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Article Index . . .
Ocean Explorium
is opening its doors for the first of two complimentary Family Science Nights.
Get Out
There And Network on January 15th with Massachusetts Small Business Development
Center.
NOFA /Mass Winter Conference
to focus on Restoration Agriculture.
SEED, Development Corp. offering entrepreneurial
workshops.
Tax bills in the mail, says Tax Collector Carol
Borden.
10
Plaintiffs File Rabies Lawsuit against the Owner of Gray’s Ice Cream.
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Ocean
Explorium
is opening its doors for the first of two complimentary Family Science Nights.
Visitors
will have an opportunity to meet an Ocean Engineer, Dr. James Kinsey, from
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. EverythingWestport.com Saturday,
January 11, 2014 Explore deep sea
vents in a special free family science presentation at the Ocean Explorium this month. The Explorium is opening its doors for the first of two
complimentary Family Science Nights, the first being on Thursday, January16th
from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. This event is related to the new exhibit "Life, Smoke,
and Fire — Underwater: Deep Sea Vents Explored" which includes artifacts
from expeditions to the deep sea floor as well as special Science on a Sphere
presentations. During Family
Science Night, visitors will have an opportunity to meet an Ocean Engineer,
Dr. James Kinsey, from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Dr. Kinsey
specializes in underwater navigation and surveying the deep sea with robotic
vehicles. The Ocean Explorium's own Explorer in Residence, Rhonda Moniz, will
also be on hand. Ms. Moniz is founder and director of operations for Benthic
Exploration, a company that specializes in marine technology including ROV,
AUV, side scan, and sub-bottom profiling technology.
Inset: image courtesy of WHOI Dive
and Discover. Find more
information about Dr. Sievert's research expedition at http://divediscover.whoi.edu/;
find more information about the Ocean Explorium and
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution outreach project at http://divediscover.whoi.edu/sos.
Ocean Explorium, 174 Union Street, Downtown New Bedford. http://oceanexplorium.org/.
Get
Out There And Network on January 15th with Massachusetts Small Business
Development Center. EverythingWestport.com Saturday, January
11, 2014 New Year. New Goals.
Is one of them getting out there and networking? Does the thought
of networking make you break out in a sweat?
What do you say? How do you
introduce yourself? Oh, and what do you do with those business cards after
the event? If these are
questions you've struggled with, join Jen Vondenbrink
of LS Business Solutions for the interactive workshop “Get Out There And
Network.” Not only will you
learn tips you can use at your next networking event, but you'll get hands on
practice using them. Time: 4:30 - 6:30 p.m. Location: Cherry
& Webb/UMass Dartmouth Building, 139 South Main Street, Fall River. Register today by
contacting Alison Moriarty at the MSBDC at 508.673.9783 Ext. 10; or register
on-line at www.msbdc.org/semass
and click on the event calendar. NOFA
/Mass Winter Conference to focus on Restoration Agriculture. 27th
Annual NOFA/Mass Winter Conference will be January 11, 2014 from 7:00 a.m. to
7:30 p.m. at Worcester State University, Worcester. EverythiungWestport.com Wednesday, January
8, 2014 27th Annual
NOFA/Mass Winter Conference on January 11, 2014, Worcester State University
with keynoter Mark Shepard. Register now
for the all-day seminar, Winter Conference, Lawn and Turf Course, or
post-Conference dinner with Mark Shepard. Over the years,
NOFA/Mass has presented a wide array of thoughtful, engaging and important
keynote speakers, including Joel Salatin, Eliot
Coleman, Michael Phillips, Jean Jeavons, Karen
Washington and other thoughtful leaders in the food movement. This year's
Winter Conference will offer a diverse line-up of more than 60 workshops,
exhibits by numerous regional vendors, an all-day seminar and keynote by
Restoration Agriculture author, Mark Shepard.
