured speakers at MWCC. Putnam is the Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government.
“One of the benefits of working with-in a community college is the ability to be adaptive and dynamic, to respond to the needs of our students quick-ly, yet with intention,” said Fagan Forhan, director of Experiential Learning Opportunities and Civic Engagement at MWCC and director of the college’s Center for Civic Learning and Community Engagement. “Very
few community colleges are doing the work of deliberative dialogues, and yet our students are living with these social justice issues in a very immedi-ate and visceral way.”
Forhan and MWCC Dean of Students Jason Zelesky will serve as project directors, working with a team of faculty, students and staff.
The NEH announced the grants in December as part of its new initia-tive, The Common Good: Humanities and the Public Square. The project builds upon a previous NEH-funded initiative, Bridging Cultures to Form a Nation: Difference, Community, and Democratic Thinking, in which MWCC also participated.
STUDENT ACHIEVEMENTFRANKLIN — Victoria Chadbourne
from Phillipston has been named to the Dean’s List at Dean College for the fall 2015 semester.
Founded in 1865, Dean College is a private, residential college located in Franklin 45 minutes from Boston, and Providence, RI. Dean College offers baccalaureate degrees, associate degree programs, as well as a robust schedule of part-time continuing and professional education credit and cer-tificate programs throughout the cal-endar year.
FREE TRAININGMount Wachusett Community
College is recruiting adults of all ages, experience and education for training in the growing field of advanced manu-facturing. Full scholarships are avail-able for eligible students who enroll in an upcoming six-week day program, which begins on Jan. 19 at MWCC’s Devens campus.
Manufacturing accounts for nearly 25 percent of the workforce in North Central Massachusetts, employing more than 14,000 people in the region. The demand for skilled workers con-tinues to grow as a result of new oppor-tunities and the retirement of older workers.
The Industry Readiness Training program is a short-term intensive non-credit training program devel-oped with industry employers to pre-pare students for entry to mid-level jobs in the local, diverse advanced manufacturing industry. The program is designed especially for unemployed or underemployed adults, veterans and recent high school graduates. The program provides students with train-ing in skills required for entry-level employment as technicians in manu-facturing, validation, quality control, documentation, process operations
and more.Students who successfully com-
plete the program will earn an MWCC certificate of completion, an OSHA 10-hour safety certification and the National Career Readiness certificate, while learning about working in the fast-growing manufacturing field.
The six-week program will take place Tuesday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The course includes hands-on, lecture-based material as well as self-paced KeyTrain curricu-lum leading to the National Career Readiness certification.
Students must possess a minimum of a high school diploma or equivalent. Students will have access to staff mem-bers who will assist them with the reg-istration process, facilitate access to support services, and help them with their search for employment when they have completed the certificate program successfully. Tutoring and job search support is also available.
The training program is made pos-sible through a Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training grant from the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration. Tuition support is provided by a Workforce Competitiveness Trust Fund grant awarded through the North Central Massachusetts Workforce Investment Board by Commonwealth Corporation on behalf of the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.
For more information about enroll-ing in the training program, visit mwcc.edu/advancedmanufacturing, contact the Devens campus at 978-630-9883, or email Career Development Coach Christian Reifsteck at [email protected].
Winchendon courier 3 Friday, January 8, 2016
Courier Capsules
FRIDAY, JANUARY 8KIDS PROGRAMS: Beals Memorial
Library has two programs for younger children on Fridays. Toddler Time for kids age three & younger at 9:45; pre-school story hour for ages 3-5 at 10:30. We request people sign up 24 hours in advance only to ensure enough mate-rials are available. Free. For more information call (978) 297-0300 or visit winchendonlibrary.org.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 9SKATE CLUB: The 2015-16 Season
for the Winchendon Skate Club from 8-10 a.m. All ages are welcome. Learn to Skate (hockey and figure skat-ing) sessions are during club time from 9:30-9:50 a.m. We skate at the Winchendon School Ice Rink on Ash Street in Winchendon every Saturday morning. For more information please call Heather Gauthier @ (978) 297-0227 or Stacey Knight (978) 939-1265 or email us at [email protected]
MONDAY, JANUARY 11YOGA: yoga classes are held at Beals
Memorial Library beginning at 6 p.m. For more information call (978) 297-0300 or visit winchendonlibrary.org.
BOS: the Board of Selectmen will meet at 6:30 p.m. in the second floor auditorium at the Winchendon town hall.
BOARD OF LIBRARY TRUSTEES: the Board will meet at 6 p.m. on the second floor of the Beals Memorial
Library. Among the items to be dis-cussed will be certification of the library, capital planning the upcoming year’s budget.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 12FINCOM: a meeting of the Finance
Committee is scheduled at 7 p.m. in the second floor auditorium at Winchendon town hall. Among the items to be discussed will be year to date budget reports, capital planning and effective finance committees.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13COMPUTER CLASS: a free class
concerning online computing is held every Wednesday night beginning at 5:30 p.m. at Beals Memorial Library. For more information call the library at (978) 297-0300 or visit winchendon-library.org.
BINGO! Hyde Park residents hold bingo in the com-munity hall every Wednesday night beginning at 6 p.m. It’s inex-pensive, just two cards for 5¢, and the community is invited! Anyone over the age of 50 is welcome to join in. We’d love to have more play-ers.
HISTORIC COMMISSION: the Winchendon Historic Commission/Historic District Commission has a meeting scheduled at 6 p.m. in the fourth floor conference room at Winchendon town hall.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 16BONFIRE! The annual bonfire and
roast beef dinner is scheduled at the American Legion, School Street. Plan to drop of your Christmas tree and wreaths now to be added to the pile! The roast beef dinner tickets are going fast, only 200 are being sold. Available at the Legion until gone, only $10 per person. The meal will be served at 6 p.m. followed by the bonfire, then fireworks. A dance with a DJ to follow.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5ANNUAL MUSICAL: Into The
Woods, we all know the stories, but
are they what we think they are? The annual Murdock High School musical is scheduled at 7 p.m. at the audito-rium, and again Saturday, Feb. 6 at 7 p.m. Plan now for a most enjoyable evening.
The Winchendon Courier is commit-ted to accuracy in all its news reports. Although numerous safeguards are in place to ensure accurate reporting, mistakes can occur. Confirmed fact errors will be corrected at the top right hand corner of page three in a timely manner. If you find a mis-take, call (978) 297-0050 during normal business hours. During non-business hours, leave a message in the editor’s voice mailbox. The editor will return your phone call. Or contact the editor at the following email: [email protected].
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Winchendon courier 4 Friday, January 8, 2016
Helpmeet: in the best of terms“One of the most frequent-
ly misunderstood terms in the Bible is the term “helpmeet” in the book of Genesis. Genesis 2:18 says, “And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an helpmeet for him.”
“The common way in which the term “helpmeet” is inter-preted is to mean that Eve, unlike the other beasts of the earth, was “appropriate for” or “worthy” of Adam and was to be his helper or companion on the earth. While there are some really good things about this interpretation, it doesn’t do full justice to what the term “helpmeet” really means. The term, in its original Hebrew, means something much more
profound and powerful than just a “helper,” and when we understand what God was saying to Adam, we come to see Eve’s role and the role of women on this earth in a much different light.
“Women are “saviors” to men by the fact that they give them life and nurture them towards the light of Christ. By conceiving, creating, and bearing mortal bodies, women make it possible for God’s chil-dren to start on their mortal journey and have the oppor-tunity to become perfected. Without women, there would be no gateway into this world and no opportunity for prog-ress or exaltation.”
These quotes are taken from
a source titled Women in the Scripture.
I wanted to write about “helpmeets” but to do so with the understand-ing that people have many dif-ferent forms of religious beliefs, if they have religious beliefs at all. The pur-pose of this column is to high-light the importance of having a “helpmeet,” and I realize in the larger sense, having such a person in one’s life does not require a religious connota-tion. If in discussing this sub-ject I can encourage my read-ers to look beside them, iden-
tify their “help-meets” in life, and perhaps take a moment to acknowledge the importance of that person.
As my read-ers know, I am not a person who writes col-
umns on religion. But I am a person who likes to acknowl-edge great contributions by Americans, especially when they pass from this life. And there are “help meets” in every walk of life. Obviously the bib-lical reference is not suggesting an inequality between a man and wife but rather referring to the major roles both can play.
The man needs the support of the woman, so he can meet his goals and objectives and responsibilities. I see this as implying it would be difficult for him to accomplish this with-out the woman. Conversely, the woman depends on the man to fulfill his role and free her up to meet her own goals.
Teamwork.Hand in hand.In this column I am choosing
to acknowledge the death two weeks ago of a “helpmeet” who I think is a good standard for the title: Vonette Bright. Her name may mean very little to most of my readers because her husband, Dr. Bill Bright, was
Almost our turn to weigh inThree weeks. In
just about three weeks, actual real live voters will final-ly begin to have their say and we’ll start to see what Republican voters really think about the Donald. That’s the central story-line a couple weeks out from the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses, followed eight days later by New Hampshire’s tradi-tional first-in-the-nation primary.
Neither state, of course, is representa-tive of America’s actual demographics or paramount policy concerns. In Iowa, candidacies often rise or fall based on two factors — first, the ability of cam-paigns to coax people to come out on a frigid night to stand in someone’s living room and declare their loyalty
to one candidate or another and second, where a candidate stands on ethanol. Iowa gets all this attention but even in an active year, only 20-something percent of registered voters bundle up and trudge outside.
In New Hampshire, where retail politics is thankfully alive and well, there are plenty of folks who won’t even think about voting for any-one they haven’t seen in person several times. I’ve seen and written about a bunch of candidates as they’ve made their way through Keene and Rindge and Jaffrey and Peterborough over the last seven or eight months and I’ve talked to lots of voters who really do insist on that individual attention. New
Hampshire campaigns are frequently befuddling to those slick national jug-gernauts. And the one demographic both states have in common — they’re overwhelmingly white.
But there they are — Iowa and New Hampshire — fiercely protecting their status as the places where the process formally begins, and that’s the way it is, and is likely to stay. Campaigns have learned how to spin and, more impor-tantly, have gotten the media to buy into those spins. It was 40 years ago when Iowa first became relevant — that’s when Jimmy Carter spun his 22-percent-of-the-vote second-place finish behind something called “Uncommitted” (27-percent) into a victory since he fin-ished first among the actual humans. In 1992, Bill Clinton was runner-up in New Hampshire to Massachusetts Sen. Paul Tsongas and famously declared himself the “Comeback Kid”. Finishing first
isn’t necessarily winning.And what to make of those people
running for President? We often hear them disparaged because, we are told, they’re ego-driven, hungry-for-power, and ruthless opportunists. I hear those descriptions and I’m not sure if the references are about presidential candi-dates or Bill Belichick or any number of studio executives and business tycoons you could name. You think Ben Carson got to be head of pediatric neurology at one of the world’s great hospitals by being meek and unassuming? Or that Paul McCartney reached the top through aw-shucks humility? Please. Of course those candidates have all those traits. I’d frankly be more worried if they didn’t. You think the sainted Washington or Lincoln weren’t all of those things? Ego? Every columnist I
LETTERS POLICY Letters to the editor are always welcome, and may
be sent to to [email protected], or The Winchendon Courier, 91 Central Street, Winchendon, MA 01475. Be sure to include a name and residence. Please refrain from sending letters via fax, and be sure to supply a home address and phone number to allow for confirmation. Allow at least 48 hours for a
response. Letters must be submitted by noon Friday to ensure publication in the following week’s issue.
Every effort will be made to accommodate late submissions, but inclusion can not be guaranteed. The rules of good taste and libel will, of course, apply to all submissions. Personal attacks will not be published. The editor retains the right to edit all letters.
VIEWSOpinion and commentary from Winchendon and beyond
Editorial
Begin again
WinchEndon couriErPresident/Publisher: Frank Chilinski
editor: ruth deamiCis
A year-round college-planning calendar for parents and
prospective studentsPreparing your
kids for college isn’t just about the money you’ve put aside for tuition, room and board. It’s about making deadlines, making the right choices and making sure your teen has the proper life and money skills to make college a success.
Consider a college-planning calendar you and your university-bound student can follow. Here are some seasonal activities to consider adding to yours:
Winter No matter how you’ve pre-pared financially for your teen’s col-lege education, kick off the year with a visit to a qualified financial and tax professional. You might also consider paying for a separate advisory session for your teen so they know how to handle money before they leave for college. January is also a good month to learn about the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, better known as the FAFSA (https://fafsa.ed.gov), as it’s best to fill out the form right after Jan.1 to avoid missing out on available federal and state (https://fafsa.ed.gov/deadlines.htm) aid going into your teen’s freshman year. That first FAFSA filing will give you an idea of what your Effective Family Contribution (EFC) (http://www.practicalmoneyskills.com/collegeaid) will be.
Consult trusted friends and family members for their advice on afford-ing college and strategies to secure grants and scholarships. Resources like FinAid.org and Edvisors.com are good resources for ways to afford college, but it also helps to have face-to-face expertise.
Start evaluating potential schools with your teen. The U.S. Department of Education’s College Affordability and Transparency Center (http://col-legecost.ed.gov) features a range of calculators and resources to help you narrow down school choices with the chance for your teen to secure the most scholarships and grants – money that doesn’t have to be paid back.
Spring Springtime is a good season to start talking about summer jobs and internships (http://www.practicalmo-neyskills.com/summerjob) that will
make for a more attrac-tive college application. Internship application periods may be year-round with many dead-lines happening in the gall. If you are expect-ing your teen to contrib-ute some part of their earnings or savings for
future college costs, it’s worthwhile to review earning, spending, budgeting, tax and savings fundamentals they’ll need to manage money in school.
Also, if your teen hasn’t been exposed to banking on a regular basis, it’s time. Work with them to compare fees and services on various checking and sav-ings accounts and consider whether it might be wise for you to bank with the same institution to allow for easier transfer of necessary funds from your account to theirs. Also encourage them to find an organized way of keeping track of their finances on paper, on computer or online (https://www.mint.com).
Summer Summer is a time for fun, but it’s also a good time to research poten-tial schools and scholarship programs and even take a quick campus tour. The U.S. Department of Education’s scholarship site (https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/types/grants-scholarships/finding-scholarships) offers basic guid-ance in finding such money and local companies and organizations – includ-ing places where your teen can work or intern – may offer local awards.
