Westport
in Brief!
EverythingWestport.com
Sunday,
October 26, 2014
photos/EverythingWestport.com except as noted
Quick
Article Index . . .
Third
Master Plan Update on Saturday, October 25th.
Mobility mats
matter for disabled, seniors and the young.
Westport/Little Compton police shut down
unlocked car looters.
|
Third
Master Plan Update on Saturday, October 25th. Of
the four planned workshops, ‘Historic & Cultural Resources, Capital
Facilities & Human Resources, and Land Use Priority Setting’ on October
25th is by far the most important. EverythingWestport.com Wednesday, October 22, 2014 Historic
& Cultural Resources, Capital Facilities & Human Resources, and Land
Use Priority Setting will be discussed at the October 25th Workshop All Westport residents are invited to offer their
input on three sections of the Master Plan Update on Saturday, October 25, 9
a.m. to 12:30 p.m.at the Westport Free Public Library on 408 Old
County Road, Westport. The third of four
public input sessions, Workshop 3 will address goals and objectives for
Historic & Cultural Resources, Capital Facilities & Human Resources,
and Land Use. Refreshments will be provided. Admission is free; to RSVP or if
you have any questions, please contact James Hartnett, Town Planner at
508.636.1037 or email planning@westport-ma.gov. The Master Plan
Sub-committee of the Planning Board wants your opinions. Community input is essential
to the Master Plan process. You do not have to be an expert on these topics!
Each person has valuable experience as a Town resident to respond to the
facilitator's questions and offer comment on each of the three topics. Draft goals and objectives
for these three chapters have been updated from the 2004 Master Plan and can
be reviewed on the Planning Board website. There will be one
more priority setting workshop later this fall. Workshop 4 tentatively
scheduled for November 15th will focus on Education; this is the first time
that education will be addressed in the master plan. The Planning
Board has contracted with consultants Horsley Witten as expert facilitators
to assist the groups with the priority setting process. Horsley Witten has
assisted towns throughout the Commonwealth to create and or update Master
plans; they are well known for their public engagement process. To RSVP or ask
questions, please contact James Hartnett, Town Planner at 508.636.1037 or
email planning@westport-ma.gov.
Mobility
mats matter for disabled, seniors and the young. Access
mats were obtained with funding assistance from the town’s Community
Preservation Committee. EverythingWestport.com Thursday, October
23, 2014 Martin Costa grew
up in Westport and loved to visit local beaches, which many say are the best
on the southcoast. “I am spinal cord
injured and use a wheelchair as well as short leg braces and a cane to
ambulate, but since my accident in 1985, I have never visited Westport
beaches because of the poor accessibility conditions,” the Westport
campground owner and former DJ said. All that will
change soon, thanks to efforts of the town’s Commission
on Disability to make a local beach universally accessible through
the installation of mobility, or access mats (portable pathways) that can be
used by the elderly and disabled community, parents with strollers and
families with young children. Surprising light,
the flexible mats really do the job.
Above: Commission on
Disability members John Pelletier (left) and Elaine Ostroff
talk with Westport Land Conservation Trust Director, Ryan Mann about the ease
of use of the new mats obtained with CPA funds. In the background, Highway
Department employees lay down the three sections of the new “access mats” in
a trial run which according to Pelletier “were very easy to transverse.” Universal
accessibility is becoming very important, a top priority issue in many areas,
according to the United Nations. This human rights group recognizes the
“importance of accessibility to the physical, social, economic and cultural
environment, to health and education and to information and communication, in
enabling persons with disabilities to fully enjoy all human rights and
fundamental freedoms.” Town officials
plan to install 189 feet of five-foot-wide beach "access mats" that will extend from the eastern
edge of Beach Avenue by the “Knubble” to the
ocean’s high water mark. The pathway will
consist of three, 63 foot sections, each five-foot wide. The plan is to lay
them down, possibly in time for the Memorial Day holiday and will be taken up
probably after Labor Day and stored for the winter; each section only weighs
64 pounds, making the mats easily transportable by a single town worker.
Weekly maintenance will consist of a town worker using a blower to keep the
mats free of sand. A method of
attaching the mats to the beach sand to prevent theft or blowing away in high
winds is being worked on by the town’s Highway Department. A trial of the
recently acquired access mats was performed this past Monday and “worked
quite well” according to COD member John Pelletier who traveled the full
length of the pathway in his wheelchair. But a plan before
the Board of Selectmen championed by Selectman R. Michael Sullivan and
several Acoaxett residents and the Buzzards Bay
Coalition may hamper access to the Knubble by
seniors and the disabled who are only able to view the beauty and serenity of
the beach from their automobiles.