The children’s conference (for ages 3-12) provides a lively,
interactive way for your kids to get educated. Mark Shepard is a permaculture designer, agroforester and ecological farming consultant. He and
his family have transformed a In addition to
his keynote address, Mark Shepard will offer an all-day seminar at the
NOFA/Mass Winter Conference, January 11. He will also be speaking at a
fundraising dinner after the conference. In an all-new
episode of The Business Beat, Steve D'Agostino
interviews Mark Shepard, author of Restoration Agriculture, who is keynote speaker at the
NOFA-Mass. Winter Conference on January 11 in Worcester. They talk
about overcoming adversity by following your dreams. Seminar Outline: Seminar sessions
run concurrent to other workshops; attendees must participate in all 3
sessions. 9am - Session 1: Introduction to
Restoration Agriculture/ Farm-scale Permaculture
At the same time,
the need for reliable food crops is increasing dramatically. Around the
world, the staple foods of choice are either annual grains or legumes, both
of which require disturbed soils in order to grow. Learn how we can
accomplish both ecological restoration and agricultural production of staple
carbohydrates and proteins by imitating perennial ecosystems with productive
agricultural practices. 1:30 pm - Session 2: MAKS: The Modified
American Keyline System: Earth-shaping to manage your water
resources Plants can
survive in all climates, with all manner of weather extremes and soil
deficiencies, but no plant can survive without water. Learn how to manage
your water resources by using the keyline design
system. Keyline design uses simple, inexpensive earth shaping and cultivation
techniques to optimize water distribution on the farm. Keyline design spreads
water from valleys to ridges, encourages water penetration into the soil,
increases soil organic matter, and increases the depth of humic layers. In addition, keyline
design sequesters atmospheric carbon more rapidly than any other known
technique. 3:30 pm - Session 3: Putting it all
together: The step-by-step restoration agriculture process Learn a
systematic approach to developing a restoration agriculture farm. Know your
ecological neighborhood, and design for water optimization. Establish
wooded polycultures, build fences and roads,
establish agroforestry practices, and then manage for eternity. Mark Shepard talks about restoration
agriculture: http://youtu.be/kb_t-sVVzF0 SEED,
Development Corp. offering entrepreneurial workshops. Two
basic business workshops in Brockton aimed at assisting potential and
existing entrepreneurs. EverythingWestport.com Saturday, January
11, 2014 The South Eastern
Economic Development (SEED) Corporation and Rockland Trust Community
Development Corporation will hold two basic business workshops in Brockton
aimed at assisting potential and existing entrepreneurs. The free
workshops are being held in cooperation with the U.S. Small Business
Administration (SBA), Metro South Chamber of Commerce, MA Small Business
Development Center (MSBDC), City of Brockton, Brockton
21st Century Corporation and SCORE. Both workshops
will be held at the Metro South Chamber of Commerce, 60 School Street,
Brockton, on Wednesday, January 22, 2014. The first of these workshops entitled “Learn
the Fundamentals in Planning, Preparing, and Financing Your Business” will be held from 9:00 a.m.
to Noon. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. Breakfast and
lunch will be provided free of charge to attendees. This workshop is
geared toward helping potential entrepreneurs evaluate and understand the
fundamentals of owning one’s own business. Information on how to get started,
where and how to get financing and the loan application process will be
presented. Attendees will also be provided with a free guide to writing a
business plan and other materials. The second workshop entitled “Understanding
the Purpose of Financial Statements and How They Can Help Determine the
Health of Your Business” will be held from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. The focus of this
workshop is to help attendees understand a balance sheet, income statement,
and cash flow statement. The workshop also explains how a small business
owner can anticipate financial needs in order to operate his/her business
more efficiently. Please call SEED
Corporation at 508.822.1020, to register for either or both sessions by
Wednesday, January 15th and for directions to the Metro South Chamber of
Commerce. SEED Corporation holds this entrepreneurial workshop series on a
monthly basis throughout the region. For information on future sessions,
please contact SEED. SEED Corporation
is a non-profit organization certified by the U.S. Small Business
Administration (SBA) and designated as an Intermediary under the SBA’s
Microloan Program. This program is designed to provide loans to new and
existing business owners in amounts up to $50,000. As a regional
economic development organization, SEED also offers a full range of financing
programs providing loans up to $5.5 million to assist small businesses to
grow and create jobs in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. SEED works with other
economic development and financing institutions throughout the region to
ensure that individuals who are committed to owning and operating a small
business in the region are able to get the assistance they need to be
successful. For more
information on SEED and its programs, please call the SEED office at 508.822.1020
or visit SEED’s website at www.seedcorp.com. Rockland Trust Community Development
Corporation is a wholly
owned subsidiary of Rockland Trust Company, the sole bank subsidiary of
Independent Bank Corp. Rockland Trust’s network consists of more than 75
retail branches, 11 commercial lending offices, five investment management,
and three residential lending centers in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. To
find out more please visit www.RocklandTrust.com. Tax
bills in the mail, says Tax Collector Carol Borden. Payments
can be made with checking, credit card, or on-line e-bill, but be aware of
extra charges. EverythingWestport.com Saturday, January