If your teen is heading into their senior year, the fall is going to be busy. Get admissions test dates and college admissions deadlines down on your cal-endar as soon as possible. Also budget for college application fees as well as fees for admissions prep tests and the main SAT or ACT tests (more on that below) which may cost well in excess of $50 based on which test – or tests – your teen needs to take.
Fall Fall is the season for college admissions tests, but for students with extra time before graduation, it’s also the season for test prep (http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/test-prep). Higher-scoring students on such achievement tests generally are in a better position for admissions or cer-
Before we do anything else we need to remind you that if you haven’t yet dis-posed of the Christmas tree, the pile is beginning out at the American Legion on School Street for the bonfire on January 16th. This has become the newest Toy Town tradition, and one that is really catching on. A great way to get rid of the live tree of course, and the greens and the wreaths, but also a way to get out and see friends and neighbors despite the cold; enjoy an evening (and a good roast beef dinner if you can still manage to cadge a ticket, they are going fast).
This started as part of the 250th Anniversary celebration a couple of years ago and was such a success it was done again, minus the fireworks. But the fireworks were missed, so this year a mini-committee has been out there beating the bushes a bit and raising the funds needed to...yes, have fireworks this time.
If you would like to contribute we can still take some donations, and if we go over our goal we can put it toward the event next year. So send any amount, checks made out the American Legion (put “for fireworks” on the memo line) and mail to 44 Central St., Winchendon MA 01475. We’d appreciate your help.
A DJ will be on hand so people can stay and dance too. It will be a fun night. And only the roast beef dinner has a cost; the bonfire, fireworks and dance are all free and open to the public. Plan now to come on out and be part of it.
So, we begin again. We have a notice here from the town clerk announcing the May 2 town election
and that nomination papers are available at the town clerk’s office as of right now. Papers must be signed and returned on or before March 16 by 5 p.m.
The openings are scattered across the elected boards as follows: Two three-year seats for the Board of Selectmen. The seats now occupied by
Audrey LaBrie and Austin Cyganiewicz are available. Whether these two will decide to run is up to them. We hope they do.
Two three-year seats for the School Committee. The seats now occupied by Dawn Harris and Janet Corbosiero, both of whom have done a good job. Both should run again for their seats.
One one-year seat for the School Committee. This would be Larry Murphy’s seat. He had been appointed to fill an unexpired term and must now run for the rest of the term.
One three- year seat for the Board of Health. This would be Edward Bond whose term expires this year. He has proven to be a good member on this committee, we hope he would consider running again.
One five-year seat for the Winchendon Housing Authority. This would be Virginia Sibley’s seat. She has been a good member and should consider running again.
JACK BLAIR
notEs of concErn
JERRY CARTON
JournEy of thE hEart
Turn To JOURNEY page A7
Turn To NOTES page A7
NATHANIEL SILLIN
Practical MonEy skills
Turn To MONEY page A7
Editor’s Note: The information contained in this police log was obtained through public documents kept by the police department, and is considered to be the account of the police. All subjects are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
MONDAY, DECEMBER 211:31-1:58 a.m.: building checks, secure; 5:44 a.m.:
MV stop (Gardner Road) verbal warning; 5:57 a.m.: MV stop (Gardner Road) verbal warning; 6:11 a.m.: MV stop (Gardner Road) verbal warning; 8:38 a.m.: ambulance (Monadnock Avenue) transport; 9:24 a.m.: general info (River Street) info taken; 10:22 a.m.: fraud (Munroe Street) report taken; 10:47 a.m.: van-dalism (Juniper Street) report taken; 11:21 a.m.: assist other PD (phone) assisted; 11:28 a.m.: ambulance (River Street) services rendered; 11:33 a.m.: lift assist (Monomonac Road East) assisted; 12:13 p.m.: regis-tration check (Pleasant Street) info given; 12:16 p.m.: MV operating erratically (Gardner Road) info given; 12:46 p.m.: suspicious MV (Webster Street) info taken; 1 p.m.: illegal dumping (Robbins Road) spoken to; 1:15 p.m.: burglar alarm (Spring Street) call canceled; 3:19 p.m.: suspicious MV (Elmwood Road) spoken to; 4:40 p.m.: ambulance (Front Street) transport; 5:06 p.m.: animal complaint (Mill Street) assisted; 5:38 p.m.: ambulance (Goodrich Drive) transport; 5:49 p.m.: ambulance (Cabot Road) transport; 7:21 p.m.: dog bite (Water Tower Plaza, Leominster) refer to ACO; 7:34 p.m.: general info (Mechanic Street) spoken to; 7:54 p.m.: extra patrols (Central Street) secure; 9:29 p.m.: MV operating erratically (Gardner Road) advised officer.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22 and WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 23
Winchendon Police Department had a computer meltdown and these two days logs are unavailable. The attempt to reconstruct the events of the days are ongoing.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2412:09 a.m.: ambulance (Sibley Road) transport; 12:30-
12:33 a.m.: building checks, secure; 1:11 a.m.: suspi-cious person (Pleasant Street) transport; 10:24 a.m.: DPW call (Mill Street) referred; 10:45 a.m.: officer wanted (Spring Street) spoken to; 12:43 p.m.: open door (Brown Street) services rendered; 3:33 p.m.: investigation (Front Street) unable to locate; 3:51 p.m.: accident (Spring Street) report taken; 4 p.m.: gunshots heard (Prospect Street) unable to locate; 5:21 p.m.: MV stop (Summer Street) spoken to; 6:21 p.m.: MV oper-ating erratically (School Street) advised officer; 7:28 p.m.: extra patrols (Central Street) secure; 8:42 p.m.: MV operating erratically (Water Street) summons: Nicholas A. Ford, age 27 of 231 High St., Winchendon: possession class A drug; 9:05 p.m.: suspicious person (Brown Street) unable to locate; 9:11 p.m.: ambulance (Harrisville Circle) transport; 9:12 p.m.: MV operating erratically (Spring Street) gone on arrival; 11:30-11:46 p.m.: building checks, secure.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2512:01-1 a.m.: building checks, secure; 1:42 a.m.: bur-
glar alarm (Front Street) accidental; 9:11 a.m.: tree down (Whitney Street) refer to other agency; 10:42 a.m.: accident (Baldwinville Road) report taken; 10:44 a.m.: illegal dumping (Linden Street) no cause for complaint; 11:18 a.m.: ambulance (River Street) no FD service required; 12:39 p.m.: disturbance (Mill Glen Road) report taken; 12:57 p.m.: disabled MV (Baldwinville State Road) assisted ; 3:01 p.m.: fire mutual aid (Kimball Road) services rendered; 3:15 p.m.: extra patrols (Spring Street) secure; 4:52 p.m.: accident (Glenallan Street) removed to hospital; 5:10 p.m.: ambulance (Hyde Street) transport; 6:07 p.m.: gunshots heard (Ash Street) unfounded; 7:33 p.m.: ambulance (Cottage Street) transport; 7:41 p.m.: extra patrols (Central Street) secure; 8:02 p.m.: burglary B&E (Hyde Park Drive) spoken to; 8:49 p.m.: MV operating erratically (Spring Street) unable to locate; 9:39 p.m.: suspicious person (Ipswich Drive) spoken to; 9:46 p.m.: burglary B&E (Alger Street) unfounded; 11:40-11:50 p.m.: building checks, secure; 11:54 p.m.: suspicious MV (bike path) spoken to.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2612:12-1:02 a.m.: building checks, secure; 2:19 a.m.:
disturbance (Goodrich Drive) arrest: Claudette Lafrennie, age 27 of 23 Goodrich Drive, Winchendon: A&B with dangerous weapon; and arrest: Kristopher S. Ashmore, age 31 of 23 Goodrich Drive, Winchendon: threat to commit crime and A&B to intimidate; 2:45 a.m.: assist other agency (Woodlawn Avenue) mes-sage delivered; 3:44 a.m.: MV operating erratically (Goodrich Street) unable to locate; 8:35 a.m.: ani-mal complaint (Hall Road) info taken; 8:38 a.m.: MV stop (Gardner Road) spoken to; 8:49 a.m.: ambulance (Monomonac Road East) transport; 9:08 a.m.: sex offender registration (Central Street) assisted; 11:26 a.m.: ambulance (Hyde Street) transport; 11:52 a.m.: DPW call (Linden Street) referred; 12:07 p.m.: MV stop (Central Street) spoken to; 1:30 p.m.: animal com-plaint (Crosby Road) spoken to; 1:43 p.m.: fire alarm (Ash Street) false alarm; 2:01 p.m.: DPW call (Sherbert Road) referred; 3:46 p.m.: animal complaint (Hale Street) assisted; 4:27 p.m.: burglar alarm (Monomonac Road East) secured building; 5:49 p.m.: suspicious other (Central Street) spoken to; 5:59 p.m.: automatic fire alarm (Ash Street) false alarm; 7:20 p.m.: MV stop (Baldwinville Road) verbal warning; 8:44 p.m.: MV stop (School Street) traffic citation; 8:57 p.m.: extra patrols (Summer Drive) secure; 10:45 p.m.: distur-bance (Summer Street) spoken to.
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 271:33-2:53 a.m.: building checks, secure; 7:57 a.m.:
ambulance (West Street) transport; 8:20 a.m.: ambu-lance (Lincoln Avenue) call canceled; 8:52 a.m.: MV stop (Spring Street) summons: Cameron A. Baker, age 23 of 1 Needham Road, Westminster: operating MV with license suspended; 9:21 a.m.: animal complaint (West Street) returned to home; 1:32 p.m.: FD call (Main Street) services rendered; 3:14 p.m.: ambulance (Ready Drive) transport; 3:36 p.m.: MV stop (River Street) verbal warning; 7:05 p.m.: carbon monoxide incident (Front Street) services rendered; 7:23 p.m.: officer wanted (Main Street) report taken; 8:21 p.m.: threats (Royalston Road North) spoken to; 8:46 p.m.: officer wanted (Main Street) spoken to; 10:03 p.m.: dis-abled MV (Ash Street) assisted; 10:55 p.m.: suspicious other (Goodrich Drive) checked, secure.