Above: is this the future
for Beach Avenue? It will be if a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between
the town and an alliance of Acoaxet residents and abutters, WLCT, and the
Buzzards Bat Coalition is approved by Selectmen and accepted by next spring’s
Annual Town Meeting. EverythingWestport.com Wednesday,
October 22, 2014 Please join the
Dedee Shattuck Gallery for their October Artist's Talk from 6:00 - 7:00 p.m. featuring Gail Fredell. For over 30 years
Ms. Fredell has pursued a career of studio furniture work. She has maintained
workshops in her native San Francisco Bay Area, the mountains of Colorado,
Western North Carolina and currently in Fall River, Massachusetts.
She employs a
vocabulary of minimal, architectural forms, and uses a wide range of
materials: wood, steel, concrete, stone and cast glass. Although the
character of her work has evolved over the years, the aesthetic has
consistently been driven by an affinity for articulated structure; the nature
of functional objects in reference to time and ritual, and her desire to
create work that is at peace within itself and resting quietly in its
context. Visit Gail Fredell's website. Currently Gail
Fredell is showing at Dedee Shattuck Gallery with artist Jean-Pierre
Hébert. The exhibition runs through November 9th. Click here for EverythingWestport
photo album of the exhibit.
Above: installer
Antoine St. Pierre assists the Shattuck’s curator with hanging the digital
art of Jean-Pierre Hébert. All digital art photos are © 2014 Jean-Pierre
Hébert – all rights reserved.
Westport/Little Compton
police close the door on “unlocked” auto looters. Dartmouth
duo believed responsible for at least 20 car break-ins in the Westport/Little
Compton area over the past couple of weeks. EverythingWestport.com Sunday,
October 26, 2014 20-year-olds
Matthew Medeiros-Horzesky (right) and Evan Jackson (left),
both of Dartmouth, were apprehended on Friday, October 24th by Westport
police officer Kyle Fernandes when a suspicious
2008 Kia sedan they were driving crossed over the Rhode Island border into
Westport.
In the
Kia police located chainsaws, a leaf blower, an IPod shuffle, jewelry, hand
tools, binoculars, a Gucci sunglasses case, a Garmin GPS, numerous power cords,
a Leatherman tool, a driver’s license in the name of a Perch Rock Road
(Westport) resident, and a pair of Maui Jim sunglasses. Both
men were arrested by Westport Police on receiving stolen property charges. Westport
Point has also had several unsolved unlocked car burglaries in the past few
months. “Please
be sure and lock your vehicles as thieves target easy opportunities to steal
property,” said Westport Detective Majewski. “Stay
alert and report suspicious activity.” The pair of suspects
“gave conflicting stories” about where they had been and about the items in
the car, Detective Majewski said. Police are asking
anyone who has had a vehicle break-in in the past month to contact their
local police department if they have not reported the incident. Westport Police
are contacting known victims in an effort to identify the property that was
recovered. Some stolen items
from these car break-ins were also recovered by Westport and New Bedford
Detectives in two New Bedford pawn shops. Fall River Pawn Brokers on Union
Street in New Bedford had taken in an acoustic amplifier valued at $500 from
Mr. Jackson at 11 a.m. on October 13th.
Two hours later that day, the victim went to that shop with paperwork
to try to recover his stolen amp but was told by store employees they had not
taken in any such item. The
day of paranormal activity begins at Fort Barton at 3 p.m. EverythingWestport.com Sunday, October
26, 2014 A Tiverton-based
paranormal investigation organization is holding a search for spirits inside
the 1730 Colonial-era Chace-Cory
House on Saturday, November 1st. Those who come to
the investigation will get the chance to use powerful ghost-hunting equipment
to find paranormal spirits in the house. Riseup Paranormal doesn’t use ouija boards of crystal balls to look for paranormal
activity. “We’re a science-based group,” DeCosta
said. “We come at it academically.” Riseup Paranormal has discovered
some instances of paranormal activity at Chace-Cory House in previous
investigations. The last investigation held was in 2012, said Riseup Paranormal director Ken DeCosta. “It’s one of
those places that holds our interest,” DeCosta said. “Every once in a while we like to go back.” The day of
paranormal activity begins at Fort Barton at 3 p.m. Fort Barton has
been investigated by Riseup Paranormal and is full
of local stories, said Tiverton Historical Society member Christopher Blanchette. The investigation
will move onto Chace-Cory House, 3908 Main Road, from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Two
representatives from Riseup Paranormal will monitor
the environment of Chace-Cory House using powerful ghost hunting and digital
recording equipment. “There is a high
chance of paranormal activity,” Blanchette said. A group of
male-only Riseup Paranormal investigators once
recorded a female voice in the Chace-Cory House. In another instance, DeCosta said investigators recorded a spoon in one room
that was found in another room without it being physically moved by someone
in the house. “On occasions
we’ve recorded some pretty interesting sounds there,” said DeCosta. Event proceeds
will benefit the Tiverton Historical Society. Those interested
in hearing paranormal spirits can call Blanchette
to reserve a ticket 401.447.9333. Small groups of 6
or fewer are welcome. Cost is $25 a person. © 2014 Community Events of Westport. All rights
reserved. EverythingWestport.com |