11, 2014 Just when you thought it was safe to go out for an ice cream
cone…. Third and fourth quarter
preliminary real estate and personal property tax bills for Fiscal 2014 were
mailed on December 31st, Westport Collector of Taxes Carol A. Borden has
announced. Office hours are
8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. The office ias
also open on the first Monday of the month until 6
p.m. The third quarter
payment is due on or before February 3, 2014, and the fourth quarter bill is
due on or before May 1, 2014. No further reminders will be sent; payments
received after the due dates are subject to 14 percent per annum interest,
and there is no grace period. Payments are
considered paid when received by the collector. Any Westport
taxpayer, especially new property owners who should have received a bill and
did not, is urged to contact the Collector's Office immediately, as they are still
liable for taxes owed. If you received a bill and have sold your property,
please forward the bill to the new owners. If paying in
person, bring your bill with you. If mailing in payments, please include the
remit portion of your bill. If you would like a receipt, send in the whole
bill along with a self-addressed stamped envelope. Payments may be
made online at www.westport-ma.com
using either your checking or savings account, for a transaction fee of 35
cents. Credit cards are accepted online only, for a percentage of the total
amount due which is 2 to 4% of the total paid. Please note that no online
payments may be accepted after the due date. If any problems
arise using the on-line bill pay, please call 508.460.6000, ext. 601. Help is
available. To sign up
online, once on the website, select Departments and scroll down to Tax
Collector and select it. Once into the site, you will see instructions to
sign up for e-bill. For help, call 508.460.6000, ext. 601. If making payment
using your own bank bill pay, it is imperative that you include a bill number
or location of the property you are paying. Failure to do so may result in
the check being mailed back to you for clarification. Collector's
Office hours are Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the
first Monday of each month from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. 10 Plaintiffs File Rabies Lawsuit against the Owner of
Gray’s Ice Cream. by Brian Cunha on January 9, 2014 Lawyers
have already filed a claim against the town, asking for $100,000 in damages
for each defendant. Saturday, January
11, 2014 Related story: Just when you thought it was safe to go out for an ice cream cone . . .
a rabies scare at a popular Tiverton ice cream stand. A lawsuit was
filed yesterday in Rhode Island Superior Court in Newport on behalf of ten
people, eight of whom are children, who faced possible exposure to rabies
after having contact with a calf at Tiverton Four Corners last July. “Lawyers have already filed a
claim against the town, asking for $100,000 in damages for each defendant.
Town officials said they intend to fight the suit. Cunha said he requested a
jury trial for the case.” The case
generated considerable attention at the time. The calf, named Oreo, had
bitten a Massachusetts man on July 15. The calf died on July 21, but the town
did not notify state officials until July 24, too late to make a definitive
determination about the cause of death. The Department of
Public Health in Massachusetts and the Department of Health in Rhode Island
instructed anyone who had contact with the animal between July 5, 2013 and
July 21, 2013 to contact them regarding their possible exposure to rabies.
Each of the plaintiffs did so and were advised by
state officials to receive rabies shots. The suit alleges
that Marilyn Bettencourt, owner of Gray’s Ice Cream, Inc., was negligent with
respect to the supervision, care and maintenance of a “de facto” petting zoo
adjacent to the popular establishment. Specifically, the
lawsuit alleges that Bettencourt failed to have the calves inoculated with
the rabies vaccine; allowed the public to interact with the calf named Oreo;
and allowed the public to interact with this animal despite the fact that it
appeared ill. The suit further
alleges that as a result of this “failure to ensure that the public was not
exposed to a diseased calf,” the plaintiffs were caused to suffer severe,
permanent and grievous injuries, severe pain and emotional distress, while
expending substantial sums of money in the form of medical and hospital care. The complaint
also brings suit against the Town of Tiverton for negligence – for the
alleged failure of the Tiverton Animal Control to notify the Rhode Island
Department of Environmental Management in a timely fashion so the animal
could be tested for rabies. The suit maintains that as a direct result of the
Tiverton Animal Control’s delay, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental
Management could not perform the test for rabies on the calf because the
animal was too decomposed. As a result of
the town’s failure to ensure that the public was not exposed to a diseased
calf, the plaintiffs maintain that they suffered the injuries alleged.
Pursuant to state law, claims had already been filed with the Town of
Tiverton seeking $100,000 in damages for each plaintiff. A jury trial is
being sought. According to the
plaintiffs’ attorney, Brian Cunha, “This unfortunate series of events has
disrupted the lives of so many with frightening consequences. The ongoing
medical care that each was required to receive was extremely burdensome,
expensive and especially terrifying for children. The rabies virus attacks
the central nervous system and can cause death. Lingering and serious side
effects are possible.” “The medications
are especially potent – with multiple doses being given over various times.
But for the actions of the two defendants, this situation need never have
arisen, Cunha added.” Sharon Sybel of Brian Cunha Associates is the lead attorney on
the case. A senior staff attorney with the law firm, she investigated the
matter; filed the original claims with the town, and prepared the complaint.
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