MONDAY, DECEMBER 288:15 a.m.: larceny (Central Street) report taken; 9:08
a.m.: ambulance (Central Street) transport; 10:08 a.m.: general info (Water Street) services rendered; 10:28 a.m.: ambulance (Beech Street) transport; 10:31 a.m.: summons service (Spring Street) served; 10:35 a.m.: animal complaint (Prospect Street) refer to ACO; 10:40 a.m.: summons service (Glenallan Street) served; 10:59 a.m.: summons service (Central Street) served; 11:18 a.m.: summons service (Central Street) served; 11:18 a.m.: suspicious person (Glenallan Street) ser-vices rendered; 11:18 a.m.: sex offender registration (Main Street) assisted; 1:55 p.m.: investigation (Otter River Road) info taken; 3:09 p.m.: repossession of MV
(Benjamin Street) info taken; 3:21 p.m.: ambulance (Hyde Park Drive) transport; 3:40 p.m.: burglar alarm (Elmwood Road) secure; 3:43 p.m.: MV stop (East Street) spoken to; 3:55 p.m.: officer wanted (Spruce Street) spoken to; 4:15 p.m.: officer wanted (West Street) assisted; 4:37 p.m.: MV operating erratically (Spring Street) unable to locate; 5:02 p.m.: dog bite (Royalston Road North) report taken; 5:28 p.m.: traffic hazard (Spring Street) removed; 6:57 p.m.: FD call (Spring Street) removed hazardous matter; 7:09 p.m.: general info (Dean Hill Road) info taken; 7:12 p.m.: ambulance (Ipswich Drive) transport; 9 p.m.: MV stop (Baldwinville State Road) written warning; 9:31 p.m.: suspicious MV (Memorial Drive) spoken to; 9:38 p.m.: MV stop (Glenallan Street) written warning; 9:59 p.m.: ambulance (Pearl Drive) transport; 10:18 p.m.: disable MV (Spring Street) traffic citation.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 292:46-2:50 a.m.; building checks, secure; 4:10 a.m.: offi-
cer wanted (Hyde Park Drive) secure; 7:30 a.m.: DPW call (Spring Street) referred; 8:16 a.m.: ambulance (Ready Drive) services rendered; 9:17 a.m.: ambu-lance (Central Street) transport; 9:41 a.m.: accident (Glenallan Street) traffic citation; 9:44 a.m.: general welfare check (address not printed) spoken to; 10:10 a.m.: assist citizen (School Street) unable to locate; 10:30 a.m.: holdup alarm (Lincoln Avenue Extension) assisted; 10:43 a.m.: assist citizen (Central Street) spoken to; 11:43 a.m.: accident (River Street) gone on arrival; 12:18 p.m.: accident (Baldwinville Road) assisted; 2:07 p.m.: ambulance (Central Street) trans-port; 2:26 p.m.: dog bite (Main Street) refer to ACO; 2:40 p.m.: accident (Maple Street) assisted; 3:24 p.m.: disabled MV (River Street) spoken to; 3:46 p.m.: offi-cer wanted (River Street) spoken to; 3:57 p.m.: ani-mal complaint (Central Street) refer to ACO; 4 p.m.: officer wanted (Brooks Road) info taken; 4:08 p.m.: accident (Ash Street) assisted; 5:48 p.m.: disabled MV (Glenallan Street) message delivered; 7:59 p.m.: noise complaint (Woodlawn Street) spoken to; 9:09 p.m.: alarm, type unknown (Gardner Road) message deliv-ered; 11:21-11:50 p.m.: building checks, secure; 11:25 p.m.: harassment (Morse Avenue) spoken to; 11:47 p.m.: unknown alarm (Gardner Road) false alarm.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3012:25-12:29 a.m.: building checks, secure; 2:24 a.m.:
burglar alarm (Main Street) secure; 6:46 a.m.: dis-abled MV (Glenallan Street) assisted; 6:57 a.m.: ambulance (Ipswich Drive) transport; 9:28 a.m.: ambulance (Brown Avenue) transport; 9:51 a.m.: lift assist (Goodrich Street) assist-ed; 10 a.m.: automatic fire alarm (Ash Street) false alarm; 11:45 a.m.: lift assist (Mill Street) assisted; 12:30 p.m.: ambulance (Webster Street) transport; 1:18 p.m.: assist other PD (Krantz Road) message delivered; 2:05 p.m.: mental health issue (River Street) removed to hospital; 3:47 p.m.: harassment (Converse Drive) spoken to; 3:59 p.m.: harassment order violation (Benjamin Street) summons: Marc A. DiFruscia, age 30 of 12 Coronet Ave., Methuen: violation of harassment preven-tion order; 4:04 p.m.: MV operating errat-ically (Glenallan Street) unable to locate; 4:06 p.m.: 911 hang up (Belmont Avenue) no PD service required; 5:18 p.m.: disabled MV (Gardner Road) unable to locate; 5:22 p.m.: child welfare check (address not printed) spoken to; 8:11 p.m.: extra patrols (Central Street) secure; 8:36 p.m.: elderly welfare check (address not printed) spoken to; 10:45 p.m.: noise complaint (Mill Street) spoken to.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3112:05-12:41 a.m.: building checks, secure;
7:09 a.m.: fire alarm (Pearl Drive) services rendered; 8:09 a.m.: MV stop (School Street) verbal warning; 9:33 a.m.: ambulance (Hospital Drive) transport; 9:48 a.m.: park-ing violation (Old Centre) traffic citation; 9:51 a.m.: ambulance (Sibley Road) transport; 11:45 a.m.: officer wanted (Baldwinville State Road) area search negative; 11:52 a.m.: gener-al info (Maple Street) area search negative; 1:32 p.m.: general info (Lincoln Avenue) refer to other agency; 1:36 p.m.: MV operating erratically (Gardner Road) advised officer; 2:16 p.m.: MV stop (Water Street) summons: Jody W. Harmon, age 47 of 46 Royalston Road North, Winchendon: operating MV with license suspend for OUI and no inspection sticker; 2:32 p.m.: animal complaint (Rose Court) unable to locate; 3:09 p.m.: wires down (Hale Street) spoken to; 3:58 p.m.: illegal burn (Juniper Street) fire extinguished; 4:42 p.m.: officer wanted (Royalston Road North) trans-port; 5:27 p.m.: ambulance (Lakeshore Drive) assisted; 7:48 p.m.: larceny (Juniper Street) spoken to; 7:52 p.m.: extra patrols (Central Street) secure; 8:13 p.m.: ambulance (Teel Road) transport; 9:49-10:19 p.m.: building checks, secure; 10:09 p.m.: ambulance (Hyde Park Drive) no FD service required; 11:13 p.m.: officer wanted (Teel Road) assisted.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 112:01 a.m.: noise complaint (Mason Street)
unable to locate; 12:06 a.m.: fire alarm (Hyde Park Drive) refer to FD; 12:13-1:44 a.m.: build-ing checks, secure; 1:21 a.m.: general welfare check (address not printed) unable to locate; 6:04 a.m.: 911 hang up (River Street) checked, secure; 9 a.m.: animal complaint (Gardner Road) refer to state DPW; 9:37 a.m.: animal complaint (Rose Court) refer to other agency; 9:53 a.m.: property found (School Square) returned to owner; 11:17 a.m.: ambulance (Mechanic Street) transport; 11:22 ambulance (Peggi Lane) assisted; 12:24 p.m.: ambulance (Grove Street) transport; 2:22 disturbance (Mill Street) spoken to; 3:57 p.m.: MV stop (Gardner Road) verbal warning; 4:03 p.m.: MV stop (School Street) verbal warning; 4:51 p.m.: MV stop (Elmwood Road) traffic cita-tion; 5:51 p.m.: disabled MV (Spring Street) assisted; 6:48 p.m.: officer wanted (Central Street) transport; 7:34 p.m.: suspicious per-son (Hitchcock Road) area search negative; 7:49 p.m.: ambulance (Ash Street) transport; 9:30 p.m.: neighbor dispute (Spruce Street) advised civil action; 10:22 p.m.: general juve-nile (Lincoln Avenue) unable to locate.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 212:36 a.m.: suspicious MV (Mellen Road)
gone on arrival; 12:36 a.m.: ambulance (School Street) transport; 1:25-1:39 a.m.: building checks, secure; 1:34 a.m.: dog bite (Lakeview Drive) report taken; 2:34 a.m.: suspicious MV (Spring Street) spoken to; 6:15 a.m.: harassment (Hyde Park Drive) refer to court; 7:01 a.m.: animal complaint (High Street) returned to home; 9:29 a.m.:
burglar alarm (Spring Street) accidental; 10:06 a.m.: assist citizen (Front Street) assisted; 10:58 a.m.: gen-eral info (Mellen Road) info taken; 11:48 a.m.: MV stop (Glenallan Street) spoken to; 11:59 a.m.: accident (Baldwinville State Road) report taken; 2:06 p.m.: noise complaint (Mill Street) spoken to; 2:09 p.m.: MV stop (Glenallan Street) spoken to; 2:23 p.m.: ambu-lance (Pearl Drive) transport; 2:29 p.m.: fire unknown type (Hyde Park Drive) services rendered; 2:40 p.m.: MV stop (Central Street) spoken to; 3:44 p.m.: animal complaint (Elmwood Road) unable to locate; 3:50 p.m.: general info (Crosby Road) advised officer; 3:54 p.m.: assist other PD (Academy Street) unable to locate; 5:34 p.m.: MV operating erratically (Gardner Road) unable to locate; 5:44 p.m.: MV stop (Gardner Road) written warning; 6:16 p.m.: ambulance (Front Street) trans-port; 7:07 p.m.: ambulance (Pearl Street) transport; 7:14 p.m.: suspicious person (School Street) advised officer; 7:57 p.m.: officer wanted (Brown Street) report taken; 9:23 p.m.: MV operating erratically (Gardner Road) assisted; 9:27 p.m.: larceny (Teel Road) report taken; 9:43 p.m.: summons service (Teel Road) served; 11:45 p.m.: abandoned MV (Royalston Road South) info given.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 31:45 a.m.: MV stop (Gardner Road) written warn-
ing; 1:49-2:05 a.m.: building checks, secure; 2:21 a.m.: ambulance (Monadnock Avenue) transport; 6:35 a.m.: ambulance (Pearl Drive) transport; 7:55 a.m.: general welfare check (address not printed) spoken to; 9:30 a.m.: FD call (Spring Street) services rendered; 12:09 p.m.: burglar alarm (Memorial Drive) accidental; 12:28 p.m.: ambulance (River Street) transport; 1:39 p.m.: burglar alarm (Memorial Drive) removed to hospital; 1:50 p.m.: abandoned 911 call (Monomonac Road East) no PD service required; 1:56 p.m.: general juvenile (Monadnock Avenue) removed to hospital; 2:43 p.m.: ambulance (Lakeview Drive) transport; 3:47 p.m.: investigation (Maple Street) spoken to; 4:03 p.m.: ambulance (Morse Avenue) transport; 4:42 p.m.: fire alarm (School Street) false alarm; 4:49 p.m.: officer wanted (Front Street) spoken to; 5:46 p.m.: intoxicated person (Benjamin Street) removed to hospital; 6:28 p.m.: FD call (Hyde Park Drive) services rendered; 7:24 p.m.: mental health issue (Spruce Street) removed to hospital.
Police log
Winchendon courier 5 Friday, January 8, 2016
Winchendon courier 6 Friday, January 8, 2016
OBITUARIES
Leon J. Goulet, 71WINCHENDON — Leon J. Goulet,
age 71, of 174 Williamsville Road, Hubbardston, a former long time res-ident of Winchendon, died peacefully Sunday evening, Dec. 27 at his resi-dence.
Leon was born in Winchendon on Feb. 25, 1944, son of the late Joseph and Rose E. (Duval) Goulet and had lived in Hubbardston for nine years. He was educated in Winchendon and attend-ed Immaculate Heart of Mary Church while living there.
Leo enjoyed music and collecting reli-
gious icons. He kept active doing odd jobs, helping with recycling and assist-ing with the mail route at Seven Hills Community Services. He liked cats, dogs and children.
His brother, Adrian J. Goulet, died three years ago. He leaves several cous-ins and many friends.
Graveside services were held Thursday, Dec. 31st in Calvary Cemetery, Winchendon.
Stone-Ladeau Funeral Home, 343 Central St., Winchendon directed arrangements.
Roger A. Bryant, 95TEMPLETON —
Roger A. Bryant, age 95, died peacefully Saturday morning, Dec. 26, in Quabbin Valley Healthcare, Athol.
He was born in Northfield on March 6, 1920, son of the late
Leroy and Catherine (Prime) Bryant. Roger was a resident of Templeton since building his house on Dudley Road in 1951.
Roger was a graduate of Petersham High School, where he was a member of its state championship basketball team. He was a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Winchendon and of the First Church of Templeton Men’s Club. A master machinist, he worked in the model shop at GenRad Corporation in Bolton until his retirement in 1985. After his retirement, Roger was so busy gardening, building, designing, and crafting that he often expressed wonder that he’d ever had time for a job.
Among his many hobbies and inter-ests, Roger built Shaker style furniture, crafted brass and steel candlesticks, and made detailed doll house furniture and brassware. He was an active member of The Wheelmen, an antique bicycle organization, and could often be seen riding his high wheeler in parades in the region. His years of experience as a pattern maker led to his reputation among collectors and riders for his res-
torations of rare antique bicycles, some-times from only a picture or diagram. He also designed and built custom res-toration tools for himself and others, with requests coming from as far away as Hawaii. Roger was a life member of Narragansett Historical Society, for which he made miniature Boston Post canes and blanket chests to raise funds. An avid reader, he remained curious and interested in a variety of subjects throughout his life.
Roger was predeceased by his two wives, Bertha (Monroe) Bryant and Betty (Cooley) Bryant and siblings Bernard, Robert, Fred, Guilford, and Shirley. He leaves four children, Nancy Bryant King and husband Earle of Orange; Wayne Monroe Bryant and spouse Mary-Ann Greanier of Littleton; Leslie Ann Bryant of Maynard; Glenn Russell Bryant of Templeton; three grandchildren and four great grand-children.
A memorial service will be held at the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Winchendon at 126 Central St. on Saturday, Jan. 9, 2016 at 2 p.m.
Burial will be in East Street Cemetery, Petersham at a later date.
Memorial donations may be made to Ahimsa Haven Animal Rescue in Templeton, at ahimsahaven.org or by mail at PO Box 73, Winchendon, MA 01475.
Stone-Ladeau Funeral Home (stone-ladeau.com), 343 Central St., Winchendon is directing arrangements.
Mary L. Christie, 88MANCHESTER NH
— Mary L. Christie, age 88, of Manchester, NH, died Dec. 24, 2015, at her home, sur-rounded by her loving family.
Born in Woburn on July 18, 1927, she was the daughter of
William and Annie (Sweetland) Darling. Mary resided in Woburn for most her life. Later, she lived in Herman, ME for ten years before moving to Manchester in 2010 to be with her family.
Mary graduated from Woburn High School as well as Cambridge City Hospital School of Nursing as a regis-tered nurse.
Until her retirement, she worked at Winchester Hospital, Woburn.
She was member of the ladies auxil-iary of the American Legion Post 200,
Herman, ME. Mary met her husband of six-
ty-four years, Ralph H. Christie Sr. at Hampton Beach, NH. Other fami-ly members include two sons, Ralph H. Christie Jr. of Groveland; Thomas Christie of Winchendon; four daugh-ters, BethAnn Wilson of Palestine, WV; Marjie Busa of Auburn, NH, Donna Caporizzo of St. Albans, ME, and Susan Lucas of Haverhill; twelve grandchil-dren; many great-grandchildren; three great-great-grandchildren; several niec-es and nephews.
Calling hours are Saturday, Jan. 16, 2016, from 10 to 11 a.m. at the Connor-Healy Funeral Home and Cremation Center, 537 Union Street, corner of Concord Street, Manchester, NH.
A memorial service will follow at 11 a.m. in the funeral home.
Urn burial will take place in Calvary Cemetery, Woburn at a later date.
Helene E. (LaFortune) Cochran, 82WINCHENDON —
Helene E. (LaFortune) Cochran, age 82, of 86 Elmwood Road, died peacefully Friday evening, Jan. 1, in Baldwinville Nursing Home, with her hus-band and family at her side.
She was born in Winchendon on Nov. 30, 1933, daughter of the late Oscar P. and Rose A. (Boucher) LaFortune and was a lifelong resident of Winchendon.
Helene was a self-employed music teacher for many years. She taught piano lessons to hundreds of students, including children of many area doc-tors. She was a 1951 graduate of Murdock High School and a 1955 graduate of New England Conservatory of Music. Helene
was an avid reader. She loved the ocean and visiting lighthouses. In recent years, Helene attended monthly wor-ship services at Baldwinville Nursing Home with her husband. Her greatest enjoyment was spending time with her family.
She leaves her husband, David S. Cochran; a sister, Evelyn R. Parker and several nieces and nephews, grandniec-es and grandnephews and two cousins.
Private funeral services will be held in Stone-Ladeau Funeral Home, 343 Central St., Winchendon. Burial will be in Riverside Cemetery. There are no calling hours.
Memorial donations may be made to the Beals Memorial Library, 50 Pleasant St., Winchendon, MA 01475 or to United Parish, 39 Front St., Winchendon, MA 01475.
Walter J. Glinski, 81WAREHAM —
Walter J. Glinski, age 81, passed away on Friday, Dec. 18, 2015 at Tobey Hospital in Wareham after a long struggle with diabetes.
He was the husband of Sally A. (Sherry) Glinski. Born in
Rockland, he was the son of the late Stanley and Stacia (Tunewicz) Glinski. He spent his early years in Rockland where he graduated from Rockland High School in 1953 where he partici-pated in a variety of sports. He served in the U.S. Army during the Korean war and was stationed at Ft. Benning, GA.
Walter was a graduate of University of Massachusetts Amherst. While at UMass, he played football for two years and lacrosse for three years. He became captain of the lacrosse team and received All American Lacrosse honors in both his junior and senior years. He also attended Providence College where he received two Masters degrees in sec-ondary administration and elementary administration. After graduating from UMass, Mr. Glinski taught driver edu-cation, science, health and physical edu-cation at Wareham High School. During his 30 year career at Wareham, he was assistant coach of both the football and basketball teams and was head coach of the golf team. While at Wareham, he also served as director of physical education, health, safety and intra-mu-rals for the Wareham school system.
Other coaching posi-tions he held were, assistant lacrosse coach at UMass and Winchendon School and assistant girls lacrosse coach at Sandwich High School. Mr. Glinski was also a member of the Lacrosse Officials Association.
Survivors include his beloved wife of 51 years, Sally Glinski, his four admired sons, Michael Glinski and his wife Deborah of Duxbury, Steven Glinski and his wife Kathryn of Buzzards Bay, Mark Glinski and his wife Amanda of New Bedford and Matthew Glinski and his wife Kimberly of New Cumberland, PA. He is also survived by his nine cher-ished grandchildren, Thomas, Garrett, Michael Jr., Sarah, Mark Jr., Noah, Matthew, Luke and Olivia. Also sur-viving are his brothers Robert Glinski and his wife Allanah of Pembroke and Stanley Glinski and his wife Carol of Halifax; his sisters, oris Barry of Rockland and Stacia Welles and her husband Richard of Rockland.
Walter felt his legacy in life was being blessed with his family.
His funeral from the Chapman, Cole & Gleason Funeral Home, 2599 Cranberry Highway (Rte. 28), Wareham was on Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2015 followed by a Mass of Christian burial at St. Marys Church, Onset Ave., Onset. Interment in Mass. National Cemetery, Bourne.
Albert G. Homon, 77W I N C H E N D O N
— Albert G. Homon, age 77, of 360 Maple St. died peacefully Dec. 23 in Gardner Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, after a long battle with can-cer.
He was born in Winchendon on Jan. 17, 1938, son of the late Joseph J. and Nellie (Stebbins) Homon and was a lifelong resident of Winchendon.
Shortly after high school, Albert was employed by Whitney Division of Ethan Allen as a class II driver. He attended Amherst University for surveying, dry-ing and grading lumber and was pro-moted to a supervisor’s position until its closing.
After his employment at Ethan Allen, Albert continued his work ethic, sup-porting his wife’s business, Pattie’s Jewelry Inc for several years until he became ill.
During his early years of illness, Albert loved spending winters in Florida with his wife, whom he adored, and his friends for years. He loved spending time with his family at poolside, where he taught all his grandchildren how to swim. For a decade, Albert took pride in being Santa Claus for relatives and neighborhood children. With his crisp white gloves, down to his shiny black boots, you could feel the excitement of Santa in the air, which gave the chil-dren the most magical experience they would never forget.
Albert was brought up Catholic. His
religious beliefs and deeply devoted prayer gave him the faith, strength and perseverance to endure his condition. He also had an unconditional love for nature and all of God’s creations.
Albert’s deepest desire was to hold his first great grandson Jase. Thankful for technology via Skype allowed him to see his face and smile, which brought him overwhelming joy. He was a man of a kind soul.
He leaves his wife of 56 years, Patricia L. (Dellasanta) Homon; three children, Joseph A. Homon and his significant other Yvonne Forgues of Winchendon, Sherrie Homon Erlenmeyer of Winchendon and Dawn Homon of Leominster; six grandchil-dren, Chawntel Cartee (Hunt )and hus-band Eric Hunt of Arizona, Nicholas and Sarah Homon, Jennifer Forgues of Winchendon, Vincent and Geno D’Innocenzo of Leominster; two great grandchildren, Jase Cameron Hunt and Ella Lynn Forgues; his sisters, Annette Sheppard and Nancy C. LeBlanc of Winchendon; a sister-in-law, Marion May and many nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his brothers Joseph Alfred Homon, Herbert C. May, and Donald R. May and his sisters, Evelyn Duval, Helen A. Ricord and Phyllis A. King.
A Mass of Christian burial was held Tuesday, Dec. 29 in Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, 52 Spruce St., Winchendon. Burial followed in Calvary Cemetery.
Stone-Ladeau Funeral Home, 343 Central St., Winchendon was entrusted with arrangements.
Steven A. Melanson, 43ATHOL — Steven
A. Melanson, age 43, of 320 Lake Ellis Road, died Tuesday eve-ning, Dec. 29 in UMass Memorial Medical Center, Worcester, after a short illness.
He was born in Fitchburg on May
31, 1972, son on Edward Melanson of Daytona, FL and Anita (Vondette) Melanson of Lunenburg. He attended Narragansett Regional High School and lived in Athol for 2 ½ years, after living in Fitchburg for several years.
Steve had worked as a tool and die
mold maker in Leominster. His hobbies were fishing, woodworking and enjoy-ing outdoor activities. He was an avid NASCAR enthusiast.
In addition to his parents, he leaves his long time companion of 23 years, Melissa Walker of Athol; a sister, Nancy Melanson of Gardner as well as aunts, uncles, cousins and close friends.
Calling hours in Stone-Ladeau Funeral Home, 343 Central Street, Winchendon are Friday, Jan. 8, 2016 from 5 to 7 p.m.
Memorial donations may be made to MSPCA, 350 South Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02130 or to a local animal shelter.
Sheron Lee Sawyer, 76GARDNER —
Sheron Lee Sawyer, age 76, of 32 Hospital Hill Road, died peacefully Tuesday morning, Dec. 29 in Wachusett Manor Nursing Home, Gardner.
She was born in Gardner on July 6, 1939, daughter of the late Bradley T. and Helen U. (Divoll) Sawyer and lived in Gilbertville for many years. She had also lived in both Winchendon and Gardner.
Sheron was a member of First Baptist Church of Gardner. She enjoyed collect-
ing salt and pepper shakers and enjoyed old time music.
She leaves a brother Walter H. Sawyer of Palmer; an aunt, Virginia Nelson of Shrewsbury; an uncle, Tom E. Sawyer of Hubbardston; one niece, one nephew, as well as cousins and friends.
A memorial service was held Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016 in First Baptist Church, 14 High Street, Gardner. The Rev. Jim Hinds officiated.
Burial will be in Riverside Cemetery, Winchendon.
Stone-Ladeau Funeral Home, 343 Central St., Winchendon is directing arrangements.
Robin (Dunchus) Woodward, 48GARDNER — Robin
(Dunchus) Woodward, age 48, of 286 Pleasant St. died peaceful-ly Monday morn-ing, Jan. 4 in Rose Monahan Hospice Home, Worcester, with her daughter at her side.
She was born in Gardner on Nov. 25, 1967 and lived in New Hampshire for many years until returning to Gardner 15 years ago.
Robin worked cleaning apartments in the Gardner area. She enjoyed horse-back riding, snowmobiling, camping and taking walks. She enjoyed spending time with her family, especially her grandchildren.
She leaves her husband of 20 years, Richard J. Woodward; two children,
Tony White and his wife Mary of Winchendon and Danielle M. White and her significant other, Ryan Parks of Winchendon; her mother and step-father, Ena (Habicht) Cutler and Robert Cutler of Florida; five grand-children, Jaden Parks, James White, Hailey Parks, Rhiley White and Connor Parks; seven sisters, Tina Ahearn of Florida, Mary Choquette of Alabama, Dawn Somero of South Carolina, Lori Nettell of New Hampshire, Lisa Arthur of Oklahoma, Sue Boice of Winchendon and Pam Sweeney of Maine, as well as many nieces and nephews. She was pre-deceased by her father, Robert Dunchus.
Funeral services were held Thursday, Jan. 7 in Stone-Ladeau Funeral Home, 343 Central St., Winchendon. Burial followed in Riverside Cemetery, Winchendon.
know, every coach I have ever met is at least in part ego-driven, and what’s wrong with that? Let’s be real. You can be all those things and still have a burn-ing desire to want to make this a better society.
Let me add this as well: no matter how healthy your ego, no matter what you’ve already accomplished, it takes a whole lot of guts to put yourself out there and run for public office, espe-cially in this era where the news cycle goes 24/7 and everyone has a camera and social media tracks every breath you take. Running for public office, irrespective of ideology, is not for the faint-hearted.
That said, how will it all turn out? Who knows? Here’s what I think will happen. Bernie Sanders will win the New Hampshire Democratic primary after Hillary takes Iowa. But Sanders doesn’t have the field organization or money to compete for delegates nation-wide. Roughly a quarter of the delegates to the Philadelphia conven-tion are so-called “super-delegates” — governors, mayors, state commit-tee people, and they’re overwhelm-ingly pledged to Clinton. Beyond that, where can Sanders put together a win-ning coalition when he trails so badly among African-American, Latino, and Hispanic Democrats? And trumping (sorry) all that is this — while he has some noble ideas that have fired up the left wing of the party, the more moderate Democratic liberals understand none of them have a chance in hell of ever being enacted into law given the makeup of Congress. Sanders would probably win the general simply because of the rap-idly shifting demography but so what?
And therein lies the real problem
of 2016. No one would suggest it’s irrelevant who wins the presiden-cy of course, but the next President, unless it’s an extremist like Ted Cruz, is unlikely to have much domestic legislative success. There are too many far-right members of the House. These people have the safest seats in Washington, their districts having been carefully crafted after the 2010 census to guarantee long congressio-nal careers.
That is why 2018, in terms of domestic issues, is more import-ant in the long run than 2016. The governors and state legislatures elected in ‘18 will be responsible for redrawing district lines after the 2020 census. But that’s for then. For now, even though the 45th President is going to be fre-quently stymied in Congress, he or she will hold what remains the single most pow-erful office on the planet and given the legitimate con-cerns about safe-ty and security, it sometimes makes you wonder why anyone would want the job. I sure wouldn’t. Would you?
Winchendon courier 7 Friday, January 8, 2016
OBITUARIES
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Marria St. MichaelVANCOUVER WA
— Reverend Marria St. Michael (formerly Elaine R. Squitiero) passed away in Vancouver, WA on Dec. 23, 2015. She was born on Aug. 6, 1936 in Woodland, ME to parents Guilford and
Ruth Butterfield. Marria was a resi-dent of Massachusetts for nearly fifty years, and lived in Leominster for 30 years until her recent move, which brought her closer to her daughter in Washington.
Marria was a life-long learner and avid reader, always seeking to expand and share her knowledge. She was a
teacher, healer, massage therapist, Reiki master, psychic, and radio talk show host. As an ordained minister of the Order of St. Matthew, Marria co-founded The Church of the Guardian Angels of Love and Enlightenment, Leominster. She had an entrepreneur-ial spirit, and ventured into several business arenas, including manufac-turing, real estate, and publishing, and she was proprietor at two Hallmark Card & Gift shops, including The Extra Touch Shoppe in Gardner, and the Winchendon Flower and Gift Shop.
Marria was known to be very cre-ative, which was revealed through her ingenuity, as well as her oil paintings and floral arrangements. She loved rid-ing horses, traveling, playing games,
and watching movies; she fed all sorts of wildlife, and loved cats of all sizes. Marria opened her heart to many folks in need, often reaching out to new acquaintances to lend a helping hand. An early adopter of feminism, she was a fierce supporter of human rights and self-empowerment.
Marria also loved to joke around, and endeared herself to people she’d meet with her quirky and unexpected sense of humor, often in the most unlikely situations. During her brief sojourn in Vancouver, Marria made friends with all the staff at Glenwood Place, and she will be missed by many. She loved to say, “People remember me,” and she was right.
Marria is survived by her daugh-
ter, Linda Lee (Tom Robertson); her best friend, Germaine Melanson; her brothers, Daniel (Nancy) Butterfield and Paul (Karen) Butterfield, and many nieces and nephews. She was prede-ceased by her parents.
A virtual candlelight ceremony will be held Sunday, March 6, 2016. We ask that wherever you are, please consider lighting a candle for Marria at any time on that day, so that a network of light will sparkle and shine brightly across the globe for her. May she rest now, in peace, and free.
Arrangements are under the care of Davies Cremation & Burial Services.
tain types of financial aid. High-school sophomores take the PSAT as a primary qualification for National Merit Scholarships, but it also gives an early indication of how students may do during their junior year on their ACT or SAT test, which-ever they are encouraged to take. Get your student to check directly with the colleges of their choice to see which tests they require.
Finally, the closer your teen gets to freshman year, the more specific the dates on the calendar become. For college-bound seniors, fall is the time for narrowing down college choices after visits, interviews or auditions so applications can be sent. Once acceptance letters arrive, it’s time for parents and teens to evaluate financial aid packages.
Bottom line: Creating a college-planning calendar can help you and your teen target desired schools, learn about money management and break down funding obstacles. Set it up as early as possible.
Nathaniel Sillin directs Visa’s financial education programs. To follow Practical Money Skills on Twitter: www.twitter.com/PracticalMoney.
MONEYcontinued from page A4
more in the spotlight.Bill died a number of
years ago. But through-out their marriage Vonette was the “help-meet” I think the Bible anticipated.
This husband and wife team dreamed of and formed what became known as Campus Crusade for Christ. The seed of their idea grew and grew, and now hun-dreds of thousands of peo-ple, almost all volunteers, are working throughout the world to meet the goals of this organization.
After Bill’s death, the name was changed to CRU. Some felt “Crusade” implied something mili-taristic. So in the US that organization, based in Orlando, FL is now know as CRU if you wish to Google it and learn more.
I met Bill Bright decades ago when a friend, Charles Stetson, took me to Orlando for an meeting Dr. Bright. We had a wonderful meeting in Dr. Bright’s modest office in an absolutely beautiful campus setting. I was impressed with him and with everyone on his staff.
We invited him to speak at an event we were plan-ning in New England, and he accepted.
Years later I went back as he had invited me to lunch. I was surprised that the lunch was just the two of us and was in his home. His health had deteriorated, and he need-ed to carry around a tank of oxygen. Movement was difficult for him.
Having said that, he was as enthusiastic as when we first met, and we had a very personal discussion about faith. I
was particularly pleased to learn he had studied and written about the faith of the Founding Fathers, and he presented me with a signed copy of that book and some oth-ers he had written.
Vonette was busy around the house, but it was clear she was writing another book of her own, traveling and speaking, and supporting Bill in all the activities of Campus Crusade.
The White House has a number of Christmas par-ties each year for import-ant contributors to the health of the nation, and Bill and Vonette always were invited and loved to go. The year we met he felt he would have to miss the event because of the difficulties flying com-mercially would cause with his health problems.
While I was there, he learned that someone had offered a private jet to take Bill and Vonette to be with the President, and the White House had arranged a scooter for him to use while there. Afterward Bill loved to talk about riding up and down those sacred halls in his scooter.
As Bill’s health con-tinued to deteriorate, Vonette became more and more involved in working with those who ran Campus Crusade, while still caring for her husband and helping him with his writing. At the same time, her own com-mitments were growing.
One day the dreaded news came that Bill was now confined to his bed and did not have much time left to live. My wife and I were invited to come to say goodbye.
When we entered the house, we had to take off our shoes and wear face masks as we were
led into the bedroom. Bill had a face mask and tubes inserted in parts of his body but was propped up with pillows and wel-comed us without men-tioning the heath prob-lems, complimented my wife, and we had 15 min-utes of good interchange. He was as excited and enthusiastic as ever. He had to parcel out his final hours and tired easily, so those who were visiting him had to keep the con-versation short.
Now throughout all these visits and talks, I knew Vonette was on top of everything. I learned from Bill how they met and how this idea took place when they were in college. He always saw it as an equal partnership. Clearly, Vonette saw it biblically-she was his helpmeet. And Bill saw no definition of “help-meet” that in any way contemplated one of the team as more important than the other.
So this column is ded-icated to Vonette Bright with appreciation for the great woman she was, the fantastic writer and speaker she became, the organization to which she and her husband gave birth, and to her under-standing and acceptance of the role of “help meet.”
A “help meet” might well not be a spouse. All of us have someone who probably occupies this role.
I am blessed to have had a “help meet” for 47 years who has fulfilled the role as defined in our religion. For this I am grateful.
I urge my readers to think of this concept, not necessarily in a religious sense, but rather to dis-cover and acknowledge your partners in life.
NOTEScontinued from page A4
JOURNEYcontinued from page A4
any plans for it if the property is trans-ferred to you?”
“At this point in time I’d say that’s something we would revisit,” said Davieau, “when it would be something we’d be able to do in terms of not dis-turbing vegetation and habitat. We’d like to see what’s there before we do anything. I think the commissioners would agree we’d like it to be something the public could enjoy to some degree, be it a boat launch or something of that matter.”
Cyganiewicz wanted to know who would have final say over what happens on the property – the town manager or the conservation commission.
According to Winchendon Planning Director Tracy Murphy, when the attor-ney for the landowners contacted the town they “suggested they gift it to the Redevelopment Authority. However, the characteristics of the property don’t lend itself to being re-developed.”
“It’s got habitat, it’s pristine, it’s wet-lands. It doesn’t fit the mission of the Redevelopment Authority The donor gave us the discretion of what direction to take the donation in.”
“Tony George and I walked that prop-erty and you couldn’t put anything up there,” said commission member Lionel Cloutier. “It’s all wetlands.”
Once all their questions had been sat-isfactorily answered, selectmen voted unanimously to move ahead with exe-cution of the quitclaim deed and to place oversight of the parcel under the Conservation Commission.
Selectmen last week also voted to send a proposal to add a student rep-resentative to the board to its policy subcommittee for review. The School Committee has had a student repre-
sentative participate in its meetings throughout the academic year for a number of years. The student keeps the school committee, meeting attendees, and television viewers up to date on activities at Winchendon schools and is occasionally invited to participate in committee discussions. The idea of having a student participate in BOS meetings was presented by Chairman Mike Barbaro, a former member of the School Committee.
Some selectmen at their meeting on Dec. 28, however, expressed varying degrees of reluctance over setting anoth-er place at the their meeting table.
Board member Barbara Anderson, an educator, said her check of other com-munities found that “most towns do not have a student representative on their board.”
She also questioned whether it would be wise to invite a student to take part in discussions on some of the heated topics that may come before the board.
Selectman Cyganiewicz, who also checked into policies in other commu-nities, reinforced Anderson’s findings that select boards in other Bay State towns did not seat a student represen-tative.
A high school student himself just two years ago, Cyganiewicz said, “I’m not sure we really need it.”
Barbaro sees the appointment of a stu-dent rep on the Board of Selectmen as being just one step that could be taken to reach out to the community, pointing out that students are future voters.
No date was set for the policy commit-tee to report back to the full board on its recommendation.
In other action, selectmen voted unan-imously to appoint Cailte Kelley as an alternate member to the Winchendon Planning Board. Kelley recently fell short in his effort to be appointed to a vacancy on the School Committee.
BOScontinued from page A1
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Winchendon courier 8 Friday, January 8, 2016
SPORTSSPORTSThe sports year in review
COMPILED BY JERRY CARTONCOURIER CORRESPONDENT
WINCHENDON — It was a year of records set and records falling, late starts and too few athletes to field teams. But it local teams and athletes aren’t quitters. They play because they want to challenge them-selves, and they want to repre-sent the town and the schools in which they believe. So here is how the year went:
SPRING TRACKThe season sure began on
an up note as the very first meet saw 13 high school ath-letes qualify for States and 13 middle schoolers did the same. “Our athletes had to wait to start the season,” said Coach Anthony Findley, citing weath-er woes, “but they were ready when we did.”
Among the opening meet highlights: Drew Pelkey qualified in the 100 and 200 meters and triple jump. Nick Swift earned his spot in three events as well, the 100, long jump and triple jump. Jordan Manuel qualified in the 2-mile. Then sixth grader Lexi Allard qualified in the 200 and 400 as well as the long jump. Paige Demanche, Izzy Stakley, Adam Digman, Ryan Thira, Dylan Lupien, Alec Hart, John Bickford and Richard Swanson all punched tickets as well.
Pelkey was just getting start-ed. A few weeks later, he took down a 37 year-school record by blasting a 41’ 11” triple jump, erasing a mark set by Tommy Maliska in 1978. “That record stood for a long time,” Findley remarked.
That was a day to remem-ber as a slew of other school marks were set as well. Eric Desgroseilliers, Robby Pesce, John Murphy, Austin Landress, JT Huff, Tom Hogan, Aidan and Logan Tamulen, and Tim Quinn all had outstanding days as did Victoria Swanson qualified for States in the 400.
Landress and Pelkey won District championships in the 400 hurdles and triple jump respectively.
BASEBALLA late start with the weather
conditions kept the fields in bad shape, but Murdock had a few wins under their belt during a tough shortened sea-son. The varsity team strug-gled but the middle school team were on fire during the same period of time. Sean Sutton, Patrick Culverhouse, Xavier Cepeda, Dominic Allard, Johnny Phelan, Will Iannocone, Tyler Cota, Evan Drake, Jared Nelson, Calvin Clinkscale, Ryan Kaminsky, Hunter Russell and Connor Clinkscale made up the squad.
SOFTBALLThat was different. For
the first time since 2007, the Murdock Lady Devils failed to qualify for Districts, and it didn’t exactly come as a shock.
“Other teams were better prepared, had better pitching and a back-up pitcher to finish games when they needed that,” said first year coach Mike Fontaine.
While Murdock split its first four games, the wins over Sizer and Mahar featuring offensive fireworks from Haley Jandris, Deanna Polcari, Molly Murphy, Sydnie St. Pierre and Vicky Marshall, things then turned decidedly south.
There were some seriously ugly losses, 18-7 to Gardner, 16-5 to Maynard, 20-2 to Ayer, 13-1 to Narragansett.
“We knew it was going to be a rebuilding year,” Fontaine would say but he was finding some bright spots. “Tatum (Mahoney) makes good plays,” said Fontaine of his shortstop. “She has a strong arm and it’s accurate. Emily (Pervier, the freshman first baseman) has a long reach and she’ll pick balls off the ground like she’s not a freshman,” he remarked.
He also liked the willingness from freshman Murphy and sophomore St. Pierre when they came in to pitch despite inexperience. “I give them a lot of credit. They stepped up and are really trying.”
But that effort couldn’t stop the losing streak from reach-ing 11 en route to a 5-15 fin-ish and it certainly didn’t help when Jandris got hurt and missed much of the campaign. At the same time, though, her absence gave freshman Vicki St. Hilliare significant innings behind the plate and one day Maria Polcari caught for sister
Deanna. “It was fun to see” mused
Fontaine. “She and Vicki have done some good work behind the plate. These younger kids - Kelly Murphy ran down a long fly ball - they’re enthused and they never quit.” Included among those young players was Lindsey Smith, who came up to the varsity team and collected four singles in as many at bats in her debut. Sam Pierce came up and scored a couple runs as Murdock finished the cam-paign by sweeping a double-header from North Brookfield.
Molly Murphy proved she was going to be an offensive mainstay in seasons to come, continually finding ways to reach base. Deanna Polcari had another strong year at the plate, leading the Lady Devils in hitting and homers for the second consecutive year. Mahoney also regularly deliv-ered offensive, but the lack of a dominant starting pitcher doomed the campaign.
REGIONAL SOFTBALLIt hadn’t ever been tried
before, but a pair of local Little League veterans came up with the idea, and voila, for the first time, there was a Big League (16-18) regional softball team based in Winchendon.
Salem State College and long-time Little League and travel teammates Meghan Black and Dezzy Moreno-Cullen created the concept and by spring, soft-ball players who had attended more than a half dozen area high schools had signed up and in July competed in the East Regional tournament.
Prior to that, though, there were days when players were teammates on a Big League regular season team on Sunday afternoon and rivals in high school games 24 hours later, making for some good-natured joking.
“I just wanted to keep play-ing in the summer, not just at Salem,” acknowledged Moreno-Cullen. “This is cool,” said Black, whose mom Tracy would be the manager of the All-Star squad which would consist of Meghan Black, Melissa Goss, Jackie Kassis, Sierra Landry, Elise Lemieux, Erin Mack, Moreno-Cullen, Kayla Robideau, Julia Salmon, Courtney Simmers-Swanson and Annie Thomas.
The team would advance to the East semi-finals, losing 2-1 to Delaware. The Regional had opened with a bang, an 18-1 thumping of New Jersey before the bats went cold and the Stars managed just four runs over the next four games combined.
That was disappointing, but the tournament’s outcome couldn’t erase the exclamation point attached to a lot of soft-ball careers for players who competed with and against one another for as long as a decade.
CROSS COUNTRYIt came as no surprise to any-
one when Jordan Manuel had a spectacular week in mid-Oc-tober. First came the fastest 5k ever run by a Blue Devil when he stopped the clock in 16:01 for the distance and if that wasn’t enough, he followed it with a new course record at Narragansett, being clocked in 15:41 for the 2.8 mile distance.
It came as no surprise either, that Manuel again qualified for States a month later, his third straight trip to the big race, finishing eighth in the District race at the Gardner golf course in 15:52.
“I started running seriously in sixth grade,” said the junior. “I’d played a lot of sports, base-ball, soccer, basketball, but I always liked running,” add-ing, “I don’t mind the train-ing. There are rewards for the work.”
On the girls side, Victoria Swanson was the leader of a small squad. “I kind of like being the role model for young-er runners,” she said. “That’s why I take my work ethic seri-ously.”
School choice and attrition being what it is, the bulk of the cross country roster was com-prised of middle schoolers and the youngsters showed they were going to be a force to be reckoned with right from the get-go when they opened their season with victories over neighboring rival Gardner, 21-34 for the boys and 20-35 for the girls, the lower score winning in cross country. Lexi Allard showed flashes of poten-
tial brilliance and Reagan Hunnewell, Lily Digman, Paige Demanche and Rachel Legault also delivered strong performances. Justin Manuel, Phillip Quinn, Moketsi Molai, and Brendan Dellmuth had big-time first-meet efforts. “What a day. Both teams won in impressive fashion,” enthused Findley.
FIELD HOCKEYMaybe they weren’t a play-
off team, not yet at least, but Murdock’s field hockey team showed remarkable progress under first-year Coach Amanda Lawler. One sided blowout losses, routine in recent sea-sons, became a thing of the past and the Lady Devils notched several victories, including a season sweep of Sizer and an impressive shutout of Clinton.
“I must boast about how proud I am of our team and staff and to hear from other coaches and officials that they were ‘so impressed’ with our team and how we ‘looked like a brand new team,” enthused Lawler whose charges were on the periphery of playoff conten-tion in the closing weeks of the season.
Lindsey Smith provided plenty of offense for the Lady Devils. Hannah Knowlton scored a couple goals. Emily Smith and Maddy Bishop had their moments in the offensive sun as well.
Senior Haley Jandris wrapped up an outstanding career by signing a letter of intent to play at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, NY becom-ing the first MHS to have a signing ceremony at school since Ashley Perry committed to Merrimack for softball six years ago.
“I had more fun this year than ever,” said Jandris, who was selected as a Wachusett League all-star and was Murdock’s Most Valuable Player.
That’s for later. For now, the Lady Devils improvement was due as well in large part to the strong goaltending of Alysssa LaBrack and the defense provided in front of her by Chandler Torres-Pagan, Kelsey Brooks, and Haley Knowlton.
“We’re all having a good time,” said Torres-Pagan, a sentiment echoed by soph-omore Molly Murphy who noted, “everyone likes to be here.”
Jandris, Brooks, Haley Knowlton and Torres-Pagan were honored on senior night along with Tatum Mahoney, who missed the latter part of the campaign and acknowl-edged, “it was hard” to have had to sit out.
Off the field, the Lady Devils again participated in the Playing 4A Cure” breast can-cer fundraising and awareness program. Launched a couple seasons back by Jandris and her mom Erin, Murdock has since raised hundreds of dol-lars for the cause.
“These kids are winners. Period,” said Lawler, who’s very optimistic about the pro-gram’s future.
GIRLS’ SOCCERIt was a chilly, dreary Friday
October afternoon, but one which was etched in Murdock history when senior Mackenzie Rushia scored the 19th goal of her career and set a new all-time school record.
“I’m glad it’s over,” exhaled Rushia after a quest which began with a 10-goal freshman season in 2012 came to a satis-fying conclusion. “I have great teammates who have helped me so much to get here,” she added following the Lady Devils’ 2-0 win over Sizer that day. “She didn’t talk about it much, but you could tell it was weighing on her,” acknowledged Coach Jason Marshall
Rushia had tied Ashley Perry’s mark a few days earlier against Tahanto when she con-nected on a pass from Maria Polcari. “I’m glad Maria got the assist. She’s such a tough player,” said Rushia.
Yet a week later, the hands of sports fate dealt her a tough blow when Rushia suffered a concussion that would all but curtail her season, causing her to miss seven games, return-ing for an almost anti-climactic senior night appearance.
To be sure, the focus of the season was on Rushia even during pre-season summer practices, but Marshall’s team was better overall than it was a year ago.
The Lady Devils swept the season series from Sizer, add-ing a 2-1 triumph to the previ-ous shutout. “We know what we’ll get from Deanna (Polcari, who would be honored at sea-son’s end as the team’s Most Valuable Player and chosen as a league All-Star) and Hanna (junior captain) Seghir but we got good work from younger players like Vicky Lemre and Michaela Benedict , Marissa Losurdo and Katelyn Hutton, (who was awarded ‘most improved’).”
Marshall was impressed, too, by goaltenders Cera Harris and Phylicia Shippey. The lat-ter not only spent time in the net, “she was never one to shy away from a challenge” at mid-field, either.
Harris had more than one contest where she made more than 20 saves.
In the end, though, the high-light was Rushia’s tour de force. Her mom Traci had her own recollections. “We were at Narragansett and a dragon fly landed on my shoulder. I kind of felt like that was her dad, who we lost a few years ago, being right there for her. She didn’t score that day and we didn’t have any dragonflies today but I know he’s here with her,” Traci reflected on that record-setting afternoon.
BOYS SOCCERThe boys program won sim-
ply by completing the sched-ule. The wins on the field were gravy. For two seasons prior, the program was in chaos for multiple reasons and 2015 rep-resented a fresh start, one that none was certain would come to pass as late as the week the campaign was slated to start.
“We knew things hadn’t been good but we were a lit-tle surprised at the resistance we got at first,” acknowledged first-year Coach Nate Schulz. Schulz, though, hadn’t come to preside over the demise - he’d shown up to build.
It wasn’t easy, either. The opener against North Brookfield saw the Blue Devils field just nine players. “It isn’t easy playing nine on 11 but they gave it everything they had,” Schulz said after the 4-0 loss.
Getting nine was a struggle. “A few of the kids who were ready to play worked on their friends which is always the best recruiting too anyway, and we at least got enough to play,” he noted.
Sure enough, a few more showed up and Schulz final-ly found himself with a com-plete roster. Ryan Kaminsky became an offensive threat, leading Murdock in scoring, including turning in a hat trick against Sizer. In a sec-ond triumph over the Tigers, Kaminsky tallied twice. Alex Marshall also scored and pleased Schulz with his play at sweeper. Josh Berrospe scored as well while Calvin Clinkscale was in the net for a 3-0 shutout over Sizer. Brother Connor and Tom Hogan were also turning in good work as was Andrew Burns. “It’s hard to single them out,” conceded Schulz. “Our focus isn’t always there but the effort almost always is. We need to work on our passing, though.”
The bottom line, though? “We made it,” said Schulz, “and I’m really looking for-ward to the next few seasons. I’ve now had boys who were never involved in sports before come up to me and say they want to play. We’re headed in the right direction.”
Murdock was also nomi-nated for a league sportsman-ship award. “Other coaches remarked how far we’d come. That’s a win,” reflected Schulz.
NEW COACHESFour Murdock teams had
new coaches take the reins in 2015. Bob Polcari succeeded Chris LeBlanc in the baseball dugout. This marked Polcari’s debut in a high school dugout after a lengthy Little League career. He brought with him the same attention to detail and respect for the game and opposing teams/players which had marked his years in Little League but those alone couldn’t spark an immediate turnaround.
Mike Fontaine became the new softball coach just as the Lady Devils were ending a seven-year post season streak, largely because of a lack of pitching depth. Fontaine had
previously coached wrestling, football and girls soccer at MHS as well as travel softball and after a difficult first varsity season, promised changes were in the offing for 2016 as a bevy of young talent is expected.
Some argued that Amanda Lawler worked a near-miracle when she took over as field hockey coach as the Lady Devils stayed in playoff con-tention until late in the season. “We want to build a program that will be respected and we want to win,” said Lawler, who also stressed that helping shape well-rounded youngsters would be a linchpin of her ten-ure. Murdock players respond-ed, many expressing delight at the new energy surrounding the team.
Nate Schulz may have had the toughest job of any of the new coaches. The boys soccer program was in complete dis-array and the season appeared to be in serious jeopardy. But Schulz, with the help of a few kids who had remained com-mitted, pulled it back together and by season’s end, the Blue Devils had not only survived, they’d won a couple games.
TORCH RUNOnce again in 2015, the
Murdock track team partici-pated in the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life, carry-ing a torch from Winchendon to Mt. Wachusett Community College to help support the cause. “It’s nice to support an event like this. The kids love it and they enjoy the experi-ence,” said Coach Anthony Findley. Not only did current athletes (Drew Pelkey, Jordan Manuel, Hanna Seghir, JT Huff, Mackenzie Rushia among them) take part, at least one former runner, Dan Fournier (class of 2014) showed up as well.
The local runners began their trek from Murdock down Central Street with numerous checkpoints along the route so some could stop and others could join in if they so chose as the run made it’s way to Gardner under partly cloudy skies, a far cry from the mon-soons of previous springs.
LITTLE LEAGUE HOMERSIt was a record-smashing sea-
son for the major level baseball Red Sox, who slammed 42 hom-ers during the Little League regular season. “They kept flying out,” laughed manager Dean Iannacone.
Primo Dellasanta led the barrage with 15 round-trip-pers, that in addition to a .556 batting average. Jack Polcari, who joined Dellasanta in pitching most of the games, had eight blasts and hit .653. Andrew Race and Chris Lamb hit five each, Isaiah Alacantara slammed four, Nick Lamb three and Alex Burbuee two.
“Practice, practice, prac-tice,” Iannacone stressed.
ATHOL BEATS WINCHENDON FOR D-3 TITLE: NEW LL BOARD
Winning a District champi-onship out of the loser’s brack-et isn’t easy, but that’s what Athol’s major level softball team did, blasting Winchendon, 14-4 in the third and deciding game of the D-3 tournament and advancing to the Sectional round. Winchendon had won the first game of the set but after Athol won the second game, the title contest turned decisively in the third inning of the finale. Winchendon had taken the lead in that game when Izzy Stakely scored in the first, but the visitors were relentless, giving Athol skipper Bruce Hazen his first cham-pionship in a nearly 20-year coaching career.
As for Winchendon, “we have a relatively young team, mostly 11 year-olds, who have now gained true tournament experience that ones hopes they were leverage next year and beyond,” said Coach Tony LaPointe.
LaPointe stepped down as Winchendon’s Little League president at the conclusion of fall ball. Kevin Southwell was elected to assume the reins.
STATE TRIATHLON RETURNS
The Massachusetts state tri-athlon came to Winchendon for the ninth straight summer and a bunch of Murdock athletes could revel in having contrib-uted to the event’s success.
Among those current and
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former MHS players helping out were the Huff, Ingman, and Tamulen fam-ilies as well as Austin Landress, Dan Fournier, Paige Demanche, Drew Pelkey, Autumn Brown, Jordan and Justin Manuel, Phillip and Tim Quinn and Dylan Lupien.
Race director Tim Richmond noted, “these kids from the school, their ener-gy is inspiring. I can’t say enough good things about them. They’re true role models.”
CASTAWAYSThe Castways had strong summer and
fall seasons, winning “our own Triple Crown, Milford Rotary, Peterboro Pentathlon and Champs,” noted Mark Lawrence, taking the Champs meet by 250 points. One reason for success, besides hard work? “Going out for ice cream or pizza as a team, after a 12-13 hour day, that helps us bond. I know all coaches will tell you that, but it’s true. I’ve coached other sports and not every kid will like every kid but spend-ing time together away from the field or pool can only help,” he said. At the Pentathlon, Drew Lawrence, Kiley Young and Luke Silva all delivered first place finishes. In the fall, nearly two dozen Castaway swimmers punched their ticket to Champs.
ALLARD/LANDANNODom Allard had ended his high school
football career in 2014, but 2015 saw him playing free safety on the Franklin Pierce University sprint squad, a league with a 172 pound limit. “I really wanted to keep playing and I liked the whole sprint football concept — it’s about speed and skill and as a safety you still get to hit people,” he laughed. The Ravens played away games in big time stadiums at Army and Penn .
MHS grad Katherine Landanno was named to the first team New England Collegiate Conference field hockey team as a midfielder after collecting 26 points on 11 goals (2 each) and four assists. Landanno twice earned confer-ence player of the week honors.
POP WARNER LOCALSAntonio Stakely and Phil Deleon were
members of the North County Panthers junior midget football team which advanced to the national quarter-finals. In the regional title game win, Stakely contributed a pair of touchdowns and an interception while Deleon rushed for over 100 yards. The local duo recently completed their second season with the Panthers.
D2 FIELD HOCKEYIn November, senior Haley Jandris
became the first Murdock athlete in six years to have a college signing cer-emony when she inked her letter of intent to play field hockey on the D-2 level at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, NY. “It feels like a huge weight is off me,” acknowledged Jandris, who had attended a college showcase in Orlando back in February. “I didn’t want field hockey to end and now I get to play four more years. I just can’t really believe this is happening,” said Jandris, who was the MVP for the Lady Devils and a Wachusett League All-Star. “I definitely want to thank my mom for all her love and support,and for always pushing me, and my gram for all her love and support she has given me since day one, and to coach (Amanda) Lawler. Even though I only had her for this one year, she taught me many things. And a spe-cial thank you to Jim Abare, the great-est man and coach I have ever had.”
THIRD RITCHIE EVENT A SUCCESSWhen all was said and done, the third
annual Boston Bruins-Winchendon School All Star extravaganza raised nearly $158,000 for the Jason Ritchie scholarship fund. The event is held in memory of the former Winchendon School goalie who lost his life in a 2009 car accident. Subsequently, his parents created the fund-raiser and the 2015 recipient was senior Adam Letarte from Milford, NH. The day began with morning goaltending clinics, followed by Winchendon School varsity men’s and women’s games before the Bruins alumni faced off against the school “all star” team, comprised of students and faculty. “The Ritchie Foundation does a really good job helping students achieve their dreams and we’re proud to support that,” said former Bruin Rick Middleton, president of the B’s alum team.
VOLLEYBALL BENEFITIn February, Murdock senior
Myranda Bishop was the driving force behind a benefit volleyball game to help offset athletic user fees. More than a dozen students showed up for the enthu-siastic contest, paying $5 apiece to par-ticipate. “Everyone deserves the oppor-tunity to be part of a team. It’s a huge part of high school that no one should miss out on,” reflected Bishop, who played soccer and softball at Murdock.
JINN TAKES STATE D-2 CROWNSwimmer Brandon Jinn sped the 500
yard freestyle in 4:38:65 and won the Division 2 state championship as part of a co-op team with Gardner. “I had a lot of fun. I really didn’t feel any pressure,” he said. Jinn was the only Murdock stu-dent on the team and, “I felt really good during warmups but you never antic-ipate setting record. It was a personal best too and when you achieve those, you feel really good, like you’ve really accomplished something..” Jinn is cur-rently enrolled at Tufts University.
BOSTON STRONG IIIOn April 11, almost 400 runners, jog-
gers, walkers and more than one canine companion turned out for Winchendon’s third Boston Strong event and raised about $17,000 for the Brittany Fund for Trauma Recovery, nearly matching the total collected the previous two years.
Skies were sunny but a brisk wind chilled the air as runners gathered in front of Murdock High School, the event having been moved from the track which was still feeling the remnants of a brutal winter. The 2.62 mile event thus had a new start and finish point.
Organizer Veronika Patty recalled being repulsed by the Boston Marathon bombing and vowed to try to “do some-thing, anything,” to help. The idea for a run came from MHS track member JT Huff and very quickly, that flowered into a successful local run.
“We put that first run together in three weeks. There was such determi-nation to help. It was a healing process for everyone.”
On hand was Brittany Loring, who was injured in the 2013 bombing when she was walking toward the fin-ish line to meet a friend. “We knew OneFundBoston was ending and we were looking for an organization to partner with,” remarked Patty, “and we found Brittany. Originally the money was raised to help bombing victims but now the focus is on helping trauma victims who might have gotten hurt in a car crash or other accidents.”
Clumps of snow remained on the school parking lot as the run got under-way and it wasn’t long before Jordan Manuel finished in his customary first place.
“It felt like everyone was happy to be here to show their support for the cause. We’re proud of how Winchendon responds,” she said.
GIRLS’ BASKETBALL2015 didn’t start so well, the Lady
Devils being unable to manage a win over the final weeks of the 2014-15 cam-paign but they began the new season the right way by holding off Sizer for their first triumph in 24 games.
In between, a slew of players partici-pated in the competitive Gardner sum-mer league as well.
There were bright spots last winter. Then-freshman Molly Murphy emerged as an offensive threat. Junior Deanna Polcari turned in strong scoring nights and against Narragansett hauled down 13 rebounds. Fellow junior Tatum Mahoney, back from Monty Tech, deliv-ered her most productive scoring night against Maynard Chelsea Bussiere ended her career with a couple good offensive efforts.
But all of that was relative. Murdock never was much of an offensive force on balance. “We can’t finish,” Coach Jim Abare lamented more than once. “We break presses. We get the ball up the floor and then we can’t finish.” West Boylston came in and reeled off the game’s first 42 points. That’s the kind of year it was as the Lady Devils struggled to stay competitive.
The travel team and junior varsity did better, the jayvee winning a bunch of games but a number of the players on that team school-choiced out. The sixth grade travel team went 8-2, though with Lexi Allard shouldering most of the offense and Cassie Zoldak and Ari Dibble anchored the defense.
Abare was intently interested in who was showing up in summer and Murphy did. So did Allard and Dibble and Zoldak and Becca Graves and Colby Gallant and sometimes Polcari and Haley Jandris and Kelly Murphy and Phylicia Shippey.
Playing up against older opponents was an experience for the younger kids. And newness wasn’t restricted to them, either. 16 months removed from the end of her own playing career, Coach Morgan St. Pierre mused one summer night, “It’s different for me, too. I need to learn about what they can handle. And yeah, I was nervous,” she laughed about her sideline debut.
The 15-16 opener against Sizer was a success. Polcari and Murphy led the scoring as Murdock opened an 8-2 lead and never looked back. Abare was entering 2016 hoping for more of that.
BOYS’ BASKETBALLIt was a hard year for the boys on
the hardwood as Coach Matt O’Malley could attest. The first two games were lost to tough competition but the third game, against West Boylston, was a handy 54-49 win and had great play by the team on the court.
The game could have gone either way, and O’Malley credited his front line, Hunter Russell, Marcus Allen and Jared Nelson with keeping the pressure on.
Beating arch-rival Narragansett the next round was sweet as well. “I’m just happy for the guys,” said O’Malley.
And with a win over Tahanto a couple of games later, it looked like Murdock might make it to playoffs this year. But it wasn’t to be, by just two points, in an ending score of 46-44 against Ayer, the hopes were dashed this year.
O’Malley is not quashed by the out-come, proud of the hard work done by the team and its victories.
In February, the boys basketball team followed the lead of the field hockey squad and signed up with Coaches v Cancer to heighten awareness and raise money.
So on a Friday night home con-test against Tahanto, the Blue Devils unveiled a “Wall of Hope” behind the home bench, held a raffle, donated pro-ceeds from the halftime Chuck-A-Duck promotion, and set up a donor box out-side the gym.
Dennis Whitcomb’s DW Design pro-vided pink warmup jackets and when it was over, O’Malley said, “we’d like to make this an annual thing.”
WINTER TRACKState championships don’t come eas-
ily for small schools but a quartet of Murdock athletes made it happen last winter when Xavier Cepeda, Austin Landress, Jordan Manuel, and Drew Pelkey had one spectacular afternoon at
the State Relays.Cepeda and Pelkey ran the 200
meters, Landress the 400 and Manuel the 800, thus etching their names in school history and becoming the first MHS individual state champion since Molly Martorella’s indoor two mile tour de force in 2010.
“These are four hard working kids,” said coach Anthony Findley. “Xavier came in this year and the other guys have been here forever. And this is what they do it for”, added Findley, himself a teammate of Murdock’s previous most recent individual male state champ, John Gilman, who accomplished the goal in 2000.
As a unit, the quartet defeated rival Narragansett by four seconds and fin-ished ahead of 30 other schools as well.
School records took a beating at the East Coast Invitational. Pelkey’s 20’1” long jump erased Findley’s own mark. Even Alyssa LaBrack, best known for her prolific shot-putting, went 23’ 1.5” in weight throw, Victoria Swanson com-pleted the 400 in 1:10:16 and Manuel scored in the 800 in 2:09.
A few days earlier, LaBrack easily took the shot put event at a league meet in Shewsbury with a toss of 32’ 10.25”. Manuel cruised in the 1,000 that day, stopping the timer in 2:52:5.
The most severe winter in a long time ground the program for a halt for several weeks but before it did, LaBrack threw a 31-6 at the MSTCA Elite Meet held in Boston at the Reggie
Lewis Athletic Center.When things finally settled down,
Manuel won the league title in the two mile (10:21:11) and Landress did like-wise in the 600 meters (1:33:6) as did LaBrack in shot put.
SKATEThe Winchendon Skate Club held
its annual Showcase in March with eight groups of skaters of varying abil-ities and ages performing the routines they’d been practicing since the previ-ous November. The overall theme was “An 80’s Flashback” so each group and soloist patterned their performance on that decade. Weather had impacted prep time. “The time spent was short and stressful” acknowledged retiring veteran Kathryn Richtarcsik, “but we pulled it off - one of the most entertain-ing shows I’ve ever had the pleasure of being part of.”
CO-OP HOCKEYThere wasn’t must on-ice suc-
cess but the co-op Gardner/Murdock hockey team was honored with the Sportsmanship Award from the Central Mass Hockey Officials Association. Four MHS youngsters, Colin Boylen, Mark Connolly, Shaun Martin, and Alex Stevenson were included on the roster. “It really makes me proud to see our team receive the award. Honestly, it’s as much an accomplishment as mak-ing Districts as far as I’m concerned,” said Murdock athletic director Jenna Whitaker.
Winchendon courier 9 Friday, January 8, 2016
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Track ends ‘15 a winnerBY JERRY CARTON
COURIER CORRESPONDENT
WINCHENDON — The best way to end a year? Win, and beat a neigh-borhood rival in the pro-cess. That’s exactly how Murdock’s track teams closed out 2015, with both the boys and girls beat-ing Gardner, and a lot of athletes contributed to those triumphs. The girls scored an easy win but while the boys eked out their victory, it was nonetheless a good way to finish.
The girls’ win was especially impressive because everyone added at least a point to the effort. Victoria Swanson and Paige Demanche led the way with wins in the 55 hurdles and the 600
meters and 300 meter and high jump respectively. Alyssa Nanopoulos took the 55-meter dash while Lily Digman won the mile.
As expected, Alyssa LaBrack continued her winning ways in the shot put, an event Murdock swept as Swanson and Kelsey Brooks added to the point total. Demanche and Swanson joined Emily Roberts in the high jump. The 4x200 team of Brooks, LaBrack, Haley DesJeans and Ashley Signa also scored.
For the boys, it came down to the 4x400 meters and the quartet of Alec Hart, Steven Ingman, Dylan Lupien and Richard Swanson got the job done for the Blue
Devils when Swanson took command of the race during the third leg before passing the baton to Ingman and just like that, Murdock had pulled out the win.
Jordan Manuel had a trio of triumphs, scor-ing over the Wildcats in the high jump, 2-mile and 1,000 meter events. He also joined younger brother Justin and Hart in taking the two-mile team distance race. In addition, Swanson won the 600-meters.
“It was an excit-ing win” for the boys, enthused Coach Anthony Findley, and as for the girls, “it was a great team job. Every girl scored a point towards the win,” he pointed out.
REVIEWcontinued from page A8
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WE BUY GOLDPattie’s Jewelry, open 10 a.m.-5 p.m.: best prices. Behind Dunkin’ Donuts. (978) 297-3536.MUSICAL INSTRUMENTSDrum teacher Leon LaPlante seeks used instruments and drum stands to help out high school students. (978) 297-1250.
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Predictions for ‘16...Every once in a while you get it right.
I promised in this very space a year ago that 2015 would be a magical sports year because years ending in 5 have for whatever cosmic reasons tended to be. And so it was. But that was then. This is now.
Years ending in 6 haven’t had that same historical ring. Red Sox fans will remember that three times in years ending in 6 (1916, 46 and, ahem, 86), their team reached the World Series. I remember the Orioles winning their first AL pennant and World Series in 1966 and for me, the 1976 Kentucky Derby, because I was there, will always have a special significance. But those are both provincial observations. On a larger scale, years ending in 6 haven’t matched those ending in 5. But tradi-tion demands forecasts and so, all in fun, here goes and take none of this seri-ously because it’s impossible to really know:
What might, however, make 2016 among the most memorable sports years ever is this: on paper at least, the Chicago Cubs look like the best
team in baseball. While it seems almost surreal to imagine a champion-ship banner at Wrigley Field and while the sup-posed “best” team, circa Washington Nationals 2015, doesn’t always win, if the Cubbies should somehow pull it off, this year will go down in history for sure. Will they? Nah. They’re the Cubs. Just as you somehow knew last Sunday the Jets were going to blow a playoff berth simply because they’re the Jets, the Cubs will figure out a way not to win the World Series. It would be incredibly cool if they did but they won’t. Who will? Well, it is an even year and they did improve this winter, so why shouldn’t the Giants reprise 2010, 12, and 14? That would be nicely symmetrical.
I also think it would be cool if Super Bowl 50 is a rematch of Super Bowl 1, even though the name hadn’t yet been created back then. Green Bay and Kansas City could bring out Bart Starr and Len Dawson as honorary cap-tains. I’d like to see Andy Reid win a Super Bowl. But I don’t think it’s going to happen. I think the Seahawks will maneuver their way to a third straight NFC title even without home field advantage. I think this will hap-pen because even though they went 15-1, the Panthers don’t do anything for me. They’re really good. They just don’t excite me. The Cardinals? I liked it when the Cardinals were part of the NFC East. Of course it would be fun to see how many reporters and com-mentators refuse to mention the team’s nickname if Washington wins the NFC. Denver will win the AFC behind the rejuvenated Peyton Manning, who will subsequently do commercials with Big Papi, who will hit 40 homers in his fare-well tour. Suspicion ain’t conviction, you know? Alabama beats Clemson Monday for the national title because an ACC team, a legitimate, original ACC team at that, isn’t going to beat a traditional SEC power. These things
don’t happen.Speaking of college
sports, come April, “One Shining Moment” will serenade the Maryland Terrapins. Lest you see this as a homer call, tell me who’s better than the 13-1 and third ranked Terps. Okay,
maybe Michigan State. Or Kansas. Or Carolina. Or Oklahoma, but hey, it’s my column! And Maryland really is very, very good.
The aforementioned San Francisco Giants. Who will they beat in the Series? Why not entirely reprise 2010 and say their opponent will be the Texas Rangers. Most of this column is pretty whimsical, but the Rangers did win the AL West last year without their best pitcher, Yu Darvish, and there’s every reason to genuinely think Texas could in fact win the AL pennant.
No one has ever begun an NBA season in the same way as the defending cham-pion Warriors and whether Golden State goes 73-9 or not, almost certainly not by the way, they’ve made the early part of a usually desultory NBA mar-athon worth paying attention to. But come spring, they’ll be taken down by the suddenly young-ish San Antonio Spurs who will in turn win their 6th NBA title by beating, you guessed it, the Cavaliers. The Celtics are sharply improved and so are a couple other East teams, but none are remotely on the same level as Cleveland.
The Stanley Cup? I have no idea. I don’t follow hockey because though it’s exciting in person I, for one, can’t follow it on TV. So who knows?
This summer there will be a whole slew of sports played in Rio. Maybe you’ve heard. The Olympics always make for compelling television and that’s especially true of the Summer Games because those are the sports with which Americans are most famil-iar. Michael Phelps is reportedly going to be there and so will a team of NBA players as well as Usain Bolt. The swim-
mer to watch might well be DC are native Katie Ladecky, who’s a strong contender for a bunch of medals. Golf makes its Olympic debut this year, too.
Speaking of golf, can Jordan Spieth repeat his 2015 accomplishment of win-ning multiple majors? Winning one is tough enough and let’s say he gets one. So does Dustin Johnson, finally. But Tiger Woods won’t. And the US will again lose the Ryder Cup. Serena wins a pair of majors too.
Racing gets Triple Crown winners only when an overwhelmingly domi-nant two-year old champion gets even better at three. A year ago, most of you had probably never yet heard of American Pharoah but he was in January, 2015 coming off a dominant two year old campaign and was a defin-itive Derby favorite. You know the rest. There’s no comparable horse this win-ter.
Locally, I see kids continuing to school choice and that will have neg-ative impacts on Murdock’s ability to field competitive teams. Turning things around simply doesn’t happen over-night though it seems the right people are finally in place to do so. At least here’s hoping so. Districts? Maybe, maybe softball can rebound with a sta-bilized rotation.
As noted, a lot of this has been light-hearted. Here’s what’s not. I expect par-ticipation in youth football to continue to decrease in 2016 and that’s a good thing. I’ve often written that yes, you can get a concussion in 100 different ways, and yes, it is a bit hypocritical to decry the violence in the game while still being a fan. I get all that. But the real problem isn’t the single concussive incident, it’s the repetitive hits year after year which can’t possibly be good for brains that are still developing. If parents want to continue to sign their kids up for football, that’s their right. I just don’t understand, knowing what we now know, why any responsible par-ent would do that. See you next week.
JERRY CARTON
Talking SporTS
aThleTeS of The Week
BOYS
Richard Swanson “has done noth-ing but improve” noted track Coach Anthony Findley. In addition to win-ning a 600 meter race v Gardner, Swanson ran the third and decisive leg of the 4x400 in that same meet which gave Murdock the victory.
GIRLS
Glorianny Aldino has been a wel-come addition to Murdock hoops this winter, contributing rebounds, points and consistent effort for the Lady Devils.
Athletes of the Week is sponsored by Winchendon
www.TheHeartOfMassachusetts.com
Winchendon courier 11 Friday, January 8, 2016
NOTICE OF MORTGAGEE’S SALEOF REAL ESTATE
Premises: 22 Court Street, Winchendon, Massachusetts By virtue and in execution of the Power of Sale contained in a certain mort-gage given by Anthony R. Develis and Trisha A. Develis to Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. as nominee for Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp., said mortgage dated 10/5/2006, and recorded in the Worcester County (Worcester District) Registry of Deeds, in Book 39942 at Page 126 and now held by US Bank NA as Legal Title Trustee for Truman 2013 SC4 Title Trust by virtue of an assignment from Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. to US Bank NA as Legal Title Trustee for Truman 2013 SC4 Title Trust dated February 14, 2014 and recorded February 28, 2014 in the Worcester County (Worcester District) Registry of Deeds in Book 52080 Page 292, previously assigned by Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. as nominee for Taylor, Bean and Whitaker Mortgage Corporation, its successors and assigns to Wells Fargo Bank, NA by virtue of an assignment dated April 6, 2012 and recorded April 10, 2012 in the Worcester County (Worcester District) Registry of Deeds in Book 48798 Page 176, for breach of the conditions in said mortgage and for the purpose of fore-closing the same, will be sold at Public Auction on February 1, 2016 at 10:00 am Local Time upon the premises, all and singular the premises described in said mortgage, to wit:A certain parcel of land, with buildings thereon, situated at the southwesterly intersection of Oak and Court Streets, in Winchendon County, Massachusetts, bounded and described as follows:BEGINNING at the northeasterly corner thereof at a stone bound at the intersec-tion of the southerly line of Oak Street with the westerly line of Court Street;THENCE southerly at an included angle of 90° 00’, by the westerly line of Court Street, 126.5 feet to an angle in said street line;THENCE still southerly at an included angle of 165° 10’, by the westerly line of Court Street, 29.10 feet to an iron pin;THENCE northwesterly at an included angle of 87° 21’, by land of the North Congregational Church, Inc., 136.27 feet to an iron pin in line of land of one Ready;THENCE northerly at an included angle of 111° 43’, by land of one Ready and land of one Pedini, 114.0 feet to the southerly line of Oak Street;THENCE easterly at an included angle of 85° 46’, by the southerly line of Oak Street, 146.10 feet to place of beginning.Containing 18,745 square feet.The above-described premises are con-veyed subject to whatever water drain-age rights now existing, if any, across or over any part of the above0descirbed premises, as more particularly described in deed of Robert B. Greenwood et ux, herein below referred to.The above-described premises are shown on “Plan of Land of Margaret J. Greenwood, Whinchendon, Mass., Scale: 1 inch = 30 ft., June 2, 1970, Michael S. Szoc, Surveyor” and record-ed in the Worcester District Registry of Deeds in Plan Book 340, Plan 21.A small triangular strip included in the above description, southerly of and adjoining the southerly line of the prem-ises described in deed from Oscar H. Evans to Robert B. Greenwood by deed dated January 30, 1915 and recorded with said Deeds, Book 2071, Page 561, is conveyed without covenants.Being the same premises conveyed to the us by deed of Erwin Rau dated September 30, 1999 and recorded in the Worcester District Registry of Deeds in Book 21908, Page 377.Property Address: 22 Court Street Winchendon, MA 01475Map 5B Parcel 242The description of the property that appears in the mortgage to be fore-closed shall control in the event of a typographical error in this publication.For Mortgagors’ Title see deed dated August 1, 2002, and recorded August 5, 2002 in Book 27150 at Page 224 with the Worcester County (Worcester District) Registry of Deeds.TERMS OF SALE: Said premises will be sold and conveyed subject to all liens, encumbrances, unpaid taxes, tax titles, municipal liens and assessments, if any, which take precedence over the said mortgage above described.FIVE THOUSAND ($5,000.00) Dollars of the purchase price must be paid in cash, certified check, bank treasurer’s or cashier’s check at the time and place of the sale by the purchaser. The balance of the purchase price shall be paid in cash, certified check, bank treasurer’s or cashier’s check within thirty (30) days after the date of sale. Other terms to be announced at the sale.BENDETT & MCHUGH, PC 270 Farmington Avenue Farmington, CT 06032Attorney for US Bank NA as Legal Title Trustee for Truman 2013 SC4 Title Trust Present Holder of the Mortgage (860) 677-2868
January 8, 2016January 15, 2016January 22, 2016
NOTICE OF MORTGAGEE’S SALE OF REAL ESTATE
By virtue and in execution of the Power of Sale contained in a certain mort-gage given by Damian G. Kuchta and Mona L. Kuchta to Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc., dated September 14, 2007 and recorded with the Worcester County (Worcester District) Registry of Deeds at Book 41801, Page 268, of which mortgage the undersigned is the present holder by assignment from Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. as Nominee for GSF Mortgage Corp., its successors and assigns to PNC Bank, National Association dated May 23, 2014 and recorded with said registry on May 29, 2014 at Book 52366 Page 203, for breach of the conditions of said mort-gage and for the purpose of foreclosing, the same will be sold at Public Auction at 3:00 p.m. on February 1, 2016, on the mortgaged premises located at 445 School Street, Winchendon, Worcester County, Massachusetts, all and singular the premises described in said mort-gage,TO WIT:A certain parcel of land with the build-ings and improvements thereon, located on the easterly side of School Street, in Winchendon, Worcester County, Massachusetts, and shown as Parcels A and B on a plan entitled, ‘’Compiled Plan of Land Prepared for John H. Hill et ux, Winchendon, Mass., Scale: 1 inch = 60 feet-June 22, 1978, Michael S. Szoc, Surveyor’’ recorded with Worcester District Registry of Deeds, Plan Book 455, Plan 119, bounded and described as follows: Beginning at the northwesterly corner thereof, at an iron pipe in the east-erly line of School Street, which iron pipe is located 92 feet southerly of a Massachusetts Highway bound in said easterly line of School Street and at land now or formerly of Land/Vest Properties, Inc.; thence North 77° 15’ East, 120 feet to an angle; thence about South 65° 40’ East, 448 feet to a stone wall at land now or formerly of the Boston and Maine Railroad; the preced-ing two courses being by said Land/Vest land; thence South 20° 08’ 25’’ East, by a stone wall and said Boston & Maine land, 115.2 feet to other land now or formerly of Land/Vest Properties, Inc.; thence North 73° 15’ West, by said Land/Vest land, 578.8 feet to the easterly line of School Street; thence North 6° 09’ 50’’ West, by the easterly line of School Street, 100 feet to the place of beginning. This instrument creates no new bound-aries. Meaning and intending to convey and hereby conveying the same premises conveyed to us by deed of Richard E. Maki, dated June 22, 2001, recorded with said Deeds, in Book 24273, Page 207.For mortgagor’s(s’) title see deed record-ed with Worcester County (Worcester District) Registry of Deeds in Book 24273, Page 207.These premises will be sold and con-veyed subject to and with the benefit of all rights, rights of way, restrictions, easements, covenants, liens or claims in the nature of liens, improvements, public assessments, any and all unpaid taxes, tax titles, tax liens, water and sewer liens and any other municipal assessments or liens or existing encumbrances of record which are in force and are applica-ble, having priority over said mortgage, whether or not reference to such restric-tions, easements, improvements, liens or encumbrances is made in the deed.TERMS OF SALE:A deposit of Five Thousand ($5,000.00 ) Dollars by certified or bank check will be required to be paid by the purchaser at the time and place of sale. The balance is to be paid by certified or bank check at Harmon Law Offices, P.C., 150 California Street, Newton, Massachusetts 02458, or by mail to P.O. Box 610389, Newton Highlands, Massachusetts 02461-0389, within thirty (30) days from the date of sale. Deed will be provided to purchaser for recording upon receipt in full of the purchase price. The description of the premises contained in said mortgage shall control in the event of an error in this publication.Other terms, if any, to be announced at the sale. PNC BANK, NATIONAL
ASSOCIATIONPresent holder of said mortgage
By its Attorneys, HARMON LAW OFFICES,
P.C. 150 California Street Newton, MA 02458 (617) 558-0500 201410-0260 - TEAJanuary 8, 2016January 15, 2016January 22, 2016
NOTICE OF MORTGAGEE’S SALE OF REAL ESTATE
By virtue and in execution of the Power of Sale contained in a certain mortgage given by Leslie F. Olin to Countrywide Home Loans, Inc., dated March 10, 2004 and recorded with the Worcester County (Worcester District) Registry of Deeds at Book 33046, Page 254, of which mortgage the undersigned is the present holder by assignment from Countrywide Home Loans, Inc. to BAC Home Loans Servicing, LP dated May 14, 2009 and recorded with said registry on May 20, 2009 at Book 44271 Page 75 and by assignment from Countrywide Home Loans, Inc. to Green Tree Servicing LLC dated November 8, 2012 and recorded with said registry on November 15, 2012 at Book 49962 Page 317 and by (correc-tive) assignment from Bank of America, N.A. successor by merger to BAC Home Loans Servicing, LP f/k/a Countrywide Home Loans Servicing, LP to Green Tree Servicing LLC dated March 2, 2015 and recorded with said registry on March 25, 2015 at Book 53506 Page 386, for breach of the conditions of said mortgage and for the purpose of fore-closing, the same will be sold at Public Auction at 12:00 p.m. on February 1, 2016, on the mortgaged premises locat-ed at 71 Glenallen Street, Winchendon, Worcester County, Massachusetts, all and singular the premises described in said mortgage,TO WIT:A certain parcel of land on the Southeasterly line of Glenallen Street in Winchendon, Worcester County, Massachusetts, being shown as lot ‘’A’’ on a plan entitled ‘’Plan of Lots Surveyed for Mary E. Bosworth Winchendon, MA Scale 1 inch = 30 feet — July 8, 1988, Szoc Surveyors, 32 Pleasant St., Gardner, MA’’ which plan is record-ed with Worcester District Registry of Deeds, Plan Book 608, Plan 121, to which plan reference is made for a more particular description. Containing 0.6895 acres according to said plan. For mortgagor’s(s’) title see deed record-ed with Worcester County (Worcester District) Registry of Deeds in Book 31840, Page 111.These premises will be sold and con-veyed subject to and with the benefit of all rights, rights of way, restrictions, easements, covenants, liens or claims in the nature of liens, improvements, public assessments, any and all unpaid taxes, tax titles, tax liens, water and sewer liens and any other municipal assessments or liens or existing encumbrances of record which are in force and are applica-ble, having priority over said mortgage, whether or not reference to such restric-tions, easements, improvements, liens or encumbrances is made in the deed.TERMS OF SALE:A deposit of Five Thousand ($5,000.00 ) Dollars by certified or bank check will be required to be paid by the purchaser at the time and place of sale. The balance is to be paid by certified or bank check at Harmon Law Offices, P.C., 150 California Street, Newton, Massachusetts 02458, or by mail to P.O. Box 610389, Newton Highlands, Massachusetts 02461-0389, within thirty (30) days from the date of sale. Deed will be provided to purchaser for recording upon receipt in full of the purchase price. The description of the premises contained in said mortgage shall control in the event of an error in this publication.Other terms, if any, to be announced at the sale.
DITECH FINANCIAL LLC F/K/A GREEN TREE SERVICING LLCPresent holder of said mortgage
By its Attorneys, HARMON LAW OFFICES,
P.C. 150 California Street Newton, MA 02458 (617) 558-0500 201403-0783 - TEAJanuary 8, 2016January 15, 2016January 22, 2016
NOTICE OF MORTGAGEE’S SALEOF REAL ESTATE
Premises: 98 Glenallen Street, Winchendon, MA By virtue and in execution of the Power of Sale contained in a certain mortgage given by Edward P. Gray and Ana M. Gray to Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. as nominee for Metropolitan Credit Union, and now held by Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency, said mortgage dated July 11, 2005, and recorded with the Worcester County (Worcester District) Registry of Deeds in Book 36778, Page 44, said mortgage was assigned from Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. as nominee for Metropolitan Credit Union to Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency by assignment dated January 7, 2013 and recorded with said Registry of Deeds in Book 50968 at Page 146; for breach of the conditions in said mort-gage and for the purpose of foreclosing the same will be sold at Public Auction on February 2, 2016 at 12:00 PM Local Time upon the premises, all and singular the premises described in said mort-
gage, to wit:A certain parcel of land on the northerly side of Glenallan Street in Winchendon, Worcester County, Massachusetts and being shown as Lot “1” and Lot “2” on a plan entitled “Plan Jeffers Land, Glenallan Street, Alternate Rt. 202, Winchendon, Mass., Dated: Mar. 20, 1975” which plan is recorded with Worcester District Registry of Deeds, Plan Book 413, Plan 79, bounded and described as follows:COMMENCING at a concrete marker in the northerly line of Glenallan Street at a corner of a proposed road on land now or formerly of Jeffers, thenceNorth 1 degree 37’ 40” West by said Jeffers land, 180 feet more or less to an iron pin at a corner of land of said Jeffers; thenceNorth 88 degrees 22’ 20” East by said Jeffers land, 220 feet to a point at the northwesterly corner of Lot 3 on said plan; thenceSouth 1 degree 37’ 40” East by Lot 3 on said plan, 180 feet to a point in the northerly line of Glenallan Street; thenceSouth 88 degrees 22’ 20” West by the northerly line of Glenallan Street, 220 feet to a concrete marker and the place of beginning.The description of the property con-tained in the mortgage shall control in the event of a typographical error in this publication.For Mortgagor’s Title see deed dated July 11, 2005, and recorded in the Worcester County (Worcester District) Registry of Deeds, in Book 36778, Page 42.TERMS OF SALE: Said premises will be sold and conveyed subject to all liens, encumbrances, unpaid taxes, tax titles, municipal liens and assessments, if any, which take precedence over the said mortgage above described.FIVE THOUSAND ($5,000.00) Dollars of the purchase price must be paid in cash, certified check, bank treasurer’s or cashier’s check at the time and place of the sale by the purchaser. The balance of the purchase price shall be paid in cash, certified check, bank treasurer’s or cashier’s check within thirty (30) days after the date of sale.Other terms to be announced at the sale.
Shechtman Halperin Savage, LLP 1080 Main Street Pawtucket, RI 02860
Attorney for Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency,
Present Holder of the Mortgage (401) 272-1400January 8, 2016January 15, 2016January 22, 2016
(SEAL) COMMONWEALTH OF
MASSACHUSETTSLAND COURT
DEPARTMENT OF THE TRIAL COURT
010605ORDER OF NOTICE
TO:Timothy J. Leblanc; Kelly A. Daltonand to all persons entitled to the benefit of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act:, 50 U.S.C. App. §501 et seq.:HSBC Bank USA, National Association, as Trustee for Fremont Home Loan Trust 2006-B, Mortgage-Backed Certificates, Series 2006-B,claiming to have an interest in a Mortgage covering real property in Winchendon, numbered 26 Toy Town Lane, given by Timothy J. LeBlanc and Kelly A. Dalton to Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. as nominee for, Fremont Investment & Loan, its successors and assigns, dated June 12, 2006, and recorded with the Worcester County (Worcester District) Registry of Deeds in Book 39156, Page 143, and now held by plaintiff by assignment has/have filed with this court a complaint for deter-mination of Defendant’s/Defendants’ Servicemembers status.If you now are, or recently have been, in the active military service of the United States of America, then you may be entitled to the benefits of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. If you object to a foreclosure of the above-mentioned property on that basis, then you or your attorney must file a writ-ten appearance and answer in this court at Three Pemberton Square, Boston, MA 02108 on or before February 1, 2016 or you will be forever barred from claiming that you are entitled to the ben-efits of said Act.Witness, JUDITH C. CUTLER Chief Justice of this Court on December 15, 2015Attest:
______________________________Deborah J. Patterson
RecorderJanuary 8, 2016
LEGALS
Winchendon courier 12 Friday, January 8, 2016
